DAY 27 DAY 16 SERENITY

WELCOME TO LOS ANGELES

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.  

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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.

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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.

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A couple of additional photos after we docked.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Following is the daily Reflections Program.

Cheers, 

​Anne Marie  & Keith

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