Serenity Sep 8/23 - Reykjavik to Quebec City

[Roland4]

For those who may be interested, I asked and the Nobu Chardonnay will return when the ship gets to New York after the next sailing.

[2SeaAll]

Flight advice would be most appreciated based upon experience flying into Iceland. We currently are on waitlist for cabin on Symphony doing Iceland circumnavigation around Iceland in 2024 - can’t wait to sail Crystal again. 

 

Preliminary thinking had been to book Iceland Air in Saga Class from EWR or BWI with included “stopover” in Iceland for duration of cruise, then continue with air leg to Rome to celebrate our anniversary over several days, then board a Rome to Lisbon cruise we have booked; easy and very cost efficient plan for airfare. 

 

However, reviews of Iceland Air - particularly checked baggage experience - has given us great pause. We would be traveling heavy on baggage due to the trip duration

and weather variations necessitating lots of clothing. If we cross off Iceland Air our limited options include either Delta or Emirates from JFK  - comfortable, but much more expensive options for East Coast US>Iceland>Rome.

Comments, thoughts, benefits of first-hand experience appreciated. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.  

 

 

 

[Keith1010]

1 hour ago, 2SeaAll said:

Flight advice would be most appreciated based upon experience flying into Iceland. We currently are on waitlist for cabin on Symphony doing Iceland circumnavigation around Iceland in 2024 - can’t wait to sail Crystal again. 

 

Preliminary thinking had been to book Iceland Air in Saga Class from EWR or BWI with included “stopover” in Iceland for duration of cruise, then continue with air leg to Rome to celebrate our anniversary over several days, then board a Rome to Lisbon cruise we have booked; easy and very cost efficient plan for airfare. 

 

However, reviews of Iceland Air - particularly checked baggage experience - has given us great pause. We would be traveling heavy on baggage due to the trip duration

and weather variations necessitating lots of clothing. If we cross off Iceland Air our limited options include either Delta or Emirates from JFK  - comfortable, but much more expensive options for East Coast US>Iceland>Rome.

Comments, thoughts, benefits of first-hand experience appreciated. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.  

 

 

 

Howard 

 

I know people who took Iceland Air and based on what they told me I wouldn't do it.

 

We took Delta R/T when we sailed Endeavor in 2021 and that included the JFK flight to Iceland.  Not the best aircraft but still sounded better than the Iceland Air experience.

 

Keith 

[Snuffie]

We took Iceland Air in July round trip BWI to KEP Saga class. 
 

the service was excellent and the food not bad. While the seats are not lie flat they were wide and reclined adequately. Lots of videos and good WiFi. The flight is only 5.5 hours. 
 

Many of  our friends on our cruise also flew Saga Class and we’re fine with the short flight. 
 

 

[rrobbins]

We took Iceland Air from Detroit roundtrip in coach.  We were very happy.  There was no food but we knew that before we got on.  The flight from Detroit left around 9pm so we slept most of the way.  We did bring food on for our return to Detroit.  Our luggage arrived safely.  We would do it all over again.

 

[ijkh]

We are big fans of Icelandair.   We had no issues with our luggage.   We did travel business class, SAGA.    They fly nonstop from PDX which is wonderful for us.  The food was good.   The style very Icelandic and friendly.    They have a lovely lounge in KEF.   Don't worry they are good.

Edited September 13, 2023 by ijkh

[BWIVince]

I agree with the previous posters…. I’ve flown on Icelandair in Saga Class and would happily do it again based on price and schedule.  It’s not for everyone, and as Keith mentioned if you’re expecting or needing a lie-flat business product, it’s worth buying up to an airline like Delta.  That said, the flight to DC is about as long as a transcon from here and the seats were similar in size and style to our domestic first class seats in the US, but I found them more comfortable.  The meals were also streamlined and straightforward, but I enjoyed them a lot.  Lots of Icelandic touches in both the meal service and beverages.  Service was friendly and attentive in Saga.  The lounge in KEF was cute and had a nice variety of tasty nibbles.

 

Overall, I’d say be aware of what you’re paying, and what they’re promising.  Icelandair is a discount airline that doesn’t offer the same business class product as full service international carriers.  For the price I paid though, I thought I got an excellent value and had a very enjoyable trip in Saga Class.

 

Vince

[Stickman1990]

We just flew Icelandic Air Saga class last week from Amsterdam to Reykjavik and we’re very happy with the experience and would definitely fly them again 

 

We flew on one of their older Boeing 757s - the seats are large but not lie flat

 

We had a couple of large heavy bags checked and they arrived off the aircraft promptly 

If you like gin they have a gin menu with a good range of gins

 

 

The meal included Icelandic lamb

 

 

The snacks were interesting 

 

[2SeaAll]

Many thanks for the prompt and extremely helpful responses to my inquiry. Clearly "mediocre" is the operative word for the Iceland Air experience, with the principal trade-offs being price, and convenience (in some circumstances), taken together with the brevity of the East Coast U.S.>Iceland flight. Once all my cost and timing factors are determined (including home>JFK commute times) a clear path will be defined. It was somewhat encouraging to me that nobody came forth with horror stories of mishandling of checked luggage by Iceland Air; issues regarding seat comfort/food/service are consistent with the consensus of available reviews.

 

Hope to meet many of you on future voyages.  

 

Thanks again.

 

 

 

[Roland4]

Meanwhile, back at the thread topic............😁😁

 

Looks like I need to "walk back" my earlier post about Osterria. We dined there last night and almost every table was in use. Part of this, I think, is they are closing one restaurant every night on a rotating basis. Last night Umi was closed, and tonight Tastes is closed. Not surprising, really, with such a low guest count.

 

Overall we were very impressed with the food and the service. Our server recommended a la carte, rather than the tasting menus, so as to be able to get a better feel for what they offer. They started with a three-item appetizer, followed by a bread plate. We ordered the lobster and beef carpaccio appetizers, followed by Gnocchi and Minestrone soup for the pasta course, and mains of lamb and duck, and everything was delicious. We skipped dessert as none of the three appealed to us, plus we were stuffed!!! My only comment would be that they are going to have to change the menu more frequently than perhaps they have in the past. On a longer cruise, or a World Cruise I could see us tiring of the menu fairly quickly.

 

On a more general note, I have to say that despite the low guest count, there seems to be a real spirit on the ship. The Avenue has been rocking pretty much every night, Joel Spires, a Good Canadian Boy we found out, has been great! The Cove has been a bit quieter, but still steadily busy during the cocktail hour, and apparently there was a good turnout for the White Party. The Palm Court has been a little quieter than we remember, and the Dance Hosts don't appear to be overworked. The Keys and Melody duo are a nice addition up there as well. They did a 30 minute presentation of recent Broadway songs last night before dinner and can that young lady sing!!! I told Rick Spath that she should be a keeper!!

Edited September 13, 2023 by Roland4

[sullaRaffaello]

I'm aboard also and am enjoying it very much. Took Iceland Air from Newark, Saga class. Had access to the Lufthansa Business lounge. Flight went off without a hitch
5 hours 5 minutes, wheels up to wheels down. Good food and drink. Noted that the included Champagne is Nicholas Feuillate, the same as Crystal. Couldn't care less about the seat, 
as I'm a food and drink guy, not a seat guy. 

Boarded Serenity, just as others said, effortlessly due to low numbers. For the most part, this is the identical ship I left in Bimini in January 2022, with a few notable exceptions. In a balcony room on Deck 9, with the new appointments. I really like the 
improved bright lighting in the bathroom. The new shower is great, too. The crew, food, drink and entertainment appear to be the same Crystal we all knew and loved.

The only glaring negative is that it appears that a decision has been made to close Waterside for lunch on port days. NOT good. I asked Jacques about this and he said because of low passenger numbers, they decided to do this. I told him if they need to close something, the self-service casual stuff, (Trident, Tastes, Market Place) should be closed. Waterside should always be open for 3 meals a day. He said he'd mention it. Hopefully, this is only temporary. Don't want Crystal to turn into Seabourn II.   

[Cruise-y]

13 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

It's totally understandable that they close Waterside for lunch when in port.

Most guests will be ashore but for those that are back on board then the more casual restaurants will be more popular.

Agree. Plus, the more casual restaurants can serve for longer spans of time as people come and go (in more casual shore attire). I want NC to survive - and that may mean cutting some features that are only used by a few. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Cruise-y

[BWIVince]

Many resorts in the US have been doing the rotating venue thing on slower weeks (which are thankfully getting more rare) since Covid started, and it works pretty well.  The concept is that most guests at a resort are there for more than one night, so if you rotate the restaurant that you close, just about no one is inconvenienced because they still get to enjoy the venues they want, they just change the order.

 

When occupancy is low enough, you just can’t run everything in the same frequency you do when occupancy is 3 or 4 times higher.  It just doesn’t work, as much as guests want to say “that’s not my problem”. 
 

Using food prep as just one example, it takes a crazy amount of food just to prep the full menu even when you reduce the number of portions as low as you can cut it.  If you only get a handful of tables that service, that represents a LOT of waste.

 

Regarding Waterside, anyone here who knows me knows it takes an act of Congress to get me to eat in Marketplace, and I’d rather starve to death than eat at the Trident on my vacation…. But closing Waterside only makes sense these days.  On my last two cruises (2019 and 2021), lunches in Waterside were excellent, but no one wanted a sit-down lunch.  The 2021 cruise was extreme because of the roughly 280 passenger guest count — there were literally lunches with myself and 7 or 8 other guests.  Not tables — guests.  They prepped food for menu items that weren’t even ordered once, besides all the prep for the other items that went mostly to waste.  Servers were denied shifts off just to stand around and stare at each other.  Everyone went to eat upstairs, despite the excellent execution, because the sit-down plated lunch just isn’t a popular thing these days.

 

Trust me, no one bemoans the death of the dining room luncheon as much as I do, but it just doesn’t make any sense to manage it the way they used to.  The demand — at this scale — just isn’t there all the time anymore.

 

Vince

Edited September 15, 2023 by BWIVince

[KenzSailing]

 

Well, it's Cruise Critic, so here's my peanut gallery observations:

 

1) There was a pandemic.  There was what I call "The Unfortunate Hiatus."  It takes time to restart the engine after all of this, even in that little slice called the luxury cruise market.  An occasional venue closing is a reflection of this.

 

2) The Venn diagram of people who want it all and want it now, and people who never held a real job in their lives, is almost a perfect circle.  

[travelberlin]

Closing and rotating made probably sense during the Pandemic, but the Pandemic is over now (even though COVID is still around). We could make our statements about the main restaurant closing for lunch or not, but actually who cares about our opinions? 
It is a financial reason behind and it will remain like that. 

Ivi

[crickette]

1 hour ago, BWIVince said:

Many resorts in the US have been doing the rotating venue thing on slower weeks (which are thankfully getting more rare) since Covid started, and it works pretty well.  The concept is that most guests at a resort are there for more than one night, so if you rotate the restaurant that you close, just about no one is inconvenienced because they still get to enjoy the venues they want, they just change the order.

 

When occupancy is low enough, you just can’t run everything in the same frequency you do when occupancy is 3 or 4 times higher.  It just doesn’t work, as much as guests want to say “that’s not my problem”. 
 

Using food prep as just one example, it takes a crazy amount of food just to prep the full menu even when you reduce the number of portions as low as you can cut it.  If you only get a handful of tables that service, that represents a LOT of waste.

 

Regarding Waterside, anyone here who knows me knows it takes an act of Congress to get me to eat in Marketplace, and I’d rather starve to death than eat at the Trident on my vacation…. But closing Waterside only makes sense these days.  On my last two cruises (2019 and 2021), lunches in Waterside were excellent, but no one wanted a sit-down lunch.  The 2021 cruise was extreme because of the roughly 280 passenger guest count — there were literally lunches with myself and 7 or 8 other guests.  Not tables — guests.  They prepped food for menu items that weren’t even ordered once, besides all the prep for the other items that went mostly to waste.  Servers were denied shifts off just to stand around and stare at each other.  Everyone went to eat upstairs, despite the excellent execution, because the sit-down plated lunch just isn’t a popular thing these days.

 

Trust me, no one bemoans the death of the dining room luncheon as much as I do, but it just doesn’t make any sense to manage it the way they used to.  The demand — at this scale — just isn’t there all the time anymore.

 

Vince

While I understand your message, and agree with the points you are making, for us, "being served" is part of the luxury we enjoy.  I wish there was a way to accommodate our values.  I can't criticize Lido/Marketplace - it is a great venue for a quick lunch or breakfast.  But today I am looking forward to our next Crystal cruise and quick food is not part of that dream.

 

I don't know how much of the per diem is allotted to dining.  If I use the charges for inviting a guest onboard, the cost for lunch is not "fast food" dining.  On the other hand, it is hard to starve on a cruise ship.

[Roland4]

17 minutes ago, crickette said:

While I understand your message, and agree with the points you are making, for us, "being served" is part of the luxury we enjoy.  I wish there was a way to accommodate our values.  I can't criticize Lido/Marketplace - it is a great venue for a quick lunch or breakfast.  But today I am looking forward to our next Crystal cruise and quick food is not part of that dream.

 

I don't know how much of the per diem is allotted to dining.  If I use the charges for inviting a guest onboard, the cost for lunch is not "fast food" dining.  On the other hand, it is hard to starve on a cruise ship.

With all respect to everyone, this discussion is sterile when there are only 150 guests onboard, especially when you have only morning tours that don't get back until 1:30-ish! Marketplace, Trident and Tastes are more than sufficient to serve the lunch needs of those of us onboard. If you REALLY need table service to enjoy your lunch (!!), then Tastes is open from 1:00 to 3:00.

[koko's_mom]

Larry,

Thank you for posting your thoughts about your time on the Serenity.

Although we will miss the mushroom soup and spaghetti carbonara that was served in Prego, we look forward to trying the new concept and menu in Osteria when we sail

this fall.  I noted in one of your earlier posts you mentioned Andres had not returned to overseeing Trident Grill…..do you happen to know if will be coming back to the Serenity?  We have always been impressed with how he never seems to write any orders down, and yet is spot on with his delivery 😊.    
We recognize many of the former Crystal Serenity crew mentioned in your posts and Keith’s, so it will be fun to reconnect.  But also meet new team members. 
Thank you for taking us along, and enjoy the balance of your vacation!

Caryn 

[Keith1010]

Greetings.

 

Closing Waterside on port intensive cruises for lunch is not new to Crystal.  They have done this for several years.

 

Yes, they did close it more often since restart and this has nothing to do with what they did or didn't do with respect to the Pandemic.

 

And yes this is driven by financial considerations and due to the reconfiguration of the ships.

 

As to the reconfiguration they made some adjustments and that includes augmenting butlers since every room now has a butler but reducing some areas. Also this was done because you have less guests so the ship even if full will have less crew than before because overall occupancy has been reduced.

 

With low counts for the next few months there is less crew on board now than even the first couple of sailings.

 

Now add to this that most of the cruises are port intensive so they can adjust the wait staff counts recognizing this.

 

So knowing that there is far less demand for Waterside due to people being on tours (on this current cruise they do have more sea days than most cruises), given that guest count is down thus crew count has been reduced and given that these days many dine in other places for lunch which are more casual and in some cases allow them to have a shorter lunch they have closed the Waterside more often for lunch than before the Pandemic.

 

And yes this is a business decision.  And yes since most of us want them to be around for the long haul it is away to manage costs.

 

Like most things some are fine with this. Some are not. Everyone has their opinion and Crystal has made a decision.

 

I do expect on some cruises it will be open for lunch on a more regular basis starting in a couple of months. as guest counts ramp up.  

 

Keith 

[Keith1010]

4 hours ago, koko's_mom said:

Larry,

Thank you for posting your thoughts about your time on the Serenity.

Although we will miss the mushroom soup and spaghetti carbonara that was served in Prego, we look forward to trying the new concept and menu in Osteria when we sail

this fall.  I noted in one of your earlier posts you mentioned Andres had not returned to overseeing Trident Grill…..do you happen to know if will be coming back to the Serenity?  We have always been impressed with how he never seems to write any orders down, and yet is spot on with his delivery 😊.    
We recognize many of the former Crystal Serenity crew mentioned in your posts and Keith’s, so it will be fun to reconnect.  But also meet new team members. 
Thank you for taking us along, and enjoy the balance of your vacation!

Caryn 

Caryn,

 

Crystal responded to the Mushroom Soup requests and have added it to the Waterside Menu on the current cruise.  So when you are on board find out when it will be on the Waterside Menu so you could go that night for dinner if it's something you want to enjoy.

 

Also I see that they also served the Beef Carpaccio in Waterside last night and prepared it at the tables as they did at Prego.

 

Keith

[cruise_loverinlaval]

4 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

Caryn,

 

Crystal responded to the Mushroom Soup requests and have added it to the Waterside Menu on the current cruise.  So when you are on board find out when it will be on the Waterside Menu so you could go that night for dinner if it's something you want to enjoy.

 

Also I see that they also served the Beef Carpaccio in Waterside last night and prepared it at the tables as they did at Prego.

 

Keith

Hello Keith, are you still on Crystal Serenity?  How come that you know that they served the beef carpaccio last night?  You have special connection!?

[nancygp]

2 minutes ago, cruise_loverinlaval said:

Hello Keith, are you still on Crystal Serenity?  How come that you know that they served the beef carpaccio last night?  You have special connection!?

It was posted on another social media site

 

Nancy

[Keith1010]

13 minutes ago, cruise_loverinlaval said:

Hello Keith, are you still on Crystal Serenity?  How come that you know that they served the beef carpaccio last night?  You have special connection!?

Oh I wish I was on board.

 

As Nancy this was shared on another site.  I did ask the person who posed the photo of the soup if I could share that and got permission. There was a video of the carpaccio.

 

They served both items on the menu. They were responding to what some of the guests asked for since they miss that in Prego.

 

Keith

[May B]

1 hour ago, cruise_loverinlaval said:

Hello Keith, are you still on Crystal Serenity?  How come that you know that they served the beef carpaccio last night?  You have special connection!?

Many of us have seen it on social media. A guest even showed a wonderful video of her husband and their server.

[May B]

18 hours ago, sullaRaffaello said:

I'm aboard also and am enjoying it very much. Took Iceland Air from Newark, Saga class. Had access to the Lufthansa Business lounge. Flight went off without a hitch
5 hours 5 minutes, wheels up to wheels down. Good food and drink. Noted that the included Champagne is Nicholas Feuillate, the same as Crystal. Couldn't care less about the seat, 
as I'm a food and drink guy, not a seat guy. 

Boarded Serenity, just as others said, effortlessly due to low numbers. For the most part, this is the identical ship I left in Bimini in January 2022, with a few notable exceptions. In a balcony room on Deck 9, with the new appointments. I really like the 
improved bright lighting in the bathroom. The new shower is great, too. The crew, food, drink and entertainment appear to be the same Crystal we all knew and loved.

The only glaring negative is that it appears that a decision has been made to close Waterside for lunch on port days. NOT good. I asked Jacques about this and he said because of low passenger numbers, they decided to do this. I told him if they need to close something, the self-service casual stuff, (Trident, Tastes, Market Place) should be closed. Waterside should always be open for 3 meals a day. He said he'd mention it. Hopefully, this is only temporary. Don't want Crystal to turn into Seabourn II.   

I believe Tastes is full table service.

 

If I were hungry earlier than 1 pm, and I didn’t want to go to the actual buffet serving areas at Marketplace, I would sit down and, when a server asked for my drink order, I’d ask him if he could please tell me what soups were being offered, and would he please get me the one I prefer, with a roll and butter. Then I’d go out to Tastes and wait until they opened at 1 pm, for the rest of my lunch!

 

But I love Marketplace and Trident, so I wouldn’t have this challenge.

 

I think you’re on a TA so soon you’ll have a few at-sea days. Enjoy!

Edited September 15, 2023 by May B