Welcome On Board The Crystal Serenity

We awoke relatively early this morning with great anticipation for the start of our adventure.

This is a seven day Caribbean voyage round trip out of Miami which includes stops at three ports in Grand Turk, Grand Cayman and Key West and three full sea days. It’s a great mix of ports and sea days. We are joined on this voyage by Eric, Kara, Jennifer and Gui.

This is Jennifer and Gui’s second time on the Crystal Serenity as they joined us for one leg of the 2008 World Cruise while we sailed in the Mediterranean and the first time for Eric and Kara. Eric previously sailed on the Crystal Symphony and the former Crystal Harmony.

After enjoying breakfast at the Hotel, we all got ready to check out for our short drive over to the Miami Cruise Ship Terminal. We were once again met at the hotel by two vehicles; a town car for Anne Marie and Keith and a very large executive vehicle that could carry our luggage plus also Jennifer, Gui, Kara and Eric’s along with their luggage. The large vehicle followed the town car as we made our way up Brickell Avenue over to the Miami Cruise Ship Terminal.

There were several other ships in port today as there always are at this very busy passenger cruise ship terminal. The ships in port included the Carnival Imagination, the NCL Norwegian Sky, The Celebrity Century, the Carnival Imagination, the Oceania Regatta and our ship the Crystal Serenity.

The drive from the hotel did not take very long and certainly was faster than our previous walks to and from the port area. Embarkation day is always so very exciting and today was certainly no exception. After arriving at the terminal, we checked in several bags, except for our carry on items. We used terminal E, which is one of the terminals that has been redone.

While waiting for embarkation to begin we ran into some passengers that we know quite well and chatted with them and introduced all of them to our family members.

The check-in process went very well and we were all on board the ship by around 12:15Noon. We began this cruise as we have all of our previous cruises with Crystal with a nice lunch in the Main Dining Room. Anne Marie and Keith each enjoyed a Cobb Salad, which has become a tradition for us on the first day of each cruise and the kids all had wonderfully prepared appetizers and nice luncheon entrees. We toasted the start of this exciting voyage. The senior waiter who served us we know from previous cruises and we also saw several other personnel who we know from our prior sailings. We also chatted with our good friends Mary and Stan. We look forward to seeing them for the next 115 days.

A very nice person who is taking their first world cruise who Keith knows from Cruise Critic introduced herself and two friends she had on board for lunch to us and we were thrilled to meet her. We also met a couple of other people from Cruise Critic while waiting to board the ship.

Afterwards we ran a few errands such as going to the computer center to have our computers configured to use while on the ship. We stopped by to see the Head Main Dining Room Maitre d’, Leo, and each gave him a big warm hug. We went by our room at 1:30 and the room was not only ready but also all but one piece of luggage had already showed up and the final piece arrived shortly thereafter. The Vice President of Crystal’s Public Relations Group came by with her husband and we enjoyed a very nice chat with them. They had just been on the Serenity for the Holiday Cruise.

We had a good deal of luggage to unpack and worked diligently to get it all put away. Anne Marie did the majority of the unpacking. The good news is that we are now settled in on the ship.

We met our room stewardess who will only be on board for the next seven days as her contract is up and she will be returning home. Our butler for the entire 115 days who will take care of us and several others nearby room is Alexander who is the same butler that we enjoyed in 2008. He is wonderful and we are thrilled to have him again.

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner in the Main Dining Room. On this voyage we will have late dining and then on the World Cruise we have chosen early dining. We are at a table for six and it is in a perfect location in the dining room.

We have spent a good deal of time on this ship and for us it is coming home between the outstanding ship and the wonderful crew and the passengers. We look forward to sharing our experiences on board the ship with each of you.

Today has been a wonderful day and it has been so wonderful to celebrate the start of this adventure with Jennifer, Gui, Eric and Kara.

OUR THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings"

Keith & Anne Marie