November 29, 2025 – At Sea – Off the Coast of Cuba – Warm – 82F

November 29, 2025 – At Sea – Off the Coast of Cuba – Warm – 82F

Crystal Serenity Facts

Built by Nazaire France (Chantiers de I’Atlantique) in 2003

Passengers 740 (655 Crew)

(This cruise – passengers 659 including 170 in transit)

Gross Tonnage 68,870

Length 820 ft

Beam 106 ft

Last refurbed 2023 (both ships $170M)

Galaxy Lounge capacity 740 Guest

Hollywood Theater capacity – 120 maybe

Captain – Birger J. Vorland

Cruise Director – Raphael Derkson

Assistant Cruise Director – Holly England

NOTE: This is our eighth Crystal Cruise (this is the second time I have sailed with Raphael but each of the other cruises had a different CD. Amazing.

It was quieter than I expected and I was up early.  The seas are relatively calm with just a little chop.

I went up to the Marketplace around 7:15 AM (during the Continental Breakfast Period) – I had some Frosted Mini-wheats with strawberries. The real breakfast followed: a small waffle, cottage cheese, preserves, scrambled egg, and coffee.  

Sound familiar?  The food was good.  Ellen got room service – pancakes and eggs plus fruit.

My first presentation, “Forensics and History: Identifying the Famous and Infamous” is at 10:00 AM in the Galaxy Lounge. I got to the theater about 20 minutes early to greet guests.

(Note: The ship is moving a bit and with my leg nerve issue, I am concerned about navigating the four steps (no railing) to the stage.  The AV guy is always nervous about my getting up and down - he tries to help.  It's annoying but it is what it is. The movement continued through my talk - for this talk, to get up on the stage, I used the side stairs, which have a railing and pushed the screen a bit to get by. Down is easier - I have to do it sideways because my size 12 shoes are longer than the stairs. Safety first.)

The Lounge can hold 740 guests.  Raphael came by to introduce me (he would introduce all of my talks on these cruises). Good AV – the headset was a little small – it needed to be held on by tape.  The audience was about 30 percent full (Raphael was impressed by the turnout). The talk ran 45 min.  I didn't get any pictures during the talk but did take one off the TV rebroadcast.

We had lunch at the Trident Grill – always starting off with the excellent gazpacho, fresh, tasty, and crunchy, and along with baked tortilla chips, perfect.

Today, instead of getting something from the Grill, I went to the Marketplace Lunch buffet and had a salad (mostly fufu greens and a pretty good Ranch Dressing) and the signature dish – Asian Noodles – pretty good if not a bit oily. 

The afternoons are very long here – not much to do except find a nice seat in a cool place and read.  That place turned out to be Palm Court on Deck 12 Forward - there are no activities in that venue in the afternoon except for tea at 3:30 PM.  There is alo a nice view of the now calm Atlantic.

Our first attempt at dinner was the Specialty Restaurant Osteria d’Ovidio, which serves Northern Italian food (Umi Uma the other restaurant has nothing for us to eat even though it is a famous “Nobu” Restaurant).  The Maitre D’, whom we know from previous cruises, said there was no early seating for the whole cruise.  He told us to show up around 7 PM and if there was an opening, he’d seat us.  (Note: We tried that the next day and there weren’t any open slots so we decided that was a lost cause for this cruise. That’s that.)

We asked the Concierge on Deck 5 to try and get us reservations at the Beefbar on Deck 12.  He was able to get us a table at 6:30 PM.  Beefbar is one of the newest areas on Serentiy – it is located on Deck 12 next to the Trident Grill.  It’s open for lunch and dinner and serves different takes on known dishes.  The service is good and the place is quiet.  We got a nice table against the wall – we had vegetarian parpadelle Bolognese and a dinner salad of some sort – Ellen had the glazed salmon (Robata).  I had a pavlova for dessert.

After dinner, we took in the early show at 8:30 PM (there is a second show at 9:45 PM).  The Headliner tonight is James Fox performing "My Life", a tribute to Billy Joel.  We have seen him many times and, while his show is loud, he is very entertaining. He had two of the Serenity singers as backups and the dancers were also part of the show.  James Fox played Billy Joel on Broadway in "Moving Out" so he does a great job.  

Tonight, he performed "Always a Woman to Me" and

"The Middle of the Night" (with a cool gospel backup).

When we got back to the room, we could hear some music and drums – turns out our room is right over the theater stage so we are hearing the band – we will speak to Holly about options.

The show ended at 10:45 PM so it was a little late for us but quiet.