We had a wonderful day today as we cruise towards Western Samoa.
We enjoyed a very nice sleep last evening. While we woke up fairly early this morning we had an extra hour of sleep since we set the clocks back one hour last evening.
We started our day with a nice workout in the Fitness Center. Keith was the first one in the center at around 5:10 AM and within twenty minutes was joined by the regulars, John, Mary and Anne Marie. We enjoyed a wonderful workout and it was nice since the sun rose earlier this morning given the time change. The seas were calm. Before we knew it the fitness center was quite crowded as many of the passengers got up earlier because of the time zone change. By the time we left, every machine was in use.
We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. As soon as we made it through the cold buffet areas one of the Lido Stewards had already made our coffee. They are so nice to us. We had a nice view of the ocean as we enjoyed our wonderful breakfast. The grapefruit has been particularly good this entire voyage so we have been enjoying that along with other fruits for breakfast and cereal. A couple of the regulars sat with us midway through our breakfast.
The captain gave us his daily report at 9:00 AM. Hi thought of the day was “You can not discover new oceans unless you lose sight of the shore.”
Since this was another day at sea there were many activities during the course of the day. Crystal is noted for having an outstanding activities program and today was no exception.
The first activity of the day for us was the Rap with the Rabbi. As we have mentioned before this is held about every other day while we are at sea. As this one is the first one of this segment of the cruise we met some new passengers at this session along with some of the regulars. The rabbi does an excellent job of conducting these sessions to allow participation by as many passengers as possible and it provides a wonderful opportunity for passengers to exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions on a variety of topics.
After the Rap, Keith went to the salon to get his haircut. This is something he normally would not need to do on a short voyage but given the length of this voyage he will have his hair cut from time to time. While some of the other men get their hair cut while in port, Keith prefers to have his cut on the ship for a variety of reasons. Anne Marie will be getting her first cut of the cruise in a couple of weeks.
We also attended two lectures in the morning. Destination Lecturer Dr. Jay Wolff gave the first one. The title of the lecture was “When snatching new colonies was the rage. America, Britain and imperial Germany all made a grab for Samoa. Kaiser Wilhelm came away the winner, but lost Samoa when he lost WWI. Today, packing plants on American Samoa can about 80% of the world’s tuna for companies like Charlie the Tuna’s Star-Kist brand.” As usual, Dr. Wolff gave a wonderful presentation with lots of solid information.
Celebrity Guest Lecturer Jane Bryant Quinn presented the second lecture. This one was titled “Help! I’m an Investor! What now??” Jane Bryant Quinn is a columnist for Newsweek Magazine and author of Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People. This was another terrific lecture. She provided very useful information in a very straightforward manner. A big takeaway from the presentation is diversity when it comes to ones investments.
Following the morning lectures we attended lunch in the Main Dining Room. We enjoyed a wonderful seafood salad entrée.
In the afternoon we attended a lectures given by Dr. Margaret McKenzie from the Cleveland Clinic titled “Why Weight? : Maintaining Lifelong Weight Management.” Keith had seen the lecturer in the Fitness Center the other day. She herself lost a good deal of weight, and shared with us lots of good information on how to lose weight in a healthy manner.
Many passengers attended all of these presentations.
Later in the afternoon we took a nice long walk on the Promenade Deck.
In the evening all guests were invited to Mardi Gras Madness. This event iincluded complimentary Pat O’Brien’s Punch while the passengers reveled in the most festive Fat Tuesday at sea. On this years World Cruise voyage Crystal has made a point to have added activities such as this one for all passengers which we think is a wonderful idea and we applaud Crystal for doing this. We had a wonderful time at this event. We have posted a couple of pictures; one with us and Stan and Mary and the other of us with Captain Glenn.
We enjoyed another wonderful dinner in the Main Dining Room. The food was delicious and the service equally outstanding.
Keith & Anne Marie
