Stickman1990

Day 12 - at sea heading to Fiji Another lovely day enjoying very calm seas as we cross the Pacific We don’t rise early and the morning soon disappears with attendance at a lectures or for Kerry attending the knitting group which is always popular and great spot to catch-up with old friends from previous cruises. We chatted with Berta, the instructor and her husband Raphael and gave them some tips on excursions in NZ and Australia We had a good round at trivia with 13 out of 15 but were second as the top team got 14 - who knew Mars sunsets were blue! Lunch was at Waterside where we enjoy the friendly staff and the relaxed dining and choices on the menu It was formal night so we dined in Waterside - I gave the caviar a miss this time and enjoyed a nice seafood salad for my main course. Check out the video of my wife’s dessert! IMG_8874.mov I caught the end of the Broadway hits show which I’ve seen many times - hopefully we get some new production shows soon as although the ensemble perform them very well the shows are all too familiar I had a few nightcaps in the Avenue where Neal Fullerton was entertaining a fairly full house on his piano and guitar Tomorrow is Lautoka, Fiji so some time ashore

I disagree - I suspect you’ve never worked in Procurement or Supply Chain management? Good Procurement professionals will often get better deals or terms The other issue is what profitability the lines choose to target Labour costs will vary on where you source your labour

Are you talking about an App for use off the ship? What content would you be looking for on it that’s not on the Crystal Cruises website? For when you’re on the ship there’s already an intranet site you can access when connected to the ships network - here’s a couple of shots of what’s available

1 March Reflections Reflections 1 March 2024.pdf

I have cruises booked on Silversea, Crystal and Explora and all are well under $500 per day and most are previous cruises on lines like Regent have been below $500 - how? We plan ahead and grab bargains as they are offered by the lines and keep an eye on special offers Try looking at a crossings on Explora 1 & 2 - I’m at sea at the moment so it’s too hard for me to go chasing around sites to quote specifics but I know that the Explora trans Atlantics are well priced

1 March Waterside Lunch - closed as were in Lautoka, Fiji Waterside Dinner Waterside Dinner 1 March.pdf Waterside Dinner 1 March.pdf

It’s very much subject to availability of materials - I’m told it could be as early as July or worse case it could run out to September

Day 11 - Tonga We finally made it to Tonga after missing this port in 2020. We were docked, unlike a larger Costa ship which was tendering passengers ashore. The weather was hot hot hot - well it was mainly the high humidity that got to us Nevertheless we enjoyed a walk into town and visits to various markets and a chat with some locals who were smart enough to be seated under a lovely big tree which afforded some protection from the sun. We bought a few souvenirs at the markets and then returned to the ship for lunch in Tastes We enjoyed sail away from our balcony Then we dined in Tastes which is a nice casual restaurant serving small portion dishes that can be shared family style around the table - we enjoyed a wide selection and left full - but we shall definitely return again. You know what the best thing about dining in Tastes was? We had Benjamin as our sommelier! He is a living treasure of Crystal The show was Bruce Hammond who did a Salute to Frank Sinatra - he is very good Tomorrow's a sea day as we cruise towards Fiji and some photos….the foods from Tastes

29 February Reflections Reflections 29 February 2024.pdf

They will also have offerings for vegetarians (mentioned in their press release) and I hope they bring some items over from their Reefbar menu as well We too loved Churrascaria but my meat preferences have moved more to seafood since then - but I’d have been happy to see it return

We stayed in a GT - the suite itself is the same size - it’s only the “terrace” aka balcony/veranda that varies and it’s a little larger - there’s a nice day bed out there There are some small laundry benefits as well - with 1 free bag of laundry and one unlimited lot of pressing included So I’d only do it if you were going to use the terrace - we were in Iceland and Greenland so it was of limited use to us

29 February Waterside lunch Waterside Lunch 29 February.pdf Waterside Dinner Waterside Dinner 29 February.pdf

I was thinking Caviar dishes and maybe Escargots but I’m pretty sure there are others that require extra special preparation Having said that in the past we’ve had lobster tails on request and even a suckling pig - we were on a table of 8 - sadly they can’t serve those dishes table side anymore

and neither ship is sailing at anywhere near full capacity - bear in mind these numbers are for double occupancy where possible, in every cabin. A very unlikely event Right now Serenity would have around half the max capacity onboard and it feels very spacious - and retains what I believe is a full complement of crew. You don’t wait for anything…and the service is top notch I think the space and ratio of crew on both ships is pretty good and you don’t wait for attention or a seat anywhere

When we were on last Sept the standard pour around the ship was Moet - you did get a bottle of Veuve in your entry level suite on embarkation but it would be replenished with Moet I have seen it reported that the Moet is being replaced by another champagne, Mercier which is also owned by Louis Vuiton Moët Hennessy By way of comparison Crystals standard champagne pour is Jaquart which according to Vivino is a more expensive champagne than Mercier We were happy with the included wines on Explora and in keeping with the thread title here’s both lines included wines (Explora from Sept and Crystal from currently) - Crystal list is more expansive but as I said we found Explora’s wines fine Crystal Explora

I think you’d be unlikely to see menus repeated on a weekly gap The nice thing is you can request most items as special order if they have been on the menu (there’s a few exceptions to that) - so don’t worry if you have booked a specialty restaurant and see something on Watersides menu that you would have liked

28 February Reflections Reflections 28 February 2024.pdf

No we’re in Tonga today - so a port day

I have a feeling mailings are staggered as I haven’t received the message above yet - but I’ll post when/if I do so we can gauge the spread of timing for reception of the same emails

Day 10 - Cruising the Pacific to Tonga Another sea day for us but so much to do around the ship. I enjoyed visiting many areas I hadn’t got to and chatting with the crew and fellow guests The morning started with the Morning Show with guest Liezl the librarian and it was fascinating to hear all the additional things she does in addition to maintaining the excellent library on board - after many years with Crystal she’s clearly a go to person who has a lot of knowledge how to get things done around the ship and I know she is loved by many. I also answered one of the quiz questions so that’s a prize for me on each day of the show when they ask questions. What’s the capital of Haiti was my success story yesterday We started off with breakfast in Waterside which is a la carte - I particularly like going there as it’s the only place I can get poached eggs and I added smashed avocado on toast as well (the Avocado wasn’t on the menu but they were happy to prepare it for me) - my wife had her first donut of the cruise also - a lovely Berliner with lots of jam filling We caught up with Roland our Butler who is ever present making sure we are comfortable and our suite well stocked - we are amazed how he preempts our requests with an appearance at our door awaiting our request - it’s that sixth sense butlers must develop I got to a lecture which was on Nuclear Testing in the Pacific - it bought back memories of growing up in New Zealand and hearing of regular French testing above ground at Muraroa - those were sad times with the impact on many Pacific Islands We had a better day at Trivia with 13 out of 15 - only good enough for joint second place but a major improvement for us We visited one of the shops and bought Kerry a new knitting bag, ok they think it’s a beach bag but she knows better, and I got a Crystal logo tshirt then coffee in the Bistro I checked out the Pearl fashion show in the Cove and Viennese afternoon tea with lots of cakes Then we went to the Magicians at Sea performance by Paul Stone, and thoroughly enjoyed the show - Kerry and Ricki helped him out in his act as well Dinner was once again in Waterside where we love the changing menu each day and the excellent service (we actually at all three meals there today) Another great day on Crystal for us and the occasional photo included - many are still not loading I’m afraid

28 February Waterside lunch - closed Waterside Lunch 28 February - Closed.pdf Waterside dinner Waterside Dinner 28 February.pdf Reflections - to come

That cabin is now available to solo cruisers at a pretty sharp price - now there’s another comparison across lines - prices for single cruisers… Although we have solo cruiser coming with us on our next Explora cruise and she’s pretty happy with the relatively low single supplement - 25% I seem to recall - and on Explora she gets a full sized veranda (or Terrace 😉) suite

27 February Reflections Reflections 27 February 2024.pdf

Trust me I am constantly comparing Crystal and Explora in my mind, particularly at the moment - the net is both my wife and I are agreed that we’re happy on both - with different cruising experiences but equally as pleasurable Heres some quick thoughts - certainly not an exhaustive list Dining is a tough one as there are venues on both that we would score similar locations higher on one over another and vice versa - one in particular we think is superb on Explora is Sakura - that’s not to say Umi Uma on Crystal isn’t very good but for our tastes we like the more extensive menu and the quality of the ingredients - having said that it’s a very close call. Equally Waterside on Crystal is excellent and the menu amazing - so that is also a winner in our view If Internet service is important to you I can tell you that Explora has a very fast and reliable Starlink implementation that I think sets a benchmark for Internet at sea - yes I know lots of lines have Starlink but in our experience the results achieved varies considerably

More than happy to have that type of discussion but how do you suggest things like Dining, Service and Entertainment be compared? What measurement scale do we use for them? I’ve sailed a lot on Crystal over many years and am on Serenity now actually - I’ve sailed Explora once with another couple of cruises booked with them so definitely have views on both lines (as well as a few other luxury lines) - with both being more than acceptable to us for different reasons Have you sailed on both lines? I think being able to make comparisons based on first hand experience is far more relevant that a statistical comparison I know when I make decisions on who to sail with factors like the itinerary, the service and dining offerings as well as entertainment and enrichment to a lesser extent. Eventually I look at price and my per diems on what I’m actually paying for cruises vary from your comparison above - but constantly look for special offers We typically sail entry level cabins and in the past that’s included the non veranda rooms on both Crystal ships) - of course the OTs are bigger than Crystals entry level cabins - is there anyone who would suggest otherwise For my wife and I spend very little time in our rooms - and enjoy the public lounges and other facilities and the fact that there’s plenty of choice and capacity BTW - I really don’t care what sort of knife I get in my cabin and I never request fruit - just alcohol and water for the cabin for us