We forgot to mention that we were able to FaceTime with our entire family yesterday who were spending the weekend together at our son and daughter-in-law's house. So it was nice to be able to chat and see our son, daughter in law and grandson and their two dogs as well as our daughter, son-in-law and grandson and grand daughter. We hadn't realized it was Grandparent's day until they wished us a happy Grandparent's day. Before dinner last evening we made our daily visit to the Avenue Saloon for a pre-dinner drink. It was a little busier than it has been the past few days which might be due to it being another sea day. We then made our way down to the Crystal Dining Room for dinner. We were joined for dinner by John Stoll, Vice President of Crystal Cruises Land Programs and Port Operations. John has been on board since this voyage began in Seward, Alaska as Project Manager for this epic voyage. He will remain on-board until our arrival to New York City. It was nice to get together with John for our second dinner together of this voyage. This has been an amazing voyage that has far exceeded all that we had expected both on and off the ship so we definitely relived many of the events over dinner that only recently unfolded for us. The good news is there is still more to come. The third photos shows our wonderful senior waiter Lylian and behind her at another table is our waiter Aleksandar. Both of them have been gems throughout this voyage. The entertainment featured two variety showroom performances. This included dance duo of Curtis and Natalie and comedian John Joseph.
The good news is that we set the clock back one hour before going to sleep. This puts us on Eastern Daylight Time. We slept well as we continue to sail to our next port of call of Bar Harbor, Maine. We kept to that all-familiar morning routine. It began by a visit by Keith to the Fitness Center followed by breakfast in our room. Afterwards, Anne Marie walked for an hour and following her walk attended Yoga. Usually yoga classes are taught at sea days but Maria and Joe are looking at possibly combining the two morning classes into one on one of the upcoming port day. Anne Marie has really enjoyed the classes and Maria Kita with the assistance of her husband Joe just to a terrific job teaching this class. This is why they are invited back to return year after year for World Cruises and now this special voyage. Keith took another indoor cycling class. The class continues to be very popular with all bikes full. A number of the participants told Keith that they had recommended to the Fitness Center that Keith teach another class. Two more classes will be offered before this voyage ends. Since they are on the final two port days of the cruise Keith thinks he will pass on them. Instead, he will just spin on his own and workout on the elliptical machine. He has enjoyed the classes, which have been taught by Fitness Directors Martin and Kyle and just as importantly the bond that has been developed with his fellow spinners. There has been a core of about fifteen people and each class ten or eleven of them participate. Today marked the third of the three consecutive days at sea and also our last sea day of this epic and historical voyage. There were two lectures on the schedule and they covered areas other than the Northwest Passage. The first lecture of the day was given by Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman who spoke about The Hubble Telescope. The talk was quite interesting and ever so special because he was involved in three spacewalks as part of the Hubble reduce and repair mission. Keith saw the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit while sailing on the 2015 World Cruise when he viewed it with fellow guests and the Astronaut who was on board and the Chief Electrical Engineer. This was followed by a Question and Answer session with Captain Birger Borland Hotel Director Hubert Bleacher Chief Engineer Robert Bayfield, Expedition Leader Tim Soper, Northwest Project Manager John Stoll and Cruise Director Rick Spath. Rick, opened the program by noting that a pre-screening of the Northwest Passage Video would be tomorrow night with two showings. There was a wide range of questions Keith typed these out but did not proof read it. First one was to the Captain? What happened to the beard. He had decided at the end of the World Cruise to grow a beard but to remove it after we got out of the Northwest Passage. Second one was who from the panel will be on the 2017 NWP Cruise? The only definitive one is that Hubert will be back. Third was why not stop in Halifax and Newfoundland? The concern was that when they put together the itinerary they were not sure if they could refuel in Nuuk and they would not have been able to refuel in those Eastern Canada Locations. Fourth was who contacted who the Expedition Group or Crystal? The answer was that John Stoll reached out to them and after initial meetings the joint planning started. First challenge was how does it work with a large ship. Fifth was what scared you the most and woke you up in the middle of the night. The Captain said that we didn’t have any scary experiences on the voyage. He does say he spent lots of hours awake to be on top of everything. John Stoll said that worry never came up in conversations. The focus was how to make the logistics work and to prepare, prepare and prepare. He noted we were fortunate with the weather. There was a lot of time built in the program to reach places that they thought was possible and they were able to create the unexpected visits. John Stoll mentioned that we have a lot of people to thank and that in the video the credits are three and one half minutes long. Sixth question. For the Captain when you take the ship through the NWP, was there any place where you said do I want the ship there. The Captain noted that they took a lot of time planning the itinerary and of course got a lot of input from the expedition team and that we stayed within the mapped channels. The only exception was the first of the Greenland Ports where we had so much ice floating around. The Captain looked for options but it was not possible and the concern was if you get into the area you might not get out. Seventh question. For Hubert the question was behind the scenes items that went into provisioning for this voyage? He asked about juicy tidbits. Planning for Cambridge Bay and Nuuk where we got provisions began eight or more months ago. They flew 25K pounds of items into Cambridge Bay and chartered the entire 737. Biggest worry is what happened if it didn’t arrive or if we didn’t get into Cambridge Bay. The challenge was that the local community was going to help but they decided not to so Crystal sent 15 people out to the shore to do the loading and not everyone had gear to keep them warm. There were some other challenges that required items to be removed from pallets, put in bags. A lot had to be done but they finished by 7:00 PM. Everything came on board except for sour cream and cottage cheese. Eighth question. What is the encore for this. John Stoll said they have some ideas and will explore more options. Some options could be doing more exploration in the NWP and building in more stops and longer term there will be the new expedition ship; Endeavor. He noted that they are constantly looking at other parts of the world and new places to visit. Ninth question. What did management think of the idea of the NWP? John Stoll noted that the idea came up many years ago and it required a comprehensive plan including budget and a feasibility study. At the time Crystal was owned by NYK. The process was iterative and one of the best days when they got the go. He noted that at Crystal every department gets a say and their input is solicited and welcomed. It was three and one half years ago. Rick talked briefly about lessons learned and one was that the guests who could not get off the ship enjoyed the locals who came on board and that hopefully in the future they could bring more of the locals on board to give the guests who can’t get off a greater experience. Expedition Leader Tim Soper spoke at length about working with the locals and getting their blessing for this voyage. Tenth question was for the Chief Engineer and the question was how much fuel did you think it would take and how much did it take and were you low in fuel. He noted that in Vancouver before we started the cruise we had to take as much fuel as we could. He noted that Dutch Harbor we filled up the ship to 95% of the capacity noting that there was no chance to get fuel until Nuuk. He said that they had to order fuel six months in advance for Nuuk and it was a contingency. The challenge was the ship had never done so many day of such cold weather. He also noted that should we not have gotten into Nuuk the plan called for enough fuel to get us into Boston. We missed the numbers that he quoted but they are big. Eleventh question was about what we operated on in terms of generators, etc. The Chief Engineer noted that we had to be conservative with speed by going between 13.5 and 15.0 knots to conserve fuel. Twelfth question was not a question but someone saying how proud he and so many guests are of the trip, the team and all that has gone into the cruise. Thirteenth question was as you look forward to more arctic cruises what were the major lessons learned. The captain noted what they did including planning, bringing in experts, having weekly conference calls from the ship starting on the world cruise with Tim and John Stoll and Marine Operations. Captain Birger said for next year you cannot take anything for granted and must dot all t’s. Fourteenth question was how do you dispose waste from the ship and they noted that all was held or some burned and some such as glass given to the icebreaker and nothing will be removed until Boston. Fifteenth question related from positive publicity about the cruise and any negative publicity. John Stoll said one of the greatest things about this is that it brings awareness to how you sail this area and that if others sail the area it will raise the bar. John noted that when they went to Canada that when given guidelines they made sure they not only met the standards but went out of their way to exceed them. John said there has to be restrictions and they need to be enforced and followed. Tim Soper noted that there were a lot of questions in the media about the voyage and that Canadian Authorities are using the plan that was developed as a blueprint for other cruise lines to follow. He noted that there are other vessels that sail this area that don’t do the right things and get bad press. John also noted that we promised the local communities that we wouldn’t overwhelm them and that we as guests understood that and that is what they did. Sixteenth question. Will any media be covering our arrival at NYC? John said there are rumors that there might be a helicopter from a news station covering us and there might be some surprises. John noted we will want to get on the top deck when we get near the statue of liberty. Seventeenth question was not a question but a woman saying that one of the successes were the lectures and she noted how much she learned. Eighteenth one was note a question but came from a Canadian who is so very proud at the way this entire voyage was done. We have been in sessions like this on the World Cruise and wanted to highlight that the questions were well thoughts out with no complaining. It was fitting that at the end of the session the audience stood up and gave a standing ovation. We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe and each made a salad entree. Spoke with some fellow guests. For the first time some guests were eating outside. The afternoon's lecture featured Steve Friedman who spoke about the broadway musical golden age between 1950 and 1960. He spoke about some of the musicals from this time frame which were major successes with several of them becoming movies. We've are enjoying the rest of the afternoon on board Serenity. This evening we will have dinner at Prego and attend the Captain's Farewell Reception followed by the headline entertainment. Keith & Anne Marie Comments are closed.
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