comas

A shoehorn and clothes brush are essential items. A long shoehorn is also useful as a back scratcher or even for retrieving certain dropped items.
 I did miss the white towelling slippers. There were none in our room and I forgot to ask our butler. 

2 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

Serenity from February of 2018 in Sydney, Australia . First and only time we visited the ship as a visitor.

 

Keith

 

 

 

Serenity following Symphony  ~  Sydney  harbour  ~  also February 2018. 

I believe this was a rare occasion when the sisters were in Sydney together. 

Mmmm….well we are on Symphony now and tonight it’s White Party.

Unfortunately, a week or two back, we read somewhere on the www that this particular cruise was not featuring a formal night or white party as it’s port intensive. We aren’t too bothered that we didn’t pack for either. Almost certainly there is no formal night, but we’ll observe tonight as best we can. Maybe these details should be made available during booking as a courtesy?

13 hours ago, BWIVince said:

Why the eye roll at Laurel, Maryland?  😞 Some of us are proud to live near there!

 

Vince

My apologies.  Maybe it was the wrong choice of Emoji.  We are in S E England and the distance 6 luggage tags had travelled  from Laurel is considerable - that is why I used that Emoji. Coincidentally, our daughter works for Zebra ~ she spotted their name on the bar coded address label. 😄

On 9/14/2023 at 1:40 AM, DaisyUK said:

Just Received them today..

On 9/14/2023 at 1:40 AM, DaisyUK said:

Just Received them today..

Us too. UPS Express from Laurel, Maryland, US. 🙄

On 9/12/2023 at 11:35 AM, DaisyUK said:

Thanks for the update. We join in Venice. Can't wait! 

Us too ~ have you received any luggage tags please?

Ann. 

On 9/3/2023 at 5:37 PM, Keith1010 said:

Greg seven or more is what the site says. There could be exceptions as is the case with the September 18 Symphony cruise which is 8 days but because it is port intensive they decided no formal night.  We have asked them to add this type of information to the My Account planner to make it easier for people to plan.

Keith

Thank you for that information. We are booked on that cruise and had no idea there wouldn’t be a formal night ~ a few items of clothing we can leave at home!

Pleased to have found this post ~ some of the answers have made me laugh out loud!

Having ascertained that the Bistro closes at 6pm, I’m interested to know where else on board can diners enjoy an after dinner coffee, apart from room service?

I really don’t mind who has the answer. 

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!

It seems Aquamarine on Deck 10 are Classic design. I can only offer two screen shots which may help you. 

7 hours ago, crickette said:

Some/many (not us) were critical of the small size of the staterooms.  I think A&K were listening to them, and thus you and I are experiencing the result of that criticism.  They heard solos say they were quite happy with the size, although they hoped for better locations.  Now they have priced some couples out of the Crystal experience.  I do think that future cruises will be repriced to be more inclusive.

I agree with all you have said.  We found a double room with balcony perfectly adequate. The fact that we selected Aquamarine this time was purely because there was really no other option other than even larger suites. By the way, we decided against booking a Guarantee or opting for adding the supplement.  
It’s back to browsing the web. 
Ann. 

7 hours ago, skybluewaters said:

 

Very much so. There are very few (only 22) double guest rooms with verandas, and they are sprinkled about the ship, almost exclusively in poorly-located areas, either right at the elevators or far front or far aft. It's clear from looking at the deck plan of Symphony that they're located only where new suites couldn't be placed.

Exactly, you’ve hit the nail on the head!
For us, who only cruise in Europe now, Symphony is possibly our only option from Crystal. Bagging a double room with balcony will be difficult.  It’s disappointing for us.  Other lines in our view don’t come close to Crystal as we knew it. 
Ann. 

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

As Nancy mentioned the staterooms have had variable pricing for many years including location and also if the view was somewhat hampered.  Although other luxury lines have had variable pricing for years expanding this to the Aquamarine and to the Sapphire suites is something new for NC.  

 

For those who don't care about location it can be a bonus. For my wife and myself location is important so we won't do a guarantee. In fact, for one of the cruises we booked for one of the suite categories we were interested in the only option was guarantee and for the other suite category there wee several voices including preferred locations so we went with the latter.

 

Keith 

Thank you Keith for your input. Certainly location is important for us. We have in the past always chosen a double room with verandah, deck 8 or 9 on Serenity.
I do wonder if Crystal have removed too many double rooms with verandah on Symphony, as they have been wait-listed for some time.  

 Ann. 

5 hours ago, Roland4 said:

I have not had any current experience with NC, but I can offer some clarity on the concept as most lines work the same way.

 

When a room category is getting close to full, the lines will offer a Category XX Guarantee at a price. You will get Category XX or higher when the rooom is assigned. The other category is, for example, Balcony Guaranty. In this case you could be assigned a balcony cabin anywhere on the ship, and as a result, it is at a lower price, as you could be in a higher category than the XX Guarantee, or a lower category. Unless you are worried about location, the Balcony Guaranty can be the better deal.

 

In either case, the actual room number may not be assigned until two weeks to ten days prior to sailing, and in extreme cases, not until you check in at the pier.

 Thanks for your explanation.  By opting for a Guarantee, we could end up with a Sapphire suite, but on Deck 8  which doesn’t appeal to us. 

5 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

One other thing to remember is that OC would charge the same for all cabins in a particular category.  To the best of my knowledge, NC has variable pricing within the categories, depending on cabin location.  I have been quoted different prices varying by where the cabin was situated.  (Note how the website shows prices "from" a base number.)

 

 

Oh that’s definitely what has happened ~ hence the GBP760 pp. I mentioned. 

6 hours ago, Embowaf said:

I frequently booked guarantee on OC when it was available and it was cheaper. So Crystal doing it isn't new. But I dunno if the exact sales flow you went through is the way it used to work.

I’m afraid ‘flow’ doesn’t come to mind, more like ‘bumpy’. The 5 hour time difference between the U.K. and US causes long waits for replies.  In the meantime availability changes. It didn’t used to be this way!

Thank you Nancy for your views, which are most helpful. I feel certain we wouldn’t book a Guarantee ~ it seems far too risky. Ann. 

Good evening,

we are in the U.K. and so is our T/A. At this late date we decided to enquire about an Aquamarine Veranda stateroom on a Symphony voyage 18th. ~ 26th. September. 2023.
We were given a quote with flights incorporating the Society double discount and £400. pp flight discount. After selecting a room number from 6 offered, it was explained a further £760. pp would be additional to the original quote. We were shocked when it was explained the original quote  was only for a Guarantee booking, which meant a room number would be allocated two weeks before the sail date. This is not something we have encountered with any cruise line before.  
We are hoping CC members are able throw some light on what we might expect.
 

1 hour ago, ctjon said:

why make your own when there are so many great brands out there - especially Ben & Jerry

Somewhere very recently,  maybe on Cruise Critic or Crystal Society Facebook page, I read the good news that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream will be available on Crystal.  

20 hours ago, uktog said:

The door is the wrong size. It can only be fixed by losing the use of the drawer. It’s a balcony cabin. We are only hearing second hand what fixes they are using. Also waiting to hear about our air conditioning the room can either be freezing or scalding (all on the same setting!) no happy medium yet 

Surely you should have the opportunity to move to a fully functioning room. 
In view of the reduced number of passengers, housekeeping should be discussing this possibility with you at once.  Good Luck. 

6 hours ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

It probably reminds most people of local Hero, I great feel good film with music to match.

Absolutely and what a great film. Watched it countless times and yes , the music is perfect.  Ann. 

On 3/12/2021 at 1:17 PM, wjfan417 said:

I’m not either, but since I’m still not getting correspondence from Azamara despite contacting them a few times, I can’t vote anyhow!

 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/5950/
 

Hopefully this is the link for voting. 

Maybe:

AZAMARA PINNACLE

                or

AZAMARA MERIDIAN

7 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

Why do local tourism boards always leave out the really good stuff?  I'm now so going to Key West when we open back up.

Be sure to take a tour on the Conch Train whilst you are visiting. It’s great fun. 
I cannot seem to paste a link on here, but just Google ‘Conch Train’. It’s 10 years since we were there, but I believe it’s pronounced ‘Conk’ ?

https://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/travel-insurance-covid-19-medical-cover-cruise-holidays

I received this email today .   Those of you commenting on this post may find it interesting.