One of the places that Keith checked out yesterday afternoon was the Fitness Center. The Fitness Center was redone as part of the May, 2016 Crystal Serenity Dry Dock. Machines are new as is the flooring. It even smells new. Keith was very impressed with the redo and looks forward to daily workouts at the Fitness Center. Keith also checked out the Children's area called Fantasia as this area was also redone during the recent dry dock of Serenity. We plan to have our entire family on board for a cruise next May, including our three grandchildren. Later in the afternoon Keith met up with dear friend Bob. It was so great to see friends Bob and Glo. While Keith was with Bob, Anne Marie unpacked all but one of the remaining suitcases. The final suitcase arrived right before we left the room for a pre-dinner drink and she finished unpacking that one after we returned from diner. Each afternoon while on-board Serenity instead of having canapés before dinner, we have fresh fruit. The fruit was very ripe and tasted delicious. Before dinner, we had a drink in the Avenue Saloon. Often we go to the Crystal Cove but given that it was already 5:30 we knew it would be quite busy. It was very quiet at the Avenue Saloon and we spoke with the wonderful team that works this lounge. We then went to the Crystal Dining Room for dinner. It was relatively quiet in the dining room since we have an overnight and likely some of the guests were having dinner in port. We saw Maitre d' Leo for the very first time since we boarded and he escorted us to our table. Head Waiter Guiseppe stopped by to say hello as did several members of the wonderful dining room waitstaff whom we have known now for many years. We are in excellent hands in the dining room. Our Head Waiter is Augusto who always takes great care of us. Our Sommelier is Ricardo. Although this is our first time with Ricardo we have known him these past few years when we would come into the dining room for lunch and he clearly knows his wines. Our Senior Waiter is Lylian and our Waiter is Alexsander. We go to dow Lylian the past couple of years when having lunch in the Lido Cafe as she is one of the dining room senior waiters that works the Lido Cafe. This is just an absolutely great team. Dinner was fantastic. We each began with Shrimp Cocktail and Lylian suggested we have it on a dinner plate rather than in a bowl. We have to say it makes it much easier to eat the shrimp this way. We each had a salad for our next course followed by fresh Salmon. Yes, we are getting quite a bit of our share of salmon but it is the time of the year for it and we are in the right place to have it. For dessert, Keith had mixed berries and Anne Marie had a sugar free dessert. The wine was also terrific and a highlight was a Chilean Cabernet. As soon as Keith smelled the wine he knew this was a winner. The aroma was fantastic. All in all it was a wonderful meal. We slept very well. We can't attribute it to the rocking of the ship as we were docked in Vancouver. Maybe it was the wine. Or the bed. For those of you who noticed, we are on the starboard side of the ship in the same location of the deck but just on the opposite side. Keith intentionally selected this room as he felt it would offer better views of the scenery for the Northwest Passage. Coincidentally we had this room in August of 2015 when we sailed the British Isles only because the room we normally stay in was not available. This time around we pretty much could have had any room since Keith booked the voyage the minute it was available for booking. Keith was up first and enjoyed his first workout of this voyage. He also took advantage of the quiet time and did the laundry. He did his entire workout on one of the new Elliptical Machines. It took him about 30 minutes to get used to it as it does for any new machine. On his way back to the room he ran into Dennis who does room service at night after the butlers are off duty. Dennis is yet another crew member who we have known for years and a few times over they years assisted us with room service. One time was that long night that we spent at a hospital in Japan when Keith had fainted before dinner and when we got back to the room close to midnight it was Dennis who brought a light meal for Keith. Afterwards, Keith enjoyed coffee in the Lido Cafe where he saw so many familiar faces from the wonderful Lido Deck Steward team including Jun, and Max. We had an early breakfast For those of you who have followed our past travels, you know that we tend to keep breakfast very simple and typically eat on the ship what we eat at home. For Keith it is oatmeal each day and for Anne Marie it is usually oatmeal or cereal. Today she also had oatmeal. We each have a banana and Keith has some stewed prunes. After breakfast Keith took care of a few items around the ship and Anne Marie got in her first walk of the cruise. She walked outside on the Promenade Deck for one hour. JiJo brought our breakfast and set it up on the table. Normally all guests embarking Serenity would have gone through United States Customs/Immigration before boarding the ship yesterday. However, the customs/immigration officials notified the ship that they wanted to do it differently. For those of you who have arrived on a ship to the USA and stayed on for another cruise leaving out of the USA today worked the same way. All guests had to be off the ship before anyone would be allowed back on board. At around 10:15 AM passengers started to disembark the ship to go through customs. We were asked to leave the ship by group number. It was extremely organized with lots of people in the terminal guiding us along. We eventually made it to the kiosk and then with our receipt printed turned it into an immigration person. We then sat in a designated area. At around 12:10 PM someone made the announcement that the ship was at a zero count meaning that all guest had gone off the ship. We were asked to return to the ship based on row and people were really good about following directions. We were back on board at 12:15 PM and then went to the Lido Cafe for lunch. It was fairly quiet as some guests might have gone into town for some last minute touring, shopping and or dining. We not only enjoyed lunch (salad entrees) but also ran into many members of the crew and fellow guests who we know so very well. Keith went back to the fitness center for another workout and Anne Marie walked on the Promenade Deck for an hour. In addition to the makeover of the Fitness Center, new equipment was installed on the aft (back) of passengers decks 8 and 9. This is the equipment on deck 8. Deck 9 equipment. Shortly before dinner we attended the mandatory life boat drill. We then stopped by the Crystal Cove to say hello to some people and we saw Jonathan Hawkins who is an absolutely wonderful entertainer. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at the Crystal Dining Room. We each had three courses; salad, pollock fillets from the modern menu for our entree and fruit for dessert. We have posted the menus from this evening. If you place your cursor over menus/programs and then click on menus you can then see the menus from this evening. We will depart Vancouver in a few hours.
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