Once again we began our day very early this morning. We went to the Lido Café for Breakfast and sat with another couple who are also on the full World Cruise. They were up early as they are traveling on a two night overland program. While we were eating, the Lido Deck Stewards brought around large plates of Easter Candy and placed them on each table.
After breakfast we worked out in the Fitness Center. Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill and Keith worked out on the elliptical machine. After our workout, we got ready to go into Istanbul.
Before we left we looked at the various Easter displays on the main lobby areas called the Crystal Cove. Outside the main dining room there was a table set up with lots of chocolate bunny rabbits and other chocolate. It was a quite impressive site. Also, in the lobby area was a collection of Ostrich eggs (these are from our visit to Cape Town, South Africa during the course of the World Cruise) which were decorated by several of the crew members. We were asked to submit ballots and two make two selections; the most creative Easter egg and the most traditional Easter egg.
We then boarded the complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal Cruises to go back into town to do a little last minute shopping at the Grand Bazaar. Normally, the Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays and today marked the first Sunday in over fifty years when the bazaar was opened. A vote was recently taken by the owners of the 4,000+ stores at the bazaar to open today as a test to see what the volume of sales would be like. It has nothing to do with the fact that today is Eastern nor did it have anything to do with the fact that a couple of cruise ships were in port since during the peak summer months there are usually five+ ships in port at any given time. Traffic was much lighter to and from the bazaar today compared to yesterday since many of the locals do not shop on Sundays. And, the bazaar was not crowded. We arrived at around 9:30 AM and the bazaar did not open until 10:00 AM so we walked around the area right outside the bazaar where some shops were already open.
We stayed at the Grand Bazaar until 12:30 PM and then took the shuttle back to the ship. We had a good time walking around the bazaar and looking at the various items in several shops. The weather today and yesterday was quite nice for this time of the year. Normally, they receive a lot of rain during this time of the year so we were happy to have sunny skies and to have temperatures in the 60s and 70s during the daytime.
After we got back to the ship, we each enjoyed a wonderful salad entrée in the main dining room and we each also had fruit.
We took care of a few errands this afternoon and then enjoyed a nice dinner in the dining room.
After dinner we attended the lifeboat drill, which was held at 8:00 PM. We attended the drill when we boarded in Miami and normally that is sufficient during the course of the cruise, but this evening all passengers were asked to attend the lifeboat drill. We suspect this might be given the passenger ship that recently sunk off one of the islands of Greece. We think this is a good idea as it provides a good opportunity to remind all passengers which respective muster stations they should report to in the event of an emergency.
After the lifeboat drill we attended an evening show performed by vocalist, Annette Wardell, who is from England. She has performed many times in recent years for the Royal Family and sang several classic opera songs. She was quite good and we thoroughly enjoyed this show.
Tomorrow we will enjoy another wonderful day at sea.
Keith & Anne Marie
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