This will be our second World Cruise as we had the pleasure of sailing on the 2007 World Cruise on board the Crystal Serenity. Our 2007 voyage began in Miami, Florida and took us to various ports in North America, South America, the Middle East, and Europe before concluding in Southampton, England.
As shown on the map, our upcoming 2008 World Cruise begins in Los Angeles, California and takes us to ports located in North America, Australia/Oceania, Asia, The Middle East and Europe before we disembark the ship in Southampton, England. During the course of this voyage, we will visit a total of 45 ports of call, in 22 different countries, over the span of 108 days. Our ship will cross the Equator, cruise the Great Barrier Reef, and transit the Suez Canal.
We are very excited about this itinerary, as we will visit many regions of the world for the very first time including several Pacific Region Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and India.
The 2008 World Cruise itinerary nicely complements the places we visited last year, providing us with the opportunity to sail a significant portion of the world.
We will spend 53 days at sea sailing in the Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and in the Tasman, Coral, Arafura, Banda, Celebes, South China, Gulf of Thailand, Andaman, Arabian, Red and Mediterranean Seas. We will also cross the International Dateline.
As part of the World Cruise, we will also spend 55 days on land and the ship will have overnight stays at nine different ports of call. They are: Auckland, New Zealand; Melbourne, Australia; Hong Kong, China; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore; Yangon/Rangoon, Myanmar (two overnights); Mumbai, India; and Monte Carlo, Monaco.
The 2008 World Cruise consists of eight major segments.
Segment I, Enchanted Islands, 13 Days. Starting in Los Angeles, California we cruise the Pacific Ocean on our way to two Islands of Hawaii; Oahu and Maui. We will make additional stops in Raiatea, Society Islands; Moorea, French Polynesia; and Papeete, Tahiti.
Segment II, South Pacific Sojourn, 13 Days. From Papeete, we sail west with visits to Huahine and Bora Bora, Society Islands; Apia, Samoa; and Lautoka, Fiji where we sail south to Auckland, New Zealand.
Segment III, Walkabout Wonders, 14 Days. After an overnight on the ship in Auckland, we visit three additional ports in New Zealand; Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin. After leaving New Zealand, we cruise the Dusky & Doubtful Sound, around the Fjordland National Park & Milford Sound and the Tasman Sea as we make our way to Australia where we will visit Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney.
Segment IV, Coral Treasures, 17 Days. Starting in Sydney we visit ports of call in Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin Australia with additional stops in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei and Hong Kong, China.
Segment V, Opulent Asia, 12 Days. After the ship stays overnight in Hong Kong, we cruise to Chan May and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and then to Bangkok and then over to Ko Samui, Thailand before we reach Singapore, our final destination of this segment.
Segment VI, Indian Ocean Explorations, 14 Days. After staying overnight in Singapore, we will visit Phuket, Thailand followed by two overnights at Yangon/Rangoon, Myanmar. After leaving Myanmar we will visit Cochin and Mumbai, India.
Segment VII, Exquisite Empires, 16 Days. After spending an overnight at Mumbai, we will visit Salalah, Oman, and Safaga, Egypt. We will then transit the Suez Canal as we head to Alexandria, Egypt and then we will visit Crete, Greece; followed by stops in Sicily, Naples, and Rome, Italy.
Segment VIII, Iberian Dreams, 11 Days. We begin the final segment of the World Cruise with an overnight visit to Monte Carlo, Monaca followed by stops in Valencia, Spain; Gibraltar, United Kingdom; Lisbon, Portugal; La Coruna, Spain before we reach our final port of call in Southampton England
In addition to those passengers who sail on the full World Cruise, there will be many other passengers sailing on either one or more segments of this cruise.
The Crystal Serenity Cruise Ship will serve as our home during the entire 108 day voyage. The Serenity is part of Crystal Cruises. This ship was constructed in France and entered service in June of 2003 at an initial cost of approximately $350M. The ship is capable of carrying as many as 1,100 passengers, assuming double-occupancy with a 650 person crew. Even when passenger load is at full capacity, the ship typically carries fewer passengers than its overall capability given that a fair number of passengers travel solo.
Crystal Serenity is one of two passenger cruise ships in the Crystal Cruises Fleet. The other ship is the Crystal Symphony which is slightly smaller and can carry approximately 960 passengers, assuming double occupancy.
The Serenity is a beautiful cruise ship and for us the perfect size vessel for a World Cruise as it provides ample public room space to accommodate a diverse set of activities throughout the day and evening hours.
Some of the public areas include:
• A Main Dining Room along with the Silk Road and Prego Specialty Restaurants, The Bistro, Lido Café, The Trident Grill & Ice Cream Bar, Tastes and the Vintage Room.
Silk Road was developed by Master Chef Nobu Matsuhia and serves wonderfully prepared Japanese Cuisine. In addition to table service, it also includes a sushi bar. Likewise, Prego serves outstanding Italian Cuisine, in a beautifully decorated restaurant.
The Bistro is another popular venue providing late morning and afternoon snacks along with various coffees, teas and other beverages.
The Lido Café provides a very nice variety of buffet style breakfasts and lunches.
The Trident Grill serves a late risers breakfast and also lunch. Lunch includes items such as burgers, hotdogs and tuna melts.
Tastes provides a nice poolside atmosphere to enjoy a late risers breakfast or lunch daily. Dinner is also served on selected evenings and the attire for breakfast, lunch and dinner is casual. Tableside service is provided.
The Vintage Room can be booked for parties or by individuals who are placed with other passengers for a very special dining experience. Each dinner course is paired with a special wine. There is cover charge for the dinner.
• Two swimming pools and two outdoor whirlpools, along with a beautiful wrap-around promenade deck which can be used for walking or jogging. There is also shuffleboard, table tennis, two full size paddle tennis courts, and a golf driving range and putting green.
• A fitness center that has a nice variety of exercise equipment including tread mills, elliptical and stair master machines, stationary bikes, along with free standing weights and several different weight lifting machines. There is also an exercise studio which provides yoga, Pilates and other low and high impact exercise classes. We try to utilize the fitness center each day of the voyage.
• A spa which provides for a charge a variety of services from massages, to facials and other treatments along with a salon that offers hair cuts and hair coloring along with other hair treatments. There are also complimentary sauna and steam rooms.
• A cinema room that can accommodate approximately 200 guests and is used to show movies each afternoon and evening and is also used for selected lectures.
• A casino providing various games of chance including blackjack, craps, poker and roulette along with slot and video poker machines. Several lounges are available throughout the ship where drinks are served and many of these lounges provide live music and dancing each evening.
• A computer facility which has lots of computers available for passenger use as well as providing classes on various aspects of computing. There is a library which provides fiction and non-fiction books and various reference books, DVDs, CDs, board games, audio tapes and some magazines and newspapers.
• An extensive medical center staffed with a fulltime doctor and several registered nurses.
• Three shops which carry an assortment of jewelry, sundries and clothing as well as an art gallery. There is a photo shop which displays and then sells pictures taken by the ship photographers during the course of the cruise and also performs other photo related services and carries some items for sale such as cameras, batteries and photo albums.
• A reception and concierge desk that provides various services similar to those provided by a full service Hotel. A cruise sales consultant desk is available offering assistance for booking future cruises. There is a shore excursion desk which facilitates the booking of group and private shore excursions and has information about the various ports of call. There is also a Crystal Society desk which provides assistance for those who have previously sailed with Crystal.
• Several others public rooms that are used for a variety of activities such as bingo, trivia, religious services, lectures, bridge, memoir writing, music classes, choir, art classes, and many other activities that are scheduled throughout the day. There is also an excellent variety of entertainment from elaborate shows featuring singing and dancing, to other entertainment including vocalists, musicians and comedians.
We plan to share a great deal of information with you about the various shipboard activities throughout the course of our World Cruise adventure.
We arrive in Los Angeles, California on January 12 and spend a few days at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel prior to the start of the World Cruise. We selected this hotel since this is the hotel that Crystal will use to host the Bon Voyage World Cruise Gala Dinner the night before the cruise begins and, as such, is also providing hotel rooms to all World Cruisers the evening of this dinner. This Hotel has become well known over the years as the site for the annual Golden Globe Awards. This year’s awards program is scheduled to be held at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel the day after our arrival.
This year's World Cruise has been named "World Cruise 2008, Majestic Memories". The World Cruise officially kicks off at 7:00 PM on the evening of January 18 with a Black Tie Formal Gala Celebration at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel. This event provides an excellent opportunity to meet fellow passengers. Many Crystal Cruise personnel will also be on-hand for this event. The following day we will be driven from the Hotel to the Los Angeles Cruise Ship Terminal located in San Pedro, California where we will board the Crystal Serenity.
We look forward to seeing many familiar faces including several passengers who we had the pleasure of meeting on last year’s World Cruise, along with other passengers who we know from other cruises. We also look forward to seeing the wonderful members from the Crystal crew who will be working on board the ship who we also have come to know from our previous travels. At the same time, we look forward to making new friends and acquaintances during the course of this adventure.
We plan to post again a day before we begin this adventure. Stay tuned.
Keith & Anne Marie
