This morning we woke up to relatively calm seas and to clear skies as we make our way over to Port Stanley, which is part of the Falkland Islands. We will arrive in Port Stanley sometime tomorrow. By the time we arrive, we will have been at sea for five consecutive days.
We woke up early and had a wonderful breakfast in the Lido Café. We really enjoy this venue for breakfast as it provides a nice opportunity to look out on the open seas and to get an early start to the morning activities. The Lido Staff are outstanding and each morning several members of the Lido Staff assist us with our breakfast items and each of them knows not only our names but what we enjoy in the way of breakfast items. The headwaiter for the Lido Café, Willie, is also the headwaiter in Silk Road. Last evening, Anne Marie commented to him that she thought that Silk Road had the best coffee on board the ship, so this morning two of those special cups of coffee were brought over to our table, without us asking for them. Now, that is outstanding service and more importantly is a fine example of the Crystal crew going out of their way to make the cruising experience a delight for their passenger’s.
After breakfast, we went over to the Fitness Center. This time the Fitness Center was busier than it had been. It was nice to see so many passengers’ working out. Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill for 35 minutes and then spent the remaining hour working out on most of the weight machines. Keith worked out on the Elliptical machine for an hour and then worked out on one of the weight machines. During the workout on the treadmill/elliptical, we each watched television on our respective television monitors. We watches some news in order to keep up with both national and world events and we also watched the morning Crystal Cruises show starring Krista Pope (World Cruise Hostess) and Gary Hunter (Crystal Serenity Cruise Director).
After working out, Anne Marie practiced on the Piano while Keith did some writing and some reading.
We had trivia this morning and our team tied for first place. We had fourteen of fifteen questions correct, our best total of this segment of the World Cruise. After lunch, all but two couples from our trivia team went to lunch together.
There are plenty of activities on today’s schedule to keep everyone busy. By the way for those of you who have never cruised or who have not cruised on Crystal, each evening we receive in our staterooms a daily program featuring the following days activities and the program featured by Crystal Cruises is called Reflections. It usually provides a nice write-up on the next days port of call for a sea day information on the waters that we are sailing. It also provides a detailed listing of the activities scheduled for the following day and also provides some other useful information. Today is filled with activities ranging from Spanish and French lessons, to various Fitness Classes, to Religious related activities, to various levels of Bridge Classes, to Movies, to Lectures, to Needlepoint and other related Arts and Crafts activities, to a variety of other activities. In general, those who have cruised often enjoy the sea days as it provides a nice opportunity to participate on a diverse set of activities and to take full advantage of the ship.
This evenings attire is formal attire and will be kicked off with a Crystal Society Reception for those passenger’s who have cruised Crystal before. The reception is held in the Palm Court, which provides a nice venue for dancing, and for observing the seas from a seated area all around this very large room. On this particular sailing, close to 90% of all passenger’s have cruised with Crystal Cruises on at least one prior voyage. Crystal cruises has a very loyal following and works diligently to build a strong on-going relationship with each of its passenger’s. In general, they do not know the word no and they go out of their way to make each passenger feel very special. We sat with a lovely couple who we had first sat with at the World Cruise Gala and two other couples joined us at the reception.
Following the Crystal Society Reception, we went to dinner in the main restaurant where we dined with one other couple. The headwaiter made us a wonderful Caesar Salad and we each had fish this evening. We have been ordering fish or other types of seafood each evening and have really enjoyed how each of these entrees are prepared. At the end of dinner, we the headwaiter showed us tomorrow evenings menu and we asked the headwaiter to order sea bass for each of us which was not on the menu. Our headwaiter, Bruno, has gone out of his way to offer to have the kitchen prepare special requests for us and we are most appreciative to have these additional choices to consider.
We decided to pass on the shows this evening in order to use the laundry machines. We thought this would be a night where the machines were free, and we were correct.
Tomorrow morning we will depart the ship at approximately 11:00 AM by tender for our shore excursion. We are looking forward to visiting the Falkland Islands as this is our first visit to this port of call.
Today is our daughter Jennifer’s birthday and we wish Jennifer a very Happy Birthday.
Keith & Anne Marie
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