En Route To Mombasa, Kenya Day 2

We awoke at 6:30 AM to begin our second of three days at sea as we cruise towards Mombasa, Kenya. Last evening, we moved our clocks forward one additional hour. We had an early breakfast in the Lido Café and given the time change there were very few people eating at that hour. On sea days, the Lido Café offers an early bird coffee from 5:30 to 6:30 AM, an early risers buffet from 6:30 to 7:30 AM and a breakfast Buffet from 7:30 AM to 10:00 AM. There are many other options for breakfast such as The Bistro which offers various breakfast items such as bagels, smoked salmon, fruits, etc. from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM and Tastes which offers a variety of items from omelets to blintzes to pancakes and other specialty items from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM and of course there is also room service. At the hour that we have breakfast in the Lido Café we can get a nice variety of fruit, cold cereals, yogurts, bagels, smoked salmon, pastries and other cold items. At this hour we usually just each have cereal and a variety of fresh fruit and sometimes Keith also has a yogurt. When we go a little later then we can also get hot items and normally Keith will get hot oatmeal and fruit. We like the Lido Café for breakfast as we can get a nice breakfast without it being too time consuming and then go directly over to the Fitness Center to workout. So, after we had breakfast this morning we went over to the Fitness Center.

The Fitness Center was not very crowded this morning. Anne Marie worked out on the Treadmill while Keith worked out on the Elliptical Machines. Afterwards, we also lifted some weights.

At 11:00 AM we went to a lecture given by Destination Lecturer, Roman Pryjomko. The topic of the lecture was “Gathering Threats Along the Africa Front. Understanding terrorism through cultural geography and geopolitics”. The lecturer provided a great deal of solid information on this topic.

After the lecture we went to Team Trivia. Once again, we finished towards the middle of the pack.

While we enjoy breakfast in the Lido Café we prefer Lunch in the Main Dining Room as we are interested in getting a nice salad entrée and each day they offer a choice of two very unique salad entrees and what they offer changes each day. In addition, if we do not care for either of the salads, the kitchen will prepare whatever salad we ask for. Most cruise lines do not provide this type of flexibility, but Crystal does. We also like the service that we will receive in the main dining room. With that said, there are lots of other options for lunch. We can have lunch in the Lido Café which offers an extensive variety of hot and cold luncheon items from 12:00 Noon to 1:30 PM. There is Tastes which offers sit-down service in a casual environment near the indoor pool from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. There is also the Trident Grill, which offers hamburgers, wraps, snacks, fruits, and other items from 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM. The Bistro offers light luncheon items and other snacks and wonderful fruit from 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM. You can also order a variety of coffees and teas from The Bistro throughout the day. And, there is also room service.

While we normally eat lunch in the main dining room today we decided to have lunch at the Lido Café. We each had a very nice salad entrée and the weather was very nice so we ate lunch outside.

After lunch, we walked on the Promenade Deck for about 50 minutes. The seas were very calm and there were very few people on the deck. We had a great walk.

This evening is a formal night. We attended a reception at 5:00 PM hosted by our travel consortium, Signature Travel Network. So far, we have had one reception on each of the first four segments of the World Cruise. The reception was held at 5:00 PM given that early seating in the Main Dining Room is at 6:00 PM with the late seating at 8:30 PM. Some of the receptions are either held at this hour or between the two seatings at 7:45 PM. As it turned out this worked better for us since we had dinner plans in the Silk Road Specialty Restaurant with another couple at 6:30 PM. We had a nice time at the reception and it provided yet another nice opportunity to talk with those who are on the Full World Cruise along with others who are on one or more segments of the World Cruise.

After the reception we went to dinner at Silk Road with another couple. We sat at the same table with this couple during the second segment of the World Cruise so it was great to dine with them this evening and to catch up with them. We had a wonderful meal and a couple of items were specialty ordered for us by the staff and we got to meet one of the chefs. He explained to us the process for preparing the wonderful cod that they serve in the restaurant.

Tomorrow, we will have another full day at sea before we arrive in Kenya. We have a nice shore excursion planned the first thing in the morning that we arrive in port and we will share more on that with you tomorrow.

Keith & Anne Marie