New Crystal - the Good, the Bad and the Indifferent

[KenzSailing]

28 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

 

I still contend we're talking about specific people...  🙂  The reviews posted in the database about Crystal were hardly overly flattering.

 

Vince

 

Ah, OK, I understand now we're talking about two different sets of reviewers.  I'm talking specifically about folks posting their experiences to the Crystal board, not the general CC database of reviews.  I never consult that resource simply because I have no idea the perspective, experiences, etc of the reviewer.

[Keith1010]

59 minutes ago, hypercafe said:

I am sure there will be unbiased reviews however I also read a lot here about booking long trips and the world trip. I love cars and have many both old and new. I wonder how many would buy an unknown brand in the six figures with just a artist rendering, no test drive and no review and have it delivered to their driveway?

I bought a Taurus based on renditions.  You know. It was wonderful at the time.

 

Crystal we know what the vessels look like and pretty much 90% of the ship.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

So do you remember when some said not many would return.

 

All four Hotel Directors returning is a big deal along with two of four captains in my book.

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/02/crystal-announces-return-of-hotel-directors/

 

I suspect on the first sailings  the vast majority of the crew on board will be from old Crystal and since we all know it was the crew who made the biggest impact I would say a lot of what we loved about old Crystal will be part of new Crystal.

 

I still don't get it why some seem to think the worst.  Is it possible new Crystal will be as good as it was or is it possible it will be even better.

Time will tell.

 

Keith

[Jimmycruiser]

55 minutes ago, hypercafe said:

I am sure there will be unbiased reviews however I also read a lot here about booking long trips and the world trip. I love cars and have many both old and new. I wonder how many would buy an unknown brand in the six figures with just an artist rendering, no test drive and no review and have it delivered to their driveway?

Apples and oranges. If it was Lexus I might want to be an early adopter which is my nature. If it was Chevrolet of course not. Crystal for our taste was the Lexus even after trying Silversea and Seabourn. I would expect the new Crystal will be different but deliver an exceptional experience with little risk IMHO. I booked to see if the risk was worth it and if not, at least I am only considering my experience not others. I make expensive purchases after a lot of research and would never base my decision on reviews that are so subjective. I am not adverse to managed risk taking which has served me well.

[Cruise-y]

My point exactly. People who are booking now expect to like it because so much will be the same. 

[Keith1010]

This is a bit different than an entirely new product.

 

You know the ships. They aren't going to be very different.

 

You know the crew.  They aren't' going to be much different.

 

This is reminding me of the discussion about what those Bahama cruises would be like.

Too short.

 

Terrible itinerary.

 

No enrichment. Poor entertainment.

 

Not the same type of guest because of low prices.

 

Guess what.  Most who sailed them both new to Crystal and past guests had a great time.

 

Same about going inclusive.

 

There will be drunks out.  People passed out. on the floor. 

Anyway, Best to see.

 

But often people worry so much about something new. Why not sit back and see what happens.

 

I am very simple.  I can read all the reviews in the world but I have to see it.  Touch it.  And experience it.

 

What I do know is if I was sailing on board a cruise right now, I wouldn't have time to be checking out this board.

 

Oh well

 

Keith

[KenzSailing]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

 

 

All four Hotel Directors returning is a big deal along with two of four captains in my book.

 

 

 

Agreed.  Personally, I findthe Hotel Directors to be the most important hires in terms of establishing the customer-facing culture.  And this speaks to the folks at the very top trying to re-create "Crystal," as opposed to sliding in any old product under the brand name.  Most encouraging. 

[Keith1010]

KenzSailng, agreed.

 

The fact that the vast majority of the crew are coming back including many of the senior officers and senior staff says a lot IMHO.  It says the new owners made a very serious effort and investment to bring them back.

 

But let's not forget a few of the so called experts even recently said that would not be the case.  In fact, some said no o e would buy the ships because their scrap value was worth more than anyone would pay.

 

They have somehow gone silent on those issues.

 

Keith

 

 

[Txcotn]

1 hour ago, Cruise-y said:

My point exactly. People who are booking now expect to like it because so much will be the same. 

We hope.

[Txcotn]

37 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

 

 

Same about going inclusive.

 

There will be drunks out.  People passed out. on the floor. 
 

We were on Serenity shortly after AI was instituted and there were indeed more drunk guests than we had seen since our first Crystal cruise in 1995! And drunk VERY early in the day too!

[Txcotn]

37 minutes ago, KenzSailing said:

 

Agreed.  Personally, I findthe Hotel Directors to be the most important hires in terms of establishing the customer-facing culture.  And this speaks to the folks at the very top trying to re-create "Crystal," as opposed to sliding in any old product under the brand name.  Most encouraging. 

3 are great, no experience with 1. Good news.

[Keith1010]

15 minutes ago, suzeluvscruz said:

We were on Serenity shortly after AI was instituted and there were indeed more drunk guests than we had seen since our first Crystal cruise in 1995! And drunk VERY early in the day too!

I saw a couple but I saw that before AI as well.

 

In the end, going AI to me was much overdue and overall had many more positives than negatives IMHO.

 

Keith

[Txcotn]

I think there were people who were trying it out to see how far they could go....

[RD64]

13 hours ago, bitob said:

Once again I find many of these posts baffling

 

everyone says it's a different company

a new cruise line -- starting from scratch

only thing bought was name and ships

 

BUT

i want same storage space

I want bridge or I wont cruise

I want dance hosts

I want Nobu

I want my Crystal status

I want old single supplement policy

 

I could go on

 

You just can't have it both ways.

It is not the old Crystal.

It may be better; it may be worse

You wont know until you sail.

 

 

Finally the voice of wisdom! I have said this several times before. You cannot necessarily have your cake and eat it too. Economics 101 -Lesson Day 2.

[wearesiamese]

3 hours ago, Jimmycruiser said:

Apples and oranges. If it was Lexus I might want to be an early adopter which is my nature. If it was Chevrolet of course not. Crystal for our taste was the Lexus even after trying Silversea and Seabourn. I would expect the new Crystal will be different but deliver an exceptional experience with little risk IMHO. I booked to see if the risk was worth it and if not, at least I am only considering my experience not others. I make expensive purchases after a lot of research and would never base my decision on reviews that are so subjective. I am not adverse to managed risk taking which has served me well.

My sister bought her Lucid last year pretty much in the manner you described as I recall

 

[Jimmycruiser]

1 hour ago, RD64 said:

Finally the voice of wisdom! I have said this several times before. You cannot necessarily have your cake and eat it too. Economics 101 -Lesson Day 2.

What wisdom? Has nothing to do with Economics 101. Nothing wrong with having a wish list of things you really enjoy and would like to see repeated. Besides it may be a different company legally but many if not most of the old Crystal employees want to work for the new Crystal which says a lot IMHO. They may not recreate the old Crystal and most of the posters recognize it most likely will be different.

 

Obviously there are some posters that like to think they are smarter than those of us willing to risk going on the new Crystal and expressing their wish list of things they like about the old Crystal but smart enough to recognize nothing stays the same. The success of Crystal will be based on how the product and price compares to the competition not on how many wish list items it will have.

Edited February 17, 2023 by Jimmycruiser

[BWIVince]

It was a lot easier to brush off the captains returning as coincidences or insignificant, but it’s a lot harder to brush off all 4 of the ocean ship hotel directors returning.  That says a lot about what the company is trying to build and their commitment to it, and the role of the HD’s on what’s being built.  All four are great, but at least two of them are among the most seasoned, respected and sought after in the industry.  That absolutely shows an investment in talent.

 

Vince

[Keith1010]

That's correct Vince.

 

We are seeing more return at sea and on land.  Many crew are on board both ships as they are going through all of the work necessary to put into place the reconfigured suites and and of the other interior work as this is taking place now.

 

Again this says a lot IMHO.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

I wanted to add a couple of items to the discussion.

 

There is still a lot we don't know about the new Crystal because they are working to get this information out to everyone and also working to get it all in place.  As this rolls out there will be many things quite familiar and some which are new or just slight modifications.  

 

Also, I know some would say why don't you get it all in place before you started to sell.  I get that but then there is the business perspective.

 

To get everything out there including a fully functional reservation system that TA's could use, and all of the information on the web site would have mean the ships would likely not sail for many more months as you don't start selling today for a cruise leaving in two months.  

 

That is the challenge they had.  So they made the decision to start up in August and September respectively and to start taking open bookings even though several items were not in place.  I suspect this is one of the reasons they went with the concept of open bookings and then move to Crystal Society members without open bookings before they open it up to the general public.

 

Yes, the down-side is some upset people including some TA's.  

 

I don't envy those who had to make the decision nor those who had to implement it.  I don't believe this is unlike what I have seen some companies in other disciplines do.  I know in the early years of the company where I spent my time sometimes a new product was announced with a targeted rollout and those of us in the technical side had no idea it was being announced and hadn't even started development of the product.  

 

So yes there will likely be more bumps in the road but I expect with each passing day we will know more.  

Keith

[Mr Luxury]

14 hours ago, Cruise-y said:

Crystal isn't coming back at the old prices. They need to be profitable this go round.

 

For the first wave of passengers, I doubt very much that we will see anything but glowing reviews. These are people who love Crystal no matter what. That is perfectly fine, no problem with that, but don't expect to see unbiased reviews at first.

Never a truer word.

I am expecting glowing reviews however the experience.

You can only tell if you make your own observations rather than read others reports.

[Mr Luxury]

39 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

It was a lot easier to brush off the captains returning as coincidences or insignificant, but it’s a lot harder to brush off all 4 of the ocean ship hotel directors returning.  That says a lot about what the company is trying to build and their commitment to it, and the role of the HD’s on what’s being built.  All four are great, but at least two of them are among the most seasoned, respected and sought after in the industry.  That absolutely shows an investment in talent.

 

Vince

Did the fab four work elsewhere after Crystal crashed?

[Keith1010]

1 hour ago, Mr Luxury said:

Did the fab four work elsewhere after Crystal crashed?

Nope

[BWIVince]

2 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Did the fab four work elsewhere after Crystal crashed?

 

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

Nope

This I think is the perfect illustration of the new ownerships intentions and commitment…  Published reports had A&K making offers to GHK before the shutdown and to the assignees preliminarily immediately after the shutdown, even ahead of the formal process by which they ultimately bought the brand and IP (and separately the ships from other parties).  I don’t know if A&K reached out to prior leaders like these immediately or these folks just saw the writing on the wall, but I know from experience these things don’t just randomly happen.

 

Vince

[Texas Tillie]

3 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Never a truer word.

I am expecting glowing reviews however the experience.

You can only tell if you make your own observations rather than read others reports.

 

See post #199 from me on this thread. I can guarandamntee you (yes, I'm from Texas and that's a word here) that if things aren't up to snuff, you'll hear it from me.

 

Not sure about your observations. What's it been, ten years since you've been on Crystal? Think that takes us back to NYK. Lots of water under the bridge since then.

 

Patty

[Keith1010]

3 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Never a truer word.

I am expecting glowing reviews however the experience.

You can only tell if you make your own observations rather than read others reports.

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.