Ibis

Yesterday there was a shuttle from the ship to the small town. Locally operated school buses with lots of very pleasant and helpful gentlemen welcoming us, thanking us for visiting, and giving a bit of information on the area. Granted, there is not a great deal to see but we were still glad we took the ride into town. It was refreshing to meet such genuine people who were working hard to promote their small town which has now fallen a bit on hard times since the closure of the paper mill several years ago.

We must have been very close to each other last night at dinner as we also enjoyed great service from Enver and Marli! Glad all is going well and really appreciate you are posting Reflections and menus. We enjoyed a super meal tonight; again at the sushi bar. Looking forward to two sea days😊

That’s correct; neither the current itinerary nor the upcoming itinerary back to NYC will stop in Boston. As mentioned, best to contact OBGS about your specific itinerary. Have a great trip!

Totally agree with Keith about the Classic Aquamarine suites on Serenity. They offer a beautiful, but not ultra modern decor, as well as tons of storage and two very useful desk/vanity areas each with its own chair. The bath offers a tub as well as separate walk-in shower with no overhead “rain shower”. Definitely our preference but perhaps not for everyone.

Waterside currently closed for lunch on port days. All food has been excellent with only one or two exceptions and depending on personal taste and preference others may have enjoyed those as well. Best to follow your own inclination as you know your preferences. There is a very wide range of choice on the dinner menu in Waterside.

Answer to the question is YES! Currently on board and having a super experience; our third time since new owners. The point is, not only are the new owners trying to maintain the Crystal standard of the past but they are working very very hard to improve on what was already an outstanding product. PS … we have no problem with those “pesky pumps” 🙂 Sure, I might personally prefer Bulgari or Etro, but get real.. if that’s the only fly in the ointment, I think we should all thank our lucky stars someone wanted these two beautiful ships, regardless of their age or bath products. Plus the someone who wanted the ships also happens to have the experience, management skills and financial backing to continue to improve our cruising pleasure!

Currently on board and happy to report we are enjoying beautiful weather, the legendary service from Crystal, and wonderful food thus far in Waterside as well as last night in Osteria d’Ovidio. Leo doing a great job in Waterside and Paolo, as always, adding his expertise and warmth to the speciality restaurants. Some of you might remember we were hoping to have a Classic Aquamarine instead of the newly renovated Sapphire we were booked in due to our late reservation change to this itinerary. Classic Aquamarines were sold out so we checked with Concierge just after boarding and although there were still no Classic Aquamarine suites left there was one Classic Sapphire, a bit forward but we did switch to it from the 2023 renovated Sapphire and we are very pleased. The closet is definitely larger than the 2023 renovated and the decor suits us much better. We are very happy with this suite! We have been told there are approximately 600 on board and at no time have we felt in the least crowded. Check in and boarding process went very smoothly. Many welcome home hellos and Cobb Salad with Champagne all went as they should 🥰 If there are questions I can answer while on board please let me know and I will try to do my best as we have always appreciated those who given us on board reports. Rest assured, all staff and crew on board continue to work very hard to ensure that new Crystal is not just as wonderful as old Crystal but even better!

Bon Voyage! Looking forward to your next adventure.. thanks for sharing!

Bon Voyage! Looking forward to hearing your report from Symphony. We first sailed on her in 2003 as well. Our sentimental favorite😍 Hope you have a wonderful trip!

Yes for sure for CD Rick and Rest Mgr Paolo. I am almost certain Paolo is but not 100%. Great to hear about Rick! Do you mean both Paolo and Leo? THANKS!!

Also looking forward to joining in NYC on 14 September 😊 Does anyone know, will Rick Spath, Paolo, Leo still be aboard?

This is, indeed, most helpful and thank you very much! It helps us set our expectations level which in my option is very important in order to avoid disappointment once in this suite. Hopefully, there are many cruisers who will be comfortable in the Sapphire suite but for us it will definitely be a challenge. We both enjoy having what we consider adequate wardrobe, both casual and formal when we cruise so the small amount of hanging space will definitely be challenging as well as the bar height of 7 feet for me at 5 ft 1 in. Thankfully, my husband at 6ft 3in will undoubtedly be glad to help 😍 but what a nuisance! It turns out this trip has been a bit fraught. You might remember we are the ones who had, in May, booked on board (with an Aquamarine Suite confirmed) the B2B New York Fort Lauderdale. So convenient since we live in Fort Lauderdale. Then, thanks to Roy’s quick observation here on CC we began to question the legality of that Itinerary. It literally took weeks and a great deal of effort on the part of our travel agent for Crystal to finally figure it out and tell us we could not travel on that itinerary. We switched that booking to the last two segments of the WC 2025 but then realized we still really wanted a New York Quebec New York itinerary as we have never cruised the Saint Lawerence. By that time there were no Classic Aquamarine Suites left😖. TA is checking very frequently with Crystal but nothing available at this point. Still looking forward to being on board and thanks to help from here we know what to expect so we won’t be totally exasperated when we start to unpack! Many thanks, Keith for your extra effort to go back and checkout that closet!

As some of us often say, choice is a good thing! So it is good there are those who prefer the Sapphire Suite. Personally, our suite of choice is the Classic Aquamarine, as opposed to any of the newly renovated suites. We have spent our last three cruises, happily, in that category. During a tour of various categories on our May transatlantic we felt the Sapphire would not suit us as well; but unfortunately did not take note of all these little details. These little details now seem important since we are currently booked to spend 18 days in one, unless the Aquamarine suite clears! So please, any additional information is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all for various perspectives 😊

Thanks to both Keith and Whipsnade for the additional information. TA Checked with Crystal again today and both segments are still fully booked in Classic Aquamarine 😔 Will keep trying!

Keith, thanks for more info on the Sapphire Suite closet. Beyond the drawer concern, looking at several photos and videos, it seems the bar for hangers is quite high. Did you notice? Although my husband is over 6 feet, I am much more petite and it is a real nuisance to ask him each time I want to remove a hanger😆. Additionally, we are both concerned about the size of the closet as it looks much smaller than the closet in the Aquamarine Suites which are our preferred rooms. Sadly none available on our September 14 sailing. 😔 Thanks again for any info! As always, enjoying hearing about your adventures; thanks for posting and have a great time!

Bon voyage! Looking forward to reading about your next adventure! Hope you two have a wonderful trip😊

We were told the same on our recent cruise on Serenity Las Palmas - Miami No birthday breakfast available. We had wanted my husband’s to be delivered by room service as it had been for my birthday several years ago.

Hope you have a great trip! Is there a piano bar on that ship? We were just on Fascinosa for our first Costa cruise. We had a great time and in particular, enjoyed the piano bar so we are now wondering if that venue is on all other Costa ships. Thanks for any info you can give.

Bon Voyage to all! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures!

Ivi, don’t worry about autocorrect, typos, etc, just enjoy being on board Symphony! Have a wonderful cruise and give a quick report whenever you can! Bon Voyage!

I do understand from Vince’s very good explanation why NYC disembark works and not Fort Lauderdale. Thank you very much for that detailed explanation. And thank you to Keith for being in touch with Crystal, as he is correct, they should be contacting those booked on this itinerary. Roy, we will pursue your suggestion. Not sure I will be able to sell that idea here at home 🙂

Thanks to all. So it doesn’t matter that we are booked as two segments? And it doesn’t matter that we are going through immigration in Quebec? We really appreciate the time everyone is spending on this to try to help us. Maybe a night in a hotel in Quebec is the answer!?! Wonder if we could still have dinner on board? What a revolting development this is! Ha Ha.. but not so funny..

Thanks so much for sharing your answer from EDI. It is discouraging they referred to Jones Act instead of PVSA but we hope their answer is the correct one, albeit not the answer we had hoped to receive. Two points to which I hope those of you who are more well versed than I on this will respond .. This first segment starts in NYC so why does disembarking in NYC November 1 or 2 cure the problem as EDI suggests? If you embark in NYC wouldn’t you need to disembark in Quebec City at the end of that segment? Second point. The third phone agent our TA spoke with was rather emphatic there is no violation because we would be going through immigration in Quebec City. That made some sense to me, as going through immigration would mean you had entered a foreign country, Canada, before returning to United States. Wouldn’t that satisfy the PVSA? Comments, PLEASE 🙂 We are still going to wait until the end of the day Monday to make or not make final payment hoping our TA will hear back before then. Also, just can’t help wondering why Paula Jean, with all her years of experience didn’t realize this was a violation when we booked on board two weeks ago. We spoke with her several times and ask her to price one segment and also the two segments B2B before we decided to book both segments. PVSA was never mentioned. Thanks to everyone for their responses and my apologies for not answering those further questions about hotels, etc. that I posed at the beginning of this thread. I can’t think about hotels or what we might do in NYC until we know this issue is resolved. Flying back to Fort Lauderdale from Nassau doesn’t have much appeal to us.

Quick update from our side… due to his continuing concern about the legal status of this back to back itinerary our travel agent recontacted Crystal (3rd time) only to be reassured once again by the phone agent it is not in violation. He then asked for a manager or supervisor to call him back, which should happen within 24 hours. Crystal has said they will then provide him with a letter stating the legality of our itinerary. Our TA was also successful in having Crystal agree to delaying our final payment until Monday so this may, hopefully, be resolved. I continue to be greatly impressed with the way our TA is pursuing this and also very grateful to Crystal as well, for delaying final payment. Having said that, we still eagerly await the news Roland4 has promised to share from OBGS.

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton, thanks to Marriott points:-), and had a really good experience there. The lounge had several different offers of food that changed throughout the day and the Concierge was very helpful, arranging a tour of nearby vineyards, etc., with another CC couple we met there. Also gave us a good restaurant recommendation, not too far away. There are plenty of things to do and see and we spent at least 3 or 4 days in advance of boarding. However, it has been quite a few years and I can’t speak to the current status of the hotel, but think it is worthy of consideration. Great memories of that trip and hope your 2025 trip will be super!