We enjoyed another wonderful evening on-board Crystal Serenity. We began with a pre-dinner drink at the Crystal Cove as we listened to Pianist Richard Pucci play the piano. We then listened to the World Cruise Choir perform four different songs. The choir is a tradition of World Cruises. It is comprised of guests who are sailing on one or more segments of the World Cruise and can include people from enrichment. In recent years it has been coordinated by Paster Ed with assistance from his lovely wife Ruth. The fourth song was What A Wonderful World. Dinner was back at Waterside for the last supper of this leg of the World Cruise. Great dinner. Waterside was very busy. For those who have sailed with Crystal it felt like a Black Tie Optional Evening. These are the dinner menus from last evening. We each had separate appetizers. Anne Marie had the Freshly Baked Lobster Strudel while Keith had Scallop & Tuna Ceviche. We both had dinner salads followed by a Salmon Entree. Keith had some cheese. He selected three different portions of cheese and Head Waiter Augusto added an additional one to try. Anne Marie had decaf. cappuccino. The entertainment included wonderful vocalist Lou Gazzara. We slept well as we continued cruising up the coastline to Los Angeles, California. We arrived to the Los Angeles Cruise Center located in the town of San Pedro on-time. This is the same location where we boarded Serenity in 2018 for the Holiday Cruise and returned to on that cruise, and on the following California Coastal Cruise prior to the start of World Cruise 2019. Arrival was on-schedule Some views as we were getting closer to the port. A couple of additional photos after we docked. ![]() We have mixed emotions on turn-around day. We do think of the cruise ship and each cruises as a small village. On World Cruises where we know so many people from prior cruises the village is like a village that is home to us. We always say each cruise is different as each one has their own set of characteristics including length, itinerary, people on-board, enrichment, entertainment, weather and many other factors. People both the crew and guests truly make each cruise unique. With each cruise the people changes so you will never sail with 100% of the same people on each succeeding cruise. We have sailed on this first leg with people we have known for eighteen years and with others we only met on the cruise. Some we will sail with again and some who we have gotten to know we will never sail with again. It is truly a unique experience and one of the many reasons we love cruising. We have made life-long friends when cruising and so many people have touched our heart. In addition to a changeover of guests today is one of the larger turnovers of crew with 100 crew members going on well deserved holidays and a similar number of crew members joining the ship. After a workout by Keith we enjoyed breakfast in our room and chatted with Butler Rao. Rao goes on a very well deserved holiday back to India where he will be with his family. Rao will rejoin Serenity in Mumbai but we will not be on Serenity at that part of time. We wished Rao the very best and look forward to seeing him again. Butler Jason who took excellent care of us before Rao came on board during the second segment of World Cruise 2019 will take care of us for the remainder of our time on-board. ![]() United States Authorities requires that the ship be at a zero count before guests can board again. This means that all guests not staying on for the next cruise must be off the ship and all guests continuing on-board for the next cruise (referred to as in-transit guests) must be off the ship. We could leave the ship right away or leave the ship as a group at the designated time. In addition to asking we take our passports with us to go through immigration and customs in-transit guests were given a yellow in-transit card making it easier to identify ourselves. Once the zero count was achieved and the ship was cleared we were allowed to board Serenity. This is precisely what we did. It took a little longer than usual but that has more to do with the local authorities. We waited in the terminal area for about one hour. We saw dear Svenja who we have known for many years who supervises the people who Crystal uses for the boarding and disembarkation process in various ports in the Western part of the USA. Once back on-board we met with some members from Crystal Cruises who work on land and it was great to see them in the late morning and in the afternoon. Photos with Vice President of Land Programs John Stoll. ![]() We had lunch at Waterside. As we do on embarkation day each of us had Cobb Salad, a flute of champagne and toasted the start of leg two of World Cruise 2020 and our love for one another. ![]() Following is the daily Reflections Program. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith
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