BWIVince

You have to opt-in to the emails, since your permission to be contacted doesn’t convey to a new company that buys the data (or that would defeat the purpose). Since A&K has major operations in the EU, I can’t imagine they have any part of their company that isn’t compliant with GDPR and the other patch quilt of privacy regulations covering their target markets at this point. Vince

If you do t feel you’re getting enough of it, I’ll happily send you some of mine. 🫤 Vince

YUM! Oh, blast from the past... Perry's was a real DC fixture when I was a kid -- it's nice to see them still making a mark. (Also a fixture of DC's gay community back in the day.) Vince

Next to the Century... The Club 2100. 🙂 Though the Century fit the neighborhood theme as well! Vince

How about the name of the third cabaret lounge (Harmony's)? 😁 Spoiler -- the lounge was named after the address of Crystal's first HQ (Fox Plaza)... The corridor the lounge was similarly named after the same street the office was on, so the lounge name was fitting. Vince

Same here…. I can’t tell you how many brochures I’ve skipped downloading because I didn’t want to receive all the emails that would follow…. Unfortunately, that’s a marketing best practice these days in travel, so resistance like ours is baked into their expectation, so I’m not going to move that needle in 2023. 😞 Vince

I didn’t mean the post to do anything like that…. 😞 But I’ve always thought it might be interesting sometime to have a thread about all of the unintended consequences of improvements at Crystal, including some of the “it seemed like a great idea at the time” design reversals that backtracked in the third (Serenity) iteration. Vince

You nailed it, Keith! The concept for the Palm Court on Serenity was a shift from the design of Symphony’s…. It was given a formal stage (prior to 2018) and a large dance floor expressly to give it the cabaret and music entertainment function that the Starliite serves on Symphony. The Stardust’s location and interior orientation was designed for it to hold more night events and lectures where the curtains could remain closed, if it was used at all during the day. Otherwise it was expected the flow would keep people coming out of a night performance in Stardust dissipated to Pulse or The Avenue for the final shift. Serenity’s Palm Court was designed to handle things like pre-dinner dancing, and the captain’s cocktail parties, which Symphony’s Starlite had normally managed (especially after the wall came down). The funny part is that I’ve talked about all the “improvements” from Harmony to Symphony that were undone from Symphony to Serenity, and the role of the Palm Court is one of those! Harmony of course had a whole different setup since the Palm Court was split with the Vista Lounge, but the combined role was what they went back to with Serenity, using it for the same functions. Vince

I said “likely” because I know the range an experienced sales team would forecast in this scenario, from decades of experience. None of the sales team at Crystal are new to this, and many of them have the same kind of experience I do. I can’t speak to the numbers they’re working with or their actual forecasts, but I know full well the methodology, and that’s exactly what I cited. Vince

Not just that (which is a great point), some of those merchant gateways no longer exist. On top of that, although MM&A has access to those accounts and the data, the entity that “owns” the accounts has shut down, so I doubt they would want to go through all the viability requirements to operate them again in the future. I can’t imagine any way they’d be able to refund original payment cards. I would think it’s to be check/debit or cash-equivalents at this point. Vince

I wouldn’t call the numbers surprising — I would probably think they’re about what Crystal projected for this month, a few months ago. That doesn’t mean they can stay where they’re at long-term, but they’re likely exactly where they projected to be at this point given the headwinds they have and the extremely short launch runway. IMHO, next summer is going to be make-or-break for Crystal, and that’s still an extremely short time for them to get up to speed, as travel suppliers go. They don’t end to be profitable in 2024 (that would be historic among new suppliers), but they need to start to be viable by then at least. Vince

Agreed! I never loved that canopy even when it first appeared on Harmony, so I don’t know if I ever considered it dated as much as it just not being to my taste, but it hasn’t aged any better than anything else either. I know everything fights for space in a refit budget, but I was kind of surprised at the things they did spend money on in the 2009 pol re-do (like the water feature under the Jacuzzi that was quickly paneled over) vs. updating the extremely high profile canopy. The goal of that zone of the refit was to completely change the vibe of the Seahorse pool… Which the rest of the changes did nicely, which only made that canopy stand out even more. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Vince

Just to clarify, the money is NOT available until the disputes in that particular disbursement round are closed. They need firm, approved numbers for any batch of payments going out before that round can go out. Vince

Thanks Adrian! I just want to point out that Adrian was in no way compensated or campaigned for his comment about the Starlight ceiling. 😆 Symphony’s original lack of artwork has always been one of the starkest contrasts with Harmony to me. Harmony had several really high profile original pieces commissioned that really added to the atmosphere, where Symphony always had a much more austere vibe. Subsequent designers attempted to correct that in specific spaces…. (The pieces in the elevator lobby outside the casino added in 2007, the prints Kirk Nix added in the Avenue and the framed art and image panels in the former Prego, Alison Clixby’s coordination of the cast pieces that used to be in Umi Uma and her use of crafted wall textures, like the (former) purple tiled wall in Umi Uma and the mirrored cutout wall in Marketplace, and II BY IV’s additions to the Starlight.). Overall though, lots of finished wall surfaces instead of commissioned pieces. I completely agree about Crystal’s new builds being the future, and their only path to long-term success. I say that with mixed feelings though, because the new builds will likely not fit my needs, and I expect that to be my end of sailing Crystal, as much as I know they will meet the needs of the majority. Vince

Are the shore excursions already open for booking? It does seem weird that they’d be able to be booked without a price, but if they’re not yet open for booking, they may not be finalized yet and they may just be a preview to give everyone an idea of the likely options. Vince

I was just about to say the same thing…. They rolled out sooner on Serenity though — IIRC they rolled out after the 2018 refit as part of the new service in the reconfigured Palm Court. Vince

+1... If they just started the RFP process a couple of months ago, that probably would be completed later this fall, and then have to go through design, procurement, and fabrication processes for the basic furnishings for the room (like the bases for the machines)... The operator, once selected, needs to jump through some legal and regulatory hurdles to start a new operation with a new cruise line, needs to source the equipment that was spec'd out in the RFP process, needs to recruit and train the staff, and coordinate with the cruise line on the construction and installation of the space after all the fabrication and sourcing is done... And of course all of this is dependent on even finding an operator that provides a feasible bid, which honestly I still have some concerns about. I'm HOPING they can scale the operation down to a feasible size, but I'm not positive that's a given. That's a lot to happen with less than 12 months to go... But not physically impossible. The odds just aren't great. Vince

If you re-read my message I did note that it’s not necessarily as off-peak locally, but when your home base is hardly traveling at that time, even half way around the world it becomes harder when you can only sell to a local market. I wasn’t saying that time frame was the travel industry’s only sales challenge, there are others, but it’s clear as day to anyone in a similar seat to Silversea’s sales team why this cruise is on that list. Vince

I totally agree with your point…. As an aside though, this itinerary does perfectly illustrate the point that FlyerTalker was making about the solo promotions generally applying to challenged inventory. The first two and a half weeks of December are on average the hardest period of time to sell travel in the US, and many other countries. We tend to think of months like February as slow periods overall because Christmas saves December’s perception, but the rest of December is global headache for industry sales departments at US-based travel suppliers like Silversea (regardless of where the property, itinerary or route is). Wonderful itinerary though, and a great example of the values out there for solo travelers if you have enough flexibility! Vince

Deleted…. Internet gremlins duped post.

It seems to be more than just North America sailings, but to your point, just as in the past, peak sailings like holiday cruises, world/grand voyages, unique sailings, etc. will either have limited solo inventory or unique pricing. Vince

I think people get hung up on the number of solo cabins being fixed somehow now just because we have specifically marked cabins on a deck plan. The solo cabins are exactly the same as the double window cabins for a reason. Crystal has had a threshold for selling solo cabins at a supplement for as long as I can remember, and that remains true today -- it all depends on the popularity of the voyage. New Crystal will sell as many "extra" cabins beyond that threshold (as guarantees) as they feel balances demand for the double staterooms, EXACTLY the same way Old Crystal did. Unfortunately in this case -- as has always been true -- popular voyages only get so many solo or single supplement cabins. YMMV, but on my Alaska cruise the single supplement for a double veranda isn't double, it's close to 50%. I think the double-across-the-board thing is a misconception. Vince

+1…. I posted this in another thread, but I’m booked on a cruise next year where the solo window cabins were significantly cheaper than was quoted for my last pre-Covid cruise in 2019, and the balcony doubles were roughly the same surcharge as was charged in 2019. It may SEEM more glaring because the solo cabins are now sometimes at a lower surcharge than some sailings in the past, and fares/rates across the entire travel industry are dramatically higher than they were pre-COVID in the US market almost universally, but that doesn’t mean the surcharge itself on the double verandas is out of whack. Vince

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