Keith1010

Same as Serenity. Keith

They call it combo savings and it is 5%. Keith

For those of you who have recently booked a new Crystal Cruise keep the posts coming. Keith

Today Crystal Symphony, officially re-enters service following an extensive refurbishment after being purchased by A&K Travel Group last summer. Departing on its inaugural voyage from Athens, the vessel which accommodates 606 guests, joins sister ship Crystal Serenity in an exciting new chapter for the renowned brand. With nearly one staff member per guest and an impressive space-to-guest ratio (84.2 cu. ft. for every guest), Crystal Symphony now boasts larger, revamped suites, award-winning specialty dining restaurants and expansive public spaces - all complemented by industry-leading service. Crystal Symphony’s re-entry to service marks an impressive feat; in just one year, and on schedule, Crystal revitalized two ships and returned more than 80% of the line’s beloved crew. “We are so proud that Crystal Symphony has officially joined Crystal Serenity back in the water, signaling an exciting new chapter for Crystal – two ships refurbished and back in service in under a year is completely unprecedented,” said Cristina Levis, CEO of A&K Travel Group. “The ship’s exceptional enhancements reflect our unwavering commitment to providing guests with inspiration and enrichment as they sail to the globe’s most coveted destinations.” Itineraries Following the ship’s inaugural voyage from Athens to Istanbul, Crystal Symphony will sail eastward, towards exciting destinations such as Santorini, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Mumbai. For the remainder of 2023, the ship will sail throughout Oceania visiting locales including Sydney, Auckland, Papua New Guinea and Bali. Suites & Guest Rooms Crystal collaborated with renowned cruise ship architectural firm, GEM, to revamp select guest rooms and suites. The refreshed design incorporates a palette of neutral shades and elevated touchpoints, enhanced by gentle pastel tones reminiscent of the ocean's colors. As part of the ship’s refurbishments, there are two new guest room categories – the Jr. Crystal Penthouse Suite and Single Guest Room with Ocean View, which serves as an option for solo travelers. These new categories will also increase the availability of the popular Sapphire Suite category. Single Guest Room with Ocean View: Cozy bedroom (up to 215 sq ft) redesigned in 2023, with welcoming and comfortable detailing, butler service, and ocean views. Sapphire Veranda Suite: Spacious suite (up to 430 sq ft) with living area, elegant finishings and private veranda, accompanied by attentive butler service. Sapphire suites are available to book in new and classic designs. Junior Crystal Penthouse Suite: This new, large suite (up to 645 sq ft) includes spacious rooms with separate dining and living areas looking onto a private veranda, also accompanied by attentive butler service. Dining With 10 distinct dining options, including 24-hour in-suite dining service, guests onboard Crystal Symphony now have access to unparalleled culinary experiences like the following: Umi Uma:The return of legendary Master Chef Nobuyuki (Nobu) Matsuhisa’s Umi Uma – the only Nobu dining concept at sea where guests can enjoy award-winning, innovative Japanese-Peruvian cuisine. Osteria D’Ovidio: Named for Crystal's Executive Chairman, Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio, this restaurant specializes in traditional Italian meals. Waterside Restaurant: Crystal’s main dining room features open seating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Bistro: A modern café and coffee bar with light snacks such as fresh pastries, bagels and fruit in the morning and a selection of international cheeses, pâtés, prosciutto, smoked salmon and dessert delicacies throughout the afternoon. Trident Grill: Set poolside, Trident Grill features classic delights like burgers, melts, salads and more. Scoops Gelato Bar: Crystal’s sumptuous dessert bar features authentic Italian gelato with fresh toppings, frozen yogurt, homemade cookies and more. The Vintage Room: Offers intimate guided pairings and dinners highlighting the vast selection of wines in the ship’s onboard cellar. Tastes Kitchen & Bar: Globally inspired cuisine and casual “family style” dining experience, Tastes offers tapas-style cuisine for guests to enjoy on their own or with newfound friends. Marketplace: A buffet-style dining venue wrapped in floor-to-ceiling windows and a chic open-air dining area. Wellness In addition to now offering a full-sized paddle tennis and pickleball court and a revamped fitness center, Crystal’s new spa concept, Aurōra offers a completely fresh design. Aurōra boasts light-bright neutral colors, an illuminated fiber optic starlight ceiling and organic materials like natural salt crystal and silk-brushed slate stone. The extensive treatment offerings include more signature facials, massage treatments and a full-service Salon. Highlights include: The SuperTech Facial uses advanced technologies to meet your individual needs and targets multiple signs of aging to resurface, firm and smooth. The Chariot of Light Massage resets the circadian rhythm, reduces inflammation, increases circulation and improves the texture of skin with the therapeutic benefits of LightStim® Pro-Panel LED light therapy. Grown Alchemist Restoration Shave offers an enzyme exfoliation, deep cleansing mask, and hot towel compress for an expert shave. In addition to Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity being back in service, Crystal recently announced the brand is currently working with advisors,lenders and export credit agents to sign a memorandum of agreement with two European shipbuilders.The agreement is poised to include the development of four new ships in the next six years including two classic ships and two expedition vessels.

Amber14 this video is a short clip of the vocalist who performs with her husband. Her voice was stunning.I wish I kept the video going and she can sing a whole range of sones including those from 1970s, 1980's, 1990's etc. Keith IMG_2344.mov IMG_2344.mov

That's correct. If you ordered something where there is a charge such as wine for sale you would give them your room number and name but for all the includes drinks and other beverage this is not necessary. Keith

After 20 months our first glimpse of Serenity as we were being driven into the port in Marseille on July 31, 2023. Keith

The new Crystal has nothing to do with old Crystal. The EI program is not giving you money back. Rather to use the program you must spend money and what you get is a credit from spending money equal to 1/5 of a sub credit. If I remember correctly, if one was owed money and booked a Silversea Endeavour Cruise they got a certain amount off. This is way different than getting money back from a Credit Card company that you were owed and was reflected on your claim to Moecker. That is money back where you didn't have to spend money to get your (Your is the keyword) money back. This is only an incentive for those who book cruises and were owed money. Big difference IMHO. Keith

Symphony from 2014.

I hope you are able to make it on board Crystal. No worries about tthe handful of posters who are rude. I am very thick skinned. When one posts they open themselves up to all kinds of responses. What I can say is during those two cruises I had so many people come up to me from this board (some are posters and some are lurkers), others from another board I post on, and even several members of the crew who said my posts dating back to between February of 2022 and right before Manfredi made the offer gave them hope as many were giving up hope and then they went on to say that they appreciated my posts that the new ownership didn't just buy the name but rather would take the strengths of Crystal and make it better. These comments touched my heart and I was very surprised about the number of people who said the same thing. So when that happens this reenforces my view that the handful of people who do what they do don't bother me at all. It's funny. There was Judith on this board who was certainly a fan of Crystal. And on the Seabourn board there was Martha who was instrumental in my decision to book Seabourn back when they had the three 200 passenger ships and we sailed them twice. I remember how much Martha cared for the crew as we do. I even took a care package she sent me in my suitcase for some crew members. Anyway, they both eventually stopped posting other than a few times. Why? Because they were attacked and called cheerleaders? They each passed way too soon. It is because of them that I post and not concern myself with the very few who do what they do. Sometimes, I just say I do this in their memory. On a related note, I can't tell you how many people when I asked how is your cruise and what do you think said the same things. They were so happy to be back and truly loved the cruise. For some the disappointment was being on for only one cruise and not staying longer. 😀 And just about everyone was very understanding about the glitches with phones and televisions knowing how much work had been done to get the ship ready. Best to you. Keith

Welcome to the world of Crystal. Just want to note even though it is not important to you by the time you sail the phones and televisions will all be working properly. 😀 They will have a DJ each night who will play music in the Pulse and at the present time the vocalist and the pianist (it is the kind where you think he's playing multiple instruments) plays a variety of songs to dance to in the Palm Court. She is one amazing vocalist. You can get a range of food from basic to fancy so that should work very well for the two of you. Keith

always enjoy this view. I've used it in my blogs and this one is a newer photo taken last month while visiting Portofino, Italy. Keith

Like most things I am sure they will evaluate this as they do other programs and also see what alternatives exist as well. Adjustments were made in most areas recognizing that overall guest capacity was reduced. Some areas grew while others were reduced. Feedback is always important so those who would like to see changes as well as highlight all of the things they enjoy should make use of the guest survey provided to them after the cruise ends. Keith

You can make one per restaurant ahead of time so one for each of the three. Once on board you can see if you can add others. At the present time you can make the reservation for only those in your party. If there was someone else traveling with you on a different reservation (friends, relatives, family etc) then you can have them book the same venue, date and time as you and ask for their booking number and send that to on board guests services with their names and your information and they will get the information to the ship to they link your reservations together. Keith

This is work in progress. There are two ports where 10/11 excursions are listed and I doubt more will be listed but there are ports without excursions so those need to be listed and one with two that I expect to be augmented. So I would keep checking on this. At the present time at 60 days you can book your excursions. I see this eventually changing to after final payment but they are not there yet. Keith

My experience is what Larry said. We could get off multiple times but the pain was we had to keep clearing USA customs. I believe we had to keep carrying our passports because of that. So I remember going off once in Vancouver coming back and not doing it again as I knew it would be busier in the afternoon with new guests arriving. Keith

There will be dance hosts on each cruise. We had four. I saw your other post about less. The Ambassador Hosts are men. The performers are a man and woman and this makes actual ballroom dancing more limited. Keith

Need to know which cruises you are on.

Vince, we had more new to Crystal guests on board the first two voyages than I expected considering the focus was on Crystal Society. I went out of my way to ask as many guests as I could what they thought about the experience. I will tell you that all had very positive things to say. This is not to say everything was perfect because nothing ever is and I touched on items that were either addressed during the voyage or need to be. I know the on board booking consultants (there are two now) were very busy with new bookings/open bookings and that is positive. People were adding both 2023 and 2024 including the New York/New England/Canada cruises. We knew that bookings would be soft at the beginning because some wanted to wait to see what others had to say and also because many people already had cruises booked on other lines. I think 2025 itineraries and how they sell will be a good indicator along with advertising. The feedback on Symphony from the current shake-down cruise has bee very positive and I have a number of friends who were on the inaugural of Serenity and now doing Symphony. I wish we could be there too. One advantage that new Crystal has is it only has two ships. While some view it as a con, the positive is the consistency of the crew and that you only have two ships to sell. I believe the way they want to roll out new ships is wise. One things for sure is that I haven't met anyone who sailed any of the first two sailings nor others who I know on the third sailing who disagreed with my bottom line and that is if you like Crystal before you will like Crystal as much if not more. It is old Crystal enhanced. Old Crystal was not perfect. But what is. Keith

The Crystal website for this voyage has now been updated and they now show Serenity docking in Brooklyn on October 29 from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Keith

As Vince pointed out Moecker has absolutely nothing to do with the Crystal Exceptional Incentive program. Crystal sets the rules of the program and it is the Crystal/A&K executives who have confirmed that what I have posted is 100 correct. You are wrong and you are confusing people with your inaccurate information. There is nothing more to say on this except what I've said already. For those who have unused vouchers or sub-credits what I have stated is correct. I plan to use my remaining sub-credits as soon as the 2025 itineraries are released and available for booking. Keith

Thank you. I do want to note the following. This is one that actually is very firm. This is the policy as explained to me by the executive who set the policy a few months ago so I could explain it to others here and on another platform. Back then there were all sorts of questions so I was very careful to get all the facts and have them reviewed before I posted them. All iI did yesterday was reconfirm it when I got push back this time around although I didn't a couple of month ago. SO it goes. So to me there is no debate and to me I don't care whether or not the previous poster believes me or not. I truly don't. And to me I am hoping I can use my last sub-credits which have not been assigned before the payment is made even though the payment pales in comparison to what I was owed To me like bread crumbs. I do know that they plan to get a communication out on this in the coming weeks. Glad to know your TA was up to speed on this. Mine was too but again my information came directly for the people who set the policy. Keith

All I just want to confirm once again that what I posted below is correct. Example: Let's say you were owed $25,000.00 and you got an EI credit of $25,000.oo with five sub credits each of $5,000.00. Let's say before Moecker refunded you any money, you booked three cruises and used three vouchers of $5,000 each. Now let's say you got a refund of $2,000.00 from Moecker as part of the settlement before you used your last two vouchers. Your remaining two vouchers which had totaled a combined $10,000.00 would now be worth a total of $8,000.00 In short, Whatever you got from EI's has no bearing on any money you will get back from Moecker because they do not check with Crystal about the EI program. This is a Crystal initiative. The only checking that was done is before Crystal issues the voucher they check with Moecker that what someone has requested is what they are owed. However, should any money be returned to you from Moecker it does impact the value any unused vouchers. This is how it was explained to me shortly after the EI program rolled out by a senior executive of A&K and the was reconfirmed by a note I just received from a Senior Executive at A&K. Even though the potential payout is low, I do hope I am able to use my remaining sub-credits before the payout is made. Keith

Larry you were told incorrectly by the DSM. My information which I posted a couple of months ago came from A&K and I reached out to them a second time last evening and they have confirmed that my example is still correct. I am dealing with senior executives at A&K. I agree. The amount of money in the payout will be small and for people like myself who were owned quite a large some of money it is a nit. Thankfully I have used one full voucher and three fifths of another one and plan to use the rest after 2025 itineraries are released. Keith

You are incorrect on this. My original comments are correct. If you have outstanding voucher(s) and Moecker makes a payout associated with the bankruptcy your vouchers will be removed by the amount. I have confirmed this with A&K.