Many articles have/are being written about this historic and epic voyage. This is a link to an article from local media. Keith participated in the interview. www.knom.org/wp/blog/2016/08/22/aboard-the-crystal-serenity/ We often say that we have a busy social schedule when we cruise. This combined with enjoying so many of the other pleasures of cruising is why we cruise. This includes cuisine, enrichment, entertainment, shore excursions, visits to new ports-of-call and revisiting places we've been before and the enjoyment of being with our fellow guests and the extraordinary crew. This is why we prefer cruising over other types of travel. We had a lot of fun last night. We began the evening attending a reception in Captain Birger's Quarters. He held two of these last evening and we are pretty sure that every guest will have an opportunity to attend a reception during this voyage. Each guest was greeted by Captain Birger and Crystal Society Hostess Jaque Brown. Once inside there we were offered wine/spirits/soft drink/water and along with canapés. Several senior officers and senior staff were on hand. We always view this as a nice opportunity to talk with fellow guests and members of the crew. Towards the end of the reception Captain Birger welcomed everyone, shared some thoughts about this epic voyage and introduced officers and senior members of the crew who were in attendance. When Captain Birger spoke he mentioned that we might see ice mid-day today. He said that two ice pilots are on board Serenity. He also mentioned that he, the Vice Captain and the first officer went to ice training this summer where they were in a simulator for six days. The instructor is one of the ice pilots who is on-board Serenity for this voyage. We've included photos with Crystal Society Hostess Jaque and Captain Birger. We enjoyed dinner in the Crystal Dining Room. We began our meal with Tuna Tartare for Keith and a Shrimp Cocktail for Anne Marie. We each had Caesar Salads and Anne Marie had Barbecued Tiger Shrimp and Keith had Swordfish. Dessert was mixed berries for each of us. The evening entertainment featured two performances by Comedy Ventriloquist Mark Merchant who just came on board along with a few other land based entertainers in Nome, Alaska. Mark has performed on Crystal Cruises ships for a very long time and is popular with many of the guests. We attended the first performance and enjoyed the show. As usual Mark was very humorous. He used two different puppets and also had two guests (a married couple) participate in the show Bravo to Mark. As usual we slept very well last evening. Last night and into the morning it was significantly less windy than yesterday. We could not hear the howling of the winds. We are still moving at a fairly good clip. The early morning temperature was 34 degrees Fahrenheit. We began our day as we normally do with Keith working out at the Fitness Center, breakfast in our room, an indoor cycling class for Keith and a one hour walk for Anne Marie. Anne Marie also attended Yoga. Yesterday we received a card in our room noting that tomorrow we are to attend a Mandatory Arctic Briefing today at 11:00 at the Galaxy Theatre. Topics are to include: safety ashore, environmental regulations, procedures for Zodiac landings and more. It went on to say that attendance will be taken and those who have not attended will not be permitted to disembark Crystal Serenity until we reach Nuuk, Greenland. Two sessions were held in the morning so there were no morning lectures. Sometimes a break is nice. There was a 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM session. We were assigned to the 11:00 AM session. Our room card was scanned as we entered the Galaxy Showroom. The session covered lots of items and many people were involved in the talk. It was led by the expedition leader. Captain Birger spoke as well and showed a film that included several members of the crew covering several items related to going from the ship over to the zodiacs and going from the zodiacs to return to the ship. Some of the items included: Getting into and out of a Zodiac. Etiquette while on land with respect to several items ranging from photography to not looking into homes to no alcohol and so forth. How to dress and some of this will range depending on what type of activity someone has signed up for. Details on the different tours including community visits, hikes, kayaking, speed boats and helicopter tours. One of the people who spoke was a local person from Pond Inlet who is part of the expedition team. It was very well organized. We will also be receiving additional written information that will be sent to each persons room. The number one item that was stressed was clearly safety. Following the talk we had lunch at the Lido Cafe. While at lunch we listened to Captain Birger's talk from the bridge. During the talk, Captain Birger said that later in the afternoon we would be passing by some ice. About an hour later, the Captain said that we would be seeing some ice several miles off the ship on the port side which we did. We also decided to change out some tours for other ones so we stopped by the Shore Excursion Desk and they helped us with that. We spent the rest of the afternoon exercising and also Keith met with dear friend Bob and Anne Marie spoke with some other guests. In the afternoon there was a 1:30 PM lecture Expedition Lectures Adam Jaj spoke about the arctic in an age of climate change. He noted that the Arctic has undergone a radical environmental shift that has let to significant geopolitical, commercial, and social change. He also covered why the arctic will never be the same.
Late in the day, Tim Soper and the expedition team spoke about what we have seen so far and what we can expect in the coming days. Looking forward to a fun night on board Serenity and our upcoming visits to the villages in the Northwest Village. Keith & Anne Marie Comments are closed.
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