Final Three Days At Sea

We were able to post four pictures today.

Two are recent pictures of the stowaways who our stewardess has arranged in other positions. She has been very creative including the one where she put out a snack for each of them. ☺

The third picture is of Michele Lee and the forth picture was from the recent Sunday Jazz Brunch.

This morning marked the final three days of this cruise. We have enjoyed it immensely. It provided a wonderful opportunity for us to enjoy all of the amenities on the Crystal Symphony, talk with the crew and the fellow passengers, and to learn a lot from the various lecturers and from some of the other activities.

Given that we set the clocks back another hour last evening, Keith woke up early and enjoyed his daily workout in the Fitness Center. For much of the time he was alone in the center. He has enjoyed having many news channels to choose from and he kept up on the news about the financial situation on a variety of news and business channels.

Anne Marie is doing better but her cough still continues. Sometimes she is perfectly fine while other times the cough just returns. As such she continues to pass on the Fitness Center and then joins Keith for a nice long walk on the promenade deck later in the morning. Keith continues to help out around the cabin. ☺ Today, was wash day as we prepare for the time we will stay in Hong Kong following the end of this journey. He also brought back coffee from the Lido Café for Anne Marie to enjoy.

Speaking of Hong Kong, we have been notified that before we reach Hong Kong that at a predetermined time each passenger will have to have his or her temperature taken. We went though this last year.


Later in the morning, we enjoyed breakfast in the room. After breakfast, we enjoyed a nice long walk on the Promenade Deck. The weather was just gorgeous. The seas have been very calm today and there are times that we can’t even tell we are moving.

One of the things that we enjoy from our sailings is the opportunity to meet a variety of passengers on each cruise as they come from so many backgrounds from various States around the USA to various countries around the world. This cruise was no exception.

We took a quick count of the number of passengers on board who are listed in the guest list and it came to approximately 560 passengers. There likely are some additional passengers on board the ship who chose not to have their names listed in this booklet. The vast majority of the passengers have sailed with Crystal previously. In addition to those passengers from all across the USA, there are passengers on board from several other countries including Australia, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Spain, The United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, South Africa and Taiwan.

Today was another busy day for activities including various fitness classes, the French class, the music class, the memoir writing class, the various bridge classes, the golf clinic, a cooking demonstration, and too many other activities to list. For those who enjoy bingo there have been two bingo jackpots held each day.

There was also a lecture by American Musical Theatre Expert Dr Herb Keyser and the title of his presentation was “The Life and Music of Stephen Sondheim.

Once again, in keeping with the theme of the cruise three movies were shown today.

We enjoyed the morning session, which was a question, and answer session with Michele Lee. This is her first time lecturing on Crystal Cruises or any cruise line for that matter and she has done a remarkable job.. The Q&A session was very nicely done and we learned a great deal about Michele Lee from theatre, to film to her role in the Knot’s Landing Television Series.

Rap with the Rabbi, was also held this morning. We have covered a nice variety of topics, which mainly were based on suggestions from the passengers. As we have mentioned, there is a nice cross section of passengers attending from various religious faiths.

Our team did very well in Team Trivia. We finished in second place answering thirteen of fifteen questions correctly. Two teams had gotten fourteen correct. We are happy that another new team won today’s game so that everyone wins a prize.

Once again, we enjoyed lunch at the Lido Café. We sat outside and enjoyed the wonderful weather and the views of the ocean all around us.

In between all of this we talked with a variety of passenger’s, and staff and enjoyed another perfect day at sea.

This evening we will dine in Silk Road, with a couple who we know from Cruise Critic, Joe Kita who teaches the Memoir Writing Class. We sailed with Joe and his wife on both the 2007 and 2008 World Cruises. In 2007, they took their daughter on the cruise and in 2008 they took their son. Coincidentally, in the January edition of a magazine that Anne Marie brought with us on the cruise there is an article that was in the magazine that Joe wrote about taking their daughter with them on the World Cruise. This occurred in her last year of High School. Also rounding out our table will be Frantz who is the Chief Concierge. We will provide more on our dinner in tomorrows post.

Keith and Anne Marie