On Board Crystal Serenity - Food and Celebration

 As this was the Crystal 35th Anniversary Cruise, of course there was some celebration, but because the cruise was short and consideration had to be given to two Nobu events, there was no Crystal Society Party. According to Andrew, this was the first time in the history of Crystal Society parties that there hasn't been one on a cruise... Instead, all of the celebrations were wrapped around the White Party that took place on the actual 35th anniversary date of Crystal Cruises, July 20.

The 'official' birthday cake outside Waterside

The birthday banner in the Crystal Plaza

Things kicked off with a balloon drop, with the countdown led by Gary Hunter,

and a little song and dance from Russ and the Crystal Ensemble

Then the birthday cake was passed around

and the party got started in earnest. We don't usually go to the White Party. We don't dance, so we like to leave the seats for those who do, and we'll go to the Avenue Saloon or to Palm Court. But this time we stayed to see what it would be like with Russ and Annette, the singer who replaces Karin Kovachova when she goes on vacation. Boy, was it an energetic party! When Annette took a short break, Russ stepped up centre stage and belted out 'Dancing Queen'....complete with his Mamma Mia boots!! He was a musical theatre actor in a previous life, so this is apparently not entirely out of character. He's been leading rollicking White Parties on Symphony and on Azamara Cruises before that for a number of years.

Now, on to the food!

We had just enough time to fit one of everything in on this cruise, including Beefbar, the new dining option that replaces Tastes up on Deck 12. Beefbar is an international group of restaurants dedicated to serving beef in all forms, and the Crystal ships are the only locations at sea.

We had dinner there on the first night of the cruise:

Bao Buns with Shredded Wagyu Beef filling

Ribeye Ham - Ribeye Prosciutto and panettone bread

Filet Mignon with Beefbar Sauce

Black Angus Steak-Frites and Pepper Sauce

Everything was delicious! The steaks were cooked perfectly and the fries, that other guests had raved about, also did not disappoint. If we had dessert, it was over at the Gelato Bar!

We also managed to try it out for lunch when we were in Oslo. We spent the first day there on the ship as we had seen much of the city in on our previous visit in 2023. There are specially designed Beefbar plates on the tables. I'm not sure if you can buy them on board, but the Beefbar website offers them for sale.

I tried the Quesadillas. They were small but packed with flavour, made with braised Wagyu beef (why would you braise Wagyu beef?? but it was delicious), two kinds of cheese and black truffle.

And Larry had the Steak-Frites Baguette with Beefbar sauce. Does he like Steak-Frites??? He actually had to take the frites out of the sandwich to be able to eat it, but he enjoyed every bite.

We're looking forward to trying some of the other dishes when we go back to Serenity in September.

We also had a brief look in at Osteria D'Ovidio. This was on the evening after our Gothenburg food tasting tour, so we weren't really hungry. We managed the Caprese Salad and a small plate of Gnocchi each. I don't have any evidence that we had any main course or dessert and truly, we can't remember!

The little 'amuse bouche' plate

Caprese Salad

Gnocchi

That was probably the last time we'd see these particular dishes, as Crystal has partnered with the Alajmo brothers to completely revamp the menu. One is a well-known 3-Michelin star chef and his brother runs their restaurants in Italy. This change should be effective August 1. I've just taken a look at Crystal's announcement of the new menu and a couple of my favourites will be on it.

And finally Umi Uma. We were there again a couple of evenings after the Omakase Dinner, and again didn't have a big meal. We had a sushi/sashimi platter and some tempura shrimp and vegetables, and that was about it.

One of the reasons for the truncated meal was that our reservation wasn't until 8:30 - Umi Uma is always very popular, but particularly so on this cruise. And the other was that it was the evening of the Anniversary Celebration and White Party, which started at 9:30. We didn't have a lot of time.

We'll be able to space our dinners out better on the next cruises, and in September we'll be meeting up with some friends, so I'm sure we'll be checking out the new menus together.