What To Do With Those Extra Sea Days

Since this cruise has now officially gone down in Crystal history as having the largest number of cancelled port stops for a single itinerary - and given some of the itineraries that's quite a surprise - we thought we'd devote one blog post (be it originally Galway or Londonderry) to sharing some of the things we did on board during the cruise. We did actually have a scheduled sea day between Londonderry and Portland; at least that stayed the same!

One of the specialty restaurant choices on Serenity is Tastes, up on the Lido Deck. The menu is tapas-style, with a number of choices of appetizer and entree type foods, served on platters for sharing for two people. We actually went twice; the second time to have all the things we didn't have previously!

Why not get a glimpse at the menu?

The Steak and Fries

Shrimp, and Tacos at the back

The Sunset Bar is at the front of Palm Court, and, except for the dancers, private functions and the Captain's parties, is usually very quiet. A nice alternative when The Avenue Saloon becomes a bit noisy.

The Palm Court during dance time

Outside the Sunset Bar awaiting sailout

Sunset from Palm Court

Usually we are seated at an officer's table in the Dining Room, and this cruise was no exception. There must be a note on our file somewhere, because we always seem to sit with the Chief Accountant! Yvonne must have been on vacation (we've sat with her at least twice) as our table hostess was Brigitte Klar from Dortmund in northern Germany. We ended up with a good group at our table, although two ladies travelling together only came in twice. When we finally met them, it turned out that Monica had been helping them out at the knitting group.

With Captain Vorland at the Welcome Party

Our table. The man and woman standing at the outsides
were not regulars at our table, but we had a good time
with Judy and Joe (standing, centre) and Ginger and
Charlie (seated beside Brigitte)

We don't do this very often, but we had asked Giuseppe, our section headwaiter, to special order what we call 'Joanne's Gnocchi', since she had special-ordered it on the ship when we were all there a few years ago. Of course, that night also happened to be schnitzel night, which we didn't know beforehand, so, breaking with our usual rule, we had a bit of each. That night was also one of the evenings that Brigitte would be at the table. The problem was that our other two regular couples were going to Prego. Larry had happened to run into Brigitte during the day and let her know, so she ended up bringing a dining companion - the Future Cruise Consultant, Paula Jean. We had known Paula Jean for a few years too,  so we had a really nice meal.

Our gnocchi with a side of schnitzel

Brigitte and Paula Jean

One thing that Crystal always has is some kind of arts progam. Odyssey Art at Sea has usually been more geared toward painting and that sort of thing, but for the last year or so it has also included knitting instruction. Monica knew this from Keith and Anne Marie's blog, and as she normally takes some project along anyway, she decided to go to the get-togethers. There is an experienced knitter/instructor running the program; this cruise it was Betty who had her sister Sally to help out. Monica was among the most experienced knitters in the group and ended up helping 10 year-old Hannah with her projects.

Hannah already working on her second project!

We usually had a pretty good turnout

The final display - Monica's 3 hats are in the back along with Hannah and her Mom's;
the gorgeous scarf was knitted by Crystal Cove pianist Scott Mitchel

Hannah and Betty, the knitting instructor

Knitting was always held up in Palm Court in the afternoon, ending right around the beginning of Afternoon Tea time. We don't usually go to that, after all there's only so much one can eat in a day, but Monica did have tea with Hannah and her dad one day.

Ginger Twist Tea, Scones with Strawberries
and Cream, and a Rhubarb Streusel slice -
YUM!

We've spoken about our friends Keith and Anne Marie who are frequent cruisers with Crystal. We managed to get together for drinks at the Cove on the last formal night. We made Keith's blog post and now they've made ours too.

We had met Lorinc when he was a bartender, on our first Antarctica cruise. He was also onboard Serenity when we had the family cruise. Believe it or not, he's still there, and has been a sommelier for the last few years. He was also one of the first people we saw when we arrived. He always remembers the whole family and was astonished to see the photos of Matthew, Kady and Emmett. We had to get a photo with him as well.

And we did even manage to get to the gym a couple of times - something we're sure everybody would be expecting after all those food photos!