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DAY 68 DAY 56 SERENITY

3/3/2020

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THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - UNTIL NEXT TIME CRYSTAL SERENITY 

This journey on Crystal Serenity  began on January 7 in Miami.  It is not our longest adventure on Serenity nor our shortest.  Regardless of the length of the voyage and the places we visit it is the people who make sailing on Crystal Cruises amazing and very special for us.  

Let’s start with the highly trained and professional members of Team Serenity.   They comprise individuals from many nationalities who work together to provide a high level of professional and personalized to each guest.  They are amazing.  We have known some members of Serenity  since our first cruise on Crystal Harmony  in 2002, our first cruise on Crystal Symphony in 2003 and our first cruise on Crystal Serenity  in 2005.  We have seen many  of the members of Serenity  move into increasing levels of responsibility and/or take on new assignments.  

While many in the hospitality area around the world provide professional service to me one of the things which set Crystal apart is the people are not robot like and see each guest as individuals and that is precisely how we see them.    

They  remember things about us even we don’t always remember, including food and drinks we enjoy.   They anticipate items before we even think of them.  They remember things about our own family on land.  No matter what the seas and weather conditions, or itinerary are like  or whatever the other challenges they may face, they interact with each of us in the most positive manner possible trying to make our time and the time of fellow guests the best it can be.  When we arrive to the ship on embarkation day  or return from a visit to a port they often say  “Welcome Home”.  Yes, we do feel like we are back home each time we return.  We also think of the amazing people who comprise each Crystal Vessel we have sailed to be part of our extended family.   

While some cruise lines we have sailed have newer ships, larger staterooms and suites, like a fine wine for us sailing Crystal gets better and better with each succeeding voyage and one of the main reasons is the amazing people who are part of Team Crystal at sea and on land.  In my humble opinion   they are the best.

I want to note while the current Coronavirus is a challenge for many who  travel it is a major challenge  for the travel industry, including the people.   Many people at Crystal have  not only dealt with these challenges but still  perform all of their day-to-day responsibilities.   This included members of Team Symphony who dealt with countless challenges  since Symphony was sailing Southeast Asia at the time of the outbreak and members of Team Serenity  who have and are dealing with the itinerary  changes resulting from this virus.  Also all of the people on land from  reservations  to planning to purchasing/provisioning/logistics.  

When we return this time of year we know there will be several fellow guests who we have sailed with on one or many prior voyages.   Some we know very well having shared tours, dinners, conversations or even a game of Paddle Tennis, a walk, knitting or indoor cycling with.  Others we know just from saying hi from time-to-time or starting up a conversation.  They also make each voyage very special.

Let me close by saying I often think of the ship as having many  of the characteristics of a small village on land.  The major difference is the ship is a floating  village taking us to extraordinary places around the world and allowing us to make memories which will last  a lifetime.

We have enjoyed this  adventure so much including special stops in New Zealand, on-board lectures and entertainment, the food/the food and the food, the people  the people and the people, Vintage Room Champagne Lunch, Vintage Room Dinner and the list goes on and on and on.  In the end it was the members of Team Serenity and fellow Guests who made this adventure very special.

Special  thanks to  Captain Birger for his leadership, including strong communication and decision making.   The Captain kept the crew and the guests up to date through timely  and spot-on communications so we were never in the dark.  

Many thanks to the Hotel Directors, Cruise Director, Executive Housekeeper, Restaurant Manager, Food & Beverage Manager, Front Office Manager, Clearance Officer , Vice Captains, and to their teams and to so many  others  This includes Crystal Society Host and Hostess, Future Sales Consultants, Medical Doctor, Specialty  Restaurant Maitre D’ , Head Waiters, Housekeeping Supervisors, Chief  Accountant, Chief Concierge, Fitness and Spa Manager, and Store Manager and to the many hundreds of personnel throughout the ship who took excellent care of us  and our fellow guests throughout this voyage.   In  the  end it is the  people who make the difference and who make  our choice to sail with Crystal Cruises an  easy one.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.   

   


Now  to our final port of call; Sydney, Australia.
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Now to last night and today.

​These are the  Waterside Dinner Menus  from last evening.  We are also adding Waterside  Breakfast Menu  and the Waterside Luncheon Menu from yesterday.   
As we have done the last few years, we had our final dinner of the cruise in our room.   Back in the  days  when we dined with other guests at larger tables with fixed dining times we would go to the dining room for that final meal.  Subsequently we went to a two person table and would go to the dining room but in recent years we have enjoyed a quiet dinner in our room.  

Butler Jaison organized the meal for us.

We began with appetizers from the Umi Uma Japanese Specialty Restaurant.

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A tradition for us which we began a few years ago is to have Pizza on the final night and this is precisely what we did.  
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While dining we enjoyed spectacular views of Sydney Harbor as we made our way to Circular Quay where  we  docked.

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We put the last items in our suitcases and placed  them outside our room before going to sleep.

We slept well.   This morning differed from the normal routine as Keith  didn't go to the Fitness Center for a workout.  LOL.   He did take  a  walk inside the ship.

Butler Jaison  brought our final breakfast of the cruise and we thanked him for all he has done and wished him our  very  best.  Last evening we thanked Penthouse Attendant Chan for all she has done  and also Stateroom Attendant Raiyotla who has assisted Chan on this leg of the World Cruise.   

We enjoyed our final breakfast of the cruise before packing  our carry on bags.  While we  were  eating  we had  visitors and the two photos are of one of the visitors.   In case you  wonder, we  didn't feed  them.

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Our time depart the ship was 9:30 AM so we left  our room at 9:00 to walk  around.  We said until next time to Chan who took care of our room for three of the four legs of the World Cruise.  She and Linda who took care of us on leg one have been gems.
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From our room we went to Deck 6.   This is the infamous deck where  where we walk inside the ship.   It is also where disembarkation took place.  It turned out  to be the perfect spot  to catch up with lots of people.  We chatted with World Cruise Hostess and friend  Stacey.
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We spoke with Hotel  Director  Scott and Keith spoke with Chief of Security Sanjiv.  We also saw Charles and Alice who we  toured the vineyards with, and several World Cruisers.   Some were staying such as  BJ but others were  leaving.  One couple leaving we have known since 2007, one couple was on their first World Cruise and we met them a couple of weeks ago and other full World Cruisers leaving we knew or just recognized from walking around the ship.   A few people leaving were either scheduled to leave or were originally  going  to Singapore.  This included Denise and  Steve who were on last  years World Cruise and this year were going from Los Angeles to Singapore but decided to leave today. They are two of Keith's Paddle Tennis buddies.  We  saw  another guest Keith plays Paddle Tennis leave with his wife and they were scheduled to depart today from Sydney.

We felt bad for those who booked the full World Cruise and  cut it short due to the virus.  There is no right or wrong  to this  and  each  person/couple had their own reasons for leaving.  
We left the ship by 9:30 PM and collected our bags in the terminal.  Three bags are being shipped home and two bags remain with us.  After collecting  the bags a porter assisted us and we turned over the three bags over to the luggage shipping company  who had two people in the building.  Easy Peasy.  

Everything was orderly in the terminal including turning I our  landing cards.

Once out of the terminal we were driven to the Shangri La Hotel located a short distance from the Circular Quay.  If for the fact we didn't have luggage it would be a short walk to the hotel but with luggage and up a hill it was not practical to do this.  We would  have  gotten Uber but  were concerned they  were at high demand. As it turned out very few of the guests used Uber.   Some  had private cars as we did and many got on a long queue for the taxi.  While waiting we did run  into  some familiar faces who were returning  to Serenity including Sommelier Ross and Future Cruise Sales Consultant.   

Anne Marie with Daniele who we  have  known  for twelve  years.
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This is our third stay at this hotel in three years.

Our first stay was in 2018 when we visited the family  in Sydney.  Last year we departed Serenity in Auckland, flees to Sydney, spent a few days at the hotel and returned to Serenity  shortly after it arrived to Sydney.   We brought the family on-board and celebrated our daughter's birthday which was on that very date with a birthday dinner at Prego.  

We like the location of the Hotel.  For those of you familiar with Sydney it is located in the area known as The Rocks.

We can get to and from the hotel via Uber (we could take the bus but prefer Uber) and the drive is thirty minutes plus or minus a few minutes depending on time of day and day of week.

The Rocks have some of Sydney's oldest pubs and many restaurants.  Sydney is very walkable and we can get to the Opera House by foot in less than 30 minutes and enjoy beautiful views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Club  Lounge of the Hotel.

We  enjoy the hotel  between the lovely room, the service around the hotel and its Club Lounge.  

Since we were not sure what time we could check-into the hotel and it is a school day with after school activities for the children our plan was to spend the day in Sydney  and get out to the families place tomorrow before the  start of the school day.

During the course of the  day we  walked to different areas of Sydney.  This included  a  visit  to  Queen Victoria Building where we had lunch and also over to where Serenity was docked and the Opera House.  We went out a second time after unpacking.  With rain in the forecast for most days we are happy we had time to walk to many areas  of this beautiful city.
Look for daily posts  as  we spend one week in Sydney.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie  &  Keith
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