Live From Crystal Serenity – A New Adventure – Vancouver to Los Angeles

[Karen Lynn]

Might I ask a question ?
Full disclosure , I am a Cruise consultant. I have a client , long time Crystal cruiser along with Regent SS. He is ‘considering’ revisiting Crystal next year - Barcelona to Istanbul on Serenity … I have not sold Crystal since its original demise and neither have my colleagues surprisingly.  Will my client be disappointed or pleasantly surprised since A&K have taken over ?  I asked him to give me a little time to check reviews and get some feedback … any words of advice are greatly appreciated! 

[Keith1010]

8 minutes ago, Karen Lynn said:

Might I ask a question ?
Full disclosure , I am a Cruise consultant. I have a client , long time Crystal cruiser along with Regent SS. He is ‘considering’ revisiting Crystal next year - Barcelona to Istanbul on Serenity … I have not sold Crystal since its original demise and neither have my colleagues surprisingly.  Will my client be disappointed or pleasantly surprised since A&K have taken over ?  I asked him to give me a little time to check reviews and get some feedback … any words of advice are greatly appreciated! 

My response is very simple.

 

If you client liked former Crystal than your client should find that new Crystal is very similar to former Crystal but even better.  Several enhancements have been made including to some of the public rooms, to many of the staterooms/suites, and IMHO things like food have been enhanced. Most of the former crew members have returned which says a lot about new Crystal, the crew and the guests.

 

Keith

[ryndam]

7 minutes ago, Karen Lynn said:

Might I ask a question ?
Full disclosure , I am a Cruise consultant. I have a client , long time Crystal cruiser along with Regent SS. He is ‘considering’ revisiting Crystal next year - Barcelona to Istanbul on Serenity … I have not sold Crystal since its original demise and neither have my colleagues surprisingly.  Will my client be disappointed or pleasantly surprised since A&K have taken over ?  I asked him to give me a little time to check reviews and get some feedback … any words of advice are greatly appreciated! 

Hello Karen Lynn. Both Keith & I have been posted live from both Serenity and Symphony. The commentaries are lengthy. There are also several other online reviews posted recently that praise, as well as criticize certain aspects of the current Crystal product. I would encourage you, your colleagues and even perhaps your client to peruse some of these recent online comments. Those that take the time and effort to post during our cruises would appreciate that others read them. That’s why we post.

 

Have a great day. Hope you find what you seek. 😁😁

 

Rob

[Roland4]

21 minutes ago, Karen Lynn said:

Might I ask a question ?
Full disclosure , I am a Cruise consultant. I have a client , long time Crystal cruiser along with Regent SS. He is ‘considering’ revisiting Crystal next year - Barcelona to Istanbul on Serenity … I have not sold Crystal since its original demise and neither have my colleagues surprisingly.  Will my client be disappointed or pleasantly surprised since A&K have taken over ?  I asked him to give me a little time to check reviews and get some feedback … any words of advice are greatly appreciated! 

I am a Cruise Consultant as well as a long-time Crystal cruiser. We have sailed both ships since the restart and I can attest that if your client liked the old Crystal, then he will be even happier with the new Crystal. The new ownership has put a lot of time and effort into the re-start, and they have proven on more than a few occasions, both here and on other social media platforms, that they do listen to guest feedback, the biggest so far being their decision to relent on their original plan and build a new casino on each ship.

Edited September 10 by Roland4

[Karen Lynn]

54 minutes ago, ryndam said:

Hello Karen Lynn. Both Keith & I have been posted live from both Serenity and Symphony. The commentaries are lengthy. There are also several other online reviews posted recently that praise, as well as criticize certain aspects of the current Crystal product. I would encourage you, your colleagues and even perhaps your client to peruse some of these recent online comments. Those that take the time and effort to post during our cruises would appreciate that others read them. That’s why we post.

 

Have a great day. Hope you find what you seek. 😁😁

 

Rob

I have !! I have perused many many threads here …… and overall I am impressed what I am reading , a few blips … but overall positive feedback. It’s a big responsibility to endorse this new Crystal when I have yet to try them so I wanted to tick all the boxes and cross all the t’s to be sure ….

Thank you !

 

 

[Karen Lynn]

49 minutes ago, Roland4 said:

I am a Cruise Consultant as well as a long-time Crystal cruiser. We have sailed both ships since the restart and I can attest that if your client liked the old Crystal, then he will be even happier with the new Crystal. The new ownership has put a lot of time and effort into the re-start, and they have proven on more than a few occasions, both here and on other social media platforms, that they do listen to guest feedback, the biggest so far being their decision to relent on their original plan and build a new casino on each ship.

That’s great to know - thank you! I know A&K have a longstanding reputation so I am happy that they are listening to their customer base !

[Karen Lynn]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

My response is very simple.

 

If you client liked former Crystal than your client should find that new Crystal is very similar to former Crystal but even better.  Several enhancements have been made including to some of the public rooms, to many of the staterooms/suites, and IMHO things like food have been enhanced. Most of the former crew members have returned which says a lot about new Crystal, the crew and the guests.

 

Keith

Huge thanks for this !

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, Karen Lynn said:

Might I ask a question ?
Full disclosure , I am a Cruise consultant. I have a client , long time Crystal cruiser along with Regent SS. He is ‘considering’ revisiting Crystal next year - Barcelona to Istanbul on Serenity … I have not sold Crystal since its original demise and neither have my colleagues surprisingly.  Will my client be disappointed or pleasantly surprised since A&K have taken over ?  I asked him to give me a little time to check reviews and get some feedback … any words of advice are greatly appreciated! 

 

I'm in complete agreement with everything Keith, Rob and Larry said.  Just to add one more comment to summarize everything I posted about my cruise this summer to save you some reading of my ramblings, I think Crystal today is as close as it could possibly be to the ethos of old Crystal.  Changes are minor, and IME almost all things required to adapt any brand to the cruise market of 2024.  That said, I think A&K has done an amazing job of respecting all of Crystal's original pillars to ensure the product remains as recognizable to Crystal's legacy guests and partners as possible, and that it delivers what it's former guests (as much as new ones) are looking for from Crystal.

 

Vince

[Karen Lynn]

2 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

 

I'm in complete agreement with everything Keith, Rob and Larry said.  Just to add one more comment to summarize everything I posted about my cruise this summer to save you some reading of my ramblings, I think Crystal today is as close as it could possibly be to the ethos of old Crystal.  Changes are minor, and IME almost all things required to adapt any brand to the cruise market of 2024.  That said, I think A&K has done an amazing job of respecting all of Crystal's original pillars to ensure the product remains as recognizable to Crystal's legacy guests and partners as possible, and that it delivers what it's former guests (as much as new ones) are looking for from Crystal.

 

Vince

Much appreciated !

[Keith1010]

One thing I wanted to comment on was the TV and Internet for these two voyages.

 

I found the TV much improved over our prior cruises with New Crystal with very few instances where it was frozen while watching a show or there was an outage.

 

The internet was very good.  Overall, I thought it was great on the first two voyages of the restart of Crystal starting 7/31/23 and continuing into August other than a few blips. I thought it was very bad during the 2023 December Holiday Cruise.  Too often the connection was up and down and speeds very slow.

 

Thankfully on these two voyages the internet was very stable and I can only think of once when I was on-line that it momentarily dropped and I believe one time where it was down for a minute or so.

 

Bottom line we were very pleased with the stability and speed of the internet and of the stability of the satellite TV.

 

Keith

[ryndam]

7 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

 

Bottom line we were very pleased with the stability and speed of the internet and of the stability of the satellite TV.

 

Keith

Keith, transmit those rapid and stable electronic signals over to Serenity. At best, it’s been inconsistent here. Harsh reality: it sorta sux. Signals drop all the time. 🥲🥲

 

Rob

[Keith1010]

Just now, ryndam said:

Keith, transmit those rapid and stable electronic signals over to Serenity. At best, it’s been inconsistent here. Harsh reality: it sorta sux. Signals drop all the time. 🥲🥲

 

Rob

Will do Rob. We had great performance on the Serenity Vancouver R/T and Vancouver to Los Angeles cruise.  I guess I shouldn't have taken the satellite dishes over here.  🤣  😂

 

Keith

 

 

[Helene1111]

Keith , any update on the Symphony Live Views which are still not working? Are the IT people on the ship aware? Any estimate on when if will be fixed? Thanks! 

[Keith1010]

1 hour ago, Helene1111 said:

Keith , any update on the Symphony Live Views which are still not working? Are the IT people on the ship aware? Any estimate on when if will be fixed? Thanks! 

Helene:

 

I had forgotten to report it and just called the Computer University and they will let IT know about it.

 

Keith

[Helene1111]

Keith , thank you very much. Continue to enjoy your cruise - we are enjoying your posts ! 

[Keith1010]

Helene, you are very welcome.

 

I hope they are able to fix it.

 

Keith