KenzSailing

Well, of course. The folks booking CP aren't springing for verandah cabins for their servants.😁

Ah, you're right, I was thinking of Concierge grade for which we are WLed. For completeness sake, the Regent quote includes a bonus credit of $500pp, an air credit of $500pp, and an FCC of $100pp that my great and good TA turned into a credit on this booking. And OLoPP is, as always, patient.

So this topic was suggested, and I think it useful to compare NC pricing to the current pricing of other lux lines(at least more useful than Crystal prices today vs how things used to be.) I have one hard data point to contribute: Crystal Serenity LA-NYC, 8/27/24 18 nights Aquamarine Suite Total: $22,230(with prior passenger discount of $970) $617.50 pp/pn RSSC Grandeur MIA-LA, 12/21/23 16 nights Superior F1 Suite Total: $24,198(1st time cruisers, no prior pax discount) $756 pp/pn Delta: Regent is $138.50 pp/pn more expensive Notes: For the size matters crowd, those cabins are mighty similar(IIRC the Regent cabin is 9 sq ft larger.) Both Panama Canal cruises, of similar length. Regent bundles airfare and one night hotel with this grade cabin, but we declined those for credits built into the above pricing. Divergence: The big one of course is that Regent bundles in shorex and there's no way to extract that.(And please, let's not turn this into a referendum on whether that is good or ill. That one has been done to death.) No butler with this grade cabin on Regent. The other thing is the Regent cruise spans both Christmas and New Years. OC, as I recall, used to have a pretty significant uplift for those cruises. Make of this what you will, but it is a data point.

You are such a quant!

Well, since we're talking booze(my kind of place, this is) It's Tuesday(here anyway.) And what Tuesday is it? It's the Tuesday that is fat. Fat Tuesday! \Laissez les bons temps rouler! At the Chez, that means one thing. No not gumbo, not beads, but the Prince of cocktails, the Sazerac. The primary cast: note the Absinthe is labeled "contains wormwood" so if this is my last post ever.... No, I don't know how to rotate images. Or maybe that's the Sazerac talking. The glorious result: Now we're talking. And here's a little Norleans this crowd can get behind:

We're cruising Regent for the first time later this year. While our cruise won't be offering upgrades(it's sold out,) this is the first I've heard of upgrades on Regent(which I assume are rare), so I have a question. The OP seems to imply that when Regent does make an upgrade offer, it's for a class of accommodation and not for a specific cabin number. Do I have that right?

Ummmm.....mayo-based condiment....Ummmmmmm

About four months ago our local county liquor stores had no Makers Mark for eight, maybe ten weeks. I drank some suspect hooch during that period.

Since we're talking hooch, I'll have a brief update tomorrow. Stay tuned....

The one life maxim I have carved in stone is that everyone, and I mean everyone, thinks that their treatment of money is completely rational and everyone else is doing it wrong.

-Sigh- If you're going to reference the greatest movie ever made, let's show some respect: And to our new Miss Manners:

As long as I know there's one guy or gal behind the piano in the Avenue, I'm comfortable the rest will work out just fine.

I have heard of the "doughnut" translation. If I may impose, how would one say "I am a Berliner" in the appropriate language? I'm genuinely curious as to this.

Well, well, well, looks who still hangs around this backwater. I remember now: you guys financed your luxury cruising lifestyle with your canny video slots play. Well, your sharp action on the Super Bowl should tide you over for awhile. Unless you've already blown it at the track. And even if there's no casino, maybe Crystal will still host Bin-joe!

Agreed. Personally, I findthe Hotel Directors to be the most important hires in terms of establishing the customer-facing culture. And this speaks to the folks at the very top trying to re-create "Crystal," as opposed to sliding in any old product under the brand name. Most encouraging.

Ah, OK, I understand now we're talking about two different sets of reviewers. I'm talking specifically about folks posting their experiences to the Crystal board, not the general CC database of reviews. I never consult that resource simply because I have no idea the perspective, experiences, etc of the reviewer.

I take your point but, we're talking about a subset of Crystal cruisers: those who post here. I'll read all the early reviews, but thru a filter of who's going to come in capital-P-positive, who might be more critical than I am about things, and those contributors whose opinion will make me sit up and take notice.

Once again, I'll come down on the side of yes and no(hey, can't lose!) My point, and it's documented on this site; we have a budget that precludes us from surveying the lux lines in anything approximating a reasonable timeframe. Crystal, having punched all our important buttons, motivated us to stay with them. If they hadn't gone Tango Uniform, we probably never would have strayed(don't draw to an inside straight.) But things happened, and now we have a booking on Regent we are most keen on. May turn out to be genius, maybe disaster, maybe in between. TWT. Point is, the interregnum opened the door.

I dunno. It's always hazardous to get crosswise with your gimlet eye, but I would put my money on the Gentlemen Hosts back in full frequency and force, even if the program takes a while to ramp up. The other stuff, yeah, that might go the way of the language classes.

On this 14th of February, a little counter-programming from the golden age of music videos:

Designers are the marketing department of the physical world.😁 More seriously, I am one of those people who can look at a floor plan but can't really get a feel for a layout until I do a walk thru. I'm not alone. I've been looking a lot at Regent. There newest ships are Explorer and Splendor, same class of ship, almost identical. One change they made from Explorer to Splendor: they reversed the direction of the grand staircase that leads to the MDR on deck 4. In Explorer, the bottom of the stairs dead ended into the back of the elevator bank that everyone else was exiting to head to the MDR after an early show, so the folks coming off the stairs had to do a u-turn into that same flow to get going where they wanted to. On Splendor, they reversed the stairs so the bottom of the stairs flows directly toward the MDR. I'm sure someone eventually thought "what were we thinking?"

But never at Waffle House? Well, I just can't take you seriously then.

I almost forgot. OLoPP wants to pass along: The Chez is tranquil tonight.

Vince, Well, a tidbit about a new local purveyor of a cuisine that does interest me(we have a rez for next month, after the review crowd dies down.) Uuuuuummmm, sweetbreads.... https://wapo.st/3jUIgsR

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