Packing Day

As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and this trip is no exception.


It is sunny and warm as we cruise off the north-west coast of Cuba and the cruise is drawing to a close. We attended the last lecture of this trip, Dr. Wolff’s discussion of the Titanic, a great thing to talk about on a cruise ship! After the lecture we did our daily two miles on the Promenade Deck and now we are packing. Actually we are already about half done. Unlike some of our cruising friends who wait until the last evening to start, we like to get it out of the way early so we can enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening. It helps that we have the walk-in closet in this cabin because it lets us get the packed suitcases out of the way.

Yesterday in Grand Cayman was a rather uneventful day. As we have been here several times, and it is a tender-serviced port, we elected to stay onboard and avoid the aggravation. Never mind that this was the busiest stop we had on our whole cruise: joining us in port were the Sea Princess and Carnival Valor, with a combined passenger load of around 5,000 if they were full. Apparently it was quite busy in George Town, so we were glad we hadn’t worried about going ashore.

Traffic Jam in Grand Cayman!

Monica took advantage of the time to go to the spa for a “detox” treatment. Unlike what some might think when they hear the word “detox”, this had nothing to do with alcohol. Heck, Monica’s bar tab up to the end of Day 18 was only $311!!! Instead, this involved having her body wrapped from neck to toes in hot seaweed and various oils and potions. This is apparently good for the body. While all this was going on Larry was hitting the gym and doing the laundry! Not sure who got the best of that deal!

After the last steak sandwich, double caramel ice cream (now known as Dulce de Leche as the ship is headed for a South America circumnavigation) and oatmeal raisin cookies, we’re completing the task at hand. Of course, Larry has already calculated the time he’ll have to spend away from his favourite treats: 110 days including tomorrow until we board Crystal Serenity in Dubai.

While we were sitting at the Starlite Bar for our after-dinner visit with barkeep Natalia, Mark Merchant, the ventriloquist who had been part of the entertainment for this cruise, came by and stopped to chat for what ended up being almost two hours. In exchange for him taking a (promotional) video of us on his iPhone, we got a couple of pictures of us with him. A great way to end the cruise!

We hope you’ve had as much fun following along on this journey as we have reporting on the experience. See you at home!

Food, Food…

And did we mention food? Of course, we have been showing off some of the spectacular food as we’ve been going along, and this being a Wine and Food Festival sailing, there’s even more than usual.  Along with the two guest chefs and Tony Abu-Gamin, there has been a wine expert on board who has been hosting wine tastings on some of the sea days. Some of our tablemates have gone to a couple of them, but Monica hasn’t. There’s only so much you can do during a day, and adding another glass or two of wine mid-afternoon doesn’t always appeal - especially if you're trying to keep some control over your diet.

Some people we met whom we have seen on previous cruises went to a special Vintage Room dinner, where Azmin Ghahreman developed the menu and did the cooking and the guest wine expert provided the accompanying beverages. They say it may just have been the best meal they ever had! Too bad the wine is such a huge part of the total experience, or it would be worth considering in the future.

As promised, here are some photos of yesterday’s Grand Gala Buffet. The menu items don’t change all that much from cruise to cruise - the chefs know by now what the big sellers are - but the presentation can be a little different every time. I don’t remember seeing the dolphin ice carving last time…

The march of the Penguins!

One of the spectacular ice carvings.  Wonder what they do with them when they melt!

Everyone's favourite Chocolate Fountain

Just a little bit of the dessert buffet:  Cream swans and cannoli - and look at that chocolate centrepiece!

Seafood & Sushi presentation

We also have pictures of pictures from events we talked about in our last posting:

Our table - the lady beside Larry is Yvonne.  Must have been a run on black formal wear that day!!

The Rum Punch (or Fruit Punch) sailaway

At the Captain's Quarters get-together

Today we’ll be in Grand Cayman for the afternoon. After we do our laps on the Promenade Deck, Monica has booked herself into the spa for a couple of hours - detoxing (and we don’t mean that in the way that first comes to mind). Larry, on the other hand, is going to spend part of that time in the gym.

This evening, Tony is going to be serving at the Starlite Bar before dinner again, and even if you don’t drink, it’s fun to watch him work and get some tidbits of information from him for making up your own combinations - with or without alcohol. We’ll update again later.

Sunny Days!!!

Sunny, sunny, sunny days!!!! (With apologies to Lighthouse!)


Well here it is Wednesday evening at the end of a very busy couple of days. We’re not exactly sure what we have done over these last couple of days, but we do know we have been busy!!! We’re thinking maybe we have been on too long and the days are starting to blend into one and other!!!!!

One of the things we realized we had to do this week was to start eating like “normal” people again. This hasn’t meant giving up oatmeal raisin cookies or anything terribly drastic (God forbid) like that, but we have decided to cut back a bit. You know, only two scoops of ice cream and four cookies at a time and only on days that end in “y”! It’s not a big change, but every little bit helps us stay in our clothes!!!

Tuesday was a day at sea on our way to Curaçao. Now, while we haven’t been “religious” about hitting the gym, we have been doing our daily two miles on the Promenade Deck since this segment started. Since the lecture programme this cruise has been a bit weak, yesterday we had some extra time on our hands so we increased our walkathon to three miles! That’s 11.1 laps for those counting at home! In the heat. And the humidity. And the wind. Did we mention the ship was doing 15 knots into a 10 knot crosswind?? Let’s just say some parts of the deck were easier to walk than others and we got some funny looks from the staff sunning themselves out in the bow area. But we persevered. And then collapsed back in our cabin. Never even made it to the pool!

This morning we arrived in lovely Curaçao, the largest of the former ABC Islands, which also included Aruba and Bonaire. We have been here three times previously so we were up a bit later, had a leisurely breakfast then thought we would stroll into town. That’s when we “discovered” we were not alone; Sea Princess and her 2400 passengers, plus Adventure of the Seas and her 3300 passengers! Now Adventure we had expected and the presence of Sea Princess (in “our” usual parking spot) explained why were docked back by the oil refineries!

One of the more interesting attraction to Willemstad is the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge. It connects “west” Willemstad (where we were) to “east” Willemstad and as the name would imply, it floats on pontoons. It is apparently one of the few, and also the largest, of its kind in the world. It has a wheelhouse that controls two large motors that pivot the bridge to one side whenever a ship/boat of ANY size needs to leave the harbour.

The Queen Emma Bridge open, with Sea Princess in the background.

As luck would have it, the bridge started to move just as we got to it and stayed open for quite some time. Long enough for the previously noted 5700 cruise passengers to converge on the bridge approach, desperate to get across to the other side (where all the shops are!!) to spend their money. That was enough to convince us, since we really weren’t going over there for any particular reason, to head back to the ship. The fact it was also 32C and humid as heck made the decision much easier. Returning to the ship, we did yet another three miles and then hit the pool area for the afternoon. A swim, hit the Jacuzzi for a bit, steak sandwiches, ice cream, oatmeal raisin cookies and a nap! A perfect way to while away three hours. We are now both nicely pinked meaning we will have that perfect tanned look that annoys the heck out of everyone back home!

For the first time on this cruise, we had a sailaway rum punch (well SOME of us had rum!) party, after which we had been invited for Cocktails in the Captain’s Quarters! While this sounds like a “big deal”, the reality is a little less so. This is the second time we have been invited. As background, we have sailed enough with Crystal now that we are usually seated at a table hosted by an “officer” on Formal nights. After the first invite two years ago, I asked our host, Yvonni Carlsson, the Chief Accountant, what the “criteria” were to be invited and her response was “It was my table’s turn.” Rather a deflating response to one’s ego. Well, as it happens, our table host this cruise is once again Yvonni and it was once again her table’s turn! But, since we are neighbours with the Captain (his cabin is at the end of our hall after all) it seemed only polite that we should attend. Plus he pays for the drinks! Truth is, there were about 25 people in a not-overly-large sitting room and the Captain was late. Something about steering the ship out of the harbour! He does have a really nice flat screen TV though!

This evening we had our last dinner at Prego, the Italian restaurant. There has been a film crew onboard all cruise shooting video for a new set of Crystal promotional videos. Our friend Norbert, the Maitre D’, had placed us at one of the nicer, more private tables and the head of the film crew asked if we would mind being filmed. There we were, “LIGHTS! CAMERA! Monica, you have spinach in your teeth!!!” Anyway they got some nice footage of Monica laughing so who knows if we will “make the cut” or just plain “get cut”. I guess we will actually have to watch the Welcome Aboard video next time!!

Tiramisu with a white chocolate Crystal logo, and chocolate & vanilla Gelato

Tomorrow we have another sea day on our way to Grand Cayman, our last port stop, followed by our final sea day before disembarking in Miami on Sunday. But that is still four days away and the Grand Gala Buffet is tomorrow so we will be back with more exciting tales.

Two Ports, No Waiting

On Sunday we arrived in St. Maarten to find that we were the only ship in town. A good thing from the crowd perspective, but many passengers were wondering if any of the shops would be open. After all, this was the first opportunity for most people to be able to flex the credit cards in $US at Caribbean-style prices!

As we’ve been here numerous times, we left the touring to the ‘newbies’.

The Golden Eagle Catamaran coming back from her tour to Tintamare Island for snorkeling and beach time.

We left the ship to wander around a bit, and, yes, to do some browsing. Quite a few of the shops in the pierside plaza were closed when we left the ship, so we took the water taxi to ‘downtown’ Philipsburg, where we found a little more activity, and did manage to get the couple of things we were looking for. Still, it was almost eerily quiet and definitely not what we have come to expect from our previous visits here.

The local government is in the process of building new pier facilities and basically doubling the size of the cruise terminal in preparation for the arrival of Oasis of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s 210,000 tonne monster, which goes into service in December. Throughout our visit, we couldn’t help wondering what will happen when Oasis arrives for her first scheduled visit. Fully loaded, she carries 6,200 passengers and about 2,500 crew (about 1/3 of whom would probably get some time off). She makes her first visit December 9th and we found out from one of the shop staff, she’ll be in with four other ships that day. Consider the equivalent population of a small town, about 15,000 cruise passengers, all ready to shop, descending on tiny Philpsburg..... Makes us kind of glad we will both be at work that day!!!!!

Getting back to the ship, we did our laps around the Promenade Deck and took some reading time. We had the most beautiful sunset of the trip so far, reflected in the clouds over the island.

The officers on the Bridge Wing at sailaway

It wasn’t until Antigua that we saw some really awesome Caribbean weather. Our overnight sail of 88 miles was uneventful, and yesterday dawned hot and humid. We didn’t even leave the ship, looking forward to a pool day. After doing our laps and 45 minutes in the gym in the morning, we put on our bathing suits and went up to check out the new layout and furniture on the pool deck. This furniture was only installed in Montreal just before we boarded for the President’s Cruise, and really hasn’t had a workout yet. Well, we fixed THAT. If, of course, you consider four and a half hours of making like a “deck potato” giving it a “workout”!!

Larry testing the new Jacuzzi

Trying out the new tile 'lounges' on the pool's edge.

There were seriously dark clouds hanging around just off the island most of the morning, and about mid-afternoon, Larry noticed some people on the Sun Deck of the Celebrity Mercury, in port on the other side of our wharf, looking out at something. That something turned out to be a waterspout - the ocean equivalent of a tornado! We managed to get a couple of photos of it before it disappeared. Some of our ship staff had been having a beach day and had actually seen four waterspouts form and die out while they were out. The weather moved in over the island after that and we had quite the thunderstorm, with lightning that carried on until well into the evening, for several hours after we sailed. Good thing we were going in the opposite direction!

The waterspout is that line coming down to the right of centre.

At Sea to St Maarten

And on the first sea day, we ate!! And on the second sea day we ate!! Again!! Actually we have had three sea days (including today) so far on this cruise and each one has started with a cooking demo! The first two days we had a husband/wife team, Giuliano and Lael Hazan (son and daughter-in-law of the famous Marcella Hazan, if anyone follows Italian cooking in America), demonstrating Italian cooking. Today we had a different chef demonstrating Caribbean curry dishes. The Italian dishes are available on the menu at Prego and we sampled three of them last night. They were as tasty as they looked. Tomorrow night the other guest chef, Azmin Ghahreman, will be presenting the lamb and fish curry dishes (the ones he did today) on the menu in the Dining Room. If they taste as good as they looked and smelled……..

Giuliano Hazan demonstrating...

...and us tasting his recipes at Prego

Azmin Ghahreman

This being a Wine and Food theme cruise, and having covered the food, later today Crystal is going to try and get us all drunk! The other celebrity onboard is Mixologist Tony Abu-Ganim of Iron Chef America fame! He teamed up last year with Mario Batali in Battle Mango on Iron Chef. Crystal actually brought him in as a bar consultant two years ago and he completely overhauled the bar operations on both ships. He is responsible for them going entirely to fresh fruits and juices in all of their mixed cocktails and the barkeeps are encouraged to experiment. Crystal actually placed two of their barkeeps (both of whom we know) for awards at the annual bartender competition in Las Vegas in 2009. Later this afternoon Abu-Ganim is giving a demo in the Starlight and then will be “going behind the bar” for the pre-dinner cocktail hour for each sitting. It won’t do much for Larry (not too many ways to serve Perrier after all!), but it should be fun to watch! But then again, it will give us a perfect opportunity to test Abou-Ganim’s skill with the liquor-less cocktail.

Of course it’s not all eating and drinking. So far we have made (between us) NINE trips to the gym (and on five of them we actually did some work!) plus every sea day we cover TEN MILES on the Promenade Deck. We walk two miles and in the 30 minutes that takes, the ship, traveling at 16 MPH, covers eight miles. 8 + 2 = 10 miles covered!! Never let it be said that we don’t get any exercise when we are on a cruise!

Tomorrow we are in St Maarten. We don’t have any tours booked but we plan on checking out a few of the shops in town. Might even by a B-Day present for Monica.

A late night post-script:

During his demonstration, Tony Abu-Ganim had “volunteers” from the audience join him in preparing various cocktails. One of those chosen (she was the ONLY ONE who had seen him on Iron Chef. Well, Larry had too, but……) to assist in the preparation of a Manhattan was none other than Monica. She who had never HAD, let alone MADE a Manhattan in her life! The picture tells you how THAT turned out!! Monica and her “new best drinking buddy”, Tony!

The Bermuda Triangle

Well, we made it to Bermuda, although when we awoke this morning, it would not have surprised us to see The Flying Dutchman appear out of the very heavy and rainy mist! Actually we couldn’t even SEE Bermuda and thought perhaps the Triangle had finally succeeded in making the whole island disappear! And overnight nobody wanted to take a chance looking outside in case they spotted the eerie red glow of the Dutchman myth - we ran into some of the remnant weather from Hurricane Ida that caused quite a bit of rocking but fortunately not much rolling.


After Dr. Jay Wolff’s lecture yesterday about the myths and unsolved mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, we were all glad to see the navigation buoys leading us into the Royal Naval Dockyard. The Dockyard is the standard cruise port for Bermuda since it is too difficult for most cruise ships to navigate all the way to the capital of Hamilton. The channels are simply too narrow and modern cruise ships have gotten too big! Fortunately, the weather cleared not long after we tied up at the wharf and we had a lovely day.

After waiting an extra 15 to 20 minutes for the ship to clear (we figured that since Bermuda is still part of the British Commonwealth, they used the Parliamentary System of clearance - two out of three Immigration Officers voting in favour of letting the passengers off) we finally got under way with our tour. One of the couples Larry knows from Cruise Critic live on Bermuda and had suggested that the Island Overview Tour was a good option so we took that - and so did many of the other guests on board.

It took over 5 hours, but we went from the Dockyards to St. George’s (the other end of the island) and through Hamilton. Oddly enough, you could say we covered the entire ‘Triangle of Bermuda’ - the Dockyards to St. George’s to the South Shore outside of Hamilton - during our tour. On the way we stopped a couple of times for photo opportunities, and at the same time we decided where we would like to stay should we come back for a short land-based holiday. The Fairmount Southampton Hotel has a golf course attached, and it looked like one of the nicest on the island (of course some of the other golf clubs also came with an annual membership fee of $70,000 Bermuda Dollars - enough of a deterrent even if you did live here!).

All in all, we managed to avoid most of the weather - we had a few sprinkles during our half-hour stay in St. George’s - but we had to get back to the ship for a 4:00 departure. This is one of the few ports where, by Admiralty Law, not just local law, it is required that ships arrive AND depart in daylight. It apparently has something to do with the coral reefs that ring the island around and have caused over 350 shipwrecks in Bermuda’s long 400 year history.

We seem to be having a certain amount of luck with the weather this segment. Just as we were leaving the harbour, the weather closed in again and we left in the same kind of fog as when we arrived. Even though we will only be skirting the Bermuda Triangle, keep your fingers crossed…..

Newport to New York and Beyond

The first part of this trip has been pretty busy. So busy, in fact, that we are just now getting caught up here on Day 2 of the next segment!


After a leisurely sail from Boston, we arrived in beautiful sunshine, in Newport, Rhode Island, the smallest state in the Union. How small you ask? Don’t blink! The entire state is only 50 miles from bottom to top and it is not much wider!

Back in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, Newport was the “summer playground” of the ”Oh so rich” of New York City society and our tour was a photo excursion to some of the more grandiose “summer cottages”. We don’t know about anyone else, but these pictures are not exactly what comes to mind when we think of a “cottage”!

'The Breakers', summer home of the Vanderbilts

Sunset over Naragansett Bay

After leaving Newport, another leisurely overnight sail brought us to New York City and yet another sunny day. It’s actually kind of hard to believe it’s early November! We were docked at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, located, oddly enough, in midtown Manhattan at 50th Street & 11th Avenue. The first segment of the cruise ended Monday and the second segment started yesterday.

Monday’s tour was “Two views of New York”, a bus tour followed by a harbour boat cruise. Traffic in Manhattan on a Monday has to be seen to be believed. Take downtown Toronto in the middle of a blizzard and multiply it by four and you have some idea of how well the traffic moves. No one goes anywhere in a hurry and our bus was no exception. As this was a “sightseeing” ride, we zig-zagged back and forth across Manhattan, working our way to the south end of the island where we were to board the boat at 11:00AM. In a straight line we might have gone a mile. It took 90 minutes to get there. And then we missed the boat!!! After our guide had been assured that the boat would wait for us, we watched it pull away as we were half way down the pier! Our guide was not amused!! The free time we were supposed to have at the end of the tour shifted to the middle (although the hour and a half until the next boat sailing was probably more time than originally planned) and we did finally get the harbour cruise. We saw all of the major sites on and near the water: Battery Park, the Staten Island Ferry, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, and of course, the Statue of Liberty. All while being regaled with a non-stop monologue from the boat’s tour guide, who we are pretty sure is a member of the NYC Chamber of Commerce!! Man could he talk!

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Statue of Liberty

Monday being the “last day” of the first cruise, after our return from the tour we set about NOT packing and otherwise enjoying the fact it was NOT our last night on the ship and we didn’t have to get off the next morning. We were the source of much envy (and a certain amount of “abuse”) from our tablemates at dinner. We really had a great group at the table and were sorry that none of them were staying on with us. Not as sorry as they were, but………. As it turns out, we are staying at the same table for this cruise. Hopefully we will have another great group!



Tuesday was “turnaround day” for the ship, so we decided we would stay out of the way of those getting off and have breakfast “au cabin”. Promptly at 9:00, Victor, our Butler, wheeled in breakfast and as you can see from the picture, a hearty breakfast it was.

Once the shuttle for “in transit” passengers started running we went in to midtown Manhattan and made like tourists. We visited the observation level at the Rockefeller Centre, otherwise known as “The Top of the Rock”. It is not as high as the more famous top of the Empire State Building, but it does have one major advantage: you can see the Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock, something you can’t do from the Empire State Building!

As the ship was scheduled to sail at 7:00PM, we decided to have dinner at The Sushi Bar in Silk Road so we could be out on deck when we sailed past the Statue of Liberty. As you can see from the picture, we ate exotically and well. Since we also didn’t have to go to lifeboat drill, which was happening at the same time, we also ate alone. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves for most of dinner! The sail out from New York was spectacular and the Statue of Liberty is an impressive sight. Unfortunately the pictures didn’t turn out quite as impressively!

The Sushi Bar

Liberty by Night

Manhattan Skyline

Today, Wednesday, we are at sea on our way to Bermuda. It’s a bit overcast but it is at least warm enough that we actually sat out on our balcony for the first time! Good thing since we had just come back from the gym and really needed to cool off! As it happens, we are sailing along the northern edge of the infamous “Bermuda Triangle”, sooooo if you never hear from us again, you will know why!

More tomorrow. (They said optimistically!)

Adventures in Beantown - Day 2

For the FIRST TIME since we got onboard the ship, we awoke Saturday morning to sunshine and a clear, blue sky. It was still a bit chilly, we were told there was actually ice on the pool deck, but at least it wasn’t raining OR windy!! After an early breakfast, we set off on our tour, The Freedom Trail Walk.

After brief bus ride through the very quiet early morning (it was only 8:30!) streets of Boston, we arrived once again at the Massachusetts State House, the scene of the previous evening’s follies! The Freedom Trail is a walk through the story of Revolutionary War Boston and even though the State House was nothing but an open field on the side of Beacon Hill in 1775, the Trail starts there. Over the next three hours we passed by and/or visited places we had only read about in school history books (or seen on Cheers!) but never really thought we would ever see; Boston Common, The Old Granary Burying Ground, Faneuil Hall, The Old North Church and Paul Revere’s home, among many others. We even saw the site of the Boston Tea Party, which, oddly enough, considering they threw the tea in Boston Harbour, is now nowhere NEAR the harbour!! Our guide, Bob, was incredibly knowledgeable with all sorts of tales about the people and the times. We found out afterward that he has done 5000 tours over 20 years as a guide!!!

Paul Revere with the Old North Church in the background.  The church was where the signal lanterns were held:  "One if by land, two if by sea"

The statue of Benjamin Franklin in front of the original Boston City Hall.
After the tour ended we parted company with Bob and proceeded to Ye Olde Union Oyster House for lunch. This is the oldest continuously serving restaurant in the United States and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. The oyster bar is on the main floor and the dining room is on the second floor. It’s a small place with a very unique feature; an “oyster elevator” used to move shucked oysters (and beer!) from the bar to the dining room so as not to spill anything on the stairs!! Lunch was oysters (of course), clam chowder (we are in New England after all) crab cakes and fish! And it was delicious!

This being the President’s Cruise, there are a number of staff from Crystal’s Head Office in LA onboard. Earlier this week we received an invitation to dine with Mary-Catherine Wilks, the Director of Crystal Society, Crystal’s past passenger loyalty program and tonight was the night. We were seated with Mary-Catherine, Nikki Andrew, the Onboard Cruise Sales Consultant, a couple from San Francisco and two older single ladies. In the “small world” department, one of the ladies actually lives in Unionville near Markville Mall!! Mary-Catherine’s birthday had been a couple of days earlier and she had thought she had kept it secret. Wrong! The string trio, the Headwaiter and every waiter in the Dining Room came to sing her Happy Birthday! All organized by Dr. Jerry (and his wife Nancy), the other couple at the table. We got to know them over dinner (his sense of humour is similar to Larry’s !!) and as they are staying on to Miami as well, they asked us to join them at their table at dinner next segment. We found out afterward they are approaching 100 cruises on Crystal and it’s the Vice Captain’s table! Looks like we’re “moving up in the world”!!

Returning to our cabin at the end of the evening we discovered we weren’t the only ones who thought the President’s Excursion was something of a fiasco. In our mail slot was a letter from the Hotel Director apologizing for “not achieving their usual high standards” last evening and informing us that they are refunding us 50% of the cost of the excursion. A class move on their part in our opinion.

Adventures in Beantown - Day 1

After a rather bumpy ride from Halifax, we arrived in sunshine at the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal in Boston at Noon Friday. After a warm (???) greeting from US Customs and Border Services and lunch at the All-American Poolside Buffet (which is not served anywhere near the pool) it was time to get ready for the “highlight” of the President’s Cruise, The President’s Shore Excursion!


Crystal does a “President’s Cruise” at least once a year and each one includes a “highlight” excursion, usually something exotic. And expensive. Well this time they got one of those two right. The tour included a visit to the JFK Library followed by a tour and reception at the Massachusetts State House. The highlight was supposed to be “an address from the balcony” by a surprise dignitary. Since Ted Kennedy is no longer with us…………..

Promptly at 2:30PM (the only prompt thing that happened all tour) we left for the Library. This is a very impressive facility and someplace we do want to come back to. It starts with a short video that ends with JFK’s acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic Convention. You then enter a series of exhibits in roughly date order covering Kennedy’s Presidency. It certainly needs at least two hours to see everything properly. We got just over 45 minutes!

Then it was back in the buses for what turned out to be the highlight of the excursion. As we had to get, essentially, from the south end of Boston to the middle of Downtown Boston on a Friday, in rush hour, a police escort was provided. Four big highway buses and a van took off and raced through the streets accompanied by four Boston motor officers on gleaming Harleys, lights flashing and sirens wailing!!

At one point we entered Interstate 93 which had been blocked off for our passage. We had the ENTIRE highway to ourselves! Entering downtown, sirens still wailing, people were trying to see what “important dignitaries” were arriving in their fair city. Wonder what they would have thought if they had known it was just a bunch of cruiseship passengers?? Of course as one fellow in our bus joked, “we are late for dinner!”

After all that excitement, we entered the State House and were given a nice tour ending with a “cocktail reception”. Only problem was the tour ended at 5:15 and alcoholic beverages could not, by law, be served in the State House before 6:00PM. Would you believe Diet Coke and water served in wine glasses and cocktail nibblies?? For an hour?? Finally at 6:15 they usher us into “The Great Hall of Flags” for the speech from the “Celebrity Dignitary”. We’re not sure about anyone else, but WE had never heard of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and we aren’t exactly sure that he qualifies as a “celebrity”. After his 30 second speech, Gregg Michel, the President of Crystal made a 30 second speech, then they both left the balcony and 140 people looked at each with the same question plainly visible on their face “That’s it?? We paid all this money for that, Diet Coke and water?”

Back on the ship, we had an 8:30 dinner reservation at Prego, the Italian restaurant. I had made it that late because we weren’t supposed to be back until 7:30. When I asked about maybe moving it up a bit, I mentioned to the Maitre D’ that the tour got back early. He just rolled his eyes and said “I know.” That one gesture pretty much summed up the “President’s Excursion”! Now in fairness, when we got back to our cabin there was a very nice gift of a “coffee table” photo book of Boston signed by the author. Also included were copies of the City of Boston and Commonwealth of Massachusetts proclamations of Friday November 6, 2009 as “Crystal Cruises Day”. Of course no one thought to mention that little detail in their speech!

Lighthouse and Lobster - Halifax

After the rains of Montreal, the winds of Quebec and the rains AND winds of Charlottetown, we arrived in Halifax to broken clouds, no wind…………..and the sound of a man strangling a pig! Actually it was member of the Nova Scotia Highlanders Regiment welcoming us with a bagpipe serenade. Right below our balcony!!!


Our tour in Halifax was the aforementioned Lighthouse & Lobster tour, a trip to Peggy’s Cove followed by a lobster lunch. The tour started with a bus trip through the city, including the Citadel, the fortress that overlooks Halifax Harbour from the top of the hill that downtown Halifax is built into. For those who have never been there, Halifax is built into a very steep hill. It is not unusual to enter a building at street level, climb several flights of stairs and exit the same building at street level of the next street up! Larry has been to Halifax several times and the view from the Citadel is fabulous. Unfortunately all we had time for was a drive around it.

The trip to Peggy’s Cove is about 45 minutes through what we are sure is beautiful country in the summer. At this time of year, with most of the leaves down, you get the sense that Mother Nature is getting ready for hibernation, a feeling we had several times during the day. In each port, we have been the last ship of the season and Halifax was no exception. One advantage to that, of course, is no crowds! Ours was the only tour bus in the parking lot! We have been told that in peak tourist season you’re lucky to GET to the parking lot, never mind find a parking spot! Being the only ones there meant great photo ops, which means pictures of the lighthouse without several dozen strangers in the shot. Or in the case of the “Court Photographer” (AKA-Monica), with only several local seagulls in the shot. We wandered the village for about an hour, and again, the feeling of Mother Nature shutting down was pervasive. It was actually “picture postcard” perfect and very peaceful, with just the right mix of sun and clouds.

After an hour at the lighthouse we reboarded our bus for the short drive to Hubbard’s Bay and our lobster lunch at the Dauphinee Inn, another “picture postcard” location about 40 minutes outside of Halifax. The inn sits at the top of Hubbard’s Bay and has been run by the same family for eight generations, and “lobster supper”, or in our case lunch, is their specialty. Home made cole slaw, TWO one pound lobsters (cooked to perfection), followed by wild blueberry crumble. Yes, the lobster was as good as it looks in the picture. Monica, being her Mother’s daughter, did Mom proud! There was nothing left of her two lobsters but the shells and you had to look closely to make sure she hadn’t eaten THEM as well!!! Again, this is a place we will come back to in the future!

Reboarding the bus, we headed back to Halifax and the ship. We were docked at Pier 22, which in itself is not significant, but Pier 21 was the first point of entry for 1.5 million post-war immigrants. Including Monica’s Father in the Spring of 1952! Our driver told us about a research center in Pier 21 and suggested we might be able to find her Dad’s landing records, so we decided to check it out. The “happy ending” would have us doing just that, but unfortunately privacy legislation keeps these types of records under lock and key until 75 years later. Still in all , it was neat to realize that we were “walking in his footsteps” 57 years later! And yes, we took pictures.

Today, after a rockin’ and rollin’ night on the ocean, we arrive in Boston for the first of two nights. We are taking “The President’s Excursion” to the JFK Library followed by a champagne reception at the Massachusetts State House. After a musket welcome by Revolutionary War re-enactors, Gregg Michel (El Presidente de Crystal) is supposed to be making an “address from the balcony” (whatever that means) followed by a welcome from a “Massachusetts Celebrity”, the identity of whom is a surprise.

This evening we dine in Prego and tomorrow we are doing the “Freedom Trail” walk in downtown Boston. The good news, if The Weather Channel is to be believed, is that we should have sunshine and temps in the 16C range from now through next Tuesday in New York. That would be nice, but we shall see!

Until tomorrow………..

Bob-Bob-Bobbing Along

Off of the coast of Nova Scotia. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!


Since our last update it has rained. A lot! We had a lovely day’s sail down the St. Lawrence to Charlottetown with high hopes that the sunny weather would hold up…but more on that later.

On Sunday, we finally met all of our tablemates. On Friday we sat at a separate table (right beside our regular one) with Michael and on Saturday the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle party was scheduled in such a way that we would have had to rush dinner. We had our butler, Victor, make a reservation for us at Silk Road instead, and we had Sushi and such after the party. The people at the table include a doctor from LA who is traveling with her mother-in-law (yes, people DO ask how either of them can do it!) and two other couples. It’s a great table and we’ve managed to be almost the last out of the dining room on both occasions so far!!

Monday was the first formal night, and being the President’s Cruise, it was also our first opportunity to meet Gregg Michel, the president of Crystal Cruises. Guest photos with the captain on this occasion also include Gregg. He will be on board until New York and involved in many of the guest parties and events.  This isn't the greatest photo of a photo, but you get the idea.

Back to the weather. Tuesday dawned with heavy cloud but no rain that we could see at first glance. Of course, once we left the ship to go into Charlottetown it started sprinkling. By the time we got off the shuttle bus, well, let’s just say that the driver of the bus bore a striking resemblance to Noah (of Ark fame). The original plan had been to walk around town, stay for lunch and then come back to the ship. But after an hour in the rain, we decided that PEI mussels and oysters weren’t worth drowning for. You know it was bad when the high point of our visit to Charlottetown was taking money out of the Green Machine.

Back on board, we decided to hit the gym. Imagine our surprise to find Paolo, the maitre d’ of specialty restaurants (Prego and Silk Road) working out as well. The irony of sweating off the pounds in the company of the man responsible for making reservations so we can put the pounds on in the first place was not lost on us, as he reminded us at breakfast this morning.

Today is the last full sea day of this cruise, with a half-day between Halifax and Boston. It seems really odd to have this day so close to the middle of the cruise, and it is causing havoc with the lecture and sea day activities as they’ve had to squeeze them all in to a relatively short period. Even the Grand Gala Buffet was held today - see the photos. As usual it did not disappoint.

This afternoon, Gregg Michel and Thomas Mazloum, the senior vice president in charge of hotel operations, held a presentation and Question and Answer session where they talked about Symphony’s recent drydock, future plans for the ships and upcoming itineraries.

Much of Crystal’s senior management attends the President’s Cruise and uses it as an opportunity to talk to Crystal Society members. One way they do this is to host dining tables throughout the cruise so they get some time with small groups. We have been invited to have dinner with the Director of the Crystal Society on Saturday. Not sure what “qualified” us for this honour, (after all the “top” Society member onboard is celebrating his 193rd Crystal cruise!!!) but it should be interesting.

Well, time to start getting ready for the evening. Victor should be showing up any time now with pre-dinner snacks. (We’ll post his photo soon). It certainly is nice to have a butler to take care of the little things! And as our friend Keith warned us would happen, we are rapidly getting used to it!!!