May B

Your photos are THE BEST! That was a nice synopsis bEwAbG gave. Gotta love Cruise Critic and how helpful folks can be. We are shocked, shocked that you didn’t find body lotion in your suite. You’ve hit more than the average number of glitches in this cruise. Screwed up wine tasting, inadequate service at Le Petit Chef, aargh!

You will have no trouble getting your reservations but together, when you board. When I went to Osteria d’Ovideo after lunch on embarkation day, to request reservations for the Supper Club, Mario noticed that our reservations for Umi Uma and O d’O hadn’t been paired, so he did it right then. Knowing your friend’s cabin number will be exactly enough. Have a blast!

Whoa, Nellie! Thx for taking us with you! Have an absolute blast!

Or a golf cart. 😉 You can’t lump all Caribbean ports together. Mr B and I actually had a wonderful lunch in Bridgetown, Barbados, a few years ago. Just twelve days ago, our Crystal tour at St. Lucia had a nice lunch. And we’ve had others in the past, cruise line, Distinctive Voyages, and booked through a local tour company.

I have forgotten to mention the religious component of our cruise. A priest was on board who held many services or offered Mass, not just on Sunday. He also did non-denominational Protestant services on both Sundays. He assisted Raphael in planning and leading the Veterans Day observance, which was so important. The Cove piano player participated as well. Crystal does a wonderful job with Friday night Shabbat services. We had a nice turnout. The second week conflicted with music trivia, but we still had a better turnout than the first week. Happy Thanksgiving to all who observe. I bet it’ll be truly wonderful, onboard Crystal Serenity!

On occasion, I’ve ordered several starters but no main. I can’t recall where I was. It was a land restaurant, possibly California.

I wonder why I didn’t have the lamb, as I had originally planned. I had the veal chop, which I found a tad bland. Next time, lamb for me! I’ll try for photos.

Btw, we should report to you that the iPad/iPhone Tips class (I went to both of them) was taught by a gentleman who worked in IT at the Los Angeles office for 15 years! In fact, he may have been the head. I liked him a lot. Ironically, neither he nor another guy from the dept. could get one of his two screens working, at his second talk. I never noticed a place in the survey to comment on this. His wife was the Great cruise line escort on one of my shore excursions. Sandy, who taught photography with your phone, was the escort on my other one. So good to have those escorts! And the speakers were often in the first or second row at the other speakers’ presentations. I had a conflict for music trivia, but the rumor is that Roger McGuinn and his teammates won it! The other four trivias, I believe, were all won by the same team. We tied them on the last one but lost the tie-breaker.

I think you had to answer Yes to the question, Do you want to help us decide details of future cruises? I may be paraphrasing. I found it a bit hard to navigate, until I realized I could hit tab to go to the next line. I gave quite a bit of feedback on food in several venues. I gave a ton of 10s, all over the place. I described the four enrichment speakers, from my and Mr B’s viewpoint. I had not realized it didn’t ask for specific shout-outs.

Sue is a superstar among CDs. I had read about her but never cruised with her until March. I’m sure she’ll be home with family over the holidays so we’ll miss seeing her on our next Connie. Mornings in Tampa are sometimes foggy, and on a few occasions, arrivals have been delayed. This a.m. looks like it might’ve been one of those times! Cruise ships sometimes are able to compensate by arriving earlier than originally planned. Today when I look at CruiseMapper, nobody’s in the vicinity, so I can’t test my theory. Keep enjoying!

You can just go to be seated, when you want, or you can make reservations. On my Edge TA, alas, they couldn’t even figure out how to handle the reservations vs. walk-ups! It turned out fine once we fed ourselves a dose of patience … plus it got better as the cruise went on. I think you will find the bar service better or much better or vastly better than what you report from Oasis. I’ve never cruised n NCL.

And was it great?

The bar service you experienced on Silhouette will not be a good predictor of Beyond, imho. That having been said, I expect the OP to find a rhythm that works, after night two. Night one is generally a madhouse every place. The four main dining rooms concept takes a bit of attention for it to be mastered. Actually, last October (2022), the whole systems was in disarray for more days than I thought it should’ve. My recommendation is to chill out and not be in a rush. Check out the four menus so you’ll know which of them have things on offer that particularly appeal to you, depplep. You’ve probably already begun to understood the concept. We dined at Eden and the service was great. Special experience for sure, but we do not have a good track record with specialties, on any line, on any ship.

I’m on over Xmas! I just hope we have pleasant temps and calm seas. I know we’ll have good to great everything else! By that I mean food, service, entertainment, trivia, decorations, and nod to Xmas.

Thank you for taking us along with you! So glad to see so much yummy food and great experiences.

Beautifully said! You must be as disappointed as they are. Other Celebrity ships might be a much better fit for them, but I totally agree with their decision not to cruise with Celebrity again.

Hi Paula, Great to meet you! And Mr Paula 😉😘. I like the production shows, too, though. The dancers are sooooo good! Love the choreography. It was very loud in the Galaxy. Last night, Mr B went to our stateroom, got under the covers and watched it live (but without getting to enjoy the audience great reaction). I stayed in Galaxy but turned my hearing aids down to the lowest they could go. We found disembarkation frustrating, not from anything Crystal did, but from the port employees who had us all waiting for one elevator, until we asked for stairs or escalator. Then we were misdirected, so got some extra steps in, in the process. We were following a whole bus load of transfer folks. One of my favorite things on this cruise was that we had two different shows most nights, one at 6 pm and one at 9:30. Sometimes in Galaxy, sometimes in Stardust. Also loved Bob Ray and Roger McGuinn. Loved most of the food, loved most of the service. Truly thrilled to be back on Crystal.

We left with a rainbow and are welcomed back with one! Couldn't post photo.

Ten couples in the dance floor in Stardust. Tripacian and his SO, Mr B snd I are just sitting, drinking, enjoying the music.

I had forgotten that! After lunch on embarkation day, I went to Osteria d’Ovideo to give my Supper Club request to Mario. I believe that was the mention in the Day One Reflections. A day or two later, we received written confirmation. Then this a.m., I realized there were so many great things on Waterside’s menu, we wanted to change our plans, so that’s what we did. Our friends kept their Supper Club reservations and were seated with a couple they enjoyed meeting very much.

Phil and I are cancelling our Supper Club reservations tonight. I don’t know if there’s a wait list. Have a blast, whoever is attending.

And that big deck plan is useful, too! I suggest everybody go by and pick one of those up, even if you aren’t booking now. The deck five staterooms for Serenity don’t show up, so I guess they aren’t for sale for guests.

My recollection is Mumbai to Athens on Serenity, then a week on land, then Symphony.