Keith1010

You are welcome. The Aquamarine include the former PH rooms, the former SH (Seabreeze equivalents of the PH) and the new suites and a couple of new ones they are creating on 9. Similarly you have the Sapphire Veranda Suites which include the former PS, the former Seabreeze Equivalent and a bunch of new Sapphire Veranda Suites. Keith

Not sure what you are saying. Are you saying you have so little time so you can't wait till the restart. Have you cruised Crystal before? Just not following your point.

But for those who liked the old Crystal they know the ages of the ships and they also know the size of the rooms. i thought that was the question here rather than comparing to other lines. They have indicated they do plan to expand but that won' happen overnight. What I can say is on those Nassau Cruises and I know you did some I met several first timers to Crystal who were blown away and wanted to come back. I agree the challenge is getting people to take the plunge because of the age of the ships but that is for Crystal to figure out. In the meantime I just plan to enjoy them as I did in the past. Keith

They are the Aquamarine and the deck plan doesn't show what is tradition (old ph) and what is new but with the help of my old deck plan plus knowledge of what they are doing here goes. They are not converting the PH's to newer suites. For the Traditional PH. On Serenity they are: Deck 10 10036 to 10072 and 10035 to 10075 and 10078, 10082, 10081, 10083, 10086, 10090, 10087 and 1009. Deck 11 11018 to 11024 and 11015 to 11021 and 11052 to 11082 and 11047 to 11059 and 11006 and 11008. Keith

Yes on their web site. I am sure they are rounding up a tad. Something which has not been promoted as much is the space to guest and I know they have it on their site but both ships were designed for a much higher number of guests and that number came down before now as regular rooms were converted to suites and come down again with more conversions so the public areas will feel ever more spacious which is a nice plus. Keith

Terry, I am with Ivi. If you can I would spend three days there because you have to ask yourself will you be back. Some of the highlights are: Gardens By The Bay, Chinatown, Little India. believe it or not the Zoo (seems silly but it was really great), Botanical Gardens, experiencing the street food, some might say shopping but not on my list other than Jim Thompson, Sentosa, and a few other sites.d But I know you want to balance that with the length of cruise and what you do ahead of time in India. Tip, in India everyone wants to take you to their friends and relative stores. If you do a taxi be prepared for that. I was warned about it so the first time we were taking a taxi back to the pier in Mumbai. The driver said he wanted to take us shopping. We were just at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Full disclosure we didn't buy anything but I told the driver my wife bought so much clothing which they were going to deliver to the ship that I was out of money. It worked. I do know a crew member who almost did't get back in time as the driver would not accept no when it came to shopping. Keith

A friend of mine mentioned that you can know get quotes from Crystal about getting air through them so I wanted to pass that along. For those of you who are interested in pre and post hotel programs they are coming. TA's should know this but for those who didn't have their TA's ask wanted to pass that along. And yes many never use a Cruise Hotel Program but some people prefer it even if it costs more such as single travelers or those who just need a helping hand. Keith

Of course we won't know. And the same was true year after year. Inclusive what would that be like? A major change. Open dining what would that be like? A major change. Additional dining option what would that be like? A major change. So of course there will be changes because there always were. I am willing to find out without hesitation. How can it be bad with spruced up ships, less guests on board, the same crew and if you look at the ratio of guests to crew I have no fears of service being degraded and with so many returning crew you know what to expect. We always had new crew as well so I have no fears of any new ones as well. You have the same people planning entertainment and excursions with the latter benefiting from A&K. I have taken A&K tours through our travel agency and never disappointed. One will never know until they experience it for themselves. I have seen nothing that tells me anything will be "dumbed down" and I guess as someone who welcomes change I am open to that as well. I can understand those who want to wait but for those of us who are ready to go I don't see any downside to that. Will everything be perfect? No. But it never was nor is any cruise line perfect. I guess for me I would prefer to experience something myself. And the good news is we will sail with so many people we know and that in itself for me is a major plus or simple 1+++++++++++++++ Keith

Terry I wouldn't want to venture on anyone's stability. Personally I am not concerned but I would never ever give advice on this because at the end of the day even with disclosure I have seen some situations even with what we thought was full transparency where it was not as people thought. What I would say is as many learned Travel Insurance is your friend but the key is to get the right insurance. I also feel that American Express Card was also a friend. In terms of the itinerary I know this will be part of your research but be sure to look at the weather. I also know that often you like to do pre and post cruise stays so look at that as well as you factor in whether or not you do a 13 day or 19 day cruise. Consider do you want to see more of India via ship on the 19 day itinerary or do you want to see more with a land program before you board. I would extend your time at the end in Singapore as there is a good deal to see as well. Due your due diligence as I know you will. Keith

So here we are once again. We have each given our opinions. This topic comes up every few weeks. No minds changed from those posting. And this doesn't change anything. Time won't tel on this. Each person will decide for themselves whether or not they expect anything more from the new owner. So it goes. Keith

Roy, you get well. Health is the number one priority. Thinking of you and look forward to sailing with you again. Keith.

Yes and they will have a dance instructor couple. There is only one person doing all of the work right now doing entertainment and enrichment. I would rather they focus 100 percent of their energies on this. In time it will all get posted. Keith.

Terry, The first thing to remember is when Crystal ended in 2022 it was very much different than the Crystal you sailed and I think mainly for the good. It is inclusive. Not as inclusive as SS (no included excursions and a few other differences) but it does include items which were not included in 2008. There is open dining. There is more dining choice than in 2008. Some of the venues were updated. So please keep that in mind. Some seem to think it will be radically different and that you can't make a decision until it sails. I totally disagree. As you look at the web site and look at the date that is in place with a lot more to come I see lots of similarities to Crystal. Name of restaurants are the same other than one. Bringing back Tastes which you didn't experience but many of us did an loved to replace the Asian restaurant which got mixed reviews. The crew will be very much Crystal. They are not robots. They won't change. The person running entertainment is not the person from 2008 but the person who has been there the past several years and is busy working on enrichment and entertainment. Ambassador Hosts return as do a couple offering dance instruction. The person who developed the shore excursion program has returned. So has the President.. And many of the society members are returning too. So while there is a minority of people saying I have to know exactly what it will be like most of us expect it to have a lot in common with the old Crystal. Will it be the same? Of course not but as I am saying it was already different than 2008. It evolved and will continue to do so. I have asked some questions of Crystal that come up on tihis forum and another one and it's interesting that often the answer is we are doing this in the same manner as old Crystal. As information is added to the website that will become very apparent. Similarly there was the fear when Crystal came back after COVID that the experience would be a lot different. Having been on six of those sailings it was not. I can't compare it to SS as I've done two of their cruises. I have my views and everyone has there own. The other thing you do know is he size of the ships. For some they prefer smaller while others prefer larger so you need to figure that out. Larger means more options from my experience across all cruise lines. Good luck with your decision but I do not believe you need to wait for the restart to decide. Keith

Time will tell. Let's see what happens. Speakers don't have full employment. Most I know come on a few times in a year. Only a few go longer. And as to entertainers it depends who they are. Crystal had a couple of them on enough that they didn't need other gigs at sea and supplemented them on land. Others of course went from ship to ship. Again time will tell. It always does.

It's funny Ivi. In the one suite where it included laundry that was something we didn't need. We don't sent our wash out for many reasons. One is particular how it is washed and some items not dried and others dried and we do things a certain way. When we didn't have pressing Anne Marie was happy to press items but we sent my suits out and other items where it makes sense not to press them. Dry cleaning we don't use anymore or less whether or not it is included. In the end nothing is free. You pay for it either in the cruise fare or as an add on. We did like the washer/dryer combo in our Seabreeeze on Symphony just for the convenience. Personally I am up early and happy to do the wash. And over the years we met a lot of nice people in the laundry rooms on Crystal. But whether or not any of those features is included or not will have no impact on where we travel or who we book with. Keith

Terry, The first thing to remember is when Crystal ended in 2022 it was very much different than the Crystal you sailed and I think mainly for the good. It is inclusive. Not as inclusive as SS (no included excursions and a few other differences) but it does include items which were not included in 2008. There is open dining. There is more dining choice than in 2008. Some of the venues were updated. So please keep that in mind. Some seem to think it will be radically different and that you can't make a decision until it sails. I totally disagree. As you look at the web site and look at the date that is in place with a lot more to come I see lots of similarities to Crystal. Name of restaurants are the same other than one. Bringing back Tastes which you didn't experience but many of us did an loved to replace the Asian restaurant which got mixed reviews. The crew will be very much Crystal. They are not robots. They won't change. The person running entertainment is not the person from 2008 but the person who has been there the past several years and is busy working on enrichment and entertainment. Ambassador Hosts return as do a couple offering dance instruction. The person who developed the shore excursion program has returned. So has the President.. And many of the society members are returning too. So while there is a minority of people saying I have to know exactly what it will be like most of us expect it to have a lot in common with the old Crystal. Will it be the same? Of course not but as I am saying it was already different than 2008. It evolved and will continue to do so. I have asked some questions of Crystal that come up on tihis forum and another one and it's interesting that often the answer is we are doing this in the same manner as old Crystal. As information is added to the website that will become very apparent. Similarly there was the fear when Crystal came back after COVID that the experience would be a lot different. Having been on six of those sailings it was not. I can't compare it to SS as I've done two of their cruises. I have my views and everyone has there own. The other thing you do know is he size of the ships. For some they prefer smaller while others prefer larger so you need to figure that out. Larger means more options from my experience across all cruise lines. Good luck with your decision but I do not believe you need to wait for the restart to decide. Keith

There will also be dance instructors as in the past. Keith

Now the question is will the former ones stay there and or come back home. Time will tell.

To a degree there were some as you would see someone invited on-board to blog about their experience. This is an influencer. Some also shared their experience on other platforms such as YouTube. Some cruise lines have fairly large programs such as Carnival, Princess, RCI to name a few. The new PR director has experience from Celebrity (part of RCI) and Carnival. And I thought TikTok referred to clock. Oh I feel old. 🤣 Keith

This is the challenge being in the catch up mode. In the perfect world the World Cruise and its amenities would be announced at the same time. The challenge was that there was not enough time to get this and many other things worked out because they are starting from scratch other than the knowledge of what was offered before. This is why the World Cruise wasn't put on the website. It will go on the site pretty soon and they are in the process of finalizing the amenities. If they waited for everything to be finalized before taking all bookings then the ship restart of the actual sailings might not have occurred for another beyond the current start date. Over the last few months you had people doing double duty as there were not a lot of people on the bench. This has started to change and will continue to change over the coming months as additional people are hired to fill these slots. I do not believe it will be much longer until specifics are out on all of this. Keith

In keeping with the thread another one coming soon will be pre and post hotels I know this is important for some of you which is why I am posting this. Also in keeping wit the thread there is a lot of information which will be coming our way. Much of it is in progress so as things are finalize then it will be shared either on the Crystal site or through communications or both. It probably won't come as fast as we would all like but it is a work in progress. Keith

They will. I asked though. But first things first and that is all the work they are doing to get entertainment and enrichment in place. Same goes for many other things which in-time will be added to the web site. They don't have people sitting around. Remember they have to scale up. Keith

First step is book a Crystal cruise. If you don't do that no need to get your shoes ready. You are spending too much time here not to book the cruise. We have a saying in the USA. Just do it.

I never said made up but they don't always get their facts straight. In business and for that matter sometimes when cruising I was interviewed by very reputable newspapers and magazines and they didn't always write what I said. It was not intentional but often times mistakes occur. Regardless, like most things I would await the outcome. Keith

The plan is to have Ambassador Hosts and as well as a Dance Instructor Couple for those who were asking about this. Keith