We had another wonderful evening on board the Crystal Symphony.
Before dinner, we attended a reception at Captain Egil Giske’s quarters with some of our fellow passengers. It provided a nice opportunity to speak with the Captain and some of the other Senior Officers and to also socialize with some of our fellow guests. For a good portion of the reception we enjoyed a very nice conversation with Hotel Director, Josef Matt, and with the Director of the Loyalty Program and Guest Relations, Mary-Catherine Wilks.
After dinner, we dined in the Main Dining Room with Mary-Catherine Wilks who as we mentioned is the Director of Crystal Cruises Loyalty Program & Guest Relations. Department. This was a wonderful opportunity to get to know Mary-Catherine. She is a wonderful person and has an excellent rapport with the customers of Crystal. Three other passengers who we know so very well from previous cruises with Crystal also joined us. We were the last guests to finish dinner as we all enjoyed a wonderful conversation.
When we returned to our room there was a letter from the captain letting us know that due to issues in Acapulco, including serious incidents in the downtown area, that we will not visit Acapulco on November 17 but will instead visit the resort city of Huatulco on November 16. This was a very wise decision by Crystal Cruises and we commend them for making this itinerary change.
We slept very well. The seas were relatively calm and we find that we sleep very well when we sail as we find the slight rocking of the ship to make it easy to fall to sleep.
Keith was up early and was working out in the Fitness Center by around 5:00AM. He worked out on the Elliptical Machine. The Fitness Center has been great and Crystal has a sufficient number of cardio machines and other equipment to meet the needs of the vast majority of passengers. . For a portion of the workout I spoke with fellow cruise passenger Leroy. Around the time that Keith finished his workout, Anne Marie began her workout on the treadmill.
After we finished our workouts each of us brought back some coffee to the room and then we enjoyed a very nice pleasant breakfast. Speaking of our room we wanted to highlight how wonderful the room staff has been. Our Stewardess is Jurgita who has worked for Crystal for many years and she is always on top of everything. Milena, the stewardess in training ably assists her. Sebastian is our butler and he is a long-term employee of Crystal Cruises and just an outstanding butler with a wonderful sense of humor.
We arrived to Grand Cayman by around 9:00 AM.
Grand Cayman is actually the largest of the three Cayman Islands. There are two distinct sides to this Island. On the Western side of this Island is Georgetown, which is the capital. One will find lots of resorts, restaurants and shopping on this side of the Island. The Eastern side of the Island is fairly undeveloped in comparison to the Western side.
As is the case with so many of the Islands in this area of the world, tourism plays a major role for the local economy. One of the features that attract major tourism is the spectacular scuba diving and snorkeling that awaits those tourists traveling to this Island.
Many different governments since the time they were discovered by the Europeans ruled the Cayman Islands. Christopher Columbus first sighted these islands in May of 1503. The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands dates back to around 1700.
Over the years we have visited Grand Cayman numerous times, most recently in January of this year. It is a tender port meaning that it is not equipped for docking by Cruise Ships and each ship takes passengers to and from the port via tender boats. Unlike when we were here earlier this year, the port was quite busy with several cruise ships visiting Grand Cayman.
We took the tender over to the Island and walked around for part of the morning. We originally booked a private shore excursion through Crystal Cruises that was put together for those members of Cruise Critic but it was to be cancelled due to damage done to the miniature golf course from a recent storm.
We walked around just for about an hour. From our cruise ship we could see four other ships but as we tendered in we noticed a fifth ship. There were three Carnival ships, two Celebrity ships, and of course, our ship. To put this into perspective, when we were in the Caymans in January of this year there was only our one ship. The reason there are so many ships is that this week marks the start of the cruise ship season for these islands and on Tuesdays this island tends to be busier than on other days of the week since many ships leave from Fort Lauderdale and Miami over the weekend, arriving here on Tuesdays.
A short while after we returned to the ship Anne Marie relaxed on the open deck while Keith played paddle tennis. We then had lunch with Ambassador Ed Peck and his lovely wife Ann.
In the afternoon Keith read, wrote and took care of a few other items while Anne Marie took a long walk on the Promenade Deck.
Before dinner this evening, we are having friends Ricki, David, Chuck and Steve to our room for some canapés and champagne. Afterwards, the six of us will dine at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant. We have pre-ordered a couple of favorite items for everyone to enjoy.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….
“But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
Robert Frost
Keith and Anne Marie
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