Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Day 2

This morning we woke early and had breakfast in the Lido Café. There were a fair number of our fellow passenger’s at breakfast as many tours are operating today.

We spoke with several passengers’ who went to the Carnaval last evening. The consensus was positive, but there was a range of opinion. One couple thought it was the best experience of this kind that they had ever experienced, even better than the Rose Bowl or a Super Bowl. Another couple thought it was a very special evening. Yet, another couple said it was OK but would pass on it if they had the opportunity to do it again. They all agree that the security in the stadium was quite good. Everyone did say that it was very hot in the stadium. We are so very happy that the majority of those who attended enjoyed it as much as they did and we are happy to hear that the security inside the stadium was very effective.

After breakfast we each worked out in the Fitness Center with Anne Marie working out on the treadmill and Keith working out on the Elliptical machine. We each used the weight machines as well. Keith also got a haircut on board the ship.

As we mentioned with enjoyed the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant last evening. You will see a picture on today’s’ Blog from last evening. We are with the headwaiter of the restaurant Willie. We first met Willie on this ship in the fall of 2005. He always goes out of his way ot make us feel very welcome each time we dine at Silk Road. We also see him each morning, as he is one of a couple of headwaiters assigned to the Lido Café during the morning hours. Several of the staff from Silk Road also work in the Lido Café during the daytime along with Willie.

We spent the rest of the day on board the Serenity. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the main dining room and we also took a nice walk on the Promenade Deck and also caught up on some reading and other activities. We also noticed some different ships in port today so we walked around to see which ships were in port. One ship we took a look at from the outside is one of the Sea Dream ships. It is even smaller than the Seabourn Pride which we went on last fall. This ship has a passenger capacity of around 94 passenger’s and a crew of a similar size.

In the late afternoon there was a Farewell Rio Sail Away Party as the Crystal Serenity departed Rio. They served complimentary caipirinhas during the sail away party.

This evening we enjoyed dinner in the main dining room. We each had swordfish this evening, which we had ordered, in advance with our headwaiter, Peter, the other evening. The fish along with all of the other food was delicious.

After dinner, we went to a cocktail party, which was sponsored by the travel consortium, Signature, that our travel specialist is associated with. It provided us with a nice opportunity to converse with our fellow passenger’s who are booked through TA’s on this cruise who are also associated with that particular consortium. We had a nice time at the cocktail party.

At 10:15 PM we gathered with many of our fellow passenger’s for the opening ceremony of the World Cruise Games. All participating athletes were invited to participate in the festivities and were asked to wear the shirt we were given the other day. As they say, “let the games begin!”

Tomorrow, is the first day of five consecutive days at sea so the nice thing about these games is that it keeps many passenger’s busy during this time frame and just adds to the excitement on the ship. Our approach to the games we entered is to have a fun time. We will not lose any sleep in terms of whether we win or not. We will just enjoy!

On Sunday, February 25 we arrive in the next port of call, which is St Helena, which is part of the United Kingdom. This is the Island where Napoleon was exiled after his defeat at Waterloo.

Keith & Anne Marie

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Day 1

We woke up early this morning so that we could have breakfast and then view Rio de Janeiro as we arrived this morning. The ship arrived in port at approximately 9:30 AM. While it was fairly windy on the open deck, the view of Rio was quite spectacular as we started our approach to this port of call. This is the first time that Anne Marie has been to this port of call and the second time that Keith has visited here as he was here several years ago on business.

When we docked a the cruise ship terminal there were several other cruise ships in port. This included The World which is the cruise ship where which is essentially has condominium ownership, The Seabourn Pride, The Celebrity Summit, The Holland Princendam (sp), a Costa ship and one other ship whose cruise line we were not familiar with.

Unfortunately, our tour excursion was canceled due to the fact that the tour could not meet all of Crystal Cruises security standards. We believe this is because the tour involved a visit to Favelas where there were concerns about providing sufficient security in this area. There were no other tours that we were interested in replacing this one with.

After arriving in port, we went to the Fitness Center to work out and then took care of some errands on the ship. We then had lunch in the main dining room. After lunch, we departed the ship and we took a complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal Cruises, which dropped us off downtown at the Sofitel Copacabana Hotel. The Hotel is directly across the street from a very nice beach area and there is quite a bit of shopping right nearby. We were warned several times to be very careful given the high crime rate in Rio.

On our way to the Hotel we drove by the stadium and grandstands, which will be utilized for Carnaval and we also passed by several floats. The streets are busy. The Carnaval related activities began last evening and this evening and tomorrow evening are the major events.

When we arrived back to the cruise ship terminal we walked over to the Seabourn Pride. We have sailed on this ship twice; most recently this past Fall from Copenhagen, Denmark over to London, England. We saw a person outside from the Seabourn Crew who we recognized and who also remember us. This ship is one of the smallest cruise ships and only carries 200 passengers. We were glad that we were able to stop by to see the ship since it was getting ready to leave shortly after we stopped by.

This evening several passengers will be attending Carnaval. We decided to pass on this and we look forward to hearing all about it from them sometime tomorrow. As we understand they will arrive to the Carnaval at around 8:00 PM and can stay anywhere’s from around three-to-seven hours. We decided to pass on this for several reasons including the cost (almost $700.00 per person), the large crowds and other factors related to the crowds. However, if we had decided to go we would have done this through Crystal as they provide transportation both ways and added security. While there can be problems in any city around the world, there are some added security issues in this city due to its history of crime and the fact that there is heightened crime given all of the tourists that are in town for the Carnaval.

In addition to the seven cruise ships; all Hotels in Rio have been fully booked for over six months.

This evening we went to the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant by ourselves to enjoy a quiet dinner and to celebrate Valentine’s Day since on the actual holiday we went to the Tango Show instead of enjoying a quiet dinner by ourselves. We had a wonderful time as we always do with wonderful food, great ambiance along with the wonderful service which is provided throughout the meal.

Tomorrow we will be in Rio until late tomorrow afternoon when it is time for the ship to leave port.

Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Day 2

Today, we spent another full day at sea on our way to Rio de Janeiro. Our ship will arrive in Rio about two hours later than planned tomorrow morning due to the high winds from yesterday.

We had breakfast in the Lido Café and, like yesterday, it was not very crowded. After breakfast, we worked out in the Fitness Center. Once again, Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill and Keith worked out on the Elliptical Machine for about an hour. Keith also worked out on the weight machines.

After breakfast, we signed up for the passenger Olympics that will be held during the upcoming sea days. We each received a nice shirt to wear during the games. Keith signed up for a variety of the table tennis and shuffleboard games and for basketball and for the walking relay. Anne Marie signed up for table tennis, basketball, shuffleboard, and for solitaire. It should be a lot of fun.

We then caught a portion of the lecture given by Smithsonian Theme Lecturer David Aguilar titled “What About Pluto?” We thoroughly enjoyed the lecture and plan to go to the next lecture that Mr. Aguilar gives sometime during the cruise.

We then went to the next lecture that was given by Dr. Art Ulene. As you may recall, Dr. Ulene appeared several time each week on NBC’s Today Program for thirty years. This is his first time lecturing on board Crystal Cruises and his lecture was wonderful. The title of today’s lecture was “Add Life to Your Years: Dr Art Ulene’s Prescription for Vitality.” He covered twenty-one recommendations in support of this topic. Dr. Ulene will give two more lectures on this segment of the World Cruise and we plan to attend these lectures. We were very impressed with what he had to say.

Following Dr. Ulene’s lecture we went to team trivia. Our team finished in a tie for second place. After lunch, we had lunch in the main dining room with one other couple from our trivia team.

Before dinner this evening we went to see the play given as part of the Repertory Theatre at Sea. The name of today’s play was Beau Jest a comedy by James Sherman. The play was quite humorous. We really enjoyed it as we have the other plays we have seen on board the Serenity that are part of the Repertory Theatre at Sea.

Once again, we enjoyed dinner in the main dining room. We ate with one other couple. The service was wonderful, the food very tasty and the presentation of each entrée was outstanding. We have a wonderful senior waiter, waiter and headwaiter.

Last evening, we learned that our tour for tomorrow in Rio was canceled, as the tour did not meet the security standards of Crystal Cruises. While we were disappointed to learn of the cancellation, we are glad that Crystal scrutinizes each tour and we obviously concur with the decision to cancel the excursion. After speaking with representatives at the shore excursion desk, our plan at this point is to take the complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal into Rio sometime in the afternoon.

Keith & Anne Marie

En Route To Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Day 1

Last evening we set our clocks forward one hour due to the time zone change. We woke up fairly early this morning and had breakfast in the Lido Café. Once again the folks on the Lido Deck have rotated so we now have other staff assisting us in the morning. We know many of them from previous sailings and from seeing them in other areas of the Lido Deck. Essentially, there are three teams and they rotate every segment. Currently, we’re on the third segment of the World Cruise so next time around we will have the staff in the Café who assisted us on the first segment. They are all so very nice. Most of the staff on the Lido Stewards are from the Philippines and typically they work about nine months straight and then go home for two months. They are such outstanding individuals. They have a tremendous work ethic and are genuinely very caring and nice people who go out of their way to make each passenger feel special. We enjoy talking with them and learning more about them, their life at home and about their families.

After breakfast we worked out in the Fitness Center. Keith worked out on the Elliptical Machine for a little over an hour and Anne Marie did likewise on the treadmill.

The ship is about two-thirds full and between that and the time zone change there were not many people in either the Lido Café or the Fitness Center while we were in each venue.

Later in the morning we attended a lecture given by best selling biographer and Time magazine’s diplomatic correspondent, Christopher Ogden. He has lectured on Crystal for almost ten years. He has written several books including Life of the Party, which is a biography of Pamela Harriman. This book was on the New York Times bestseller list for five months and also became a television movie. He has also written other books including a biography on Margaret Thatcher. Today’s lecture was titled “The US and Latin America: Not Such Good Neighbors”. We enjoyed the lecture and it certainly gave us lots to talk and think about.

Crystal offers a wonderful lecture program throughout the year and expands on the number of lectures offered during the world cruise. We look forward to these and other lectures over the course of the cruise.

After this lecture we attended Team Trivia. As this was the first day of the third segment, new trivia teams were added. Our team finished in a tie for second place today and is only one answer behind the top team. So, we are off to a good start. We had a wonderful lunch in the main dining room with some of our fellow Team Trivia teammates and two other couples.

This afternoon Keith went back to the Fitness Center to lift weights while Anne Marie went to needlepoint to pick up a needlepoint kit.

This morning during Christopher Ogden’s lecture the seas were quite choppy and it was very windy. It has been better this afternoon.

This evening is the first Formal night of this segment so we kicked off the night with the Captain’s Formal Welcome Reception. This reception provides a wonderful opportunity to talk with fellow passenger’s, to greet the captain and to also hear him welcome all passengers to the ship for this segment of the world cruise. At the reception we took a picture with Rosano and Earl from the Lido Staff who showed us to a table at the reception. The other picture shows Captain Otto.

Following the reception we had dinner in the main dining room. As one of our tablemate couples is on the overnight shore excursion there were four of us at dinner this evening. As we’ve mentioned before, we really enjoy the formal nights as most of the men are in tuxedos or white dinner jackets with the remainder in dark suits and the women are in formal dresses or other formal outfits. Everyone looked so wonderful this evening all dressed up.

Tomorrow we will have another day at sea as the Crystal Serenity cruises northward to Rio. We will arrive in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday morning.

During this segment of the world cruise Crystal will host their version of the Olympics for passengers and crew. It will be held on the sea days when we make our way from South America over to Africa. There are two former Olympic Medalists on the cruise They are: Dorothy Hamill and Tracy Evans. We will share more information about the Olympic games and the former Olympians when the games commence.

As we mentioned, we enjoy reading your posts, so we welcome those of you who would like to post on the Blog.

We wish everyone a wonderful weekend.

Keith & Anne Marie

Buenos Aires, Argentina Day 2

Last night we left the ship at around 9:30 PM for our trip to a Tango show. Our drive over to the Tango took about 45 minutes. On our way, the tour guide pointed out a variety of famous sites and also explained the history of the city and the Argentinean Tango.

The Tango show that we saw was performed at La Ventana. When we arrived at the venue we were seated at tables and our table was located fairly close to the stage.

All of the guests for this particular show were from Crystal and we would estimate that there were about 120 guests in attendance. The performance was wonderful and included Tango dancing performed by four couples. There was also a female vocalist who impersonated Evita, and a male vocalist. There were seven musicians who played music for both the vocalists and the dancers. There were also other musicians who played folk music and one man who also danced and performed for us. The show ended around midnight. Interestingly enough, another performance was held directly after ours for another crowd. Everyone we spoke with enjoyed the show and we were all happy that we had chosen to attend this show.

This morning we woke up a little later than we usually do since we had gotten back to the ship so late last night. After having breakfast in the Lido Café and working out in the Fitness Center we took the complimentary bus provided by Crystal back into town.

We walked around and we saw the Teatro Colon, which is one of the top five Opera Houses in the World. It was inaugurated in 1908 and since that time some of the most famous opera singers have performed there.

We also saw the Obelisco whose shape is similar to that of the Washington Monument. This landmark was built in 1936 at the spot where the very first national flag was raised. It is 221 feet tall.

Before returning to the bus, we walked along various streets around the city and enjoyed the wonderful city atmosphere. After returning back to the ship we had lunch in the main dining room with another couple who we had sat with at dinner during the last segment of the World Cruise.
Buenos Aires is a great city and as we mentioned yesterday, the people who we spoke with during our time here were all very friendly and helpful to us.

Our only regret is that we did not have time to have dinner at a local restaurant during our stay here. While we had received some wonderful recommendations for dinner, given the hour we needed to be back on the ship to meet our tour for last nights Tango show, there just wasn’t enough time to make the show if we tried to eat in town.

This evening and all day tomorrow we will be at sea as we make our way towards Rio de Janeiro.

This evening we went to the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant with one of the two couples from our dinner table. The other couple will be off the ship for the next three nights visiting Iguazu Falls, which is a famous and fascinating waterfall where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay intersect. They will meet back up with the ship in a few days while we are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We look forward to hearing all about their time in this beautiful location.

Keith & Anne Marie

Buenos Aires, Argentina Day 1

We arrived in Buenos Aires at about 5:30 AM this morning. This is the port of call where the second segment of the World Cruise ends, and the third segment begins. Over 500 passengers disembarked the ship at this port with about 200 new passenger’s embarking the ship. In total, the ship will carry about 620 passengers during this segment of the World Cruise.

We woke up early this morning so that we could give our best wishes to those passengers who we got to know during the cruise who were disembarking the ship. We ate breakfast in the Lido Café. After finishing our meal and extending our best wishes to several passengers we got ready to disembark the ship so that we could walk around Buenos Aires.

We visited this wonderful and beautiful city this time in 2005. To us, Buenos Aires is very cosmopolitan and has many characteristics similar to other charming cities that one can visit within Europe. We like seeing the architecture of the beautiful buildings and the people are very friendly and out-going.

Buenos Aires has a population of approximately eleven million people. It has wonderful restaurants, museums, and a European-influenced architecture.

We took a complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal from the cruise ship terminal over to Florida Street. We walked on this street and along other adjacent areas for most of the morning. There was much to see, very friendly people to talk with and the weather was wonderful.

When we arrived back to the ship, we had lunch in the main dining room and then after taking care of a few items we worked out in the Fitness Center and we took a nice walk on the ships Promenade Deck. We also ran into our headwaiter from the first two segments of the cruise, Bruno, and wished him our best as he goes on vacation. He will return to the ship while we are still on the World Cruise as headwaiter of Prego, which is the Italian Specialty Restaurant on-board, the Crystal Serenity.

This evening we dined at our new dinner table. We have a new waiter, senior waiter and headwaiter. Our headwaiter is Peter who some refer to as tall Peter. When we last sailed this ship, he was our headwaiter and we enjoy him a great deal. We sat with our new tablemates and had a great time talking with them. We are looking forward to dining with them during this segment of the World Cruise.

Later this evening we will go to a Tango. We will leave the ship around 9:30 PM and will let you all know about it when we post tomorrow.

We wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine’s Day.

Keith & Anne Marie

Montevideo, Uruguay

This morning we arrived at Montevideo, Uruguay.

Last evening we set our clocks forward one hour due to the time zone change in this port of call. At the same time, we woke up fairly early, as we needed to meet our tour at 8:10 AM this morning

We had breakfast in the Lido Café as we do each morning.

The shore excursion that we went on was a complimentary shore excursion provide by Crystal Cruises. Each segment of the World Cruise includes one complimentary excursion for both full World Cruisers and those passenger’s booked on individual segments. The excursion was called “A Day at the Races”.

After we disembarked the ship, we were taken on a thirty-minute drive by bus where we arrived at the Hippodrome. We drove through various areas of Montevideo on our way to the Hippodrome, which is a horse racing track. This facility was recently refurbished. Before we entered the facility we were given two tickets each to use to bet on the two horse races. Passengers could also purchase more tickets inside the track if they were interested in placing additional bets. We were shown around the facility. There were a variety of areas to sit at and this event was for Crystal Cruises only. We were offered various drinks including soft drinks, water, wine and champagne and then were offered various appetizers. Later in the program a variety of cooked foods were served such as chicken and beef. Ample time was provided for each person to place their bets and we saw two races.

Five horses competed in the first race and six horses competed in the second race. We weren’t given much information to determine our bets other than the name of the horse, the jockey and the trainer. We had the choice to bet either for the horse to win, place or show. So, in the end Keith took the logical approach, which was to base our selections on names of horses that we liked best. ☺ We are happy to say that this strategy worked as we picked a winning horse in the second race. At the completion of the horse race a couple of awards were given out and speeches were given by our cruise director and one of the dignitaries who was in attendance from the local government.


In terms of Montevideo it is Uruguay’s only large city. This city represents almost half of the entire population for Uruguay and is one of South Americas major seaports. It is home for much of the South Atlantic fishing fleet.

After arriving back to the ship from our tour, we had lunch in the Crystal Dining Room with two other couples who we spent the excursion with.

After lunch, we took a walk on the Promenade Deck and then later in the afternoon Keith worked out in the Fitness Center.

This evening we went to the Silk Road Japanese Specialty restaurant where we dined with Ambassador Peck and his wife Ann. The food and the conversation were outstanding We are sorry that the Ambassador and Ann will be disembarking the ship tomorrow morning in Buenos Aires and we look forward to sailing with them at some point in the future. They are both wonderful people.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Buenos Aires at 5:00 AM. We will have all day in Buenos Aires tomorrow and will also be there overnight. Tomorrow morning many of the passenger’s will be leaving the cruise ship while in the afternoon new passengers will be arriving to begin the next segment of the cruise. This will be a busy day for the crew, as they need to get ready for the new passengers who will be embarking the ship. At the same time, some from the crew will be going on their vacations while other crewmembers will be joining the ship at this port of call.

Keith & Anne Marie