BWIVince

It also reduces slightly as it sits/holds through service... I'm sure you all ate it closer to immediately, if I can remember what it's like to have a bowl of that within reach. 🙂 I will definitely check it out! Thanks for the tip!! I LOVE steaming mussels -- a (net) bag of them almost called to me the last time I was in Wegman's. Minus the scrubbing/prep, they're super easy to work with, and you can be as creative as you like with the ingredients. Yeah, I know that's true of any food, but you know what I mean. Oh no -- hope you're starting to feel better soon! I had the flu all last week (tested negative for Covid multiple times), with worse symptoms than that, so hopefully you'll be 100% again quickly. In the meantime, we're here to take care of you for a change! I think I have a box of Hamburger Helper around here somewhere... (No, I don't.) Vince

Not surprising at all... People book new products with travel suppliers every day on spec, because there is usually some kind of incentive tied to it. If they don't like the details when they're released they can always cancel, but the incentives to book after more of the details are released are almost always less attractive. It's pretty much all upside. Vince

I’d say it’s a trend in travel in general these days — I can’t think of a hotel booking I’ve made in the past year that didn’t have a nonrefundable option. Besides the obvious advantage of the supplier getting to keep the money no matter what, they get access to the cash immediately regardless of service date, which is valuable in the COVID-area travel industry after years of being squeezed. (Remember the discussions about how travel suppliers have to keep refundable passenger/guest deposits reserved or isolated.) Vince

You took the words right out of my mouth, Rob. 🙂 I just want to add two small points... First, I would verify with your credit card issuer how they count the timing of an open booking. Technically, services to be delivered in the future are defined by and bound by an expected date of service (even if it's just an estimate), so in the case of Visa and Mastercard especially, a booking that would never have an expected date of service could be subject to some weirdness if a particular credit card issuer chose to interpret a guideline how they wanted. (We saw cases like this mentioned on the board.). That's one drawback to the way Visa and Mastercard's network is structured. In concept though, you SHOULD have 540 days for an open booking -- but your issuer is the one that's going to have to argue it with the acquiring bank and merchant, so make sure your expectations are in alignment with your bank's. The only other thing I'd remind everyone is that the timer doesn't reset once you convert the open booking into a confirmed booking. Any money placed as a deposit on the open booking will still time out at a maximum of 540 days from the date of that charge (or whatever the time limit is for your particular card)... So the earlier you place the open booking deposit, the less time you'd have to dispute those original funds. This is the main reason I'm personally not booking right now -- I don't know when they're going to restart service, and when my actual booking would fall... And I'm not booking any services with any travel supplier anywhere (not just cruise lines, or Crystal) that I can't get back via chargeback at this point. Vince

I was so grateful when it hit 40 this afternoon... I went for a drive to run errands for the first time in days. Vince

You’re way ahead of me today, Roy…. My big walk today was TO my cluster mailbox, which was postponed from yesterday. My big adventure only got the green light this morning when I was able to verify the temperature was 6x higher than it was at the same time yesterday. 😁 🥶 It was still painfully cold. Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah on the 8th night! Vince

Definitely... And I was in no way discrediting your post when I was relaying my experience -- the clues are out there and people far smarter than I can definitely make more sense of it than I've been able to with enough time and focus (especially by comparing archived pages). That's just more than I was able to keep up with personally. 🙂 Vince

I stopped trying to read the tea leaves through port reservations for this very reason…. Given that not every reservation that legacy Crystal had this far out was published (they could have been part of a provisional change or backup situation because of the industry turmoil for the months before the shutdown), it was hard for me to figure out what was new and what was old. Even if I compare the previously published itineraries and find differences, I still don’t have 100% confidence that all the differences are new or valid. Vince

Im glad you mentioned it, I didn’t know they opened in Pike & Rose! …Though I feel like there’s a half dozen or more restaurants in Pike & Rose that I need to try. One of my oldest friends lives near there and I should use that as an excuse to go spend time with him. (..and he loves Italian.) I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve driven through there since they relocated Montrose Rd…. I think my greatest fear is Magoo’ing around Rockville (what’s North Bethesda?!?) and not even knowing how to get anywhere, since they moved all the roads/access. I still can’t get the image of Mid-Pike Plaza, which used to be there, out of my head. That was our Toys R Us when I was a kid, one one of my best friends worked at the Linens ‘n Things there when we were in high school. Syms bounced around, but at one point they had the upstairs space, and I can remembering going with my dad to buy suits there, back when dads (generically/stereotypically) had to wear suits to work every day…. Hence why we had to go to Syms. Lol. We couldn’t afford to get all of his suits at Raleigh’s. (I’m not sure I love today’s “just wear a tshirt and turn your camera off” thing, but I’m definitely glad I don’t have to wear a full suit M-F.) Anyway, thanks for the update!! I’m definitely taking notes and creating a list! 😊 Vince

I think this was expected by many (most?) of us given the timing. Given the extremely tight window they're giving themselves to refit the ships (assuming they stick to them), there is no way they're going to be able to blow up the general arrangement to such a degree as to overcome the capacity issues for the former Prego and Umi Uma spaces. They could shuffle the venues and move the more popular concepts to Marketplace or some larger venue, but that would have a seriously negative impact on atmosphere. Until they have a couple of years to plan a proper future refit, or until they build new ships (more likely), it was hard to imagine how they were going to get away from the extra-visit surcharges. Cutting capacity a bit only goes so far, and at least on Symphony, they only have so many more rooms they can combine. Vince

I'd just write them back for verification... I suspect there are links coded for each offer, and either the confirmation was miscoded for that link or the wrong link was promoted somewhere (which may not even have the current verbiage on the page). Verifying the offer with them will also clue them in to the issue. Vince

This was always a fundamental divide in my house growing up. My mother loved eggs. I never knew poached eggs could be a side item for another egg dish until I took a cruise with her. (...Or that you could have more than one egg course at breakfast -- potentially still with said side item of eggs in addition to the egg app and egg main... But I digress.) She loved to cook and hated to bake. A frittata was all upside for her -- eggs without the crust that she didn't want to eat and certainly didn't want to make. I, on the other hand, will eat eggs with no problem, but don't have a passion for them. My mother may or may not have encouraged that lack of enthusiasm so there would be more eggs for her -- I can't prove that. The more that you can add to them or dress them up with, the better. A frittata is an improvement on plain eggs because of the yummy fillings, and a quiche ups the stakes even higher by adding a yummy crust. If I had to give up an ingredient in the quiche, I'd sooner give up the eggs and keep the fillings and crust, and just have a hand pie. This is in no way a criticism of the Chez's menu, just an appreciation for why there's a menu in the first place. Frittata or quiche, there's an audience for both, and a mutual respect for the chef's direction. Vince

Yeah, fall is busy in the events industry, and this year was a struggle. Just about every supplier was short staffed this fall just because conference onsites bounced back pretty much in one season. Not only did hotels and venues not have enough staff, but the staff they did had have had a fractional load (of mostly smaller events) for the past few years, and many/most of them weren't working in those jobs pre-pandemic. It's been a rough fall, but we're almost there. haha. I don't know how that seemed to become the official Christmas song of my generation, I really don't. Vince

I was doing ok in that department until the host of my first Zoom call of the day today played Mariah Carey's video of All I Want for Christmas is You as the lead-in music for the meeting. For the next month subsequent songs will stick in my head -- someone finally flipped that switch.. Vince