The First Port - 2020年环球之旅的第一个停靠港口
Jan 30, 2020 (Day 10) - Today is Jan 30, the 10th day of this world cruise. At 7:00 AM, our ship arrived at Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia……
Day 10
Today is Jan 30, the 10th day of this world cruise. At 7:00 AM, our ship arrived at Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia. Nuku Hiva is one of the Marguesas Islands. After eight sea days, everyone on board was excited to finally see land again. We went on a shore excursion with Crystal. Scenic Island Drive Excursion took us to the wood and stone Notre Dame cathedral, a small village, and the celebration festival ground. We also tasted the local fruits, which were very good. Mango, Coconut and YuZu are the local favorite. The tour took about 4 hours. The temperature was at high 70 F with high humidity. After the tour, we went back to the ship to have lunch then we were returned to the island again. This time we just walked along the coast line up to the hotel.
At 6:00 PM, we went to Umi Uma for dinner. The sushi bar was full, but they let us sit in the main dinning area without a reservation. The food was fantastic although there was too much. We also talked to the host and the Japanese Chef to order Mochi and Ramen noodle for our next visit.
Tonight we will turn our watches and phones back 30 mins. This is the second time we need to adjust the time by 30 mins. Before this trip, we never knew you could adjust time zones by minutes.
Crossing The Equator - 穿越赤道
Jan 27, 2020 (Day 7) - Today, we're crossing the equator to get to the other side of the earth. There was a commemoration of
Day 7
Today, we're crossing the equator to get to the other side of the earth. There was a commemoration of crossing the equator in Palm Court. The crew even dressed in costumes and performed the rite of passage. We don’t know the background of the commemoration but it was very funny and entertaining.
We had a kitchen tour in the afternoon. The kitchen is huge and clean. There are about 35 people working in the kitchen at a time.
Crystal Cruise typically has small scale shows like stand up comedy, "Magicians At Sea", and a piano solo concert. The shows are high quality. Some of the artists are even Grammy nominated! We've enjoyed the shows very much.
The ship was definitely rocking back and forth. Our last motion sickness patch was days old and expired. One of us did feel a little motion sickness this morning and skipped yoga class.
As we approached the equator late morning, the weather cleared up. The temperature was about 70 degrees. We did a few rounds of walking on Deck 7.
We went to the sushi bar yesterday. The sushi bar doesn’t require a reservation but is counted as a specialty restaurant. For regular cruisers, there is a two visit limit per segment per person. But as world cruisers, there is no limitation. The sushi and sashimi were very delicious. We ordered special Tora sushi.
Lectures - 讲座
Jan 26, 2020 (Day 6) - Unlike other big cruise lines, Crystal Cruise provides educational lectures during sea days. Typically there are …..
Day 5
Unlike other big cruise lines, Crystal Cruise provides educational lectures during sea days. Typically there are three or four lectures presented by experts in the field on various topics from politics, science, entertainment, etc, each sea day. Yesterday, Cheri Steinkellner, a writer for the tv show Cheers gave a presentation on Cheers: Behind the Scenes, which was very entertaining. On the serious side, Brigadier General Nick Halley talked about war stories from Vietnam to Iraq. Today, Owen Ullmann, a managing editor at USA Today presented “The 2020 Financial Outlook”. Each presenter would give two to three lectures during the segment. We are really enjoying those lectures and learn a lot.
Today, the ship had Sunday brunch in Crystal Plaza. There is so much food there, but CG just had a simple salad from the brunch then went to Silk to have the noodle soup and a bun with BBQ pork. Both soup and bun were delicious. When he was about to leave, the waiter brought another special Chinese authentic short rib soup sent by the chef. The soup was very good too.
Today’s dinner was in Prego, an Italian restaurant. We ordered appetizer, soup, salad, and a main course. All of them were delicious. We definitely will go back to try different dishes. We had cheese as dessert. After today, we have now finished visiting all the restaurants on this ship.
Chinese New Year Day - 春节
Jan 25, 2020 (Day 5) - Today is Chinese New Year Day. We woke up early morning to find out our ship arrived at Cabo San Lucas……
Day 4
Today is Chinese New Year Day. We woke up early morning to find out our ship arrived at Cabo San Lucas. This is the second time that we’ve seen Mexico from a distance but never visited it. After dropping the patient there, Crystal Serenity is on the way to Nuku Hiva.
Silk Restaurant prepared a special menu to celebrate Chinese New Year. We ordered all items on the menu. The food was fantastic, especially the seafood soup and dessert. We also took a picture with executive chef and Chinese chef.
We took a few picture of early morning at Cabo San Luges. The lifeboat was seen to leave the ship to drop the patient and return.
Emergency Evacuation - 紧急医疗疏散
Jan 24, 2020 (Day 4) - Today is Jan. 24, Chinese New Years Eve. More detail about the medical emergency emerged this morning……
Today is Jan. 24, Chinese New Years Eve. More detail about the medical emergency emerged this morning. A woman had a serious medical issue that required immediate medical attention. The closest hospital was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The captain decided to drop her there then continue our journey. The ship will take a detour and most likely we will lose one port call. However, it is also nice to know that the cruise line would do whatever necessary for the safety of passengers in case of emergency.
Today, there were three very good lectures from Prof. in University of Australian, an American Astronaut who flew three space shuttle, and a Professional Photographer. We took yoga together at 9:00 AM. In the afternoon, we attended Watercolor and Piano lesson on board separately.
Today we had breakfast, lunch and dinner all in Market Place, which provides buffet type food. The dinner was served with Brazilian grill. The food was terrific.
After dinner, we went to the concert by Tommy Proulx, Grammy nominated Saxophonist.
At Sea - 在海上
Today is the first full sea day of next six consecutive sea days. The ocean was rough. We definitely felt the ship
Today is the first full sea day of next six consecutive sea days. The ocean was rough. We definitely felt the ship movement. Luckily, we had put the patch yesterday. However we also had dry mouth due to the side effect of the medicine. We drank a lot of water. Although it was a sea day, we were very busy. We went to two lectures by Jenifer Chandler, the Gold Medalist in Women’s 3-meter Springboard Diving and Bill Toone, a conservation biologist. We also took Golf, Watercolor and Piano lessons separately for each.
We got two backpacks, a gift from Virtuoso group, a parent company of Cruise Specialist (our travel agent) and t-shirts from Crystal Cruise to sigh up in World Cruise Game.
We had dinner at Umi Uma, a Japanese Restaurant. We had a few new style sashimi dishes, and Black Cod and Nobu style Lobster as the main entries for each of us. The dishes were pretty delicious. We definitely will go back there many times during world cruise.
We were told there was medical emergency and the ship was being routed to Mexico to drop the patient there. We don’t know how it impact on the rest of the itinerary.
On Board - 上船了
Jan 21, 2020 (Day 1) - We were one hour delayed last night to get to LAX. This morning we were picked up at the hotel by Crystal
We were one hour delayed last night to get to LAX. This morning we were picked up at the hotel by Crystal Cruises at 10:45 AM and arrived at the cruise terminal about 11:30 AM. The checking in process was interesting. We were taken to an area and served with champagne and snacks. Then they checked the tickets and took away our passports. We were ready to get on board.
Our room was already ready for us to move in. The room size is 226 sq. ft. It seems small. We are going to stay at the same room for next 90 days. We also received another set of gifts from Crystal including World Cruise apparel, journal, magnet, baseball cap and tote bag.
We had a simple lunch at Waterside. The food was pretty good. We also realized that we won’t do any cooking and house chores for next 90 days. After lunch, we just walked around the ship and checked things out. Today, the ship will depart Los Angeles at 5:00 PM.
We had dinner at Silk Chinese Restaurant. At 8:00 PM, we had balloon drops ceremony to kick off 25th World Cruise.
On Sun Deck
T-2 - 到数第二天
Jan. 19, 2020 (Day -2) - It is the time! We are two days away from starting the journey we have dreamed of for many months. Over the ……
It is the time! We are two days away from starting the journey we have dreamed of for many months. Over the last several days, we have been cleaning, shopping and packing. Now six suitcases are waiting to go on the journey with us. We will fly to Los Angeles tomorrow evening to stay overnight at Sheraton near the airport. We will be picked up by Crystal Cruise at the hotel in the morning to transport us to the cruise terminal. We are very excited but also very nervous. Only way to connect with our family and friends are through satellites in the space.
*UPDATE – As we finalized the packing, one of the large suitcases broke. We had to go to Target to get another suitcase first thing in the morning. Now we are in the airport to wait for taking off to start our journey.
Gifts - Osmo Action - 惊喜礼物
Dec, 2019 - We received the first gift set of World Cruise from our travel agent, Cruise Specialist……
We received the first gift set of World Cruise from our travel agent, Cruise Specialist.
Travel bag and vest jackets from our travel agent
On Christmas eve, we received another box in the mail from Crystal Cruise. At the time, we didn’t know it was from Crystal Cruise. Our daughter took it upstairs and wrapped it with gift paper. On Christmas day, I opened the box and found a set of packing cube from Crystal Cruise. As I unzipped the packing cube, there was another inside and another, and at the very end, there was a DJI Osmo Action Camera inside the box! I had looked at this camera at Amazon a few days ago and I wanted it for this trip. Wow, “Crystal even gives us an action camera?” I was as excited as a toddler that gets their first toy. Then I looked at my daughter next to me and she was smiling at me with a “I got you” face. It was a gift from my daughter, one of my best Christmas gifts ever.
Early Booking - 早期订票
July, 2018 - As we go on bigger adventures, we have started to plan our trips well in advance. Once we make a decision…...
As we go on bigger adventures, we have started to plan our trips well in advance. Once we make a decision on a particular trip, we usually would book it as early as possible. We booked our last trip, the Antarctica cruise, one year in advance. This trip is no exception. Once Crystal made the booking available to the public, we immediately jumped on it - a full 18 months before the cruise departs. We booked it through a Cruise Specialist in Seattle. Since we booked it earlier and it is a world cruise, we also received more than $10,000 of onboard credit through our travel agent, Cruise Specialist and Crystal Cruise. We bought travel insurance from Berkshire Hathaway Travel for this trip. Crystal Cruise also provides some discount for early booking. We put down the deposit for Cabin C3 (the lowest class with big window) on the waiting list 18 months ago. A week or two later, we were confirmed for Guaranteed C3 cabin. At the time our travel agent told us we might have a good opportunity to get a nice upgrade. We didn’t believe him. We thought it was just a marketing trick. However, to our surprise, we found we were upgraded to A2 Cabin with balcony in Deck 9 a few months ago. We thought it might be a website mistake so we called our travel agent. He did confirm it. This trip has a very good start.