En Route To Safaga, Egypt Day 3

We started our day early with a wonderful workout in the Fitness Center. Keith continued to rack up the miles on the Elliptical Machine and was once again the first to arrive at the center. Anne Marie arrived about thirty minutes later and worked on the Treadmill. There were fewer passengers working out which is normally the case as we get a few days into a particular segment and most passengers who began their trip in Mumbai, India are now over their jetlag.

Today is the last of three consecutive sea days as we cruise to Safaga, Egypt. The seas continue to be very calm and many times it is easy to forget that we are sailing in water. ☺ While we are cruising in the Red Sea, we don’t see any red. ☺ The sea looks like any sea.

Speaking of Egypt, we are required to carry our passports in Egypt so today we picked up our passports at the reception desk area. We were advised that when we get off the ship that we will need to show the visa stamp that has been obtained to us to the local authorities. This year we didn’t have to fill out any additional forms for Egypt a few days before our arrival. This was not the case last year when we had to fill out a couple of forms which asked us to note the model and serial number for any electronic equipment that we were taking ashore (eg., camera, video camera, cell phone, etc.) along with noting how much currency we were taking with us into the country.

During Captain Glenn’s morning talk from the bridge, he noted that the outside air temperature was a nice 84 degrees Fahrenheit and that we were cruising at 20 knots per hour with four of six engines in use. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “The man ho smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.”

After enjoying a nice leisurely breakfast in our room we both went to Progressive Yoga. The good news is that Keith’s muscles were not sore from yesterday’s class. The class is one hour and was very enjoyable. The instructor, Pat Laster, teaches a great class. After having spoken to her many times starting with last years World Cruise it is nice for us to both see first hand want an outstanding instructor she is. We know the majority of passengers who participate in this session. We both enjoyed today’s session and we didn’t pull any muscles ☺ We do find these sessions to be great for both the mind and the body.

Afterwards, we attended the Rap With The Rabbi. This is the last “Rap” before Passover since tomorrow and Friday we will be in Egypt. We thoroughly enjoyed today’s session which was nicely attended.

Following the Rap Keith attended a presentation given by Diplomat, Tex Harris. The title of the presentation was “A Tough Neighborhood – Future Engagement in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.” A good portion of the talk was on Iran and the correlation as to what the impact of the War in Iraq has had with respect to Iran’s influence on Iraq and its influence on this region of the world. Keith found the talk to be quite interesting. Afterwards, another meeting venue was used so that Tex Harris could continue today’s discussion vis-à-vis a question and answer session with our fellow passengers.

We then enjoyed a nice lunch in the Main Dining Room. We had pre-ordered a very nice salad entrée so it was ready when we arrived. Before we ate in the Main Dining Room, we walked upstairs where the American Classic Buffet was being set up around the indoor pool area. The number of items being served as part of this buffet is amazing. There are so many wonderful salads, appetizers, entrees, rolls and other breads, fruits and luscious deserts that are all nicely displayed.

There is soup that includes Cajun Seafood Gumbo. Various salads that include Crisp Coleslaw, Mixed California Greens, Traditional Waldorf Salad, Carrot-Raisin Salad and All-American Potato Salad follow this. Are you ready for some Seafood and Barbeque Items? You can find Southern Fried Chicken, Summer Pasta Salad, Tender and Juicy Baby Back Ribs, Barbecued Beef Ribs along with Blackened Fresh. Are you ready for some additional Hot Entrees? There is Roasted North American Prime Rib, Southern Chicken Pot Pies, Roast Turkey and New Orleans Jambalaya. Still hungry for items to go with the Hot Entrée items. How about Baked Potatoes, Boston Baked Beans, Sweet Potato Casserole, Crispy Fried Onion Rings, Boston Baked Beans and Texas-Style Chili con Carne. There are other items including Corn Fritters, Roasted Autumn Vegetables, and Corn on the Cob.

Still hungry. There was a Southern Seafood Fry station with Cajun favorites such as Jumbo Shrimp with Creole Tartar Sauce.

Let’s not forget about other salads including Cobb Salad, Caesar Salad, along with many other items to add to the salads including Grilled Chicken, California Avocados, Hard-Boiled Eggs, Tomatoes, Brule Cheese, Celery, Crisp Lettuce, Bacon Bits, Chives and Cobb Dressing.

Let us not forget the beverages and breads. Where do we begin? There was San Francisco Sourdough, Navajo Fry Bread, Boston Brown Bread, Southern Corn Bread, Sticky Cinnamon Buns, New Mexico Tortillas and even Bagels.

There were various non-alcoholic beverages available including Frozen Cappuccino, Smoothies and various Sodas.

Who wants dessert? There were many all American dessert items including Chocolate Fudge Turtle Cake, Key Lime Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Bread Pudding, New York Cheesecake, Lemon Bars, Brownies, Hazelnut Macaroons, Crème Carmel and Chocolate Chip Cookies and let us not forget Grandma’s Apple Pie. Wow!

This afternoon Keith played table tennis with several passengers that he knows from this years cruise along with some he first met on previous cruises. It’s a very nice group of passengers who have a great time playing doubles table tennis.

Between this afternoons lunch only a few hours pass until it is time for the Crystal Society Reception to begin. This reception is held for those guests who have cruised with Crystal on one prior cruise or more. This evenings attire was formal so those who attended this event were in their formal attire and it is a wonderful way to kick off the evening. Some guests who have completed a high number of Crystal sailings are recognized for these milestones and drinks are provided along with some very nice Hors D’oeuvres. After the reception, those who dined in the Main Dining Room were treated with a very popular dinner menu on board the ship known as French Dinner.

Lots of favorites of the guests are available. This includes appetizers of Escargots, Porcini-Dusted Seared Salmon Medallion, Pink Roasted Duck Carpaccio and a Tropical Fruit Basket. Soup and Salad included French Onion Soup, Soupe au Mais, Chilled Lemon Soup Mesclun of Lettuce, and Heart of Butter Lettuce with each of these salads accompanied by a variety of very tasty items. There was a nice Pasta Special Available and a very nice Salad Entree.

Now to the Main Faires which featured Broiled Fresh Fillet of Red Sea Bream, Coq au Vin, Pink-Roasted Rack of Lamb and Veal a la Mama. There were other entrees to select from including Grilled Salmon and Grilled Entrecote.

On top of all this were a number of side orders.

Are you ready for what many say is their favorite course? Yes, the Dessert. This evening two special desserts were featured; Souffle Grand Marnier and “Marone” which is a Chestnut Opera Cake, Chestnut Biscuits and Chestnut Ice Cream. There was also a couple of sugar free desserts available along with seven other classic desserts to choose from.

Let us not forget the Cheese Trolley. This evening the cheese featured on the trolley included Tete de Moine, St. Andre, Montagnard, Bresse Bleu, Chevre and Comte Alpage.

This evening there was a very special performance titled I Love A Piano featuring two special guest performers; Elliot Finkel and Ian Finkel along with three talented Piano players from Crystal; Thomas Daniels, John Mentis, and Joel Pierson.

Later in the evening, for those who want to sing there was Karaoke.

On top of this there were other venues available to listen to wonderful music and to dance and there was also an evening movie.

Crystal knows how to make each evening very special on board the ship and this evening was no exception. The ambience on board the ship was extra special since this evening was formal. At a time when some cruise lines are abandoning the formal evening approach and some of the traditional meals that go with a formal evening on board a passenger cruise ship, we are fortunate that Crystal continues this elegant tradition on board the Crystal Serenity and the Crystal Symphony.

Each day we are reminded about how truly amazing and wonderful it is to be sailing to such a diverse set of locations around the world while sailing on the wonderful Crystal Serenity. We are so very fortunate to be able to have this opportunity to see places that our parents could only read and/or dream about and to do this in such an elegant passenger cruise ship. Some days we have to pinch ourselves.

As we sail around the world, we also have to remind ourselves not to jump to rash conclusions and to pre-judge entire countries or societies based on what we see when spending a relatively short duration in one port of call. Just as we would not want to judge our own country based on one visit to say one city out of all of the cities and towns that comprise the fifty states of the USA, we realize that we should not do likewise in our travels outside the USA. Rather we should take in all that we observe during our stay, learn as much as we can and know that there is much more to learn about a particular area of the world.

We also remind ourselves that the world is indeed magical due to its diversity and that we can’t expect all people to act the same way we do nor to have the same customs, beliefs, attitudes, and ways of doing things that we are accustomed to in our own country. We have to realize that many practices do vary quite a bit between countries and between regions of the world as they sometimes do between localities, states and even regions within our country. We also have to remind ourselves that many times changes do occur but at a slower pace and duration and over different time frames throughout the world. For example, sometimes we forget that in the United States women did not have the right to vote until 1919, which is less than ninety years ago. Likewise we sometimes forget that various rights of equality were not available to all based on factors such as sex and color of skin and that changes in these areas took time to occur and that even today changes continue to occur. What is truly amazing is our ability to travel to countries over the world. While we are traveling by cruise ship, clearly jet travel had a major impact in providing the opportunity for many of us to have the opportunity to see other areas of the world first hand and through our own eyes. At the same time, communications, including telephone, the internet and e-mail along with television provide additional opportunities for us to learn about other areas of the world and for many of us these mediums provide the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas with people from around the world.

We are fortunate that through this world cruise we increase our knowledge of the world through the ports of call that we visit, the reading that each of us does as we research those places that we will be visiting, through the many expert lecturers that have spoken with us throughout the world cruise and just as importantly through our fellow passengers and crew who are from many different countries throughout the world. Sometimes we forget that between the passengers and the crew our ship is comprised with people from just about all corners of the world and that provides us with another opportunity to learn from one another.

Tomorrow, we will visit the first of two ports of call in Egypt. This will be our second time in as many years to these two ports of call and we look forward to expanding our knowledge of this region of the world realizing that each time we visit an area of the world that we have already been to that we still likely walk away learning something that we had not knew before our arrival.

Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Safaga, Egypt Day 2

Last evening we set the clocks back one hour as we were sailing in yet another new time zone so we had the benefit of one additional hour of sleep when we woke up this morning. Yes, Keith was the first passenger up to the Fitness Center this morning and a little while later John arrived along with a couple of other passengers. Before not too long Mary arrived followed by Anne Marie. Each of us enjoyed a very nice workout with Keith working out on his favorite elliptical machine and Anne Marie on her favorite Treadmill. When we say favorite, we each have a machine in a certain location of the center, which we enjoy.

Keith chatted with Mary throughout his workout. During the workout we saw a beautiful sunrise as the sun rose behind one of the beautiful mountains that we could see from the ship. During this World Cruise we have been fortunate to see some of the prettiest sunrises and sunsets that we have ever seen. It was not too long ago that Anne Marie saw a beautiful sunset with the green sparkles of the sunset.

We have two more sea days as we sail to Salaga, Egypt. There are lots of activities on today’s program.

During the Captain’s Daily Announcement, Captain Glenn noted that we were cruising at 20 Knots per hour. We are making good progress on our way towards Safaga. Captain Glenn’s thought of the say was “They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.” This was another wonderful thought of the day and one that most of us can certainly relate to.

After our workout we enjoyed yet another nice breakfast in our room. Anne Marie attended Progressive Yoga and for the first time Keith tried the Yoga as well. We both enjoyed the Yoga and Keith survived his first ever Yoga class. ☺

After Yoga we attended two morning presentations. The first lecture was given by Destination Lecturer Jay Wolff who presented “The Glory that was Greece.: Dr Wolff’s presentations continue to be extraordinary. The depth of his presentations and his ability to remember dates, names and so much detail while telling such interesting stories and always keeping the length of his presentations within forty-five minutes or so is truly amazing. We have learned a great deal from Dr. Wolff throughout this adventure and we are very fortunate to have his as our destination lecturer throughout the World Cruise.

Retired Brigadier General Nick Halley gave the second lecture of the morning. The topic of his presentation was “Terrorism – The Origins of the War Against Radical Islam.” This was the second of three presentations that he will deliver during this cruise.

After the morning presentations we enjoyed a nice lunch in the Main Dining Room.

In the afternoon Anne Marie did some reading and also worked on one of her needlepoint kits. Keith ran a few errands and also played table tennis with some of our fellow passengers.

We enjoyed a nice meal in the Main Dining Room for dinner. The dining room was especially quiet this evening as many of the passengers were eating in one of the specialty restaurants. Tomorrow evening is a formal night and the featured menu is French Night so many of the passengers will be eating in the Main Dining Room.

Tomorrow is another sea day as we continue to sail towards Safaga, Egypt.



Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Safaga, Egypt Day 1

This morning we began our day with our daily workout in the Fitness Center. The Center was not very busy as we figure that many of our fellow guests took advantage of the time to sleep a little later. Keith was the first passenger to arrive and a little while later another person who we have known since the beginning of the voyage arrived. A little while later Mary and John arrived along with Anne Marie. Keith spoke with Mary while he worked out on the Elliptical Machine and Anne Marie worked out on the Treadmill.

We enjoyed breakfast back in our room and got ready for today’s activities. Today is the first of three glorious sea days as we travel from Oman to Safaga, Egypt.

Anne Marie attended the Progressive Yoga class, which she enjoyed a great deal. It is a one-hour class. Keith took care of a few errands on the ship.

During the Captain’s morning announcement, Captain Glenn noted that we were cruising at a speed of 21.5 knots per hour and at that point in time we were 165 miles of the coast of Somalia. We will continue to travel at this speed and with five of six engines in use in order to arrive on schedule in Safaga, Egypt. He noted that the sister ship, Crystal Symphony, was in Hong Kong. The Captain’s thought of the day was “If you don’t know where you are going you will end up someplace.”

We attended Rap With The Rabbi, which continues to be a wonderful opportunity to exchange thoughts on a variety of items. As we have mentioned, this year’s session has been well attended and has included many of our fellow guests who are from a variety of faiths, which has positively added to the discussion. The Rabbi is outstanding and we are so very fortunate to be sailing with the Rabbi and his lovely wife. There will be another Rap in a couple of days and then a few days from now there will be a Jewish Seder Dinner.

Destination Lecturer Jay Wolff who presented “The Suez Canal – The Ditch in the Desert”, gave the first lecture that we attended in the morning. He covered the building of the Suez Canal along with the Israel/Egyptian Wars.

Diplomat Tex Harris gave the second lecture and the topic of his presentation was “Iraq’s Future – Iraqi Perspectives – The Critical Factor.” He touched on a variety of items ranging from the history of Iraq, to the Religious Sects within Iraq to the issues of Oil in the Middle East. In his next set of lectures he will move from Iraq to discussions of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the Main Dining Room. At the same time, there was an Asia Luncheon Buffet featuring the various flavors of Asia.

In the afternoon we attended a presentation given by Sports Psychology Expert Stanley Teitelbaum, Ph.D. which was titled “Sports’ Bad Boys: The Scandalous Rise of Steroids.” It was an interesting presentation that covered the issues related to Baseball and steroids starting in the 1990’s a few years after the player strike occurred and when the home run record was broken for home runs in a major league season.

The other day we received an invitation for cocktails at the Captain’s Quarter, which we attended before dinner this evening along with some of our fellow guests. It is always nice to talk with Captain Glenn and to chat with other officers and gusts and we are appreciative of these invitations.

Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant where we dined with a very nice couple who we first sailed with for one leg on last years World Cruise. They are on this segment of the World Cruise having boarded the ship in Mumbai, India. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner

Keith & Anne Marie

We woke early this morning as we do each day on board the ship and each of us enjoyed a nice workout. When Keith arrived at the Fitness Center, Mary was already there which she noted was the second time since the World Cruise began that she was up there before Keith. When Keith asked her when she arrived, she said about two minutes before he did. ☺ A little while later Anne Marie and, fellow passenger, John arrived. There were others working out as well. From our vantage point we could see lots of lights on the shoreline of Oman and a little while after that we could see the beautiful mountains as the sun was rising overhead.

We each enjoyed a very nice workout and went over to the Lido Café to get some coffee before returning to our room. There are several early morning tours so the Lido Café opened early with lots of staff already there when we arrived. We said hello to many familiar faces from the Lido Café such as Lido Deck Stewards Alvin, Clark, and Ross who and we also said hello to several of the staff who during the evening hours work in the Prego and Silk Road Specialty Restaurants.

We wanted to point out something that we continue to be amazed about. Very often we run into someone from the crew that we have not met and yet they know our names. For example, yesterday we were walking along the corridor from our room and we passed another stewardess who we had never met before and she said high Mr. and Mrs. “…….” The same thing happened with Keith when he needed some assistance on a get together we were organizing and a particular person from the staff who we had never met knew Keith’s name. The same thing happened this morning when we first walked into the Lido Café with another member of the crew. We continue to be amazed at the wonderful service and attention to detail shown by the staff, and this is just one of many examples of the tremendous staff on board the ship.

A little while after we got back to the room we enjoyed a very nice breakfast. We spoke with our butler, Alexander, who has been wonderful and we will miss him since he is leaving the ship in a few days to begin his Holiday at home. He will then return to the ship later this summer. He has been outstanding and we will miss him dearly. He is the second longest butler in terms of years of service who is on this ship. If we remember correctly, he has worked on-board Crystal ships for 10+ years. He is very professional in all that he does.

We arrived at Salalah, Oman at around 8:00 AM. We did not select a tour. Last year, we had two stops in Oman. The first one was in Muscat, which was a beautiful city. Unfortunately, the morning we arrived they had a major rainstorm (it only rains there a couple of times each year) and all tours were canceled due to flooding. We hope to visit there another time because the city looked very interesting, with many beautiful buildings. There are many palaces and other buildings to see in that city. We also visited Salalah last year. The tours are limited in this area, and none of them interested us. Many people take the tour called Frankincense Trail, which includes a visit to Job’s Tomb and a chance to tap a frankincense tree Many question whether this is tomb is really the tomb of Job. The tour also includes a chance to go to a market and a chance to see nice views of the Qara Mountains. Again, there are a few other tours. For us, we have tried to do a fair number of tours throughout the World Cruise but it is just not practical to go on a tour in each and every port of call.

There were additional tours that we offered that included an Archaeological Adventure, another one call Salalah of Yesterday and Today, Intimate Oman and the Lost City of Ubar. Many passengers who have not visited this port of call before took tours.

We have taken more tours this year than on last years World Cruise but from time to time we take a break from touring and today was such a day. Unfortunately, this port of call does not allow Crystal to provide a shuttle to the closest town. Crystal can only run a shuttle that takes passengers from the ship about one mile to the entrance of the port where taxis were available. Several passengers had problems trying to negotiate fares as it seemed that the cab drivers wanted fares that were significantly more than what was charged last year. Ultimately some passengers asked for assistance from the cruise ship. The port agent was asked to step in and Captain Glenn also tried to assist. In the end, a prices was arranged for a one way drive or the option of the cab driver waiting one hour after dropping passengers in town to drive them back to the ship.

Instead we decided to take advantage of some quiet time on the ship to actually begin the process of packing. We have a number of items with us that we will not need to wear for the remainder of the World Cruise. Since our daughter and son-in-law are joining us for the last segment of the World Cruise, from Rome to London, we wanted to get a head start on packing so that we don’t have to spend too much time doing this while they are both on board the ship. We also recognize that the last segment of the cruise is fairly port intensive so we will be spending less time on the ship and more time in port.

Oman is an interesting country. Oman’s coastline is both beautiful and one of the most fertile areas in all of Arabia. Oman was ruled for many years by Sultan Said Bin Taimur, (1938-1970) and during that time frame very few people had the opportunity to visit Oman. From what we learned last year, some changes were made in this country after the Sultan was overthrown by his son, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. While still not on a large scale, today over 60,000 travelers visit this country anually and more money is spent by the Majesty of Oman on the people, particularly in the area of education. Salalah is Oman’s second largest city and is home to around 300,000 residents.

Those getting off the ship today were asked to be respectful of the local culture. The Omanis are very conservative people and quite conservative and are strong followers of their religion. They dress very conservatively and most dress in traditional attire. Women were asked to wear loose, long garments, and to ensure that their shoulders and knees were covered. Men were asked to wear long trousers and tops with sleeves.

After our ship arrived in port we took a nice long walk on the promenade deck. During or walk, we ran into many passengers that we have come to know quite well.

We saw one passenger who was on the verandah whose husband has been quarantined as he is sick and as a precautionary method she has been quarantined as well. They thought it was from the lunch they had in India. As a rule of thumb we do not eat off the ship in places that we visit since we truly enjoy the food prepared on the ship and know that the food is of the highest quality and we also know that the preparation of the food is done in a neat and clean environment. We do try to avoid all day tours that involve food and if we were on an all day tour in a country that we had concerns about, we would bring food with us from the ship such as fruit, crackers and something such as a cheese sandwich.

We had been warned that even if the food has been prepared correctly in places such as India there is the risk of microbes that we are not used to. Many passengers did eat off the ship in India so we will hope that very few became ill.

After we finished our walk on the Promenade Deck we went back to our room and took care of the packing that we wanted to accomplish today.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the Main Dining Room, which we had pre-ordered.

In the afternoon, Keith participated in the table tennis tournament. After the competition, Keith played several games with other passengers.

Since the beginning of the year, Crystal has offered a newspaper delivery service. You can order your favorite shoreside newspapers from around the world. The price is the same whether you order a weekday paper or a Sunday paper. Not all papers are available for Sunday. Originally we were going to order a Sunday New York Times but that is available Monday thru Saturday. So, instead we ordered a Sunday Washington Post. We receive it at around 2:00 PM our time, or 6:00 AM East Coast Time. It is essentially a full newspaper. It includes most of the sections that one would find in the newspaper except for say the classifieds, and a few other minor section and not the separate store advertisement sections. But, it does have advertising that would be found in the regular sections of the newspaper; just not the separate store only inserts. We were very impressed with the quality of the print, the timeliness of the paper and having to rely on the internet, the television and the summary papers we get it was nice to get a full edition of the newspaper to get more comprehensive coverage of news.



Keith

En Route To Salalah, Oman Day 2

NOTE: Pictures From Today's Buffet Luncheon Featuring Indian Specialties

We enjoyed another wonderful day on board the Crystal Serenity Cruise Ship as we sailed to the first port of call in the Middle East of this World Cruise. Tomorrow, we will arrive in Salalah, Oman. We first visited this port of call on last years World Cruise.

We enjoyed another nice sleep last evening and had the added benefit of setting our clocks back one additional hour. Keith awoke first and went to the Fitness Center and when he arrived two other guests were already working out. He had not seen them before so as was the case yesterday morning we suspect that some passengers were up early due to jetlag from their travels to India. Anne Marie arrived to the center about thirty minutes later at the same time as fellow passenger Mary. We enjoyed a wonderful workout and by the time we finished our workout the Fitness Center was quite busy with many passengers working out. This always happens when we turn the clocks back one hour as many people wake up early and during the first few days of each segment.

After our workout we enjoyed a very nice breakfast in our room.

During Captain Glenn’s morning announcement he noted that we were cruising at 19.4 knots per hour with four of the six engines in use. Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “It is not what you wear but who is wearing it that counts.”

There were many activities on the schedule throughout the morning, afternoon and evening hours since today was a sea day.

Yesterday, Anne Marie enjoyed Yoga so much that she attended a Yoga class as 8:00 AM this morning. Once again, she attended the progressive yoga session. While Anne Marie was in Yoga, Keith took care of some errands around the ship.

Keith attended Rap with the Rabbi and Anne Marie arrived a little while later. We continue to enjoy these sessions. The topics have been wonderful and it’s been a great way to share and to listen to a variety of opinions on a diverse set of subjects. Not only those of the Jewish faith but guests from other faiths attended today’s session. On a related note, last evening we signed up for the Passover Sedar dinner, which will be held on April 19. We attended the Sedar last year and it was wonderful.

After the Rap with the Rabbi we attended a presentation given by destination lecturer Dr. Jay Wolff. The title of his presentation was “King Tut and the Mummy’s Curse.” Once again, Dr Wolff hit a “home run” with another interesting presentation.

Afterwards Keith attended a presentation given by retired Brigadier General Nick Halley. The topic of his presentation was “Leadership Under Fire!” We first had the opportunity to listen to this presenter during last years World Cruise. While Keith was at this presentation, Anne Marie went to needlepoint.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the dining room, At the same time there was a special luncheon buffet on the Lido Deck featuring many Indian specialties. We posted a couple of pictures of the food but there were lots of items featured throughout the buffet area that are not shown in these pictures. After lunch we attended a presentation given by Maritime Expert Brian Cudahy. The topic of this presentation was “The Golden Age of the Great Ocean Liners.” It was a very interesting presentation, and the presenter touches on many of the passenger cruise ships and cruise lines through the late 1950’s.

Later in the afternoon we attended a Cruise Critic get-together with our fellow passengers who post on Cruise Critic. Many of those who we have traveled with since the beginning of the World Cruise attended along with some who boarded this segment of the cruise. We had the get together at the afternoon tea. A few of our fellow passengers were unable to attend since they play Bridge at this time of the afternoon. This will be our last “official” get together of the World Cruise but we know that we will all see each other from time to time.

This evening we had dinner at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant with the Rabbi and his lovely wife. We always look forward to having dinner with the two of them as they are such delightful people to converse with and we are very blessed to know them.

After dinner we went to see West End Singing Star Jacqui Scott perform. She is a wonderful singer. We greatly enjoyed her performance this evening as we did when we saw her perform on last years World Cruise.

Keith & Anne

En Route To Salalah, Oman Day 1

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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Mumbai, India Day 2

NOTE: The first picture is an example of the many cabs that are available in Mumbai. There are around 50,000 cabs in this city. Many of these cabs are quite old, but they are kept up in great condition.

The second picture is one of the shops set up at the pier.

This morning marks the conclusion of segment six of our World Cruise adventure. During this segment, we sailed from Singapore to Mumbai India. We sailed a total distance of 3,345 nautical miles or the equivalent of 3,846 land miles. We have had the opportunity to visit a very diverse set of ports in a very short timeframe. It is amazing to think that we began this segment in Singapore where one will receive a fine should they litter the streets and everything is safe and clean and housing is provided for every citizen. This is a sharp contrast to where we ended the segment in Mumbai, where almost one-third of those people live here are in poverty and portions of the city are in disarray. We will carry with us memories of the places we have visited which will last a lifetime.

We want to note that while we saw a vast amount of poverty in Mumbai there are some very nice places in this city as well. This include a variety of historical buildings that have very traditional and worldly architecture and there are new building, both residential condominiums & apartments and office buildings that appeared to be quite nice. While eating off the ship does not interest us, some of our fellow passengers had nice experiences in some of the restaurants and some offered service of a much higher standard than one would find in the USA.

At the same time there is clearly an emerging economy in India and one that many of us are very familiar with given the outsourcing that is taking place from USA and European companies over to India. This is doing wonders to expand the middle class in man parts of India.

We met many nice people during our stay in Mumbai. The people who we interacted with appeared to be well spoken, highly educated, and showed a lot of pride. There are many nice traditions in this country, particularly those in the middle, upper middle and upper classes.

Clearly, every country has a difference in culture. For example, in India to get things done does require negotiation and sometime giving something of value to obtain a particular service whether from private or even government run institutions. That is the way of life for these people just as many of us in the USA have our own culture that differs from other places around the world.

There are many wonderful areas in India and like any large country there are the good points along with the points not so good.

India does have challenges. They are divided into many states where there are many dialects. The language of one area cannot be understood by another area, so English is a critical language to bridge the communication gap amongst its diverse population.

The other challenge is the poverty that exists here. It is not isolated to Mumbai and because of the sheer volume of those who live in this country it is more of a problem. We now understand why people get concerned when they here the estimates for population growth in a city like Mumbai which is already overcrowded and has lots of issues to deal with.

We are glad that we had the opportunity to see two ports of call in India.

Today the new segment (segment 7) of the World Cruise got underway.

This afternoon new passengers embarked the cruise ship. As part of this segment we will sail from Mumbai, India to Civitavecchia, (gateway port for Rom) Italy. We will stop in Salalah, Oman, Safaga, Egypt; Alexandria, Egypt; Agios Nikolaos (Crete), Greece, and Catania and Naples, Italy. At the same time we will enjoy eight sea days including our transit thru the Suez Canal.

We slept very well last evening and we woke early this morning. We began our day by working out in the Fitness Center. Yes, Keith was the first to arrive at the Fitness Center and Anne Marie arrived a short time later. We enjoyed an excellent workout. The only passengers working out while we were there was the two of us plus John. Keith spoke with John for a few minutes and after our workout we saw John and his lovely wife Linda at the Lido Café. They are both such wonderful people and we are so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to sail with them on both this years and last years World Cruise. Since Mary was on yesterdays all day tour of the Taj Mahal she was not up at the Fitness Center while we were there but as we were retuning to our room we ran into her. We spent a few minutes talking with her and we told her about our day in Mumbai yesterday and she told us about her tour of the Taj Mahal. Her tour sounded wonderful and hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to visit this city.

We then went back to our room to enjoy a great breakfast.

Like many of our fellow passengers, we decided not to go into town today. We felt that we had a nice overview of Mumbai yesterday and really saw no point going out on our own. Some passengers were going back to places such as the Taj Mahal hotel to pick up clothing items that they had ordered that were custom made for them. As was the case in Hong Kong, you can order certain items in these shops that will be made for you overnight and will be available sometime the next day.

We decided to spend part of the morning walking around the pier. We visited some of the shops that were set up in the pier area that sold a variety of items.

The cruise ship called The World was also in port having arrived here late yesterday so we walked over to that ship. We last saw this ship during our stay in Rio, Brazil last year. This is the ship that sold condominium apartments. Passengers sailing on this ship include those who own their respective apartments, those who rent from owners and also those who book directly through the cruise line operator to stay in units that have not been sold. This ship sails around the world and usually will spend several days in a particular port of call rather than just one day or an overnight. We tried to walk over to the ship, but couldn’t find a direct way over there and we were leery about the area that we would need to walk through in order to navigate our way over to the ship.

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the dining room. We sat at our regular table that we eat at in the evening. We were given complimentary flutes of champagne to toast the continuation of our world cruise adventure.

This afternoon we also enjoyed a very nice walk on the Promenade Deck of the ship. We could see many ships in the harbor and we had a nice view of the Cruise Ship; The World. We also could see many buildings that were afar.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Main Dining Room. Afterwards, we attended the Welcome Aboard Show and enjoyed all of the dancing and singing that was part of the show. We also saw a very nice couple who we met on this ship in 2005, and who were also on the full World Cruise this year, who surprised most of us by booking the last two segments of this years world cruise.

This evening we set our clocks back thirty minutes which will be the last time during this cruise where clocks are adjusted in thirty minute increments.

We are glad that we have had the opportunity to visit Mumbai. This is certainly quite a unique city of the world. Our hearts go out to the less fortunate individuals who live here and in other parts of the world where each day is a struggle to just survive for many people.

This next segment of the cruise will bring many ports that we had the opportunity to visit during last years World Cruise. Other than visiting the two ports in Hawaii, up until now all of the ports of call that we visited were new to us, with the exception of Hong Kong which Keith had previously visited on business. On this next we will see for the first time are Crete, Greece, which is also a maiden voyage for Crystal Cruises. We will also dock in an area in Sicily that is a different port from the one that we docked in last year. Most other ports we will visit for the second time, with the exception of Naples and Civitavecchia, (gateway port to Rome), Italy which we have visited numerous times. We look forward to seeing all of these ports and continuing our World Cruise Adventure.

Keith & Anne Marie