January 26, 2016 – At Sea

We left something important off of yesterday’s posting that might help explain what was actually happening. Entry onto the ship in San Francisco on Sunday (Jan 24) was only for the 358 Full World Cruise passengers. That’s the primary reason the ship was not crowded when we embarked and also why we got such personalized service. All remaining passengers, who are not doing the full 102-day voyage, came on board the following day (Jan 25). The full voyage is actually six separate “segments” (an average of 17 days per segment) and these segment passengers come and go at the major ports of San Francisco, Sydney, Bali, Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo, returning to San Francisco. We haven’t heard yet how many total passengers are actually on board right now. Maximum capacity for Crystal Serenity is 1,070 passengers.

The ship departed San Francisco on time yesterday at 4:00 pm to begin the cruise to our first port-of-call in Honolulu. We won’t arrive there until Saturday (Jan 30). Between now and then we’ll have a lot of sea days. But let’s return to last Sunday (Jan 24) – the day we boarded Crystal Serenity (the day before all the other passengers arrived).

Festivities began for World Cruise passengers at 5:00 pm with pre-event cocktails and music at two different venues – Palm Court (Deck 12) and Avenue Saloon (Deck 6). We went up to the Palm Court at about 5:30 and listened to the Crystal Sextet playing dance music. The most interesting thing we observed was the large number of single women dancing with the eight different “dance hosts” that Crystal brought on board for the cruise. The hosts were kept busy the whole time we were there.

We went down to the Crystal Plaza and Atrium – a large open area mid-ship on Deck 5. We wanted to get a place to sit and watch the activities, so we arrived early. The whole area was colorfully decorated, and yet another band, the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, was setting up to play. At 6:30 the musical entertainment began, followed by Crystal’s CEO and President – Edie Rodriguez – who gave a welcoming address. Then the excitement started, with lots of confetti and hundreds of balloons falling from the ceiling. The jazz group picked up the tempo appreciably, and it was a very festive scene – great fun was had by all.

After the amazing welcoming celebration, we all went into the Crystal Dining Room for an equally amazing choreographed dinner. Of course, it was wonderful with far too many courses to describe here. Somehow, the Crystal Plaza was completely cleaned of all the confetti and balloons by the time we finished dinner. More musical entertainment was underway there, with the big band sounds of the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. Other people went to Avenue Saloon to hear more of the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra (a really great group), which was scheduled to play until 1:00 am.

At about 9:30 we went to the Galaxy Lounge (main show theater) to attend the special 10:00 pm performance of what was titled Viva Voce. This was a solid hour of spectacular music featuring four superb vocalists from the San Francisco Opera, a 35-member orchestra (mixture of Crystal Serenity musicians and guest artists from San Francisco), five featured dancers, a chorus, and Crystal Ensemble. We’re not normally opera fans, but this performance was superb. The soloists’ voices were extraordinarily powerful; the dancers and singers were very talented as well. In fact, the one word we could think of to describe this performance was stunning.

The entire evening was unexpectedly overwhelming – definitely an experience to be remembered forever. When we finally returned to our room, we found World Cruise commemorative gifts for us from Crystal – monogrammed hats, polo shirts, jackets, and leather-covered journals. There was also a colorful wall map with our itinerary on it.

The following day, Monday (Jan 25): We woke up a little late and started back on unpacking our suitcases, after a quick breakfast at the Lido Café. Somehow we managed to find a place for everything in our room. After a snack-style lunch (crackers and cheese) in the Bistro, we watched all the new passengers arriving and then worked on our display calendars which we attach to one of the walls in our stateroom. We’ve found these calendars to be useful with dry-erase markers to keep track of the activities, excursions, classes, formal nights, etc. that are scheduled for each day of the cruise.

For the ship’s departure at 4:00 we went up to the Palm Court – a large, glass enclosed room on the 12th deck at the very front end of the ship – for the sail-away party. It was exciting to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge, as we headed out to sea.

We had asked to be assigned to a table for six in the dining room, but it actually turned out to be eight of us -- four American couples from different states: Florida (that’s us), Colorado, California, and Hawaii. The couple from California are on just Segment 1 of the cruise and will be leaving us in Sydney to fly home.

Today (Jan 26) is our first “normal” day of the cruise, and we mostly rested. Jim went out at 6:00 this morning to do the first of his morning 3-mile walks on the walking track around the outside of Deck 7. Unfortunately, it was quite cold and windy this morning, so he headed inside and did a speed walk around Deck 6 indoors for an hour. He saw only one other passenger up and walking (also indoors) that early in the morning.

We attended an enrichment-series lecture by Dr. Robert Freedman, a professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. This was the first of his four talks on “Understanding the Contemporary Middle East.” Then we went to the Full World Cruise Meet & Greet in the Palm Court, hosted by Cruise Director Rick Spath and World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston. Stacey described her job to be liaison between World Cruise guests and the rest of Serenity. She plans and helps implement all special World Cruise activities, and she promised to be corresponding with us regularly over the next three months with updates on activities, events, and news.

Tonight is the first “Black-Tie Optional” dress code evening (what used to be called Formal Night), followed by a concert production titled, “My Life: The Music of Billy Joel” starring James Fox. We’ll tell you about it in our next posting.

Jim & Ginny