En Route To Southampton, UK

Today is our last day at sea before we arrive at our final destination, Southampton, United Kingdom. We hope that through this Blog you have enjoyed living through our 109 day World Cruise adventure.

As we have mentioned, the World Cruise has exceeded our expectations in everyway possible. The on-board cruise experience has been outstanding from the food, to the on board activities, such as the lectures, to the outstanding service, to the terrific entertainment, to the World Games and to the various special events that have been held throughout the cruise.

We have visited so many interesting places in such a short period of time. Some of these places we will remember for the rest of our lives. This includes sailing through the Panama Canal and the magical days of sailing around Antarctica and experiencing all of the beauty of this truly unique area of the world. We will remember the magical evening we had at the Tango Show in Buenos Aires and the warmth and friendliness of the people. We will remember the unspoiled character and charm of St. Helena and the priceless expressions on each of the children’s faces when they sang for us on board the ship. We will remember the poverty that we saw in certain nations, including Kenya, which makes us even more appreciative of the opportunities that we have enjoyed over the years. We hope that over time similar opportunities will expand to those in need around the world. We will remember how touched and moved we were when visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel along with the timing of our visit to the Middle East. We will remember visiting important historical sites such as Ephesus and Pompeii in the evening and other sites such as Petra. And, in the end, we will remember how friendly most of the people were whom we had the chance to talk with in the countries we visited. Like us, the majority of the people take great pride in their respective nations.

We will also remember the enormous sense of community that we experienced throughout this adventure between passengers and crew. We can best compare this to living in a small community at home where everyone knows one another. Each day we would talk with certain passengers at breakfast, which would be similar to meeting at a small town coffee shop. On a typical day we would see the Rabbi and his wife and the Minster and his wife and talk with them often, which is something that one might experience in a small community. Each day, we would talk with one or two passengers during our morning workout and we would sit with the same four to six passengers at most of the receptions that occurred throughout the cruise. We would learn about the interests and backgrounds of many of the crew and given many of their ages it was similar to learning about the children of friends that we might know in a small town community. There would be other passengers we would see on a daily basis and we would look forward to our talks with them. And, the good news is that we didn’t depend on television as our source of information or entertainment. Rather much of our enjoyment came from seeing and talking with our fellow passengers and crew throughout each day. In the end, it has been the people that have made this World Cruise so unique and very special to us.

We are posting this earlier than normal today as we have some last minute things to get done this evening. We wanted to share with you what we did on our final day on-board the Crystal Serenity.

We awoke early and had a nice breakfast on the Lido Café. We spoke with one other couple that we had the pleasure of talking with almost every morning at the Lido Café. We went to the Fitness Center for our last workout of the cruise and we chatted with the wife of the Computer University instructor who we have come to know very well and whom we have seen and spoken with each morning of the World Cruise. After our workout, we went to the British Immigration Inspection. We received our passports back and met with the inspectors to have them inspected. The good news is that by getting this out of the way today it will speed up the clearance of the ship tomorrow morning, which will allow us to get off the ship at an early hour and avoid having to deal with this item in the morning.

Later in the morning, we went to the final presentation given by former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater. The topic of his presentation was “Presidential Election 2008”. He gave an overview of the major candidates in each party who are seeking the Presidency along with his thoughts on their chances. He also provided some additional comments about the upcoming election and then provided an opportunity for questions and answers from the audience.

After this presentation we went to a special showing of the 2007 World Cruise Video. There was hardly a dry eye in the audience. This video clearly captured so many of the magical moments from our World Cruise Adventure and brought back wonderful memories of this trip. Each of us will receive a copy of this DVD as a keepsake from this adventure and we look forward to showing it to friends and family.

Afterwards, we went to the Main Dining Room for lunch and ate with the Computer University Instructor and his lovely wife. We had a wonderful lunch and conversation.

We spend the remainder of the afternoon packing and weighing all of our luggage as we get ready to disembark the ship tomorrow morning.

This evening we will have dinner in the Silk Road Specialty Restaurant.

Keith & Anne Marie

Bordeaux, France

We woke up early this morning and had breakfast in the Lido Café. Although there are some tours running this morning, the Café was fairly quiet. We then went over to the Fitness Center and did a portion of our daily workout. We plan to do the rest in the afternoon.

We took the first shuttle into the downtown area of Bordeaux. It was foggy and overcast as we waited for the shuttle to leave the terminal area. The shuttle traveled about twenty minutes from the port over to the area in which it dropped us off. The drive itself was not very scenic until we got to the outskirts of Bordeaux. That is when everything changed and we could quickly see the beauty and charm of this city.

Bordeaux looks like other cities in France with the beautiful architecture of its buildings. It is second to Paris as the country’s most densely populated city. Today, it is best known for it glorious chateaux, wonderful cuisine and all of the wines produced in this region. In fact, there are more than 3,000 wineries located in a relatively short proximity to Bordeaux.

Since today is Sunday all of the stores were closed which we had been told to expect ahead of time. However, this did not take away from the wonderful morning that we had walking around this lovely city.

After we got off the shuttle, we began to walk around town. We visited two churches; Cathedral of St. Andre and Notre Dame. The Cathedra of St. Andre is the largest Church in Bordeaux. The foundations of this church date back 900 years and some of the that we saw dated back to the 13th Century. Both of the churches were beautiful from the very detailed interiors to the exteriors of each building.

We walked on several streets through the middle of the city and went into various cafes and pastry shops. We even bought a couple of pastries to bring back to the ship to have after dinner this evening.

We also walked by the grand Theater, which is another beautiful building. The Grand Theater was built between 1773 and 1780. We visited an outdoor market and passed by other interesting areas of town. Throughout the city there are apartments directly above the lower level portions of the buildings that house stores, cafes and restaurants.

As the morning progressed the sun came out which just added to our joy of visiting this wonderful city. This is clearly a city that we would like to visit again, possibly for a couple of days while on a land vacation.

After we were through walking around Bordeaux we took the shuttle back to the ship where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the Main Dining Room.

Following lunch we finished our workout in the Fitness Center. Since the World Cruise began Anne Marie has gone about 450 miles on the treadmill and Keith has gone about 1,000 miles on the elliptical machine. These machines have certainly been put to good use by all of us who have used them throughout this wonderful voyage.

We also took time this afternoon to continue to get our packing done. Most of our fellow World Cruise passengers have been taking time the past few days to pack although there are a few who plan to wait until tomorrow, our last full day on the ship before we disembark the ship in Southampton, England.

This evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant.

Tomorrow we will enjoy our last day at sea.

Keith & Anne Marie

Le Verndon, France

We arrived in Le Verndon, France this morning. The local authorities cleared the ship at 8:00 AM and we took the first shuttle into town at 8:30 AM. The nearby seaside town, which is called Soulac, is located approximately twenty minutes by car/bus.

We awoke about 6:00 AM this morning and had a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. We spoke with some of the regulars who we usually see at breakfast and we also met a couple who lives about fifty miles from our home who boarded the ship in Rome. We then went to the Fitness Center and worked out for about forty-five minutes since we wanted to catch the first shuttle to town. Our plan was to workout again in the afternoon.

We took the first shuttle into town. The town is a very nice quaint seaside town. We walked all around the town. We went into a market, which sold cheeses, seafood, fruits and vegetables, and we also walked into three different bakeries. Each bakery had wonderful looking baked breads of all sizes and shape and a nice variety of French pastries and cookies. We also walked into a few other shops and into a church. As we walked towards the beach area we saw some nice outdoor restaurants and a few small hotels. The residential neighborhood is also located adjacent to the town square and we saw some of the local residents purchasing items such as bread and fish and walking back to their homes either by foot or on bicycles.

We came back to the ship at 10:30 AM as all passenger’s needed to be back on the ship by 11:30 AM as we were scheduled to sail at 12:00 Noon to the commercial port that serves Bordeaux, France. We enjoyed lunch in the Main Dining Room. After lunch, we went back to the Fitness Center to finish our workout from this morning. We continued with our packing since we will be disembarking the ship on May 1.

During the afternoon, the ship cruised towards the port of Bordeaux and from the ship we could see the picturesque French shoreline. Several times we passed little towns and we could see beautiful homes and other buildings.

The ship arrived at the Bordeaux port of call at 5:00 PM and will remain overnight in this port of call. The port is located approximately thirty minutes from Bordeaux. Our ship is too large to dock in downtown Bordeaux. Evidently, the ship tried to dock there as part of another time and it pulled down an electrical cable that was located above the water due to our ships height knocking out power to three small towns. We will plan to go into Bordeaux, tomorrow, although we do realize that most stores will be closed on Sunday. We had considered a shore excursion for either today or tomorrow but we decided that we would just walk around the town on our own.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Silk Road Japanese Restaurant. We tried a few specials in addition to the other wonderful food that they serve there on a regular basis. Our server was someone who has become our regular waiter whenever we dine there. His name is Anthony and we have enjoyed talking with him each time we dine there.

During the course of the World Cruise passengers have signed up for a variety of activities from artwork, to the choir, to memoir writing, to a college level computer course, to piano, to foreign language. One activity involved creating a World Cruise Quilt and we have included a picture of the quilt which has been on display in the main lobby area.

Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Bordeaux, France

The picture on this Blog is from last evenings World Cruise Dinner.

Today we are at sea and en route to Bordeaux, France. Anne Marie was not feeling very well last night so she took it easy for most of today.

Keith worked out by himself this morning and decided to workout first before having breakfast. He worked out for one hour on the Elliptical Machine. He went to the Lido Café for breakfast and then brought back some toast for Anne Marie to eat.

Keith and Anne Marie both went to the doctor this morning. We thought it would be good for him to see Anne Marie and Keith has had congestion for the past couple of weeks so we thought it would be a good idea for the doctor to see Keith as well. In the end, he ended up giving both of us the same medications; specifically antibiotics for each of us. We both are fortunate that we avoided getting sick the first couple of months of the cruise since a virus which seemed to cause severe coughing (hacking) seemed to go around for much of the time and those who got sick took months before they would get rid of the cough. We took many pro-active steps to minimize getting sick but given that so many people are under on roof so to speak, it is not surprising that it is easy to spread germs from passenger to passenger. Hopefully, we will both be back to normal sooner rather than later.

Later in the morning, Anne Marie rested in the room while Keith went to two lectures.

Former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater gave the first lecture. Mr. Fitzwater’s presentation was titled “Backstairs at the White House”. He covered some significant events that occurred while he was Press Secretary in both the Reagan and Bush administrations. It was an interesting presentation with touches of humor, seriousness, and sentimentality. Mr. Fitzwater will give one final presentation on the last sea day and will provide lots of time for questions and answers.

The second presentation was given by best selling author and was titled “Making the Best of Your Life”. It was a very positive and uplifting presentation and focused on not only making the best of your life but also provided tips on ways which will hopefully add years to ones life. After his presentation, he along with Coach Don Shula took questions from the audience. The majority of questions were for Coach Don Shula ranging from his views on free agency in Football, to the current quarterback situation on the Miami Dolphins to his opinion as to who of the retired quarterbacks does he consider the best whoever played that position. His pick was Joe Montana given that he won three Super Bowls whereas statistically he talked very highly of Dan Marino but noted that in the end that the mark of a great quarterback came down to Super Bowl wins. Keith enjoyed the presentation.

Following the presentation Keith went to Team Trivia. Our team ended up correctly answering eleven of the fifteen questions and finished in third place in the final round of Team Trivia. We are just happy that we finished in first place during last segments World Cruise.

We both had lunch in the Main Dining Room and then we both spent the remainder of the afternoon in our stateroom. We will be disembarking the ship on May 1 so we are starting to pack and get organized for that.

Before dinner we attended the Captain’s Farewell Reception and this is truly the final reception for us and the others on the Full World Cruise who will be disembarking the ship in Southampton, England. We had a very nice time at the reception.

Afterwards, we had dinner in the Main Dining Room. The dinner was enjoyable and the service outstanding as it has been throughout the World Cruise.
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Keith & Anne Marie

Oporto, Portugal

As we mentioned in yesterdays Blog, we along with a few other couples hosted a party last evening. The party was for the crew and was our way of saying thank you to the crew for all that they do for us.

All of the crew was invited to this party and the part theme was called the “Spaced Out Crew Party”. It was held in one of the passenger venues on the ship and started at 11:00 PM and ended at around 4:00 AM. We arrived a little before 11:30 PM and stayed for about ninety minutes. Thank goodness that we were in yet another new time zone and got to turn the clocks back one hour before we went to sleep. ☺

When we arrived some of the crew was there and others continued to join the party while we were there. Many of the crew do not get off from work until late in the evening while others get off work early and went to sleep for a few hours and then came to the party later in the evening.

As we have mentioned throughout the cruise what makes sailing on this ship and Crystal Cruises so very special is the wonderful crew. So, when we were asked if we would be interested in being one of the hosts for this party we thought readily joined in as we thought it would be a nice way to say thank you and to show our appreciation to the crew. While we have met so many members of the crew there are many that work behind the scenes that we normally don’t see from the kitchen staff, to those in the laundry area and so forth so we thought that having a party for all of them would be nice way to give our thanks to the crew for all they do.

We spoke with many of the crew who were in attendance last evening and others have come up to us throughout the day to say thank you for the party. On Crystal when we thank the crew for something they will say “my pleasure”. So, it was great that we could say something similar to them when they thanked us for last evenings party (eg, it was our pleasure). We were also pleased that so many of the officers stopped by last evening from the Captain to the Hotel Director and so forth. The interaction between officers and the rest of the crew is outstanding and it shows day in and day out.


As part of the theme last evening, the lights were turned down and all sorts of items glowed in the dark from special drinking glasses to those bendable items that bend into various shapes so you can put them around your neck or arms or legs. There was music, dancing, plenty of drink and lots of food. We are so very glad to have been a part of this event. Unfortunately, the room was so dark it was not possible to take any pictures.

Since we went to sleep fairly late last evening, we slept in a little later this morning relative to what time we normally wake up. With that said, we still managed to be up and about by around 7:00 AM We had breakfast in the Lido Café as we normally do and then went over the Fitness Center for our daily workout.

The ship arrived in Oporto, Portugal this morning around 8:00 AM. This is our first time to Portugal.

We took the first shuttle into the city at around 9:00 AM. The bus ride took about thirty minutes and we drove on a very scenic road with wonderful views of water on one side of the road. The downtown city area has many rolling hills reminding us of San Francisco. The architecture of the various building was very attractive.

We were dropped off by City Hall, which was located in a beautiful building. We walked along several nearby streets with another couple from the World Cruise who we have come to know very well. We walked over to a train station, which was built in 1910. Some very nice mosaic tiles were on a few of the interior walls of the station. We walked into a few stores along with several very nice bakeries.

The outside temperature was cooler than most areas we have visited with the temperature being around 50 degrees. After we walked around for a while and took in all of the nearby sites we decided to board the bus for the ride back to the ship.

We had an early lunch back on the ship and decided to have a nice salad entrée at the Lido Café. During the afternoon we took care of various errands around the ship.

This evening we attended the final World Cruise Event. The theme of this evenings event was “Around The World”. They divided the World Cruisers into two groups for the event and we ended up with the early seating, which worked out great for us. We met for pre-dinner Cocktails at 5:00 PM and then at 5:30 PM we were escorted to our table for dinner. We sat at tables around the indoor pool. They sat passengers at each table along with a host. Our table represented the country of Chile. There was lots of entertainment that represented the various countries around the world and we were served a very nice dinner. The menue consisted of a Trio of King Crab, Cream of White Asparagus, Surf & Turf and Sweet Temptations from Around the World.

Tomorrow we wil enjoy a day at sea as we sail to Bordeaux.

Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Oprotu, Portugal

Today has been a very fun day as we cruise towards Oporto, Portugal.

We woke up early and enjoyed breakfast at the Lido Café. We spoke with a few of the regulars while we ate. After breakfast, we went to the Fitness Center for our daily workout. We worked out for about 90 minutes and spoke to two of our fellow passengers during most of the workout.

Later in the moring we attended our final session of Wrap With The Rabbi. There were about thirty passengers in attendance, making this one of the larger turnouts. We had a wonderful discussion and have really enjoyed the sessions that we have attended. The Rabbi and his wife are wonderful people and the Rabbi does an outstanding job of picking topics for these sessions that are meaningful and allow for nice participation by those in attendance.

We then went to a cooking demonstration given by guest Chef Christophe Eme After the cooking demonstration we attended a joint lecture given by former NFL Coach Don Shula and Author Ken Blanchard. Mr. Shula was a haed coach in the NFL from 1963 to 1995. As head coached, he coached the Baltimore Coats from 1963-1969 and the Miami Dolphins from 1970-1995. Ken Blanchard is an author, speaker and business consultant who has written several books including one that he co-authored with Spencer Johnson titled The One Minute Manager, which has sold more than ten million copies. Their joint presentation was very enjoyable and the topics they covered can be applied to a variety of areas from sports, to business to family life. They will be doing another presentation later in the cruise.

Before the presentation, Keith was able to talk with former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater for about ten minutes. One of the nice things about most of the lecturers on Crystal is that they make themselves available for discussions throughout the cruise.

We then went to Team Trivia. We ended up finishing in third place with a score of thirteen out of fifteen. We then had a nice lunch in the Lido Café and after lunch we went to a lecture given by award winning television journalist and registered dietician Carolyn O’Neill. The topic of her presentation was titled “The More You Know, The More You Eat. From Weight Control to Disease Prevention; A World of Healthy Flavors.” Her presentation covered many of the good food items to eat and she stressed moderation. Many of the food items she talked and tips that she provided were consistent to the other lecturers who we have heard from throughout the cruise. She stressed the benefits of eating fish on a regular basis and having lots of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis along with the importance of other key foods in the diet.

We then ran a few errands and also spoke with some of our fellow passengers this afternoon.

Before dinner, we went to the last of the Crystal Society receptions for the World Cruise. We had a wonderful time at this event as we have at all of the other events. We always enjoy the talks from Captain Otto and seeing some of our fellow passengers being recognized for having sailed with Crystal Cruises on numerous occasions. Several passengers were recognized at this event who we have had the pleasure of meeting during the course of the World Cruise.

After the reception, we went to dinner at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant. Originally, we were supposed to go with another couple, but unfortunately they couldn’t make it as one of them was a little under the weather. We had a wonderful meal with outstanding service.

Later this evening we will be attending a party that we will be hosting with a secen other couples. We will provide you with additional details in tomorrows Blog.

Keith & Anne Marie

Cadiz, Spain

We arrived in Cadiz, Spain around 7:30 AM this morning and the ship was cleared by the local authorities at 8:00 AM. This port of call was added in lieu of Casablanca. Cadiz is considered to be the oldest inhabited city of the Western World and is estimated to be 3,000 years old. Cadiz has a long history of having been ruled by various forces. The Phoenicians ruled this area in 1100 BC and by 500 BC the Carthaginians became the rulers of this area until the Romans captured this city two hundred years later. Ultimately, this city became part of Spain. Many years later Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World from Cadiz.

We began today as we normally do by waking up early and having breakfast in the Lido Café. We spoke with another couple who we always see in the morning and we each talked about what we had done in port the day before. After breakfast, we worked out in the Fitness Center for about ninety minutes and as we worked out we spoke with two of our fellow passengers who also workout at the same time we do each day. While working out we had a beautiful view of the harbor as we arrived in Caldiz. At around the time our ship docked, we saw one of the Windstar ships arrive in port as well.

After our workout, we got ready to go ashore. The nice thing about this port is that we did not need to take a shuttle to reach the town. As soon as we walked off the ship we headed for the old town area. We arrived at around 9:00 AM and at that point there were very few tourists or locals in the streets so we walked all around the old town. We visited a church that dates back to the 17th Century and then later on in the morning we visited the Cathedral de Cadiz. This baroque cathedral was built in the 18th century and is capped by a golden dome.

We continued to walk up and down many streets. The streets were not wide and each street was lined on each side with a variety of shops, and cafes.. The architecture was quite beautiful.

We kept wandering around the town and ultimately found a market which contained various stands selling fruit, vegetables, meat and cheese. We then worked our way all through the market until we came to an enormous area that contained all sorts of fresh fish. When we first arrived to the fish portion of the market there were lots of men bidding on seafood. We suspect that they were making purchases for their respective restaurants.

We then walked into a couple of grocery stores and also into some local clothing and jewelry stores. We walked by several shops that had beautiful wedding dresses and other clothes for wedding parties in their windows. The dresses and other attire were very impressive.

Later in the morning the streets became more crowded with both tourists and locals. We began to run into more and more people from the ship. We ran into the ship Rabbi and his lovely wife so we took them around the town and showed them a jewelry store that we had seen earlier in the day that was selling a variety of menorahs and other Jewish items. Later on we took them and another couple from the ship over to the fresh seafood, meat and produce market that we had walked around earlier in the morning.

We had a wonderful time walking around the town. The local people who we spoke with in the stores were very friendly and very helpful to us. While most of them spoke very little English, we were able to get assistance from most of them between the Spanish that Anne Marie knows coupled with their limited understanding of English.

On our way back to the ship we walked through a very nice park. We arrived back to the ship at around 1:00 PM and had lunch in the Lido Café. We then spent the afternoon taking care of some errands.

This evening we dined at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant. We had a nice conversation with the Headwaiter Bruno. We have posted a picture of us in Prego with Bruno. He always gives us wonderful recommendations on seafood entrees.

This evening all guests were invited to the Palm Court for a themed party called Space Station Crystal to enjoy music, dancing and complimentary cocktails.

Tomorrow we will enjoy a day at sea as we cruise towards Oporto, Potugal.

We hope that you have been enjoying the Blog and as always please feel free to post comments.

Keith & Anne Marie