Day 6 - at sea - caribbean sea

We were up pretty early since we went to bed early the previous night. We both went to get Americano coffees at the Bistro to-go and walked around the ship. Chris went to the golf clinic and he found the instructor very knowledgeable. I did some writing in the cabin. Later, Chris attended the Titanic lecture which he enjoyed. It discussed the various movies that have told the story of Titanic. After the lecture, we met our team for trivia. It was not our best performance 8/15 but it was enjoyable chatting with our team mates. They showed us photos of their dinner in the Vintage Room on Thanksgiving which they both enjoyed. That seems like a great experience. There are so many food choices available it is hard to try them all in a 7 day cruise.

After trivia, we went to lunch at Marketplace and then grabbed a spot by the pool. Once again, even though it was early afternoon, there was no difficulty finding a good spot. We swam for a bit and chatted with a wonderfully interesting passenger who worked as the producer and writer for a few television shows (The Mike Douglas Show, CHiPS and Hollywood Squares) . Upon finding out we were pharmacists, he asked us a few questions about medications while I asked him about being a writer. One of the delights of a Crystal cruise for me is meeting very interesting people. Chris enjoyed the golf clinic about driving so he also went to the putting one in the afternoon while I read at the pool. Chris kept up his busy day and went to the galley tour while I got ready for dinner. Since I was ready before him I went to the Avenue Saloon to wait for him.

Since we attended the Meet and Mingle yesterday in Palm Court, we needed to play catch up on our Manhattan journey. I started with the Sainted Manhattan which had elderflower liqueur and dry vermouth. Petar asked me to rate it and I said a solid 3.5 stars. When Chris arrived, he ordered the Unusual Manhattan that features cardamom. I didn’t really taste much unusual in that one but it was good. The snacks were salmon wraps and spicy chicken wings. For our second drinks, I had the Clint Eastwood and Chris had the Bluegrass. I had been weary of ordering the Clint Eastwood with green chartreuse. The color is not green and the drink was actually quite nice. It has a slightly herbal flavor that made it different. Neither Chris nor I enjoyed the Bluegrass. It was the first real dud of the list. To me, it tasted too weak almost watered down. We met some great people sitting at the bar tonight and had nice conversation with some fellow Manhattan enthusiasts.

Dinner tonight was in Waterside. We did try to get a reservation in Umi Uma but it was filled. Of course, we sat in Viktor’s section. I started with the mushroom tart and Chris had the octopus. Then, I had the octopus while Chris had an appetizer portion of pasta. The octopus was very nice. For our dinner, I had the cod while Chris had the veal. We both enjoyed our dinners. For dessert, I had mixed berries that Viktor recommended having with cognac. Chris had the sour cherry tapioca trifle. Both were lovely. It was another great dinner at Waterside.

We had been so impressed with the fine service from Viktor that we sent an email to Tom Wolber, the CEO. While we were waiting for the show, I saw he emailed me back already! We were very impressed at his dedication to his guests. He said he will be on Symphony next week and will thank Viktor personally for his service to us.

The show was a musical comedian, Steve Stevens. He was very funny with a nice mix of music and comedy. We both really laughed a bunch and enjoyed it.

After the show, we ended the night dancing at Palm Court with the Crystal Quartet. We enjoyed quite a few dances as well as nice discussion with hosts and fellow dancers we had met. At midnight, we returned to our cabin as immigration would be starting tomorrow morning at 7:30 for our last port, Key West.