Psoque

That is my understanding as well. When the decision was made to keep them in the Rhine/Danube they were built to the specs of the larger ships. I suspect the names were left unchanged due to copyright requirements as the names had already been protected before the decision to change them was made. As to the names themselves, I don't think there is a line whose ship names have anything to do with the river they sail. I also suspect anyone who is not also on Cruise Critic even knows (or cares) about the association between names and rivers, or possibly even that they are named after composers!! :)

I think there are a few ships named after a person that sails in the region associated with that person. There is Viking Schumann that travels between Prague and Berlin. There is Igor Stravinsky that sails in Russia. Mozart sailed the Danube even before Crystal bought it. It's true that there aren't that many ships named after classical composers. But when when they are named as such, they are often named because of the region they sail. I guess many of us don't care (or have no clue!) about it, but I think in the case with Crystal River Cruises, when they go "all-out" with composer names, they'd better know what they are getting themselves into, and they'd better get it right to prevent the embarrassment.

What if they change the river cruises to include French rivers sometime down the line? Should they change the names back? It seems to me that Crystal (and all cruise lines) invest time and treasure in marketing and the ship's name is part of that marketing. I was very disappointed when the French rivers were deleted from the schedule, but I can't see that using the name of one European classical composer versus another matters here nor there. That's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions! :cool:

 

Patty

My (perhaps incorrect) assumption is that the Debussy and Ravel, as they are already built, will be too big for the French rivers they were initially planning to navigate. If they can go to French rivers, I guess we can keep the names.

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Maybe I'm just crazy, but Crystal should seriously consider re-naming both Crystal Debussy and Crystal Ravel. As we all know, these vessels were initially "marketed" as vessels meant to navigate the French rivers. It made sense then, but now that they are not going to be there, it makes a lot more sense to name them after composers associated with the regions they travel. Actually, having both Debussy and Ravel travel the Danube/Rhine, etc., makes it look like Crystal people have no clue who Debussy and Ravel are.

There are many well-known composers from countries such as Germany, Austria, and even Hungary. I think this might be a good time to consider this.

We have only been on a couple ocean cruises and have never done a river cruise but in looking at options for my 50th birthday next year I've become very intrigued with river cruises. We've been to Europe a couple times but have done it on our own and have never been to Austria, Germany, or Hungary, though Budapest has always been on my list of places I would love to go.

 

Anyhow, we would book a standard cabin since we hope to not be in our cabin much and that way we can use the money we would spend on the cabin to extend the trip and explore more of the city. The cruise we are looking at is in April on the Mozart. We have considered a Christmas Market cruise but while the markets look beautiful, we aren't big shoppers and think we'd be more likely to be able to bike and or hike in April than late November. The cruise in November would be on the Mahler.

 

Thoughts? Most of the reviews and other information I've found make it sound like the facilities and food are very good. Will we miss out on things that we may experience if we choose Uniworld instead? Or some other line? Also, I know we can't mention travel agents or companies, but is it better to book through an agent vs doing it ourselves?

 

Any feedback or insights would be greatly appreciated as we are pretty clueless when it comes to cruises in general and especially river cruises.

We are booked on Budapest to Vienna cruise on Mozart departing Budapest on April 13. Also, I am turning 50 soon after this cruise. We have been on a few Crystal cruises, mainly on Crystal Symphony and Serenity, and one cruise last year on Crystal Esprit. I'm hoping that the onboard quality will be as good as what we experienced on Crystal Esprit, or perhaps better (???).

From North America, non-stop flights to Budapest originates from Chicago O'Hare (LOT), JFK (LOT), and Toronto (Air Canada). I also read that American is starting a non-stop flight to Budapest out of Philadelphia. I also looked at hoe people fly to/from Passau area...that's a bit more challenging since there are no airports all that close to Passau. Apparently many people fly in/out of Munich or Frankfurt to access in/out of Passau.

We would fly out of LAX and wondered if we would fly direct or stop over in one of NYC's airports. Does anyone know?

I hope I'm not misunderstanding this question, but are you inquiring about what sorts of flights are available between LAX and Budapest? If so, there are a few good websites that gives some info, including:

http://www.flightconnections.com/

I don't have any commercial/personal interest in this website, but I found it a few months ago and found it to be somewhat helpful.

As far as I know, there are no non-stop flights between LAX and Budapest, though.

Hi, I have a cruise booked on the Sapphire Princess this summer and I am deciding whether it’s worth getting an internet package.

 

Can anyone explain a little more about how the package works? As there isn’t a lot of information on the princess website.

 

My queries are:

 

- Do you have to use the minutes consecutively or can you log and off?

- Can you use the minutes from one package on more than one device?

- Does the Internet work throughout the ship or only in certain areas?

 

Thanks in advance!

I haven't been on Sapphire Princess (or any other Princess ship) in a while, but I'm assuming things have not changed...

Yes, you don't have to use all the minutes in one session. Actually, it is important that you log off from the internet service when you are done.

As far as I know, I think the minutes can be shared by more than one device.

I don't know how good the WiFi is in Sapphire Princess. I'm assuming that it might be better than when we were onboard a few years ago. However, as you might know already, the satellite-based internet on ships have really limited speed and bandwidth, and depending on location and weather? conditions, the internet service may not be "always on."

In terms of price, I personally think it is a bit expensive, but what Princess charges is comparable to other mass-market lines. I have also cruised on luxury lines, and many of them have unlimited free internet, which is convenient since we don't have to remember to log-in/log-out every time we use the internet.

We recently booked a Budapest to Vienna itinerary on Crystal Mozart for April 2019. It's still more than a year ahead, but we are starting to think about the logistics of getting there and returning home. I usually like to give my workplace about a request for time off about 10 months in advance.

Anyways, here are my questions for those who has done this or similar itinerary:

1. Where on the Danube does Mozart dock in Budapest? Is there a way to look up what has been the case, for us to get a rough idea?

2. I know that Crystal has "complimentary" transportation from Budapest airport to the boat, only on the day of embarkation. We are planning to arrive in Budapest the day before embarkation. Does this mean we are "on our own" to get to the boat? That was exactly the case, sort of, when we did a cruise on Crystal Esprit out of Dubrovnik. However, I was able to negotiate a complimentary transportation arrangement with Crystal. My argument is that even Crystal would prefer that we get to the port a day early, to avoid the hassle of our flight delays causing them inconvenience. Who knows how that would fly with a bigger boat like Mozart?

3. Does anybody know how the "complimentary" transportation from the boat to Vienna Airport works? Do we have to make sure our flight is after certain cut-off time?

Thanks.

Separating by regions would allow for a good way to minimize scrolling while allowing for a meaningful comparison between different lines. I think comparing a Danube cruise by one line with a Mekong cruise by another makes no sense. Also, for those who needs advise on "where the heck should we go?," either asking specific question about a particular region (for example, what's the weather in Budapest in March? or Should I worry about insects in the Amazon?), I think, would be more constructive. Of course, there's nothing wrong about having a sub-forum titled "general river cruising" in addition to different regions would also be a good idea.

I'm not sure if I was clear enough in my original post, but one option I suggested is to have separate sub-forums for different regions.

This is a question and perhaps a suggestion for people at CC:

Why are all river cruises topic lumped into one forum? I think it would be more helpful if the threads are organized into separate cruise lines, or separate rivers/regions.

My suggestions is either have separate sub-forums for the ten or so largest operators of river cruises, then have the "other operators" sub-forums for the rest:

or

Have one for Rhine, another for Danube, the "other European Rivers," "Asian Rivers," then "Other Regions/Rivers."

The first suggestion might make more sense.

I know the reason this has not been done. It's because river cruise customer base is still much smaller than that of ocean cruisers. However, I think it is a growing segment, and also it just makes more sense to have sub-forums, instead of it to be lumped together like this.

Check your options. Last fall I found flying into/out of Southhampton from Louisville was almost $500/pp cheaper and took about 90 minutes longer. We did make 1 additional connection (2stops vs 1 to LHR). But frankly it was SO much easier to make an extra connection in DUB and be able to avoid Heathrow and the hassle of getting to and from Southhampton that it was a no brainer for me. We have done it both ways and SOU was much simpler. But maybe we were just lucky with connection times and prices.

Thanks for this information. So far, looking at flights for May of this year (the cruise is May of next year, however), flights to/from Southampton is a little more expensive than that to Heathrow/Gatwick, but I know things can change. Also, there are more convenient flights going home to Indianapolis from Heathrow, and they tend to be shorter. And of course, there are a few non-stop flights from Chicago O'Hare, which we may or may not consider taking. But I am going to keep looking.

Thanks - that makes things much clearer.

 

To be frank, I don't think this is likely to be worth your while. As far as I can see, SOU-IND is a minimum 2-stop journey, but LHR-IND can be done with one-stop. Indianapolis is too far from Chicago for it to be sensible to use Chicago instead, and even then SOU-ORD would be 1-stop versus non-stop from LHR.

 

I think that overall there's likely to be less hassle involved in transferring to LHR to fly home than to try to do it from SOU. In effect, you're trading the extra flight sector involved in flying from SOU for the surface transfer from Southampton to LHR, and I think that the latter is probably simply going to be easier, given SOU's limitations and the limitation that picking it would place on your available flight options.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. As you point out, most flights out of SOU takes much longer to get home to IND.

We are coming from Indianapolis, so there's no non-stop option, even to LHR. We are most likely flying into LHR or LGW, since we are thinking about doing a few things in London before boarding the ship. However, we are wondering if we should fly home from SOU. We are planning to simply go home at the end of the cruise in Southampton, and was wondering if flying out of SOU would make it simpler/easier vs going back to LHR/LGW the day of dismbarkation.

Since this is my thread, please allow me to "re-focus" the topic to the original one: Is it worth it to fly in/out of Southampton instead of Heathrow or Gatwick?

Thanks for your quick responses. I, however, am confused about the comments about different luggage allowances. My understanding is that, regardless of what the luggage allowance is for the shorter flights that end in/originates from Southampton, I will be able to abide by the luggage rules that apply to the transatlantic segment (which is most likely the "most significant carrier") on a multi-carrier itinerary. I guess it would make a difference if we are not making an extended layover in an intermediate stops.

Hi. I apologize in advance if this topic has been discussed to death already. We recently booked a Southampton round-trip cruise on Princess for next year. We live in the US, and most flights to London go to Heathrow and some to Gatwick. I also saw a few limited flights to Southampton (via Dublin, Munich, Amsterdam). Has anyone tried to fly in/out of Southampton airport for a cruise? Is it worth it to do this? Or it's not much of an advantage? We are currently thinking about doing an open jaw (flying into Heathrow/Gatwick, going home from Southampton, if we can find a good flight).

We did a 7 night Norway cruise aboard Koningsdam in May. We had a fantastic vacation despite the ship and its annoying shortcomings.

In terms of interior design, it is obvious that the whole ship was designed by a committee, piece by piece without thinking about the ship as a whole...it's a rather dizzying mixture of too many design themes, making the whole ship look a bit chaotic and not luxurious. The design themes throughout the ship does not flow well together. Instead, it clashes very badly in some areas. The ship was, in my opinion, not very classy.

Another big issue is that Holland America basically staffed Koningsdam, a ship much bigger ship, as though they were staffing a smaller more typical Holland America ship. This resulted in major service breakdown issues in both the main dining room and the lido.

Also, there are a few poorly executed design in both the cabins and the public rooms (placement of toilets too close to the glass shower door, location of Lincoln Center Stage too close to the casino, the annoying columns blocking the Lincoln Center Stage, column in middle of men's locker room), which I hope they will not repeat in their next ship of this kind.

The food in main dining room/lido were quite typical of other mainstream cruise lines, not great, but good enough for what we paid. To eat anything better than that, we had to pay more (by going to alternative restaurants). It reinforces the notion that you get what you pay for. But on Konigsdam, Holland America tried too hard to maximize revenue, and that sort of backfired on them. I sincerely hope that the execs in Seattle will take the low ratings seriously.

However, the we really enjoyed the itinerary, and had a blast. So I would not worry too much about the ship.

We have been on 4 or so Crystal cruises in the past, and going for our next one later this year. In our experience, there are as many "family" members onboard, but because the ship capacity is around 900-1000, it is hard to have a large FOD group going. However, we have managed to meet more than a few gay/lesbians (mainly couples) on all of our cruises with them. I don't have the hard numbers (and I doubt anybody really does), but the percentage of "family" on a Crystal cruise appears to us as comparable to other lines we have been on. The big difference on a Crystal ship, however, is that the average age appears to be a bit higher than a comparable itinerary on other lines, probably because of the pricing. My understanding is that gay group companies such as Pied Piper used to book groups on Crystal in the past, but not recently. I am not sure why that is, though.

Thanks for looking into it for us. I will give them a call.

According to the Port's web site there is a kiosk for National/Alamo at pier 91. That sounds like the cars aren't held at the pier. Perhaps an employee will shuttle you into town to pick up the car?? So probably the same in the other direction. If there's a specific company you want to use because you have points or whatever, I'd suggest you call and find out what they can do for you regarding pier 91. Otherwise call the National or Alamo numbers provided by the Port.

http://www.portseattle.org/seaport/cruise/parkingandtransportation.shtml#rental

Do you need a car because you're travelling outside of Seattle. I just wanted to mention that buses are free in the downtown core. And the bus system has a trip planner on it's site. More info is available on the West Coast Departure forum in the Seattle Q&A STICKY at the top of the page.

Thanks for your info. I also saw the information about Alamo and National on the Port of Seattle website. But when I went to their websites, there was no information on their reservation section to choose Smith Cove/Pier 91 as a location. I tried to call them, but I was on hold for a long time so I will try again.

We just want to have a car overnight, so that we can

a) drive from the airport to our hotel in downtown Seattle with our luggage.

b) do some sight seeing, maybe as far as Bellevue area for gardens

c) drive to the pier and drop off the car

Thanks

Hi. We are taking our first Alaska cruise from Seattle this summer. Does anybody know if it is possible for us to do a one-way car rental from Sea-Tac airport to the Smith Cove cruise ship terminal. We are arriving one day before the cruise, and would like to explore the Seattle area before we board the ship. Thanks.

We will be on Sapphire Princess in about a month. We've never been on any Princess ship before.

I'm too lazy to do a search on the board, so here's my question about the self-laundry setup:

1. Are they coin-operated?

2. Does this mean we have to get coins?

3. Do people bring coins from home? Or are the coins readilly available on board?

4. Should we just bring fabric softner/detergent from home (small amounts, of course).

Thanks.

I did some research (fancy word for web surfing) on my own and I see that "newer" Mermaid pods are supposedly less likely to have bearing problems.

The following may be a really silly question, but...

I'm still puzzled why are Millenium, Infinity, and Summit "stuck" with the "older" Mermaid pods and their supposed inherent problems with their bearings. Why can they upgrade these ships to perform as well as Constellation? Or is there a reason other than the actual pods that is sparing Constellation from Mermaid pods problems (maybe the way in which the ship is used?)? Since I know nothing about shipbuilding, I can only guess, but is it the case that Millenium, Infinity, and Summit can ONLY undergo minor repairs to the Mermaid pods, and fitting a newer degisn models will require total "gutting out" of their propulsion system as a whole?

It's also beyond my comprehension that we only hear about repeated failures of Mermaid pods only on the three Millenium Class ships, but not other ships (non-Celebrity) fitted with pods, either Mermaid or else. My understanding is that some pods made by ABB (a competitors to makers of Mermaid pods) have failed (on Carnival Paradise and Norwegian Star, from what I gather) but that problem have not recurred lately (or I have not heard). Is there something really different about the "older" Mermaid pods on the earlier Millenium Class ships that prevents them from being updated to a newer model? Or is this a deliverate decision by parties involved (RCL, Celebrity, Rolls-Royce, Alstom, or whoever) NOT to update the existing pods completely on these ships?

I'm really interested in doing a repeat cruise on Infinity (that was my first cruise ship, ever, in 2002), possibly on the Cape Horn/Chilean Fjords itinerary sometime, but I'm afraid to do so because I hate last minute changes to our plans due to ship failure.