Today we enjoyed a wonderful day at sea as the Crystal Serenity cruises to Puerto Madryn, Argentina. While cool on deck, the seas have been mostly calm. Beginning tomorrow, we will be visiting ports of call with warmer temperatures. In preparation for the change in weather, we put away selected clothing that we had brought for the cold weather elements in the Southern Areas of South America.
We woke up early this morning and had a quiet breakfast in the Lido Café as we normally do on most mornings. The Lido Staff is wonderful. Most of the Lido Staff know our names and they go out of their way to make our morning breakfast a wonderful experience each and every day. For example, normally they do not put the bananas out until around 7:45 AM to keep them fresh but they know that we usually arrive around 7:00 AM so every morning there is a banana on our favorite table. And they know what type of coffee that each of us prefers and they have that ready for us just about the time we sit down to eat.
After breakfast we worked out at the Fitness Center. Keith worked out on the Elliptical Machine, while Anne Marie worked out on the Treadmill. Afterwards, Keith worked out on the weight machines. We also spent another 45 minute in the Fitness Center in the afternoon.
After the morning workout, Anne Marie went to her Piano lesson. This was the final piano lesson for this segment of the World Cruise. At 10:00 AM we both attended the final lecture that Ambassador Peck will give during this segment of the World Cruise. The topic of this presentation is “Thinking About Our World. An Effort to Provoke Thoughts, Not People.” “Pcck’s Postulates. “The Four Keys to Total Understanding of International Relations.” “You know them, but may not have considered their implications.” It was a wonderful lecture and designed to make each person in the audience think about the world from a slightly different perspective. We will be dining with Ambassador Peck and his wife Ann the night before they disembark this segment of the World Cruise.
At 12:00 Noon we had team trivia and let’s just say this was not one of our finer performances. Following Team Trivia we went to lunch in the main dining room. Today was the Grand Gala Buffet, which is held one time per cruise segment. It is a wonderful buffet with a large variety of appetizers, breads, salads, entrees, fruits, and deserts. The amount of hours that go into preparing for this gala has to be vast. Before the gala, we ran into our senior waiter, Patricia, and our assistant waiter, Tolga. The senior waiter on Crystal is analogous to a waiter on most cruise ships and the waiter on Crystal is analogous to an assistant waiter on most cruise ships. When we also refer to a headwater, this position is responsible for several senior waiters and waiters and their associated tables. On some cruise lines this might be analogous with the responsibilities of an assistant Maitre d’. Our headwaiter’s name is Bruno and we will miss him when he departs the ship for a well-deserved vacation at the end of this segment. He is very friendly and outgoing and extremely professional. He is also very well informed about the food served in the dining room and always makes wonderful suggestions. We have learned a great deal from him.
This evening we had a wonderful dinner. The night before we had asked our headwaiter Bruno to prepare a special seafood entrée for us and we really enjoyed it. Our headwaiter has gone out of his way to make each and every meal very enjoyable by offering to make special meals for us.
This evening we went to a variety show after dinner. It starred a guitarist, Fabio Zino and then our cruise director Gary Hunter. One of Gary’s many talents is being a Ventriloquist and we thoroughly enjoyed his show tonight. We had last seen him perform his Ventriloquist act when we sailed on this ship in the Mediterranean in the Fall of 2005. He is very talented and overall an outstanding cruise director.
We look forward to visiting Puerto Madryn, Argentina in the morning.
Keith & Anne Marie
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