PaulMCO

We booked our Barcelona to Capetown cruise just before the change. Biz Air was $4200, now its $6200 pp

Actually Sabi Sands in Krueger is an amazing place. I have used East Cape Tours in Port Elizabeth for tours.

To answer specifically: 1) Overall Crystal is tops on food. Majority of meals eaten in Waterside. I think Regent does do the buffet morning and afternoon better than Crystal.No Hapag Lloyd cruises so far. Considering I have worked for 30 years for an Austrian firm, no issues with German. 2) Yes the TV was unplugged in the bedroom. other issues were not so simple. 3) Large shower only with three modes, rain water, hand spray and body spray. This is for the 2023 and 2018 designs. The Classic has a tub and a small separate shower. Two spas by the pool, were broken at the start of the cruise - supposed to be fixed by day 3. 4) That was Starlink. Crystal throttles Starlink. For what reason? Possibly the the rest of the IT infrastructure cannot handle this. We were on Explora journeys and that being a new ship had no limits as to speed, bandwidth, or content allowed. 5) We did private tours most of the time. One excursion was the Mangrove Cruise in Quepos. Which was excellent. 6) Not really. We are early diners. We like to keep the same waiter. So being one of the first in Waterside mad that easy. 7) We did not attend any of the formal shows. You can see what was available in a previous thread where the Reflections was being posted daily. Hope I answered most of your questions...

Maybe 10 children at most. It was good for email, Facebook. For WiFi calling it was inconsistent. Did a Teams call at 6am with my office in Austria. But could not do a WhatsApp call at noon.

Hello fellow cruise critic Crystal cruisers. We recently completed our Miami to San Diego cruise aboard Serenity. We have been very active cruisers since COVID and the Genting/Crystal bankruptcy with multiple cruises on Regent, Seabourn, Silversea and one on Explora Journeys. Admittingly, I was a nay sayer and thought Crystal would never sail again and had 5 bookings lost from the bankruptcy. This was our first break to schedule a new Crystal cruise and in short – we are happy we did. Embarkation from Miami Terminal E was quick and smooth. Drove from home to Miami and left car at airport parking and Ubered to the Terminal. We arrived at 11:30 and by noon we were onboard. First the ship. Nothing really has changed. Same layout. Same venues. New carpets. Bistro has a new look, and the casino is gone (to be revived in December) and now is an empty unused lounge (soon to be the bridge room). Ship has a well-maintained old fashion look. Umi and Osteria (replacing Prego) restaurants have new lighter furnishings. Demographics. Old. This is something Crystal must improve on going forward to survive. A few younger families but most of the passengers in the mid to late 80s the rest in late 60s and 70s. The oldest was a spry 101 who did a tour with us. We are in our 70’s and 60’s and I just retired (except for a few consulting projects). Staterooms. We had a Saphire veranda suite on deck 9 which was a promotion free upgrade from the Aquamarine suite that was priced. Totally brand new the cabin we selected was added when the ship was refitted in 2023. Extremely nice – some annoying nits, which I will discuss later. Some photos are posted below. Suite Attendants we fantastic. Our butler was meh… Food. The food was exceptional. From the appetizer to the mains to the desserts, all exceptional. The complementary wine also was good with lots of selections. Don't like the wine of the day, they have all the previous ones also available. The select wines and champagnes were extremely pricey around x3 retail. Still the best overall food at sea. We were on Regent in April. Regent is probably a close second. All subjective. Specialty restaurants. Umi is the same. Menu the same. We ate there once, and the food was good. But having been to Japan the previous month, it was good but not over the top. One issue was that they had ZERO of the specialty sushi/sashimi on board. The best venue is the new Italian Osteria. Superb. Pool Area – this was not Regent – there were very few chair hogs. Trident Grill – the same with the same Grill guys – super friendly and efficient. Staff and Management. Nothing changed only better. Staff are engaged with passengers and willing to do anything possible to please customers. Managers know passengers’ names. Our waiter in Waterside was exceptional. By mid-cruise, we walked up to the Matre’d, and he did not even have to ask for our cabin number and just said table 20. Enrichment. Good speakers. Great sessions with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. Speakers varied in topics from dry politics/history to engaging personal stories. Dress. This cruise is less formal than what we have seen in the past -- a few tuxes. Many suits and sport jackets on formal nights. There were MANY who brought no jackets, and they had a large supply of these in the office. Excursions had been good. Well organized and Crystal had one of its staff on every bus. Let’s talk about the NITs. TV issues from day 1 – was off more than on. We had two TVs in the room – both same brand and both used RF remote controls. Guess what the issue was. Turn one on and both came on. Turn one off and the other came on. Crystal is aware of the issues (probably for a year). The TV reception issue was an antenna issue to be fixed by the contractor MTN in San Diego. Internet. The Internet was spotty and Crystal is throttling speed and access. Not all VPNs were allowed by their IT configuration. Note: I was a Star link beta tester and still a user at home and never have VPN issues. We are on luxury line, paying luxury prices why are there 2 tiers of service? (Yes, we know some other lines do same, but some also have download speeds greater than 100 mbs) The lack of an APP was really frustrating for some. To get the APP on your phone, you need to get a QR code from your room iPad. I helped several people do this and then pin that link to their browser. Then again, the APP was very buggy and locked up and there was no way to see your account balance. The TVs are supposed to allow you to see the reflections and menus daily, but the link on the TV also disappeared after day 2. Tastes. Again, our opinion, they still have not gotten Tastes right and obviously others think the same with the upcoming Beefbar changes. Dinner was blah. Lunch is horrible, bad pizza, bad Chinese noodles, and spaghetti. Can we be more creative here?? Marketplace. I have always had mixed feelings about the food and the space. I hate those table partitions; they make the space feel even tighter than it is. The food was just OK. Nothing special, but temps were very inconsistent. Other cruise lines like Regent and Seabourn do this better. We ended up preferring lunch in Waterside on sea days. Would we book another?? YES indeed in a second. The issue is that at least for 2024/2025 nothing interests us. Maybe 2026. Some foodie pics below.

You know as being a "cruise expert" the Crystal owner is going to have a big input into the ships design, more so than the CEO. Very similar to that which was done on Silversea and also Frank Del Rio with Oceania and Regent.

I meant Explorer... Agree on the wine. The non included Champagnes were $$$ (about 2X what they should be)

It depends on the tour. For our upcoming one (Victoria Falls) Regent will ship one bag per person to the airport hotel in Jo-burg where you will overnight prior to the flight home. Victoria Falls and Chobe Game Lodge.pdf

Many hotels put large groups into a ballroom for their buffet meal. Why -- imagine 200 guests descending on the restaurant at the same time, one hour before the schedule tour. In Tokyo Regent/Hilton did not do this and we had both Regent and Oceania guests at the same time and the line extended into the reception desk area.

Just off Regent Encore in April and Crystal Serenity this week. Have several more Regents booked. Second many of the pro's and cons. They are both good cruise lines. Think the service was great on both. Food comparable. Waterside vs. Compass Rose - probably a tie. Buffet much better on Regent, Specialties a slight advantage to Crystal. Enrichment -- much better on Crystal. The biggest advantage to Regent is the size of its fleet and more varied itineraries. Two ships of Crystal means limited choice.

@Sthrngary Almost a reason to NOT to sail with Explora Journeys. Having to go through all of those hoops to make a simple refaring. Silversea, Regent, or Seabourn do not require this non sense.

The ship has yet to be designed. Financing still has to be arranged. A contract has NOT been signed it is just an MOU. Once the design is complete, the price can be negotiated and financing will be arranged, and a contract will be signed. The point of this is they now have a reserved space in the shipbuilders production schedule. @BWIVince stated Regent is far along in the process and they have an initial design they are working with. One other point -- no mention of an Expedition ship. Though this is NOT a Fincantieri specialty, more likely Meyer Werft.

@Sthrngary Hi Gary -- just like one of my bulldogs they will eventually prevail. That is why I have a great TA. He can contact these VP's and tell them what a bad job that their IT department is doing. But 1 year later and still the same. We generally do private tours on a cruise so the lack of tour info is not an issue. For the restaurant bookings, it easier to call and get these done. Check in is done via the APP and did work. By the way we just completed a Crystal cruise. No issue with the Web pre-cruise booking of a tour and specialties, but lots of IT issues on the ship. Great cruise never the less..

The first half of 2026 for Serenity is announced and that is the WC 2026

Galata. Most drivers still do not know the way. Have to enter the garage and go to the terminal drop off area. Some go to the mall parking. Enjoy your cruise…

What kind of suite. The insuite menu is extremely limited, two gins and one scotch neither Hendricks nor JW Black on the list. Both are on the included lobby bar menu list so they are available on the ship. We were in a Residence and were able to get Hendricks and Baileys in our suite.

Nova was a Covid delay. We are talking about TODAY. Silver RAY is sailing and delivered early.

Not for Silversea. Ray was finished on time. Depends on the shipyard. Sea Trials only first step. Only means mechanicals work.

I would agree certainly with the 2024/25 Caribbean season. They will likely have a sale but it might be non refundable because so close in.

The Mandarin Oriental is a good hotel used to be the Grand Hyatt. Ivi @travelberlin if you need transport checkout Welcome Pickups. They do a meet and greet and you communicate with the driver using WhatsApp.

Presume everyone is using one of the internet TAs that can do online booking showing all available cabins. Cannot mention names. Two cautions. These sites show cabins that are released for booking by revenue management. It does not mean that all cabins are released. Cruise lines hold back cabins even whole decks from booking. Seabourn does this a lot. Many of these cruise cabins were sold last thanksgiving during their 50% off Black Friday sale. The deposit for us on an OT3 was only $800 (10 percent). I would wait until final payment before counting cabins and these counts are likely to go down, unless another last minute sale.

Crystal is also a new line too. Do not see many of the issues being reported on Crystal. Never an issue on getting fresh squeezed orange juice, because that is all they serve. On board now and no supply issues. Doing many locally sourced fish dishes which is refreshing. Then again neither line has really been tested with fully booked ships at capacity. We only have less that 500 now of paying guests. Crystal will get tested in Alaska. Explora being tested in the Med, if not full of paying guests, I am sure they will fill her with TA's and influencers.

Reflections for today. No Waterside yet. Canal.pdf

I posted this on another forum. So I will repeat the post. Last night we had our first dinner in Osteria. We had some reservations because of some negative past posts comparing this with the old Prego. Definitely the menu is different, with no Italian American dishes (no American lasagna etc.). Used to eating real Italian cuisine as we have a local restaurant that only has regional recipes, and refuses to include Italian American items (how he stays in business is a ??). Overall impression was excellent both food quality, taste, freshness and the provided wine. Starter was a -Cold lobster appetizer with tomatoes and a lobster bisque sauce. Fresh tasting. Excellent. Spaghetti Pomodoro with fresh tomatoes. Perfectly cooked pasta. DW had this as a main. I had this as a 2nd appetizer in a small portion Beautiful lamb tenderloin plus a small rack. It was melt in your mouth tender. Never have had lamb so tender. We booked two more 6pm seatings as we left the restaurant.

Todays menu. FACDCECC-23FA-487F-9674-444C81945706.pdf