Monday, December 18, 2017 – At Sea (Atlantic Ocean) – Cool and breezy – 60s

Room Service again this morning. I do seem to be tiring of the buckwheat pancakes (with bananas and walnuts) and eggs but they are still so good.

My last talk “Forensic Detectives: Identifying America’s Fallen Heroes” as moved from the Galaxy Lounge to the Hollywood Theater but is still at 10 AM.

The Series Finale

A smaller crowd that I expected this morning – maybe 125 passengers – attended my final talk. Again, a wonderful introduction by Gary and a round of applause before I was introduced when Gary asked folks if they have enjoyed the series.. Don’t know why the attendance was down a bit but I suspect the early hour and competition for other events will create more TV audience.

Back to Small and Mighty

For lunch, we ate food from all three options – the Grille, Tastes, and the Lido Café. The tuna melt was good.

Literally, the whole afternoon was spent reading on the pool deck – our balcony was in the sun all day so we looked for a cooler location.

We opted out of the Magic Castle show at 4:30 PM but we did attend candle lighting number 7 and stayed for the latkes.

We had dinner at the best table tonight (called “Olgas” table because it is usually occupied by a permanent passenger). Probably the best meal of the trip – black bean soup, a funky iceberg salad, and delicious salmon with a baked potato.  Going to miss the service provided by our waiter and assistant waiter.

Looks like the cruise will end up on a super magic moment.

We spent the rest of the evening on the pool deck (only people there). Warm and quiet, we read until it was time to call it a day.

Sunday, December 17, 2017 – At Sea (Atlantic Ocean) – Mostly Cloudy–Mild -70s

We ordered from Room Service this morning because of my early lecture. Our go to meal is buckwheat pancakes with bananas and walnuts along with eggs – Ellen has been getting waffles with eggs and some fruit. It all comes quickly and everything is fresh and hot.  Best room service we have encountered.

I had a good turnout at the Galaxy Lounge for “Extreme Forensics: Non-Human DNA Testing” – about 50-60 percent (approximately 300 people). One of the factors for the turnout was the fact that about 100 passengers disembarked in Barbados and about 60 new folks got on. There are many passengers who have told me they watch the talks on TV.

Both Ellen and I stayed for Louis Beres’ talk about “The Evolution of World Politics: From Adam and Even to the Present”. This was advertised as a new talk but it contained elements from his other talks. It was the first talk that had some animations.

A standard sea day – lunch in the Lido Café and quiet time on the deck or balcony.

We attended the sixth Chanukah candle lighting tonight – attendance is still dropping but the Rabbi keeps giving nice background information about the holiday. There were no latkes today – instead we had Indian Samosas (knishes by any other name). Very tasty.

Tonight is Formal Night 2 and we are in Pregro. We both had the mushroom soup in bread bowl and I had a Cesar Salad (ET the Caprese Salad). We both had appetizer portions of pasta for our main course – I had both Fettuccine Alfredo and Pesto and Ellen had the Pesto. Still a lot of food. We did have a pretty good Moscato along with our dinner.

We attended “Across the Pond”, the final production show – a very extravagant show about the British Music Invasion of the 60s and 70s. Lots of multi media and music along with energetic dancing and costumes. Entertaining.

Across the Pond

Saturday, December 16, 2017 – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Mostly Cloudy – 87F

We are scheduled to arrive in San Juan at around 11:00AM so we can have a leisurely breakfast – like being at sea for the morning.

We are very interested in how San Juan is doing since being flattened by Hurricane Maria last year.  Most of the island still has no electricity or water.

Approaching Puerto Rico

San Juan Sail In

The sail in, as always, was spectacular. There are several ships here today – Sea Dream II, Windstar Wind Pride, the Viking Sea (not as impressive as I thought it would be), the Adventure OTS, and the Azamara Quest.

We documented the docking of the ship.

San Juan Docking

We did pretty much nothing all day but each lunch (including a coke float this time round),

and sit on the balcony (until the Sun drove us into our room). From our vantage point, we could not tell what Hurricane Maria did to San Juan and Puerto Rico. As it got toward the end of the day, we could see some lights go on (including those on the runway at the nearby regional airport) so some power was available to the city. Our mobile phones were also hooked into the city’s 4GLTE network – so somethings were getting back to normal. The situation in the interior of the island and in some of the more remote areas must still be a mess.

I got a call from Valentina indicating that my talk tomorrow would be at 10:00 AM in the Galaxy Lounge (not 1:30 PM in the Hollywood Theater).

We had dinner in the Dining Room – I tried the kosher steak again (much better this time) with baked potato and margarine and Ellen had the lamb chops (good but only two of them). Sherbet for dessert along with decaf coffee and soy milk.

The sail out from San Juan took place until gray skies.

The headliner tonight was Salvatore Hasard – a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. His backup music was really amped up so we had to flee to the back of the theater to get out of the vibration zone. He was great when he was on the piano but his electric guitar was ear blowing. A very entertaining act but a little too loud this evening.

Salvatore Hasard

We looked for some quiet time in the Palm Court and on our balcony.

Friday, December 15, 2017 – Terre-de-Haut, Guadeloupe FWI – Mostly Sunny – 87F

Note:  My phone camera had a “mini-stroke” in Barbados and has not been very reliable ever since – the issue is with the SD card.  A lot of pictures of Terre-de-Haut weren’t retrievable.

Crystal Serenity is at anchor today off the island of Terre-de-Haut, one of tiny islands comprising the Des Saintes archipelago. The island is so small that it is sometimes omitted from maps of Guadeloupe. It’s very picturesque here with the ship surrounded by tree covered islands and islets. From the ship, we can also see the tiny Ilet a Cabrit, and the larger Terre-de-Bas. The tenders are taking passengers to the town of Bourg des Saintes. The population of the archipelago is just under 1700. From here you can also see the larger islands of Guadeloupe, Basseterre (I believe).

Ilet a Cabrit (and Basseterre maybe)

We weren’t going to go ashore (there are no excursions on this stop – a first for our cruising history) but the town looked interesting so mid-morning we tendered ashore. The town is indeed picturesque with narrow streets – there are almost no cars and everyone seems to get around either on motorcycles, scooters, or electric golf carts. The official language is French and it is spoken here – some of the shop owners can speak a little English. Prices are in Euros.

We checked out the town – you just have to keep an eye out for motorcycles.  We came  across a monument that commemorates the founding of the town – 350 years ago.

Terre-de-Haut Monument

We found a nice church and park area (with an interesting Chinese sailor statue).  I’ve not been able find out any background information on the Chinese Statue.

City Park and Chinese Statue

The heat convinced us to return to the ship.

After lunch, we spent a wonderful shade filled and cool breezed afternoon on our balcony.

A passing shower provided some very interesting shots of rainbows.

We also watched the sail away from our balcony.

Terre-de-Haut Sail Away (the town is in the distance)

After Chanukah candle lighting number 4 and Friday night service, we had a wonderful Kosher dinner in the Dining Room. Challah, chopped liver, two polish sausages (no buns – not kosher) and a duck with wild rice and mushrooms. The dinner was wonderful and we ordered another Kosher meal for tomorrow.

Happy Chanukah

We passed on the show tonight (classical piano concert) but went to the 9:30 PM “Spot Show” in the Stardust Lounge – “Rock and Pop A-Mania” – starring the Crystal Ensemble Singers and Dancers and featured vocalists, Lauren Heavner and Carl Drapper. Loud but very energetic show – the dancers were terrific.

Rock and Pop-A-Mania

To our balcony for quiet reading time.

Thursday, December 14, 2017 – Bridgetown, Barbados – Partly Sunny – 87F

No tour today – no getting up early.

Serenity Docked in Barbados

After breakfast, we took the shuttle bus from the ship to the terminal. There are three ships here today – P and O Anudia and the Jewel of the Seas.

The Jewel of the Seas

From the terminal, which looked more expansive than I remember it, we walked about a kilometer to the Careenage, which is essentially the center of Bridgetown.

These Boots Were Made for Walking

From the Careenage, we could see the Barbados Parliament Building with its clock tower.

We visited Heroes Square and the War Memorial (Cenotaph). 

The obelisk (granite) and base (coral) – were constructed in 1925 to honor Barbadians who lost their lives in WW1 – WWII casualties were added to the monument in the 1950s.

We picked a new destination, the Barbados Synagogue – Nidhe Israel (Bet Knesset Nide Yisrael). Google maps said that the synagogue was just 650 m away – about a five minute walk. That turned out to be the case – it is located on Magazine Lane.

This synagogue is one of the oldest in the Americas (established in 1654). It was a pretty ordinary place when we last visited here but, in 2011, the synagogue and recently excavated mikvah were designed UNESCO Protected sites. Today, the grounds have been redone.

The Synagogue Building

The synagogue was taken over by the Barbados Trust who planned to level the structure to make room for commercial sites. A petition campaign saved the synagogue and now UNESCO is there to protect it for the future.  We were able to go into the shul and get a nice picture of the interior.

Nidhe Israel Interior

The new complex contains a new museum ($12.50 pp – we opted not to go this time) and brick courtyard plus viewing bridges and platforms affording a view of the ancient gravestones that go back centuries.

Nidhe Israel Cemetery and Gravestones

The original building was levelled in a hurricane in 1831 and the shul has been rebuilt and kept up. It is our understanding that it is now an active shul.

Also at the synagogue today was the newly assigned Chabad Rabbi, Eli Chaikin and his wife and son. He had only been in Barbados since Sunday. We chatted for a few minutes and then we planned our trip back.

As we started back we ran into a local who asked us if we needed a taxi to the port – he quoted us a price of $5 for the both of us – that was a good price compared to what he had been told. It was an unusual ride back – our driver had words for just about all the people on the streets. We got back OK, made our way back through the terminal mall and on to the ship.

We had lunch was up in the Lido Café – I’ve been adding extras (tuna melts, pizzas, and fish wraps) to the standard gazpacho and salad bar.

We sat out on the pool deck in the shade but it started to get warm so we retreated to the Palm Court. I did get about 50 flips of my book read when afternoon tea started. The egg salad sandwiches and tea were both very good as was the carrot cake.

We are taking a pass on the candle lighting today and resting in the room until dinner.

The Crystal Dining Room was offering Salmon for the first time on this cruise and it was really good. I had the Crystal version of a Greek Salad and the warm artichoke and spinach dip (different but good). We had our wonderful South African waiter and his assistant so the service was primo. Kosher food ordered for tomorrow.

Broadway Showtime continued tonight with Andrea Burns,

who costarred in “In the Heights”. She sang some unusual songs but one song I recalled from an earlier cruise – “I Can Give you the Moon, the Sun, and the Stars”. Fantastic.  Nice to have two Broadway type singers on board.

To the quiet of our room.