**And Again,

Why? Why? Why?

Jan 5 People always ask...Why do you cruise? Do you get BORED? What do you do all day? You are going to be on the ship, how LONG ????? I thought long and hard about how to answer this question..... Well, I can stay home....... craft, go to movies, go to Walgreens, watch tv.......

 Or, I can get on a ship, see the world, a new port almost every day, a new adventure, see the world, meet people, learn..... It's not why.... It's why not? The deep secret that I will deny if asked .... is the real reason behind my love of cruising...

 
This is the real reason I cruise ....... I crave these salt sticks on Crystal. 1 a day.... at dinner.... 60 days..... or more.... That's a lot of salt sticks. And at dinner you can have more then one! Just ask your waiter.. :) And at breakfast they have them! I just can't describe how good they really are. You just have to come on board with me to fully appreciate that salty crispy little wonder. Yes, it's all about a roll..a salt roll, crispy, crunchy, soft, chewy ... Pure heaven. It's a secret, OK?

Crystal Serenity First leg, pre World Cruise.

January 5 - January 24, 2016

 

19 days 7 sea days an overnight in Colon (WHY???), and one San Francisco So, we are cruising again! It has been a while. Medical issues, surgeries, a big move and a major remodel got in the way of our travel. Happy to be back at sea. I love being on the water. We planned to be on this cruise a year ago then cancelled out. Last minute, things changed and we decided we both needed a break. This is the pre-cruise to the World Cruise. David did not want to 'fly' all the way from Tampa to San Francisco at the end of the January for the World Cruise. Instead, he says, let's just get on in Miami, "it's closer". How could I refuse? So now we head South as you can see from my nifty map above.

 

Arrival to the airport was a breeze when you leave your house 4 hours prior to your flight .... David was insistent we needed to be at the airport 3 hours ahead of time. It took all of 10 minutes to check in. I spent the next 2+ hours online and played games on my computer. Our flight was on time. It was a 40 minute flight to Miami, give or take. Traveling first class, we were served drinks. Since it was noon, I ordered two drinks, tomato juice prior to take off and a vodka tonic in flight. Little did I realize that 10 minutes into the flight, right over Cape Coral, the stewardess collected all glasses to prepare for landing. We were only ¼ of the way to Miami for goodness sakes! My glass was whisked out of my hand from someone coming up from behind..

 




(last I saw of my drink... and the 'movie' was shut off for landing....) Our luggage was first off. Traveling is so easy for David, because 'someone' is always one step ahead (behind if he has his scooter) to collect the luggage and hail the cab.

 

We headed directly to the Port to board the Crystal Serenity. Since we booked so late we were not able to get a larger stateroom. Only postage stamp rooms were left. We needed to see if anything became available last minute....

 

We did not want to unpack right away just in case they moved us. A move to larger quarters was not in our cards. When David tried to get his scooter into the room it did not fit through the door. Nor did it fit anywhere in the room without my having to lift it over the bed each time he entered. We did not want take it apart , lift it over the bed or try to turn it around in the room so it would be easy for David to take it out again. Maneuvering it was just too hard. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to store it in the room. It is not allowed out in the hall. We settled on it totally blocking the cabin door and blocking ¾ of the bathroom door in the hall ….. Not great.

 



Unpacking our 4 suitcases in a postage stamp cabin was another challenge of the day. I started to place some clothes in the bathroom cabinets. We have four 12” drawers, four 18” drawers and 3 tiny drawers taking up space in the “spacious” closet along with a safe. In the end, it all fit..…. (remarkably) . I donated the robes, slippers and everything unnecessary back to the housekeeper. Emptied suitcases went under the bed. David was a huge help. :) Gotta love that guy.

 

Next on our list of things to do was to see where our table was in the dining room. There was not a card in our room indicating what table we were assigned to. We stood in the “change my table” line on deck 7 to find out ... Oh, No...we are 'floaters' .... meaning we would be at a different table with different people each day..... we had no table assigned. Like a man without country. This was not good. We were told to just show up for early dinner and they will work on it. Later in the day we were assigned to TABLE 1!! Woo! Hoo! It is a GREAT table,.. table for 2, window, in a quiet corner in the back, away from the hustle and bustle of the dining crowd. We were more then pleased. We both mentally did the Happy Dance.

 

Love our waiter- Darwin. Our assistant waiter is Giovanni. Love our table location- in a quiet corner.... Dinner was excellent. We both had steak with béarnaise and a baked potato. And yes I had a salt stick even though I said NO SALT STICKS this cruise!!! If I eat one a day at dinner, I will have consumed over 70 salt sticks by myself this cruise. Good thing it isn’t all in one sitting. I ordered cheesecake for desert even though I told myself I wouldn’t be eating desert this cruise.

 

Not your typical New York Cheesecake. It was a tiny round cheesecake with raspberry sorbet on top. Next to it was pineapple covered in foam, a line sprinkle of pink sugar…. And the “mushroom” was a tiny piece of brownie. Delicious but an unusual, photogenic combination. Yumm for sure. The wow factor I guess was the presentation.

 

A little after 7 as we were eating dinner the ship's ropes were tossed and we were officially cruising. David and I disagreed when cruising starts. I say when the ropes are untied. He thinks when we are out of harbor and at sea. I sent my last few texts to family as best I could to say Good Bye to all. After dinner we listened to the string orchestra for a moment but David wasn’t interested in having a drink so we headed to bed, both tired. The bed is super comfortable. I found a place for my tiny 5” fan on the desk across the vast cabin from the bed and plugged it into our one outlet…. It will just have to do for the next two months. I came to terms with all the baggage of “things not right” in my mind today, let it go, it’s all OK.

Grand Turk- First Stop.

Perfect weather in Grand Turk. Last time I was here was with Corrie to celebrate her graduation. It is a tiny island. Best for water sports and snorkeling. Absolutely beautiful waters...not much else. Very poor. We anchored, tendered to port and just walked the shops. Easy to do in 30 minutes.
Getting off our tender....

 

Our ship- at anchor in Turks and Caicos