Embowaf

Yeah, my first Crystal Cruise was when I was 13, and if my parents hadn't taken me then, I wouldn't be going now. Crystal needs to attract new customers. But in terms of children being obnoxious, I'm generally pretty quickly annoyed by young children misbehaving in venues they shouldn't be in... Nice restaurants, late at night, midnight R rated movies, etc. And I've never once had an issue on Crystal.

I have not been on new crystal yet, but in terms of your question about waiting. That was one of my favorite things about old crystal; no waiting for just about anything. You'll rarely stand in a line of any sort. In many cases, I effectively walked straight onto the ship on embarkation day. In some ports there's a bus or something to move you around that causes there to be some sort of a wait, but its never been egregious. Maybe there will be a few groups in front of you if you arrive at the dining room at the busiest time for dinner, but you're waiting for them to take each group ahead to a table, not for space to clear. The grill at lunch can have a line of a few people waiting to place an order if you're there at a specific time. You of course must wait for a tender from time to time as they usually are launching them from one place, but it's very rare that you're in much of a line there. When you get back from a tender, you might have to wait for a few elevators to arrive before everyone clears, but that's about it.

They were very helpful and polite, but they do say they never got my claim, which is pretty annoying. I certainly mailed it in May of 2022, and they did get my parents' which was mailed later than mine. I am going to resubmit the form at their suggestion but they were not super clear on what would happen other than "it will be considered a late claim" and "it will take some time to process it".

Have fun! I'll be on the second segment.

I never got such an email, but neither did my parents (who did get their check). I also searched through every single one of those docs for our last name and we aren't in any of them, though, again, they got their check? Still waiting for a response to my email from them. Not in a hurry, so not too worried.

Same here, Los Angeles. My parents and brother (paid for by my parents) got theirs a few weeks back for the same cruise I was on. I have never heard anything from Moecker, but I did get an EI Certificate that, apparently, was checked against their records. Emailed Moecker a few days ago but no response yet.

A big part of the issue with the previous situation was the combination of Crystal going under and the impact of the pandemic which caused a lot of people to cancel cruises and roll over credit to new bookings instead of getting a full refund, pushing the funds outside of the chargeback window for most people. We have all learned... do not do this. That perfect storm is unlikely to happen again any time soon. But your financial decisions are your own and there's always going to be some level of risk here (or elsewhere).

I've been a germophobe before COVID and I generally just make sure to always have sanitizer especially if I have to go to a buffet. I very much don't trust people. It doesn't matter where or who you are; I have seen carnival and crystal guests pee and walk out without washing hands at about the same rate. At times directly into the buffet line. That said, never really got sick on Crystal. Most likely due to the lower density of people.

I frequently booked guarantee on OC when it was available and it was cheaper. So Crystal doing it isn't new. But I dunno if the exact sales flow you went through is the way it used to work.

I have used the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the $500 deposit a few months back and it was properly coded as travel. They're both Chase, if that helps.

I only started doing the Vintage Room after the Covid restart in the Bahamas. Prior to that my dad went but I figured it was wasted on me because I usually don't like wine very much and stick to scotch. Turns out, the reason I don't like wine is I wasn't having Vintage Room tier wine. I know there's levels above that, but even the base level Vintage Room bottles were mindblowing at least to someone very unfamiliar with wine.

To be clear I'm not saying that design/ambiance/decor/etc doesn't matter. I'm saying, this doesn't look cheap or tacky. It's at worst, fine. And as long as it's fine, it's going to fade into the background even if it could have been better.

This was exactly my read when I saw it yesterday.

There's kinda way too much attention being places in the the decor and the seating arrangements, which are going to have a tiny impact on the experience compared to the food and the service. As long as the room is functional and not horribly designed you probably will forget about it once you're there.

Well good news then, the Prego Mushroom soup wasn't sourdough 😛. Dunno what you'd call it exactly; the recipe calls it an "oregano bread bowl". It was a pretty basic bread recipe with some dried oregano sprinkled in.