Sydney, Australia
We woke up at 6:30 am feeling quite rested. First on the agenda was a walk across the
Harbor Bridge. It has been humid and in the high 70’s. This morning it was
quite pleasant at 72 degrees. We were
hoping for spectacular views, however, the fencing was quite elaborate to block
any “jumpers.” It was also overcast for
the first half of the walk. On the other side we stopped at the “Flakey Tart”
for a coffee and homemade donut. It was
a nice little bakery with beautiful fresh made baked goods.
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Start of our walk across the Harbor Bridge. |
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A Carnival ship had replaced the Crystal Serenity. |
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A lot of protection to keep people from jumping. |
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The Flaky Tart goodies. |
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View from across the bridge looking back into Old Sydney. |
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Serenity anchored. |
After walking through The Rocks Market, we arrived back at
the hotel about 10 am. Enough time to
freshen up, pack last minute items and catch an Uber to the White Bay Cruise
Terminal to board the Crystal Symphony.
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One of the streets behind the hotel. |
Both ships in port, world cruisers switching ships,
segmenters joining either ship (people only going on one or more segments like
we are), we expected that actually getting onto the Symphony could be a
challenge. Crystal had everyone boarding either ship come to the White Bay
Cruise Terminal. Then they sorted people out there, got them through customs
and onto the ships. Serenity was anchored out in the harbor, so people were
checked in, then they were taken out to the ship in either a ferry or tender
(we weren’t sure).
Check-in was a breeze. They constantly verified which ship
we were going on and made sure that our luggage and us made it to the correct
ship. It was amazingly efficient and uneventful (the best possible experience).
Once we made it onto the ship, we checked our hand luggage (to be delivered to
our room) and we arrived in the dining room for our traditional embarkation
lunch. We have the same entrees on
embarkation day on each Crystal cruise (is that called tradition or a rut?). Bob had the duck quesadilla as an appetizer,
Cobb Salad for his entrée. Julie had a
seafood plate appetizer (shrimp, crab and scallops) with Atlantic Salmon as her
entrée. We shared a fresh raspberry
sundae for dessert. Both of us had celebratory
champagne with our meals.
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Duck quesadilla. |
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Seafood appetizer. |
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Salmon |
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Cobb. |
Our cabin was ready at 3 pm, with all of our luggage
delivered. This started the overwhelming
part of the afternoon. We packed WAY too
much stuff. It’s not like we’re
inexperienced cruisers, either. I’m not
sure what got into us, maybe the thought of packing for a 30 day trip. It was awful.
We finished unpacking at about 5:30 pm.
Sigh. Luckily the Crystal cabins
have adequate storage space and we actually have a couple empty drawers.
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Amazing that we were able to get this much stuff to the ship and stowed away. |
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Cool suspension bridge visible from the ship. |
This cruise we had a guarantee cabin. We ended up on Deck 8, and the jury is out
and whether we will like that or not.
Our preferred location (when we don’t have a balcony) is Deck 7. It is a full deck of cabins and it is the
Promenade Deck. Both Crystal ships have
a full teak wrap around deck that is amazing for walking and seeing the sights
on both sides of the ship. We love the easy access to the Promenade Deck from
those cabins.
Tonight is the Crystal White Extravaganza, and the Crystal
Cove and The Waterside Dining Room were decorated for it. White decorations with white lights – it
looked like it was ready for a wedding.
We each had a Cocktail of the Day developed specially for this
evening. Julie had a White Crystal (Gin,
White Crème de Cacao, Malibu Rum, Half & Half, Sambuca and Sugar &
Coconut Flaked Rim). It actually wasn’t
as sweet as it sounds. Bob had a White
Lady (Gin, Triple Sec, fresh Lemon Sour).
We enjoyed piano music in the bar prior to going to the Dining Room for
dinner.
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White Lady on the left and White Crystal on the right. |
The Crystal Symphony was in dry dock last fall and has had
many updates since we last sailed on her.
The Dining Room has received a face lift and is much more
restaurant-like than a typical cruise ship dining room. Most of the tables are for two, and can be
easily combined to accommodate more if needed.
The other major change is to Open Dining. There is no more “fixed” dining times. You come for dinner anytime between 6:00 pm –
9:30 pm. During the dry dock they reduced
the number of passengers that the ship can accommodate as well as adding two
more dining venues which allows the open dining in the main dining room. More on the other dining options as we visit
each one. By the way, the maitre 'd was Mr. Remy. We first met him way back on our first or second cruise. He was so helpful for us then (we ended up not getting an early dining time due to the ship being so full, he was able to get us a table every night at the early time by placing us at a table of someone that was visiting one of the other restaurants). It was wonderful to see him again.
Dinner was wonderful – Julie had a Salad, Lobster Bisque,
Tasmanian Salmon with Shiraz Butter, Red Onion Jam and Barley Artichoke. It was excellent. She had a scoop of Triple Caramel Ice Cream
for dessert.
Bob had Firecracker Shrimp with Sweet Chili Sauce, Linguine
Pasta Primavera Appetizer, and Grilled Black Angus Filet Steak with Grain
Mustard Hollandaise. He topped it off
with Tahitian Vanilla Crème Brulee.
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Firecracker shrimp. |
After dinner, we wandered around the promenade deck.
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Cruise terminal. |
We closed the evening with a visit to the Cove for the
Crystal White Extravaganza – music and dancing.
We walked 7.3 miles, 17,522 steps.
How is your cabin on 8? We booked a Guarantee for the canal in Dec. 2019, I am a bit hesitant bout it.
ReplyDeleteWe usually book an E1 on the symphony. Partial blockage. We ALWAYS get a cabin on deck 7. Because this is part of the world cruise, we could only get a guarantee and got one on 8 (it's our first experience with deck 8). We loved quick access to the promenade. Deck 8 is just a quick flight down, so that isn't the problem. We do think that the lifeboat obstructions are worse on 8 than on 7. It's blocking the right side of the window. If you sit on the right side of the room you don't see it, but of course, the couch is on the left side and you look right at it. I think that if we were able to pick, we'd continue choosing deck 7.
ReplyDeleteWe were one of the first people to book for the Dec. 2019 cruise, took a big chance and booked a guarantee Oceanview. I joke that we have the cheapest room on one of the nicest ships in the world. Balcony cabins are the norm for us, would never suggest an oceanview for anyone, let alone one going through the canal BUT the rate was so enticing, along with close to 2K in OBC that we thought we would try and hope for the cabin fairy. If we end up with a view of nothing more than a tender, we will spend even more time outside of our cabin. can you believe that images on Crystal's website still have the old cabins, with the televisions above the credence? Hope you have an memorable trip, I will me monitoring from afar.
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