BWIVince

Somewhere in Time was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. The Grand Hotel has been on my bucket list my whole life, but I still haven't made it there yet. (One day!) I wish I had been there for that chat, Roy! Vince

The assignment process for a travel supplier can take years in the US -- they would likely have a couple more years before anyone would express any concern about it from an oversight perspective. MM&A is still validating the disputes IIRC, which impacts who gets paid in this advance priority payment period, so how long this takes is variable depending on how many people get their claims disqualified or rejected, and how many people dispute those responses. For that reason the actual disbursement dates can move easily and need to be flexible, no matter what original estimate they gave. Vince

All of that is correct above, but I wanted to point out one other possible scenario that kind off fits what was posted... If someone battled their credit card company hard enough for a dispute that wasn't eligible for a chargeback (or their issuer chose not to go the chargeback route for some other reason), and they got some kind of a credit from their issuer that wasn't a chargeback, MM&A would likely not have a record of it. This would be a complete outlier, but it can happen. As it pertains to the credit card issuers, MM&A is reconciling the claims against the chargebacks of Crystal's money, and wouldn't normally have insight into customer service credits that other banks had issued to their own customers to get them off their backs. Vince

Crystal has done the same at many points as well, including most of their brochures. Vince

This is a collision of low occupancy (number of souls on the ship at the moment of the lunch service) and low interest (think: single digits) in the formal lunch as a venue. This isn’t new, Crystal has had this formula for over a decade, but what’s changed is that fewer people are wanting lunch in Waterside and capacity has been reduced, so now it’s getting harder and harder to meet the viability threshold on port days than it once did…. So where it once was only popular port days that it wasn’t viable to do Waterside lunch service, now it’s most port full port days (with exceptions as Keith noted). Vince

I really wish I could agree with your post, but this is almost offensive and makes me second guess my long standing preferences. 😞 A proper lunch on port days is one of the things I miss most from small ship luxury cruising these days, but I can’t make people want what I want or force people to change modern dining trends and take them back 20 years. Lunch in Waterside isn’t scalable down to an “on-demand” type situation. Based on my experience with catering metrics, with its menu, it takes about 50 diners at a minimum not to make it a scandalous waste of materials and resources, and even at 50 you have a fair amount of waste. We’ve all been on cruises in the past few years where we could count the lunch diners in Waterside on our own fingers. That’s not realistic or sustainable in any way. I’d add that you not only have the ethical and waste problem of the food, you also have the morale problem of labor. It’s demoralizing for the crew to be denied shore leave (or even just a break shift) to be standing around staring at the carpet day after day. 😞 You’re not going to “train” people to want to eat like their grandparents did — if you’re going to be successful, you have to meet people how the majority want to dine today…. Unfortunately for those of us who want to eat like their grandparents did. I know, reality sucks. Trust me. No one here wants lunch in Waterside more than I do. Vince

This kind of hides because we can't see a booking engine (temporarily) like we used to... The guarantees aren't a separate category or listing, they're basically an option for the categories open for sale. In many cases they may be the only option if you wanted to book a particular category, depending on the amount of oversell Crystal is doing in a particular category, if all the assignable cabins in that category had been sold but the category is still open for sale. To put it another way, where it says "Request a Quote," the category is available to book by guarantee and may/likely also have cabin assignments available. If it says "Waitlist," then all the assignments and all of the guarantees are sold out. Until we get an online booking tool though, we won't be able to see when the cabin assignments are gone and we can only book guarantees, like we used to. Hope that makes sense. I had to ask, because I wasn't sure if guarantees were still a thing either... But they work just like they used to. Vince

That's the way it was in 2019 on my last cruise under the previous "full" pricing schedule... I just checked my notes and it was 130% for window cabins, 150% for verandas, 175% for what were PH's and 200% for PS and CP, but of course varied by sailing that era. In 2015 it was a fixed 125% for windows, 135% for most verandas, 150% for the top verandas, 175% for PH's and 200% for PS and CP. (The rates were fixed but capacity controlled and could vary by exception for special cruises.) For giggles, I just checked Crystal's first brochure as well (1990), and it was 160% for all non penthouses, and 200% for all 3 penthouse categories. (The lettering was different back then.) Vince

They did, but only on the lowest grades... It jumped up as you graduated higher in cabin grades, and even though they went with a more flexible schedule by voyage in the last couple of years pre-covid, verandah cabins were a sizable step over window cabins for most cruises. Vince

IME with Crystal, I think the waitlists only kick in after the guarantees are already sold out... But that said, if inventory opens up somewhere else in the ship, and Crystal wants to take reservations from a lower category to backfill them, they can definitely open up inventory as guarantee in a category they want to clear someone from the waitlist, offer them the guarantee at that rate, and then pop them into that higher category as needed... It just happens in conjunction with the guarantee process, just not in place of it. Vince

All the standard cabins had the bar function moved over from the desk to a new unit carved out of the closet. It's kind of a controversial change, but it definitely has both plusses and minuses. Haven't sailed on new Crystal yet so I'll let others comment on whether they hold you to specific spirits on the list now (unlike the past). Vince

My experience parallels Patty's for the Alaska cruise I booked next year. I don't know exactly how they calculated the fare vs. taxes off the top of my head so I can't give the exact percentage, but the veranda double I booked worked out to about 150-160% of the per person double fare. That's a lot more than the solo cabins, but not out of whack with what old Crystal charged for solo occupancy of the verandas in the old days at least. Vince

It vaguely reminded me of my experience of flying the morning of 9/11, and rolling with the couple dozen subsequent plans that kept changing for the rest of that week... I felt bad for y'all being in limbo, but there were definitely worse places you could have been going through that than onboard Crystal at least. 🙂 Vince

I agree with Patty 100%... Interim port calls are not guaranteed in any way, shape or form, and are subject to change. That's just life, and if you lower expectations on that, you'll be a lot less disappointed with cruising. I'll also add that while there are exceptions, the general rule in the travel industry is that it's better not to share the details for advance changes, other than to say it's an operational need. If you go too much further into it with clients or agents, it just creates arguments between the parties that the cruise line shouldn't have given in to the port, or should have sued, or some other unrealistic response that at the end of the day really doesn't matter and is just a waste of everyone's time and money. I know the operational need answer isn't very satisfying, but at the end of the day it's the only thing that matters. Vince

I totally agree about the mock up process, though nothing is foolproof. Haha I can think of three design elements that were all mocked up with sample cabins that evaluators stayed in, and still made it to production: 1 - All kinds of misses in Harmony’s original cabins, especially the windowed models with the angular entry…. The lack of storage space (while wasting square feet on unusable closet depth), the tubs you had to step into for the bathroom doors to swing in, etc… 2 - The glass vessel sinks from Symphony’s first standard cabin refit…. Then a second glass replacement in an oval design that also passed a trial, before they went with the third design (the upright plastic ones). 3 - …and of course, The Chair. Nuff said. All of those got the green light in actual mock up tests. 😊. Stuff happens. Vince

Im still waking up, and looked at the photos too quickly and thought that was one picture, not seeing the railings clearly…. My heart literally started racing and I panicked, thinking the arrow was pointing the wrong way! 😆 The top picture is clearly a sign on the superstructure instead of on the bulwark (where the arrows normally are on Seeenity), so it would be opposite…. Anyway, I need some coffee now clearly. lol. And a walk around the deck, if I had one. Vince

Thanks for the clarification Keith, that makes a lot more sense and is easily correctable in the future (when they can take the room out of service long enough)…. I thought the implication was that it was intentionally designed to be at the 100% level, which would have been impossible based on my knowledge of the designers. Was this the case in all of the redesigned public areas, assuming they use the same basic control components? Noted about the refit time…. I think people forget that Crystal has normally had 2.5 to 3 years for the normal design, fabrication and installation cycle their refits in the past. Most people only think of the final 8-12 days at the very end for final installation, but this was a actually a much, much shorter cycle than any previous Crystal refit. Vince

I know that was probably meant to be a joke, but did someone at Crystal actually say that the lighting in Osteria d’Ovidio can’t be dimmed? Tillberg has designed public spaces and restaurants for Crystal for over 35 years and this would be the first and only restaurant or lounge that lighting can’t be dimmed, randomly, which seems impossible. Vince

I think that's why it's sticking in my head this long. 😄 ...And I never even experienced it firsthand! (Though I was a travel agent back in that era.) Vince

It's funny you mention that, because I was going to ask if anyone recycles their togas from their old Costa cruises back when they held those parties. lol I don't personally find it absurd, but it's definitely a concept that resonates with certain demographics more than others... But that's true of lots of social events. Vince

Here’s a fun memory… We talked recently in another thread about Piero Selvaggio and his consultancy for Prego where he contributed a select number of dishes to be featured among Crystal's regular dishes there, but we seldom talk about his counterpart that contributed a similar number of dishes for Crystal’s (at the time) Asian Fusion concept, Jade Garden (only on Symphony). Yes, Wolfgang Puck was the Nobu before Nobu in Crystal’s history! I’ve mentioned the many concepts of Jade Garden before, and one of the iterations was a fusion concept bolstered with dishes by Wolfgang Puck inspired by his L.A. restaurant, Chinois on Main. Like Selvaggio’s consultancy, and unlike the licensing deal with Nobu, Crystal just got recipes and training for a set number of dishes, the rest of the menu, venue, service and concept were Crystal’s to manage in both cases. This project started before Crystal’s work with Nobu started, reportedly, but from a passenger perspective we started hearing about both at roughly the same time, and the two projects operated concurrently for a while as they were on different ships. Both the number of Selvaggio and Puck dishes were scaled back over time, and this was one of the final concepts for Jade Garden before the conversion to Silk Road in 2008. I no longer have the full menu, but this section above appeared alongside the regular items developed by Crystal’s chefs, the same way Selvaggio’s dishes had a separate section of the Prego menu around 2003. The fun part is that at least two of these items are still in regular circulation on Crystal — the Chinois Chicken Salad, and the Mongolian Lamb Chops with Cilantro Mint Vinaigrette. I still smile when I see them listed, knowing their long history. Enjoy! Vince

A huge percentage of products in the US contain bioengineered food these days. You see the raw products in the produce section these days, but almost any products made with US grown corn, soy bean products or sugar beet products contain bioengineered foods almost by default now…. That pretty much covers any frozen meal, as you see here. Vince

There’s nothing wrong with that, but food photos are EVERYTHING to some of us. 😊. I wish Keith had posted even more (literally, not kidding). I actually swap food photos with other friends on this forum by text frequently. (Ironically, not Keith though.) I know that’s not everyone’s thing, but please keep in mind that for some of us it is. 🙂. …and for those that don’t want to see all those pics, you can always scroll past them. Vince (Food Pic Addict)

Im really glad you’re asking questions about the bookings covered by the FMC bonds. I’ve wondered about that process for years and years and have seen few concrete details about the resolution process, but I don’t have a dog in that fight so I would never waste anyone’s time with questions when they have so much other work to do. I’m looking forward to learning from you all though, as always. Vince

I for one appreciate both of you posting about your experiences, multiple times, and hope both of you continue to do so, because the subsequent messages have given us more detail and context. that said, I don’t think spinning Keith’s posts as “super-promoting” it when you’re doing the exact same thing with the opposite message is doing you any favors though. 😞 Vince