Is anyone booked on the Inaugural Crystal Serenity cruise? No Roll Call yet

[Keith1010]

18 minutes ago, gwesq said:

Does anyone know what hotel Crystal is using in Marseille?

OR - recommendations for a hotel?  We'll only be spending one night there precruise, training in from Paris.  

 

 

Check out Intercontinental and Sofitel

 

Keith

[vistaman]

In Marseillle there are not so many "great and luxurious" hotels 

The Intercontinental   and the onerous  Le petit Nice with a 3 michelin star restaurant 

Best to look to the ACCOR group : most hotels are decent however not luxurious  ranging from Sofitel to Pullmann and Mercure .

 

[Mr Luxury]

Just now, K. Sera said:

Two months and 15 days to go. Has anyone seen or heard a progress report? It's quite possible that she won't even be ready.

Anything is possible with a start up

[Keith1010]

5 minutes ago, K. Sera said:

Two months and 15 days to go. Has anyone seen or heard a progress report? It's quite possible that she won't even be ready.

I continue to hear they are on-schedule.

 

And I won't be quoting sources since I am sure someone will challenge me on that. Many are the people who said most of the crew are returning.  And they were right.  

 

Keith

[Texas Tillie]

2 hours ago, K. Sera said:

GUEST TO SPACE RATIO

1 TO 93.1 CU FT

 

Isn't that about the size of a closet?

 

You take the gross tons and divide by guest capacity. I don't really understand but know that in this case "ton" is not a unit of weight but a unit of area, but reducing it to cubic feet is not correct. If you look at the same comparison on many mass market ships, it's in the 40s, so the Crystal "closet" is over twice the size.

[Mr Luxury]

2 hours ago, K. Sera said:

 

For context I went to this link to see how many cabins are still wait listed because I think that goofy little dog may be on to something.

 

https://crystalcruises.com/cruises/return-to-service-cse-012-230731

 

And rhen I notice the claim that the inductry leading ratio of passengers to space was 1 to 93.1 cubic feet. Cubic feet - so height times width times length. My guess is that the height is 7 feet - so some NBA players may not fit anyway. But that leaves a space that is 3 by 4.5 feet.

 

I've woken up in jail cells that are larger than 3 by 4.5 ft. 

You're out then 

[Embowaf]

I don't know why they're showing that number as 93 CU FT, but I looked into it and it's delightfully more complex than it would seem...

You've likely seen Gross (Register) Tonnage referred to for the size of a ship to compare them. GRT and GT are similar, with GT replacing GRT a while back. These are a bit deceptive as a metric for a cruise ship at all, and the guest to space ratio is worse. Nevertheless...

Tonnage is a measure of a ships size, in either weight or dimensions, which has changed a lot over time and been redefined over and over. It comes from ton, which was originally the weight of the largest cask of wine, and ships were measured in the 1500s by how many casks of wine they could carry inside of them and taxed/assessed fees accordingly. This evolved into the weight they could carry, with a ton being 2240 pounds, which was the weight of one of said casks, to displacement, depth, etc.

In the early 1800s as British shipping expanded massively, a new system was developed that became dominant. The idea was that taxes/dues/fees etc should be based on a ship's earning potential based on cargo and passenger capacity, and so they adapted what had been done in the past. The entire internal volume of the ship was assessed with some spaces excluded (such as areas open to the sea, double bottoms, etc, but includes deckhouses, internal decks, superstructure, etc; apparently some things like staircases, galleys, lighting spaces, etc were exempt as well) in cubic feet, and then divided by 100 to give you Gross Registered Tonnage, with a ton being 100 cubic feet. Then, spaces that didn't support cargo or passengers, such as fuel storage, ballast tanks, engines, crew quarters, etc were subtracted from this to give you Net Registered Tonnage. Both figures were recorded and used for various purposes to figure out various dues and whatnot.

GRT became the most common measure for "what is the biggest ship" despite it apparently excluding some things like staircases(?) so that's why Titanic was bigger than Olympic. When completed, the Titanic was billed as the largest ship ever built, despite the one year older Olympic being effectively identical in dimensions to a normal person, and side by side they would look the same size. Olympic was 45,324 GRT while Titanic was 46,329. Titanic also had a slightly larger displacement. Why? Look at a comparison of the two ships: 

 

Olympic is on top, and Titanic is on bottom. The uppermost deck, the boat deck where the lifeboats were launched from, was not enclosed at all on either ship excepting the stairs, but the A deck had a Promenade that ran the entire length of the ship, and rooms recessed in a bit. Titanic had effectively the exact same layout, but the front half of the Promenade was enclosed with some openable windows; that's the difference you can see on that deck. That enclosed space added to the GRT, making it a "bigger" ship.

Worldwide standards were set a few decades ago that replaced GRT and NRT with Gross Tonnage and Net Tonnage. GT and NT are very similar with some updated definitions, with NT being a fairly complicated formula now that includes a lot more variables.


So, G(R)T isn't a great indicator of the size of a ship for passengers because it ignores things you might care about like the Grand Staircase on the Titanic or... the entire pool area on deck of the Serenity... but it also includes stuff like the boiler rooms on Titanic or the the Engine rooms on Serenity, which passengers never see. And then, you take that number and divide it by the number of passengers... to get the passenger to space ratio... which is a thing apparently, that shouldn't have any dimensions, since GT is actually now not a measure of volume directly and officially cannot be converted to cubic feet anyway.

Serenity, 68,870 GT / 740 = ~93.1
Titanic, 46,329 GRT / 2453 = ~18.9
Wonder of the Seas 236,857 GT / 6988 = ~33.9
Seabourn Venture 23,000 GT / 264 = ~87.1
Silver Dawn 40,700 GT / 596 = ~68.3
Seven Seas Splendor 55,498 / 746 = ~74.4

So what does this tell us? Nothing? Mostly? Because the GT number is a flawed way of looking at the space of the ship from a passenger perspective and also a flawed way of saying how big the ship is. But, all the luxury ships will feel more "roomy" than the RC ones, big shock there, and the Titanic was cramped though it varied wildly on class, but also was probably more cramped than this makes it seem cus the power plant of the ship was waaaaaaaay bigger than on modern ships, so that reduced actual guest space.

In conclusion, Crystal's number is accurate excepting that it should should not say cubic feet but if it does, it's sorta kinda off by x100, so it should be 9310 cubic feet per person, which would be roughly 37x36x7 feet.

[ctjon]

I wonder when ships will leave Triest?  I assume that each will do some sort of test/shakedown sailing before heading to the first passenger port.  That will be exciting - Serenity has been there since last 7/31

[fancy britches]

Who is booked, wears hot pants, and has two thumbs? This guy!

 

👍 👍

[Mr Luxury]

33 minutes ago, fancy britches said:

Who is booked, wears hot pants, and has two thumbs? This guy!

 

👍 👍

Care to warn us which cruise you are on😀

[Keith1010]

On 5/17/2023 at 7:23 AM, ctjon said:

I wonder when ships will leave Triest?  I assume that each will do some sort of test/shakedown sailing before heading to the first passenger port.  That will be exciting - Serenity has been there since last 7/31

Yes, there will be not only tests but shake down cruises.

 

Keith

[fancy britches]

1 hour ago, Mr Luxury said:

Care to warn us which cruise you are on😀

 

You first!

[Keith1010]

One thing I did learn today was that I was right when I said this cruise had been all booked. It was at one point but as I suspected some people cancelled. I knew I was not crazy when I had originally said it was fully booked. And this is not unusual.I remember the time when the original NWP cruise was fully booked but at some point rooms opened up as some people canceled. Why? Some just want to say they are booked on something and others just change minds or other factors come into play.

 

Regardless, it's going to be an exciting cruise. And there will be at least one person (maybe more) who can count this as the second time they will be on the Inaugural Cruise for Serenity. Amazing.

 

Keith

[2bobs]

We are not on any of Serenity's European re-inaugural cruises but on our Sept-Oct NYC-Quebec-NYC back-to-back we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of her first TransAtlantic crossing (Nov. 2003).  We were among only about 450 "guests" on that voyage -- just our second on Crystal.  The wonderful treatment, service, food, entertainment, etc., etc., we received on that cruise solidified our Crystallization.

(We were initially crystallized by being offered a glass of champagne at the tent on the dock in Copenhagen prior to boarding a Symphony Baltic cruise in 2001 - even before we signed in!)

We are confidently looking forward to NC providing what we were used to from 2001 through 2019 (with NC improvements, of course).

Bob & Bob     P.S.  Bags are packed, etc. etc.

[Keith1010]

8 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

If its not fully booked by now then I would think that there was something seriously wrong.

Hope everyone enjoys the inaugural.

The new Regent ship is not fully booked. Lots of categories available.  I don't think there is something seriously wrong with Regent nor for New Crystal.

 

In the end, time will tell.  While it's nice from a financial perspective if a ship is sold out, given this will be the first voyage for each ship there are benefits to working out things when each and every room is not sold out.

 

The launch of new Crystal is just around the corner. If you remember some said ships would be scrapped, no one would buy the ships, no one would buy the name. They were wrong. So let's see what happens and a year from now we will have a better sense of how things are going.

 

Until then.

 

Bags are packed. Ready to go. Can't wait.

 

Keith

[May B]

Perhaps too many cruisers have experienced a brand new ship’s first voyage and been less than enamored. I once booked one, full well knowing it might not be 100% ready. Instead, it got done quicker and they added a sailing before ours!

 

 

[SnoBirdCruiser]

Question: Did I read here that Crystal is NOT going to use the Sofitel Hotel, Vieux Port in Marseille.

but another one along with the Intercontinental?

If not, when will Crystal be posting their pre-hotels info? The Inaugural Cruise will be sailing in a month.

We are going to need Airport transportation to the hotel .

Has anyone booked a private ar?

Thanks, Pat

[Keith1010]

3 hours ago, SnoBirdCruiser said:

Question: Did I read here that Crystal is NOT going to use the Sofitel Hotel, Vieux Port in Marseille.

but another one along with the Intercontinental?

If not, when will Crystal be posting their pre-hotels info? The Inaugural Cruise will be sailing in a month.

We are going to need Airport transportation to the hotel .

Has anyone booked a private ar?

Thanks, Pat

Pat, I had read somewhere that either here or in Lisbon or both they weren't using Sofitel but not sure if that is correct.  I would have the agency followup with Crystal to find out who they are using.  Are you using the pre cruise hotel?

 

Also just a thought but I think it might be a good idea to have the agency contact the hotel to arrange for a vehicle.  

 

Best to you and Ray.

 

Keith

[SnoBirdCruiser]

53 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

Pat, I had read somewhere that either here or in Lisbon or both they weren't using Sofitel but not sure if that is correct.  I would have the agency followup with Crystal to find out who they are using.  Are you using the pre cruise hotel?

 

Also just a thought but I think it might be a good idea to have the agency contact the hotel to arrange for a vehicle.  

 

Best to you and Ray.

 

Keith

Thank you Keith for the quick reply.

When we booked the Sofitel it had been listed as one of the Crytsal's hotels., I booked the Sofitel Vieux  Port ...but I am also with Intercontinental.

My agent has booked us at Sofitel but she doesn't speak a lot of French...

We have excellent agents so we will leave everything up to them.

Cheers, Pat

 

[travelberlin]

5 hours ago, SnoBirdCruiser said:

Question: Did I read here that Crystal is NOT going to use the Sofitel Hotel, Vieux Port in Marseille.

but another one along with the Intercontinental?

If not, when will Crystal be posting their pre-hotels info? The Inaugural Cruise will be sailing in a month.

We are going to need Airport transportation to the hotel .

Has anyone booked a private ar?

Thanks, Pat

We have used Jam transfers from Nice Airport to Cannes once. It worked out very well.

Ivi