DAY 48 - DAY 42 CRYSTAL SERENITY

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - TWO DAYS AT SEA - SAILING TO BAY OF ISLANDS.

Thank you Chris for you very thoughtful comments.  We hope that we will sail with you on a future cruise.

We began last evening with a pre-dinner drink at the Avenue Saloon with dear friends John and Linda.  

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Dinner was at Waterside where we will dine for two consecutive nights.  These are the menus from dinner.

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We began the meal with appetizers; Seared Scallops for Anne Marie & Home Smoked Trout for Keith.  The two scallops were a very nice size and very tasty.  Keith has had the trout before and it had a beautiful presentation.  Instead of it sitting on top of an Avocado Panna Cotta this one was prepared with a Pea Canna Cotta.  The challenge on a long segment is the shelf life of avocados.  

We both had a Mixed Green Salad and for our main course the Mediterranean Sea Bass.  

We enjoyed a wine that is not part of the inclusive wines which was a bottle of 2015 Chateau Montelena Cabernet.  This vineyard is famous for winning the white wine selection of the historic "Judgement of Paris" wine competition. The vineyard was founded in 1882.

For the better part of our time dining Waterside was not busy. As we were concluding our meal more people were arriving.  

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We didn't consider going to the evening show.  Keith was drained from playing a couple of hours of Paddle Tennis and we knew that last night was payback time.  This is because before we went to sleep the clocks needed to be forwarded one hour.   The other night we turned back the clock one hour and last evening we moved the clock forward by one hour.  LOL.  Someone asked why we had to turn the clocks back one day and forward again and that was to be on the proper local time for our visit to Fiji.  

We slept well as Serenity sails towards Bay Of Islands, New Zealand.  In spite of the time change Keith managed to get up early and workout at the Fitness Center.  Keith's legs were a bit drained from yesterday so I worked out for part of the time on the Elliptical Machine and I walked inside the ship the remainder of the time.

After enjoying coffee in the room we had breakfast.  We walked inside the ship for an hour.  It was very quiet with guests sleeping later given we forwarded the clocks.  Anne Marie went to Yoga.

Today is the first of two sea days before we arrive to the Bay Of Islands. We had lots of programs on the schedule including three lectures.

Destination Lecturer Ken Rees spoke about New Zealand since this is the next country we are visiting with a three ports of call. 

Actor Bruce McGill gave a presentation on Shakespeare.  

History Lecturer Carol Baxter covered an interesting topic which is be careful what you wish for.

Keith ended up participating in the World Games mixed doubles paddle tennis.  It was originally scheduled for last week but was postponed due to the rain.  It was supposed to be held at 10:00 AM today and Keith went up to play at around 9:00 AM.  He wasn't going to participate.  It started to drizzle at 9:30 AM and they ended up delaying the event until 11:00 AM.  As it turned out by 10:05 AM the courts were dry and Keith played with other guests.  As they were collecting the key cards to randomly draw partners Keith was still going to not play but they had one less man than woman so Keith put his card in.  He ended up with Rosa who is the wife with the man who had won the Gold Medals in Singles, Doubles and Passenger/Crew Paddle Tennis.  Keith and Rosa won their first match and won their second match and advanced to the finals against Rosa's Husband and Brooke.  Keith kept kidding with the husband that he needed to let Rosa win.  He didn't listen and Keith and Rosa lost but finished with a Silver.  As Keith says it is all about having fun.  They finished at Noon and after lunch Keith went up to play another ninety minutes of Paddle Tennis.  He is definitely done for the day playing.

One of the public rooms that you don't find often on cruise ships is a cinema.  Crystal has the Hollywood Theatre on Serenity and Symphony.  The room is multi-use.  It is used for religious services and on most sea days will be used for an afternoon lecture.  Each evening a movie is shown twice at 8:00 PM and 10:30 PM and repeated at 2:30 PM the following afternoon.  This pattern continues with new movies shown each evening.  Hot popped Popcorn is available.  

​These are photos of the Hollywood Theatre.

While Keith was playing Paddle Tennis this afternoon Anne Marie was walking outside.  We will enjoy the rest of the day with fellow guests.

We are posting early today.
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​Anne Marie & Keith

Following is the daily reflections program.
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