Brrr….Brrrr….Brrrr…..When Captain Birger gave his daily talk from the bridge he reported that it was 37 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Most of the ship was comfortable except when we walked from the Lido Café through Tastes on the Lido Deck where it was cold. In addition to posting the Crystal Dining Room dinner menu we have also posted today's Luncheon Menu and also the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant menu. We wanted to add a few additional comments and observations from yesterday’s visit to Nome. A couple related to the infrastructure. On more than one occasion yesterday during the talks given by some of the locals they did have one concern about our visit. It was what impact there would be on their own cell phones if many of us used our cell telephones at once. As someone whose background is telecommunications, it’s not something I had thought about but a very interesting concern. Most of the roads we traveled on are dirt roads as very few roads are paved. Yesterday was rainy so essentially we were traveling on mud and walking on mud as we got in and out of the bus. For those who were wondering about annual snowfall in Nome we were total that average snowfall totals 40 inches per year. Our tour guide said that because of the wind it could snow and even if you shovel your car out it is not unusual to shovel out your car on three or four succeeding days because of snowdrift. When Gay Sheffield spoke to us about sea life she was asked about the relationship with the neighbors from Russia. She noted a couple of times that officially the respective governments prevent most communication. She went onto say that because of social media including Face Book that they do communicate with their counterparts on issues such as their research to determine what was causing illnesses to seals and on the changes in the Sea Life in the area. We began last evening with a pre-dinner drink at the Avenue Saloon. Afterwards, we saw Sarah Hayes at the Crystal Cove. We enjoyed dinner at the Crystal Dining Room and we were joined for dinner by Jaque Brown. Jaque had been Crystal Society Hostess since 2009 and we have had the pleasure of sailing with her for many voyages starting in 2010. As Crystal Society Hostess she has many on-board responsibilities for those who have taken one or more voyages with Crystal Cruises in the past. This includes coordinating any special milestones that guests have achieved and following up on items related to this. For example, at certain milestone levels guests might have a special milestone dinner at a specialty restaurant, captain's quarters or even vintage room and Jaque coordinates the scheduling of this and all of the details. Likewise, when guest achieve certain milestones they might receive a Crystal Society Pin or even a shipboard credit and Jaque follows up on this. She is also available at her desk outside the Crystal Dining Room to meet with guests. She has plenty of other responsibilities even expanding to other areas such as taking visitors such as travel agents on tours of the ship. We had a wonderful time with Jaque. Food was great and most importantly we had a great conversation with lots of laughs. The main entertainment for the evening was a performance by Sarah Hayes which was appropriately called Swinging in the Stardust. It was held 7:00 and 8:30 PM. She was accompanied by The Galaxy Orchestra. Sarah first performed on Serenity as part of a big band cruise with one of the big bands. She impressed so many people that she was invited back to perform throughout World Cruise 2014. She teamed up with vocalist Jonathan Hawkins and they sometimes performed together and other times separately. They were such a hit that they both performed on World Cruise 2015 and World Cruise 2016. With this being such a special voyage they were both invited back to appear throughout this voyage. On land, Sarah has a busy schedule performing shows in New York City. Her performance last night was sensational as she sang songs from the big band era. There was one downer from last night. We had to set the clocks forward by one hour. LOL, but we prefer to set them back not forward. LOL. We did sleep well but you could definitely hear the wind from outside. Shortly after Keith woke up and was working out at the Fitness Center the wind was even noisier. The good news is that the Serenity ship movement was not significant. Our speed was a little over 11 knots per hour. Ships movement did pick up by around 7:00 AM. There were times that one had the feeling they were in an airplane with turbulence. We enjoyed our usual breakfast in our room and for the first time of this voyage we were able to watch the Daily Morning Show featuring Cruise Director Rick and Northwest Passage Hostess Stacey. On most sea days there is an indoor cycling class that conflicts with seeing the show live but that was not the case today. The show featured John Stoll, Vice President of Land Programs and Port Operations. John has been on-board as Project Manager. He has visited the Northwest Passage Multiple times as part of the planning effort. This included visiting with Captain Birger and some of the Expedition Leaders a few months ago and also traveling on a Russian Ice Cutter as part of the planning effort. John noted that he has never experienced anything quite like Northwest Passage and that says a lot given his travels. He also talked about his meeting with the people of the community. He said they do welcome us and just ask that we are respectful of them and the community which makes perfect sense and that we leave the communities better than we found it. He said the meetings and visits were rewarding and there are several things being done so we do meet the goals that the locals have requested of us. We were reminded that we have left the United States and sailing to Canada as we received a Canadian Immigration Form to fill out. It seems like we recently filled out a similar form. Well, we did when we sailed Serenity this past May from San Francisco to Vancouver. LOL. As usual lots of activities were on the schedule and too numerous to list. We did want to highlight the lectures some of which we saw live and the others when they were rebroadcasted. Expedition Lecturer Henry Pollack spoke about Ice Water & Climate. He spoke about changes taking place in the formation of ice given climate change. He covered how past ice ages extensive ice sheets spread over the northern continents resulting in the drop of sea levels allowing for human migration between continents and spoke about what might result from the changing climate and how it may effect the world we live in . Expedition Lecturer Captain Ken Burton spoke about the Quest for the Northwest Passage by early European expeditions. He spoke about the challenges that these expedition vessels faced in an attempt to navigate this passage. World Affairs Lecturer Bill Schneider spoke about the Rise of the New America. Many of you might remember him from his frequent appearances on CNN. We didn't realize he was a lecturer on this epic voyage until read the daily Reflections program last night. When Cruise Director Rick introduced Bill Schneider he mentioned that although the major focus of the talks will come from the Expedition Team that we have some other lecturers covering other subject such as Mr. Schneider. Rick noted that we will have a General and an Astronaut. we have a closing quote from Bill at the end of this post. Bill Schneider did mention that he attended both national conventions and he has now attended nineteen of them. There were also other opportunities to hear from the Expedition Team. As we've mentioned they have a hospitality desk that is manned during certain morning, afternoon and evening hours. They also had Naturalists available from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM in Palm Court. They were there to assist guests with their binoculars and to keep an eye out for passing marine life and to view the Diomede Islands as Serenity passed them. Palm Court has those large bay windows allowing for stunning views. Late afternoon Captain Ken Burton was on hand so guests could view items from the Vancouver Maritime Museum Collection related to the Northwest Passage. Photos of Henry Pollack and Bill Schneider. Bill Schneider used this quote when asked who will win the 2016 Presidential Election. You could apply it to most items including what will the weather by like at each place we visit in the Northwest Passage.
"Never make predictions, particularly about the future." – Yogi Berra Keith & Anne Marie Comments are closed.
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