TRIPACIAN

Quite often the dancing is in the Starlite. It depends on several factors, sea conditions being one of them.

The dancing was great on the Serenity on our cruise.

I don’t know of any cruise line that shows this information on their website. Crystal did in the past and I think they are planning on doing this in the future.

We just cruised from Quebec to Miami and then roundtrip Miami (Oct 21 - Nov 13) on the Serenity. This is not a review but just my thoughts and opinions. Crystal is back and is better than ever. Those of you waiting to cruise to see if Crystal is the same or better, it is. The ship is in great shape, the changes and improvements have added to the experience. The crew is back and their excitement and joy to be back working with their fellow crew mates is overwhelmingly positive. Watching the crew greet returning passengers with sincere happiness, hugs and sometimes tears was really special. The hotel director said that his department had 85% returning crew. The food was better than ever. We really enjoyed the return of Tastes, the food was great. Osteria D'Ovidio was somewhat confusing at first. The second time we liked it much better. I suggest everyone give it a try and decide for themselves. Our suggestion would be to add some of the old Prego items to the menu (Crystal Classics side to the selections) and it would then be great. Umi Uma was the same as before and was fantastic. Waterside never disappointed us, the food was always hot and the presentations and quality were unbelievable. The entertainment was very good and even though some of the shows were repeats, they had been refreshed and well presented. Though out the cruise but not nightly, we had entertainment options at 6:00 and at 9:30 with dancing nightly in the Palm Court or the Cove. The White Night party was special as was a special Halloween party in the Cove. The effort to give the guests a fantastic experience was obvious. The Supper Club was the highlight of our entertainment experiences. The one negative that we noticed was the reduction in storage in the standard balcony rooms. This is definitely a problem for longer cruises. We liked the new Lounge (in the former casino location) but it was not utilized very much. I expect this will be reworked in the future. We never gamble so the lack of a casino wasn't a negative for us. My wife wasn't happy with the selections in shops so everything wasn't "perfect." For the record, this was our 13th and 14th cruises since Genting's bankruptcy and we have cruised on all of the other top luxury lines during that time. We have had some wonderful experiences and appreciate each cruise line for what they offer. Crystal is our future and we are so glad that they have returned better than ever. We now have 137 days booked on future Crystal cruises. We leave at the end of December for Sydney for the New Years celebration and to board the Symphony for 30 days, Sydney to Bali. We expect the experience on the Symphony to also be fantastic. Are we Crystal "cheerleaders," absolutely!!!

The app works great on your phone or tablet. You don’t need to use the tablet provided in the room once you have the app on your devices.

540 passengers, 565 crew

Another wonderful experience is the “Bondi beach to Coogee” coastal walk! It is around 3 1/2 miles and is spectacular. We do this on every visit to Sydney. As someone said Manly beach is a fun day.

I assume you are looking at the January 4th cruise from Sydney to Bali. We are booked on this cruise and this will be our second time for the cruise around New Zealand. If you haven’t been there it is definitely worth going. We have been to Australia several times and we think the long flights are just part of the experience.

I have just booked 6 segments of the 2025 WC and my contract is exactly as shown above by Kieth. $250.

We just finalized our 2025 booking on 6 segments of the World Cruise. We are sailing from Lima to Mumbai, 83 days. According to my TA the cruise is selling well and we had very few choices of rooms available.

Yes!

Obviously the segments are now available to book. We just booked Lima to Mumbai (6 segments) 83 days total. The good news is that there were very few choices in rooms available so the cruise is selling well.

I know but the Port Authority does not show the Serenity there on that day. It could be a lack of their updating the schedule but I don’t know.

I just looked and the Serenity is not shown at any dock on October 29th. Does anyone have any information that would show the dock?

We just sailed on Seabourn and we often had a conversation with fellow passengers about our "favorite" cruise line and we always replied Crystal. Surprisingly several commented that they were aware of Crystal's return and were planning on booking a first time cruise with them. I think one considerations is that many of the current people cruising are returning to cruising for the first or second time since Covid and they are wanting to find the right cruise line. All of the cruise lines have experience "returning to service" pains and many experienced guests are not happy with the level of service they have received. This opens up the options to try something new.

Enjoy your cruises, we return to the Serenity in October and can’t wait. We are now in London and we board the Seabourn Quest for 24 days Dover to Montreal. We booked this cruise last year before Crystal was “reborn.”

Pretty exciting to see these pictures. Can’t wait to board in October.

I don’t understand how you can be emotionally about this, I have only played this ten times as loud as I can on my iPad!!!

As long as Louie sings at the sail away who cares.

The main impression I got from the video was his intent to recreate as close to possible, Crystal as it was prior to bankruptcy. This is a very smart move and if accomplished will get them off to a great start with good reviews. Changes will be made as the product evolves but starting with the "intent to recreate" with improvements rather than develop a new Crystal is a smart move. We will be on the Serenity in October and look forward to seeing our old friends. As I was typing this I received an email from one of our favorite Crystal employees telling us about their return to the Symphony on July 31st. This makes us even more confident about the future of Crystal.

We were already excited but his comments made us super excited! Can’t wait.

We have booked seven cruise’s on Crystal including 3 back to backs and one separate cruise for relatives to join us. We can’t wait to return to Crystal! Quebec to Miami with additional cruise Miami to Miami 23 days on Serenity. October/November 2023. Second is Sydney to Bali 30 days on Symphony. January/February 2024. Third is back to back from Athens to Miami, 25 days on the Serenity. May/June 2024 We are also booked on the Seabourn Quest this August 25 days Dover to Montreal. Our bags stay packed and used. We have been on two river cruises and nine ocean cruises plus more than 60 days touring Europe since January 2021, so we “love to travel.”

Key question, is Louis Armstrong going to sing What a Wonderful World on sail away? That would make it complete.

We have recently cruised on Regent, Scenic, Silversea and Seabourn and we have met many (40+) former Crystal employees and most have expressed and interest in returning to Crystal. One of the not so surprising reasons is to see there friends and fellow employees. This includes room attendants, cruise directors, butlers, waiters and bartenders. The only common concern was returning to the same position, seniority and pay grade. As Keith has said it would be inappropriate to name names but there are some that are well known. We have also met a former waiter that has started a catering business and is now married with a child that is not returning. I believe most guests on new Crystal will recognize many of the crew on the ships as former employees.