Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted July 28, 2016 #1 Share Posted July 28, 2016 Crystal River Cruises to Redeploy, Redesign and Delay Two River Ships http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7153 Bottom line: no Crystal ships in France, 5 on the Danube, Main and Rhine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrulyBlonde Posted July 28, 2016 #2 Share Posted July 28, 2016 Tauck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caviargal Posted July 29, 2016 #3 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Tauck :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrulyBlonde Posted July 29, 2016 #4 Share Posted July 29, 2016 :confused: My comment was to let people know to look at Tauck as an alternative. I had a Crystal river cruised booked and after reading the Crystal board, decided to cancel that cruise and go with Tauck because of their reputation as a luxury river cruise line and most similar to the Crystal experience. Crystal is to new in the river cruise game and once they get the kinks ironed out would reconsider. I like to go with the line that will deliver based on many highly rated reviews and experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Got2Cruise Posted July 29, 2016 #5 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Two thoughts: how many more ships can the Danube manage and, b, folks are avoiding France because of the terrorism but by the time these two ships are finished who knows what the situation will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caviargal Posted July 29, 2016 #6 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Two thoughts: how many more ships can the Danube manage and, b, folks are avoiding France because of the terrorism but by the time these two ships are finished who knows what the situation will be. I had the same thoughts. We are going to take advantage of some of the great offers for France next year as we really enjoy the destination. It is a perfect time to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmaser Posted July 29, 2016 #7 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Longer, longer, longer waits for docks - more, more, more rafting at ports - more, more, more docking in industrial areas - :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auldlassie Posted July 29, 2016 #8 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Terrorism? Germany has had 4 attacks this week or so, yet the ships will be re-deployed there, so this makes no sense as regards that line of thinking. I live in the UK and France and read a lot of European wide press and media and cannot see and accepted distinction of likelihood of attacks between France or Germany or even Belgium. I don't buy the terrorism angle. I doubt they have had a flood of cancellations for the Seine/Rhone/Dordogne cruises and doubt equally they have had a flood of "surplus" bookings for Rhine/Main/Danube. I think this is being done for economic reasons unrelated to the terrorist attacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_T Posted July 29, 2016 #9 Share Posted July 29, 2016 From a logistics perspective, given the ships can't easily move from one river to another, it does make more sense to have multiple ships of the same class in the same general location. ... but that should hardly be news to them so not sure why the late change of direction... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted July 29, 2016 Author #10 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Crystal made a ton of major expansion announcements (new ocean ships, jumping into river cruising with 7 ships, private Boeing jets for luxury travel) and has now modified all of them. I'm not sure that anything can be read into this particular change, except that Crystal held a press conference long before they had their ducks in a row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey12 Posted July 29, 2016 #11 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Looking forward to seeing Crystal River boats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caviargal Posted July 29, 2016 #12 Share Posted July 29, 2016 Crystal made a ton of major expansion announcements (new ocean ships, jumping into river cruising with 7 ships, private Boeing jets for luxury travel) and has now modified all of them. I'm not sure that anything can be read into this particular change, except that Crystal held a press conference long before they had their ducks in a row. Good point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare notamermaid Posted August 20, 2016 #13 Share Posted August 20, 2016 I do wonder if the fact that there have been issues with length of river cruise ships on the Seine - it appears that all ships that are of the length 135m do not go to Honfleur and there are problems with that length in Paris itself (look back at the Viking threads) - played a part in Crystal's decision. After all, you could also call that "reacting to customers' demands". Anyway, as regards the new ships, building is going ahead as planned and there was a keel-laying ceremony for the first two ships in the yard at Wismar in North-Eastern Germany (a lovely town on the coast, I recommend a visit): http://www.marinelink.com/news/building-crystals-werften414160.aspx notamermaid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare notamermaid Posted October 13, 2016 #14 Share Posted October 13, 2016 This may come as a news item on cruisecritic and in a separate thread by our host, but in case it does not happen here is the news item: http://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/crystal-river-cruises-unveils-itineraries-for-new-2018-river-yachts/ The article mentions the Moselle, but if you want to be utterly correct the ship sails the Moselle only for about 400m if it docks on the Moselle in Koblenz. There is no further cruising on the river beyond the Koblenz docking location near the Balduin bridge. https://www.crystalcruises.com/voyage/details/basel-to-vienna-8f01r Still, it is an interesting itinerary, coming from Basel, taking in the Rhine gorge but then turning back into the Main to go through the Main Danube Canal into the Danube. It gives you the most scenic part of the Rhine but leaves out Cologne and the Northern part. It also ends in Vienna rather than Nuremberg or Budapest. I seem to remember other companies doing Basel to Nuremberg but leaving out the Rhine gorge. A nice combination of ports, well thought through, I think. They also have Frankfurt as an embarkation port. Not so common in the industry but not a new thing. I am sure all the itineraries will appeal to a lot of people. notamermaid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now