En Route To Cape Town - Day 27

NOTE:

We included some pictures that we took this morning at the Lido Café.

One picture is of fellow passenger John with Lido Deck Stewards Johnny and Raymond.

Another pictures is of one of the Chefs.

A picture of Darely (she also goes by Darlene) who also works at Silk Road in the evening.

And a picture of Sigi who overseas the wait staff at Silk Road in the evening. We have known Sigi for several years when we would request him to be our waiter when we dined there. He now performs a role that would be equivalent to an assistant Maitre d’.

Some pictures of the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant where we dined this evening.

Also, a picture of the three books written by author James Bradley who Keith spoke with a while this morning.

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Wow! We had an outstanding evening last night.

We began the evening by attending the 5:00 PM showing of the productions show Curtain Call. The more we see the show the more we appreciate. We enjoyed the music, songs and the dancing.

Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely meal in the Main Dining Room. We each started off with a salad. Anne Marie ordered the Scallops as an entrée and had them prepared slightly differently than from the menu. Keith had the Grouper. We both thought the entrees were delicious. We finished off the meal with fruit. As usual, the quality of the food and its presentation was outstanding along with the service and the ambience. It was a quiet night in the dining room as with Formal night this evening many passengers chose to dine in on of the Specialty Restaurants or in Tastes so we had extra time to talk with our fantastic restaurant staff including Leo the Maitre d’, Augusto our Head Waiter along with our Senior Waiter and Waiter and Sommelier. This will be our waiter and sommelier’s first time to Cape Town so we were telling them all about it.

Following dinner we went to see a Classical Concert featuring Pianist Philip Wojciechowski. This is Philip Wojciechowski’s first time performing on board a Crystal ship and all we can say is that with due respect to the other artists we have seen appear over the years that this might have been the best pianist we have ever seen perform on any ship we have been on. We were fortunate to sit in the first row and from his first note we were mesmerized. He played a variety of music from classical to jazz. He gave the performance of a lifetime and this is one of the items that differentiate Crystal from all other cruise lines we have sailed with. They have an unbelievable enrichment and entertainment program to begin with and on the World Cruise it is taken up another notch as many times new talent is brought onto each leg of the World Cruise.

Philip is a critically acclaimed concert pianist who has won many awards from around the world. He has played at many venues around the world including the Berlin Philharmonic Hall and the Opera House in Monte Carlo. We consider ourselves fortunate to be able to have had the opportunity to listen to such an outstanding performance.

All of this was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

We are asked from time to time do we get bored being on a ship for so long? We suppose on certain cruise ships and on certain cruise lines that would be true but that is not the case with Crystal. We would tell you that there is never a dull moment on the ship. There is so much to do that we find ourselves busier than ever during the world cruise since Crystal takes their normal program that one would typically find on any given voyage throughout the year and then adds to it a variety of other programs that are unique in the industry. For example, they still show the production shows but move some to the late afternoon so they can bring new entertainment on at night along with some of the regular entertainers. During the day they offer an expanded list of lecturers and other programs such as the computer university college accredited course along with a number of other programs. During many hours of the day we wish we could find away to be at more than one place at the same time.

Then on top of this one has the time to build relationships with so many others on board the ship including fellow passengers, staff, lecturers, entertainers, clergy and so forth that adds to making the world cruise a very unique experience for each of us and one whose memories will last a lifetime.

Last evening we forwarded the clocks one last time for this leg of the World Cruise and by doing so we are now on the local time for Cape Town.

For the first time since the cruise began Keith’s internal alarm clock did not go off and he actually did not wake up until Anne Marie’s real alarm clock went off So, by the time he went up to the Fitness Center there were already four or five others up there including John, Brian, Mary and the Executive Chef. Keith did all of the weight lifting machines that are for the upper body. He hopes that before not too long he can go back to the Elliptical Machine and the other weight lifting machines.

Keith spoke with fellow friend and passenger Mary and it was so nice to talk with her as we had not seen Mary or her husband Stan for the past few days. Mary is now almost 100% recuperated from a fall she had taken at home before she joined the ship so it is nice to see that she is pretty much back to her normal workout so there is hope for Keith. J

As usual, when he finished he stopped by the Lido Café to bring some coffee back to the room. Since he started later than normal there were about ten passenger’s already in the Café. Of course, since we set the clocks forward and it is a sea day it really will not get crowded up there until around 9:00 AM.

He spoke with some of the Lido Deck Stewards. Anne Marie went up about an hour and she worked out on the Treadmill for one hour and then returned to the room with some coffee.

Afterwards we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the room.

The ship was rocking for a good portion of the day as there were quite a bit of swells in the sea.

We enjoyed watching The Morning Show hosted by Cruise Director Rick Spath and World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston. While this was not a trivia question that was asked at one point Rick was telling Stacey about the Sports Trivia discussion that Keith and Rick had yesterday so Stacey asked Rick who was the most recent professional player who hit a Home Run during the same week that he scored a Touchdown. Rick was stumped so Keith called into the program with the assist. He correctly answered the question. Do any of you know the correct answer without Googling this for the correct answer? J

During Captain Glenn’s morning talk from the bridge he noted that we were encountering fairly large swells and cautioned everyone to be very careful when walking around the ship. He also reminded everyone of this again at 12:00 Noon. Captain Glenn also noted that we were traveling at 19.5 knots per hour and that he wanted to increase the speed.

Captain Glenn’s thought of the day was “If it is stupid and but it works it isn’t stupid.”

We attended the Rap With The Rabbi and it included a wonderful discussion. Ambassador Tony Leon and his wife attended the session and the Ambassador spoke with the group on several subjects.

This morning we attended a couple of lectures.

We wanted to mention something about the lecturers on board this voyage. In total, they have been phenomenal. It is amazing that we did not have one lecturer talking about South Africa but we have had three lecturers covering this area of the world. This includes two destination lecturers and the Ambassador. That is amazing and each lecturer is very unique from each other that the lectures are just superb. Whenever we think that Crystal cannot improve on a program they surprise us and come up with yet a better program than from before.

As to today’s lectures;

The first one was titled “The Golden Age of American Football and was given by Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer who shared images of the game’s greatest moments from his latest book Guts and Glory: The Golden Age of American Football, 1958 – 1978. Neil showed many pictures that Keith remembers looking at when he used to get Sports Illustrated. There were many classic pictures that he showed. Neil Leifer concluded his talk with a prediction about the outcome of the Super Bowl. Of course, he quickly noted that he could be wrong. We’ll keep his prediction a secret for now.

Before the lecture Keith spoke with author James Bradley for about fifteen minutes and they talked about writing and how James Bradley approached the writing of his books.

At the same time the second lecture was given Anne Marie went to another of the computer classes given at the Computer University. She enjoyed this class and between all three classes she has picked up quite a bit of useful information. While Keith uses a MAC, Anne Marie uses a personal computer. This is the first time that we actually brought both computers with us.

Keith went to another presentation by Dr. Jay Wolff who presented Stanley and Livingstone. David Livingstone came to Africa to save souls but stayed to search for the source of the Nile. He failed. Henry Stanley came to find Livingstone and then returned and established the source of the Nile.

Keith also spoke with lead dancers Beverly and Curtis. They also teach dance classes. We were hoping to take some dance lessons during this voyage but with Keith’s ankle we will have to hold off for now. Beverly gave some good advice to Keith on how she has worked her way back from a couple of injuries to her ankle.

Before we knew it, the morning had gone by in a blink of an eye and it was time for lunch. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Lido Café. The ship was rocking and we had a good view of the seas from our window table.

This afternoon there was yet another lecture. This one was given by Special Interest Lecturer Herb Keyser who presented The Lives and Music of Geniuses of American History – Judy Garland. We first heard Herb speak on last years cruise on board the Crystal Symphony and he has so much knowledge to share with guests on the history and backgrounds of several of the “old time” actors and actresses.

Anne Marie attended the Odyssey Art at Sea program and continued to create new jewelry. She has had a great time doing this as she has created quite a few pieces to wear.

Keith did some reading and writing and also spoke with a couple of fellow passengers.

This evening was formal night on the ship and we dined at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant. We invited four other guests to join us for this evening. This includes a married couple and a traveling companion and the three of them have been on several world cruises. We also invited a woman who travels solo who we first met on the 2007 World Cruise. She has performed on Broadway and has been on television and is such a lovely person. As usual, the cuisine was superb along with the service and the ambience of the dining room. We had requested Rossi as our waiter when the reservations are made as we love not only his service and knowledge of the various food items but he has a wonderful sense of humor and perfect disposition.

Afterwards, we attended the Captain’s Farewell Reception. We are fortunate that this is not a farewell for us but a reminder that this leg of the World Cruise is coming to a conclusion in just a few days as another leg begins.

We also attended the evening Production Show; Curtain Call.

TODAY’S THOUGHT OF THE DAY…..

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”

Keith and Anne Marie