WELCOME TO ATHENS, GREECE - UNTIL NEXT TIME CRYSTAL SERENITY Catherine M., thank you very much for your comments. We do have more trips booked for next year and as we get closer will Blog about those. In the meantime we still have more to go with this trip as we make our way to Vienna for the River Cruise. JoAnn...Thank you so much for your comments. We are glad you enjoyed following our adventure. We wish you a wonderful time in December for the Christmas Market cruise on the Crystal Ravel River Cruise Vessel. Jen...Thank you so much for your comments. We are glad that you have enjoyed our descriptions and photos. We will be sure to share our thoughts on the River Cruise. This is the dinner menu from Waterside from last evening. We finished our packing late yesterday afternoon. We are shipping the majority of our luggage home and taking the remaining pieces with us to Vienna. Penthouse Attendant Lunghar and Stateroom Attendant Anastasija provided turndown service right before we had dinner. The stateroom attendants assist the Penthouse Attendants for their first contract with Crystal Cruises. Assuming all goes well they are assigned standard rooms to take care of on their own for their next contract. This provides a great transition period and the opportunity to learn. As mentioned, Lunghar took care of us on a couple of World Cruises and other voyages and it has been great to have her as our Penthouse Attendance for these past two voyages. With the spacious dining room in our suite we have been enjoying the meals on this final seven day cruise in our room. We began with a flute of Champagne to celebrate our love for one another and an amazing adventure on-board Crystal Serenity. We had two courses. We began with Caesar salad from the Prego Italian Restaurant. We had Pizza for our main entree which is prepared in what is called the cold galley at Waterside. We have enjoyed so many wonderful meals throughout the 134 days we have sailed Crystal Serenity. The majority of meals we have had have come from Waterside. We love the diversity of the menu and the ability to order from both the Modern Cuisine Menus and the Crystal Classics Menu. I can't think of any restaurant on land or at sea that provides two menus as Waterside does. The cuisine has been fabulous, as well as the service and we love the complete redesign of the restaurant which was made in the dry dock late last year. We have also enjoyed many memorable meals at the Prego Italian Restaurant. We love not only the cuisine but the service and the overall ambience of the dining venue. Dining at Prego is similar to dining at an intimate restaurant in ones hometown. We love Umi Umi which is the Japanese Specialty Restaurant. We enjoy it so much we try to limit going there to two times per cruise of 14 days or more. This is because the food is truly special so we don't want to go there often so when we do go we look forward to the wonderful cuisine with the unique sauces and other flavoring which make this restaurant so unique. We have also enjoyed the cuisine from Silk which is the Asian restaurant serving Chinese cuisine. While we only wen to Churrascaria which is the Brazilian Restaurant one time we think this is a terrific option for those wanting a casual meal and found the food to be tasty. We have also enjoyed the meals we have had in our room both in the rooms we had for most of our time on-board Crystal Serenity and over the past sixteen days when we moved to the suite we are presently in. We slept well as we sailed to our final port of call of Athens, Greece. For only the second time of the cruise Keith did not work out in the morning. The only hiccup was that sometime after 2:00 AM we had now water. The problem was restored around 5:00 AM. Maybe something about end of cruises as in Venice on the morning the Monte Carlo cruise ended, we lost power for 30 minutes which also resulted in no water. With some people disembarking Serenity as early as 3:00 AM today the timing to lose water was not good. We are thankful that it was restored and that we were not in the middle of a shower when the water went out. We enjoyed coffee in our room as we got ready to leave Serenity this morning. These are photos from 6:30 AM this morning as the sun was rising. We enjoyed our final breakfast. We wished Rao our very best and look forward to seeing him next year. Last evening Rao had asked if we wanted something special for breakfast such as Pancakes. We thanked him but decided to keep to breakfast of cereal. This has been an amazing adventure and we have enjoyed each and every day on Crystal Serenity. As many times as we have sailed Crystal for us it is similar to a fine wine as it gets better overtime. We adore the people who comprise team Crystal Serenity. We have enjoyed so many memorable moments with them. They have become our extended family. We love to talk with them, hear about their home countries and families, and we truly appreciate all they do to make each of our sailings special. They are truly amazing and we look forward to returning to Crystal Serenity. We left our room at 9:30 AM. We were asked to meet at the Crystal Plaza near the Concierge desk at 9:45 AM, fifteen minutes prior to our scheduled Crystal Cruises private transfer. When the vehicle arrived we were escorted out to the terminal by the concierge. We claimed our luggage, went through customs/immigration and turned over five large pieces of luggage to Luggage Concierge who will hold our luggage in Athens and send it home to arrive sometime after we return home. We were driven to the Athens International Airport for our afternoon flight to London Heathrow. Something interesting. We received an e-mail from the airline to arrive to Athens Airport three hours before flight due to the time it takes to check in for the flight, get through security and for a final security check at the gate. Two things: There is no security check at the gate and the airline check-in counter didn’t open until two nd one half hours before the flight. Go figure. LOL Our flight to London Heathrow was uneventful. After getting through customs/immigration we made our way to the Sofitel Hotel located adjacent to Terminal 5 where we are staying for the night. We have stayed at this hotel several times Following is the daily Reflections program for today's disembarkation and also the program for those embarking today. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith
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WELCOME TO MYKONOS, GREECE These are the dinner menus from Waterside. We ordered from the Waterside menu. We began the meal with starter salads of mixed greens accompanied with Cucumber, Hearts of Palm and Avocado. For our main course we went with the fresh Swordfish. Once again, this was an excellent choice. It was moist and just and delicious entree. We left room for leftover cake from last night. More is left for our final meal on Friday night. We departed at 10:00 PM last evening for our short ride to Mykonos, Greece. We slept well and began our final full day on-board Serenity as we always do. An early morning workout for Keith followed by Coffee and Breakfast in our room. On our first visit to Mykonos in 2014 we anchored off the island. This is ideal as the tender takes you to an area close to the city. We are docked this time around. A shuttle was provided to take guests to and from town. The shuttle drop is about a 10 minute to the town center. A Regent ship was anchored off Mykonos. Mykonos has a population of 10,000 residents. It is a former 18th century area used by pirates. Today is is a resort with beaches, hotels, restaurants, cafes and taverns. Its winding streets contain domed churches and whitewashed houses and domed churches. It is one of a group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. It draws visitors from around the world because of its beautiful beaches, beautiful villages and its nearby major archaeological site on the island of Delos. Major attractions include: Little Venice which is characterized by the colors of the houses. Xenia Windmills which are built in a row looking to the sea. Mykonos is known for its windmills which date back to the 16th century. Paraportiani Church is the most famous of the many churches located in Mykonos. Archaeological Museum which was built in 1902 and houses finds from the Purificatio0n Pit of 426/5 B.C. which were discovered in 1898. Island of Delos which was known by the Olympian Greeks as being the birth place of Apollo and Artemis. After the ship was cleared Keith went off to walk around. He tried to walk into town but at one point the sidewalk ended and he would have had to walk on a two lane road which at times has no shoulder. Another option was to take a water taxi over to the old town. Shortly after returning to the ship Keith took the shuttle into town. The drive took less than 10 minutes. Keith walked the old town. He revisited areas he had seen in 2014. He also found the residential areas. Most of them are on the side streets and you walk up the steps to get to them. Many of the streets where the shops/restaurants/hotels are located are very narrow. Only one vehicle can go in one direction at any given time. As a pedestrian you have to stand close to the wall or quickly go into a store as there is no room for the vehicle to fit without possibly running over your feet. The weather was terrific. Keiths saw guests from Crystal and Regent on their respective cruise line walking tours. He visited a couple of churches. We enjoyed our final afternoon on the ship. This included lunch at Marketplace followed by Keith's last set of Paddle Tennis games of the cruise. Anne Marie walked and finished up most of the final packing. We have enjoyed an amazing adventure on Crystal Serenity with the outstanding members of Team Crystal Serenity and many fellow guests we have sailed with. We will post tomorrow. Stay tuned for our time in Vienna followed by our first River Cruise on-board Crystal Mozart. Below is the daily Reflections program for today. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith Welcome to Santorini, Greece Mary, thank you for your comments. We look forward to blogging about our River Cruise on-board Crystal Mozart. Last evening we watched a lecture given by Destination Lecturer Graham White who spoke about our final ports of call on this voyage which is Santorini and Mykonos. A couple of photos we took during sail away. We enjoyed a pre-dinner drink of wine in our room. These are the dinner menus from Waterside from last evening. We had an "Asian Dinner" ordering cuisine from Umi Uma and Silk. Umi Uma is the Japanese Specialty Restaurant which is under the direction of Chef Nobuyuki (Nobu) Matsuhisa. Silk offers Chinese dishes at dinner many of which are designed to be shared family style. Our dinner included: From Umi Umi Sashimi other than some Salmon Egg Sushi which have rice and are wrapped in seaweed. From Silk salad, Dim Sum, Beef Pot Stickers, Mongolian Style Lamb Chips, The Signature Stir-fry Beef Tenderloin along with Shrimp Fried Rice and Seasonal Cheese Vegetables. We switched over to Europe for Dessert. For the first time of the cruise we ordered a cake. This one is St. Honoré Cake. It is a classic French dessert which is a pastry made in a circle of puff pastry as its base with a ring of pate a chop placed on the outer edge. It includes small baked cream puffs which are attached to the side of the cake. One view of the Cake looks like "Jaws". LOL. Full disclosure. This cake will last until we leave in a few days. There was lots of choices for entertainment. This included two performances by comedy and musical entertainer Steve Stevens and two performances of Rock & Pop-A-Mania Show. As usual there was live entertainment throughout the evening in the Crystal Cove, Palm Court and Avenue Saloon, and music by DJ Josh at Pulse. For those wishing to see a full length movie, A Private War was shown twice at the Hollywood Theatre. We enjoyed another good sleep as we sailed to our next port of call. We began another day on Serenity with our normal morning routine. This included an early morning workout for Keith followed by coffee and breakfast in our room. We learned from the Reflections Daily Program that passports were ready for pickup this morning and Keith stopped by the reception desk after breakfast to do just that. While Keith had his hair cut for the final time of this cruise Anne Marie took along walk. Afterwards, Anne Marie did more packing. We arrived to Santorini on-schedule and were anchored by 7:00 AM. When we arrived the MSC Opera Cruise Ship was already anchored. Two other ships were anchored. The Celestial Crystal which can carry up to 1,200 passengers arrived at 8:00 AM and the Celestial Olympia with a maxim passenger count of 1,450 arrived at 4:30 PM. We were at this port of call on the last cruise. Let us recap what we had posted. We wanted to provide some information on Santorini. The total population is 16,000 residents. It is part of the Cyclades Islands. It was once an active volcano which erupted around 1500 BCE. The force was so strong that the center of the island exploded. Major attractions include: Archaeological Museum which is home to artifacts from the 3rd Millennium BCE thru the Classical Period. Megaro Gyzi Cultural Center & Museum which is housed in a 17th century mansion. It contains engravings from old historical manuscript and paintings of Santorini. Lignos Folklore Museum which occupies a traditional cave house dating back to 1861. Red Beach which has black and red volcanic pebbles and hot water. Pyrgos which is a traditional village built on the slopes of a hill. It provides beautiful views. After his haircut Keith took the tender over to the Island. The tenders are provided and run by a local company. When you arrive to the tender landing it is quite high and the tender vessels are much higher than those used by the cruise lines. The tender ride took about ten minutes. Once ashore you have some options. One is to take the cable cars to get to higher elevation. The line for them was very long. Another option is to ride the mule. Keith walked over near where they were and he could smell a strong odor. This is not something he had any interest in doing. You could walk but you would need to be careful not to step on anything that would not smell very nice either. LOL. You could take a small boat to the other side. Last option is what Keith did which was to walk on the lower level. There were shops and restaurants. Keith took the tender back over to the ship when he was finished walking. We enjoyed lunch at Waterside and after lunch Anne Marie walked while Keith played Paddle Tennis. Anne Marie did more packing. As we post this we are enjoying the rest of the day on-board Crystal Serenity. This is the daily Reflections program for today. Look closely and for the second time in two days you might see some people you recognize. LOL. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith WELCOME TO SOUDA BAY/CHANIA - WESTERN CRETE Mary...Thank you so much for your good wishes. Very thoughtful and very much appreciated. We enjoyed some wine and canapés before dinner. These are the dinner menus from Waterside. Last evening we had dinner with Hotel Director Hubert. We ordered from Waterside and Prego. We began with appetizers from Waterside; Beet Root & Grappa Cruised Salmon from the Modern Menu for Keith and Chicken Broth Soup with Matzah Ball for Anne Marie. We both had house salads which was crisp green Keith had the Branzino fish entree from Prego and Anne Marie had the Beef Prime Rib from Waterside. Dinner was delicious. Rau was amazing and we enjoyed non-stop conversation. The seas were calm as we sailed to our next port of call. The gentle rocking of the ship makes it easy to fall asleep. We sleep very well when at sea. Keith was up early and enjoyed an early workout at the Fitness Center. Afterwards, we enjoyed coffee followed by breakfast in our room. We continue to have a light breakfast of cereal and a banana. We got ready to visit Crete. Our first and only visit was part of World Cruise 2008. The overall population of Chania is 110,000 residents. The area reflects a mixed culture of Grecian, Venetian and Turkish since it has been ruled and influenced by Venetians and Turks in addition to being part of Greece. Major attractions include: Old Town & Venetian Harbor which includes modern restaurants, cafes and bars in addition to buildings from the past. Maritime Museum of Crete which is home to models of ships, nautical instruments, photographs and war relics. Archaeological Museum which is located in a building that dates back to the late 1500's. Dimotiki Agora is a municipal market built between 1909 and 1913. We arrived to the port on-schedule. Once the ship was cleared Keith took along walk within the local area. He returned to the port and took the shuttle over to Chania. Today is a national holiday in Greece (Labor Day) so some businesses were closed including the market which is adjacent to the shuttle stop. Keith walked quite a bit of the town and many locals were enjoying a morning of sunshine and moderate temperature. While walking, I enjoyed some nice views of snowcapped mountain ranges which I could see along the side streets Anne Marie remained on-board Serenity. After walking outside on the promenade deck she worked on packing. We enjoyed lunch at Marketplace. In the afternoon Anne Marie walked and worked on packing. Our packing is a bit more complicated as we are shipping the majority of luggage home while taking a couple of suitcases with us for the River Cruise. Adding to this is bringing the proper clothing to match the expected weather for the river cruise. Keith played Paddle Tennis in the afternoon. The weather was gorgeous. Following is the daily Reflections program for today. You will see a photo of us in today's program. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith WELCOME TO RHODES, GREECE Last evening we attended the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle Party. This was one of the smaller parties in terms of attendance with eight people attending out of thirteen who signed up. Including us three of the four couples attended the party from the previous cruise. The other couple came on-board for this voyage and this is their second Crystal Cruise. Hotel Director Hubert, Cruise Director Scott, Executive Housekeeper Mara, Concierge Anella were on-hand as was Bar Manager Florent to check on things at the start of the party. We enjoyed a nice conversation and appreciate how much Crystal supports these parties in terms of dedicating a lounge and having several members of the food and beverage team on hand serving drinks and canapes and having senior officers and senior staff at these parties. We had friend Barbara to our room last evening for dinner. We have known Barbara for several years and have sailed with her from time-to-time. Barbara sails with Crystal Cruises often and was recognized at the Sunday evening Crystal Society Party for her 81st Crystal Society Milestone. Congratulations Barbara. Before dinner we enjoyed some appetizers. This is the dinner menu from Waterside. We enjoyed dinner from two venues. We decided to go with two courses instead of three. From Prego we each began with Caesar salad. Anne Marie had Veal from Prego while Keith had the Whole Roasted (white and dark meat) Turkey from Waterside. Keith and Barbara also had a fruit plate. We enjoyed another nice sleep as we sailed to our next port of call stop at Rhodes, Greece. We kept to our same routine of an early morning workout for Keith and coffee and breakfast in our room. We then got ready to visit Rhodes. Our first and only visit to Rhodes was on World Cruise 2017. We remember this city very well. Rhodes has a population of 120,000 residents. Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The old town city is a World Heritage Site. It is one of the most popular destinations in Rhodes. When we walked the old town we visited the Jewish Synagogue. The Jewish Community goes back to the first century AD. At its high point the Jewish population represented one-third of the town’s population. During the holocaust, the Nazis deported and killed most of the community. Major attractions include: Palace of the Ground Masters which was built during the 14th century. It was damaged and demolished in 1856 by an explosion of gunpowder and restored in 1939 during the Italian occupation. Archaeology Museum which is hosted in the Hospital of the Kings ands a rich collection of statues, sarcophagus, vases, mosaics, vessels, ceramics and other artifacts. Suleyman Mosque which is the largest mosque on the island. Jewish Quarter which was establishes in 1557 and is the oldest synagogue in Greece. St. Nicholas Fort which is the fortification which is built around the medieval town. We had to revise some of our plans for today: Anne Marie woke up with severe pain on her side. We thought it most likely was a muscle strain. However, a few years ago she had pain which turned out to be pneumonia and with her illnesses we didn't want to take any chances. Our original plan was for the two of us to walk the walled city and revisit places such as the Jewish Quarter and Kahal Shalom. We also had lunch plans to take two members of the crew to lunch; Natasha who works at the Reception Desk and Dennis who is a bartender. They are married and a delightful couple. We had planned to go to lunch at Kotor where Natasha is from but they needed to reschedule when Dennis needed to see the dentist. We decided it would be best to have Anne Marie see the ship's doctor so we tabled the plans for lunch as we didn't want to have to cancel at the last minute. We will take them for lunch another time. Keith went out by himself as soon as the ship was cleared and walked the walled city and got back in time so that when Anne Marie saw Doctor Soto that he was there. The good news is that an x-ray confirmed her lungs were clear and it is likely she strained her ribs/muscles. As they say better to be safe than sorry. Other than blood tests that Anne Marie had to take for her blood disorder this was the first time she had to go to the medical center and see the doctor. Back to the walled city. Keith covered a lot of ground since it was very early in the morning when he went out and he can move quickly from the ship and to and from the walled city. Once inside the city he did take the time to "smell" the roses. In other words he stopped to take in the sites. He had forgotten how narrow the streets were and didn't remember vehicles inside. The vehicles were primarily delivering items for the restaurants and the stores. He tried to focus more about the walls and the various structures in the city and not on the commercial side although we did include a few photos of restaurants and shops. As we saw in Kotor, there were many cats walking around the city. He also made it to the Jewish Quarter. It was too early to go inside so we are including some photos from inside the Synagogue from 2007. He took a moment to think of all of the Jewish people who were removed from the city during Nazi terror as were so many Jews from across Europe. He thought about the six million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. To put this into perspective there were around 9.5 million Jews living in Europe before the Holocaust and only 3.5 million following the atrocities committed on them. He said a prayer before leaving the Jewish Quarter for those who perished in the Holocaust and for the brave men and women who fought on the side of the Allies. As Tom Brokaw wrote, they were part of the Greatest Generation who sacrificed of themselves to make the World a much safer place. As he returned to Serenity he was reminded that in spite of the challenges of today they pale in comparison to those of our parent's generation who dealt with both the economic depression and a world at war in both the Atlantic and Pacific Regions. Back on the ship he met Anne Marie at the medical center. We enjoyed the rest of the day on the ship. We had lunch at Marketplace. Keith played Paddle Tennis for two hours while Anne Marie did more packing. This is today's daily Reflections Program. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith WELCOME TO PAPHOS CYPRUS We wanted to begin by saying when you sail for along time it is not unusual for members of Team Serenity to go home and return while you are still sailing. For example, on this cruise Hotel Director Hubert, Doctor Soto and Cruise Director Gary who we sailed with earlier in the cruise returned from their well deserved holidays. We will kid around that we have a longer contract than some of them. LOL. These are the dinner menus from Waterside for last evening. Although on cruises of seven days or less Crystal does not have a Black Tie Optional evening the dinner menu is one that you would find on this type of evening. We enjoyed four courses for dinner. We ate in our room. Keith had the Caviar and Anne Marie had Matzah Ball Soup for an appetizer. The soups was not on the menu but you can order it any evening. Our next course was Baby Spinach Salad served with Chopped Eggs. The main course is a favorite of Anne Marie's which is Fresh Cold Water Lobster. Anne Marie had ice cream for dessert. Keith had cheese. The evening included a Crystal Society Reception and the featured entertainment included two performances by comedian and musician Jon Courtenay at 8:30 and 10:30 PM. We slept well last evening as we sailed to Paphos, Cyprus. The seas remained relatively calm. We began the day as everyone who follows our posts is accustomed with. This included an early morning workout for Keith followed by coffee and breakfast in our room. This is our first visit to Paphos, Cyprus and to Cyprus. Paphos is a coastal city in the southwestern region of Cyprus. Its population is 35,000 residents. The city is steeped in mythological history and has an abundance of architectural wonders. In fact, the entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Major attractions include: Kato Pafos Archacologist Park which contains the major part of the Ancient Greek and Roman City. It continues to be under excavation. Tombs of the Kings which is underground tombs that date back to the 4th century BCE. Lighthouse Beach Promenade which due to its expansion now stretches 3.5 miles. Ayia Kyriaki Chrysopolitissa which is a church that was built around 1500. Byzantine Museum which is home to many unique collections including the oldest icon of Cyprus the Agia Marina. We took a tender over to the city. As soon as we walked from the tender platform down to the tender we knew the weather would be nice. There was very little to no wind and as we tendered toward town the water looked like glass. We wore light jackets which came off as we were walking. Timing is everything. For example, return in July or August and it will be hot and humid. The downtown area is a short walk from the tender pier. There are lots of hotels, stores, restaurants and cafes in town and along the promenade with a beach. Several people were swimming. It is clearly a big tourist destination. We visited one church and and saw an ancient building. In hindsight we should have planned a tour so we could get to more archeological sites and to the older town. Options for touring included a Crystal shared or private tour, a private tour with another company, hop on hop off bus tour or the city tours. We will plan to do a tour the next time we are here. Lesson learned. We still enjoyed our very long walk with gorgeous weather and a town that was not busy today allowing for a leisurely walk. We realize this is an ancient area but had no idea the Flintstones were here. LOL. Although this was a port day since there are no additional sea days there were two lectures in the afternoon. We enjoyed the rest of the day on the ship. We had lunch at Marketplace. Keith played Paddle Tennis. Unlike yesterday he was played in shorts and shortsleeve shirt and there was no wind. When you hit the ball in the air you knew where it was going. Anne Marie took along walk. We also did some additional packing. Since this is not a sea day they scheduled enrichment speakers for later in the afternoon. Destination Lecturer Graham White wil speak about our next port of call which is Rhodes, Greece and World Affairs Lecturer Dr. Samuel Edelman will speak about the growth of the far right in Europe. As we post, we are enjoying the rest of the day on-board the wonderful Crystal Serenity. This is the daily Reflections Program from today. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith |
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