NOTE: We added a picture to the Blog from last evenings Crystal Society Reception If you scroll to the bottom of today’s entry you will see it at the top of yesterdays Blog.
Last evening the seas continued to be quite calm so we enjoyed an excellent nights sleep. At last nights reception, Captain Glenn mentioned that the seas are expected to continue to be very calm as we head to India. He said that this is not always the case, so we are quite fortunate to have good weather and calm seas. We also earned last evening that we have approximately 830 guests on board the ship; including around 730 who are repeat Crystal Cruisers. There are now 355,000 people who are part of Crystal Society meaning that they have taken one or more previous cruises with Crystal.
Before we went to bed last night we set the clocks back one hour. We woke up the same time we do each day so we enjoyed an additional hour of sleep. ☺
We started our day as we do each day with a daily workout in the Fitness Center. Keith enjoyed a wonderful workout. He spoke with one man for quite a while who is on this segment of the cruise and then spoke with Mary after she arrived. Anne Marie enjoyed her workout and then afterwards spoke with some fellow passengers including Mary. Some of the other regulars such as John were also working out and because of the time zone change the Fitness Center was a little busier than normal but there were still plenty of machines available for use.
We listened to Captain Glenn’s morning talk. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “You teach best what you need most to learn.”
After enjoying a wonderful breakfast in our room, we started the morning activities by attending Rap with the Rabbi. This session is usually held every other sea day. As usual, we enjoyed the session. The Rabbi does a wonderful job leading these sessions and selecting topics that allow for a great discussion and lots of participation by those in attendance. We had a very large turnout for today’s discussion.
After this session Keith played Table Tennis. He played mainly with the same three people from yesterday, including one of the entertainers on for this segment of the world cruise. Since the seas are relatively calm and there has been minimal wind, it’s been a nice couple of days playing table tennis and it is a very nice group of people playing.
While Keith was playing table tennis, Anne Marie attended a lecture given by Destination Lecturer Jay Wolff. The topic of Dr. Wolff’s presentation was “The Rise of Raj – British India.” The presentation how a private British stock company built itself into a de-factor country, with its own army and navy and how it controlled India for 250 years. He talked about how the English brought the railroad, the telegraph and the blessings of Western Civilization over to this area of the world while at the same time draining India of its wealth.
We both attended the next presentation, which was given by author, professor and television personality Dr. Harm de Blij. The topic of his presentation was “The Power of Place: Why the World is Not Flat.”
His discussion focused on two areas the physical geography of the world along with the political aspects of the world. In terms of the physical, he talked about how the land mass moves each year and based on historical information how one can predict the future in terms of where oil supplies will be located, and other major natural resources.
As for the political aspect, he touched on many interesting issues. One of the places he talked about was Myanmar. It was his view that even if the current government that is presently in control is overthrown by the Buddhist Monks that he believed that life for the people would not be any different than it is today because of the extremist views of these monks. He has a very good point. We can all point to changes in the world where religious extremists took control of a particular country and see that it didn’t bring about the change that some would have predicted. This was also another point of his, which is that in many parts of the world that we are seeing more extremes in religion. Another major point of his is that he didn’t believe that the embargo that has been put into place is bringing about positive change. It was his contention that is hurting the majority of the people rather than helping them and again his point is that if all of this results in the Monks taking over at some point it could turn out to be even worse for the people. This might be one of those times to be careful for what you wish for.
He also touched on other key geo-political issues around the world from India, to Tibet, to even the United States. He is a fascinating speaker and regardless whether one agrees or disagrees with each of his point, he is wonderful to listen to, makes a lot of sense, and makes one see things from a different perspective, which is always helpful. There is also so much to this world that we truly don’t understand. When we say we, we are not just talking about ourselves, but all of us. Sometimes, we make generalities, which are wrong. Other times, we come to conclusions based on one source, which can also be wrong.
Through this World Cruise adventure we continue expand our knowledge from the excellent guest speakers/lecturers that Crystal Cruises brings on board the ship to our ability to see things first hand ourselves, rather than through others. There is so much more for us to learn about this world we live in and it also reminds us to be open to other points of views and to be flexible in our thinking. Because in the end, we all have much to learn about and how we see the world from where we live is not necessarily correct and that there are two sides to every story and that we all are not 100% correct all of the time. Sometimes we as individuals, groups, countries, regions of the world are correct on items, and sometimes we are wrong because we do not see the entire picture or the picture we see is not correct because we are only seeing it from one point of view; our own. We know that when we go home that there are some items that we want to further research because of some items we have learned from the lecturers during our journey or because of particular situations that we have observed during our journey in which more information is needed.
We have mentioned that Crystal now has a new art program on board the ship. Throughout the day, a variety of art was displayed in the Crystal Plaza, which is right adjacent to the reception desk. There is an Art Director on board the ship for the entire World Cruise from Winsome and Heyword and she was available to discuss these items for anyone who was interested in the art along with those who might be interested in purchasing the art. These are one of a kind items.
At the same time, there is a new shop on the ship, which was opened during the first week of the World Cruise. It features some items from voyage to voyage but the majority of the items are part of a trunk show. As part of the trunk show, a jeweler will come on bard the ship and the items featured will be those of the jeweler. The current jeweler on board lives in Mumbai so her jewelry was all designed and made in India. This shop seems to have gone over very well with many guests and is something quite unique to be offered on a cruise ship. The prices will vary from cruise to cruise depending on what type of jeweler is on board and what type of jewelry they feature.
After our morning activities, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the Main Dining Room. The same Senior Waiter and Waiter who serve us in the evening served us. They are a pleasure to talk with.
This afternoon they are helping to make a variety of food items that are representative of their home South American country and these items will be reheated later this evening as part of a dinner crew dinner. They have been looking forward to this for quite a while and it was wonderful hearing about all of the items that are being prepared for this event.
During the afternoon, we took care of some errands around the ship along with some items that we needed to get caught up on.
This evening we had dinner in the Main Dining Room. We had pre-ordered our entrée rather than ordering one of the menu items. We enjoyed Black Bass as our entrée. It was wonderfully prepared for us.
There is a good deal of entertainment for the guests this evening.
A vocalist was on board who performed two shows. One was at 7:00 PM for those who eat at the late seating for dinner and the other was a 8:30 PM for those in the main (early) dining seating. During this years World Cruise, Crystal has brought on more entertainers than ever before to supplement their own in-house entertainment. Penny Mathisen performed tonight’s show. She has performed extensively in the theatre. Her theatre credits include performing as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera and as Cosette in Les Miserables in the West End. She has many other acting credits and has also appeared in film and on television
At the same time there was a special themed fair for everyone sailing on this segment of the cruise. It was called a Country Fair and was set up around the indoor pool area of the ship. This area of the ship was set up like a fairground and for this evening was called the Crystal Fairgrounds offering a variety of games for our fellow guest to play which they called giggle-inducing games while offer a variety of food which they referred to as tummy-tempting vittles. Set up like a carnival, tickets were given out for those who won a particular game, which could be turned in for prizes. There was even a pie-eating contest. Last year, there was a medieval like fair featuring a variety of games and food. Like last year, this was a huge success. Most of us are children at heart and it’s nice to see our fellow guests having fun playing games that they may have played when they were young.
We ended up winning two stuffed animals (Anne Marie is pictured with our new additions) along with two straw hats (not pictured). We know. More items to pack. ☺
Keith & Anne Marie
