We have enjoyed another wonderful day at sea as we cruise towards our next port of call at Raitea, Society Islands, French Polynesia. This will be our first visit to this port of call. We are supposed to arrive tomorrow at 11:00 AM and are traveling at a fairly good speed to stay on schedule.
Once again, we awoke early this morning and enjoyed a great workout in the Fitness Center. The center is open 24 hours a day and is staffed for about half that time. Keith began his workout at 5:10 AM (ouch) and Anne Marie arrived just a few minutes later at 5:30 AM. Keith enjoyed a wonderful conversation with Mary as he worked out. It is so nice to be able to just walk up a couple of flights of steps to be able to work out.
After our workout we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. One passenger who is also on the full World Cruise joined us midway through our meal. We also spoke with a few of our fellow passengers as we were leaving. We prefer having breakfast the Lido Café since we can enjoy our breakfast while enjoying the view of the seas from the ship.
Since today is a sea day there were many activities scheduled throughout the day. Additional activities were added to the schedule since this is the last full sea day for this segment of the cruise. In fact, the lectures began at 9:05 AM, whereas the norm is 10:00 AM and were scheduled throughout the morning and the afternoon.
Crystal is well known in the cruise industry for offering many activities at sea and during the World Cruise there are even more activities. Many times there are more than one activity given at the same time that we would consider attending.
We listened to the Captain’s morning talk from the bridge at 9:00 AM and his thought of the day is: “You are what you are when no one is looking.”
We began the morning activities by attending the Rap with the Rabbi. Yesterday, was supposed to be the last Rap with the Rabbi session for this segment but today’s session was one of those activities added to the schedule. We had a great conversation with almost everyone in attendance participating.
We enjoyed another lecture by destination lecturer Dr. Jay Wolff whose topic today was titled “The Great Migration.” The last habitable lands on earth to be populated by mankind were the islands of the Pacific. Where did these people come from who settled these lands, and how did they get to their new homelands.?
For lunch we ate in the main dining room but today’s lunchtime feature was the American Classic Luncheon Buffet on the Lido Deck. This buffet features many traditional American items from Cajun seafood gumbo, to crisp coleslaw, to southern fried chicken, to barbequed beef ribs, to North American Prime Rib, to Roast Turkey, to Chicken Pots Pies, to New Orleans Jambalya, to Boston Baked Beans, to Fried Onion Rings, to Texas Style Chili, to Cobb Salad, to San Francisco Sourdough Bread, to Southern Corn Bread, to New Mexico Flour Tortillas, to Bagels, to Long Island Iced Tea, to Frozen Daiquiris, to Smoothies, to Key Lime, Pumpkin, Apple, and Pecan Pie, to New York Cheesecake, to Grandma’s Apple Pie and so many other items that we would not have room on this Blog to list them all. ☺ The food is all wonderfully displayed and tastes as good as it looks.
We enjoyed a wonderful salad entrée in the main dining room along with great fruit.
This afternoon took a nice walk on the promenade deck. The temperature was nice and there were a few raindrops but that didn’t stop us from walking.
Bernie and Jack, hopefully you are reading this as this is a repeat from last year but instead of involving two of you, it involved another couple we know. While we were walking, we heard a woman call out from a verandah on Deck 8, “Keith, Keith, Keith” and when we looked up we saw a familiar face. She said, Gramme accidentally locked me out on the verandah and he is playing Paddle Tennis. So, Keith went over to the reception desk and gave them the stateroom number so that they could send someone up to unlock the verandah door. So the lesson here is that before you lock the verandah door be sure that you are not locking someone out. ☺
This evening’s attire is formal and before dinner we attended the Captain’s Farewell Reception. The good news is that we will remain on the ship so, for us, this was not a farewell but rather another chance to enjoy a drink, listen to nice music, dance, to converse with many of our fellow passengers and to listen to the captain knowing that we will continue sailing on this wonderful ship.
After the reception, we had dinner in the Main Dining Room. The menu for this evening ws the Captain’s Gala Dinner. The other day we had invited the Rabbi and his lovely wife to join us for dinner. We requested kosher chicken for our dinner entrée and it was wonderful. We all enjoyed a wonderful dinner, with terrific conversation.
Tomorrow we will visit Raiatea, Society Islands, French Polynesia for the very first time.
Keith & Anne Marie
