En Route To Hobart, Australia - Day 49

This is a picture we took only five days ago of the Christ Church Cathedral and the spiral (that's the steeple on the left had side of the photo) collapsed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who were injured or died from this catastrophic event, along with all of the locals from Christchurch.

Our photo locations last evening up at the Palm Court at the Crystal Society Reception were a bit limited because we wanted Anne Marie to be near something to hold onto with the ship swaying, particularly since she was in high-heals. Nevertheless, we were creative in finding some spots to take the photos. We didn't want to bother anyone to take a photo of the two of us since they would have to stand with nothing to hold onto.

Dinner at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant last evening with Pianist John Mentis.

The salad we enjoyed last evening. Keith didn't take the photo soon enough before the pepper was added to the salad.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

We first wanted to begin by saying that our hearts, thoughts and our prayers go out to all of the people of Christchurch, New Zealand who have been impacted by today’s 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Unlike the earth quake that struck this city just a few months ago, this time around some people died from the destruction and there are likely countless numbers of people who have been injured. We have only caught portions of the destruction that has taken place but some of the sites were the same places we visited only five days ago.

Highlights From Yesterday And Today

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Probably the biggest highlight is that we have been on a bit of a roller coaster as we sail the Tasman Sea. This is not a surprise as often the Tasman Sea can be somewhat rough. The swells became rather apparent late yesterday afternoon before we attended the Crystal Society Reception and continued through the evening and into today.

This morning was the first time since we boarded the ship that we did not exercise. Keith woke up at his usual early hour, walked up three floors to the Fitness Center and there was a note on the door that the center was closed and clearly this was done for the safety of the passenger’s.

There has been a few times where we have felt that we are on a roller coaster ride.

The ship was definitely rocking back and forth yesterday afternoon and last evening after we posted and this continued throughout the evening hours and into today.

In spite of the movement of the ship, we still enjoyed a very nice night on the ship last evening. The attire for the evening was formal and it was great to see so many of the guests all dressed up in their formal attire. As we have mentioned, we think this is one of the fine traditions of cruising.

We began the evening by going to the Crystal Society Cocktail Reception. This Reception is for all passengers who have taken one or more Crystal voyages and recognizes those passengers who have sailed on a significant number of Crystal Voyages. We celebrated a milestone and our names were mentioned.

The woman passenger who has taken the most cruises of any passengers on Crystal Cruises is on board the ship and we know here very well and she was recognized as this was her 250^th Crystal Cruise. Another couple was recognized as this was their 180^th Crystal Cruise and we know them from several sailings. In the case of the couple who was recognized for 180 cruises that equates to being on board the ship for approximately six and one half years. Another woman passenger who pretty much now lives on the ship most of the year was recognized as this is her sixty-fifth cruise. The reason her number pales in comparison to the other two that we mentioned is that she has not been sailing with Crystal relatively long. She used to sail on another but tried Crystal after the cruise line she had been sailing with eliminated the Ambassador Hosts except for long voyages. After trying Crystal, there was no turning back.

Ambassador Dance Hosts are the Male Hosts who are available to dance with solo women passengers or other passengers whose husband/partner doesn’t dance. Normally on most voyages Crystal has four Ambassador Hosts but on the World Cruise this number is usually doubled with eight Ambassador Hosts on board the ship as the World Cruise carries a significant number of solo female guests. Very few cruise lines have the Ambassador Dance Hosts.

The location of the Palm Court where the receptions are held is in the most forward portion of the ship on the highest inside deck so as you can imagine we could feel the swaying even more than being mid ship and on a lower deck. Kudos go to the Crystal Staff who served canapés, drinks, played live music, hosted the event and did all of this flawlessly in spite of the ocean swells that moved the ship from side to side and up and down from time to time.

While we did not dine in the Crystal Dining Room we wanted share many of the items on the menu with you.

The theme was a French Dinner, which is always a favorite for many of the passengers.

Appetizers included Escargots Bourguignonne, Chilled Seafood and Melon Cocktail, and a Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Tower.

Soups featured a French Onion Soup with Gruyere Cheese Croutons, Oxtail Consommé with Green Pea Biscuits and Vichysoisse.

Salads featured Panach of Crisp Garden Greens Tossed in Honey Buttermilk Dressing with Red Beets, Fresh Apple and Toasted Almonds and a Vegetable Nicoise Salad.

The Past Special was Macheroni al Torchio with Pancetta, Cauliflower, Tomatoes and Cream and the Salad Entrée featured Herb Marinated, Grilled Rabbit Loin on Assorted Baby Greens, Tossed in Raspberry Vinaigrette, Garnished with Snap Peas, Roasted Pear and Pecan Nuts.

Main Fares included Broiled King Clop Fillet, Coq au Vin, Pink Roasted Rack of Lamb and Entrecote which is Grilled Black Angus Sirloin Steak with Café de Paris Butter, Almond Broccoli, Braised Endive and Pommes Anna.

The Traditional Main Fares included Grilled Black Angus Steak Filet and a Broiled Fillet of Salmon. The Vegetarian Selection included a Freshly Baked Spinach and Wild Mushroom Quiche served with Chive Crème Fraiche and Tossed Mssclum as the Entrée. There were other Vegetarian and Lighter Side Selections.

For those with a sweet tooth there was the Sweet Finale which featuring “Paris” which is a French Grand Marnier Soufflé and Sauce Negresco and a “Champs Elysee” which was an Apple Tart Tartin, Opera Cake and Frozen French Vanilla Yogurt.

The featured Sugar-Free desserts included a Lemon Curd and a Vanilla Profiteroles with Fudge Sauce.

There were several nice Classic Desserts to choose from and there was also the Cheese Trolley.

We dined at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant with Pianist John Mentis. John has been playing the Piano for Crystal Cruises for many years after a long career with Royal Viking. He has been the pianist on all of the World Cruises we have been on. When we sailed on the 2007 and the 2008 World Cruise John performed at the Avenue Saloon and on the 2010 World Cruise and on the current World Cruise he has performed at the Crystal Cove. John is an outstanding pianist and also does the tuning while on board the ship of each of the Pianos. While we have spoken with John many times over the years this was the first time we had dined with him which gave us more time to get to know one another even better than before. We enjoyed a lovely conversation with John throughout dinner.

We each began our meal with a nice whole-wheat role and the salad that they have as a standing order for us. We each had beef consommé as our next course and then we each enjoyed the fish special entrée, which was absolutely delicious, and Keith had a large side order of steamed vegetables. Keith had mixed berries and Anne Marie had a frozen yogurt.

Christian the Head Chef for Prego visited out table as he has done very often throughout the cruise to check up on us and to see what we thought of the Seafood entrée and we told him how much we enjoyed it. Each evening two additional entrée items are offered and where possible this includes a fresh fish that has been brought on board from one of the local seafood markets along with a Pasta Entrée. It’s a nice opportunity for the chefs on board the ship to create some superb entrées on top of all of the other delectable items on the menu. Christian knows how much we enjoy the local fresh seafood. The plan is to bring on some fresh seafood while we are in Hobart. Words cannot always do justice to explain how much we enjoy the seafood entrees that have been prepared throughout our adventure.

We were fortunate to have set the clocks back an additional hour as we sail into another new time zone for the second consecutive night.

We have had some rough seas with the ship swaying more than it has at anytime since we boarded the Serenity on January 4. We slept fairly well as the ship rocked us to sleep. Because of the choppy seas, the Production Show, Across The Pond, was cancelled..

Once again, Keith was up quite early and made his way up the three flights of steps to Fitness Center feeling the movement of the swaying of the ship. As he approached the entrance of the Fitness Center there was a sign on the door noting that the Fitness Center was closed because of the rough seas.

Keith returned to the room and rather than trying to go back to sleep he did the laundry and then read and wrote. He stopped by the Lido Café around the time it opened to bring some coffee back to the room. The café is located towards the aft (back) of the ship but on deck 12, which is one deck below the highest inside deck where the Fitness Center is located so he was doing swaying as he made his way to and from the Lido Café.

Today is another sea day as we continue to sail to Hobart.

Alexander set up our breakfast in the room and we enjoyed another nice breakfast as we watched the daily morning show starring Cruise Director Gary Hunter and World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston. We forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that Keith called into the show yesterday morning and correctly answered on of the three Trivia questions that was asked during the show.

At 10:00 AM we had to meet with the Australian Authorities for a mandatory inspection in preparation for our visit to Australia. Yesterday they had the mandatory inspection for those guests who will leave the ship in Australia and today’s inspection was for those guests who will be staying on for additional one or more voyages following this leg of the World Cruise.

We enjoyed two lectures in the morning. The first was given by Ambassador Robert Hunter whose presentation was titled “How to be Commander in Chief: Some presidents get it right but some get it wrong.

Garrick Utley whose presentation was titled “The Marvels and Madness of Modern Media gave the second lecture. We remember watching Garrick Utley over the years. He anchored the weekend editions of NBC News from 1971 and 1973 and again from 1988-1993. He was also the senior European correspondent based in London from 1973 to 1979 for NBC News. He also was host of several network magazine programs, anchor of the Sunday edition of Today and moderator of Meet The Press.

In our opinion, these were the most articulate back-to-back lectures we have ever seen on any of the cruises we’ve taken. Individually we’ve seen other articulate speakers but never two in a row.

At 12:00 Noon we had our third round of Team Trivia for this leg of the World Cruise. We did well today and for this leg of the World Cruise we are now tied for first place with one final trivia game to go.

After Team Trivia, we enjoyed a very nice salad entrée.

Keith was originally scheduled to take an indoor spin cycling class this afternoon but the seas were too rough to take the class.

Instead we both read and wrote this afternoon and spoke with fellow passengers and members of the crew.

This evening we will be back in the Main Dining Room for dinner and we have also been invited to the Captain’s Quarters with some of our fellow passengers. We will post about all of this tomorrow.

We have two thoughts for the day. One of the thoughts relates to the movie that Keith enjoyed yesterday which is titled Invincible. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, the movie is a fact-based drama. I

It is about a devoted Philadelphia Eagles fan named Vince Papale who had just lost his wife and his job as a substitute teacher. By impressing his favorite NFL team’s coach (Dick Vermeil) in open tryouts and winning a place on the field he turns a terrible year into a winner.

TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY……….

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on.” Robert Frost

“Never give up on yourself, others or your team and be sure to pursue your dreams because anything is possible in life.” - Keith and Anne Marie

Keith and Marie