ChansonDeLaMer

About afternoon tea: We didn’t find time to go to tea on our recent cruise. At the Meet and Mingle, I happened to overhear CC members tell the Food and Beverage Manager that the changes are unwelcome. Perhaps more people should voice their opinions.

It’s great to see you again. I’ve been looking forward to your Alaskan adventure. 😘

Fantastic suggestion. Thanks in case I need to nudge Chase in the future.

If one wants to get a key for a locker in the spa, one’s room key is left at desk in exchange for a locker key. I enjoy the steam room and get a locker key on occasion.

Not sure it’s my favorite, but it is among our favorites. We requested extra sauce. It normally doesn’t have this much.

Kathie, I also enjoyed our brief chats. It was also a pleasure to meet Timmy. It was fun to have him drop by our table to give me a thumbs up for choosing the Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc in Umi Uma. Susan, I wondered where you went. I realized I hadn’t seen you for days. My hubby developed the Crystal cough early in the cruise and self quarantined himself in the cabin. We are great believers in not sharing germs. Too many don’t share our perspective. We left embarkation lunch early because people at two nearby tables had terrible coughs. Maybe we didn’t leave early enough! Kathie, your writing style and photos are superb. Thanks for documenting a fun cruise.

I’m currently on the Serenity and don’t have time plus am not good at doing a search on this forum. I was one of several people who wrestled with this problem earlier in the summer. I finally received our credit. One person posted the precise language or title of person to request when calling Chase. I called numerous times and learned that the customer service personnel who answer routine calls have no knowledge of the situation and don’t know how to resolve it. I remember escalating my complaint a couple of levels. Meanwhile, it appears that the delay may originate with Crystal. You might try calling Crystal.

Thumbs up on Churrascaria. Thanks to all the CC comments, pro and con, about this restaurant, we felt we were able to successfully navigate the procedure at Churrascaria. One of us is a meat lover. One is not. We let our lovely waiter know what our wishes were. He arranged to have meat appear promptly as soon as we got salad and baked potatoes from the buffet section. Each meat that was tried was judged to be high quality and properly cooked. Each of us enjoyed our choices and found the evening to be a pleasant one that we will certainly repeat. This concept has apparently been evolving, in part with constructive feedback from some CC members. We were pleased to discover an additional dining venue.

Hats off to Kathie and to Roy who blog consistently. With so many distractions onboard, it’s hard to find time to post. I do keep a hand written trip journal for each trip. That alone requires discipline, but those journals are treasures that allow us to relive trips years later We had breakfast on our veranda this morning. It is warm and a bit humid, but absolutely gorgeous. We’re so fortunate to enjoy such weather and service. Loved Icons in Concert last night. We’ve always been huge fans of the Crystal singers and dancers, but this ensemble may be the best ever. I tried to post some food porn, but the net is throwing up obstacle after obstacle at the moment. Perhaps later.

After 5 great days in Lisbon, including a hilarious misadventure or two, we sadly bid Lisbon farewell and happily boarded the Serenity. It has been been a pleasure from the first “Welcome Home.” I bumped into Kathie and Timmy in the library within minutes of boarding. Just in case anyone even questioned it, Kathie is as warm and delightful as she sounds on the blog. I was catching up with my trip journal in the Palm Court during the first trivia day. Arlene and Gill’s Team was amazing. Those were tough questions. I like the way the entertainment staff is conducting trivia, and questions seem more reasonable than on some past cruises. I said reasonable, not easier! Meet and Mingle was fun. There was good attendance. People mixed well. Pulse isn’t conducive to sitting so mingling is easier. Complaint. Too much great music and entertainment on this cruise!!! ( hope you get that I’m not really complaining). Why the complaint? I can’t see all of it. WOW. We haven’t even made it to the Avenue. The Dorsey Orchestra is fabulous. Last night we were sleepy from staying up till two the previous night enjoying entertainment so we chose to see the clarinetist at 10:30 instead of Dorsey. Kenny Martyn backed up by the show band was superb. He excels at Benny Goodman, but treated us to everything from Dixieland to a Russian polka. Band members stepped up as usual to elevate the show. Enjoying temperatures in mid to high seventies and gentle seas on our veranda today. Life is good!

Kathie and Suzeluvscruz We are in transit and are currently in New York. The packing and preparations haven’t allowed me to keep up with the blog, but I’ll have time tonight. We fly Delta to Lisbon tomorrow night and look forward to our fifth visit to that beautiful city. Suze, crash the M and M. Who will know? You’ll be welcome. So you’ll be part of a rowdy pack. This promises to be a fun cruise. Thanks Terry.

Bon Voyage! We will join some of you in Lisbon. Roy, I hope your injury heals quickly.

Keith, thanks for solving that problem. I’m selfish. I wanted to see more of Kathie’s photos. Thanks to a Computer University class on a cruise several years ago, I learned to Airdrop. I’ve taught several friends, and yes, Kathie, it’s a miracle!

Roy gave you excellent advice. That offer was made by gwesq on the Roll Call for the crossing. If you don’t receive a reply quickly on this forum, go to the Roll Call. I hope the tour works out for you. It appears to be an excellent one. By the way, I believe qwesq will be boarding in Barcelona (not entirely certain) so he/she may be traveling now and fail to check CC frequently.

This is a delightful thread. Thanks to all, especially Kathie, who are contributing to it. The photos and narrative are great. Your blog is also terrific. I’m curious about why it’s easier to upload photos on your blog than it is to do same on CC. Is it the CC platform? Having been frustrated by painfully slow internet on Serenity from time to time, I appreciate your persistence. Will join you in Lisbon!! The bags are out.