Keith1010

For the Credit Card purposes t does show up as Crystal Cruises, Downers Grove, IL Travel Agency. Keith

Another winner. LeeAnne. Well done You are correct. Keith

There are fruit trees and there are ...............Well you can figure it out. Keith

It's wonderful to see how many Cruise Critic members have one or more cruises booked for 2023 and 2024. Would love to hear from others who are booked on one of the Crystal Cruises. I am reminded that only a little over one year ago, it was announced that the two Ocean Vessels, and right to the name and a couple of other related items had been purchased. Keith

Well done, Nancy. I was wondering if someone would say Jordan or Egypt. 😀 Keith

Great news! Just received the following from Crystal which is great news. If you were owed money from booking on other vessels such as Esprit, Endeavor or the River Cruise Vessels you can apply fill out paperwork to receive a voucher for them. Crystal is delighted to announce that we’ve extended our Exceptional Initiative to cover all vessels of the former Crystal Cruises. The Exceptional Initiative will now be providing credits to guests who have lost deposits, and Travel Advisors who have lost commissions under Crystal Cruises’ former ownership, regardless of the ship. We invite guests who were not previously eligible for the claim to apply by August 1, 2023. We will review existing certificates and reissue a higher value credit where appropriate. This decision to broaden the credit claim is in direct correlation with feedback we have received from guests and Travel Advisors, and is further proof of Crystal’s commitment to allow returning guests to fully recover their losses and experience the new Crystal. For more details, see below. https://www.crystalcruises.com/exceptional-initiative?utm_campaign=ExcepInitiative&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

We were not in the Middle East when I took this photo. Does anyone know where. In this case it's not Where's Waldo. It's Where Was Serenity? Keith

LeeAnne your thread puts a lot of things into perspective. A reminder of what is important. Thank you for sharing this with us. Keith

All of those short videos seem to be up for 24 hours and then they are gone. Keith

Rod Go to www.crystalcruises.com on the hone page scroll down and you will see Manfredi and the video automatically play. You can restart it and unmute it Keith

Awesome photo. No worries if you posted it before. My guess is if you posted it last week most on this board would not remember. Keith Keith

Absolutely This has been a very consistent message that I have heard from several people at Crystal. I call it a recipe for success. Take what was great about Crystal and build upon that with new enhancements (ingredients) to make it even better. Example, The crew returning. Umi Uma. Even brining back Tastes. At the same time improve upon it by enhancing the Italian Specialty Restaurant with Osteria D'Ovidio. In time, we will see the impact of A&K for pre and post cruise options and other shore excursion offerings. They are also addressing some area of the ship that long ago people had mentioned. Keith

I mentioned yesterday that on the Crystal website home page there is a terrific video featuring Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio. You just have to scroll down and you will see it. I want to add that for those of you who are receiving the Crystal e-mails one has gone out which features this video so more people will hear about it. Full disclosure. I have watched the video three times. It makes me feel wonderful about what is in store for us. Bags are packed. Ready to go. Can't wait. Cheers Keith

I hear you but I don't think that will happen because it never has. People often will say I wish it was like it used to be. Since what it used to be is former Crystal that is why I think you will continue to hear old Crystal. I actually think there are times when comparisons are good because hopefully we will see area where things are better.. I don't dwell on the past and always welcomed change but sometimes the past is good for perspective. My hope is a bit different. My hope is when Crystal sails that most of the threads become discussions about Crystal. Yes, in the past there would be an occasional thread comparing Crystal with other lines particularly from someone who either had never cruised Crystal or had pretty much cruised Crystal. What I do hope is that every thread doesn't turn into a "well SS does it better" kind of thing or Joe Cruise line does it better. Take this thread. A simple question about which suites include laundry and answered in posts two and three. Once it then became a discussion of what lines include laundry which was not what the OP asked about then it became a food fight and a thread on steroids This is what I hope for. I hope that when a thread is not asking about another line that most of the comments will be about Crystal. I do believe after awhile the board will mostly be about Crystal and less about former Crystal. And yes for those who want to say you can post what you want I know you can but it would be nice IMHO for this board to be what most other boards are like where about 95%+ of the boards are about the cruise lines specific to that board. This board was never perfect but it seems that almost every thread gets completely derailed and becomes a food fight and one out of grade school. JMO. Keith

Ivi, you will definitely avoid hurricane season. January is a lovely time to be in Miami and sailing the Caribbean. Keith

Swish. Always enjoyed the Carnivals on-board the World Cruise. Brings out the "kid" in most guests. Keith

On some of our bookings the prices had gone up prior to this week. LeeAnne, glad you made a decision. I am sure it will be great. We love this area of the world. So much to explore and so much history. Keith

Ivi, one correction. In addition to Serenity they bought Symphony rather than Infinity. Wasn't Infinity one of the Celebrity Ships? I only say this because this thread started to turn to baseball someone might have thought they took Infinity and traded it for Symphony. 😃 As I have learned many years ago, welcome to Cruise Critic. Happy Cruising. Keith

This is from the Crystal website under Q&A's. I copied an pasted the Formal Evening information but the daytime and other evening information is part of the Q&A information about attire. Keith Formal Evening On sailings over seven days, there will be at least one optional ship-wide formal night (depending on the length of the segment), which will require more formal cocktail chic attire. These special events will be defined in your personal pre-sailing guide. Suggestions for a Formal Evening look: Women Cocktail dresses or gowns Suits Evening skirts or pants with an elegant top Evening shoes Men Suits or tuxedos Shirts Dress shoes Ties (optional)

Nancy on the Q&A it says Formal Evening. Keith

Some of you have been asking about Formal nights on the first few cruises so you can factor this into where you make specialty restaurant reservations and other plans. Formal nights are as follows on the first three Crystal Serenity Cruises. July 31st voyage - Two, August 4th Calvi and 10th Sea Day August 12th voyage - One, August 19th Sea Day August 22 voyage - One, August 28th Sea Day Symphony will not have formals on the first three cruises as they are short voyages. They are September, 1st, Septebmer 8th and September 18th voyages. I hope this helps with your planning. It is so very exciting that with each passing day each ship is getting closer to their inaugural voyages. Cheers Keith

If you go to the Crystal Cruises Home Page and scroll down you will see a video from Manfredi which was just added to the site. Great video. www.crystalcruises.com Keith

Hi again Phyllis. From what I was told they are still working on the on-board booking discount program. I am expecting we will know sometime before the July 31 cruise begins. As soon as I know something definitive. Just be aware it is hard to know whether or not they would provide the OBC for the second cruise if booked from home even though you will be on another sailing before then. I don't want to speculate either way on this. Keith

I have said several times that I was wrong about Genting after learning what I did. You see. It's OK to say one is wrong about something. Obviously nothing is ever "beaten" around here since the same issue are brought up over and over and over.

To your questions Genting spent way too much money. If you think that was to make Crystal great you are wrong. They went into too many things too quickly. Remember the airplane. Remember the old ship? Remember Esprit? They owned Esprit. Spent a fortune. But it was limited where it could sail. They also came up with design after design for new ships and ended up wasting a lot of time and money with nothing. Just investing a lot of money means nothing. I was with a company that was bought by another company who has some similarities with Genting. They wasted a lot of money and made poor decisions and didn't listen. And in the end they got what they deserved. If Gentiing was USA based maybe they would have gotten what they deserved. So it goes. Back to the laundry.