The New Crystal and the Start of our Sea Days

 Both Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony underwent major changes, mostly to the staterooms, once the new owner took possession of them. Our suite was not in the area where this had been done, so it looked as familiar as before.

Sitting area and dining table, which we use
more as a desk

Bedroom area

Once we were on board and checked in, which didn't take long as there are only about 150 guests on board for this voyage, we dropped our hand luggage and went for a stroll. We knew that the biggest changes in the public areas were redesign in Umi Uma and the former Prego, now Osteria d'Ovidio, as well as the replacement of the casino by The Lounge.

The Lounge - it is actually very nice and comfortable,
and this is where the Puzzle Tables are!

A model of the original Crystal ship, Crystal Harmony

Palm Court on our second day out of Reykjavik. The seas
had calmed right down after the first day and
have stayed that way.

The redesign of Umi Uma, with the large table
separating the restaurant section from
the area by the Sushi Bar

The new redecorated Sushi Bar

Osteria d'Ovidio, and a long overdue redo of
the room's design

These booth tables look very comfortable
for 4 to 6 people

So far we've had dinner at Waterside and Umi Uma, with the Osteria on tap for tonight. I'll put food into its own blog post. Look for that one tomorrow!

The entertainment has been the usual Crystal standard - excellent. In fact the production shows featuring the Crystal Ensemble are the same ones as before. This doesn't take anything away from them at all; they are just as good and performed with at least as much enthusiasm as they always were. And the female lead singer is one of our favourites, Sarah Elizabeth Combs.

The Irish dancing scene from the Welcome Aboard show - 
always a crowd favourite

Our first formal night was on Saturday Sept 8, when we met the 'new guy', Captain Vincent Taillard from France. He's very nice but not as talkative as those Norwegian fellows - Captain Vorland has to give him a few lessons on 'working the crowd'.

After the party we went for dinner with Jim Brochu and his partner Steve as well as another of the lecturers, Bill Miller. We had seen Bill off and on since our first Crystal cruise but had never had a chance to chat with him. He's presenting on Maritime history - there's probably not an ocean liner or cruise ship that has ever sailed into New York that he doesn't know something about.

And when we returned to our suite, Teresa's puffin was sitting comfortably on the bed.

We were happy to be back in one our old haunts - the Sunset - oops, sorry, renamed back to Palm Court - Bar. We met up with lots of old friends from the crew - bartenders, sommeliers, 'the pool guys' - and everyone was so happy to see us again.

Here's Jim with old standby Benjamin. He's been around forever and never changes a bit!

There's a good lecture program, including Jim's new 3 part series on Hollywood movie production studios, particularly RKO. We also have Craig Stadler, former PGA pro golfer, doing a talk or two.

I have gone to one of the art classes so far with another on the list for this afternoon. I'll post the results of my efforts.

It has been a great few days, especially with the good weather, and we're looking forward to reaching L'Anse aux Meadows tomorrow and finally seeing what we missed last year.