We awoke early this morning and had breakfast in the Lido Café. With only 500 passengers on this segment (about half the passenger capacity on the ship) the café was very quiet. There were only a few other passengers in the café when we arrived, mostly the regulars who we sit close to each morning. We each talked about what a great time we had in Istanbul, including out shopping tales from the Grand Bazaar.
After breakfast, we went to the Fitness Center for our daily workout. As usual, Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill and Keith worked out on the elliptical machine.
When we got back from our workout, we started to do some packing. While we still have over 20 days left until our adventure comes to an end, we have a good number of clothes that we will not have to wear over the coming weeks.
The next two segments are mostly in the Mediterranean and as is the case with this area of the world they will be more port intensive with less sea days.
As today is a sea day there are lots of activities planned throughout the day. As far as we know based on our own experiences and those of our fellow guests, Crystal likely provides the most diverse set of daytime activities and during the world cruise (both individual segments and for the entire world cruise) they provide even more activities than on any other segment during the rest of the year. For example, during the course of the World Cruise they have offered a special college computer course where those who complete the course receive college credit. At the same time they have offered a memoir writing class. With today being the first day of this segment of the cruise they had signups for a variety of activities from the memoir writing class, to language classes, to Yoga, to the computer class along with a variety of other areas. We also had a number of lectures scheduled for today.
This morning we attended a lecture given by Retired Brigadier General Nick Halley. He has commanded over ten thousand soldiers in combat in Vietnam, Grenada and Desert Storm in Iraq. He is a graduate of West Point, the Army War College and has a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Physicsa from the University of Virginia. The couple who is responsive for teaching the college computer class who we have come to know very well knows him as he is also a graduate of West Point. His lecture focused on what makes a good leader both in the military and in the government and private sectors. We look forward to his next lecture.
After the lectures we went right to Team Trivia. This was the first Team Trivia for this segment of the World Cruise. Today, we finished in second place. We then went to lunch and had a wonderful meal in the main dining room.
In the afternoon we ran some errands. We also spoke with a solo traveler whom we have spoken with from time to time on the World Cruise and made plans to dine together at Silk Road in a few days.
We attended the Captain’s Welcome Reception as we have on each of the other segments throughout our journey. It is always good to see and hear from Captain Otto and to talk with our fellow cruisers in this nice venue. Since this evening is a formal night it was great to see everyone dressed up in their formal attire. As it turned out, this evening we sat with all of our fellow passengers who are on our Team Trivia team. After the reception, we went to dinner in the main dining room where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.
Later in the evening, we attended on of Crystals Production Shows which are shown on a regular basis throughout the year. It is call Million Dollar Musicals, which is a tribute to the music of the silver screen. Although we have seen this musical several times in the past, we enjoyed all of the wonderful music, dancing and singing.
Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Kusadasi, Turkey. We were here one time before on a Mediterranean cruise in 1999. We took a shore excursion, which included Ephesus. We will be going on an excursion tomorrow evening right after an early dinner, which is an outdoor concert at Ephesus. We have spoken with others who have attended this concert in the past who gave it high marks so we are looking forward to it.
Keith & Anne Marie
No comments:
Post a Comment