ryndam

Not booked with the current itinerary. Will evaluate once a revised itinerary post-Rio is confirmed and becomes available for bookings. Rob

And this is where the oft-repeated "choice is good" comes in. We find every alternative routing opportunity after Rio more appealing than the currently scheduled itinerary. We have no interest in the circle-South America cruise from FL or LA to Rio. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. Rob

Thank you, Dwight. We agree with your assessment, too. My only other observation would be to consider a stop in FL or NYC or San Juan or somewhere else on the US East Coast, prior to the eastbound TA crossing. Hopefully a decision will be announced sooner, rather than later. Rob

I do not know what the current protocol may be for late arriving tours, but in addition what May B has noted about a limited food service in the Crystal Cove, in the past there would be an assortment of sandwiches, soup, fruits and cheeses awaiting us in our cabin when we returned from late arriving Crystal-sponsored tours. We never requested that unsolicited room service, it was just there upon our return. Rob

🤪🥴🤩😂🤣 We are sailing with unexpected $$ in our account. No idea that the EI was not in concert with additional accrued milestone benefits fare reductions. The appropriate Crystal representative responded quickly and clearly. Final point to my initial post, and subsequent follow-up post: milestone benefit fare reductions cannot be deducted from the fare if the fare was already reduced by use of the EI certificate, or any other marketing fare promotion/reduction. Peace. Out. See y’all onboard. 😁 Rob

I saw this earlier on another feed. Gloria is now 80 years young. She certainly "can never say goodbye".... Rob

We are pleased with the continued updates to the Crystal website. The daily listing of casual vs. formal/optional suggested evening attire in My Account is a very helpful advance planning tool. The advance listings of guest entertainers and special interest lecturers is also much appreciated. I am not familiar with any other cruise line that offers this type of advance information to its guests. Rob

Additional Update: I received this correspondence from the Manager, Crystal Guest Relations. It appears as though we can redeem our accrued milestone credits for OBC, but not as a fare reduction. The conversation with our TA last week now makes more sense. Rob "Thank you for your email inquiry. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify this for you. You have redeemed your Exceptional Initiative certificate for this booking which does not allow for any other redemptions. I have included the below from our brochure and have attached the Terms and Conditions for your reference. Please let me know if you have any further questions, COMBINABILITY Crystal Society rewards may not apply to certain promotional offers. Crystal reserves the right to exclude or limit combinability with the benefits or rewards of other marketing partnerships or promotional offers not specified herein. More than one fare reduction Milestone may not be redeemed on a single voyage segment. Exceptional Initiative sub credits are considered a fare reduction credit. An exceptional Initiative sub credit is combinable with a milestone reward redemption, excluding a fare reduction milestone."

If it is not an imposition, is there a way that you can cut-and-paste and post the survey options? We looked at this WC and the current itinerary did not hold much interest for us. A modified itinerary may sway our decision. Thank you! Rob

Thank you for the update. As with our current Society Benefit conundrum (OBC vs. fare reduction), this may need to be escalated to a different set of decision-makers at Crystal. It is a frustrating, and seemingly inconsistent/illogical application of the written Society Benefits documents. Please continue to let us know how this works out. As will we on this thread. Thanks again for the clarification. Rob

Not necessarily so. But here’s the proof required. If this will be your 11th cruise on Crystal, and you haven’t sailed on any Crystal voyages since the A&K acquisition, then this milestone upgrade should be applicable. Crystal knows you have cruised 10 times in the past and want to use your milestone on this, your 11th Crystal cruise. If this will be your 12th or 13th or 14th cruise with Crystal, they have no records if you actually used that 10th cruise milestone already. Hence the request was declined. Make sense? Rob

Yes it is. The issue has been escalated to additional decision-makers at Crystal. I will update my post here once either I or our TA receive any further clarification. Rob

You have confirmed my message in post #2 above. Thank you for validating that the protocol remains valid. Rob

Apparently not. There was no way the Crystal personnel were going to apply a milestone award to any type of cruise fare reduction. Onboard credit only.

Our TA continues to pursue further clarification. But it was “Crystal clear” this afternoon. No fare reduction. Onboard credits only. If anyone reading this thread has a different experience when achieving a designated milestone level, please post here to share your experience if it differs from ours. Rob