Roland4

We had a great first day onboard! Waterside service was great, the food was great. Problem I see is the total guest count for this segment is only 150! I got that number from Leo, the Maitre D' and he HAS to know the guest count! General conscensus is we should know the names of everyone else onboard by the time of the Captain's party tomorrow!!!😁😁

We are onboard Serenity and I will be posting some thoughts and observations as we go along. Can't promise it will be every day, but more our impressions of New Crystal, the good, the bad and the "whatever"!! We arrived at the pier at 11:40, health check, outbound immigration and then a 15 minute wait until boarding began. No "tears of joy" as we boarded, the wind and drizzle howling down the side of the ship saw to that, but as I said to Rick Spath and others, more a feeling of "meeting an old friend that you thought you would never see again"! Rooms were ready on arrival, so dumped the backpacks and set off the explore. Met our Butler, Rao, almost as soon as we left the room, so our beverage requirements have already been attended to! He has looked after us in the past, so we know we are in good hands! Next stop The Cove, where Barkeeps Cross and Mel welcomed us home! After some prosecco it was off to explore, first stop The Lounge. I have to admit I was ready to dislike it, but it is actually a fairly nice space, and Monica thinks it will be perfect for just sitting and reading, knitting, or working on her art. The lack of natural light is a bit of a problem, but the various pieces of art on the walls tend to lighten the space. For the benefit of Mr & Mrs Stickman, they do have a puzzle table, but not the larger stand up tables a la Regent and Silversea. The other visit was to Palm Court. Not much has changed, though many of the couches have been reupholstered and they have created several new "niche" two-seat spots that I suspect might be popular. After all that walking, it was off to The Grill for a light lunch. Andres has not returned, but Andy, his replacement, seems up to the task. Monica had the Gazpacho, which she deemed good as ever, while I had the tuna wrap, and will admit to my first "knit". They have gone to a smaller sized tortilla wrap and it does not stay sealed at the ends! Small point, really. We also bumped into the ever-present Barkeep Ahl, and also Carmelo, who took good care of us. The gelato passed its first test, and the answer to the most important question that no one ever answered on previous sailings, the oatmean raisin cookies are still here. More of a cookie shape than the scoop shape of old, but still tasty! We have not ventured down to check out Od'O or Umi yet, but plan to do that later. We have lots of time as lifeboat drill is not until 5:30 and our departure has been bumped from 6:00 PM to Midnight! Too windy and cold to be out on deck, or balcony, for a sail away anyway! If anyone has any questions, I don't even pretend to have the contacts Keith does, but I will try and get answers if I can. Looking forward to eleven days of happiness! Larry

And we are onboard. More on a new thread.

And a great evening it was! Los of laughs, good wine and great food!! Went to The Laundromat for breakfast, best breakfast in Reykjavik! It opened at 9:00 and 9:15 it was full! Went for a bit of a walk after and found Silver Cloud and Atlas World Traveller in the Old Harbour. Now we wait not so patiently as the minutes tick down until we board Serenity!

As I recall, we got caught in the remnants of three post-tropical depressions from dying hurricanes. That is what made it so incredibly rough!! We got shut out of Newfoundland on Seabourn Quest last fall due to Fiona! Hoping for better luck this time!

The ocean was a millpond as we landed at Keflavik, and on our transfer up to Reykjavik. Went for a walk and discovered Serenity is already here! We did not get anywhere close to the pier area (too far to walk), but oddly, she appears to be tendering today! Of course the new NCL Prima is here as well, and she probably takes up a lot of space! Supposed to be at least three ships in Reykjavik tomorrow!

I think "interesting" would be a good description of solid water off our Deck 10 balcony door. Twice!!😁

I know we will be talking to Rick Spath, so I will ask him.

We will be on that one, so I will let you know.

We stayed one night at the Hotel Borg in May and it was nice. We looked into other hotels when we were there and are staying at the Hilton Iceland Parliament hotel for one night before we board Serenity later this week. Friends sailing Explora 1 are staying at the Saga Hotel. The Radisson Blu has a very nice restaurant/bar. Everything in Downtown Reykjavik is only about a five minute walk from everywhere else! One thing to keep in mind is that,at least last May, none of the hotel restaurants/bars are open for dinner on Monday or Tuesday.

I just looked at Dec 1, when we disembark from Oceania Vista, and the count is eight ships and about 27K passengers off and on!! MIA is going to be a zoo that day!!!

Unless something has changed with NC, it is (or at least was) possible to order a coffee at The Cove and even in The Avenue.

I just took a look and you are in Victoria from 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM the day before. You certainly won't be touring, which leads me to believe it is an admnistrative stop to clear Canada Immigration for sure, and possibly Customs. The wild card in this is the second leg being a repositioning cruise to LA. Normally for Alaska you pre-clear US Immigration/Customs when you board in Vancouver, but since you are proceeding to the Lower 48, that may not happen. You might have your TA check on this for you, but my guess is you will be able to leave the ship in Vancouver, but you may have to clear USCBP to get back on the ship, and once on, you won't be allowed back off. Again, just a guess.

For those comong late to this discussion, see Ryndam's post #65 above for draft changes already made.

Agreed, but what Keith is saying is that any monetary settlement from Moecker in future would be deducted from any unused EI credits. That is NOT what I was told, and I asked that question specifically of our Crystal DSM. Again, the recovery from Moecker, if any, will be insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Never tried that dish, but during WC 2020, on the rare occassions we ordered Eggs Benny, we used the "Vince Method" and ordered the hollandaise on the side and it worked perfectly. The only thing we could not get them do, no matter how hard we tried, was to stop bringing a separate bowl of hollandaise for each us!!!!😮😁

That is my understanding as well. I asked when the EI was launched whether subsequent refunds from Moecker would affect the IE credit and was told it would not. Now, in our case, any credit from Moecker will be so small as to not really matter.

All the Authority cares about is moving ships and getting paid. These crossings are booked probably as much as a year, or two years, in advance. I have no idea how far in advance they are paid for.

Speculation again on my part. I recall looking at one of those cancelled cruises, and it was a full transit, same as your Regent Cruise. I would think Regent has had those slots booked as far in advance as they can be booked, while Crystal was obviously "late to the game". Maybe in cancelling the sailings, Crystal "jumped before they got pushed" by the Canal authority. We will likely never know.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I suspect, and it is nothing more, that ships that are repositioning, like the ones that will soon be returning to the Caribbean from Alaska, or Serenity before the WC starts in San Diego will not be restricted. They HAVE to get from one side to the other and around South America is not an option. Cruises like the ones Crystal has cancelled, that are essentially "site-seeing" cruises are the ones being restricted as they don't HAVE to get through the Canal. One thing I am curious about, and have not seen anything on it, are both canal channels (Old and New) dealing with these restrictions? As I understand it, the "new" canal recycles most of its water use.

If you are taking about the Exceptional Inititiave credits, as a TA, I can tell you your TA's commission is fully protected.

No it is not. Manahattan/Brooklyn/Bayonne are all considered to be the same "port" area. As someone pointed out either here, or on another thread, they are all part of the same Port Authority.

Hopefully ours will arrive soon!

Hi Keith. AutoCorrect "done you wrong" on this post!!! 😮 😮