June 9, 2024 – At Sea – Near Cuba – Caribbean Sea – Warm – 80s

It’s a beautiful day at sea.  

Slept OK – the room is quiet – there is no endogenous rattle, squeak, or creak, in this room (very unusual).  Even the heater/AC is quiet and works.  This is the actual view from our stateroom - you have to work around the railing on this deck. Cuba is visible off the port side.

While the other lecturers are saturating the daily schedule, my first talk is scheduled for June 11, so I have two straight days off and will spend them like a regular guest. 

I had breakfast up in the Marketplace Buffet.  I found a nice seat at the most forward end of the restaurant – it had a window so this might be a one-time deal.  I had a waffle with cottage cheese and jams plus some scrambled eggs.  The service as always was good with coffee flowing constantly.  The food was good. This the view from Deck 12.

I went to hear Jeff Larsen talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis – I knew this story pretty well and some of his graphics I had already seen many times.  He’s a good speaker and it seems he has been in the field a while (I think he is ex-Navy or ex-military of some sort).  The theater was about half full with people spread out. 

NOTE – there won’t be much discussion about lunch in this log because it is pretty much the same every day.  Ellen scans the buffet and I always get the gazpacho (best ever) along with something from the grille – today that was a perfectly prepared Impossible Burger.  The other option for lunch include the menu items at “Tastes Kitchen” which include a personal Margherita Pizza, some Asian items, and a tuna salad.  The salad bar is pretty good – they don’t have a lot of items we can eat but they do have an occasional veggie pasta and a very good salad (the ranch dressing is great).  

I am trying to sample as many different beers as I can for lunch.  Today’s choice is Asahi from Japan, which turned out to be a very nice brew and one that went perfectly with my I-Burger.

It is too warm to be outside – so possible locations to hang out are Crystal Cove (Deck 5 Midships) and Palm Court (Deck 12 forward).  The ship is very quiet with little or no background music.  Great places to read once I pick up some books from the library.

We found ourselves in Palm Court during Afternoon Tea – Violinist Martina Yarova generally plays during tea time – she plays this electronic violin that emits an otherworldly sound that is actually pleasant. 

We had dinner again in the Waterside Dining Room – this time out it was a pasta with a tomato based sauce. It was good but before we left, we found a head waiter and ordered two kosher rib eye steaks for tomorrow evening.  Looking forward to that. 

The show tonight was “Crystal on Broadway”.  We have seen this show before but are counting on a new choreography and arrangements.  The show consisted of three or four songs from the following plays: “Something Rotten” (a play about William Shakespeare),

 “West Side Story” revival – the two lead singers did a great job on “Tonight”, 

and “Rent”, I don’t know too many songs from Rent but the ensemble did a fine job on “Seasons of Love”.

Entertaining and different than the last time we saw this.

Nice day at sea.

June 8, 2024 – Miami, FL – Intermittent Sprinkles – 80s

Embarkation Day

The room never got too warm and the street construction noise wasn't an issue so we got a decent night's sleep.  

I went down to breakfast in the lobby area – a large venue with lots of tables - as soon as it opened (I prefer, especially in Florida to avoid any crowds if I can).  I was disappointed to find no waffle or pancake makers (although Ellen said that frozen waffles appeared on the buffet when she went down).  There was pre-made French Toast sticks available but I had cold cereal and coffee for breakfast.  Ellen went down after I got back up and had her breakfast. The options were OK (especially if you went down when the waffles were available) but not up to what we are used to.

At around 11:00 AM I called for an Uber and was picked up at 11:08 AM in a black Camry.  The ride to Port of Miami was 9.32 miles and took 17 minutes.  The ride cost $22.19 including a $3 tip.  There were quite a few ships here today but we spotted Crystal Serenity as we approached the port. 

The porter grabbed our bags and we checked in with someone at the desk who was handling guest entertainers.  

NOTE:  We spoke to various crew members and found out that the ship is sailing at about 80 percent capacity.  Serenity used to hold 1040 passengers but, as a result of some changes to cabins as part of the 2023 refurb, the guest capacity is now 740.  There are about 600 folks aboard on this cruise.  

Check in was quick and we headed to the Marketplace Buffet (Deck 12 Aft) for lunch.  The Trident Grille, Tastes Kitchen, and the Marketplace Buffet are located linearly as you go aft on Deck 12.  The Trident Grill is open for lunch and early dinner; Tastes has a great lunch but the dinner options are kind of "vegan" and odd; the Buffet is only open for breakfast and lunch. 

A lot of the folks working at the Trident Grille looked familiar and I had an Impossible Burger and gazpacho for lunch.  The Impossible Burgers are cooked perfectly on this ship and come with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onions along with fries or onion rings. 

I will never tire of the gazpacho, the best I have tasted (and I try every gazpacho I come across) since Ellen used to make it from scratch eons ago. 

A Corona completed the meal.  Ellen tried the Tuna Salad but she’ll give something else a shot next time. 

We are in Cabin 7016 – Promenade Deck Portside Forward.  

The room is very nice but we have to keep the shades drawn because there are a lot of walkers on this ship.  The cabins on this ship are all very nice (some have been upgraded – we saw some of the “show” cabins on Deck 7.  What I like are the two sinks, the size of the bathroom including the bath and shower.  I especially like the shower since it has both excellent water pressure but also a hand held shower head.  Very nice bathroom. 

Crystal Serenity is a little different since emerging from both COVID and bankruptcy.  However, I couldn’t really tell what had changed – perhaps the Galaxy Lounge is a little snazzier.  It doesn’t matter because it is still a lovely ship.

We filled out our requests for escorting on the ship and handed them into Marina Bregles, a very nice woman from Portugal.  She indicated that she will be communicating with escorts via WhatsApp.  She also encouraged escorts to send her photos from their excursion to use as promotions (I guess).

Setting up the internet on this ship was very easy and we had it on both our phones, the Kindle, and laptop at the same time.  That was a very nice perk.  

We went up to Palm Court, Deck 12 Forward, to get some views of Miami and the Port.  

The MSC Seascape - a monster ship - is docked a ways down from us.

Captain Vincent Taillard is the Master of the Vessel.  He is from France, is a little difficult to understand because of his accent but is very brief with his daily update.  I saw him only once around the ship on this cruise but as long as the ship is steaming along, that's OK.  We have never sailed with him before.  

The Cruise Director is Rafael Derkson and I have never sailed with him previously. Holly England is the Assistant Cruise Director and, as is generally the case, a member of the singer/dancer troupe.  Rafael has a background in music and is from Montreal Canada.  He has only been the CD on Serenity for a short time - before that, he was the Musical Director.  He is pretty low key compared to other Crystal CDs and is not the meet and greet kind of CD such as Russ.  I rarely saw him around the ship - I am assuming he was busy keeping everything going smoothly.  There is a lot going on on this ship.

There was a note in the cabin that there would be a meeting of the Entertainment Group at 6:00 PM this evening in the Galaxy Lounge.  We went to the meeting and, as instructed, sat in the Front Row.  Rafael introduced everyone – there are six speakers on this cruise including me: 

Ed Larson – Pirate Guy

Bill Toone – Biologist – Animal Behavior

Jeff Larsen – World Affairs - mostly NATO

Roger McGuinn – Folk Icon sailing with wife Camilla (we know them)

Dean Allen – African Slave Trade

Arts and Craft instructor (Lydia Carriere) and assistant (Amy Desamson)

Also on this cruise is a Bridge Instructor and Golf Pro

To be honest, I am only interested in Roger’s presentations because one of the reasons I go on ships is to get away from politics and world affairs.  NOTE:  I was originally scheduled to do four talks but got bumped for another talk on Russia and NATO so only three this cruise.

The meeting was pretty low key compared to previous meetings of the Entertainment Staff. There was no going over the rules, which I know and practice.  

We were instructed not to have early dinner in the Waterside Restaurant tonight as it was expected to be busy.  We also paid a visit to the Maître D’ to see about Specialty Restaurant Reservations and were told to come back tomorrow afternoon (passengers get first dibs). There are two Specialty Restaurants - Osteria D'Ovidio, an Italian Restaurant replacing our beloved Prego and Umi Uma, famed Asian restaurant created by equally famous Chef Nobu.  On land, we wouldn't be able to afford this restaurant but the food in Umi Uma is just not our kind of cuisine.  It is very popular with the guests.  

We had a pre-dinner drink in the Crystal Cove - Ellen likes the Apricot Sours and I had a Margarita.

As instructed, we went to dinner later and got a great table, #89 (and a great waiter in Craig).  Mario, our past Maître D' was still at the helm.  We both had the broiled salmon.  Cooked perfectly and delicious. 

We had dessert up in Tastes Kitchen (Deck 12 midships) and met Neal Fullerton, the Piano Man from the Avenue Saloon. We had a wonderful time chatting with him.  The best dishes are the Bananas Foster and Key Lime Pie - you wouldn't be able to recognized the Taste version but they were good.  

The show tonight was “Crystal in Motion”.  

All of the shows are in the Galaxy Lounge and at 9:00 PM – that generally conflicts with Neal and some of the other acts that are on at the same time.  The stage and effects have been upgraded on Serenity (the ship now has a back screen like most ships these days, where graphics enhance the show).  The Singers and Dancers are, as expected, very good, especially the female singer, Lauren Heavner.  The coolest number was the Irish Step Dance complete with the male dancers dancing in Plexiglas boxes filled with water.  We have seen this before but it’s still neat to watch.

The other act we are planning to attend when the schedule works out is “Key and Melody”, a husband and wife duo from the Philippines. She has a perfect voice and the songs provide dancing passengers an opportunity to shake a leg.  They usually perform up in the Crystal Cove or in the Stardust Lounge.  The ship has about six “gents” that dance with single women on board.

It's been a long day, so we head to the comfort of our room.  The temp control appears to be work very well on this ship.  Even though people might be walking the deck, you can't hear them in the room.

Crystal Serenity - Panama Canal - Miami to San Diego - June 8-24, 2024

Excited to be back on the re-incarnated Crystal Symphony as she goes from Miami to San Diego.

June 7, 2024 – Travel Day

The cruise line had given us two options for flying on this cruise – we chose the United Airlines option because it was $200 less than the American Airlines option (I also thought we might be able to use the United Club passes we had).  We were blinded by money as the two itineraries were quite different.  The United flight (UA2090) departed ORD at 7:10 AM.  Although that would give us an entire day in Miami, it required getting up before dawn to get to ORD on time.  This is the view I got getting up.

I scheduled an American Taxi for 5:30 AM – he was right on time and the ride to ORD, mostly on the streets, took almost 40 minutes to get there.  We printed out luggage tags at the kiosk and handed over our bags. The TSA PreChek line was just a few feet from this bank of kiosks and we went through screening very quickly.

Our gate B10 was just a few gates from the screening exit so we were ready to board at 6:30 AM.  I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing this early morning thing again since we could have been late if we’d run into any issues on the ride to ORD.  We are in Priority Group 2 and boarded smoothly.  I paid a small fortune for Economy Plus seats – 15C and 15D – aisle across.  Our aircraft was a Max 8 and the seats seemed a little roomier than our last United Flight.  The Exit was behind us so no one would be kicking our seats on this flight. Because we are on the aisles, there was no opportunity to take any photos during the flight.

The flight boarded quickly and we pushed just a few minutes early.  I checked the UA App and saw that there no weather at all on our straight down route to MIA (could still run into CAT along the way) but that was a good sign.  

The plane got a runway assignment and took off a few minutes early; the flight was as smooth as you might think based on the radar map.  

We had our usual bagels and salmon spread for second breakfast – I had my usual two cups of coffee and glass of orange juice.  The flight attendants were terrific on this flight – again, we had no issues and no crazies aboard a United Flight.

The landing was smooth and on time.  I called the hotel and was told that the Hotel Shuttle would pick us up on the Arrivals Level at doors 3-5.  That’s a bit unusual but that’s the system here at MIA.  It did take a few calls to the hotel until the shuttle did finally show up.

We are staying at the Element Miami International Airport Hotel on NW 25^th street.  It’s a big new hotel alongside a lagoon.  It is, however, in an industrial area so there are no restaurants within walking distance.  Today, that is no problem since we are having dinner with Danny, Dova, and Macie in Ft Lauderdale.  Danny picked us up and then picked up Macie and her friend, Grace, at the Aventura Mall and then we headed for their condo.

It was a great dinner (hamburgers and hot dogs) and much better than we would have had were we to look for a place to eat around our hotel.

After dinner, Danny took us back to the hotel Our suite, Room 230, is very nice.  

It has a separate kitchen area and sitting area and the bedroom can be closed off to muffle the loud frig noise.  I did have to turn off the in room A/C because the fan was so loud.  We just have to hope that it doesn’t stay hot overnight.  By the way, it was a bargain at $168.37 including tax and breakfast.  

The room was quiet for the most part and the bed was comfortable.  The room also had a huge bathroom.  The location of the room was such that workers on the street (there was some kind of repair work going on) could be heard in the room throughout the night.  It was handled pretty well by earplugs.