Well, after almost 22 hours door to door, we finally arrived on board Crystal Symphony last night. As you may recall, we had that lousy 7 1/2 layover in London, and then boarded our BA flight for Lisbon. There was a little bit of excitement at baggage claim where we thought our luggage was missing but, fortunately, it appeared at the very end.

We were met by Crystal representatives who transferred us to the ship and by 8:00 PM we were ensconced in our beautiful cabin #1022. It was like seeing a dear old friend again. Of all the times we’ve sailed on Symphony, we’ve only had 4 cabins, all on deck 10. It’s always wonderful to return. And the cherry on top of our sundae is that Sebastian is our butler. We’ve sailed with him before and it’s great to see him again. He’s the best (to which he will reply: “The best in the west”). And there it is.

So great to be back in our favorite cabin, 1022.

(I’ll give you a tour a little later in the cruise.)

We were just in time for dinner, and it was great to see old friends in the Crystal Dining Room, starting with Remi, who runs the show down there and our headwaiter, Roland, who always takes such good care of us and tolerates our multiple requests for food which isn’t on the menu. As always, we have a lovely window table, midship on the starboard side. At the next table, we ran into Lynne and Garry, two dear friends with whom we’ve sailed many times. Looking forward to spending some quality time with them.

We had a delicious dinner last night. Food is always a big highlight when you’re on a ship. The pix are a bit on the dark side, sorry about that:

AAC, CPA anticipating a delicious first dinner on board

Seared Ahi Tuna w/Wasabi

Wisconsin Veal Ribeye w/Potatoes Dauphinoise

Apple Tart a-la-Mode

After dinner, we took a stroll on deck 7 – the promenade deck – one of our favorite places on the ship. For some reason, it doesn’t get much use and we love it for strolling or jogging. Here is our AAC, CPA last night – yes, that’s an almost full moon above him:

1st night on board – lovely, right?

Then it was time to return to the cabin to unpack and get some zzzzzz’s. After all, we’d only slept about 4 hours on the redeye to London and, with the time difference, we were a bit sleep-deprived. 

So we got into bed and, literally, passed out for about 8 hours – it was sensational!!

Got up a bit after 8:00 AM, pulled ourselves together and came up to Lido Deck for some breakfast. It’s wonderful to see so many familiar faces amongst the crew, all of whom came up to say “Welcome Back”. Not only that, but they remember us by name, which is a typical Crystal habit.

In the meantime, here I am on Lido Deck, soaking up the warm sunny weather, as I write to you.

Up on Deck 11 – Lido Deck

My MacAir – where all the magic happens!

Just having a lazy day – our great friends, Lynne and Garry found us here on Lido Deck and we hung out, got caught up and had a bite of lunch. I have to remember to pace myself, gentle readers, as there is so much food all around me all the time. And it’s a 13 day voyage.

Along around 2:15, it was time for the muster drill. That’s the point at which all of the passengers make horse’s asses out of themselves and parade around in their life jackets. I supposed it’s a good idea that we know what to do it we hit an iceberg or something. In any event, here are a couple of candid shots of those near and dear to us:

AAC, CPA – clothes horse – models his stylish life jacket

The suddenly camera-shy Lynne and the debonair Garry

So that’s it for now, mes amis. We sail at about 4:00 this afternoon, or in a little over an hour. The captain has already advised that we’ll be passing through some “weather” this evening, so we’re off to a fun start.

Stay tuned for further adventures.

Until then  . . . . . . .