Maiden Calls

[crickette]

Keith's recent thread questioning why we chose certain cruises/itineraries prompted this thought.
We have been on several maiden calls, on both Symphony and Serenity. At first, we thought there would be ceremony, festivity or souvenirs. We've noticed none. Perhaps a casual mention in Reflections or the MDR menu. No extra bunting and "no flowers for the ladies" (and I mean the latter figuratively). We've searched the plaques in the anteroom on Symphony (haven't found the equivalent on Serenity) but no special honours on the day or days-after there.
Crystal highlights and footnotes maiden POC in the atlases, but onboard an air of excitement doesn't exist. This isn't meant as a criticism - the only possible one might be a hiccup between promo materials and onboard experience. It's much more an invite for other cc'rs to share their onboard Crystal memories, experiences and expectations.

[Keith1010]

crickette, I think it's an excellent idea to highlight the maiden voyages.

Maiden Voyages are quite interesting. One never knows what to expect when visiting some of these ports of call.

In Reflections, it notes the maiden voyage under arrival information but that is usually on the second page and probably gets lost. Highlighting it on the front page of the Reflections above the writeup about the port would highlight the point that this is the first time Crystal is visiting the port. And I think you have a nice thought about potentially incorporating it into say the MDR menu would be a nice touch as well. Even incorporating this into the enrichment program would be good such as part of a desitination lecture. Or just as they do when you cross the equator maybe a little certificate on each bed when you get back the night of the maiden port of call commemorating being on Crystal's first visit would be a nice touch.

One of the special Maiden Port of Call that we were on board for was the visit of the Serenity to Valencia, Spain. We would love to go back there for an overnight. It was a very special day.

I think this is a good one to mention on the questionnaire while at the same time hopefully folks from the Los Angeles Office will pick up on your good idea if they read this thread.

Keith

[Miketap]

If the Port Authority is on the ball (and has the necessary equipment) you should get a fireboat welcome, though you may have to be up early to see it. Sometime during the morning port and civic representatives will come on board for drinkies with the captain and an exchange of plaques - you can often lurk on the fringes of this cremony if you are interested. I guess it takes a week or two before the relevant plaque actually appears alongside all those others.
Mike

[katrina'sgrammy]

We were on a cruise that had a maiden stop in Trieste Italy 2 years ago and they really went all out when the Serenity docked and more when we were getting ready for our sailaway. During the sailaway they had a few water boats going and they even had fireworks for us. The only problem was we were sailing at 5pm and it was not dark but they really tried. Since this was the only cruise so far that had a maiden port of call I thought they all did something special Oh well I guess it depends on the port! Everyone enjoyed all that they did do in Trieste Italy

[katrina'sgrammy]

Also forgot to mention they had a red carpet from the ship to the port and had a band playing all day they had two different bands and they played the whole time. It was really nice,

[Keith1010]

Of course all of this ranges from port to port just like other ports that Crystal visited before.

We had a visit to a Maiden Port of Call in 2007 to Maputo, Mozambique. I doubt anyone in the town had a red carpet or a fireboat. But when the complimentary shuttle took us to the town as we got off the bus we were greeted to all sorts of designer products such as Gucci Perfume for something like $2.00. I figured that it was their way of thanking Crystal and us for being the first luxury cruise ship to visit this port of call. Not.

Keith

[kitty9]

One of the most memorable maiden visits I've had on Symphony was to Rangoon. The dock was busy with bands, dancers and every radio and TV station in the area. They handed out flowers to the ladies and our tour guide gave everyone on our bus a little gift. I was sitting in a hotel bar in Rangoon, and their news came on, and the first story was our visit, and the story ran more than 7 minutes.

[KarenLA]

On our last cruise Sinop was a maiden call and other than the mention in Reflections next to Today's Notices there wasn't anything at all...But our first day in Istanbul there was a full band as we came off for our first day of sightseeing...that was pretty cool. The first time I had experienced that...and there were a couple of other ships in port.

[Exec Libra]

Maiden calls can indeed be full of fanfare, or so it was for us last year when the Crystal Serenity sailed into the port town of Puerto Chiapas. Here's what I wrote in my blog about that morning:

As I leaned over the railing on the Lido Deck, ahead I could just make out a breakwater and several small fishing boats coming into view. In our wake a Mexican Navy patrol boat, pacing our moves, crossed from our starboard side to port as Serenity began a slow turn to starboard. On our port side a small boat lay motionless, its darkly clad occupants holding what appeared to weapons. The sun suddenly burst up from the east and, in the distance, we could hear music playing. And thus began our 10th day of "Passage Through Panama", Monday, January 14th, 2008.









A "swift boat" and its armed occupants monitor harbor traffic as Crystal Serenity docks on its maiden call to Puerto Chiapas, MX


The military escort aside, the welcome we received for Crystal Serenity's maiden visit at Puerto Chiapas was the best and most enthusiastic of our voyage to-date. As our massive ship maneuvered toward the dock a local band began to play and many dancers dressed in colorful costumes performed. Tall flagpoles carried various national flags including the Stars and Stripes. Several large thatched-roof buildings built to resemble pyramids sat just behind the pier. A swimming and wading pool awaited in front of a newly constructed open air restaurant. A newly paved parking lot held a number of large busses. And there were people everywhere.

As our group began its walk down the gangway toward our tour bus, a confetti machine showered us with a blizzard of colored paper (that evening, Tim noted that the paper had unfortunately been picked up by the wind and had adhered to the side of our ship, areas of which had been freshly painted following our run-in with the locks in Panama).

Passing through one of the pyramid-like structures we saw that many small shops were arrayed around a large sunken dance floor. All of the shopkeepers appeared open for business and we determined to visit several on our return later that afternoon.

It seemed very exciting at the time, at least ...

Chuck-