DAY 23 - DAY 17 SERENITY

TURN AROUND DAY - A NEW VOYAGE BEGINS

Carol thank you for your comments about the Blog.  The Mozart Tea is enjoyed by many guests.

Thelma, thank you once again for your comments.  Our weather might be rainy for the next few days but inside the ship it is always sunny.

We wanted to begin by posting photos that Keith took at lunch yesterday at Waterside.  Several hot items change daily as does types of soup and sandwiches offered.  

These are some photos from our arrival to the Ensenada, Mexico. As we were making our way into port we spotted the Semester At Sea Vessel and on our arrival to port the Grand Princess was in port.  We took our Daughter and Son on the Grand Princes in 1997 for our first Mediterranean Cruise and on the following two years sailing the Caribbean.  In 1997, the ship was the largest at sea until it was overtaken in size by a new Royal Caribbean Vessel.

These are the dinner menus from last evening at Waterside.

Since we were docked in port and would be going to a dining venue on the same deck we chose the Palm Court for a pre-dinner drink.  

Once again we were taken care of by Bartenders Afzal and Marvin.  Anne Marie had an Austrian White Wine and Keith had the healthy drink Grapefruit Gin & Tonic.  

We enjoyed views of the city lights. Several people were dancing to the live band.  Two children were dancing to the band with their parents.  It was adorable.

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We enjoyed dinner at Churrascaria for the first time of this cruise.  This dining venue was added to Serenity as part of the dry-dock enhancements.  We dined at this venue last May when sailing Crystal Symphony.  This is the menu for 
Churrascaria.

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Reservations are not needed to dine at Churrascaria.  It is located in the same venue as Marketplace where breakfast and lunch is available where we go for lunch on most days.  In the evening it is transformed to a Brazilian dining venue.  It has been very popular on this sailing with some guests going several times for dinner.

For those of you who have dined on land at restaurants such as Fogo de Chao they are similar but there are some differences.  Fogo de Chao does have more expansive salad and hot vegetable food stations whereas Churrascaria has an extraordinary waitstaff team including head waiter, waiters, assistant waiters, sommeliers, and others who make dining a delight.  They are very helpful, enthusiastic and passionate.  We loved it.  

It is one of those dining venues where you can overeat or eat as little as you would like since you are not ordering a course-by-course dinner.  Likewise, one could dine over a leisurely meal or could dine in thirty minutes or less.

The dinner begins with a cold buffet of salads, antipasti, tapas, and Cevicho Crude.  A second visit includes selecting items from an array of cooked vegetables.  There are three cooked vegetables served by waiters including creamed corn.  We didn't have any of those three items  

The entrees are brought to the table on skewers by  waiters and include beef, chicken, shrimp, lamb, pork and pineapple.  A card is on each table.  When you turn the card to green for go this indicates to the wait staff that you are ready to eat these items.  When you want to take a break or to stop eating you turn the card over to red for stop.  

Head Waiter Jared welcomed us and seated us at a table by the window.  Senior waiter Fabio took excellent care of us.  We first met Fabio on Crystal Serenity a few years ago when he was a waiter/senior waiter in the former Crystal Dining Room before becoming a waiter at the former Tastes.  After a short break on land Fabio returned to Crystal Cruises on-board Crystal Symphony where we saw him on our May, 2018 cruise.  He was brought over to Crystal Serenity during dry-dock to assist in the opening of Churrascaria.  

We were selective in what we ate so we didn't overeat but tried an array of items.

A basket containing three pieces of one type of bread and four pieces of one type of roll was placed on the table along with three different sauces.  The sauces are used for hot items brought to the table on skewers.  Our favorite of the two items is the small cheese gluten free roll.  It has a wonderful taste.  

We started with a plate of salad.  This particular night waitstaff was at the salad bar serving each guest.  This can vary depending on the staffing.  On some nights when staff is needed in other dining venues guests will serve the salad and hot vegetables themselves. 

Our next course was a second visit to the cooked vegetable buffet area.   Keith chose asparagus, grilled vegetables and baked potato.  Anne Marie selected the first two items plus rice in lieu of the baked potato.  Once seated we turned the card on the table over to green so that Fabio knew we were ready to eat some of the hot items.

We had one piece  of the baby lamb chops.  This is similar to lamb chops we head growing up in our respective families.  We would say this one is OK but not a favorite for us.  Later we chose gulf shrimp which was delicious.  We had two shrimps each  and later Keith had two more.  Our final course was the beef picaha which was very tasty.  Fabio cut it on the thin side which was precisely what we desired.  Guests desiring  more could have as much as they want.  In fact, we learned that one guest on another occasion asked for one whole beef of the three or four on the skewer.  Anne Marie capped off the meal with a dessert and Keith was content with what he had eaten.  

There were several people who helped out throughout the evening.  Adrian was the Sommelier.  Brian served us the salad items at the Salad Bar. Phil was making drinks.  It is a team effort.​  On one of our next visits Keith will try the drink Phil was making but decided to pass on that given he already had the Gin & Tonic Grapefruit Drink. 

We didn't go to last night's show.  We plan to see the shows when the World Cruise begins.  

​We slept well last evening as we headed to our San Pedro, California and began today as we do each morning.  Keith enjoyed a workout at the Fitness Center before we had coffee in our room followed by breakfast.  

Today is turn-around day.  We arrived to San Pedro before 6:30 AM.  Guests began disembarking the ship starting at 8:30 AM.  We are in-transit guest meaning that we will be continuing on the next voyage.  We could depart the ship as soon as soon as guests started leaving the ship.  Since we had no plans in port we waited on the ship until it was time for all in-transit guests to leave the ship.  All guests must be off the ship so a zero count can be reach.  This is a requirement of local USA immigration.  

Although it was sunny outside it was a chilly 50 degrees (F) so we walked inside the ship.  It did provide a nice opportunity to give our best to friends and fellow guests as they were getting ready to go home.  We spoke with friends Dave and Gary shortly before it was time for them to leave for the airport.  We also saw Cruise Director Gary Hunter who joined Serenity today while Cruise Director Rick Spath goes on a well-deserved vacation at home.  

We were escorted off the ship at 10:15 AM to a location within the terminal to wait for the ship to be cleared.  Once the ship was cleared we were able to board Serenity. Unfortunately they were waiting on 10 people to leave the ship before we reached zero on-board count so it delayed us getting back on-board until 11:15 AM.  The good news is it gave us a good opportunity to speak with friends continuing on for the next voyage(s).

Our next voyage is a seven day R/T Los Angeles Coastal California cruise which has the same ports we sailed on a family cruise on-board the ship in 2017.  The following is the itinerary for this voyage.

Following is the daily embarkation Reflections Program for today.

We enjoyed lunch at Waterside and had our traditional Cobb Salad and Flute Of Champagne as we toasted our love for one another.  

We met several guests for the first time all but one doing their first Crystal Cruise.
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​This is the luncheon menu.
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We enjoyed the rest of the day walking and speaking with guests and member of Team Crystal.  We also ran into a lovely woman from Crystal Cruises Marketing who we spoke with.

We look forward to this voyage with great excitement.

​Anne Marie & Keith