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Last night Crystal Serenity was docked overnight in Quebec City and our scheduled sail away time today is at 6pm. While Crystal offered several excursions in Quebec City, we opted to simply get off the ship and do some souvenir shopping in town.

We exited the cruise terminal and began walking toward town. Quebec City is very easy to navigate on foot, that is, as long as you don’t have any mobility issues. There are some moderately steep hills and stairs to climb along the way.

We were just here a few weeks ago aboard Viking Polaris, so we are somewhat familiar with the city and had a good idea of how to get to the main pedestrian streets lined with local shops. Basically, if you find your way to the funicular, you will easily find the shops. The funicular is used to take people from the lower town to the upper town. For our souvenir shopping today, there is no need to go to the upper town.

As we walk along the main street next to the port, Crystal Serenity is very visible, making finding your way back to the ship very easy. One little tip we learned years ago: when walking in an unfamiliar town, if you get lost, just keep walking down. Eventually, you will get to sea level.

The streets of Quebec City are not as crowded as they were a few weeks ago when we visited. The weather this morning is cool, about 62 (F)/17 (C) and cloudy, but no rain today.

We spent about an hour in town picking up a few little souvenirs and Rickee found a fudge shop that appealed to her insatiable sweet tooth.

We are back on board Serenity just in time for lunch and today we decided to try Marketplace, the ship’s lido buffet.

We were surprised, given the fact that there are fewer than 300 guests on this sailing, that both serving lines (port side and starboard) at Marketplace were open. We found a great table for two at the very back of the restaurant.

There was a wide selection of salads, breads, vegetables, and meats. I was very pleased to find a delicious rack of lamb on the buffet today.

The best part of a buffet is being able to try a lot of different items. Today, I tried the lamb, spicy shrimp, cheese-stuffed sausage, pork belly and one other meat that I could not pronounce, but was very good. The rack of lamb was the highlight, but everything I tried was good.

*A nice selection of meats on the buffet*

The over-indulgence at the buffet required a short nap before Afternoon Tea at 3:30 in Palm Court. We don’t usually partake in Afternoon Tea, but we wanted to check it out to see how they do it on Crystal.

Many tables in Palm Court are set up with white tablecloths, elegant china tea cups and a menu of tea varieties from which to choose.

As soon as service begins, a multi-tiered tray of sweet and savory treats is delivered to the table. Of particular interest, to me at least, are the scones. They were small, but delicious. Scones are served with your choice of whipped cream or clotted cream. Small jars of strawberry preserves are a must for scones.

As for finger sandwiches, there was a chicken curry, traditional cucumber, ham and cheese, shrimp salad and one with only cheese and mayo.

When we returned to our suite after Afternoon Tea, we found our butler Rao in the hallway. He informed us that he had just left our afternoon canapés in our suite. What? More food?

The canapés are offered each afternoon, delivered to the suite and the selection changes every day.

At 5pm today, all guests embarking in Quebec City are required to attend a muster drill before sail away. Crystal still has the traditional muster held in one of the public spaces on board. Our muster station was Lifeboat 1 in the Galaxy Lounge (the ship’s main theater).

We were not required to bring our life vests to the muster and there were probably only thirty people in our group, so it was stress free. The drill basically involves watching a demonstration of how to put on the life vest and listening to a message from the bridge on emergency procedures. Pretty basic stuff, really.

After the muster drill, we decided we would skip dinner tonight and instead enjoy a movie in our suite. We have been wanting to watch “A Man Called Otto” with Tom Hanks, and as luck would have it, this movie is available on our in-suite TV.

We stopped by Crystal Cove on Deck 5 midship to enjoy a cocktail before heading back to our suite to watch the movie. We found the bar service on Serenity to be exceptional. Rickee ordered a glass of champagne and did not find it to her liking. When she told the waiter, he offered to bring a Prosecco for her to try and one of the bartenders even walked over and brought a third selection for her to try. Waiters also circulate through the lounge with hors d'oeuvres.

After our cocktail, we returned to our stateroom to watch the movie. But, of course, you can’t watch a movie without popcorn, right? A quick call to our butler, Rao, is all it took to have a large bowl of freshly popped corn delivered to our suite.

We made it almost to the end of the movie before it was time to head to Galaxy Lounge for this evening’s variety show, “Crystal In Motion”. The show began at 9:30 and offered us an opportunity to see the ship’s performers in a preview of what we can expect over the next week as far as entertainment. The show only lasted about 30 minutes, but was energetic and had the audience on its feet for a standing ovation at the end.

*The Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers, and violinist Nadia Matiunina*

After the show, we are ready for bed. Tomorrow is our first day at sea and we have a lot planned!

Crystal Serenity

Day 2 - Quebec City

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