Today we planned a lazy day at sea. We got up, had breakfast in the Lido, and
then went to hear General Zinni’s discussion on the state of the world from his
point of view. The main point of his
talk was how after World War II, the Americans under Marshall essentially put
into place mechanisms on how the world was going to operate for the next many,
many years (such as world organizations).
That plan was effective and lasting.
General Zinni was a newly promoted brigadier general and during his
training to be a general, he had to go to Berlin. This happened right after the wall fell. He observed that although the “hot war” of
World War II had a clear ending and the creation of the Marshall plan followed,
when the cold war ended no such thing happened.
He feels that because no plans were really put into place, the world is
struggling to find its way (an international based plan was attempted by
Secretary Baker, but nothing really came of it). Now, with globalization, the changing face of
power, the environment, and others, the world is struggling. It was quite a good talk.
Next we had the President of Crystal Cruises speak. He talked about the renovations to the ship
and his view of the future of Crystal (they have many new improvements in the
works including a new marketing campaign).
Q/A followed including the annual is there going to be another ship
question (yes was the answer, but no time table was given, mostly because the
NYK that owns the line would like to see better financial numbers before
embarking on the construction of a new ship).
We then went to team trivia (scored a 12 – should have been
13, but let’s not go there (ha ha)). One
team won with a perfect score of 17, so we pretty much were out of it. Lunch followed (Asia café but we opted for
the Grill). The only pain was we had to eat outside as both the Lido and the
covered area by the grill were full and it was a bit chilly outside.
Next was the port talk through the eyes of Monet and a talk
on Saudi Arabia and its future. Next up
was the Crystal Society reception. After
that, at 6:30 we had dinner in Silk Road (our first opportunity there this cruise). We are missing French night in the dining
room.
The entertainment was the production show “I Write the
Songs.” After, I heard many people say
that they liked it, while others didn’t care for it (I think that they didn’t
like that it was so “modern” with things such as Little Shop of Horrors,
Avatar, etc.). We enjoyed it (so did the
kids).
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