PaulMCO

They have yet to settle these claims. The bond exists, but payment from the bond is after any money you get from the normal process. So it is is the very last action.

Ivi -- you are much too polite -- "known Crystal problem" Like Harry Potter saying he who shall not be named 🙂

So far a big Meh... Better Canada/New England on SS. Better Australia/NZ/South Pacific with Regent -- with all the Kiwi ports that Crystal is forgeting Better Med/Greece/Turkey -- with Seabourn Japan Circumnavigation that Crystal is not doing with Regent Would love to try but for us the ship is not the destination but only a means. You are correct. No departures until you can prove your ability to meet financial obligations and post a surety bond for the approvals. I am surprised they are allowed to take deposits for the WC yet, because these leave from the US and must be insured. It is protection from BANKRUPTCY... Familiar ring...

True that Cunard, Viking, and Princess got caught with pants down. But the new law for Australia clearly stated that they would do spot checks from 15 June 22 through December 2023 to check on compliance. The law for NZ has been on the books since 2018. Obviously they all were surprised.

Somebody at NCL and other lines screwed the pooch.. The regulations were very clear and effective 15 June 2022. Have to have a plan and a full cleaning with 30 days of entering ANZ waters.

Might as well chime in -- Lots of issues with cruise lines -- no one is perfect. I really do not understand the biofouling issue. It has been on the books since 15 June 2022 and requires the hull cleaning 30 days prior entering Australia/NZ waters. Someone at NCL corporate blew it. Regent has a similar OMG moment. As for other cruise lines we are itinerary driven so we will go with our favorites Regent, SS, Seabourn and Oceania (in order). May knock out O because of last two bad cruises one on Marina and other on Regatta (2017/18 Pacific and Oz circumnavigation of missed ports and dead engines). Crystal might be one to add but going to wait until they start up and see some reviews. Not certain that this will be a smooth startup. As far as Regent competitiveness on pricing, it really depends on the itinerary. Have seen they very good when you remove the air (Japan cruise is an example) and when they will have a 2 cabin upgrade sale. You can also remove their free hotel and free land portions for credit too.

Maybe because of the new Bio security/biofouling requirements ?? I do not know if it is regional. Giving Regent and Oceania a fit -- missed ports as they were non compliant.

Love the double talk --- The vast majority of feedback we've received from travel advisors and past guests has been positive,' according to Anderson. 'We're sympathetic for what may have occurred to individuals in the past and remain optimistic that through the legal process with the assignee that those will be resolved ... 'We will have extraordinarily welcoming offers and coordination with travel advisors and our past guests to thank them and welcome them back. Those announcements will be coming soon.' This is pure GARBAGE "remain optimistic that through the legal process with the assignee that those will be resolved .." Everyone knows - The pot of money is now less than $13M Under Florida law the most anyone can receive is $2225 as a Priority 1 claim The Priority 1 claims will likely eat up all of the balance, including $1m for back pay to employees The remainder of claims get thrown in with the unsecured group including TA, suppliers which will be pennies on the dollar (if at all) With these comments it really shows the stripes of the current and past President.

Just be careful with any of the Oceania tour descriptions that are published on the web site that you use to book. They are INACCURATE and contain items that were closed after/during COVID. Oceania has never updated these. Example - the zoo and animal rescue was closed. Rubber plantation was also closed. Recommend also Do Brazil Right for your tours. We did one group tour and one private day tour in Rio. Rio was the one of the best tours of our cruise, great when you can easily say lets skip Copacabana and can we visit a flea market and a supermarket to buy some coffee... Was not more expensive than what Oceania was charging ($400 versus $550). We ran into the O Crowd at the Christ statue and lunch.

Doing it 2023. Shadow. We been on her before. This search was in 2024. If doing a fall colors cruise, what are you going to see stopping in Boston and New York Only. And those other ports of Norfolk and Jacksonville, Yuck... (lived in both when I worked for the Air Force and Navy) Just pointing out that what they offering is not very attractive from a itinerary point of view. If you just want a "Crystal Experience" fine -- but it is an unknown. But even the pricing comparison fails with the competition (SS). SS, Seabourn, Regent are big known to us. New Crystal. I hope they succeed, but past Glory does not make a new business.

Maybe with reason -- With uninspiring itineraries like this for a Quebec to Miami cruise (no stops in Canada) -- they should fire the new director setting these up. Was looking for a Quebec cruise to maybe replace same on SS but no way.... and this is for 2024...

Terry -- these are from CC photos -- deck 10 PH which have the same rails. If you are sitting it clearly shows that you will see the white panels.

Agree and that is what I was comparing to. Had to compare an Aquamarine Suite versus a Deluxe SS Veranda. SS is a better value at least here plus it includes excursions. The key here was same price for equal size suite but 25% more days on SS. May still consider Crystal but only to try on a short one.

Then compare the same on SS. Just comparing the same on my Quebec - Florida trip. Same price for equal space, both have butlers, SS is 16 versus 12 days on Crystal. Crystal obviously was shut of of ports. Alot of sea days.

Understand -- I was a beta tester in Florida. Now my neighbors all have this plus T Mobil 5G home(was a beta for this too) ... Speeds are down. Just modified the previous post with the Map from their own maritime site. I should have stated in Quantity needed 🙂

Yes Really they do not have enough to provide adequate coverage in the maritime environment. Typical Elon -- over-boasting and under delivering. Coverage areas are shown highlighted plus they have similar across Oz and NZ. They need 1000's more of the Gen 2 satellites. Most of this maritime coverage is line of sight of the land based terminal

You Tube link. We sailed Regent in November/Dec.. The crew was great as was the food. David, Alex and Annabel pretty close to what was portrayed -- full of energy. Yes was over dramatic (but very true on the decorations) -- but in the USA we have the Smithsonian Channel's Mighty Cruise Ships and these show are similarly bad.

A side note -- RCL uses a better contractor with more bandwidth and lower latency. Regent uses MTN/EMCs high orbit satellite network. Royal uses OG3/SES lower orbit higher bandwidth system. The actual unburdened speed difference is about 6X faster. Starlink will make a difference, BUT as those that use the system, the more users you put on a system that has a fixed capacity the slower the system will become. My speeds on both my home and commercial system have dropped by 1/2 in the last year. To counter this Starlink has put data caps on users of 1TB per month. Exceeding the limits gets you a throttling.

Starlink will not help unless you are with 200 nmi from inhabited land with a Star Link land based terminal. Elon does not have the new Laser linked satellites in place yet. Needs his new Super rocket (which has yet to fly) to launch these larger new satellites in the quantities needed.

Yes but this is a startup from near ZERO cruise line,. Manfredi is the big guy - and he has never started a cruise line -- PAPA did. He did take the running line and expanded it significantly. Some might say he HAD to sell SS because it was financially over extended with debt from new builds. And lucky he did -- likely would not have survived with a 3 year COVID shutdown.

A friendly physician prescribed it for our Oceania cruise Dec/Jan. Fortunately avoided it. There are a number of drugs that have interactions. But it does work --in 3 to 4 days you will test negative on an antigen test.

I can tell you from the Nov/Dec TA Barcelona to Miami -- NO. Ship was full and we quarantined in the suite. No chance for DW to escape.

And should you catch COVID and report this to medical, the cost will not be cheap -- around $1300 per person (as your cabin mate will likely catch same). Of course your cruise insurance may cover this. We are fighting with travel guard over payment. We now carry Paxlovid in our OTC medicine chest as this is an $800 item on the medical departments price list and free in the US. As far as temperature checks, NCL is installing facial recognition systems on all ships for their security at the gangway. So when you leave the ship and return, the system does a temperature check also.

I think everyone was forced to at least run the safety video, The TV would not work until you did same. Drills do work -- especially for the age group you typically find on a RSSC cruise. 🙂

The experience of old Crystal does come from the crew, but that crew is inspired by management and their leaders from the top down. I have seen some Crystal crew on one cruise line (Seabourn) going through the motions as far as service. They all expressed the desire to return immediately and likely will as Seabourn has only 3 month contracts. I have see others providing Crystal quality, friendliness and impeccable service (Regent). IMO they will not return as they have likely found a new home. I regularly wear my Crystal shirts with that big seahorse logo on board and past guests and employees will come up and talk. Again the spirit to exceed comes form the top management, and as such we are forgetting about the "elephant in the room" and the unknown factor of the new owner (Mr. Manfredi). I do hope his intention is not a play toy to mold new Crystal into his new Silversea cruise-line with a seahorse logo. My bags are packed -- but heading to Vienna - Austria for my retirement party.