2018 Crystal World Cruise as seen by a 4-Star Mariner

Glad the last bag finally made it to your room, Roy. I guess the hold up will remain one of those little mysteries.

The knife reminds me of my pruner issue on the Rotterdam. Did get them back but...... they were within regulation in the first place just as your knife was.

You had a hectic embarkation day indeed.

Have a great 73 days on board!!

Glad to hear that you made the transfer OK, Roy. Enjoy your voyage.

.................................. We passed the light house at the entrance to the harbor about 9:20.

 

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By 9:30 we were close enough to have a good view of Sydney’s 2 iconic landmarks together with the ferry terminal in between.

 

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............................

Nice shots of two of Sydney's harbor lighthouses, Roy; Hornby Head light (1858, on the headland at the southern entrance to Jackson Bay and Sydney Harbor, north of the town of Watson's Bay) and Bradley's Head light (1905, mounted on a rock and connected to shore by a footbridge). Enjoy your visit with Erewhon/Phil and the journey back east :)

Thank you Krazy Kruizers, erewhon, Jacqui, travelnap, and Copper (and enjoy your remaining time off). This day was kind of special. It's not quite the first time 2 Crystal ships have left port together but it's a very rare event and the first time for either of the Captains involved. Today (Tuesday) we are feeling some effects from Cyclone Gita.

Day Symphony2, Sunday, February 18, 2018, Leave Sydney

The Crystal Serenity is at Athol Buoy, 2 ½ miles from White Bay.

My customary walk on port days is 1 ½ miles. While that was 5 laps on Serenity, it rounds to 6 laps on Symphony. It was on the windy side for my walk. Sunrise was about 6:30 and I was up on the Sun Deck where there was a nice view of the Anzac Bridge. There was a bit of color in the sky but the sun was hiding behind several tall buildings.

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This is my 3rd visit to Sydney, all somewhat, if obliquely, related to Crystal. In 2003 I had booked a trip around the world that culminated with a trans-Pacific cruise on the Harmony. I had gotten as far as Moscow, ready to board a train to Beijing, when word came that my Harmony crossing had been cancelled due to SARS concerns. Flying home, I was left with almost a month of vacation I needed to use, and applied it to a land tour of Australia and New Zealand. I arrived in Sydney by train from Perth and left by air to Christchurch. The second was on the Symphony in 2010 where I arrived early in the morning and flew out the next day to join Queen Victoria in Bangkok. At the time I was spending one night a month outdoors and spent the evening at Lane Cove River Tourist Park Northwest of Sydney. This trip is my first daytime sail-in and sailaway at Sydney.

I had booked a tour which was a combination of a short highlights tour of Sydney followed by a tour of the Opera House. There were not many opportunities for photos from the coach but one was St. Mary’s Cathedral.

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Our first stop was in the area of Royal Botanical Gardens where we had some nice vistas of the harbor and visited Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair carved by convicts for Elizabeth Macquarie, apparently quite a well liked wife of a Governor of the colony.

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Back on the coach, we continued to an overlook near but not at the harbor entrance near a place called Jacobs Ladder. The views were great although it seems to be a popular place for people considering suicide and there were several signs for suicide hot lines.

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Our final brief stop before the Opera House was Bondi Beach.

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The Sydney Opera House actually has 5 performance venues:

Concert Hall: 2679 seats

Joan Sutherland (Opera) Theatre (1507)

Drama Theater (544)

Playhouse (398)

Studio (280-400)

When I was in Sydney in 2003 I attended a Chamber music performance in the Studio. Our hour tour did not include the smaller venues so I was glad that experience did not duplicate what I saw here. In introducing the tour our guide Chris explained that photography was not permitted while people where on stage which limited options quite a bit as that was also when the lighting was best. Our first stop was the concert hall where people were preparing for an evening performance and there were only a few times when photos could be taken.

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We had been warned that there would be a number of stairs to climb on our tour and some of the staircases were rather long. At the bottom of the stairs leading to a plaza which connected the Concert Hall and the Opera theater Chris pointed to places where the “sails” are anchored in place. He also explained that it is a “building within a building” with a wooden interior structure that is not really connected to the sails. That concept allows for things like air handling equipment to sit between the inner and outer building out of view.

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The Joan Sutherland Theater was just about finished from renovations and in it’s current configuration we could see both the stage and the orchestra pit beneath.

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As we left the theater we passed the Ovation of the Seas at Circular Quay with the big arm extended in the air. On the way back we passed both the Sydney Tower and the Queen Victoria Building, a market that was once slated for demolition but is now thriving. We were back at the pier about 1:30.

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Muster was at 4:15; my impression was that only those boarding in Sydney were required to attend. My favorite place for sailaway on the Symphony is on the Sun Deck overlooking the bridge wing. It was very windy and Captain Larsen and the officers were out on the wings as little as possible. Louis sang at 5:15.

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We sailed under the bridge about 5:25. Room looked generous at the stack but quite limited near the forward mast. The Crystal Quartet was playing as we sailed.

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About 10 minutes later we passed the Athol Buoy where Serenity had spun around and was ready to follow us out. There was an extensive exchange of horn salutes.

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Serenity fell into place behind us and followed us out of the harbor.

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We sailed in convoy for about 20 minutes until we got to the harbor entrance and we pretty much continued on our course while Serenity started to turn north.

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For my first dinner on board Symphony I decided to try Churrascaria, the Brazilian Steak House in the Lido area. I’ve had a similar meal once before, it was at the “Samba Grill” on the Allure of the Seas. We had a self service salad bar and also an opportunity for side dishes. (I found out later there were some other side dish items I could have requested). The meats (7 vanities) came around a little at a time by a waiter with a long skewer where he would slice off a little piece. I enjoyed several of the selections, then went for a tart for a desert. I think I would skip the tart next time; there is also an option for a served hot pineapple with cinnamon that was delicious. Sometimes simple is the best.

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As I left the restaurant I could see that the sun was getting very low. I went down to deck 10 to watch but as it got very close to the horizon it fell behind some clouds leaving some nice color but not really a setting sun.

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As we sailed for New Zealand we lost the first of the 9 hours we will lose in route to Ft. Lauderdale. The featured entertainment was the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers plus some of the other onboard entertainers with “Crystal In Motion”. It appears that on days when we lose an hour the shows may be at 7:30 and 9:15. I missed the 7:30 show and retired for the night almost immediately after returning from the second show.

My parting shot will be a wish for a quick recovery for my Fire Chief who has just completed shoulder surgery.

Roy

Isn't the sail and out of Sydney lovely Roy?

Love your pics, brings back memories..

Glad you got to the gorgeous Botanical gardens and of course the wonderful opera house.

As to your parting shot,, I hope that your fire chief heals quickly.

Thanks, Jacqui.

Milford Sound

Just as I thought I was catching up we have another busy period coming up. I HAVE caught up on Reflections, and the first page of the current one has our detailed plans for scenic cruising on the first page (right hand side), and also a warning that satellite coverage may be a problem in the fjords. The times given are New Zealand times, add 6 hours for the US East Coast or 3 hours for California. Wow, on Serenity we had something like 15 or 16 sea days including the days for missed ports; this segment we have only 2.

Direct link to Reflections:

https://morethangetaways.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/reflections0221.pdf

I don't have a direct link to the webcams from Crystal's site so this is the one I usually use:

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/symphony/symphony1.php

Note at the bottom of the picture there are little buttons to select port views or starboard views. Web images are static refreshing about every 3 minutes.

Roy

You're going to enjoy this scenic cruising for sure :)

It's beautiful.

i noticed that the spa is closed until further notice due in the incident that happened. Did you happen to hear what the incident was Roy?

You had quite a busy day.

I am also curious as to the incident that has closed the spa.

Wow! Enjoy those fjords! Hope you have calm seas!

Thanks for your reports.

You are sailing through Doubtful Sound at this time.

Thank you all. erewhon, I hope you're having the beautiful weather we've had today, now leaving Doubtful Sound and headed for Dusky.

About an hour after the Serenity spun off from following there was a call "Code Bravo in the Ladies Spa". I was thinking at the time that it was a medical emergency but need a refresher on the ship codes. An hour or so later the Captain came on the PA and said there had been smoke and a sprinkler head went off but the situation was under control. I hadn't really given it another thought until a reader on the Crystal forum mentioned the same thing last night (my time). When I went up there this morning there was a "closed" sign at the door leading from the gym to the showers but at noon the sign was just on the ladies shower door. Other than the sign, there was no indication of trouble.

Roy

Roy,

You are fortunate to have some sunshine.

A wet day here, at times heavy rain.

Weather forecast is rain tomorrow and again on Friday.

Thanks for finding out what happened in the spa area.

Thank you Krazy Kruizers and erewhon (and I did get my laptops updated in Stewart Island. That's a place HAL doesn't see often so I'll repeat my report here.

Day Symphony5, Wednesday, February 21, 2018, Scenic Cruising, New Zealand

The Crystal Serenity is at Hamilton Island, 1733 miles away.

While the weather on the Tasman crossing was a bit of a drag, it’s far better that it happened then rather than on our scenic cruising. I did not really consider it a sea day but did complete a full 5-mile (now 19 lap) walk over the course of the morning. We spent a part of the day cruising south along the New Zealand Coast but made 3 forays into inland fjords over the course of the day.

We picked up our pilot 7-ish and were making our way into Milford Sound not much later. By 7:45 we were passing by nice waterfalls and snow capped mountains.

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One of the highlights of Milford Sound was a larger waterfall near the town of Milford, which is also the gateway for day tour boats.

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We continued out a different channel past more waterfalls and along narrow channels surrounded by majestic mountains. Near the exit we saw some rocks piled up, remains from the glacier that carved out the fjord.

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We left Milford Sound about 9 and had about an hour of unstructured time. Retired Ranger Russ Kerr made a presentation in the Galaxy Lounge at 10. He was followed at 11 by Peter Donovan with “Maori and European accommodation since 1908". My impression was that the Maori did most of the accommodating.

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Soon after noon we had another journey through the fjords, entering Thompson Sound and exiting Doubtful Sound, circling Secretary Island. On the way out (about 2:15) we passed an interesting cave.

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Our final fjord passage was about 4PM. Unfortunately, that was also my time for Magic Castle At Sea. Magician Chris Capehart should have been good but just as he was starting the commentary from the scenic cruising and I found it very difficult to follow the act. We had entered at Breaksea Sound working our way around Resolution Island. When the magic show ended we were just transitioning from Breaksea Sound to Dusky Sound which was much wider

and more open than Milford Sound.

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In the next couple of miles after I got out on deck we passed additional waterfalls and then turned towards the ocean.

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We turned to starboard and had Resolution Island on our starboard side and Long Island which was quite mountainous on our port side.

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It was close to 6PM when we headed out to sea for the final time.

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The Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle was held at 6:30 in Palm Court. We had about 10 members present. Hotel Director Herbert Jager and the Chief Accountant stopped by.

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After the meeting I joined travel2learn for dinner in Waterside, choosing the salad, pasta, and pear upside down cake.

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The featured entertainment was “Soul Mystique” whose chief presentation seemed to be seriously rapid (as in instant) changes in costume. While it was cute, I was hard pressed to come up with a “why”. The shows were 7:30 and 9:15. I missed the 7:30 show and stopped by briefly at the 9:15 show. I actually stayed a bit longer than planned because I dozed off.

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I stopped briefly at the Avenue Saloon. Richard Caesar was good but I did not see the rapper with the audience that I’ve enjoyed with Mark Farris. Jump & Swing-A-Mania was held in the Starlite Club at 10:30 but I did not stay up.

It’s now 4:30 the next day (after good luck with the weather at Stewart Island) so I’ll give the parting shot.

Roy

Roy,

Good that you were able to do your updates on Stewart Island.

Sunshine here today, but cloudy and some rain expected Friday, 19 degrees C.

Beautiful scenery. Reminds me of Alaska.

We would have spent the day out on our verandah.

Thanks for the update on the spa, Roy.

Your pictures of the Falls are just beautiful. Brings back memories and makes me feel like I am nearly there.

Gorgeous!

Reminds me of Alaska too! Thanks for the pics!

Thank you everyone. Just now tying up at a cargo dock in Port Chambers.

Day Symphony6, Thursday, February 22, 2018, Stewart Island, NZ

The Crystal Serenity is on an overnight call in Cairns, 2112, miles away.

While the seas had been acting up overnight they were calm by 5AM. I walked one lap around the ship on my way to the lido for coffee but saved further walking until closer to sunrise, about 7:15. When the time came the crew had already started to prepare the tenders and I had to detour through the interior corridors to get around the work zones. It was quite cloudy without a real sun rise but nice color in the sky anyway.

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My tour was at 9 and when I went to the lido at 8 for breakfast the path into the town of Oban (pop400) was clear.

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New Zealand is pretty vigilant about biosecurity. I’ve found the officers quite friendly when treated with respect but don’t take it kindly when you try to evade them. They had boarded the ship and were using the ship’s luggage scanners to check outgoing backpacks. I knew baked goods are generally permitted and I showed the officer my donut as I left the ship and he said “that’s fine” and waved me through. We had a bit of a wait at the tender pier (which doubles as the ferry dock) until the transportation for our tour arrived.

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The tour was “Akers Point Walk”. There were about 15 of us who split into 2 vans with a guide in each for a drive just over a mile to the trail head. The area is a “Habitat restoration area”, where efforts are ongoing to reduce non-native species and provide a habitat for endangered native species. The primary effort is in trapping and in the course of the walk I passed at least 30 traps set to capture rats. Other traps were in trees designed for possum, and the guide pointed out an Australian gum tree, considered a “waste tree” but the wood makes excellent fires.

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The point was named for Lewis Acker, an American whaler who settled in the area about 1836. His stone house is the oldest building on the island and was used both as a residence and a boat building shop. Our guide explained that he had 9 children and while the house was quite small there were bunks stacked 5 high making a compact residence.

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From the beach below the house we could see the Symphony nearby in the harbor.

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We stopped at additional overlooks at fisherman’s point and at Acker’s point we could see the South Island “mainland” in the distance. The full walk was about a kilometer in each direction.

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It was about noon when we returned to town. Tiny Oban has a number of buildings; the most prominent are a small hotel and “Foursquare Grocery”. I went in there and was able to get a New Zealand SIMM for my smart phone. Rain had been predicted for the day but we were blessed with a dry morning. A little bit of drizzle started as I walked back to the tender dock but it did not last long.

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I turned my normal dining routine upside down. The Waterside lunch menu included vegetable soup and macaroni and cheese which were the foundation of a nice lunch along with ice cream.

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After lunch the weather had cleared and the Stewart Island map showed free wifi on one of the streets as well as a library on that street. I got back on my tender to head into town and update my laptops. The first street from the ferry dock has a huge chess set (I assume the pieces can be moved but did not check) and an obelisk commemorating the dead Stewart Islanders from the 2 World Wars.

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When I got to the library it was closed (noon on Thursdays) but it shares a building with a community center and the center hallway in the building had a bench that proved a viable place to work. The updating process was a bit slow with about 90 minutes from leaving the ship until the updates were finished.

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Most transportation to the island is by ferry from the South Island although there’s also limited air service with 6-10 passenger aircraft. As I was returning to the ship the ferry was sharing the port with us. Provisions are expensive on the island and many residents make regular shopping visits to the South Island.

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With just 2 real sea days we have occasional lectures on port days. General Halley spoke at 4 on the threats posed by China and North Korea. There was also a “World Cruise Mixer” at 5:45 in Palm Court. We had a brief welcome from the Captain and Shane and Sarah read off a roll call introducing World Cruisers; first those of us arriving from Serenity, and then those who have been on Symphony since Cape Town.

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With the mixer running to 6:30 and the show starting at 7:30 I chose not to have a big dinner at Waterside. Instead I visited Trident Grill about 5:15 before it closed and got my usual lunch, adding the fries as well.

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The featured entertainment was a Concert by Neil Lockwood. The lead singer at ELO after the original lead left he sang for about an hour along with the Crystal Show Band augmented by violinist Tanya Tingarova, who joined him at the center microphone briefly on the final number.

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I’ll take as a parting shot how lucky we have been with the weather. I wasn’t feeling that way a few days ago as we encountered the Tasman Sea in “all it’s glory”, but in exchange for a beautiful day in the fjords rather than being all huddled together in whatever shelter we could find and a lovely day on Stewart Island I’ll gladly take the mix.

Roy

Glad your weather held and you had a wonderful tour.

Love the pictures.

Roy, great photos and narrative.

Keith

The ship looks beautiful!

Thank you bennbear, Krazy Kruizers, and Keith. A special day with a HAL connection.

Day Symphony7, Friday, February 23, Dunedin

The Crystal Serenity is completing an overnight call in Cairns, 2132 miles away.

The South Island of New Zealand appears to provide a break to the winds and currents that make the Tasman sea such an experience. When I went for coffee it was still quite windy but nothing like on the other side of the island. I did most of my 6-lap port day walk around sunrise which was about 7AM.

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There is a harbor in Dunedin but it is not available to large cruise ships and even the sail-in to Port Chalmers is a bit tricky with some narrow passages, one where we seemed to be quite close to land. We pulled into the port about 8, opposite the Sun Princess.

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I had visitors coming for lunch but first took a morning walk. Port Chalmers has a rather large functional cruise terminal with wifi which I think is good but I didn’t have occasion to actually try it out. The tourist guide gave me a Port Chalmers map and pointed me in the direction of an ATM which was my first stop.

There are 3 churches in Port Chalmers and my morning walk passed 2 of them. Iona (Presbyterian) church sits majestically over the harbor. Unfortunately it is now rarely used with services held at another church. It was opened for viewing in the afternoon and there is a summer series of organ concerts.

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Trinity is the Anglican church and it was open for viewing. While I was there the bells from Iona steeple cheerfully toned the 11 o’clock hour. The Port Chalmers library sits directly across the street from the terminal. It uses the same wifi system as the library in Stewart island. I logged on briefly with my IPAD and Maps.me immediately zoomed to my location.

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My guests (erewhon from Cruise Critic) arrived at 11:30, were cleared first at the port gate and then at the gangway, and stopped first at my room. I hadn’t noticed it but they commented on the nice view from my window and it later dawned on me that the gangway that normally restricts my view was in use far below us. It did make a significant difference.

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We headed up to the Trident Grill (Crystal’s equivalent of Dive-In) for lunch. We all had the grilled ham and cheese and 2 of us had french fries while the 3rd had sweet potato fries., then headed back to Scoops for ice cream. With our lunch it really dawned on me that all the Trident seating is now 2-tops and we headed over to the starboard lounge area for lunch. One of my guests preferred not to be in the photo.

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After lunch my guests took me on a tour of Dunedin. Our first stop was the train station, an ornate building now used only for scenic excursions. The waiting hall still has all it’s grandeur and there were ladies in period costumes out on the platform side.

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Just past the train station came the law courts and the old jail now a visitor attraction.

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There are several stately churches in central Dunedin. Trinity is the main Anglican church while the most prominent church is First Church (Presbyterian). It’s magnificent spire (currently surrounded by scaffolding for renovation) rises 185 feet above the street. Also nearby is St. Joseph’s Cathedral.

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Dunedin sits at the end of an arm of the sea. We went around the tip of the arm to the other side at a series of overlooks. The first was directly at the end of the arm looking back towards Port Chalmers. The second was from a more central point with a sweeping view of the landscape. At our final viewpoint we were nearer the end of the arm and could see the top of the Symphony pretty much under a pair of container cranes.

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After dropping me back at the ship my guests stopped at another overlook and sent me a photo showing a better view of the 2 ships.

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All aboard was 5:30 and a short time later Captain Larsen reported that all were on board and would be leaving soon. We would pass an albatross nesting area about 40 minutes after departure. As we cleared the bow of the Sun Princess, I could see large piles of logs which are a major export from New Zealand. My guests had explained that the port is trying to minimize truck traffic on the highway between Dunedin and Port Chalmers. Containers now arrive almost exclusively by rail but logs still come by truck. The ships that carry them start loading at a dock nearer Dunedin but the channel is not deep enough for them to transit fully loaded, so they load what they can up the channel and then must top off with logs trucked in on the highway.

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It was the first day going to dinner at 6 was convenient for me. At the shared 6-top one lady joined in followed by 3 Ambassador Hosts. The final seat was eventually claimed by Fr. Klemmer after he had put away the things he needed for Mass. A favorite menu item of mine on Holland America is the chilled soups which are a rarity on Crystal. When I saw the pineapple soup on the menu today that became the obvious choice. After both french fries and ice cream at lunch it was time to keep dinner on the light side so I went with the turkey and jello for desert.

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The featured entertainment was the venerable Curtain Call. Sunrise was now very late and while it was cloudy there was still a bit of a show in the sky after the show in the Galaxy. I was in ample time for the 7:30 show and afterwards I spent most of the remainder of the evening culling and organizing the ton of photos I had taken.

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As a parting shot, preparing to come into Christchurch is a bit poignant. My last visit to New Zealand did not get to Christchurch (only Auckland) but left the country just 10 days before the massive February 22, 2011 earthquake. I know recovery has been a slow process and continues just 7 years and a day after the disaster.

Roy

What a beautiful day you had for touring.

How wonderful that met erewhon and had lunch together.

Love your reports and pictures.

What a lovely looking town! Love the old churches and sunsets. Nice you are meeting others.