Lots of OC programs returning to NC plus Mushroom Soup Bowl….

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

He hates everything!!

I think he liked me.  🤣  LOL.

[FlyerTalker]

7 hours ago, wearesiamese said:

Like probably most on this board,I remember the brand of cereal.Life. 🙂

 

That's one of my regular rotation of breakfast cereals.  Several others from my youth have passed on, but Life continues.

[Keith1010]

On 4/23/2023 at 7:03 AM, peribit said:

I wonder if the old Crystal Society Program is also returning?  If so, when the detail will be announced?

As part of the Webinar this was one of the silent questions. Crystal indicated that they will use the 2019 Crystal Society Milestone Program.  With that said as mentioned on the thread from the webinar they have no records of what milestones were and were not use so they will not honor unused millstones but they will honor newly achieved milestones.

 

Keith

[Stickman1990]

26 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

As part of the Webinar this was one of the silent questions.

Actually there were two written questions relating to this area 

 

They were:

 

Q Will we get credit for previous sailings on old Crystal for the recognition program?

 

A From Crystals sales manager - New Crystal did get the database of former Crystal, so we do know how many times guests have sailed and we will continue to honor the perks of the old program. We're using the 2019 Crystal Society program as to the perks.

 

Q Will Crystal have a loyalty program and will the new Crystal honor past milestones?

 

Two answers were given

 

A Yes. Crystal Society will continue and past milestones are recorded in your account.

 

A While "unused" milestones from the past cannot be honored, the count of voyages continue as you work towards future milestones to redeem

[Keith1010]

3 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

Actually there were two written questions relating to this area 

 

 

They were:

 

Q Will we get credit for previous sailings on old Crystal for the recognition program?

 

A From Crystals sales manager - New Crystal did get the database of former Crystal, so we do know how many times guests have sailed and we will continue to honor the perks of the old program. We're using the 2019 Crystal Society program as to the perks.

 

Q Will Crystal have a loyalty program and will the new Crystal honor past milestones?

 

Two answers were given

 

A Yes. Crystal Society will continue and past milestones are recorded in your account.

 

A While "unused" milestones from the past cannot be honored, the count of voyages continue as you work towards future milestones to redeem

ep. I know as I have the written questions and answers but thank you for pointing this out.  

I have already addressed all of this today and previously.

 

In short I have said Crystal has a record of all completed cruises (I noted this a couple of months ago and in the earlier post).  Should someone want to verify their count they can have their TA contact Crystal or one can call them as well.  

 

As I noted the other day  and less than 30 minutes ago Crystal cannot verify unused milestones as they have no records as to what was used and unused.

 

And the new information that I posted which is new is that the plan is to use the Crystal Society Milestone program as of 2019.

 

Keith

 

[Stickman1990]

2 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

thank you for pointing this out. 

You’re welcome - it’s my pleasure to be able to post the actual transcript 

[Keith1010]

On 4/6/2023 at 9:18 AM, cruisr said:

My TA forwarded me an email she received from Crystal and its all good news.  Mushroom Soup Bowl and Carpaccio will return to the new Italian restaurant.  Bridge instructors, gentlemen hosts, lecturers, clergy, computer classes and golf pros are listed as being back.

 

Past guests savings will be doubled to 5%.

 

Glad to see all of the above.  Now if they would just do something about the single supplements!

One of the silent questions on last week's Webinar was whether the new Italian restaurant would have some of the signature dishes from Prego such as Carpaccio and Lamb Rack?  The answer was not yet, but that is the intent and it is in the process of being implemented.

 

When we're on board I'll plan to ask a little more about this.

 

In the question the person didn't ask about the mushroom soup but I was told by someone who would know that the soup will be coming back. I don't know if that is on day one or later.

 

Looking forward to trying out the new cuisine of this restaurant. On a personal basis glad that there will be new items to try.

 

Keith

[travelberlin]

On the old Crystal, we were able to order 24 hours in advance if we wanted to have a dish that was not included in the regular menu. We did not have to pay additionally for this service. Does any body knows if this is going to be possible on the New Crystal? I would love to have the king crab „Crystal“ style again…
Ivi

[Keith1010]

43 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

On the old Crystal, we were able to order 24 hours in advance if we wanted to have a dish that was not included in the regular menu. We did not have to pay additionally for this service. Does any body knows if this is going to be possible on the New Crystal? I would love to have the king crab „Crystal“ style again…
Ivi

Ivi,

This one wasn't asked on the Webinar.  We will know soon enough though.

Keith

[Leejnd4]

Question: in the Webinar (or any other time) was any information provided about the Vintage Room? Will it be the same as before, or a different type of offering? Vintage Room was always my favorite night on a Crystal cruise, and I'm curious to know if it's going to be the same.

 

In particular, I'm wondering if the level of wines will be as high. The first time I did a Vintage Room was before Crystal went all-inclusive with alcohol. The wines were very good, but not fabulous. Then once they went all-inclusive, and their included wine offerings were already so great, they REALLY stepped up the wines in Vintage Room!

 

Any info at all on what VR will be like on NC?

[Keith1010]

1 hour ago, Leejnd4 said:

Question: in the Webinar (or any other time) was any information provided about the Vintage Room? Will it be the same as before, or a different type of offering? Vintage Room was always my favorite night on a Crystal cruise, and I'm curious to know if it's going to be the same.

 

In particular, I'm wondering if the level of wines will be as high. The first time I did a Vintage Room was before Crystal went all-inclusive with alcohol. The wines were very good, but not fabulous. Then once they went all-inclusive, and their included wine offerings were already so great, they REALLY stepped up the wines in Vintage Room!

 

Any info at all on what VR will be like on NC?

The VR was casually mentioned when they mentioned dining venues.

There will be a Vintage Room for sure. It is also mentioned on the website.

 

All I have been told is it will be similar as before. 

 

Keith

[Embowaf]

8 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

The VR was casually mentioned when they mentioned dining venues.

There will be a Vintage Room for sure. It is also mentioned on the website.

 

All I have been told is it will be similar as before. 

 

Keith

Related to this, last time I was in the VR, they talked briefly about the enormous quantity of wine onboard. In the order of tens of thousands of bottles. I'm sure the majority of that was common quality stuff for the all inclusive wine services at dinner, bars, etc. But a decent portion was stuff they were keeping onboard to mature over time etc.

Any idea what happened to it all? Did it stay onboard the whole time? Do they have it now? Did it get taken/sold off? I know there were tons of crates of the Crystal branded stuff sold off at discount grocery stores, but that seemed to just stock that wasn't actually on the ships.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Embowaf

[tnm6217]

Was it hard to get a Vintage Room reservation on OC? I'm booked in an oceanview cabin and I'm worried I'll be too "low on the totem pole" to be able to get a reservation. I'll be on an 11 night cruise and I'm really looking forward to experiencing the VR!

[nancygp]

2 minutes ago, tnm6217 said:

Was it hard to get a Vintage Room reservation on OC? I'm booked in an oceanview cabin and I'm worried I'll be too "low on the totem pole" to be able to get a reservation. I'll be on an 11 night cruise and I'm really looking forward to experiencing the VR!

VR Reservations weren’t  tied to cabin/suite category…not an issue

 

Nancy

Edited June 14, 2023 by nancygp

[Embowaf]

3 minutes ago, tnm6217 said:

Was it hard to get a Vintage Room reservation on OC? I'm booked in an oceanview cabin and I'm worried I'll be too "low on the totem pole" to be able to get a reservation. I'll be on an 11 night cruise and I'm really looking forward to experiencing the VR!

I'm sure it varied from cruise to cruise, but the issue was more often than not that they only had enough demand to do it once or twice a segment so if you didn't have availability that day you were out of luck as they have to have a minimum to do it.

If there's extra demand they would add a night.

With capacity reduced, in theory, it shouldn't be any harder to get a slot, though it may mean there are segments with such low demand they don't have a single night. Not clear how often that happened, but I know my dad would usually do it and when I started going the past few cruises they usually would not know for a day or two if there was going to be enough.

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, Embowaf said:

Related to this, last time I was in the VR, they talked briefly about the enormous quantity of wine onboard. In the order of tens of thousands of bottles. I'm sure the majority of that was common quality stuff for the all inclusive wine services at dinner, bars, etc. But a decent portion was stuff they were keeping onboard to mature over time etc.

Any idea what happened to it all? Did it stay onboard the whole time? Do they have it now? Did it get taken/sold off? I know there were tons of crates of the Crystal branded stuff sold off at discount grocery stores, but that seemed to just stock that wasn't actually on the ships.

I am uncertain about this but certainly a good question to ask and I will do that when we are on board.

 

With respect to your other question Nancy and Embowaf have it right.

 

You have as good a chance of getting into a VR as anyone else does. 

 

My recommendation is to ask to see the Head Sommelier after you board to be sure you put in your name(s) for the VR.  The number of VR's they offer varies by voyage and the length, itinerary and number of interested guests collectively factor into all of this. 

Keith

[tnm6217]

Thank you @nancygp, @Embowaf, and @Keith1010! This is great news and I will keep my fingers crossed that there are plenty of other oenophiles on my November sailing 🤞🍷🥂

[johng75370]

23 hours ago, Embowaf said:

But a decent portion was stuff they were keeping onboard to mature over time etc.

Have always wondered why lines like Crystal do not offer "sea aged" or "ocean aged" bottles to the World Cruisers; have had some wonderful cognac and ports that were ocean aged and would love to have a bottle that was with me and was matured/aged specifically onboard.  Missed opportunity!  Along with collecting the sea salt from an ocean voyage, but that's a different issue.