It’s A Crystal Family Affair – Return To Crystal & Crystal Serenity

[SnoBirdCruiser]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:39 AM, Keith1010 said:

You are not going to see Lasagne, Beef Carpaccio, or the Mushroom Soup on this menu. You cannot special order it. It is a completely new concept.  The mushroom soup from time to time will be on the Waterside menu.

 

Again this is new and personally I am glad they have rolled out a new menu.

 

Keith

This is along the line of food...I checked for the Portuguese Tarts in the Bistro...YES! YES!! every morning they are brought out and are gone before 11:00AM..

Love the new decor and all the food,especially the fresh berries and fruits, are excellent as well.

Cheers Pat

[FlyerTalker]

28 minutes ago, SnoBirdCruiser said:

This is along the line of food...I checked for the Portuguese Tarts in the Bistro...YES! YES!! every morning they are brought out and are gone before 11:00AM..

 

A certain travel agency is doing a webinar from the new Explora ship.  Interestingly, they touted how their coffee lounge had "Portuguese pastries".  Hmmm.

 

 

[claudiaYVR]

4 hours ago, May B said:

Heck, how many of us were mispronuncing Gabriel Allon’s wife’s name (Chiara) in our heads until we heard somebody do it correctly?

Kindred spirits 🙂

[SnoBirdCruiser]

58 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

A certain travel agency is doing a webinar from the new Explora ship.  Interestingly, they touted how their coffee lounge had "Portuguese pastries".  Hmmm.

 

 

I don't know about the info from the Explora Ship as I am on the Serenity,LOL.

Having said this ,I can only comment on the new menus here.

Just to let you know, I love appetizers and I am trying as many as I can from the Main dining room   every night I eat there....I am an eclectic eater, I'll try anything to see if I like it(except cod fish, eels and sorry to say Lamb)

We have been using both sides of the menu and so far excellent. The main course fish each night has been excellent with amazing sauces that complement the dish...desserts have been different but delicious.

We ate at the Italian restaurant and as Keith has said,it is a completely new set menu (for now)

We started with an appetizer of lobster and very different light but perfect tomato sauce

second couse Ray had the Minnistrone  soup, unlike any we had ever tasted, it was fresh vegetables in white soup base, do not know what it was but it was delicious (I'll order it the next time) and I had Scampi with risottorice topped with a caramel type onion sauce.(I found it a trifle bland)

Main course: Ray had a Veal Scallapini (spelled x)again delicious. I has salt baked Sea bassand witha green veitabble( can't remember its name, to me I again asked for their best balsamic and applied it to it...tasted better but I might have served it with Asparagus.

The gentleman beside me ordered the lamb Chop which looked delicious (he said it was "fantastic)

Dessert Ray had vanills ice cream slightly drizzled with the expensive Balsamic(we have always ordered this)  The two of the three desserts were great(last two)

Next tome I will try what I didn't eat this time.

Cheers,

Pat

 

[occasional cruising]

Keith: Thank you for your many posts ---- my curiosity about this "inaugural cruise" is being satisfied by your posts. I always worry that on "going back" to something that was beyond wonderful, it is very, very rarely results in expectations. You have quashed those fears.

 

I need to confess that we loved the mushroom soup and specifically the beef carpaccio, but believed the reaminder of the menu was unspectacular. We lok forward to the new menu.

 

Keep the posts coming!

[Keith1010]

49 minutes ago, occasional cruising said:

Keith: Thank you for your many posts ---- my curiosity about this "inaugural cruise" is being satisfied by your posts. I always worry that on "going back" to something that was beyond wonderful, it is very, very rarely results in expectations. You have quashed those fears.

 

I need to confess that we loved the mushroom soup and specifically the beef carpaccio, but believed the reaminder of the menu was unspectacular. We lok forward to the new menu.

 

Keep the posts coming!

The good news is you can have the mushroom soup when it is on the Waterside menu.

Tonight we revisited Osteria d"Ovidio for the second time. We both ordered items we didn't on July 31.  Ordered the Battuta di Fassona Picmontese which is beef tartare with Mustard Sauce, Truffle, Oregano Cracker and it was amazing. It's different than the beef carpaccio but if you close your eyes I thought it was at the same par as beef carpaccio and every other items including the bread and the chef's starter is superior to Pergo IMHO. I think of Prego as comfort food.  I can get that at home. In fact, Anne Marie can make that at home. What you get at this restaurant is Michelin caliber food. No comparison. It is a wow.

 

Keith

[tryber]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

The good news is you can have the mushroom soup when it is on the Waterside menu.

Tonight we revisited Osteria d"Ovidio for the second time. We both ordered items we didn't on July 31.  Ordered the Battuta di Fassona Picmontese which is beef tartare with Mustard Sauce, Truffle, Oregano Cracker and it was amazing. It's different than the beef carpaccio but if you close your eyes I thought it was at the same par as beef carpaccio and every other items including the bread and the chef's starter is superior to Pergo IMHO. I think of Prego as comfort food.  I can get that at home. In fact, Anne Marie can make that at home. What you get at this restaurant is Michelin caliber food. No comparison. It is a wow.

 

Keith

 

I agree Prego was more comfort food than fine dining.  The best thing for us was that we could ask them in advance to prepare an eggplant parmesan, which my wife loves and theirs was fantastic (they had to make a full casserole dish worth, so you needed more than two people).  It seems like that really wouldn't be appropriate in the new concept.  But they do have an eggplant dish on the menu, so we will have to give that a try. 

[Emdee]

11 hours ago, May B said:

My brother took Italian so he could learn from Italian chefs in their native tongue. 😳

 

He cringed when I mispronounced bruschetta, but now I’ve mastered that, as well as Civitavecchia.

 

Heck, how many of us were mispronuncing Gabriel Allon’s wife’s name (Chiara) in our heads until we heard somebody do it correctly?

 

I’m often curious about the number of syllables. Port of Rome: six; Oceania: four; new name of Italian restaurant on Crystal: nine. No wonder we can’t pronounce it!

 

Or is it eight?

Not me….Chiara is my DD’s name!

[Keith1010]

I will post later today about return to Oseteria d'Ovidio. Anne Marie and I purposely tried items we didn't have the first time.  More later.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

We dined last night at Osteria d”Ovidio where we had dined the first night.

 

We had the same waiter Corrado who is from Italy. He took a lot of time to explain each course on the menu. Each time he brought a course to the table he explained each ingredient. The restaurant has cuisine from Northern and Southern Italy and Corrado explained the difference between each region. The food is delicious. The wine we had was also fantastic and the Head Sommelier and two other Sommelier’s agreed. I picked out the wine.

 

Corrado also explained the tasting menus. There are two tasting menus representing Northern and Southern Italy. They include the same items which are on the ala carte menu. There is no charge for the tasting menu but it can be enhanced by pairing each course with wine for $68.00 per person.

We both ordered items we didn't on July 31. Ordered the Battuta di Fassona Picmontese which is beef tartare with Mustard Sauce, Truffle, Oregano Cracker and it was amazing.

 

Afterwards, we attended the Captain’s Welcome and Crystal Society Party. One guest was honored for her 100th cruise and two other guests were recognized for 137 cruises.

 

The Entertainment included a 10:00 pm showing of Rock, Pop & Mania featuring the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers and the Crystal Showband under the direction of Raphael Derkson. This was followed by dancing with the Showband, vocalist Karin Kovacova and DJ Emotion.

 

Later in the night we knew we were back at sea with the fairly strong sea swells. We were swaying but as she always does Serenity does very well in these situations.

 

At 8:00 AM Captain Birger gave us an update from the bridge noting that the forecast for last evening called for winds of 35 knots but the actual winds were double this level and at time 20 feet high seas. He said we should have relatively calm seas in three to four hours. Great news! Our room is fairly mid-ship.

 

In Captain Birger's noon talk from the bridge, he updated those who were not awake this morning and said weather conditions would continue to improve. We will arrive to the port entrance around 5:30 PM and wait for an MSC and believe a couple of Celebrity ships to leave and then make our way to the port. We should be docked and gangway out by 7:00 PM. Originally, we were to depart tomorrow at 5:00 PM but that has been extended to 6:00 pm to allow more time for guests to enjoy Barcelona.

Not arriving until 5:00 PM the day featured many activities of a typical Crystal day at sea Three lecture topics covering the news business as an anchorman by World Cruise lecturer Stephen Cole and a talk on Barcelona given by Destination Lecturer Dr. George Munno. and a talk given by Celebrity Speaker Bruce McGill who we have seen speak on Crystal several times. Bruce has appeared in hundreds of movies and in a television series.

 

We won't go through all the activities but there was enough to keep one busy for several days. This included a range of activities including fitness and health, movies, team trivia, bridge, a talk on gemstones by the very knowledgeable Huber Gesser, Computer Class with Tim Grey, and Odyssey at Sea by the owner who we know very well Linda Perlmutter.

 

It was too windy to play Paddle Tennis, so we walked inside the ship in the afternoon and spoke with fellow guests and members of the extraordinary Crystal Serenity crew.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

At 8:00 AM Captain Birger gave us an update from the bridge noting that the forecast for last evening called for winds of 35 knots but the actual winds were double this level and at time 20 feet high seas.

 

70 knot winds!  That's hurricane strength.

 

 

[Keith1010]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

70 knot winds!  That's hurricane strength.

 

 

Absolutely. 
 

Keith

[Keith1010]

This morning.  Doors wouldn't open beyond this.

 

Keith

 

 

 

[tryber]

3 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

We dined last night at Osteria d”Ovidio where we had dined the first night.

 

We had the same waiter Corrado who is from Italy. He took a lot of time to explain each course on the menu. Each time he brought a course to the table he explained each ingredient. The restaurant has cuisine from Northern and Southern Italy and Corrado explained the difference between each region. The food is delicious. The wine we had was also fantastic and the Head Sommelier and two other Sommelier’s agreed. I picked out the wine.

 

Corrado also explained the tasting menus. There are two tasting menus representing Northern and Southern Italy. They include the same items which are on the ala carte menu. There is no charge for the tasting menu but it can be enhanced by pairing each course with wine for $68.00 per person.

We both ordered items we didn't on July 31. Ordered the Battuta di Fassona Picmontese which is beef tartare with Mustard Sauce, Truffle, Oregano Cracker and it was amazing.

 

Afterwards, we attended the Captain’s Welcome and Crystal Society Party. One guest was honored for her 100th cruise and two other guests were recognized for 137 cruises.

 

The Entertainment included a 10:00 pm showing of Rock, Pop & Mania featuring the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers and the Crystal Showband under the direction of Raphael Derkson. This was followed by dancing with the Showband, vocalist Karin Kovacova and DJ Emotion.

 

Later in the night we knew we were back at sea with the fairly strong sea swells. We were swaying but as she always does Serenity does very well in these situations.

 

At 8:00 AM Captain Birger gave us an update from the bridge noting that the forecast for last evening called for winds of 35 knots but the actual winds were double this level and at time 20 feet high seas. He said we should have relatively calm seas in three to four hours. Great news! Our room is fairly mid-ship.

 

In Captain Birger's noon talk from the bridge, he updated those who were not awake this morning and said weather conditions would continue to improve. We will arrive to the port entrance around 5:30 PM and wait for an MSC and believe a couple of Celebrity ships to leave and then make our way to the port. We should be docked and gangway out by 7:00 PM. Originally, we were to depart tomorrow at 5:00 PM but that has been extended to 6:00 pm to allow more time for guests to enjoy Barcelona.

Not arriving until 5:00 PM the day featured many activities of a typical Crystal day at sea Three lecture topics covering the news business as an anchorman by World Cruise lecturer Stephen Cole and a talk on Barcelona given by Destination Lecturer Dr. George Munno. and a talk given by Celebrity Speaker Bruce McGill who we have seen speak on Crystal several times. Bruce has appeared in hundreds of movies and in a television series.

 

We won't go through all the activities but there was enough to keep one busy for several days. This included a range of activities including fitness and health, movies, team trivia, bridge, a talk on gemstones by the very knowledgeable Huber Gesser, Computer Class with Tim Grey, and Odyssey at Sea by the owner who we know very well Linda Perlmutter.

 

It was too windy to play Paddle Tennis, so we walked inside the ship in the afternoon and spoke with fellow guests and members of the extraordinary Crystal Serenity crew.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food looks amazing.  The Tiagnello is one of my favorite wines.  Can you say what they charged for that?

[Keith1010]

7 minutes ago, tryber said:

 

Food looks amazing.  The Tiagnello is one of my favorite wines.  Can you say what they charged for that?

Food is amazing from start to finish. They charge $185.00 for Tiagnello.

 

Keith

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Glad you enjoyed dinner. As a Sicilian my grandfather had fig trees and grew his own tomatoes and assorted vegetables as well as a small vineyard for his own wines. To this day I can still taste his cooking and my grandmothers ( as well as the wine lol). Mahalo for your great posts!

[Keith1010]

10 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. Glad you enjoyed dinner. As a Sicilian my grandfather had fig trees and grew his own tomatoes and assorted vegetables as well as a small vineyard for his own wines. To this day I can still taste his cooking and my grandmothers ( as well as the wine lol). Mahalo for your great posts!

Thank you.

 

My wife is half Italian.  Her grandmother who lived with her was born in the USA but her siblings in Italy.  Anne Marie learned a lot about cooking Italian from her grandmother and our children make some of the recipes that were handed down.  Her family came over from Italy and live in the Sicily region too.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

In spite of the weather we arrive to Barcelona on time yesterday afternoon.  In his noon talk the Captain explained that the verandahs would be cleaned with fresh water to get the salt off them. WIth such high waves our verandah on Deck 11 was soaked and when I first looked outside it looked like it was raining. It was the waves.  Rope was on all of the doors on passenger decks in the aft of the ship and on Deck 7 for quite awhile. After it calmed down it became calm and sunny outside.

 

Once the MSC and two Celebrity ships left we proceeded into port where we were docked close to the arrival time of 6:30 PM.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

We docked in Barcelona at around 6:30 PM last evening.  There were several evening tours offered for guests including dinner in the Gothic Quarter, an opera performance, a Flamenco show with tapas dinner and a tour of Barcelona.

 

Fantastic dinner with two special people organized by our wonderful butler Rao.

 

Appetizers alone could have been the dinner.

 

We had pre-ordered the chateaubriand and vegetables and the guests ordered appetizer and salad. As it turned out everyone had Caesar salad and the two of us had the prawn appetizer.

 

And then there was the wine.

 

The featured entertainment was a performance by The Crystal Showband & Friends.

 

Our first visit to Barcelona was during a pre-cruise stay in 1997. Since that time, we have visited many times and most recently in 2018 and 2019. It’s a vibrant city with lots to do and see. We appreciate the architecture of the buildings, its people, history and walking Las Rambles and adjacent streets in the downtown area.

 

Although not in the forecast the morning had on and off rain and at one point downtown it was pouring.   Highs of only high 70's which is much different than back home.

 

We are enjoying the afternoon on-board Serenity. Life could not be finer than sailing Crystal and being with the wonderful crew and so many wonderful guests. We are back home where we belong.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

 

 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Please excuse my regular posts but I am so enjoying your reports and pictures and thank you immensely. We have been blessed to visit Barcelona often and stay at the Hotel Arts. We can walk to Las Ramblas and the seaport where thee are several delicious restaurants. That said, between your posts and pictures I am hungry for Paella! All the best!

[Keith1010]

20 minutes ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. Please excuse my regular posts but I am so enjoying your reports and pictures and thank you immensely. We have been blessed to visit Barcelona often and stay at the Hotel Arts. We can walk to Las Ramblas and the seaport where thee are several delicious restaurants. That said, between your posts and pictures I am hungry for Paella! All the best!

Thank you for your very nice comments.

 

On our first visit to Barcelona we also stayed at the Hotel Arts and loved the hotel and also walked to Las Rambles and enjoyed the local restaurants too.

 

Best to you.

 

Keith

[USCAdventurer]

keith,

your pictures are again just simply fabulous.  i could just taste the caesar salad your picture is so lifelike.  yes, barcelona is a wonderful city to visit.  so many different venues and great reataurants.  keep enjoying it.

[Dolcevita Diva]

So appreciate all the detail and photos that you're sharing (and your taste in wine)!

Would you mind letting us know what they are charging for the premium wines that you've ordered?

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

So appreciate all the detail and photos that you're sharing (and your taste in wine)!

Would you mind letting us know what they are charging for the premium wines that you've ordered?

Yes, there is an charge for these wine.

 

Thank you so much for you very nice comments.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Anne Marie and I just had dinner at Waterside.

 

The food is better than ever.  

 

As is the service.

 

I can't think of any cruise line we have sailed that has food this good with such a high service level.

 

If you love Crystal before you will love the Crystal of today.

 

Keith