Roland4

54 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

Two receptions even for the Captain in his quarters?

Back in the "bad old days" of two seatings, they did one for each.

16 minutes ago, BEAV said:

 

I believe now (between US Thanksgiving and Christmas) is always a low occupancy period, if not the lowest of the entire year...

Actually now until almost the end of January, at least up here in the (currently not-so-much) Frozen North. Been doing this for almost 20 years and January is usually my slowest month for departures.

5 hours ago, Cruise-y said:

Agree. Good call. Cooking classes, regional cuisine ..........

One of the things we liked on Silver Moon back in February/March was the SALT Lab/SALT Kitchen/SALT Bar. The Lab had the cooking classes, the Kitchen was the restaurant, where the menu changed as the ship moved to different regions. As a bonus, the dress code was always casual. And for those who have not been there, SeaAirLandTaste. It would be great if Crystal could replicate this on a new ship.

7 minutes ago, ryndam said:

Selection in the Bistro as varied as usual, but it’s not self serve. Not sure if this arrangement is permanent or a temporary experiment. Seems to work fine, but then again there’s only 350+/- onboard.

 

Rob

I asked Scott Peterson about this in September, and it is "permanent", at least while on this side of the pond. USPHS and Health Canada rules for ships require a hand washing station at any buffet to allow for self-service. He said they looked at numerous ways to do this for the Bistro, but none worked/made sense.

Keep the guest count at +/- 650 to 700 people. We just returned from Oceania Vista with 1200 of our "new best friends", and yes, it was a full ship. Even though it is virtually the same size as Serenity, it always felt crowded. 

2 hours ago, Emdee said:

Thanks Nancy. We had our first snow today…just a sprinkling but happy for the promise of warm air and sea breeze.

We are on Oceania Vista on our last two sea days before heading home Friday. Other than some showers in St. Bart's, and possibly again tomorrow, the weather has been pretty much perfect, lots of sunshine and temps in the 27/30 C range each day.

Have a great trip!

4 hours ago, BEAV said:

Just goes to show you can’t fabricate past Crystal sailings around these parts. Someone will surely call you out on it! 😱

I will never forget that 2005 Alaska sailing! I developed a horrible case of gout in my right knee and old people in walkers were passing me in the halls like I was standing still and asking me to get out of the way!! 😮 😮 😮 

2 hours ago, Summer Time said:

Hi,

Is Crystal still mailing luggage tags to booked guests?

If so, how many weeks before the embarkation day?

It would be great that we have the tags in our hands and not fill out the tags at the embarkation port.

 

thank you.

Kate

From reports here, it seems to be a "hit & miss" thing. We did not get ours for Reykjavik in September, but they wrote our room number (only) on the tags at the pier and that worked fine.

8 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

Wondering how many of the "usual suspects" here on the Crystal forum sailed on the Harmony? I didn't, go back to the Symphony in 2007.

 

Patty

From 2000 to 2003, and then a couple more before she left in 2005.

3 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

Why are we talking about Oceania and Regent on this thread?

 

Is it just because one person won't book Crystal until the entertainment/enrichment guide is on the web site?

 

Amazing.

Why does it matter?? The original topic of this thread was exhausted months ago, so it's not like we are anymore off-topic than normal! 🙂

35 minutes ago, ChatKat in Ca. said:

Some of us have cruised Oceania and most recently Regent. 

On Oceania, you need to show you card constantly even to dine.

On Regent, they had many substandard interactions with crew. We even had to report our cabin number to be seating in Compass Rose.

One both lines above, there was either nothing to do (literally).  No music, enrichment - NOTHING.

Crystal always had multiple choices of music, dance, lectures, art....at any time.

We have not had to pull our cards out as often as I had feared we might. We have the Premium Package, and after our first pass through the various lounges, the barkeeps know we have it, so we only pull it out when we leave. Have not had to use it for any of the evening dining venues, though the MDR and specialties do ask for your room number. You don't even need the card to get on and off the ship. They are using a facial recognition system that apparently compares your face to the photo on file. It is faster as you don't have to stand there waiting for the person at the head of the line who apparently forgot to take out their card in advance and is now rummaging through all their worldly posessions to find it!!😁

9 hours ago, Roland4 said:

We are on Oceania Vista at the moment, and if it is "all inclusive" then someone forgot to tell the staff onboard. You can get a basic beverage package that includes beer, wine and soft drinks only in the dining room/specialty restaurants for $39.95/person/day. After that you can upgrade to the $69.95/person/day premium package, which includes everything up to $18.00/drink, which includes almost everything except the high end single malts. The alternative is a la carte. And the $18.00/person/day gratuities are still getting charged to our onboard account. If that is your idea of "all inclusive" ............

A slight correction if I may. Under the Simply More pricing programme Oceania does include the basic beverage package and the internet package, but not gratuities. It may be a bit more inclusive, but it is certainly not "all inclusive".

2 hours ago, Sdancer said:

Have your "giggles", please!

I am comparing NC website to OC website, not Regents' :).

FYI, Crystal competitor is Oceania now, after they became "all inclusive" in October.

 

We are on Oceania Vista at the moment, and if it is "all inclusive" then someone forgot to tell the staff onboard. You can get a basic beverage package that includes beer, wine and soft drinks only in the dining room/specialty restaurants for $39.95/person/day. After that you can upgrade to the $69.95/person/day premium package, which includes everything up to $18.00/drink, which includes almost everything except the high end single malts. The alternative is a la carte. And the $18.00/person/day gratuities are still getting charged to our onboard account. If that is your idea of "all inclusive" ............

The view from our balcony on Oceania Vista on our way to San Juan. We are doing 20 knots into a 30 know wind, so needless to say it's a bit of a bumpy ride up here on Deck 11!!!!! 🙂😁🙃

Our dinner this evening at Trulucks Miami, courtesy of Moecker and Associates. We would have had the same meal anyway, but it tasted so much better knowing it was paid for with money we never thought we would ever see again!!!!!

We board Oceania Vista tomorrow for 12 nights in the Caribbean.

We are booked on Symphony in April for ten days Athens R/T. I received an e-mail on my agent account today saying that out of an abundance of caution all stops in Isreal and surrounding countries were being replaced until further notice. Our overnight in Haifa has been replaced and we will have an overnight in Istanbul, along with other adjustments to the itinerary to make that work. Having never been to Istanbul, we are happy with the change.

On 11/9/2023 at 8:11 PM, crickette said:

Laval, QC?  If so, congrats.  I think you are the first Canadian to report.  Merci.

We received ours in today's mail, so they are finally getting to Canada!!

All of the lines do these "new ship" junkets for TAs (mostly) so this is nothing new. We have only done one, on Harmony of the Seas in 2016, on the night Trump won the election, but that is another story! The cruise is "free", but everything else, is at your own expense. They do take good care of you, and the booze flows freely, though you inevitably end up having dinner with a rep from the line who tries to tell you how wonderful everything is.

Have a great time!!!!! 🍾🍾🍾

1 hour ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

It will vary by cruise for all lines. It isn't unusual for 4 cruises in a row to be 450, 525, 375, 425 (just examples) but the crew will remain more or less the same as they can't send crew home for just a few cruises.

On our Reykjavik/Quebec cruise in September, with only 150 of us, it was closer to 5:1crew to guest!!!🙂 

5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

  We also met quite a few travel/cruise agents on the Explora 1, who told us that they would push that product to their luxury cruise clients.  

 

Hank

I have been following the Explora board since the ship started sailing, and it would seem that once you "back out" the numbers of "freebies" (TAs and "influencers') it would appear the actual number of paying guests was right around the 150 we had on Serenity!!🙂

We will at some point try Explora, but not until we see what happens once the ship is sailing closer to capacity. I remember all the negative comments during the first sailing(s) about crowding and the unavailability of restaurant reservations in certain venues, and that was with maybe 300 guests?? What is going to happen when that number gets up to 750 - 900?? I asked that same question of an Explora rep at an industry event, and the response was "It is going to be interesting"!!

I wish them success, as we do need additional options in the "luxury" end of the market.

7 minutes ago, nancygp said:

Doesn’t look like the Serenity…it’s a royal Caribbean ship…😆😆
 

Nancy

 

It is indeed. The Viking Crown Lounge is a dead give-away! Looks like a Freedom Class ship, a mere twice the size, plus some, of Serenity!!!

3 hours ago, ctjon said:

Yup - first drove past where docked in Portland but hard to get a full picture - so I went over to Bug Light.  I great place for ship views. 

"Bug Light Park"?? Having never been to Portland, I am intrigued by such an unusual name!! 🙂

4 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

Ahh, got it. Correct. That’s one if the reasons I never book those cabins. Of course I study deck plans well in advance. 

On many of the newer ships, if you want a room of a certain size, you have no choice.

One of the things we really liked about Silver Moon is La Dolce Vita lounge obviated the problem, as we always went from our room to that lounge before dinner! 🙂

2 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Is any body else worried about the current load on the ships? I have just read, the Symphony is sailing currently with less than 200 passengers. How about the Serenity?

 

I really want this company to be successful.

 

Ivi

When we were on Serenity a month ago I had an interesting conversation with the Onboard Consultant. Crystal fully expected these low numbers through the Summer and Fall. They were so late coming to market with the 2023 itineraries that most people, like ourselves, already had made bookings with other lines. We actually "squeezed in" the sailing we were on. She said that numbers would start to increase significantly starting the beginning of November and right through into 2024. Anecdotally, many of the cruises around the holidays are close to fully booked.