TRIPACIAN

6 hours ago, Ibis said:

We look forward to boarding Serenity on May 27 in Las Palmas to Miami. Anyone else? Would love to have more reports here from those currently on board but we understand not everyone posts here whereas we are not on Facebook. In any case, counting the days😊

We will also be boarding in Las Palmas, looking forward to the crossing to Miami.

How many passengers on your cruise?

Good luck to the ship and crew, may they encounter no problems and arrive in Athens safely.

Any word on the Symphony?  

We were recently told that the Symphony is being retrofitted to enable it to enter the US.  The electrical room necessary for dock connections is completed.

9 hours ago, bitob said:

Thank you Nancy.  Shocking how clueless some people are about those who lost boatloads of money with the Old Crystal.

Good luck to all with your FCCs from the New Crystal.  Fool me once . . .

I do not understand how a cruise line refuses to give refunds for cruises THEY cancel.  They must need your money.

They are refunding the money.  I just received 17,000, in my cc account.

7 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

This makes sense.  It certainly is a popular one for those in North America who don't want to take a cruise ending in the USA and for sea day lovers as this certainly has a lot of sea days. Glad to hear you  booked it and that there were a few rooms to choose from.

 

Keith

We love transatlantic crossings and the sea days.  Since we were previously booked on the crossing from Toulon, this cruise made our trip possible without flying home from Europe.  
 

Our trip was booked months ago and included 10 days in Greece island hopping. We replaced the Athens to Toulon  Crystal cruise with a Seabourn cruise including Turkey and several Greek islands.  We would have been happier with our original Crystal cruises but totally understand the reason for the change. All in all everything including flights ended up working and we only had to make a few modifications to our trip.

By the way, the ship must be pretty full, we had a choice of only three cabins.

7 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

I wanted to mention that that all of the revised WC 2024 segments on board Crystal Serenity are now on the website including pricing.

 

Keith

 

https://www.crystalcruises.com/search?itineraries[refinementList][departure][0]=202404&itineraries[refinementList][departure][1]=202405&itineraries[refinementList][ship][0]=CSE&itineraries[sortBy]=sort_departure_asc

 

We just finalized our booking from Las Palmas to Miami.

Has anyone tried to book any of the new segments?  We plan on booking the Las Palmas to Miami crossing when it is available.  We were booked on the Athens to Miami cruises.

Regent just issued a letter today to the guest on their world cruise so I don’t think Crystal will be far behind.  Be patient it is a very difficult situation.

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Well, we trusted it and filed for a full claim with Mockler.  Got 100% of that back in exceptional credits, along with the $2250pp. And all of those credits are fully applied at this time. Not quite sure why you ended up losing your money - unless you expected a full cash payout.

 

 

Same for us, Crystal did the right thing and we were  100% refunded.  

Onboard Symphony now and there is no grumbling just speculation.  I think everyone understands the situation.  Once the decision has been made then we can expect criticism by a few but not many.

40 minutes ago, Roland4 said:

Sure hope so as we are supposed to be boarding Symphony on April 13! First time on Symphony since the infamous 2012 Trans-Atlantic From Hell!

The word on the ship is that they WILL be in Athens for the April 13th cruise even if they have to go around Africa.

3 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

Just announced that we will not be calling at Alotau PNG due to continuing civil unrest. Substituting Darwin. Too bad as Alotau was only new port for us. Certainly no need for us to even take the shuttle to downtown Darwin. Besides, will be blasted hot and humid. 
Also sounds like we will scoot into Cairns tomorrow ahead of Cyclone Kirrily. 

Actually this works better for us.  We haven’t been to Darwin and Alotau wasn’t really a port worth visiting (except to check off another country on our bucket list)

A well done answer to the question.  When you consider the problems with logistics, crew deployment, port availability and of course passenger transportation etc it makes you realize how difficult the situation becomes.  Safety overrides everything.

The general feeling aboard the Symphony (from the officers) is that it is too early for a decision.  Planning for a change in itinerary is complicated and I understand that alternative plans are being discussed.  World events can change rapidly and I think all passengers would vote on taking the safe course of action even if it involved c cruise cancellation.

3 hours ago, May B said:

Thx! Please tell her Muriel of Muriel and Phil fame says hello. We’ve played on a team with her at least once.

 

Plus, she was the bridge person on one Crystal we were on, also on Symphony (although I don’t recall the itinerary!).

Brenda said “hello.”

Mayb we have a new bridge instructor for our second cruise, her name is Brenda Montague.

We are onboard now and we asked this question and the answer is “it is being discussed and possible plans are being made.”  The logical date and departure date is March 12, departing from Singapore non stop to Athens.  More than likely the nonessential crew will be sent home and no passengers will be on the ship.  
 

Someone asked me about the condition of the Symphony and to be honest I am amazed at how it looks.  Everything is in almost “like new” order.  We had a group of travel agents on board and one commented that the ship was only a couple years old… ha ha…I didn’t correct her, that would have been rude!  
 

If you consider that A & K only paid $25 million for the ship and small super yachts sell for much more you can see that this ship was quite a bargain.

Walking in Auckland and saw this shop.  They sell Crystal and porcelain !  

3 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Did this person get a complimentary upgrade? Will bet they did pay a single supplement on the cabin they originally booked.

 

Patty

I don’t know and don’t think it would be proper to ask.  We were told that they paid for only one person and did not pay a supplement.  This came up in discussing how much they loved Crystal.  By the way this was her first time cruising on Crystal.

We have recently attended a white night party on the Serenity and Symphony and they were both highly successful and well attended.  If it isn’t your thing don’t attend!

29 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Plus 1

We have a single cruiser on board in an Aquamarine suite with no supplement.  I guess this indicates theft pricing is flexible.