We enjoyed another wonderful breakfast at the hotel this morning. We had our favorite server who has worked at the hotel for 30 years. She was telling us all about what it is like when the Golden Globes are held at the hotel. We will miss her when we leave tomorrow morning. We now believe that if we stayed one more week, we would probably have sat at every table in the restaurant and met every server. ☺
After breakfast we stopped by the lobby area and ran into the King’s and chatted with them for a while and then we saw a familiar face, John, from last years World Cruise. We spoke with John for a while and then his wife, Linda, came down. We ended going back to the restaurant to sit with them and one other couple who we also know very well. It didn’t take too long until we saw several other couples who we first met on last years World Cruise. The good news is that we have another 108 days to catch up with everyone.
We also had the opportunity to meet the new World Cruise Hostess. She has a very easy name to remember, Anne Marie. And she spells it the correct way. ☺ We had corresponded with her a few weeks ago and it was so very nice to meet her in person.
At 10:00 this morning we went over to the Crystal Registration Room. We had the option to have the hotel go ahead and pull all of the luggage from our room today that we will not need until we board the ship so we went ahead and did just that. The luggage will be placed on trucks so that it can be loaded on the ship the first thing tomorrow morning. We kept only those pieces that we need to this evening and they will be pulled from our room on Saturday morning.
We also received our assignment for the car that will take over to the cruise ship terminal tomorrow morning. A few cars will depart the Hotel at 10:45 AM but the majority of the departures will commence starting at 11:00 AM with a new group of cars leaving every fifteen minutes until the last group leaves at 12:15 PM. We were very pleased to learn that we are in the first group of cars that leaves starting at 11:00 AM. Since tomorrow is a Saturday we expect the drive over to the Los Angeles Cruise Ship Terminal located in San Pedro will take about one hour.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice lunch and then took our final long walk all around Beverly Hills. We stopped by the shopping mall at Century City to pick up the final items for the cruise and then we walked over to Rodeo Drive. The weather was absolutely delightful and it was fun to stroll around this magical city.
When we arrived back at the Hotel we saw more World Cruisers who we knew from last years cruise. Seeing everyone is similar to going back to a reunion. Everyone is so excited that the World Cruise is now beginning.
This evening we attended the World Cruise Gala, which is the start of the World Cruise. The Gala is a Black Tie Formal Function and began at 7:00 PM with a cocktail reception. The event was hosted by Crystal Cruises President, Greg Michel, and provided a wonderful opportunity to socialize with fellow passengers and with several officers of the Crystal Serenity and other Crystal Cruises’ Executives. At the reception we had the opportunity to speak with the Captain, Cruise Director, Hotel Director along with several Crystal Cruises Executives including Senior Vice President, Thomas Mazloum.
Following the cocktail reception we proceeded to the Beverly Hills Ballroom for an elegant sit-down dinner. During Dinner, we received a very nice welcome from Mr. Michel. There are over 320 full World Cruisers of which 137 have taken a full World Cruise previously. Amazingly, approximately 36 of the cruisers are taking their first cruise with Crystal.
We sat at assigned seats with fellow World Cruisers and a representative from Crystal hosted each table. We knew two couples at our table from last years World Cruise.
Tomorrow our World Cruise Adventure is set to begin, and we look forward to the start of the World Cruise with great anticipation and excitement.
Keith & Anne Marie
