Keith1010

Of course we won't know. And the same was true year after year. Inclusive what would that be like? A major change. Open dining what would that be like? A major change. Additional dining option what would that be like? A major change. So of course there will be changes because there always were. I am willing to find out without hesitation. How can it be bad with spruced up ships, less guests on board, the same crew and if you look at the ratio of guests to crew I have no fears of service being degraded and with so many returning crew you know what to expect. We always had new crew as well so I have no fears of any new ones as well. You have the same people planning entertainment and excursions with the latter benefiting from A&K. I have taken A&K tours through our travel agency and never disappointed. One will never know until they experience it for themselves. I have seen nothing that tells me anything will be "dumbed down" and I guess as someone who welcomes change I am open to that as well. I can understand those who want to wait but for those of us who are ready to go I don't see any downside to that. Will everything be perfect? No. But it never was nor is any cruise line perfect. I guess for me I would prefer to experience something myself. And the good news is we will sail with so many people we know and that in itself for me is a major plus or simple 1+++++++++++++++ Keith

Terry I wouldn't want to venture on anyone's stability. Personally I am not concerned but I would never ever give advice on this because at the end of the day even with disclosure I have seen some situations even with what we thought was full transparency where it was not as people thought. What I would say is as many learned Travel Insurance is your friend but the key is to get the right insurance. I also feel that American Express Card was also a friend. In terms of the itinerary I know this will be part of your research but be sure to look at the weather. I also know that often you like to do pre and post cruise stays so look at that as well as you factor in whether or not you do a 13 day or 19 day cruise. Consider do you want to see more of India via ship on the 19 day itinerary or do you want to see more with a land program before you board. I would extend your time at the end in Singapore as there is a good deal to see as well. Due your due diligence as I know you will. Keith

So here we are once again. We have each given our opinions. This topic comes up every few weeks. No minds changed from those posting. And this doesn't change anything. Time won't tel on this. Each person will decide for themselves whether or not they expect anything more from the new owner. So it goes. Keith

Roy, you get well. Health is the number one priority. Thinking of you and look forward to sailing with you again. Keith.

Yes and they will have a dance instructor couple. There is only one person doing all of the work right now doing entertainment and enrichment. I would rather they focus 100 percent of their energies on this. In time it will all get posted. Keith.

Terry, The first thing to remember is when Crystal ended in 2022 it was very much different than the Crystal you sailed and I think mainly for the good. It is inclusive. Not as inclusive as SS (no included excursions and a few other differences) but it does include items which were not included in 2008. There is open dining. There is more dining choice than in 2008. Some of the venues were updated. So please keep that in mind. Some seem to think it will be radically different and that you can't make a decision until it sails. I totally disagree. As you look at the web site and look at the date that is in place with a lot more to come I see lots of similarities to Crystal. Name of restaurants are the same other than one. Bringing back Tastes which you didn't experience but many of us did an loved to replace the Asian restaurant which got mixed reviews. The crew will be very much Crystal. They are not robots. They won't change. The person running entertainment is not the person from 2008 but the person who has been there the past several years and is busy working on enrichment and entertainment. Ambassador Hosts return as do a couple offering dance instruction. The person who developed the shore excursion program has returned. So has the President.. And many of the society members are returning too. So while there is a minority of people saying I have to know exactly what it will be like most of us expect it to have a lot in common with the old Crystal. Will it be the same? Of course not but as I am saying it was already different than 2008. It evolved and will continue to do so. I have asked some questions of Crystal that come up on tihis forum and another one and it's interesting that often the answer is we are doing this in the same manner as old Crystal. As information is added to the website that will become very apparent. Similarly there was the fear when Crystal came back after COVID that the experience would be a lot different. Having been on six of those sailings it was not. I can't compare it to SS as I've done two of their cruises. I have my views and everyone has there own. The other thing you do know is he size of the ships. For some they prefer smaller while others prefer larger so you need to figure that out. Larger means more options from my experience across all cruise lines. Good luck with your decision but I do not believe you need to wait for the restart to decide. Keith

Time will tell. Let's see what happens. Speakers don't have full employment. Most I know come on a few times in a year. Only a few go longer. And as to entertainers it depends who they are. Crystal had a couple of them on enough that they didn't need other gigs at sea and supplemented them on land. Others of course went from ship to ship. Again time will tell. It always does.

It's funny Ivi. In the one suite where it included laundry that was something we didn't need. We don't sent our wash out for many reasons. One is particular how it is washed and some items not dried and others dried and we do things a certain way. When we didn't have pressing Anne Marie was happy to press items but we sent my suits out and other items where it makes sense not to press them. Dry cleaning we don't use anymore or less whether or not it is included. In the end nothing is free. You pay for it either in the cruise fare or as an add on. We did like the washer/dryer combo in our Seabreeeze on Symphony just for the convenience. Personally I am up early and happy to do the wash. And over the years we met a lot of nice people in the laundry rooms on Crystal. But whether or not any of those features is included or not will have no impact on where we travel or who we book with. Keith

Terry, The first thing to remember is when Crystal ended in 2022 it was very much different than the Crystal you sailed and I think mainly for the good. It is inclusive. Not as inclusive as SS (no included excursions and a few other differences) but it does include items which were not included in 2008. There is open dining. There is more dining choice than in 2008. Some of the venues were updated. So please keep that in mind. Some seem to think it will be radically different and that you can't make a decision until it sails. I totally disagree. As you look at the web site and look at the date that is in place with a lot more to come I see lots of similarities to Crystal. Name of restaurants are the same other than one. Bringing back Tastes which you didn't experience but many of us did an loved to replace the Asian restaurant which got mixed reviews. The crew will be very much Crystal. They are not robots. They won't change. The person running entertainment is not the person from 2008 but the person who has been there the past several years and is busy working on enrichment and entertainment. Ambassador Hosts return as do a couple offering dance instruction. The person who developed the shore excursion program has returned. So has the President.. And many of the society members are returning too. So while there is a minority of people saying I have to know exactly what it will be like most of us expect it to have a lot in common with the old Crystal. Will it be the same? Of course not but as I am saying it was already different than 2008. It evolved and will continue to do so. I have asked some questions of Crystal that come up on tihis forum and another one and it's interesting that often the answer is we are doing this in the same manner as old Crystal. As information is added to the website that will become very apparent. Similarly there was the fear when Crystal came back after COVID that the experience would be a lot different. Having been on six of those sailings it was not. I can't compare it to SS as I've done two of their cruises. I have my views and everyone has there own. The other thing you do know is he size of the ships. For some they prefer smaller while others prefer larger so you need to figure that out. Larger means more options from my experience across all cruise lines. Good luck with your decision but I do not believe you need to wait for the restart to decide. Keith

There will also be dance instructors as in the past. Keith

Now the question is will the former ones stay there and or come back home. Time will tell.

To a degree there were some as you would see someone invited on-board to blog about their experience. This is an influencer. Some also shared their experience on other platforms such as YouTube. Some cruise lines have fairly large programs such as Carnival, Princess, RCI to name a few. The new PR director has experience from Celebrity (part of RCI) and Carnival. And I thought TikTok referred to clock. Oh I feel old. 🤣 Keith

This is the challenge being in the catch up mode. In the perfect world the World Cruise and its amenities would be announced at the same time. The challenge was that there was not enough time to get this and many other things worked out because they are starting from scratch other than the knowledge of what was offered before. This is why the World Cruise wasn't put on the website. It will go on the site pretty soon and they are in the process of finalizing the amenities. If they waited for everything to be finalized before taking all bookings then the ship restart of the actual sailings might not have occurred for another beyond the current start date. Over the last few months you had people doing double duty as there were not a lot of people on the bench. This has started to change and will continue to change over the coming months as additional people are hired to fill these slots. I do not believe it will be much longer until specifics are out on all of this. Keith

In keeping with the thread another one coming soon will be pre and post hotels I know this is important for some of you which is why I am posting this. Also in keeping wit the thread there is a lot of information which will be coming our way. Much of it is in progress so as things are finalize then it will be shared either on the Crystal site or through communications or both. It probably won't come as fast as we would all like but it is a work in progress. Keith

They will. I asked though. But first things first and that is all the work they are doing to get entertainment and enrichment in place. Same goes for many other things which in-time will be added to the web site. They don't have people sitting around. Remember they have to scale up. Keith

First step is book a Crystal cruise. If you don't do that no need to get your shoes ready. You are spending too much time here not to book the cruise. We have a saying in the USA. Just do it.

I never said made up but they don't always get their facts straight. In business and for that matter sometimes when cruising I was interviewed by very reputable newspapers and magazines and they didn't always write what I said. It was not intentional but often times mistakes occur. Regardless, like most things I would await the outcome. Keith

The plan is to have Ambassador Hosts and as well as a Dance Instructor Couple for those who were asking about this. Keith

I read the article. I prefer not to go with an article though because as we all know what you read in print is not always factual. Let's see how this turns out and that is what I am referring to. Keith

Yes with a whole new reservations team it's going to take them awhile to get up to speed. Joanthan I agree and severe times when we call customer service we are speaking with someone outside the USA. Often they are reading from an on-line screen which is scripted. On another social platform I just read a positive experience that a Crystal Society Member from the EU had. They said they had three calls with international customer service who picked up right away and answered all the questions they had and understood the EU rules, regulations and conditions so sounds like that experience is better than the USA domestic based ones. Hopefully with each passing week customer service for North America will get better. Keith

Always remember you are innocent until proven guilty, at least this is how it should work in the USA. Let's see what happens. Keith

I don't expect the new Crystal Cruises to be a carbon copy of the former Crystal. Just like a new restaurant which opens in an existing building the new Crystal is new as the old Crystal was not purchased. As is the case with all purchases each person will decide. Looking forward to experiencing the new Crystal. Keith

That's true about everything. Only one opinion matters is your own. And when I don't like a product and am unwilling to try it even after it has been redesigned I move on. For example, there are a couple of cruise lines that didn't work for us. I don't spend precious minutes telling people on those board what they should think because if they are happy let them be happy. And for many of us Crystal evolved so much if it evolves further with new ownership we are used to it. With that said it seems for a few that unless someone is negative about a cruise or line that means their views can't be correct. However, I've learned over the years that some like to complain because they think it makes them look smarter than others. Since you seem to imply that I am all about being positive (yes I do focus on what is good knowing that 99% of the world could only dream of taking a luxury cruise) if I see something wrong I call it out. In fact, go look at my comments about the 2020 World Cruise. I thought the internet was terrible and called it out several times. But if they are out of a champagne I like I find something else to have. I don't waste time complaining. In the scheme of things it is not catastrophe. Oh well. So it goes. Time is previous.

I hear you but If I was a client who would't go the extra mile for me I would likely not be a client of them. So yes I know it's more difficult to book a cruise with Crystal but so it goes. It's all part of the job IMHO. Keith

Nothing is free. You pay for it all. Also remember the saying quality over quantity. Translation. Some items in large quantity are not as good as those in smaller quantity. Also, everyone brings their own view as to value. Some value entertainment and enrichment over included shore excursions or unlimited caviar.[ Some put more value to extrusion and caviar. Some prefer a higher level of service Some larger rooms. Some don't care. Thank goodness all of the lines have their differences because as we know from this board we all do not think the same. And thank goodness. Trust me. Thank goodness for that. Oh well. This is what makes the world go round.