DAY 18- DAY 13 CRYSTAL SERENITY - HALIFAX

Before dinner last night, we enjoyed a drink at the Crystal Cove and once again sat with fellow guest Tommy while we listened to John Mentis play the Piano.

We had dinner at Prego and were joined by Cruise Director Rick and Food & Beverage Manager Tayfun.  Like old times, our waiter for the evening was Costa who took excellent care of us throughout the World Cruise earlier this year.  

We enjoyed lots of great conversation and lots of laughs with Rick and Tayfun and we mean a lot.   There were times that Anne Marie laughed so hard she had tears rolling down from her eyes. They both have a great sense of humor and also are such caring people as well has highly professional which are all terrific attributes. 

We enjoyed lots of great cuisine starting with salads and for our second course we had the additional Pasta entree as our appetizer.

We each had a seafood entree and what we noticed is that many of the entree presentations have a different look from when we were on board earlier in the year and we thought the presentations were very nice and appealing.

Following dinner, we attended the Captain's Reception sometimes referred to as the Farewell Reception.  The good news is we still have two more days before this wonderful cruise will come to an end.  We went through the reception line and we didn't say goodbye because we will see Captain Giske on the 2015 World Cruise, Cruise Director Rick on the December 21 cruise, Hotel Director Josef starting with the January 4 cruise and Crystal Society Hostess Alissa starting with the January 4 cruise as well.  

One of the Production Shows was shown afterwards called Curtain Call with showings starting at 8:30 PM and 10:45 PM and the good news is that we turned the clocks back one hour before going to sleep.

We slept well and the seas were relatively calm.  

Keith was up early and truly enjoyed the one hour rollback of the clocks.  We will roll them back again this evening.  The morning routine was the same with the only difference that we had breakfast in our room thirty minutes earlier than usual.

We arrived to Halifax on time.  Since we have been here several times in the past we did not schedule a tour.  It was sunny upon our arrival.

We were the first ones off the ship.  Not by plan or design but just happened to be at the right place when they opened the doors to the gangway.

When we were first walking it was moderately cool but then when we got to an area with a lot of sun it got warm.  September is very popular in Halifax and that is because there is usually very little if any rain (at least that is what a local couple told us when we walked up the steps with them to the Citadel) and the temperature is moderate.  

After leaving the ship we headed past the surrounding area and over to the boardwalk.

There was another ship in port with us.

A welcome to the HarborWalk.

Later in the day we saw some children's books with this character featured.

We then visited the Citadel which we had last visited in 2007.

We enjoyed some scenic views from Citadel Hill.

We then walked to the Halifax Public Gardens which is one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian Garden in North America. It began in 1836.

A code of arms of the University of King's College of Halifax.

We then passed by the Royal Artillery Park.

We walked along some other streets in the downtown area featuring many different shops and then we passed a couple of churches all near each other and this one caught her eye.

 Along the way we ran into friend Barbara.

As we got closer to the Cruise Ship Terminal we took these photos.

When we arrived back to our room, there was a letter on our bed about the time we need to meet tomorrow morning to go through the United States of America Immigration Inspection.

All in all we had a lovely day in Halifax.  The weather was just perfect as is this charming city with its rich history.

We arrived back on the ship for lunch and we dined in the Crystal Dining Room for the first time since we embarked the ship and we were joined for lunch by Cruise Director Rick.

In the afternoon, Keith played Paddle Tennis, Anne Marie walked outside on the Promenade Deck and Anne Marie also did some packing.

This evening we will dine at the Crystal Dining Room and we will do that again tomorrow evening which is our last evening on the ship.

Keith & Anne Marie