Photos of birds and two deer that Keith took at the Port of Call at Cartagena. When we were hear in November, we did not see any deer.
On most days, we have lunch at the Lido Cafe and are assisted by teams of Lido Deck Stewards. On each cruise the Lido Deck Stewards rotate to one of three or more areas including the Lido Cafe, the Trident Grill and Tastes casual dining venues, and the pool area. These three Lido Deck Stewards are part of the wonderful team working the Lido Cafe during this voyage. They are from Left to Right Raymond, Reggie and Clark. To us and many of our fellow passengers they represent the heart and the pulse of the ship. Words cannot adequately describe how truly remarkable they are and many of the Lido Deck Stewards have been with the company for many years.
We’re having some problems posting pictures so today we are posting pictures from yesterday and hopefully tomorrow we will post pictures from today. It seems like the early hours of the morning are the best for getting the pictures posted. The problem might be the host site for the blog.
We wanted to begin to say that our thoughts and our prayers and our hearts go out to all of the victims and their families who were directly impacted by yesterday’s violence. Words cannot adequately describe our shock, disappointment, and sadness for the horrific violence that took place. There are likely many lessons that will be learned about what led up to all of this.
Before learning of this tragedy late last evening when we arrived back to our room, we enjoyed another wonderful evening on the ship last evening.
At 5:00 PM we attended a Matinee Production Show of Standing Room Only. This show featured lead vocalists Tara Khaler and Eric Strong along with the wonderful ensemble of Crystal singers and dancers and the Galaxy Orchestra led by Raphael Derkson. You will hear us say this as often as we have seen these shows we enjoy them each and every time. They are classic shows and each time we see them we pick up on something new and just the fact that there might be different dancers and singers that can change up the show. We thoroughly enjoyed this show with all of the songs and dance that are played from several Broadway shows. We had arrived early and sat in the front row.
Afterwards, we dined in the Main Dining Room with two very special senior officers and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, with terrific service and a wonderful conversation.
We had pre-ordered the dinner for the evening with Headwaiter Augustu. Augustu made us his wonderful Caesar Salad. We still have a running joke with Augustu from last year. As background, we do not eat red meat very often on the cruise and mainly have seafood. Last year, Augustu was making what we thought was a special Caesar salad for another table as we saw a large wooden bowl from the distance. His description of how he let it sit didn’t make a whole lot of sense to us but we figured he knew something we didn’t. Also, keep in mind that our senior waiter also knew that we had never ordered any red meat. Augustu asked if we would like the item he was preparing and we said sure thinking it was Caesar Salad. About 10 minutes later our Senior Waiter, Pedja, comes to the table with two plates of what Augustu was making with a funny look on his face. The look on Pedj’as face was “I cannot believe you have ordered this item since I have never seen you order red meat”. Well, as it turned out it was not Caesar Salad but it was Steak Tar Tar. We laughed when we realized that while we thought that Augustu was talking about Caesar Salad that he was talking about Steak Tar Tar. When we explained to Augustu what had happened the three t of us had tears rolling down our faces from laughter. To this day, we still laugh about it and talked and laughedabout it just the other day. On a related note, Augustu would like to make us Tuna Tar Tar. Keith may try that but Anne Marie will definitely not.
We began the meal by ordering a delicious soup that was on the menu.
This evening we had Caesar Salad and it was truly Caesar Salad made with salad items and not red meat, which we had pre-ordered and Augustu made for our table. The salad was delicious.
We then enjoyed a wonderfully prepared and served surf and turf entrée that we had pre-ordered with Augustu. This is one of the few times during the cruise we will have red meat. It was also delicious.
For dessert, Keith had fruit and the others including Anne Marie had one of the desserts on the menu.
After dinner, we went to the Stardust Club where we watched the first half of the New York Jet versus Indianapolis Colt Football game. We enjoyed a drink and very nice conversation with good friends as we watched the game. Last evening’s games reinforced something that Keith would always tell our kids whenever they played sports themselves or attended a game as a fan which is that any team is capable of beating any other team no matter how good or bad they appear to be.
Keith awoke early and once again he enjoyed another nice workout in the Fitness Center. It is so easy to workout on the ship as we only have to walk up three decks and “voila” we are at the Fitness Center. We appreciate that the center is open 24 hours a day even when it is not staffed. Keith worked out on the elliptical machine for about ninety minutes. He stopped by the Lido Café and brought some coffee back to the room. He worked out for 90 minutes and towards the end of his workout he could out the window several fellow passengers making their way on the open deck to nice spots to view the transit of the Panama Canal.
During Keith’s workout he mainly watched reporting of the tragedy that has taken place in Arizona.
A little while later it was Anne Marie’s turn and she took an hour-long walk on the Promenade Deck. While Anne Marie was walking, Keith was out on the open deck taking pictures as we entered the Panama Canal.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room.
Today was indeed a very special day as we transit the Panama Canal. For those of you who have not yet transited the Panama Canal we truly recommend it and would also recommend that you do a lot of reading about it ahead of time as it will make the transit that much more informative and interesting. We are so very fortunate to have such an experienced destination lecturer as Richard Morgan on board the ship. If we remember correctly he has transited the Panama Canal nineteen times with Crystal and this will be something like his 150th transit of the Canal. He used to work for the Panama Canal and each person who works for them is required to transit the Panama Canal a certain number of times per year. As a result, Richard Morgan is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the Panama Canal and is very approachable so there is much to learn from him.
We are transiting the Canal in what is known as the dry season. About eight months of the year it is the wet season and in fact in December the rain was so bad that for about 14 hours the Canal was closed. The Canal operates 24 hours a day but the larger ships including the cruise ships transit the canal during the daylight hours for safety reasons. The much smaller ships can transit the canal at night. At our size there is very little distance between the side of the ship and the canal. The new canal is scheduled to open in 2014 and is on schedule to open on the day of the 100th anniversary of the existing canal. The new canal will allow for much larger ships to pass thru the Canal. A ship the size of ours pays around $225,000.00 to transit the canal as of 2010. We understand that the price has gone up around 16% in 2011.
While we are in the dry season, today was overcast. Around the time we entered the first lock it did start to drizzle. The overcast skies actually were quite nice as it was not as hot as it would be with the full sun and it brought out the beauty of the lush green landscape that was all around us. Before we entered the first lock, Keith saw several crocodiles about fifteen feet from the shoreline. While waiting to enter the canal Keith spoke to several fellow passengers. He met someone who lives jus about three miles from us (it is a small world) and he and his wife are not only on their first Crystal cruise but their very first cruise. They have loved the experience so far and plan to book another Crystal cruise.
During the course of our transit, the weather varied from being overcast, to some rain showers, to sunny skies. Even with some rain, we were able to enjoy the transit from various vantage points on the ship.
In between viewing the Panama Canal and the surrounding area we spoke with fellow passengers and many members of the crew throughout the day.
Once again, we had lunch at the Lido Café and as we ate we enjoyed all of the scenery that we could see.
In the afternoon, Anne Marie took a nice long walk on the Promenade Deck and continued to enjoy the scenery from the ship and Keith stayed outside as much as possible.
This evening we will dine at Silk Road and this will be the first of three consecutive nights that we will be dining at Specialty Restaurants as we have been invited to dine with others tonight and for the next two nights. We will post more about this tomorrow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY………..
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.“ Mark Twain
Keith and Anne Marie
