A Look At What Is Happening Today:
Visit To Vina Del Mar ✔
World Cruise Shoreside Event ✔
Before dinner last evening, we sat in the Crystal Cove with friends John and Linda and enjoyed a nice conversation with the two of them.
Afterwards, we had dinner in the Crystal Dining Room and enjoyed another nice dinner. The dining room was relatively quiet as some guests were dining at other dining venues.
These are the dinner menus.
To the right of Anne Marie is our waiter Christoph with a bottle of water in his hand and behind Keith to the left of the column is our Senior Waiter, Jijo.
To begin the meal we each had salads. Keith had his standing order Salad and Anne Marie had a Heart of Romaine Lettuce Salad. It was accompanied by onion rings which Anne Marie did not eat but it did add to the overall presentation of the salad.
We both had Salmon for our entrees. This was one of the alternate choices on the menu and is available on most evenings.
Anne Marie had her entree the way it was listed on the menu and it was accompanied with mashed potatoes. Keith had a baked potato which was served in a separate plate in lieu of the mashed potatoes and this photo is of Keith's entree.
The featured fish was a Tomato Glazed Black Cod and Keith ordered a half portion of this entree without the Glaze just to try it. Anne Marie tried a little as well.
For dessert, you guessed it, Keith had Mixed Berries and Anne Marie had the sugar free Apple Pie a la Mode. Keith tried a little bit of the sugar free dessert as well and like all of the sugar-free desserts it tasted as good as the "real thing".
The evening entertainment was comedy performed by Cash Levy. We attended the one which was for those in late seating which was performed as their pre-dinner show so we arrived about 15 minutes into his routine.
When we got back to our room there were gifts on our bed with cards from Captain Okland/Crystal Cruises.
Each gift came in a bag.
The item on the left is a lightweight throw gift for Anne Marie and the item on the right is a alpaca scarf for Keith. Both items were hand made in South America
Before dinner last evening, we sat in the Crystal Cove with friends John and Linda and enjoyed a nice conversation with the two of them.
Afterwards, we had dinner in the Crystal Dining Room and enjoyed another nice dinner. The dining room was relatively quiet as some guests were dining at other dining venues.
These are the dinner menus.
To the right of Anne Marie is our waiter Christoph with a bottle of water in his hand and behind Keith to the left of the column is our Senior Waiter, Jijo.
To begin the meal we each had salads. Keith had his standing order Salad and Anne Marie had a Heart of Romaine Lettuce Salad. It was accompanied by onion rings which Anne Marie did not eat but it did add to the overall presentation of the salad.
We both had Salmon for our entrees. This was one of the alternate choices on the menu and is available on most evenings.
Anne Marie had her entree the way it was listed on the menu and it was accompanied with mashed potatoes. Keith had a baked potato which was served in a separate plate in lieu of the mashed potatoes and this photo is of Keith's entree.
The featured fish was a Tomato Glazed Black Cod and Keith ordered a half portion of this entree without the Glaze just to try it. Anne Marie tried a little as well.
For dessert, you guessed it, Keith had Mixed Berries and Anne Marie had the sugar free Apple Pie a la Mode. Keith tried a little bit of the sugar free dessert as well and like all of the sugar-free desserts it tasted as good as the "real thing".
The evening entertainment was comedy performed by Cash Levy. We attended the one which was for those in late seating which was performed as their pre-dinner show so we arrived about 15 minutes into his routine.
When we got back to our room there were gifts on our bed with cards from Captain Okland/Crystal Cruises.
Each gift came in a bag.
The item on the left is a lightweight throw gift for Anne Marie and the item on the right is a alpaca scarf for Keith. Both items were hand made in South America
We slept very well last evening as we sailed to our next port of call in Valparaiso, Chile.
We began our day as we always do. Keith was up first and back in the Fitness Center for his daily morning workout on the Elliptical Machine. He watched one of the lectures he missed from the last sea day and also caught up with some news. Right now we are two hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States.
Afterwards, he had coffee at the Lido Cafe. Before he left, friend Linda arrived so they chatted for a couple of minutes.
Before Breakfast Anne Marie got in a one hour walk. just shortly after we arrived to Valparaiso.
We had breakfast in our room at our usual time.
On all of our previous voyages Valparaiso was either the start or the end of these voyages as often cruises go between Valparaiso and Buenos Aires. In this case this segment of the World Cruise began in Lima, Peru (Port City of Callao) and ends in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With that said, we understand around 35 guests will be leaving the ship in Valparaiso and about 50 guests will be joining the ship at this port of call.
On our previous visits to Valparaiso a shuttle was provided into the downtown area. This time they changed this up and the shuttle took us to the resort city of Vina del Mar. Since Valparaiso is an industrial port we first took a shuttle bus from the ship over to the main terminal area.
As we entered the terminal building we saw John Stoll, VP, Crystal Cruises Land Program and Port Management. This includes responsibility for all of the shore excursions and overland tours, arranging the shore side events, selection of the World Cruise hotels, and all of the operation related items for ports including securing all of the ports around the world to support each port of call that either the Crystal Symphony or Crystal Serenity visits on each and every cruise.
Anne Marie with John Stoll. John put on his sun glasses since Anne Marie had hers on too.
One of John's many responsibilities includes arranging this evening's World Cruise Shoreside Event. About one year before the start of the World Cruise, John travels to various cities and identifies potential venues for the shoreside events. One of the complexities for this years World Cruise is finding venues that will accommodate close to 400 World Cruise guests. We chatted with John for about 25 minutes about a variety of item including tonights event.
We then got on the first shuttle bus for our ride into Vina Del Mar. The ride took about thirty minutes.
We walked around the area for about one hour.
As was the case yesterday, we also saw several stray dogs. Some were asleep like these ones, others were walking around by themselves and still others were walking around in packs of three or four dogs.
Our final stop was to a Palace called Palacio Vegair. We could not get inside the Palace so we viewed it from the outside and then we walked its very pretty and spacious grounds.
We had lunch in the Lido Cafe. We sat outside and with very few people outside it was very quiet and very enjoyable.
Anne Marie walked in the afternoon, sat out at the pool, got ready for this evening and also organized for tomorrow. Keith played Paddle Tennis, and later met up with friend Bob, and also got ready for the evening.
This evening we are leaving the shi to attend a World Cruise shore side event. The event will be held in the wine country and will include wine tastings and canapés, music, song and dance.
Tomorrow we have a tour planned which will take us back to the Wine Country.
We began our day as we always do. Keith was up first and back in the Fitness Center for his daily morning workout on the Elliptical Machine. He watched one of the lectures he missed from the last sea day and also caught up with some news. Right now we are two hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States.
Afterwards, he had coffee at the Lido Cafe. Before he left, friend Linda arrived so they chatted for a couple of minutes.
Before Breakfast Anne Marie got in a one hour walk. just shortly after we arrived to Valparaiso.
We had breakfast in our room at our usual time.
On all of our previous voyages Valparaiso was either the start or the end of these voyages as often cruises go between Valparaiso and Buenos Aires. In this case this segment of the World Cruise began in Lima, Peru (Port City of Callao) and ends in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With that said, we understand around 35 guests will be leaving the ship in Valparaiso and about 50 guests will be joining the ship at this port of call.
On our previous visits to Valparaiso a shuttle was provided into the downtown area. This time they changed this up and the shuttle took us to the resort city of Vina del Mar. Since Valparaiso is an industrial port we first took a shuttle bus from the ship over to the main terminal area.
As we entered the terminal building we saw John Stoll, VP, Crystal Cruises Land Program and Port Management. This includes responsibility for all of the shore excursions and overland tours, arranging the shore side events, selection of the World Cruise hotels, and all of the operation related items for ports including securing all of the ports around the world to support each port of call that either the Crystal Symphony or Crystal Serenity visits on each and every cruise.
Anne Marie with John Stoll. John put on his sun glasses since Anne Marie had hers on too.
One of John's many responsibilities includes arranging this evening's World Cruise Shoreside Event. About one year before the start of the World Cruise, John travels to various cities and identifies potential venues for the shoreside events. One of the complexities for this years World Cruise is finding venues that will accommodate close to 400 World Cruise guests. We chatted with John for about 25 minutes about a variety of item including tonights event.
We then got on the first shuttle bus for our ride into Vina Del Mar. The ride took about thirty minutes.
We walked around the area for about one hour.
As was the case yesterday, we also saw several stray dogs. Some were asleep like these ones, others were walking around by themselves and still others were walking around in packs of three or four dogs.
We walked inside a church and then all around it from the outside.
We also walked around a nice park.
Our final stop was to a Palace called Palacio Vegair. We could not get inside the Palace so we viewed it from the outside and then we walked its very pretty and spacious grounds.
We had lunch in the Lido Cafe. We sat outside and with very few people outside it was very quiet and very enjoyable.
Anne Marie walked in the afternoon, sat out at the pool, got ready for this evening and also organized for tomorrow. Keith played Paddle Tennis, and later met up with friend Bob, and also got ready for the evening.
This evening we are leaving the shi to attend a World Cruise shore side event. The event will be held in the wine country and will include wine tastings and canapés, music, song and dance.
Tomorrow we have a tour planned which will take us back to the Wine Country.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE
DAY............
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closes door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.” - Helen Keller
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closes door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.” - Helen Keller
Keith and Anne Marie
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