ctjon

Depending upon the service differences - why would you not expect different treatment for passengers who have 100 Crystal cruises done vs. first time. Been on the ships many times - sure the crew knows your names and what your preferences are - you don't necessarily have to order something when you always have the same thing on the last 50 cruises. You get the same differences at your local restaurant.

It is interesting to me that relatively quite a few of us on this forum were on that 2012 cruise that had so many problems/issues. Port skipping - I tend to forget but there was another in Iceland we were supposed to stop at but that was cancelled due to weather at the beginning. Then since we were so late leaving Reykjavic we skipped Halifax (even though we passed Halifax several hours before we were due to dock). Then when we got to NYC we were very delayed getting off since they hadn't gotten the customs people on board in Halifax that would have done a lot of the clearing before we landed in NYC. It was because of this cruise that I had mentioned concerns with hurricane Lee which could still affect the trip to Quebec or from Quebec to NYC with winds, waves etc. Hope all goes great

Thanks for the updates - looking forward to hearing more from you. Have a great time

Lee is the one - maybe right about Quebec to NY but it is a huge storm which will be coming up the Atlantic and the winds and waves can proceed or follow - just a reminder to pay attention. In 2012 we were not that close to the date but it sure made an impact on the trip.

Hate to get back to cruising but. Put this also in another thread but there is a hurricane (could be cat 5) coming up the Atlantic and I would be concerned about the cruise from Iceland to Quebec starting tomorrow. I hope it doesn't but hurricanes do horrible things to waves and currents even when not just over you. Don't know if Crystal has said anything but - be cautious

Remember that also. For people on the upcoming cruise heading to Quebec = there is a major hurricane heading up the Atlantic - has there been any communication from Crystal about what will happen if that cruise conflicts with that weather. The cruise some of us have been discussing back in 2012 was after a hurricane went through the Atlantic and our weather was horrible - times you had to stay in your room etc. Hope you don't face the same but I'd be concerned.

Remember we couldn't get our of Reykjavik dock - the wind so strong we couldn't power out - had to wait hours for a tug to arrive

One of the things I love about this board is that we can easily go from discussing tux on formal nights to Nathan's hot dogs (and the only real pizza- NY)

Roy, if I remember correctly that was about the last nice weather day on that trip for a while.

As at Nathans

Great article in NY Times about all the great lagoons in Iceland - if you're going there read the article and go. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/travel/iceland-hot-springs.html?smid=em-share

When I looked at the AMEX site none of the cruise benefits they used to have are listed (or I could find) I suspect they are re-doing them now that cruises are back on. I know they lost a lot of money since they were one of the few credit card companies that actually refunded people the money they lost on cancelled cruises. Hope this happens.

Keith and other posting recent pictures - are you using a "real' camera or just pictures from your phone's camera. Trying to figure out if I'll dig out my SLR camera or just use my phone's one. I actually thing the phone's specs may be better than my SLR but not the same lens range. Pics are great so interested about what type camera

I'll try and make to the pier in Portland to great you when the ship arrives.

Haven't been to the Manhattan dock area in a few years but grew up in Manhattan . With allt the cruising going on I wonder if they should build.open a couple more docks

My advice is also TA - if things go "bad" and you need help a TA can be invaluable helping out with all sorts of things. Not, hopefully, that it will happen again but we got off a cruise in Dublin on 9/11 and without a TA finding hotels, alternate transportation etc. it probably would have taken a lot longer than 6 days to get home

so go around South America? Long trip

How will ships get from ocean to ocean without the Panama canal? Maybe changing path etc. but I'd think they have to do the canal (or my geography is wrong)

Sorry about that - and knowing what I meant.

Symphony has left Naples - after more than a year of basically being there.

The area that used to be ( and maybe in the future) as the Casino - how was it set up and was it used?

Great film - can't wait to see hull in the water at some port

Does anyone know how many rooms each butler now serves in the "regular" rooms? Has anyone had trouble getting a timely response when they needed the butler to do something, Thanks

Keith - thanks On one of your recent posts you said you wer saying goodbye to Serenity - I assume you mean for now.

only somewhat related to tablets: You've shown some pictures of outlets but. Are there USB ports built in and if so are the USB-A or USB-C? What cables and chargers we need to bring will depend upon ports.