Keith1010

I’ve included some photos from yesterday morning including the amazing sunrise. We should have taken photos in the afternoon. We learned later in the day that the views were the best of the season. The views from the ship were spectacular. We enjoyed a wonderful evening on-board Crystal Serenity. We returned to Tastes where we dined with friends including one of our beloved CC members. This is our second time to Tastes since we boarded on July 31. We tried a combination of items; some of which we had on the first cruise along with items such as the salmon which we hadn't had before. We were up later than usual but the good news is we set the clocks back one hour prior to going to sleep. Today we are anchored off St. Peter Port, Guernsey a charming town we have visited several times in the past. If not for my ankle the original plan was to take a tender over there. The good news is a future cruise we have booked includes this port. So what did we do today? Attended, with passports in-hand, mandatory face-to-face inspection with British Immigration Officials. Pack. A medi/pedi for Anne Marie which originally was scheduled on the day we realized was the Bordeaux tour. A massage for me which we added too. This was followed by a medi/pedi for me which like Anne Marie's was originally scheduled for the day of the Bordeaux tour. Full disclosure.....I have never had a medi/pedi before and if not for his strained ligament would not have had this. Why? Because I would be on the Paddle Tennis Court. We are spending the rest of the afternoon packing, visiting with fellow guests and the extraordinary crew. Keith

The music in the salon is amazing. Very upbeat. I would use much of it for an indoor cycling class or for a high intensity workout. Keith

Great wines but not four figures for each one for sure. Keith

Don't just complain here. Ask you TA(s) to followup with Crystal if this change(s) was made and no notification was provided to the TA's and/or yourself. They should find out if this was a recent change and notification was planned to be made or if it was a change and someone dropped the ball with respect to notification. They can and should provide feedback to Marketing that when a change is made that both the TA and guest should be notified. Please do this. Keith

I think anyone who would take the tablet home with them knows it is not for them. If this should happen then Crystal just like a hotel will remind guests about this. In some hotels there are tags on the bathrobes noting you can purchase them but not to be removed. Why one would take a tablet home is beyond me but why someone would take Bistro Plates, Waterside or in the past years Crystal Dining Room Plates, Flatware, Tea Pots from The Bistro and a slew of other things is equally beyond me. As to X-Rays I doubt they will pick up one someone taking one or two items. If they did on every cruise you would see people stopped. Yes I did hear about the enrichment person years ago who took a full suitcase of I believe dishes and flatware and was caught. Is this a true story? No idea. Keith

My observation. Many people liked Prego. With that said I remember some on this board saying they didn't care for it. Is that a surprise? No. Everyone has their opinion. I sit back and say this. There was a time when some on this board said everything would change or most things would change and no longer be Crystal. So I put this into perspective. This is one of very few changes. If you like it great. If you don't certainly provide your feedback. Nothing is ever cast in stone forever. And as to the new restaurant, my recommendation is to give it a chance. Full disclosure. I tried Prego on Harmony 2002, Symphony 2023 and 2024 and Serenity on 2025 and didn't care for it. I thought it was OK. It was in 2007 that after a few visits I started to enjoy it. I figured out what worked for me. Now the irony is one of those things that worked for me changed. There used to be two special items which eventually they renamed to two additional items; one often a fish and the other pasta. The fist was often one that was picked up locally. Ioved it. When this changed to one item it was often a pasta. But I found items which worked for me which might not be the ones that others selected. Switching gears: When we sailed Crystal there was the recommended fee per person. Then all of a sudden the fee was removed when inclusive rolled out and I would see or hear about more people there than before and we are talking about something like $8.00 per person recommended. I do view the specialty restaurants as special. If you go there often it's not special IMHO. While dining with friends last night, I mentioned that I am happy on a 12 day cruise to go to Umi Uma once, Osteria d'Ovidio once, Tastes once and go to one of them a second time and have the other meals from Waterside. On this cruise where we've made the exception is when we were invited by others from Crystal to join them. At to the menu here it is. The lighting on the ship is challenging to get a picture perfect photo. Keith

Back to Crystal. An attribute of the two ships is the Promenade Deck. It allows walking, running, enjoying beautiful views including arrivals and sail-aways. It is flat with no steps. Anne Marie is often out there (weather permitting) two hours a day. I will walk with her, with others, by myself and also run on it. It is an wonderful attribute and for us one of the reasons we decided to do our first World Cruise. As I mentioned earlier, with reduced capacity we don't see that many people on it making it easy to go in either direction. Is it possible someone will say something to you if you go in the wrong direction? Yes. Likely? No. With that said never accounted it on these cruises, on seven 2021 cruises or in 2020. If you visit a city I would say you can be more challenged walking on sidewalks that are sized for no more than two people and the challenge is when two are coming at you and don't go into single file. And where we live when I took my workouts outside with runs and went onto the street I have gotten yelled on occasion by those in cars, suv's and golf carts. But like most things this is the minority. Sort of like CC where we have a few who yell in their own way. 😄 And one can adjust their times so they are on the deck at least crowded times. When there is a will there is away. Another special attribute is the aft on most passenger decks where you can sit outside it is like being on a private yacht. Keith

Thank you so much David. Keith

You are very welcome and thank you for your kind comments. Keith

Yesterday there was an open house and I visited some of the open rooms in the afternoon. The numbers are my photo numbers so just ignore them. First is Classic Aquamarine (former PH). Second is Classic Sapphire Verandah Suite (Former PS) Sapphire Veranda Suite - (New as of 2023) Aquamarine Veranda Suite (Former Seabreeze) I don't like the Seabreeze and as a reminder while I am very positive this is one of the few items that does not work for me. I do like the look of the new Aquamarine and love the former PH. Last evening we enjoyed a nice dinner. It was a formal night and that is the reason we ate in our room. We enjoy formal night and the original plan was to dine in Waterside. However, my foot and ankle had swelled from the injury making it very painful to wear shoes and we don't think me wearing Crystal slippers would quite fit the definition of formal attire. The Waterside menu did feature special items we enjoy on formal night including caviar (me), mushroom soup (Anne Marie), and lobster which each of us enjoyed. As usual, we enjoyed outstanding cuisine, food and conversation with lots of laughs. Although today we are anchored off Saint-Malo, France given I am on the injured list (LOL) and two-full days remain until we debark Serenity on the 22nd of September, we stayed on-board. We each had our hair cut at Aurora Salon and then there is packing to do. We will close now and post more tomorrow. Cheers, Keith

Anne Marie and I have now met new Captain Vincent three times; one for an extended time, another time including a conversation and briefly on the first cruise. We have great first impressions. Experienced with many years on another luxury line, is able to explain technical items very well, strong knowledge of other ships not only those he has sailed, very thoughtful and soft spoken. Remembered our names right away and IMHO off to a wonderful start with guests and the crew. Keith

Good morning from Serenity and good evening for many of you. Yesterday, was the only sea day of the cruise although the other day was an unofficial one with a late night arrival to Bordeaux. I am unsure if I mentioned it here but the other day the back area of foot and ankle were bothering me and I believe it was from lacing up my tennis shoes to tight. Felt like sore achilles tendons. Ugh! I over compensated and my right calf muscle was strained. Next day left ankle find but right hurting. Of course, I played Paddle Tennis on that unofficial sea day and at one point said I couldn't do more. The first full day in Bordeaux I did more walking than I should have. I realized what hurt was the bone area towards the bottom side of foot. During our tour it hurt and by evening we noticed ankle and foot sore so yesterday morning I saw the doctor. Good news it's not the Achilles and either strained ligament or tendon (( forgot what he said) and yesterday I wore a slipper all day and a new ankle brace (more comfortable than what I had) that the doctor prescribed for me, iced the area, applied the ointment he prescribed and took the medicine to reduce swelling. I didn't want to push the dress code with the slippers so we enjoyed a great dinner in our room. I did come down once to reception to get the open house listing in a matching mask and slippers. LOL. I hope to be back to normal for the flight home. Speaking of attire which I know bothers some either when people don't follow it or they don't like the attire recommendations. We did dine at a two star Michelin restaurant at lunch and while we enjoyed it this is not important to us and a basic restaurant would have been fine. I am only mentioning it as the dress for lunch was no flip-flops and no shorts. I believe there were 12 or so tables. Guess what. Over half the men arrived in shorts and a couple were what I would call short shorts and a couple of people had flip flops and the highlight was the crocs one man was wearing. Now if I was smart I would have worn the slippers. LOL. I only mention this as sometimes people say they don't enforce the attire on the ship. Well, even in France at a two star Michelin restaurant they didn't do it either. Keith

Thank you so much. At home we are very disciplined and on longer cruises too. In fact on our first World Cruise we each lost weight. My goal on long cruises is to leave the ship at the same weight as when we started. With that said on the cruises we did in 2020 and on this one since we are not on as long as we have been in the past we are eating more and gaining some weight but as soon as we are home we will adjust and take off the weight. At the same time, breakfast and lunch are cereal/banana and a salad entree. Keith

Bob and Ray you are very welcome. Both are terrific cruises. The Symphony cruise is longer so that's a plus and has some very interesting European ports and the overnights. Serenity would allow you to get a feel for Crystal and do it at less cost given that it is four days shorter and would involve shorter flights and potentially more reasonable hotel stay(s) for hotels should you arrive early and/or stay after the cruise. I hope this helps. Keith

Phyllis, great news and glad that they are available closer to 30 days prior to the cruise. Keith

Tablets are for your use while sailing but not to take home. As of now the plan is to deploy them to more rooms next cruise. Either to the remaining suites on the day of the first voyage or to all rooms. Keith

Some additional comments. Yes, to Observer's point. Over the years on a very rare occasion someone has either made a rude comment about Anne Marie walking in the wrong direction or a few people have almost purposely waked into her. If I was there. Well maybe better I was not. However, there are rude people on land and on sea and the good news is with the ship carrying less people we didn't encounter this issue on the seven cruise on-board Serenity in 2020 nor these two. If we are both together and waling the wrong way and others are coming we walk single file until we all pass staying very close to the right hand side. As to the promenade deck this is something very special for us as it is for most. Anne Marie and I walk it together, by ourselves, in the past with others and I run on it. It is also a great place for arrivals, departures, viewing scenery and getting away from it all and it was one of the selling points when we booked our first Crystal Cruise. Very few ships compare to this. On most the shady area is near a pool and that had issues and was pretty boring. I believe the QM2 came the closest to this but we prefer Serenity and Symphony and Serenity more given the placement of the lifeboats. And the promenade deck is now completely non-smoking. We suggested signage for this and hopefully this will be up soon. Keith

My wife has some medical issues so has to watch out for the sun. She does the following. Walks on the shady side. This is the ultimate solution. Walks under the overhang. Wears a hat and of course uses sun screen. First item is the real solution. It's really not a problem. Keith

Enjoyed your review. It was great sailing with you both for the very first time and first meeting you at the event on the pool deck and then spending time in Palm Court. We hope we will sail with you both in the not so distant future. The phones still have some issues to work though. Take our room. We can make calls from each phone but if I am calling on the phone in the living area and we get disconnected (an early issue) and they call back I have to run to the bedroom. The living room can receive calls but to do so instead of dialing 110xx you have to dial 111xx whose room number doesn't exist. Had three Crystal folks up here yesterday and one of them thinks the issue is that one location was analog and one diigial and both phones are digital. Still some issues with the TV although some improvement from first voyage. Issue are momentary loss of picture at sea (better than first voyage but still an issue) and volume much better but occasionally no volume. The solution is to change channels which often clears up the problem and if that does not turn off and on the TV and in port we get no TV. Thankfully, the internet has been a winner. These issues should be sorted out soon. Keith

Thank you so much David.

Yes the wraparound promenade decks were left unchanged on both ships. Keith

We're having the wine this evening. Keith

Thank you. A great day and a great food and wine day too. Keith

This is terrific and so glad you confirmed this. This is far better than in recent years. Thanks for sharing this.

When I saw the brochure I thought more clarify is needed but this is not something new. Often I pick up presentations and brochures from a broad spectrum and think to myself it could be clearer. And I have seen this on brochures of prior Crystal Cruises from the very beginning as I do from other cruise lines. I think that most booked on the World Cruise will want their TA's to get clarity on the following items. Luggage Valet (how many bags), Private Transfers (which ones), As you wish Credit (per person or per room. I am pretty sure per person but don't like to be pretty sure), Complimentary initial on board medical visit (is this one time or multiple times?) and Business Class Airfare Allowance or Credit (choice of airline any limitation in terms of price). The challenge is getting it on one initial brochure but these are all items where people will have questions. I know I would. Keith