Day 12, May 15, 2015, Serenity Crossing – Eighth Day at Sea

Having lost yet another hour, we got up around 8am.  We decided to pass on the 10am lecture by Drew Casper on the comedic Sinatra which preceded a screening of his 1955 film “The Tender Trap.”  Julie tossed in a load of laundry (only one, since the other 3 machines were busy) and we went out for a walk.  It was 59 degrees, going directly into the wind.  It was pretty cold and very difficult walking.  Eventually we managed about 50 minutes of walking, 3.2 miles and 6200 steps. 

We got back and got ready for the day.  Since we were done by 11am, we decided to give Ronald Marks one last try at a lecture, titled “Is America Still Number One?”  We figured that with that title and at this point of the cruise, he would talk about current events.  Unfortunately we were wrong again.  He spent the entire time going over 10^th grade American History, focusing on our foreign relations (which was mostly internal).  Oh well, we both took our computers and worked on email and the blog. 

His talk went long and we ended up going quickly up to the Palm court for our last trivia.  The team showed up eventually and we got started.  It was horrible, with so many obscure facts (like Andre the Giant’s real last name, Ivana Trump’s maiden name, and the name of the dog in the Waltons).  The teams were booing the caller (all in good fun of course).  He (one of the dancers) said that it was his first time doing trivia and also that he was a good swimmer in case he got tossed overboard.  We ended up with only 7 right, the two winning teams had 9.  Pretty brutal, but really fun (such as when he asked did any teams get 15, everyone yelled and cheered like they got them all right).

We then went to the Lido for lunch (salads) and then headed down to the talk at 1:30pm by celebrity photographer Tim Courtney.  He showed a list of many of the celebrities that he had photographed over the past 18 years (it was amazingly short with less than 50 people on it), but had a number of great stars.  He mostly does magazine covers and spreads.  He then went though his top five celebrities that he has worked with over the years (starting with Bea Arthur).  It was a very good talk.

We decided to skip the movie (Big Eyes) and did a drive by of the Tea Time Event – Ol’ Blue Eyes Birthday Party with the Hollywood speakers.  

Julie started packing and Bob worked on the pictures and blog.  Bob went down to the stern of the ship and took a picture up our very, very long hallway (we were midships and you can't even see that far, even with a zoom).

We then went to the Bistro for some tea/coffee and access to the Internet.

At 5pm, we headed back to our room and got ready for dinner; the last of our formal nights.  We then went to the Cove and hung out and then went in to dinner for our last dining by reservation at 6:15.  It was really crowded and we actually had a wait in a line to get our table.

For appetizer, Julie started with the Cream of Asparagus soup with herb croutons, while Bob had the Confit of Portobello Mushrooms from the Modern Menu that included white bean puree, sweet peppers and balsamic puffs.  We thought that they both were great.

For the second course, we both had the Baby Greens tossed in orange-buttermilk dressing with red beets, fresh strawberries, yellow tomatoes and caramelized pecans.  It was again, another excellent salad.

Oops, we missed taking a picture!!

For the entrée, Julie had the Broiled Lobster with vegetable wild rice pilaf, asparagus, confit garlic, and eggplant.  She thought that it was very good.

Bob had the Grilled Veal Medallions with creamy morel sauce, mustard gnocchi and glazed vegetables.  They were also quite good.

We both skipped the usual dessert and had an assortment of cheeses.  We both liked the camembert the best.

After dinner, we had a ton of time before the 8:45pm show, so we went back to our room and watched the Tender Trap movie (at least part of it).   The production show was Curtain Call.  We have seen it many times before (probably six since this is our seventh Crystal cruise), but it was still excellent.  It is a great assortment the best songs from a number of Broadway musicals- Evita, Cats, etc.  It is definitely a very difficult show to put on with the singers and dancers involved in almost every number.

After the show, we went back to the room and started watching the Tender Trap again.  Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the end and went to sleep.  For the day, Bob had 12.2K steps and 5.8 miles.