DAY 138- DAY 132 CRYSTAL SERENITY

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