BWIVince

haha. I forgot about that! Off the top of my head I don't remember what year that was, except it was in the early 2010's... They had the fountain shut off to re-string all the leads. The deafening silence in the Crystal Plaza in the morning and afternoon, except for the occasional echo of voices), was really creepy! I'm so glad that was my only Symphony cruise without the fountain running. 🙂 Vince

Thanks... The bridge has been gone since the late 90's though, so at least that's not recent. 🙂 Vince

Thanks for taking and sharing the photos, Larry! Random question that is totally unimportant if you don't have time to respond to it... Is the water feature still there inside the Umi Uma entrance? I was just curious, since the half of it that's remained in recent years is pretty much the only original feature left in the room, and it's had quite a run. haha I'm glad to hear Andrew is back! I was glad to see him again on our 2021 Bermuda sailing, and have known him around as long as you two have. He's a great asset to Crystal. Vince

I'm sure they will adjust on other channels too, but I see this across most travel suppliers, and even many types of companies these days. Within marketing, email, social media and web teams often have vastly different turnaround times these days. (At my company the disparity is about 7 calendar days from the fastest to the slowest.). 10 Years ago it was common for almost every communication to be held for the slowest team's work so everything was released at once. These days with the shift towards social media, I only see the biggest, most strategic or confidential releases held for release together. At my company, stuff goes out on social media almost immediately as long as it doesn't require follow-up on a web page, and when the email and web teams can catch up with their work, then great. An announcement to minor changes in a loyalty program would fall into that bucket. Vince

In the context that this is a temporary stop-gap, I think that the changes made sense and the program is in a serviceable state for the time being. Much like it’s been for the past 30+ years I’ve participated in it, it’s kind of no-harm, no-thrill kind of general benefit for where the masses fall into the chart. Vince

It’s a whole new technology…. The website is using AI and millions of historical Paragon Pixel onboard photos to determine the best suggested dress code for each individual guest. 😆 (In my case it just says, “Don’t bother, it’s hopeless either way” nightly.) 🤷🏻‍♂️ 😆 Vince

I've been perusing the full list a couple of times in the past few months, and I've been pretty impressed with it. It's nice to see a lot of new names and faces, but it's also awesome to see some beloved favorites in there too. I'd still love to see a little more diversity perspectives, backgrounds, and subjects on the lecturer side, but overall it's a step in the right direction. BTW, I had the same reaction to that speaker... I was like, "That's definitely not "that" Melinda Gates... And sure enough when I clicked in, it's not any Melinda Gates. lol Vince

Some info is available on Crystal's website, at this point... It looks like they have some of the folks assigned for Symphony's July 11th sailing. If you go to the "Ship Overview" tab and scroll down, there's a section titled "Entertainment on this Ship" under the dining that has preliminary lecturers and entertainers (when available). Here's what they have so far: https://www.crystalcruises.com/cruises/none-csy-007-240711?menu=ship_overview As it's always been, subject to change. Vince

Hi! 😊 I may have also returned to the board for a status update from the Chez! 😉 For a line like Crystal, with only two ships, an operator that’s going to provide labor, management, and accounting control staff to such a tiny room, and if history is any indication get light (volume) and limited (duration) usage at best out of the equipment they’re leasing, and without any actual profitable operations (like their competitors) to help balance and bolster the contract terms, Cristina Levis is completely right and honest. It’s very likely that this will actually cost Crystal money overall, and that they’re trying to evaluate just how much they’re willing to consider this a cost of doing business to be competitive, and how much passengers really care. The operators OTOH always profit, guaranteeing the cruise line covers all the expenses and only shares a minor portion of the profits. That leaves the cruise lines 100% in the squeeze. Vince

The story of the windows isn’t that cut and dry… I’ve seen about half a dozen windows replaced on Symphony over the years, and most of those were in the hull. The glass they used met all these great technical specifications for flexing stress, and impact, and thermal fluctuations…. But then to do it for almost 30 years (or over 10,000 days), they do sometimes, eventually crack from things they’re supposed to originally sustain. If the window was shot out/through or shattered I would say that would be a different story, but just a crack tracks for me. Vince

I probably should have been more specific and broke out ambiance for Marketplace and cuisine for Tastes and Trident…. Although ambiance is all kind of homogeneous between the three too, now that I think of it. Marketplace’s food and variety are fine, no complaints there, but as someone who spends much of his work travels eating from staff buffets, one of the privileges of spending luxury cruising fares is to get away from that. Not to mention the stuff that passengers do on buffets sometimes (in all segments of cruising) is completely disgusting… But that’s out of everyone’s control, so I don’t fault that. Marketplace does what it does about as well as I could expect — I have no fault there…. It is, however, a buffet. Trident…. All I can say is, to each their own. It’s popular, it does what it does well, and people like it. I’d rather have a root canal than pay those kinds of fares to eat a burger and fries when (using my next cruise as an example) I’m only on for 7 days. I get that this is different for folks that are on for months at a time, but to Keith’s point about NC, the itineraries are shorter and more port intensive now, so this is increasingly the norm. Tastes…. Again, no harm, no foul. The current lunch menu is like a room service menu from a 3 star hotel, back when 3 star hotels still had room service…. Or a nice college cafeteria menu, just with table service. Again it’s great to have crowd pleaser favorites that wont offend anyone, but at some point there’s a gap between the “food for the masses” lunches Crystal is offering and my expectations for luxury travel. [Edited to add: While these are AMONG the items you’d see on a Four Seasons or Rosewood resort lunch menu, they wouldn’t be ALL you’d have to pick from at a Four Seasons or Rosewood resort, normally.] I know I’ve spoken out in defense of closing Waterside on port days — as much as that would be my preferred option, I see firsthand how that’s not sustainable at these loads or scale…. But as others have noted, other lines have figured out how to offer interesting culinary options in a nice atmosphere at a small (participant) scale for lunch, and I would love to challenge Crystal to put their thinking cap back on for this one, because the current offering is really missing something…. Unless you love self service, burgers or chicken quesadillas. Vince

This! I don’t honestly care as much about whether Waterside specifically is open for lunch, as much as something more interesting than Tastes, Marketplace and Trident are available. Right now there isn’t another lunch venue that comes within a million miles of Waterside, in ambiance or cuisine. 😔 Vince

Thanks... Serenity’s July 2nd Alaska cruise. (I was thinking of the flight dates for the pre-cruise when I said that, but now we’re inside 3 months for the cruise too.) Thats pretty much the scale of what I was picturing Crystal might end up with, but I think when people consider the feasibility of the casino they think primarily of the scope, and not as much the terms, which was the trouble Crystal had with finding a new operator when Caesars stopped serving that segment. All of the other luxury lines at this point have either in-house operators or global enterprise contracts that leverage the operating volume of their sister brands, which like it did for Crystal, VASTLY changes the equation. I think this has had a lot to do with the original cancellation of the casinos and the added scrutiny now. A similar sized casino on Regent, Seabourn or Silversea is going to cost a lot less to operate as the exact same setup on Crystal, at this point. That wasn’t always true, but like everything in cruising, consolidation and volume pricing has changed a lot of the economics. Vince

Thanks for the update, Keith! Yeah, "planning' was the first word that caught my eye, FT! I'm sure they would love to have the work done by the time of the World Cruise and Symphony's Q1 2025 itineraries, so they have every incentive to get it done this year, but the feasibility of that depends a lot on where they're at right now in the process. If they were asking on feedback on location options a couple of weeks ago, it could be tight. Vince

Thanks Rob! Life has been kind of topsy turvy this year so I haven't had much fun time online, but I realized my next cruise is less than 3 months away, and I'd better catch back up on everything Crystal in order to prepare. 😄 Also, I just re-read my message and the intro wasn't as clear as I'd hoped... Just to clarify, I meant that Paul was likely spot-on, and that the operator RFP and fit-out plans had more to do with the survey than Crystal let on. Vince