The Wrap-Up Post

 All in all we had a great time on Crystal 2.0 and are looking forward to the next time we're on board.

This wrap-up post is just one where I want to share the results of some of those activities that we have always enjoyed. During the COVID break, I had been working on pen and watercolour wash sketching with a view to starting some travel sketchbooks, and once we began cruising again in 2022, I brought my supplies along and have been working on these along with doing the blog.

Here's what I did during the cruise:

Jigsaw puzzles have become such a hot activity, especially on the luxury cruise lines, that I was very happy to see that they had been included at the new Lounge. I started this 1000 piece puzzle, and I think managed this much all by myself.

We were glad to see that Odyssey Art at Sea had returned with classes on sea days. We didn't have that many days, but I went to a couple of classes. My works:

And finally, my travel sketches for this trip. As I do all of them from photos, I always have to catch up on the last ones when we get home.

'Sun Voyager' from Reykjavik

A couple of the buildings at Norstead,
the complement to L'Anse aux Meadows National Park

The Lighthouse at Woody Point, 
Bonne Bay

Lobster huts at Fishermens' Cove outside
of Corner Brook

Lapin Saute, a restaurant on the
very picturesque Rue du Petit Champlain
in Old Quebec City

As always, we hope you've enjoyed following along with this trip to some new ports of call in our own country.

Our next cruise is set for November in the Caribbean on Oceania's new ship, Vista.

Quebec City - and More Food!

The final day of the cruise was spent in Quebec City. We sailed in early, arriving at 8 a.m., and the sail up the St. Lawrence past the Island of Orleans was quite beautiful. No colour change in the trees yet, but when all those Sugar Maples start turning red, orange and yellow it will be spectacular.

The end of the island, with Montmorency Falls,
which we visited last year, in the distance.

We spent an hour after breakfast packing our suitcases, as we had an afternoon walking tour and a dinner date with Jim and Steve. We also wandered around the old town ourselves for a little while and then went back to the ship to meet for the tour. Here are some of the lovely old buildings we came across. Lots of good subjects for my travel sketches!

This is one of the murals in the old town.
The other, more famous one that depicts
300 years of history is covered up as
there is construction in the courtyard beside it.

As the afternoon tours were called in the Stardust Lounge, there were fewer and fewer people waiting, until there were only two left - us! It turned out that our tour had only the two of us plus our Tour Escort from the ship and a nice lady from Abercrombie & Kent, Crystal's new owner, who designs shore excursions. She was there to check out some of the tours and make sure all the local tour companies had everything properly organized.

Our guide met us outside the terminal and walked us over to the company offices, where we picked up 4 more guests for the tour. One of the other couples was going to be boarding Serenity when we left the next day, and the other was just visiting Quebec, but had sailed on Crystal before.

Once we started off on our tour, we found it very interesting, as our guide, Guy, took us through some of the back streets and offered a lot of historical information. But we were there for the advertised 5 course dinner which would be served in 4 different restaurants.

Course #1 at Va Bene, a new restaurant in the old town. Heirloom tomato salad with a very light Burrata cheese, and a glass of Italian wine for those who wanted one.

A view of the iconic Chateau Frontenac Hotel

Course #2 at Archibald Microbrewery and Restaurant. They don't brew on the premises here, but they do in some of their 6 locations. We had a small glass of their '1608' craft beer and a pipkin of delicious French Onion Soup, which is finished with the same beer. We recommend this as a casual lunch spot for anyone visiting Quebec City. It's so close to the port that we could see it from onboard the ship.

Inside the bar section of the restaurant they have
the most impressive Antler Chandelier

Guy thought we needed a bit of a walk after our soup, and we strolled partway up the hill to the Funicular which runs between the Old Town and Dufferin Terrace in front of the Chateau Frontenac. It is privately owned and sometimes it doesn't run. We were in luck, today wasn't one of those days.

Crystal Serenity from the Dufferin Terrace

And of course, we had to encounter more scaffolding! Our luck with finding iconic or historic buildings covered with the stuff is holding quite nicely.

Course #3 at Le Continental restaurant across the street from the hotel was a tableside flambe of Tiger Shrimp in a sauce of butter, cream, brandy and wine. This is one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in the city, established in 1954, and does more than 75% of the cooking at your table. These guys in the white jackets aren't headwaiters, they're chefs in their own right!

And our final stop, for Courses #4 and #5, was in a rather different place - the old Augustine Convent, which is connected with the Hotel-Dieu, or hospital. The Augustine Sisters established the order in Quebec, as well as the hospital, in 1639, but once their convent shut down, and that was only recently, they allowed it to be converted into a wellness retreat. It also has a public restaurant called La Monastere.

The convent chapel with the hospital in behind

We had our meat course here, along with lots of information about the retreat, the restaurant and the food, from the head chef. Everything is organic, mostly gluten and lactose free, and sourced from within l50 miles of Quebec City. It was a very impressive and delicious end to our meal.

Course #4 was Slow Roasted Wild Boar Ribs with fresh green salad and a Savoury Granola created by the head chef. Very different and interesting, and the wild boar did taste more like pork than chicken! The boar is actually from a 'free range' boar farm about 50 km outside of the city.

Course #5 was a dessert of homemade Vanilla (yes, it is purple but tastes like vanilla) Macaron and traditional Creme au Sucre, or Quebec Fudge. The chef came up with the ideal of drizzling balsamic vinegar over the fudge, and it cuts the sweetness with a bit of acidity.

Overall it was a really great tour and we found some restaurants we will definitely try again when we are back in the city. 

We got back to the ship with about an hour to spare before we were meeting Jim and Steve, and were planning to just sit there and watch them eat. It turned out that we each had a salad and a half-portion of one of the lighter options on the menu, and, as usual, a great time with our friends.

One more post to come to close things off for this trip.

The Food Post

 A big part of any cruise is the food, and Crystal's has always been right up there with the best. We were looking forward to tasting some of the old favourite dishes, and seeing what changes had been made in Umi Uma and in the new Osteria d'Ovidio. Here's a look at some of what we ate (we are back at home as I post this):

Waterside, the main dining room, still had delicious menu selections that changed daily. 

Tuna Tataki appetizer

Lemon Sole

Berry crumble tart with Vanilla ice cream

On the first formal night, we had a seafood extravaganza:

Caviar

Fresh Oysters

and Lobster

Waterside's food and service were impeccable as always on the other days we dined there:

Larry's seared Ahi Tuna

and I had Lambchops with a
mini Eggplant Parmigiana on the side

and the most decadent dessert all cruise -
Grand Marnier Souffle

Another formal night at Waterside, with another set of regular 'formal night' dishes, including a surprise from the old Prego menu:

More caviar, but on a bed of creamed potato

Oysters Rockefeller

 The very, very famous Prego Mushroom Soup
in a bread bowl

Beef Wellington

Sea Bass

We tried the Osteria d'Ovidio early on, and found the food quite good, although the menu had changed completely from the old Prego. Since the new owner of Crystal is Italian, he wanted to make the menu authentic - except that most of the guests loved the 'American Italian' offerings from Prego. Some compromises will be coming, I'm sure.

A little trio of 'amuses bouche' - air dried prociutto, cheese
and a crab raviolo

Lobster medallions

Beef carpaccio

Gnocchi

New Style Minestrone Soup

Duck breast with beets and balsamic
(a little odd, but it tasted good!)

Lamb chops

The casual eating spots on board are the Trident Grill which is open all afternoon for burgers, wraps and the like, and Tastes. Tastes is open for Late Risers Breakfast, lunch on most days, and Asian inspired dinners served family style.

The famous Tastes Chinois Chicken Salad

Everyone knows Larry loves a Steak Sandwich
at Trident Grill

We had dinner at Tastes once, as the specialty restaurants were not open every night on our cruise. There were only 150 guests, so there was a rotation of days when one or the other was closed.

Deep fried shrimp balls

Tuna tartare wrapped in lettuce

Lamb chops, fish tacos and
roasted cauliflower

and a Key Lime Slice (shared) for dessert

And of course, there's Umi Uma. They haven't made too many major changes to the menu here, but Nobu has update a few dishes. We didn't get a chance to sit at the Sushi Bar; Umi Uma was the most popular by far of the specialty restaurants on board.

New Style Yellowtail Sashimi

Beef Sashimi

A selection of Sushi Rolls

Stir Fried Shrimp and Scallops

Wagyu Beef Steak with a trio of
dipping sauces

And we also attended a Vintage Room dinner, where we were presented with a special dinner, with paired wines for those partaking, by the Executive Chef's team. These exclusive dinners are for a maximum of 14 people and only may happen once per cruise. One perk of reaching milestones of 50 (hopefully still) or 100 cruises is a special Vintage Room dinner with your choice of guests.

Duo of Alaskan King Crab Meat

Lightly smoked Salmon on a Morel Mushroom Sauce

Roasted Tomato Risotto

Wagyu Beef Tenderloin

Dark Chocolate Marquise with Raspberry Sorbet

Head Sommelier Jiri along with the
chefs responsible for the dinner

So let's hope you haven't gained 5 or 10 pounds just looking at these photos! We managed to be active enough, or maybe kept enough of a handle on breakfast and lunch, that we still managed to fit comfortably into our clothes on the way home. But this was just a little break - we still have our stop in Quebec City to tell you about ---- where we did a Walking Tour of the Old City that brought us to 4 restaurants for a full 5-course meal!!