BWIVince

I thought I felt the Earth wobble off its axis. 😄 I'm proud of you Keith -- those definitely look exception worthy! ❤️ Vince

Sorry for the delay... Everyone did a great job above and I agree with all those points. There's just a few value props from above I'd emphasize. Full disclosure -- I'm biased. I was a retail travel agent at the beginning of my career (decades ago), and had worked on the operations side for a travel intermediary up until Covid. 1) TA's can provide value-adds through their consortium memberships or volume with Crystal. There may be online or mass-market agencies that may provide other perks you value. One person may get more out of using a Crystal specialist, but another person may really like the airline miles or perks through their bank or loyalty program portal -- the choice here is personal. 2) The advocacy piece here is huge. Here I think the advantage goes to the Crystal specialists since they have the strongest relationship with Crystal's sales team if they need favors or issues addressed, but IMHO anyone would be nuts to book direct. I always hear people say, "I don't need an agent, I can advocate for myself." Ok, with what leverage, and to whom? A call center reservations agent? ...Even their supervisor? Good luck. Really the only people in a supplier org to bend the rules to fix an issue that doesn't have a straightforward or simple fix are the industry sales team, and they maintain the relationships with agents... Not direct sales customers. 3) Lastly, expertise is valuable. I know a lot about Crystal, but my agent has spent a lot more time than I have on Crystal this year than I have. Searching online or chatting in forums is great, but sometimes there is incredible value in asking someone who knows you personally, because they know your perspective on the question, their answer is probably going to be better targeted. Just some added thoughts... Vince

Sorry for my confusing wording! I just meant my overall sentiment about the relative security of deposits under Crystal's A&K ownership. To this point I haven't done that with any travel supplier anywhere as a hard rule since February of 2020, but I'd break that (with small precautions) in this case. Everyone's risk tolerance is different here, so I understand why people would have varying feelings on this -- I'm just speaking for myself here. Personally, if booking outside outside the 520 day window, I would still never book a nonrefundable fare. I would be ok with putting the full fare up for an additional discount (I've done that in the past) if I had the money available and didn't have it serving a better purpose in the interim, but even that is a consideration of whether the discount offsets whatever else I'd be losing at that time. I would never go the extra step for a cruise that far out and book it as nonrefundable for extra savings though, that's just too high risk for me. My concerns there are mostly based on other holes in most travel insurance I've had and not specific to the line shutting down... Technically the line owes you money either way if they shut down before you sail. (My mixed feelings on that are a long story that I'll spare everyone.) I will say that I view using a Visa or a Mastercard as a bigger risk, and we really saw a divide statistically between the outcomes of the different card networks. Issuers like AmEx that control their own reserves just work differently than an alliance of banks with different interests trying to navigate common guidance. Back in the old threads in the old forum, we saw all kinds of major national banks reject claims or give bad guidance to customers. No one is perfect, but the difference between VI and MC issuers and AmEx, which controls both ends of the process, were stark. Anyway, I'm rambling... Sorry! Vince

Yep.. This picture was taken after the 2021 refit but before the 2023 refit though, so except for the loveseat, table and print, everything else will be somewhat different/updated. BUT for the purpose of this discussion, this definitely shows the promenade situation better. The railing does vary by location, but it is generally less obtrusive than Serenity's. In some spots the railings do have solid bulwark on them, but because of varying regulations in place when Serenity and Symphony were built, and the lifeboat orientation, Symphony's railings on deck 7 are generally lower and/or more open. Check pics closely though to see what they look like outside your cabin for more specifics though. Vince

Yeah, that's a picture from Serenity... Symphony's staterooms have different prints/frames, different windows, a recessed promenade, and different railings (among other things). In fairness, when Crystal was finalizing the current website, only press photos from Serenity were yet available, and even those had to be updated a couple of times. For a short time using the pics from Serenity was actually more accurate than using the renderings, before new ones from Symphony were ready. Hopefully they have updated press photos from Symphony by now, and can eventually swap those out. Vince

I'm really sensitive to this one, so I'll comment... One of the big differences between Symphony and Serenity is that Symphony's promenade deck is recessed below deck 7, whereas the outdoor promenade on Serenity is level with the cabins. So on Symphony, if you're sitting down or laying in bed, and look out the window, you mainly see the tops of heads bob by -- you're not face-to-face with them like on Serenity. There is a reflective privacy tint on the glass, but it's light-directional... You'll see through it more the brighter it is inside vs. outside. That means most of the day it's pretty well obscured, but if you have a lot of lights on inside the cabin, or if it happens to be really dark outside, you can see more detail. To me that's less of an issue though, and the main privacy benefit is the height offset. Just my $.02... YMMV. Vince

I was kind of surprised when they created two-bay suites out of the rooms on deck 7 -- they seemed a little high end for its limitations... Not just the lack of verandah, but also the obstructed views (especially midships). I do think they made sense in Symphony's case given the overall targets, but they definitely have a niche audience. That said, they do sell at a discount vs. the verandah versions, and support the overall mission of lower occupancy, so they seem to be effective when viewed through that lens. I wouldn't be as thrilled about the obstructed views at that price point, but I would GLADLY take a discount to not have the verandah... So I'm definitely in that niche. Well, I guess not technically, since I don't actually have enough money for one of those rooms. 😕 Details. lol Vince

Hopefully people will have more recent examples, but when I disembarked on 7/9, I got the survey link that evening around 8:00pm Eastern. Vince

They have an intranet set up like a portal, so you would basically navigate those pages to see the menus and schedules for the day. (It's not really a native app, but you can save the page so it's accessible like one.) When you browse it on on your own device instead of the tablet in the room, you can save the files locally to your device and organize or rename them as you like when you save them. (That's why you see the varying file names on all the posts here.) When I do it, I tend to use my phone or tablet (they share cloud storage) and just throw them in a unique folder for each cruise, and tend to save copies of all the restaurant menus. That way I can also look back on changes to the different alternative restaurants over time. You don't have to go through all that work, but thinking of where you want to save them and how you want to organize them in advance helps make things easier you start to collect the files. Edited to add: Another reason I save them using my phone sometimes involves the timing of when things are posted, and the timing of when my senile brain remembers to check -- especially in the case of restaurant menus. I may already be out and about, so if I remember to check a menu, or see it's been posted while I'm out doing something, it's super easy to just snag it then right there on my phone, and I'm all set. Vince

Some of us go back to Crystal's Sebastian amenity days! 😊 Wow I'm old... Vince

They are... Identical and interchangeable (to give them options). I'm jealous of your extended voyage and can't wait to hear what you think. Vince

If you cut a pair in half to fit your feet, I'll take the other half to tape onto the ones in my room so they come close to fitting my feet. 😄 Vince

My point wasn’t that they didn’t know how to put out an RFP, just that they were unlikely to break an existing agreement over it. I don’t know the details of their agreement, but I’ve known many companies who have used them over the years but I’ve never seen anyone use them for less than two years, however that plays out in either contracts, orders or ROI on the relationship. Vince

I’d prefer Molton Brown…. And anything is possible, but I suspect we might have better, or at least faster success picking from this list. https://www.labottega.com/en_US/brands-cosmetics?letter=A Vince

I lit into this one on my thread (and others) because it’s a pet peeve of mine on many levels, but in fairness to Crystal in the short term they have to pick from the options from La Bottega that are currently available, which all have significant downsides. They can get the amenities in metal tubes, which they’ve done as a stop-gap when the bulk items weren’t available (but take the ding for the amount of packaging waste), or they can switch to the motel-style shower dispensers (which I’d VERY reluctantly rather have as a last resort than the leaky plastic pumps), both of which are overall downgrades in perception even if they address some of the complaints. La Bottega is happy to do custom packaging (for significant cost) which would address these issues, but even more than cost they take a long time to bring to market, longer than they’ve had to address the issue. I do totally agree with the problem though. Vince

There are some preliminary menus on Crystal's website... I'd take them with a grain of salt at this point since they will evolve and change to some degree, like all menus do with Crystal, but at least it gives you an idea of the concept. https://www.crystalcruises.com/beefbar Vince

LOL... It's scary (in the best possible way) how often we read something and think the exact same thing at the same time. 🙂 Vince

Sheer speculation, but that might be part of the migration to Beefbar. If I were them, I'd shut off reservations for the old concept as the timeline came into focus so there were fewer reservations to either (a) have to migrate or (b) have to communicate the change to, and then just open the new concept in its pace when it's ready to accept reservations and everything can be communicated. Just a thought... Vince

That's what my eye went to... You know I'm usually the one defending the typos since I know how quickly this stuff needs to be pulled together and I have my own epic fails in my career of crafting notices and comms stuff, but this is the ONE line of the whole letter that 100% of the recipients scan the letter to find, and the first thing everyone proofs and checks when they draft it. That one is really glaring. Vince

Speaking of consistency with Old Crystal traditions, it's great to see the inconsistent proofreading remains. 😄 Vince

It's great to have you back online Roy, and wishing you a speedy and complete recovery! Vince

I'm in complete agreement with everything Keith, Rob and Larry said. Just to add one more comment to summarize everything I posted about my cruise this summer to save you some reading of my ramblings, I think Crystal today is as close as it could possibly be to the ethos of old Crystal. Changes are minor, and IME almost all things required to adapt any brand to the cruise market of 2024. That said, I think A&K has done an amazing job of respecting all of Crystal's original pillars to ensure the product remains as recognizable to Crystal's legacy guests and partners as possible, and that it delivers what it's former guests (as much as new ones) are looking for from Crystal. Vince

That's especially concerning, Colin... We had two different canapés on the July 2nd cruise, but I didn't have any cocktails in the Cove on that cruise, so I can't directly compare the service. We had drinks every evening in either the Palm Court or the Avenue before dinner, and the server came around with the trays just like they did in the old days -- with one server making a pass of the room with one item, and then coming back 5-10 minutes after they complete the pass, with the next item, and repeating. We weren't usually there long enough after the pass of item #2 to the asked again on the revisit of item #1, but in the couple of cases that we were, we were always asked if we'd like a second serving of the original item. I saw Rob mentioned they were experimenting with new canapés, but I didn't realize they had slimmed them down to just 1. 😞 Vince

+1... And not just between the ships, but also between the chefs in many cases. Sometimes it's just something as inevitable as ingredient availability a certain week, but I've also had the same feature on the same menu set have a moderately tweaked preparation even using the same primary ingredients, from one chef to another even on Symphony. I've sometimes had to refer back to which chef led the team just to see whose "version" of that dish to help explain the picture I'm looking at. Vince

I LITERALLY did that when I read Rob's message! Worse yet, I feel like I jinxed their experience with my own personal bad luck just for calling out how amazingly cool it sounded. Also: It never fails that the things I think are cool, literally interest almost no one. This cancellation due to lack of interest totally tracks. 😞 Vince