Keith1010

Roll Calls have served different purposes over the years including: Arranging for get-together on-board before Meet and Mingles started with old Crystal. Arranging group tours. Asking about local ports, what people have booked in terms of Crystal tours or private. For first time Crystal cruises and there were often quite a few questions about Crystal. As to today: Crystal Marketing of the inaugural voyages 2023/2024 is primarily directed at Crystal Society members so likely very few if any first time Crystal Cruisers. As Patty correctly said Roll Call activity has been on the decline and this was exasperated with Covid with less people wanting to tour with others due to Covid. Many people I know who are on the first voyages of both ships are not members of CC and the few who are do not post and are lurkers. And: Roll Calls are for the benefit of those who are booked on the cruise. Not sure why it matters to some of you. And one final note a couple of people have gone out of their way to say they don't want to hear comments from those who are Crystal fans of which there are many people who used to post regularly who are Crystal fans so comments like those are certainly not well received by some. And related to that my belief from cruising extensively in 2021 when some you chose not to or could not based on country regulation's is that I met many people on those cruises who said they were lurkers or would post very occasionally. If you look today and no I have not done a count but the number of people posting is far less than it was pre-pandemic and during the pandemic so right now we are not talking about a large number of people posting. Finally, some who are questioning people for not cruising or waiting for Crystal to cruise from what I remember were not the recipients of put downs when they chose not to cruise in 2021 or could not due to regulations. People's motives for cruising or not cruising don't need to be questioned nor should anyone have to explain themselves. To those who feel the need to continually do this did you ever think there are health or other circumstances why someone isn't cruising or that they have other family or organizational commitments? You may think it is funny but IMHO it is not and IMHO it is simply childish. Anyway, let's see how things turn out with posters who are on CC who will be on the inaugural cruises. I definitely remember reading from at least one or two from this board who have said they will be on the first cruise of Serenity or Symphony. Bags packed. (doesn't have to be literal does it?), Ready to go. Can't wait. Keith

How long does it take you to do this? Isn't it a manual process? While your conclusions are interesting since all you are looking at is if a category is wait listed or not that doesn't mean that one ship has a higher occupancy percent than the other nor does it tell you how sales are going other than if the ship is sold our or not.

Seattle is such a lovely city. We walked in both directions from the terminal and I believe I went out for a third time on my own. I believe the first Starbucks.

There are some very special places around the world where we have enjoyed amazing sail-ins and sail-aways. Some that come to mind are Venice, Sydney, New York City, San Francisco, Rio and the list goes on. Today's photo is from one of many times we visited Rio. Keith

We feel the same way Kathy. Keith

I wanted to add just like Jpywrk over the years we attended many of the cocktail parties when our former agent was with Signature and enjoyed them. Yes, when inclusive came along less people went but that is true of the Captain and Crystal Society parties. Nevertheless on saplings where they had a lot of people on board it was nice to go and to chat with guests and officers. It's all good for everyone. A big win-win IMHO. And yes the thread disappeared for a bit and I attributed it to be CC wanting to review it to be sure TA's agencies and names were not mentioned which they were not. Keith

Loved all the ports. First time for Anne Marie to visit Seattle and we also saw the flying fish. I had been there numerous times on Business but it was nice to be there for pleasure on the cruise. Keith

I couldn't find a photo from today that I thought would make for a good post so I thought I would share something for all you wine lovers. Just saying. Keith

I wanted to comment about itineraries. It's no different than most things. It is subjective. There are so many factors. For some a great itinerary is a lot of sea days. For some just the opposite. For some a great itinerary is all ports.For some just the opposite. For some a great itinerary has some overnights. For some just the opposite. For some they say I've been there, done that, I want something new. For some they have a lot of places they haven't been on. I would say for the last 10 to 15 years on this board when itineraries come out some complain about them and some are excited about them. We always find many we like and in the end that's what is most important. You see I really don't care if someone else doesn't like the itinerary. If I do then I am very happy. Keith

How do you put this together? Is this all voyages? No sure what it means though. It doesn't show what the overall occupancy is given that inventory is not on the web site. And in the end, if you want to book a specific itinerary and your go to category is not available then that is something you care about or if you want a specific room. For example, we just booked a cruise and the category we really wanted is wait listed. It doesn't alter to us if every other category has rooms. With that said, another category didn't show a waitlist but when our TA checked it was a guaranty and we do not want a guaranty. And this changes dynamically as on the cruise we just booked I've been looking at it and one day it shows a category open and laster on waitlist. People book everyday. People cancel everyday. Do you run a program to figure this out or do it manually?

The good news for all of this is it is a win-win for Crystal, the consortium and the guest. For Crystal it means another way to promote the line to increase bookings. For the guest it means there is usually an amenity for booking with the TA such as an on-board Credit. My experience was different than mentioned. And it is good for the consortium because the agent can say they can provide you with some added value for booking with them. The reality is the agency pays the consortium money to be part of the consortium. The benefit is they can pass along various amenities that the consortium is able to negotiate with travel suppliers including hotels. And in the case of cruising it is usually the cruise line that provides the amenities to the consortium who, in turn, passes it along to the agency and then from agency to client. Phew. Glad to see this one in place along with Signature's announced a few weeks earlier and hopefully more coming. Keith

Thanks Julie. I guess they had two of those cruises that year. It was the shortest Crystal Cruise we were ever on but we truly had an amazing time. I remember there was much more enrichment and entertainment than I thought tey would have. Keith

We boarded the S Muriel take a look at the date of your cruise if you can find it. In our case, I just looked up ours and we boarded San Francisco May 6, 2016. We boarded late because of a big delay getting the world cruisers off. We stopped in Astoria, Seattle, Victoria and ended in Vancouver. WE only came in for that one cruise as we weren't going to return until NWP. It was a lovely cruise. If you were on that one I didn't realize it unless you were on a later one but maybe they did another one after the Hawaii cruise. Just curious when you were on. Keith

We were on it too. Right after the World Cruise which we were not on that year. Keith

Four years ago today we were in Venice on-board Serenity. Our first time on Serenity in 2005 one of the reasons we booked the back to back itinerary was three nights in Venice between both cruises. How times changed.First time we were there was in 1997 on-board Grand Princess at the time the largest passenger ship and we docked downtown. Keith

just go to the voyage and under itinerary if you click on the + sign next to the ports it will bring whatever excursions they have for each port. Keith

Dubrovnik four year years ago. First visit was in 2005 on-board Serenity when we sailed her for the first time on two back-back-to-back cruises totaling 24 days. Up to that point the longest cruise we had taken. Back in 2005 not many ships there and we were the only one in port. That all has changed. Keith

Breakfasts in the room. Occasional lunch if we had an early afternoon tour and an occasional dinner. Fruit in the afternoon most days. Sending out pressing. Stocking the refrigerator with items such as water and soda. Wine. Adding or changing specialty restaurant reservations. I think these are the main ones. Other utilize butlers for less or more items. We've never had them pack or unpack but I know some people who have. Some utilize them to return shore excursion tickets or pick them up, order flowers, wax shoes, ext. etc., Just depends on the person. Keith

Four years ago guess what we spotted in Montenegro? What a wonderful world!! Keith

Dwight the other thing is at one point they eliminated the airfare and lowered the credit but lowered the cruise fare. I believe they were trying to make the cruise fare more attractive. Now you can take total fare for each cruise take out the value of airfare if 2012 had air, take out credits and get a per diem pricing and then do this for the other years. Or you might figure out a better approach to get this to apples to apples. Then of course there is inflation. And whatever else. And yes then you have inclusive to deal with. My head is spinning. Keith

You do like to do the math. I looked at our last cruise before the full world cruise and don't see a back to back savings on the cruise before the full world cruise so don't think you'd get that one. But who knows. Good thing I don't hand write my taxes because no one could read it. Oh maybe that's better. Keith

I think you are overthinking this. We have back to backs and get $250.00 per person. One is around 25 days. If I had four back to backs I would still get $250.00 per person. When I think back to other World Cruises this $1,500 per person seems very right to me. Some we got the same. Some less. One time more but that I think was 2010 when the economy was still in the toilet. I went to back to our last few world cruises just to double check and as I suspected this is precisely in the ball park. I also found 2020 WC and that was $2,000 per room so higher for solos but less for couples compared to 2023. No Air Credit though compared to now. Keith

Crystal Society $250.00 per person regardless of length so if a back to back, etc $250.00 per person. When we've done World Cruises all those years amount varied. I would say $1,500.00 is pretty good. Over the years some amenities changed. For example many years ago air included and category varied based on what you booked but eventually to keep cruise fare down it was removed so this Cruise Air credit is something that they didn't do the last several years we took the full world cruise. Keith

Actually I am very familiar with Explora Journey. I visited their site just as it rolled out and I can tell you it took close to a year to get where it is now. And even now it has things missing or not easy to read. And three are still unknowns. I don't criticize it because I understand it takes time to finalize plans, enhance websites, and rollout what they plan to share. At the time I booked a cruise with them knowing far less than what is available now and far less than what is known about Crystal. Thankfully new Crystal has not waited to have all of the I's dotted and all of the T's crossed because a lot of this does take time. For example, why didn't they announce Umi Uma from the start? Because they hadn't finalized the contract. Should they wait to start selling cruises on this or other related things IMHO no. In time we will continue to see more details and of course when the ships are through dry dock and a professional photographer comes on board we will see the actual enhancements. I am reminded about something that Captain Glenn said which applies here. If you want to have a great time (cruising) you will. If you don't, you won't. One can spend time looking for every mistake and pointing out what is wrong or they can appreciate the fact that we have a new Crystal rolling out, take in what is available on the website and knowing more is coming soon. I go with the latter Keith

You have quoted posts more than a month old. A lot has changed since then. For each category they note if they are new only or if not when they were redesigned including the date. It is not yet there but they plan to show on the deck plans specifics for each guest room/suite. In the meantime, for each category they show when the room type was redesigned which was not originally available when it was rolled out. The reservation agents can provide this information. I know. I've asked. Experienced TA's are very familiar with this as is mine. I know I've asked. And even I now have answers to these questions as I have inquired with the people at Crystal who know definitively. I don't have to be on board to find out the information and the same is true for those who have questions. Keith