DAY 88 - DAY 82 CRYSTAL SERENITY

DAY 3 AND SECOND FULL DAY IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA.

We wanted to begin with some additional photos from yesterdays' wine  tour.

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Today marks the conclusion of Segment 3 of the World Cruise and the start of Segment 4 which is the last segment of the World Cruise.  During Segment 3 we cruises from Fremantle/Perth Australia to Cape Town, South Africa traveling the equivalent of 7,058 land miles.

The temporary closure of the Laundry Rooms was
clarified.  It was due to the water shortage in South Africa rather than the ship not being able to create water which is done when it is at sea.

Moving to last evening"

By the time we got ready for dinner, we decided to walk around the ship before dinner last  evening rather than having a drink.  

While on our walk we saw Sommelier Ross at The Bistro.  Ross will be going on a well deserved Holiday starting with his flight back home to Manilla today.  We will miss him.

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We enjoyed dinner at the Italian Specialty Restaurant Prego.

We were in great hands with Mario Gallo as the Specialty Restaurant Maitre d', Mario Moinheiro as Head Waiter, Ernest as our Waiter and Lubo as our Sommelier.  It was a fairly quiet night reminding us of the old days when fewer guests were dining there.  

Everything was great from service to cuisine to the overall ambience of the dining venue.

We began with appetizers; Seared Tuna Crudo for Keith and a half order of the Insalata Caprese for Anne Marie.  We both had Caesar salad light on dressing and for our entree Keith had the Over Roasted Corn Fed Chicken Breast and Anne Marie had a half portion of the Veal Scallopini.  

The Chicken was a fairly new addition to the menu and the first time Keith has had it.  He thought it was great.  He learned when he ordered it that this item will be removed from the menu for the fourth segment of the World Cruise as the change some appetizers and entrees.

We chatted with Waiter Mornie who will go home tomorrow. He lives in South Africa.  Mario Gallo will also go home tomorrow.  We wished them both the very best for their well deserved holidays.  We are pleased to hear about new assignments for Mornio and both Mario's.  

We slept well last evening.  Serenity remained docked in Cape Town.

Keith was up early and back to the Fitness Center.  He enjoyed a long workout.  Afterwards, we enjoyed Coffee in our room followed by Breakfast.  We got ready to visit Victoria and Albert Waterfront.

When we were here last in 2015 the area near the Cruise Ship Terminal was under a great deal of construction making it difficult to walk to V&A Waterfront.  We  had to take the shuttle.  This time around the construction is all complete including a new museum so we decided to walk rather than taking the complimentary shuttle.

The Victoria & Albert Waterfront is situated on the Atlantic shore and totals 300 acres in size.   It attracts 23 million visitors annually.  It  is home to 450 businesses including restaurants, cafes, shops, and other retail establishments.  It is still a working harbor with fishing boats bringing in fresh fish.

As we left the ship we saw Captain Birger who joined the ship today and Captain Giske who leaves the ship for a well deserved Holiday today.  We also saw some crew members arriving including Bartender Dennis, his lovely wife who works at the front desk and one of the Sommeliers. Time does go by fast as they along with Captain Birger went on holiday right before the start of the World Cruise.  

We followed the yellow brick road (well the area marked with yellow) over to Victoria & Albert and walked the entire area.  This included a stop at the Aquarium, stops at various malls, a stop at the hotel that Crystal Cruises put us up at when we returned from Safari one day prior to the arrival of Serenity in 2015, and to several other areas.  The weather was nice.  Along the way we saw some passengers from the ship, some passengers who had just gotten off and some passengers who join the ship today.

During our visit we picked up books the grandchildren.  Hopefully they are not reading the Blog but just in case we will keep the names of the books a secret.  

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As we walked the area we reminisced about our prior visits to Cape Town in 2007, 2010, 2014 & 2015.

In 2007 we took a wine tour on a Crystal Cruises tour and visited the Aquarium.  In 2010 we visited Robben Island.  In 2014 we took the Hop On Hop Off Bus (HOHO) on two different days across two different routes including Table Mountain, Botanical Gardens, Cape and downtown area.  In 2015 we were supposed to return from Safari in Port Elizabeth.  Due to high winds the ship could not dock at the port for fear it would get stuck in port that evening.  We were rerouted to Cape Town where we stayed at a hotel and waited for the arrival of Serenity the next day. We took a one day private tour the day after returning to Serenity with dear friends Bob & Glo which Keith arranged of the wine country.  

During each of our stays we always walked V&A. It is a fun area to walk and one of the most beautiful areas near a cruise ship terminal in the world.  

As we have mentioned, never our wildest dreams would we have imagined that we would visit Cape Town even one Tim let along five times.   When we began our lives together, we thought maybe one day we would go to Europe.  We have grown so much from our travels both on and off the ship.  Travel teaches us so many things and reinforces the diversity of people, their culture, their nationality, the diversity of geography, the different challenges facing people & countries and that everyone does not do or think the way we do in our home country.  We also gain so much seeing this through our own eyes and recognize that we do not cover the world very much in our own country which is something that we believe is very important to do.

When we  returned to the ship  we saw  something that will make  several guests happy and that is  Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio as they ran out of it on  the  last cruise.  They served an Austrian one that was quite good but some people prefer to go with the "name brand".  Personally we think there are several better ones on the market at a significantly better value.  There is one item that Keith has that we are hoping arrived today.  We will find out soon.  

The challenge for the ship is that space is at a premium and they cannot load an entire supply of wine/beer/water for such an extended period of time.  From time-to-time some item might be consumed at a far greater rate than anticipated or the item that has been ordered arrives to the ship late or not at the right standards.  For example a few years ago Champagne arrived to the sister ship for a Holiday Cruise in a vessel where the refrigeration went off line so the Champagne became hot and went bad.  We are always amazed at how well they  do stocking the ship given all of the complexities of procuring/resourcing items.  

Once back on the ship we had lunch at Marketplace and are enjoying the  rest of the day on Serenity.  We have already run into some friends who embarked today.

We took a nice long walk together outside on the Promenade Deck.  We felt like we were on a Yacht as it was only the two of us.

We are enjoying the rest of the day on-board Serenity.