OCEANIA - CRYSTAL

[StanandJim]

7 hours ago, clo said:

It seems like it's not a "personal choice" f the the company won't allow their employees to call us by our first names.

Your egalitarian sentiments seem oddly out of place.

 

The staff are required  to be friend-ly, but they are not actually your friends.

Friends generally dont get up at 4AM to make your bed or fix your breakfast-

If they have a vacuum cleaner in their hand while you chat, it is not a social visit 

 

Over familiarity confuses the relationship and makes things awkward, not just for you but for others with whom they need to interact.

 

  

 

 

[bradpole]

On 12/24/2019 at 10:42 AM, LHT28 said:

Option 2

Thank you for the pictures.  Personally we'd prefer option 2, Oceania.  The tiered server certainly looks very elegant but I prefer only taking what I want from the cart.  Viking Ocean does the tiered tea tray as well, we felt we wasted too much on the days we only wanted a little nibble.  Just my humble opinion, neither is right or wrong!  🙂

[clo]

3 hours ago, StanandJim said:

Your egalitarian sentiments seem oddly out of place.

 

The staff are required  to be friend-ly, but they are not actually your friends.

Friends generally dont get up at 4AM to make your bed or fix your breakfast-

If they have a vacuum cleaner in their hand while you chat, it is not a social visit 

 

Over familiarity confuses the relationship and makes things awkward, not just for you but for others with whom they need to interact.

 

  

 

 

So only your friends call you by your first name.  Interesting.

[clo]

10 hours ago, Mura said:

So many of these people may recognize you, but not know your name ... as we often don't recall the names of people who helped us in the past.

 

Our cabin steward addressed us as Mr. or Mrs. *****.

[HilsTas]

12 hours ago, clo said:

How interesting. They always called us "Mrs. XXX." I asked our cabin attendant if she could call me by my first name and she said she wasn't allowed to do that. That was a negative for me.

Clo - my husband and I have different surnames, and I am always called Ms H (Christian name) and he: Mr J.  (We are on the Marina at present and have several O cruises under our belt)

 

Hilary

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, clo said:

Our cabin steward addressed us as Mr. or Mrs. *****.

why not start a new thread  & stop hijacking  every thread & making it all about you

 

[AtA]

4 hours ago, bradpole said:

Thank you for the pictures.  Personally we'd prefer option 2, Oceania.  The tiered server certainly looks very elegant but I prefer only taking what I want from the cart.  Viking Ocean does the tiered tea tray as well, we felt we wasted too much on the days we only wanted a little nibble.  Just my humble opinion, neither is right or wrong!  🙂

Unfortunately this is a new thing with Crystal and one that many of us are not happy about. Up until 6 months ago, we had waiters coming around and serving only the things we wanted. Sigh.

[AtA]

13 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Are you clairvoyant??

No I'm just going by all your negative comments on the Crystal board BEFORE you even sailed. 

[clo]

44 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

why not start a new thread  & stop hijacking  every thread & making it all about you

 

LOL. You brought it up 🙂

[edgee]

3 hours ago, AtA said:

No I'm just going by all your negative comments on the Crystal board BEFORE you even sailed. 

And post cruise, to say that Crystal's daytime activities are the same as O and are intended to sell stuff, is simply not believable. I have NEVER been on a Crystal ship that does not have significant number of fascinating lecturers with expertise on a whole host of subjects. We at one point considered doing this same back to back combination of cruises and I remember being impressed by the  list of speakers. They certainly had nothing to do with "selling stuff."

Edited December 26, 2019 by edgee
Clarity

[HilsTas]

LHT28 - apologies, back in my box

[LHT28]

46 minutes ago, edgee said:

And post cruise, to say that Crystal's daytime activities are the same as O and are intended to sell stuff, is simply not believable. I have NEVER been on a Crystal ship that does not have significant number of fascinating lecturers with expertise on a whole host of subjects. We at one point considered doing this same back to back combination of cruises and I remember being impressed by the  list of speakers. They certainly had nothing to do with "selling stuff."

ED

Maybe being Americans  you would like the political speaker

here is what you missed

Topics :Putin's Russia/ End of the American dream/ How Tyrants survive The Case of North Korea/ Did ISIS die with Baghdadi/What is Brexit?/The future of the US-Cuban relations

 

The other speaker was on Broadway shows several topics based on the entertainment of Broadway

 

One on Geography in the Caribbean   which may have been interesting but  it was a lot of data based  slide show  which put me  to sleep 😉

topics: Hurricanes in the Caribbean/Location Matters/Of Empires and States/Land & life in the Caribbean/Caribbean and the making of The the Modern world

 

[edgee]

37 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

ED

Maybe being Americans  you would like the political speaker

here is what you missed

Topics :Putin's Russia/ End of the American dream/ How Tyrants survive The Case of North Korea/ Did ISIS die with Baghdadi/What is Brexit?/The future of the US-Cuban relations

 

The other speaker was on Broadway shows several topics based on the entertainment of Broadway

 

One on Geography in the Caribbean   which may have been interesting but  it was a lot of data based  slide show  which put me  to sleep 😉

topics: Hurricanes in the Caribbean/Location Matters/Of Empires and States/Land & life in the Caribbean/Caribbean and the making of The the Modern world

 

Certainly none of those topics are part of a plan to sell stuff. Most of those topics sound interesting to me and if the Broadway speaker was Kevin McCollom,  one of Broadway's most successful producers, his talks alone make for a fascinating speaker lineup. We have heard him twice on Crystal...always insightful. Overall a much broader lineup than anything O has to offer.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, edgee said:

Certainly none of those topics are part of a plan to sell stuff. Most of those topics sound interesting to me and if the Broadway speaker was Kevin McCollom,  one of Broadway's most successful producers, his talks alone make for a fascinating speaker lineup. We have heard him twice on Crystal...always insightful. Overall a much broader lineup than anything O has to offer.

Well  I did not list the Spa lectures

If I was really interested in a Pi**ing match  then I would post the dailies  but I am not 

WE care not one hoot about Broadway  so Mr McCollum  lectures did not interest us 

YMMV

Everyone has different  things they like & dislike  

Good thing we all have choices 😉

JMO

 

[bitob]

2 hours ago, edgee said:

And post cruise, to say that Crystal's daytime activities are the same as O and are intended to sell stuff, is simply not believable. I have NEVER been on a Crystal ship that does not have significant number of fascinating lecturers with expertise on a whole host of subjects. We at one point considered doing this same back to back combination of cruises and I remember being impressed by the  list of speakers. They certainly had nothing to do with "selling stuff."

 

 

To even suggest that activities on Oceania are similar to those on Crystal must be a form of insanity.  LOL  It is not even close.  The lecturers are all superb with top notch credentials  ("fascinating"  and "expertise" are the right terms") The evening entertainment is Broadway quality.  There service outshines Oceania by a mile and the food is way better.    Try taking a Crystal film and theatre cruise.  You will be blown away.  We became Crystallized after our first Crystal cruise.  Since them we have "taken" veteran Oceania cruisers on Crystal and they are all Crystallized as well- -- and I am talking about folks with more than 20 Oceania cruises.    We are all booking Crystal together going forward.  For us there is no comparison.  We find Oceania boring compared to Crystal.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by bitob

[edgee]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Well  I did not list the Spa lectures

If I was really interested in a Pi**ing match  then I would post the dailies  but I am not 

WE care not one hoot about Broadway  so Mr McCollum  lectures did not interest us 

YMMV

Everyone has different  things they like & dislike  

Good thing we all have choices 😉

JMO

 

Not interested in any kind of a "match." You originally stated the following:

""I did not find the daily activities any better than O

most of the lectures were spa driven for the purpose of selling you something & we had gone to the same lectures on O." Information you provided in response to my further comment demonstrated whether you liked them or not, the available lecture schedule was far beyond what you had initially implied.

[1985rz1]

Everyone has their own opinions about cruise lines, ship experiences, and food.  That's great, but let's quit the sandbox fights and realize that we all have preferences which may or may not agree with others. 

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, bitob said:

 

 

To even suggest that activities on Oceania are similar to those on Crystal must be a form of insanity.  LOL  It is not even close.  The lecturers are all superb with top notch credentials  ("fascinating"  and "expertise" are the right terms") The evening entertainment is Broadway quality.  There service outshines Oceania by a mile and the food is way better.  

 

I was not considering Lectures as daytime activities  

To me  activities are like the golf/bingo/needlepoint etc

 

Yeah DH did like the meatloaf on Crystal

 

To each their own

[bitob]

Golf and bingo?

Meatloaf?

Hysterical

 

How about Umi Uma, the Trident Grill, the incredible lunch buffet?

There is even a knitting instructor who helps rank beginners turn out amazing first projects

The bridge program is the best at sea with a dedicated bridge room

The library is spectacular -- many recent best sellers available as well as an incredible selection of widely read authors.

The Magic Castle at Sea is truly special.

There are porfessional dancers on board and the opportunity to take private dance lessons in the dance studio

There is a movie theatre showing recent movies that change daily with fresh popcorn served

The casino is the real deal (not my cup of tea but some love it)

There are fabulous entertainers all over the ship in many different venues

I could go on . . but I won't.

 

There's always baggo and ping pong and bingo on O!!

[LHT28]

26 minutes ago, bitob said:

Golf and bingo?

Meatloaf?

Hysterical

 

How about Umi Uma, the Trident Grill, the incredible lunch buffet?

 

yes incredible  lunch buffet !! NOT

Yes Meatloaf  ..unbelievable  that this was on a luxury line

 

We do not cruise to watch movies 

but for those that enjoy that I am sure it was wonderful

 

YMMV

[AtA]

6 hours ago, LHT28 said:

ED

Maybe being Americans  you would like the political speaker

here is what you missed

Topics :Putin's Russia/ End of the American dream/ How Tyrants survive The Case of North Korea/ Did ISIS die with Baghdadi/What is Brexit?/The future of the US-Cuban relations

 

The other speaker was on Broadway shows several topics based on the entertainment of Broadway

 

One on Geography in the Caribbean   which may have been interesting but  it was a lot of data based  slide show  which put me  to sleep 😉

topics: Hurricanes in the Caribbean/Location Matters/Of Empires and States/Land & life in the Caribbean/Caribbean and the making of The the Modern world

 

Gee none of that sounds like lectures trying to sell stuff.

Just sounds once again like your mind was made up.

 

As for the lectures on the "political" speakers. Usually it is not only Americans who go to the "political" lectures. Usually it is people who want to learn and be educated about subjects they might not have a broad knowledge base.

 

As for the Broadway lecturer, the cruise was a Broadway themed cruise. I guess if they didn't have someone talking about Broadway on a Broadway themed cruise, that would have been a huge miss.

 

Again the Caribbean lectures were because you were in the Caribbean and just because everything that isn't about O bores you, doesn't mean it bores others who are interested in learning new things.

 

 

[LHT28]

3 minutes ago, AtA said:

Gee none of that sounds like lectures trying to sell stuff.

Just sounds once again like your mind was made up.

 

 

Keep reading

 

[AtA]

When I did the Cuba cruise on O 3 years ago (or was it 4), except for time on land it was a total bore. No good lectures. We wound up each day walking around the ship looking for things to do. Entertainment at night was just ok compared to Crystal. 

 

Oh wait. We did do one thing we enjoyed. We took one of the cooking classes. Of course that set us back $120 for the two of us! 

 

I am going on O again in 1 1/2 weeks on Serena. I'll definitely let you know about all the great entertainment and lectures on O when I'm on the ship!

[AtA]

55 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I was not considering Lectures as daytime activities  

To me  activities are like the golf/bingo/needlepoint etc

 

Yeah DH did like the meatloaf on Crystal

 

To each their own

Well on Crystal during sea days daily activities include, Needlepoint, knitting, bridge, bingo, trivia, golf, pickle ball, dance lessons, a daily movie in a real movie theater, the magic show, and a few other things that escape my mind right now.

 

So what are the FREE daily activities on sea days on O? 

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, AtA said:

When I did the Cuba cruise on O 3 years ago (or was it 4), except for time on land it was a total bore. No good lectures. We wound up each day walking around the ship looking for things to do. Entertainment at night was just ok compared to Crystal. 

 

Oh wait. We did do one thing we enjoyed. We took one of the cooking classes. Of course that set us back $120 for the two of us! 

 

I am going on O again in 1 1/2 weeks on Serena. I'll definitely let you know about all the great entertainment and lectures on O when I'm on the ship!

Well enjoy the SIRENA  cruise

I am sure you will be more bored than on the larger O class ship

watch those sandwiches at tea 😉