I really like Crystal but…

[Texas Tillie]

2 minutes ago, Txcotn said:

Very disappointing to hear that a DJ has replaced the nice piano music in the Cove! We loved the live music at the pool during lunch. And a duo for dancing? I thought D'Ovidio bought Crystal because he loved it, not so he could cut one of the major draws for people who look for live music. It was just wonderful having cocktails to nice piano in the Cove, never cared for the violinist as it was just too loud, hard to carry on a conversation!

 

The pianist is still in the Cove. Look at the Reflections that Rob is posting for each day and you will see what entertainment is where at what times.

 

Patty

[juicyjuju]

I agree there needs to be more live music. I missed the band by the pool. It's only one hour on sea days usually, so it's not like it would "bother" some people for long. 

We like to eat around 8 to 8:30pm and have a cocktail before dinner. There is usually no live music at that hour, it's always geared to the opening of the restaurant and the time you would leave the restaurant if you ate dinner at that time. The only option is the DJ in the cove playing soft jazz from the iPad. It's ok I guess but it's not the same as live music.

Our Alaskan cruise at the beginning of August had around 550 guests. It definitely had a "ghost ship" feeling sometimes at night 

[PaulaJK]

We spent a bolus of time in the Avenue last evening and found John Barker very enjoyable..talented, personable and solicits requests.

 

not certain why but j Fox’s 2 nd show was in the over crammed Star Dust as opposed to the Galaxy..a bit unnerving as crows and assistance devices somewhat block door.

 

 

[kool kruiser]

1 hour ago, Txcotn said:

Very disappointing to hear that a DJ has replaced the nice piano music in the Cove! We loved the live music at the pool during lunch. And a duo for dancing? I thought D'Ovidio bought Crystal because he loved it, not so he could cut one of the major draws for people who look for live music. It was just wonderful having cocktails to nice piano in the Cove, never cared for the violinist as it was just too loud, hard to carry on a conversation!

Just to clarify, there is still a pianist on board. On our cruise, he was called Leandro and was excellent. However, as he always seemed to play at the same time in the Cove,coinciding with our Dinner time, we only heard him at teatime in the Palm Court.

[Whipsnade]

3 hours ago, Txcotn said:

Very disappointing to hear that a DJ has replaced the nice piano music in the Cove! We loved the live music at the pool during lunch. And a duo for dancing? I thought D'Ovidio bought Crystal because he loved it, not so he could cut one of the major draws for people who look for live music. It was just wonderful having cocktails to nice piano in the Cove, never cared for the violinist as it was just too loud, hard to carry on a conversation!

I agree 100%. DJ in the Cove at cocktail time is just not what one expects on Crystal or any other luxury venue on land or sea. Piano. Piano. Piano please. 

[Keith1010]

There is some misinformation here.

 

If you read the Reflections that Rob is posting from his current cruise and I posted for the previous cruises you will see that for the vast majority of the time there is a pianist in the Cove as there is in the Avenue Saloon.

 

For example this evening in the Cove:

 

Sean Buttigieg plays

guitar for your listening

pleasure: 5:30 PM – 6:15 PM

Leandro plays the Crystal piano

for your listening pleasure:

6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

9:00 PM – 9:45 PM

10:45 PM – 12 Midnight

Nadia Matiunina plays

violin for your listening

pleasure: 7:45 PM – 8:45 PM

10:00 PM – 10:45 PM

 

Palm Court has a DJ for a short time and that is followed by the duo.

 

Bottom line things are like they have been with the Cove and Avenue Saloon but once in a while (one in a while are the key words) the DJ rotates around.

 

Keith

[Txcotn]

My vote is for NO DJ except in Pulse and add back 2 musicians to the duos.

[ryndam]

Make your opinions known on the end-of-cruise comment cards. It may take a while for changes to occur, but senior management does react to guest comments when they appear universal.

 

Rob

[ryndam]

Also make your concerns to whatever cruise director is onboard your cruise. They are all very accessible and encourage instant feedback from guests. Best to obtain an on-the-spot response from an appropriate officer while onboard, rather than speculate scheduling decisions.

 

Rob

[vistaman]

On 8/31/2024 at 2:21 PM, Midtowngal said:

We have missed Mark!  Is he now back?  

i saw him last year on de Silver Dawn 

[Mrs. Claypool]

Bring back the dinner time wandering violin trio in the dining room!

 

Emily

 

[Whipsnade]

The Manila Trio!!!  Wonderful. Always loved it. 

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, Mrs. Claypool said:

Bring back the dinner time wandering violin trio in the dining room!

 

Emily

 

I love them too  Emily. However, many did not saying it was noisy and disruptive.

 

I am the one who also liked the Baked Alaska Parades but I realize it had to stop due to safety and these days couldn't be done anyway due to open dining. 

 

The same goes for singing Happy Birthday or Anniversary with the balloons at the table. Some complained and it vanished. 

 

Keith

[BWIVince]

5 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

The Manila Trio!!!  Wonderful. Always loved it. 

It’s really hard to read sarcasm online, sometimes.  😁 

 

I liked the IDEA of the strolling trio…. In practice though, on almost every cruise we always seemed to end up with the three most tone-deaf, out of sync, out of tune musicians ever to get their hands on musical instruments.  They were SO bad, our whole table would frequently bust out laughing randomly as they screeched their way through the dining room.  I was always afraid we’d either choke on our food from the sudden laughing reflexes, or get kicked out of the dining room for our uncontrollable reactions to the unnatural (and frequently inhumane) sounds.  (Thankfully Josef was the maitre d’ on most of these cruises, and he knew most of us since the mid 80’s from his former employer.)  
 

These cruises were mainly on Symphony, so maybe they were just stuck with the worst trio for any given season, but somehow it seems like a mathematical impossibility that they were the only bad trio in the rotation.

 

There are very few moments in Crystal Cruises history that made me as happy as when they banished the strolling dining room trio to the great bedside linen in the sky. 😊  No offense to all the fans…

 

Vince

[KenzSailing]

 

I'm with Vince.  This thread has turned into a remake of Jurassic Park.  As a refresher, bringing back the dinosaurs was not a good idea....

[Txcotn]

18 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

I love them too  Emily. However, many did not saying it was noisy and disruptive.

 

I am the one who also liked the Baked Alaska Parades but I realize it had to stop due to safety and these days couldn't be done anyway due to open dining. 

 

The same goes for singing Happy Birthday or Anniversary with the balloons at the table. Some complained and it vanished. 

 

Keith

Interesting that the complainers always seem to win.🙄

[Whipsnade]

Well, hard to follow that with anything positive. I suppose they could be a little annoying at times. And repetitive as many pax asked for the same old tunes. Probably was a throwback to the old days on trans Atlantic liners when there was always a small band in the main dining room. But nothing beats the screeching of the current Russian electric violinists on every cruise in Cove at cocktail time. Given a choice I would pick the old Trio. 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, Txcotn said:

Interesting that the complainers always seem to win.🙄

 

As much as I would love to think that the trio at dinner was cut because of all the complaints about how horrible they were, I don't believe for a second that "complainers always win."  Sure, sometimes they do, but in this case I think there is a much simpler explanation.  

 

The strolling trio was not an original Crystal feature...  They were added because they were a fad (again), and they were eliminated when the fad was over.  That's it, at its core.  The low scores just helped quantify when it was over (or maybe how poorly implemented it was).  

 

Which leads me to my next point...

 

1 hour ago, Whipsnade said:

Well, hard to follow that with anything positive. I suppose they could be a little annoying at times. And repetitive as many pax asked for the same old tunes. Probably was a throwback to the old days on trans Atlantic liners when there was always a small band in the main dining room. But nothing beats the screeching of the current Russian electric violinists on every cruise in Cove at cocktail time. Given a choice I would pick the old Trio. 

 

I think the bigger theme here is that tastes change, to @KenzSailing's point...  As as you alluded to, they go in cycles, it's not linear.  Crystal didn't have music in the dining room for years, then they did, then they didn't, and who knows what the future will bring.  The different is that the styles change to suit the trends and tastes, which do frequently recycle.

 

I would argue the modern iteration of live music & dinner is the supper club offering.  Not a new concept, but more in favor at the moment, and a THOUSAND times better executed than the strolling trios.  Everyone in that room is there for the same experience, and the performance is on a much higher level with a more focused concept.  Those that don't want a performance with their dinner don't have to go.  Easy Peasy.  

 

Re: the violinist, IIRC they were added years and years ago so there wouldn't be dead silence when the pianists took their contractual 45-60 minute breaks...  In the early 90's the lucite pianos had CD-based players on them, and the auto-players would fill the gaps, but a subsequent management team preferred silence and ordered the use discontinued in the early/mid '00's.  Not defending poor performances, as you can tell from my last few messages, but there is a functional purpose behind the long-standing use of the violinists at least.

 

Vince

 

Edited September 3 by BWIVince

[Whipsnade]

Well you know a lot about the intimate history then I. But I think we can agree that screeching strings are not entertainment no matter where they are. 
BTW very good point about the Supper Club. Makes sense. 

[KenzSailing]

1 hour ago, BWIVince said:

 

.  The different is that the styles change to suit the trends and tastes, which do frequently recycle.

 

I would argue the modern iteration of live music & dinner is the supper club offering.  Not a new concept, but more in favor at the moment, and a THOUSAND times better executed than the strolling trios.  

 

 

Bingo.  And as @BWIVince said, not a new concept nor trend.  In fact I think the supper club perfectly encapsulates the point: supper clubs have come and gone and come and gone gosh know how many times.  Here they are again, for now.

 

As to the complainers winning: that's one person's speculation.  Again, as Vince so thoroughly elucidates, it's far more likely the strings died of natural causes.

Edited September 3 by KenzSailing
revision

[Texas Tillie]

1 hour ago, Whipsnade said:

Well you know a lot about the intimate history then I. But I think we can agree that screeching strings are not entertainment no matter where they are. 
BTW very good point about the Supper Club. Makes sense. 

 

But not everyone finds the violinist to be "screeching". All I can say is, if you do, there are other bars on the ship where you can get a drink at the time the violinist is preforming in the Cove.

 

Patty

[Keith1010]

I was the one who referred to the Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary singing going away due to the complainers. I didn't say it extended beyond that.

 

At the time it went away I asked why and the answer was that people complained.

 

So it reenforced my view to be sure that you also highlight those things you do like.

 

As to all the other things.

 

First change. Change is the way of life and change comes faster than ever before. Without change we would be living back as the cave people did.

 

Choice is good IMHO. Years ago in the Cove there was a pianist. That was it. Today the entertainment is diverse. I like that. If you don't as mentioned, you can go to another lounge.

 

Finally, as I believe Vince said some things come, leave and return. Same is true on land.  Newer generations sometimes revert back to what generations of the past did.  Hair length for men.  Undergarment for me (TMI).  

 

The key for me is with Crystal you have consistencies such as an incredible crew and wonderful cuisine, great enrichment, etc. but aspects of the cruising experience change which to me is great even if some of the items I don't take advantage of.

 

When you choose to sail on a cruise ship you won't like everything but hopefully there is enough for you to enjoy.

 

Keith

[Whipsnade]

Yikes!!  All because I don’t care for electric violins???Not sure they are even a legitimate instrument. Would love to see them try to play a real violin. And maybe lose the canned percussion accompaniment. 

[petern6827]

First time Crystal-cruiser here.... boarding Symphony next week.

 

In the evening, after watching the show, we like to listen to a band (or DJ music) have a drink, dance to disco (Bee Gees!), maybe a Cha Cha and slow dance for awhile.

 

Where would this be?

 

Thanks!

Peter    

[TER777]

31 minutes ago, petern6827 said:

First time Crystal-cruiser here.... boarding Symphony next week.

 

In the evening, after watching the show, we like to listen to a band (or DJ music) have a drink, dance to disco (Bee Gees!), maybe a Cha Cha and slow dance for awhile.

 

Where would this be?

 

Thanks!

Peter    

DJ Disco and/or Karaoke in Jade nightclub 10pm until late. Assorted (piano, violin, guitar) live music in the Cove until 11:30pm. Live Ballroom dance music generally in Starlite until 11:30pm. Occasionally in Cove or Palm Court. Live music in the Avenue 10pm until late; generally piano bar with the occasional jazz etc evening by the show band if the pianist has the night off. All the venues have bars. 
 

All the performers and set times are spelled out in the daily Reflections. 
 

PS Don’t run out of the Galaxy after the evening show too quickly. Cruise Director Vicki has a very entertaining comedy commentary on the next day’s schedule etc.