sullaRaffaello

On 4/29/2024 at 7:09 PM, naplessailor said:

See you on board.  We are boarding in Cape Town on 5/7.

You do mean 5/5?

Got off the Symphony last month. All venues ended dining at 8:30 PM, the earliest I've ever seen on any ship I've ever been on.

It's interesting that it says milestone redemption must be requested at the time of booking. This is a change. I used to go to the Society Hostess when I was on board to see if I was entitled to anything. If I was, she would apply it immediately. Sounds like they're hoping people forget about it in the haste of booking.

On 4/2/2024 at 6:27 PM, skybluewaters said:

It's good to hear that Crystal has decided not to keep the dining room open for lunch on port days.  This is a wise choice in the allocation of resources, both regarding manpower and the wastage of food. 

Why on earth do you think jt's good to hear? It's the one thing about new Crystal I condemn. Marketplace isn't a wastage of food? If Waterside is closed, Crystal ceases to exist.

Booked on a Friday morning for the Sunday (2 days later). Got a minimum rate inside single cabin. No need for a flight since I live in north Jersey and the ship was out of NY. Just a bus ride from my town. I would definitely do it again.

This morning I received an e-mail from my travel agent. When I saw the name,  I thought it was the info about what was going to happen with this cruise. Instead it was the business-as-usual e-ticket for this cruise with a "bon voyage". Unbelievable!

21 hours ago, History&Wine said:

A man just fell outside of Waterside and received a bloody forehead and a cut on his arm.  I think he will be all right but the crew has put him in a wheelchair and are taking him to the medical center.  
 

Still rocking and rolling here…

Dwight,  How high have you hit  on the Beaufort  scale?

2 hours ago, ryndam said:

.....Seafood has no business on a pizza. Ever.....

 

🤣😆🥴

Except for anchovies!

On 12/21/2023 at 11:12 AM, Mangrove Snapper said:

 

......

 

That was decades ago .....

In 1982, on board the QE2, I was invited to the crew bar by a cocktail waitress. There had to be at least 40 passengers down there. 

https://www.herodion.gr/en/   Excellent, reasonably priced hotel.

17 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

What cruise lines do you typically cruise with?  This is rather common with most of the mass market cruise lines.

Many throughout the years such as HAL, Carnival, Cunard, RCCL, NCL. but most  recently Crystal, Regent, Seabourn and Silversea.

I have never seen this on any ship I've been on.

The worst food I've ever experienced on a ship was Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas.

9 on the Seabourn Sojourn, Funchal to Miami.

On 10/30/2023 at 2:04 PM, WantedOnVoyage said:

I would rather the crew take care of this when or if it becomes an issue.  

 

As a once teenage "gate crasher" on liners, I was spotted in a heartbeat on FRANCE... they could smell Tourist Class passengers at a 10 ft. distance. They just knew.  Italian Line to a lesser degree.. if you had a girlfriend in First, why they issued issued you a pass to visit First Class every evening... those romantic Latins!

 

But... no... if I sensed folks using what they did not pay for, I would quietly approach a staff member and have him or her deal with it and PDQ.  QM2 especially where the deck is too small in capacity in the first place.  Fifty years after FRANCE/RAFFAELLO, I am on the "right side" of the red velvet rope and mean to enjoy it, too!

I also was once a young man on both the Raffaello and the France in tourist class. A group of us young people decided to have afternoon tea in the first class ballroom on the Raffaello. As soon he saw us, a head waiter asked, "What cabin are you in?". When we told him, he politely told us we could have afternoon tea in the tourist class dining room. A couple of years later, on the France, I met a girl from first class. Many young first class people would come to tourist class bars and night clubs, because there were many young people in tourist. She invited me to L'Atlantique, a late night first class bar.   Nobody stopped me and I had the onion soup which was a late night specialty there. Loved those two ships. 

Italian Line

French Line

Chandris

Cunard Line

Seabourn

Crystal

Holland America Line

Royal Caribbean

Norwegian

Carnival

Silversea

Azamara

Regent

On 9/29/2023 at 9:36 PM, Roland4 said:

...... The arrogance in that post is almost breathtaking!....

Are you back to breathing again?? LOL!

To those of you who defend closing Waterside for lunch, I vehemently disagree. Waterside is the luxury product, not self-service buffets and hamburger/hot dog stand casuality. If something needs to be closed, it should be the stuff on deck 12. If Waterside were open and the others closed, people would have to go there or get room service. People need to get taught what luxury is. I can't believe there is more waste in Waterside than at the Marketplace.  As far as having closed Waterside before the shutdown, I've been on Crystal 319 nights on both ships before the shutdown, including 2 world cruises, and remember less than 5 times Waterside was closed if that. I have the Symphony scheduled for a little over a month early next year. If these closures become a standard procedure and not just something temporary, it will be a deal breaker for me. Very sad, because Crystal is a line I love, and I think after the startup everything is even better than before, if that's possible.

I'm aboard also and am enjoying it very much. Took Iceland Air from Newark, Saga class. Had access to the Lufthansa Business lounge. Flight went off without a hitch
5 hours 5 minutes, wheels up to wheels down. Good food and drink. Noted that the included Champagne is Nicholas Feuillate, the same as Crystal. Couldn't care less about the seat, 
as I'm a food and drink guy, not a seat guy. 

Boarded Serenity, just as others said, effortlessly due to low numbers. For the most part, this is the identical ship I left in Bimini in January 2022, with a few notable exceptions. In a balcony room on Deck 9, with the new appointments. I really like the 
improved bright lighting in the bathroom. The new shower is great, too. The crew, food, drink and entertainment appear to be the same Crystal we all knew and loved.

The only glaring negative is that it appears that a decision has been made to close Waterside for lunch on port days. NOT good. I asked Jacques about this and he said because of low passenger numbers, they decided to do this. I told him if they need to close something, the self-service casual stuff, (Trident, Tastes, Market Place) should be closed. Waterside should always be open for 3 meals a day. He said he'd mention it. Hopefully, this is only temporary. Don't want Crystal to turn into Seabourn II.   

I've had 2 complimentary upgrades on OC from minimum rate non-balcony deck 7 cabins to deck 9 balcony cabins, once from a guarantee, and once from an assigned cabin. The latter was on the ill-fated Grand Voyage of Jan. 2022. The interesting thing about the GV was that about 2 weeks before, my agent told me I had an upgrade offer to something on deck 10 for $20K. I declined it and wound up on deck 9 for nothing.

Luggage tags arrived today, 8/28.

Boarding Serenity on Sept. 8th. So far, have only received an e-ticket. Should I have received luggage tags?

24 minutes ago, comas said:

Log In

Go to My Account

Click on My Bookings 

Click on My Reservations

Your first day appears with restaurant options and on this page Dress Code is shown. For subsequent days, scroll back and click on the small right hand  > symbol.

I hope that’s correct, but persevere. For us it was trial and error!

 

I did this and every single night showed Smart Casual.

4 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

 

See if your TA can find the answer from Crystal but even if they do it can change. The information is not part of what you see in My Account. I have suggested they incorporate it into my account but I know they have a lot of things in progress.

 

I expect you will have two formals on the first cruise.

 

Likely September 9 and September 17.

 

Second cruise one formal and logic tells me September 21.

 

Again, see if your TA can contact Crystal for you.

 

Keith

Thanks.

Isn't this Cruise Critic?