BWIVince

IIRC, I explained countless times how the customer deposits are held by cruise lines, during the Covid shutdown, after the Covid restart, and after the assignment. Crystal implemented exactly what they said, but just like at all cruise lines, there are risks to that system of sequestering passenger deposits that I’ve been pointing out on this board for YEARS. This is exactly why I’ve been warning people since the start of the pandemic to never book travel (on ANY supplier) that’s outside the chargeback window on your form of payment. Vince

YMMV, Ivi…. I’m also a solo and I was just about as satisfied with NC’s solo offerings as OC’s, relative to fares in the rest of the luxury segment right now. From my observation of trip reports so far, solos continue to book a variety of categories on Crystal as they always have, and the single supplement has always been graduated. For my cruise next year, I had the option of booking the solos (which didn’t suit me in this case), or verandas for a higher supplement just like in the past. Fares are higher than in 2020, but where in the travel industry aren’t they? I wish Crystal hadn’t gone with dedicated solo cabins, but I expressed the risk of that years ago when this was floated out and I was in the minority, and my closing comment on that was “watch what you wish for”…. That said, I don’t think it’s the end of the world, and certainly didn’t keep me from booking Crystal as a solo. The evidence so far is very anecdotal, but I’m still seeing lots of solos I know booking Crystal so far. Vince

If the deck plans are anywhere near accurate, the bathroom window is the only part of the suite that’s actually near a lifeboat in the Deck 8 CPs, and since that part is built out from the superstructure, the lifeboat shouldn’t instruct the view. If you climbed in the tub and got up to the window, and looked completely to the side, I don’t know if you would see that lifeboat or not, but that should be the only way to see a lifeboat from any of the windows. Similarly, with the bathroom and dining area built out you can’t see the lifeboats from inside the balcony, but if you stick your head over the railing and look fore or aft you’ll be able to see part of the lifeboats. The deck 10 CP’s work the same way if you look down and aft, they’re just slightly further away and the boats are just in a different relative position. I wouldn’t personally think that anything about the deck 8 CP’s would be claustrophobic, but I know some people are sensitive to being able to see any part of the ship or lifeboats anywhere in their view no matter how far they stick their head out, so that’s why I was trying to be specific. Vince

I don’t understand why this has been such a big deal. Anyone that doesn’t think the fares are worth it doesn’t have to pay them. A Crystal cruise isn’t a life sustaining need, nor a regulated utility. There are plenty of other excellent vacation options in travel. Similarly, if the fares don’t sell, Crystal will lower the fares, just like old Crystal did. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Yield Management is a thing. Along those lines, no one forecasts a cruise operator is going to have the same loads in its third year of operation as its second month of business. If their current loads were that off from their forecast, they would have changed the fares or run promotions, Again, yield management is a thing. Vince

Crystal runs a little differently in that regard…. Not that it’s not Crystal’s goal to sell as many berths as possible, but there are a lot of complications: 1). Crystal has an exceptionally high rate of singles. The new single cabins sort of address this to a small degree, but based on my first hand experience so far, not every solo wants or is booking the designated solid cabins. Solos take out half the berths of each cabin they book. 2). Although not currently advertised, the third berths in the former penthouses still exist, which Crystal almost never sells (for many reasons). They may have taken these out of the current capacity number already, but since it’s sort of a constructed number and not an actual count of berths onboard, it’ll be interesting to see if any of these are taken into account at all. 3). Some cabin inventory is almost always out of service for maintenance or other issues, and some is always held back for complaints or other issues that arise in normal operation. 4). OC used to regularly need revenue cabins on Symphony to house supplemental staff plus invited guests like lecturers and hosts. Some extra formerly revenue cabins seem to have been taken out of inventory permanently to address this, but the number of cabins removed from Symphony doesn’t jive with the OC scenarios, even adjusted for the lowered capacity…. So this one remains to be seen. …Those are the reasons Symphony can’t physically reach capacity — outside of that there is also just a wedge of the pie for how much inventory will likely go unsold on the less popular cruises. I’m hopeful the reduction in inventory will close this gap finally, but I’ve seen a half dozen management teams try to address this factor in a variety of ways over the past 30+ years (including inventory reduction already), so I’d still mark this past TBD. That part is outside of your question though, I was just tacking that on because I factored that in my estimate. Vince

No worries! Laurel gets kind of disrespected locally, but a large part of my family is from that area, so that just kind of stood out as I was reading it. 😊 Zebra is a great company…. The pre-printed luggage tags Old Crystal was printing in 2021 and early 2022 looked like Zebra-style labels, funny enough! I’m hoping Zebra will have a role in Crystal’s future as well. 🙂 Vince

I wouldn’t expect anything less. Concept tweaking is a Crystal tradition. Symphony’s Asian venue has only had a few names, but it’s had more concepts than I’ve had job titles in my entire life. Vince

EVERYTHING? Really? I can’t name anyone I know that doesn’t have at least a small wish list for Crystal, no matter how much they enjoy Crystal or rave about their experiences. YMMV obviously, though. Vince

Thank you for confirming that no one who actually responded to you in this thread actually exhibited the behavior you generalized all of us with. Vince

Really classy. 😒

Nothing like being painted incorrectly with a very broad brush… I sail more with Crystal than other lines because they do certain things that I value better than their competitors. I don’t think I know a single Crystal regular that thinks that everything Crystal does is “far superior”. 🙄 Regent does many things “far superior” to Crystal, they just happen to all be things I couldn't give two hoots about. Vince

Why the eye roll at Laurel, Maryland? 😞 Some of us are proud to live near there! Vince

That’s a perfect example (like the ones upthread) of the operational upgrades that Crystal used to give — ones that served an operational purpose on their side. Vince

That's very true... But it's not completely new. In the old days we just had a more limited view of what media sources were in the travel industry. The type of perks that were once extended to travel writers and the like, are now extended to different types of media channels. Circulation doesn't equal followers and views the same way obviously, new formulas exist to calculate how much publicity an influencer really generates given the fluff in everyone's history, but it's worth noting that a lot of these cruise influencers reach more people now than many travel publications back in the day... So it's definitely a thing. Vince

Just curious since I haven't been able to picture this since the 2018 refit... Is that walled off area where they stage the meals for the supper club? I was trying to figure out how that worked logistically, considering how small that pantry is there. Vince

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the new world. That's kind of where I predict Symphony's average to be, since she can never practically reach capacity in the real world. It'll be higher on some sailings, but 500 seems like a "norm" now. That's just a gut instinct though, without much history yet. Vince

I can relate completely... I had the same kind of experience with one of the restaurant managers, who my family knew not only Crystal's whole history, but also from Princess, before NYK was event dreaming of Crystal. 😊 Vince

I don't mean to take away from that point at all, or from your experience... Mine is just the opposite so I was just engaging for discussion, but that's not meant that my experience is any more valuable. I appreciate you sharing that. Vince

You really don't experience that in a local restaurant? Twice last month the GM of two different restaurants made it a point to come to my table and greet me by name and chat because they knew me as a regular for years. In both cases they walked by and checked on other tables, but I was the only one greeted by name and got the extended chat. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if I was in anyone else's shoes (how would they know me), but I also wouldn't have taken offense to it. If I tried to engage them and was rebuffed, that would be a different story, but that doesn't seem to be happening in these examples. Vince

People who frequent a business, especially in travel and hospitality, develop personal relationships with their service suppliers, and those relationships are different than the ones the staff have with new guests. 🤷‍♂️ That's inevitable and happens everywhere. If Crystal was structurally putting in service aspects that hindered the new guests from developing the same relationships, or management was somehow disrespecting the new guests, I'd be concerned... But there is just no way a staff member who has sailed with a guest 50 times is going to have the same relationship with a guest they just met. If a guest is really sensitive to that, there are a couple of newer lines out there which might be a better fit for them as a higher percentage of guests are starting off at the same point with more of (but not all) of those staff members. Vince

You certainly will if these other suppliers get it. 😉 If they don’t, they’ll come down. It works both ways, and neither is in a vacuum. Vince

Not really…. We’re seeing the same thing in 2025 group contracts for hotels, so I imagine it will bode similar for other segments of the travel industry as we get closer. If they get it, good for them (costs are up), but if they don’t (and they certainly may not), prices will be back down. Capitalism in the travel industry is alive and well. Vince

My pleasure! I liked the Plaza’s original look too…. That was my era of decor. Lol. Comfy, overstuffed things. Here was the Cove’s original look, just to round out the peek of the Plaza: Vince

Some Crystal Harmony memories, from her first couple years in service… The aft elevator lobby on Tiffany Deck 6. This area changed a lot on the subsequent ships. The Vista Lounge at Sunset. The Trident Bar when it still dipped down into the Neptune Pool. The sunken bar-top on the right-hand side of the photo (beyond the white tiled pool surround) served the swim-up barstools inside the pool in its early years. The Crystal Plaza’s original furnishings, and with the fountain in action. Time flies… Vince

Many resorts in the US have been doing the rotating venue thing on slower weeks (which are thankfully getting more rare) since Covid started, and it works pretty well. The concept is that most guests at a resort are there for more than one night, so if you rotate the restaurant that you close, just about no one is inconvenienced because they still get to enjoy the venues they want, they just change the order. When occupancy is low enough, you just can’t run everything in the same frequency you do when occupancy is 3 or 4 times higher. It just doesn’t work, as much as guests want to say “that’s not my problem”. Using food prep as just one example, it takes a crazy amount of food just to prep the full menu even when you reduce the number of portions as low as you can cut it. If you only get a handful of tables that service, that represents a LOT of waste. Regarding Waterside, anyone here who knows me knows it takes an act of Congress to get me to eat in Marketplace, and I’d rather starve to death than eat at the Trident on my vacation…. But closing Waterside only makes sense these days. On my last two cruises (2019 and 2021), lunches in Waterside were excellent, but no one wanted a sit-down lunch. The 2021 cruise was extreme because of the roughly 280 passenger guest count — there were literally lunches with myself and 7 or 8 other guests. Not tables — guests. They prepped food for menu items that weren’t even ordered once, besides all the prep for the other items that went mostly to waste. Servers were denied shifts off just to stand around and stare at each other. Everyone went to eat upstairs, despite the excellent execution, because the sit-down plated lunch just isn’t a popular thing these days. Trust me, no one bemoans the death of the dining room luncheon as much as I do, but it just doesn’t make any sense to manage it the way they used to. The demand — at this scale — just isn’t there all the time anymore. Vince