We enjoyed another good sleep last evening. We are now sailing towards Salalah, Oman. The seas have been relatively calm. We also enjoyed getting another 30 minutes of sleep since we set the clocks back before we went to sleep last evening. This evening we will set the clocks back another hour, which is great news. As we’ve mentioned, the direction that the ship has sailed for the entire World Cruise has provided us with the advantage of setting the clocks back from time to time which is much easier than when you have to set the clocks forward.
We awoke early and enjoyed a wonderful workout in the Fitness Center. When Keith arrived at the Fitness Center there were three passengers finishing up their workout. Keith had not seen them before, so we suspect that they had flown into Mumbai the day of or the day before the cruise and were still jetlagged. Anne Marie arrived a little while after Keith and we each enjoyed a great workout. Keith spoke with Mary after she arrived and heard all about the one-day trip that Crystal offered to the Taj Mahal. Another regular, John, was also working out.
After our workout, we enjoyed another wonderful breakfast. This is the first of two consecutive sea days as we sail to our next port of call. After breakfast, Anne Marie attended Progressive Yoga while Keith ran some errands on the ship.. On the last segment, the Yoga instructor who was on the full World Cruise last year joined the ship. She is a very interesting person and we are glad to have her back with us for the remainder of the World Cruise. Anne Marie enjoyed the Yoga session.
During the Captain’s Morning Announcement he noted that the outside temperature was 82 degrees Fahrenheit and that the weather looks very promising for the next couple of days, or more. The captain always mentions the location of the sister ship, the Crystal Symphony, noting that today the ship is at sea on its way to Hong Kong. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “You can’t strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”
We attended a couple of lectures in the morning. Destination Lecturer Dr Jay Wolff gave the first lecture. The topic of his presentation was “The Exodus From Egypt.”. It was quite an interesting presentation and Dr. Wolff continues to amaze the audience with the ability to tell a story while sharing a good deal of information.
Diplomat Tex Harris gave the second presentation. The topic of his presentation was “New Leaders and Old Problems”. Mr. Harris mainly outline the challenges in Iraq and mainly touched on three different options.
Between these two presentations Anne Marie attended the needlepoint handout where she receive another nice needlepoint kit from the Crystal Activities Hostess.
We then enjoyed a nice lunch in the Main Dining Room. After lunch we took a nice long walk on the Promenade Deck.
This evening we attended the Captain’s welcome reception. We had a wonderful time and it was so nice to see everyone dressed up in their formal attire. During the reception we learned that there are a total of 673 passengers on board the ship with a crew of 650. That is a ratio of almost 1 crew member per passenger. Wow!
This evening was the Captain’s Gala Dinner. There were lots of wonderful choices on the menu.
Appetizers included a choice of four items. Caviar accompanied by traditional items such as sour cream, chopped eggs, onions and melba toast and buckwheat blinis, truffled chicken liver parfait, baked oysters and tropical fruits.
Soup and Salads included several choices such as cappuccino of wild forest mushrooms, clear oxtail soup, and a captain’s salad.
There was a nice Pasta Special of handmade goat cheese ravioli, and a nice Salad Entrée of beef tenderloin salad.
The Main Fares include four choices. They were Lobster, Halibut Fillet, Chateaubriand, or Stuffed, Marinated Bakes Quail.
There were many nice side orders to choose from.
For the Sweet Finale there were a couple of special desserts including “Sugar Mill” which was butterscotch pudding with citrus shortbread and “Harlequin” which was chocolate melt cake a la mode, dark and white chocolate mousses bomb, and bittersweet chocolate sabayon. Yes, no calories. ☺
There were also two sugar-free desserts and there were seven classic desserts to choose from.
For those who wanted to end their meal with some cheese from the cheese trolley there was a choice of triple cream blue, blue opal brie, le brin, langres, caprice des dieux and manchega cheeses to choose from. Each evening the dining room offers several different cheeses to choose from.
We always eat in the Main Dining Room for the first formal night and then on some of the other formal nights we will either eat in the Main Dining Room or one of the Specialty Restaurants.
We enjoyed a wonderful meal in the Main Dining Room. Formal nights are always quite elegant throughout the ship, and this evening was no exception.
After dinner, we stopped by the second seating of the Captain's reception to say hello to our fellow passengers who eat in the late seating.
Keith & Anne Marie
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