DAY 57 - DAY 51 CRYSTAL SERENITY

 CRUISING SYDNEY - ON THE WAY TO HOBART, AUSTRALIA

Sophie & Mary.... Thank you so much for your comments.

Patricia...Thank you for your comments and yes when we can we will be sure to share insight into key points made in lectures and the panel discussion.  

After returning to the ship yesterday afternoon and freshening up, we went to the mandatory face-to-face inspection with local authorities from Australia.  We were not on Serenity when this was conducted before the ship reached Sydney so yesterday was our turn.  This one took all of a minute.  They looked at our passport photo and looked up at us and swiped the passport and wrote something and that was it.  

We enjoyed a nice evening on-board Serenity including a pre-dinner drink at the Crystal Cove followed by dinner at Waterside.

Keith tried a local Australian Beer.  It was a Lager.  He had others he enjoyed more that he tried during our stay in Sydney but  enjoyed this one.

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These are the dinner menus from Waterside.

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We each had appetizers. Keith had the entrée of the Pink Roasted Kangaroo Loin as an appetizer.  He took the advice of Head Waiter Augusto and had it medium rare.  We are not sure whether he has had this before but Keith thought it tasted delicious and was not gamey.  

Anne Marie had soup with a Matzah Ball. We both had the entrée salad as an appetizer salad.  For our entrée we both had the local Australian Grenadier Fish which was a terrific choice.  For dessert Keith had some cheese and Anne Marie had one cookie.
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​Sommelier Amenla is now taking care of us. We have known her for a while and her sister who is a Senior Waiter has taken care of us along with our son-and- daughter in-law when they were on board with us in 2014.

Although there was a queue to get into Waterside the line moved very quickly and for most of the time we dined there it was very quiet.

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The featured entertainment was two shows performed by Patrick McMahon at 7:45 and 9:30 PM.  The Crystal Cove had music throughout the evening including Carlos on guitar, Richard on piano and Irina playing the violin.  Dan Davies played dinner music on the piano from 6:45 to 7:30 PM and returned from 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM and sang and played the piano.  The Crystal Quartet performed at both the Palm Court and Stardust and Ana & Humberto entertained at the Palm Court.  There was an 80's disco party at Pulse and late night music as well.  The Hollywood Theatre featured the Movie Lady Bird about a seventeen-year-old girl in Sacramento, California.

On Friday, February 8 we saw Tommy and Heather Schweiger who boarded that day in Sydney.  We have known them since World Cruise 2010.  They said they had a gift for Keith as they know he loves The Beatles.  We received it on Saturday and it is a hat from The Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool.  We had drinks there in 2015 as part of a Beatles tour we were on.  We met a couple of band members from the Quarymen who knew John, Paul and Ringo when they played together, visited with Pete Best's brother Rory Best (Pete was the original Beatles drummer) at the Casbah Coffee Club where The Beatles performed, and visited with the woman (Freda Kelly) who was head of the Beatles Fan Club.  They made a movie about her.  

​Thank you Heather and Tommy.

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Before we departed Sydney, Captain Giske spoke from the bridge and said we should be careful walking around the ship later in the evening as it would be very windy.  He was correct as it did get very windy and there was a lot of movement on the ship.  We did wake up a couple of times but overall we did fine.  By the time Keith woke up and went to the Fitness Center things had calmed down quite a bit.  Yes, we know we are at sea but overall it was fine.  Keith enjoyed a long workout.  We had coffee and breakfast in our room as we got ready for a sea day on-board Serenity.

Several guests joined Serenity in Auckland while we were in Sydney while other guests left at the end of the first segment.  We believe we have a similar guest count on this segment to the first segment.

Today's daily program was very extensive featuring lots of activities/enrichment.

The program included three lectures; Ken Rees spoke about Tasmania including its beauty and spoke about our upcoming port-of-call stop in Hobart.  Dr. Sheldon Simon spoke about the future of the Two Koreas which certainly is a present day topic with a lot of interest.  In the afternoon, Australian Military History Lecturer Stuart Usher spoke about the Flight of the Wild Geese which involved the escape of six Fenian prisoners from Freemantle's notorious prison.

The daily Reflections program follows.

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We both walked together inside the ship in the morning.  There were moments when it was tricky given the sea swells and wind.  Keith went to the first half of Ken Rees' lecture and watched the remainder live on the television.  We also enjoyed conversations with fellow guests and members of team Serenity.  
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We returned to Marketplace for lunch.

The afternoon included more walking and also getting together with fellow guests.

The weather was not conducive to playing Paddle Tennis so that will have to wait a couple of days as we have a tour tomorrow.

​This evening we will be getting together with another couple for dinner at Prego.

This is a video of our family in Australia seeing our ship leave Sydney from their place yesterday late afternoon.  We miss them.

Two additional photos from our visit with the family.  

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Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith