Welcome To La Rochelle, France - Day 107

Pictures From La Rochelle, France

Pictures From Last Evenings Serenity POPS Concert

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

We enjoyed another fabulous (and we mean fabulous) night on the ship last evening.

We dined in the Main Dining Room for the last time during this adventure. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Main Dining Room. We have had a wonderful team taking care of us each time we have dined there. We can’t say enough about the wonderful team including the two headwaiters we have had (Augusto for most of the voyage and then when he went on vacation Bojan), Pedja our Senior Waiter, Therese our Waiter and Irji our Somallier. We also are very appreciative of having the Maitre D’, Leo Assmair, in the Main Dining Room for this entire World Cruise Adventure. We have also enjoyed so many of the other staff that works in the Main Dining Room from the wait staff to all of the chefs and other personnel who all play a role in delivering such wonderfully prepared food with outstanding service. They have our respect and our admiration for all that they do and we feel blessed to have had the opportunity to see many familiar faces from previous voyages and to meet others for the very first time.

We had swordfish, which had been on the menu the night before and we had asked in advance if this could be prepared for us. It was wonderful and we also enjoyed our favorite salad. Yes, we ended the meal with berries and they were great.

After Dinner we were treated to a magical performance. It was a Gala Performance by the Serenity POPS. Maestro Bret Bullock, Vice President for Entertainment of Crystal Cruises, led the show. Twenty-four, yes twenty-four musicians, six vocalists, three dancers and one narrator accompanied him. They played a variety of musical pieces including classical music. At one point there was a battle of the pianists, which included six pianists. Several members of the crew carried a second piano onto the stage. Then one by one it started with one pianist on each piano. Before we knew it there were two pianists playing on each piano and all of a sudden yet another pianist joined them so we were listening to a piano performance by three pianists on each piano. After they finished two other musicians shared one of the pianos.

All of this was truly amazing and this is one of these performances that words can never come close to describing what a terrific concert this was. It combined wonderfully played music with some humor with some singing and dancing. It was unbelievable. We lost track but Bret Bullock played a wide variety of instruments last evening in between conducting the vast majority of the show.

The length of the show was close to 90 minutes and the performance was truly outstanding. We are not sure if we have ever seen a concert that was as good as this one. In addition to all of the performers from Crystal some outside performers were brought on-board the ship just for this concert. When we say the performance was outstanding we mean it. There were several standing ovations throughout the show and of course at the end of the show. The show capped off not only a wonderful evening but also a wonderful World Cruise. All of those involved with this production put their hearts into this and it clearly showed. Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.

We began our day as we normally do with a nice workout at the Fitness Center. Keith arrived there fairly early and worked out on the Elliptical Machine. As he has done on most days after his workout, Keith stopped by the Lido Café to bring back some coffee to the room. Anne Marie worked out a short while later and worked out on the Treadmill. Like Keith, after her workout she stopped by the Lido Café to bring some coffee back to the room.

We both enjoyed another nice breakfast in the room and then we got ready for our visit to La Rochelle.

This is our first visit to La Rochelle, France. The city population totals less than 100,000 inhabitants.

This town is known for its beautiful harbor and its elegant buildings and its waters that boast some of the world’s most impressive yachts. La Rochelle is the largest yachting hub on France’s Atlantic Coast.

The town has beautiful cobbled streets and many arcades and is a nice place to explore on foot. La Rochelle also has many museums including the Museum of Natural History along with the Museum of the New World.

Since we have taken many tours during the course of the World Cruise we did not take a tour today. A complimentary shuttle was provided between the pier and the City Center. It was a bit cooler than we first thought so before boarding the bus we went back to our room to get our fleece jackets to wear underneath our jackets. The sky was sunny though and once again we did not have any rain. Overall, we have had wonderful weather since we left Miami, Florida.

All visitors were asked to carry their passports with them. On the return back to the ship, local authorities boarded the bus and asked to see our Passport and the Ships Boarding Card and they also ensured that our respective names were on the passenger boarding list.

We took the first shuttle into town and we walked around for a while. Some of the buildings date back many years. We walked around for quite a while. We even bought ourselves French Pastries which we took back to the ship to have this evening.

We had lunch in the Main Dining Room with one of the officers of the ship and had a great time reflecting on this journey and talking about a variety of other items.

In the afternoon, we continued packing, and we read, wrote and also Anne Marie took a very nice walk on the Promenade Deck. We also spoke with some of our fellow passengers.

This evening we plan to dine by ourselves at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant. Afterwards we plan to attend the Captain’s Formal Farewell Reception. We will post about this tomorrow.

TODAY’s THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….

“You are never too old to set another goal or to draw a new dream.”

Keith and Anne Marie