DAY 67 - DAY 61 CRYSTAL SERENITY

WELCOME TO FREMANTLE

Gilly thank you for your comments.

Catherine had asked what types of excursions were offered in Busselton.  The excursions included Margaret River which is the wine region and the excursion included wine tastings.  Anther excursion included a visit to the Ngligi Cave with its beautiful interior colors.   Some people bought tickets to visit the Busselton Jetty including the underwater observatory which provided terrific views as you might see at an aquarium.

We enjoyed a fun night on Crystal Serenity last evening.

We began with a pre-dinner drink at the Avenue Saloon.  

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We dined at the Umi Uma Japanese Specialty Restaurant with World Cruise Hostess Stacey and Jeff.  We last dined with the two of them together at lunch over the Summer and it was nice to be together again.  Dinner is always special at Umi Uma and dining together with such nice people makes it all the more special.  We enjoyed a fun-filled dinner with lots of laughs.

This is the menu from Uma Uma.

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We took the liberty of pre-ordering a few items for everyone and each person also ordered items of their choosing.  

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Our Waiter was Anthony.

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We enjoyed a wide range of dishes including Sashimi, Sushi, Salads and various entrees.  The food was delicious and we enjoyed outstanding service in a very beautiful dining venue.  These are some of the items we enjoyed.

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We slept well as we cruised the short distance from Busselton to Fremantle.  We began the day as we always do with an early morning workout for Keith and coffee in our room.
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At 6:00 AM the pilot came on board Serenity and we are including a view of the sun rise.

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Head Butler Jaison brought breakfast to the room for us as he has on each morning we have been on-board Serenity.

Jaison has taken wonderful care of us since we boarded Serenity on December 21 and we thanked him for all he has done.  We have known him for several years and this is the first time he has taken care of us.

He is a consummate professional and a very caring person and we appreciate all that he does.  Senior Head Butler Rao returns to Serenity today from a well deserved Holiday and will be taking good care of us starting with the next voyage.

People ask what the Butlers do and they provide a range of services to the guests.   The services that guests request ranges by person and for that matter by voyage.  

The butlers will serve meals in the room including breakfast, lunch and/or dinner during their working hours.  During hours when no butlers are on duty there is a room service team who can bring food, coffee, drinks, etc.  In our case we have breakfast in our room.  This is been something we started a few years back when there was some illness on the ship.  Anne Marie is susceptible to picking up viruses, etc. easily so we have made adjustments and that includes having breakfast in our room.  For dinner, they can serve the meal course by course and obtain items from Prego and Umi Uma in addition to Waterside.  We might have dinner in our room two to three time on a long journey such as this one.

Butlers bring around late afternoon Canapés. Given that we have an early dinner this is not something of interest to us.  However, when we used to dine late we would have Canapés and from time to time we used to have friends to our room for pre-dinner drinks.  In lieu of Canapés we have a fruit plate to our room at 3:00 to provide us with a light snack.  Butlers do get some time off during the day so when our butler is off in the afternoon another butler brings the fruit and this has been a great opportunity for us to get to know the butlers on board the ship on this and previous cruises.

Butlers fill the refrigerator with beverages and for those who use the in-suite coffee maker they bring the cream and the coffee pods.  They also bring fruit each day.  

Butlers make Specialty Restaurant reservations and can change the reservations.  Sometimes we have the butler do this for us and other times we stop by to see the Specialty Restaurant Maitre d'.

Once on board the ship the Butler can make or cancel shore excursions for the guests.  We do this on our own.

Butlers take care of polishing dress shoes.  This is something that we don't have the butler do but it's nice that this is offered.  

Butlers take the dry cleaning, pressing and laundry bags and return the clothing.  As part of the suites we get complimentary pressing which we utilize.  We do all our laundry. When needed we send items out to be dry cleaned.

Butlers can make arrangements to order wine for those wines that are not inclusive.  Should we ever order wine we would do this on our own.  Butlers can bring down a bottle of wine for the guests to have in the dining venue of their choice.  On occasion we make use of this service.

Butlers can order flowers which a guest wants to purchase for the room or to surprise someone and we have known guests asking their butler to pick up something at the store.  We don't use this service but another nice option for people.

Butlers can do unpacking and packing.  Once again this is something that we don't have the butler do but we know people who appreciate this amenity as they do need help with this.

Butlers can organize parties in the room and will be on-hand for the beginning of the party and come by from time-to-time.

There are certainly other services the Butlers provide in addition to these.

The Butlers work as a cohesive team helping out one another.  From time to time there is a special milestone dinner at the Captain's Quarters and while there is one butler who is assigned to the Captain's Quarters in addition to being responsible for several guest suites, man of the Butlers will assist during the meal helping to serve each course.  Almost all Butlers begin in Waterside as the knowledge of the restaurant and the galley is very important as a Butler.  Many of the Butlers received formal Butler training before joining Crystal Cruises and we know several how were Butlers on land such as at a Hotel.  

We have experienced Butlers on four other cruise lines and to us the ones at Crystal are top notch.  

Once again, thank you Jaison.

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Rao came by the room to see us after he got settled on the ship.  

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Today is turn-around day with the conclusion of Segment II of the World Cruise and the start of Segment III.   This segment will sail from Fremantle all the way to Cape Town, South Africa

After breakfast we got ready to visit Fremantle.  We have visited Fremantle on several prior cruises and also have taken the train to/from the city of Perth.  

Fremantle has a population of 33, 000 residents.  Fremantle has welcomed Seafarers for over 130 years.  It received a major facelift in preparations for hosting the America's Cup Yacht Race in 1986/1987.

The city is named after Charles Fremantle who is the English naval officer who established a camp at this site in 1829.  

Fremantle has a diverse economy with 2,000+ small businesses, most operating with five or less people.

The city contains many buildings from the 19th century. 

Major highlights include.

Maritime Center of theist which is considered a sample of Fremantle's past, present and future.

Fremantle Prison which opened in 1855.  The prison originally held convicts from Britain.

Kings Park which is on 990 acres.  The park was opened in 1895.

The Round House which is the oldest remaining intact building in Western Australia.

Fremantle Arts Centre which was constructed in the 1860's by convicts.

As we were getting ready to leave the ship, we saw officers and crew who are returning to work from Holidays board.  We saw Cruise Director Rick and we welcomed him home.  

We proceeded ashore.  One of the nice things about returning to places we have visited before is knowing our way around town.  As we walked off the ship and onto the ground we knew to locate the pedestrian bridge to walk over the train tracks to the sidewalk to walk into town. As we walked over the bridge we saw a parking lot with all new cars.  This is something we have seen in past years as many imports are delivered to the port.
 
Once across the street we made a right and walked towards the Fremantle Railway Station where we took a train a few years ago to Perth.  Many buses stop at the station to take people to and from this location.  
 
From there we walked along the water with the Indian Ocean over towards Bathers Beach.  We walked up several steps to stop the Old Round House where we had beautiful views of Chellenger Harbour.  Round House was the Colony's first civil gaol where criminals were contained.  The cannon is first daily at 1:00 PM.

​There was a grassy knoll where some people were doing planks and other exercises. We proceeded to Bathers Beach, walked a boardwalk, and over the train tracks to Esplanade Reserve which includes a ferris wheel.  Adjacent to the reserve is Esplanade Youth Plaza which includes rock climbing, skate boarding, ping pong and slackling.  
 
We proceeded over to Fremantle Markets.  The market was closed today.  It first opened in 1897 and has over 150 stalls selling fresh produce, jewelry, clothing and items for the home.  
 
Our walk took us to the Wesleyan Church of Fremantle, and along several streets featuring stores, hotels, restaurants, cafes and historic buildings. 
 
At times the sun was very strong so we would walk on the side of the street with the most shade.  
 
We did see our dear friends Bob and Glo as they were walking with the Concierge to take them to a car waiting for them that Crystal Cruises booked for them.  We will miss them dearly.  

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We enjoyed lunch on the ship.  Often on turn around day we have lunch at Waterside but decided to go to Marketplace.

We enjoyed the rest of the day on the ship including Paddle Tennis for Keith, and a walk for Anne Marie.  We also spoke with fellow guests including some who boarded today and the members of the wonderful crew.

This was the Reflections from February 19 which was not available for posting yesterday.

Today's Embarkation Reflections program is not available on-line.

This is our last port of call in Australia for 2019.  We look forward to returning to Australia again.  We are humbled to visit so many special places around the world.

Cheers from Down Under,

Anne Marie & Keith