Ant@sea

An interesting read. It was one of the “terrible teens” a batch of planes built with many production issues that required out of sequence fixes, shims for parts that did not fit properly, etc, which made them overweight, and adversely affected their range and payload. This made them undesirable for mainline operators to use them, hence, being in storage for all these years.

16 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

No I think it’s a gross overstatement actually - the vast majority of the many people I’ve spoken with who have actually sailed on Explora have been very impressed and that includes many with substantial experience on Crystal

 

Certainly we found it excellent and the group we were travelling with did also. Friends onboard at the moment are providing similar positive feedback 

 

As we see on these forums every day there are those who find things to complain about everywhere 

 

Try it - you might like it - particularly if dining is important to you 

My takeaway from the Explora forum is that everything is fine until it’s not, and then, the staff onboard is not empowered to fix an issue without orders from Geneva, and I find that troubling. On Crystal, the staff is trained and trusted by headquarters. To me, the software is more important than the hardware. 

On 9/19/2023 at 1:20 PM, vistaman said:

I say NO to Jeddah !! no way  with all my medication I must   carry - it is not just the licor !

Tarragona : probably no space in Barcelona as there is no int airport ,  Genoa is a nightmare to reach even for Europeans ( i had 2 departures in the 90s on old Vistafjord )

Liverpool  : best airport for it is Manchester 

Re:Genoa Vistafjord …any chance it was a 1995 departure ending in Athens????

According to an inside source, there was a lot of initial sales resistance to EJ as many wanted to see the hardware first, plus there were major misgivings regarding MSC’s notoriously bad customer service. 
Their Chief Sales Officer, Chris Austin, made a lot of promises, and I’m sure people were enticed as he’d held previous positions at such iconic luxury brands as Seabourn and Ritz Carlton. Interestingly enough, both their East Coast and West Coast Regional Sales directors quit prior to the inaugural sailing(I’m sure they’re thanking their  lucky stars they don’t have to face the backlash). So agents have no one to turn to to voice their concerns to, except Austin, who’ll have to take the heat for over promising and under delivering. 

I think Crystals first challenge will be to show they are delivering on their promises which seems to be going according to plan. I have a feeling that once they are established for a while, former crew members who’ve migrated to other lines will start to return which was one of their strongest points. 
They’ve negated the larger capacity issue by reducing passenger carry by making many more suites.  They also have access to A&K’s passenger base as well to hopefully negate having older tonnage. 
 

I do recall that one of OC’s issues was lack of economy of scale with such a small fleet, so some growth will be necessary.

They’re off to a good start so they just have to keep demonstrating that they can deliver in what they’ve promised in a consistent basis. I do remover a while back one of the chief negatives about Silversea was a lack of consistency across its fleet. 

Keith, 

You and Anne Marie have done so much to reassure loyal Crystal past guests that everything is as good or better than it used to be. Having said that, the New Crysal cannot survive on their existing passenger base and must strive to attract new guests.

How do you feel the Crystal stacks up against all the newer tonnage coming into the market from Silversea (in particular the Silver Nova being comparable in size) as well as Regent and Seabourn? (I was going to include Explora Journeys, but based on the reviews I've been reading, they appear to be a floating dumpster fire, including the latest that they've cancelled their 2024/2025 published schedule and are working on new ones)

On 8/26/2023 at 9:21 PM, FlyerTalker said:

 

Absolutely.  All are part of PANYNJ - Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

 

As are JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.

 

 

Keep in mind Bayonne if great for getting to Newark airport, but that’s about all. Getting there from New York is a royal pain. 

Yes, passengers are always adverse to eastward world voyages. Turning your clock ahead every few days always throws people off. In Addition, it puts more stress on the crew who have to compress 24 hrs of work into 23. 

Unfortunately, even though your reservation says “Explora Journeys”, their back office is all “MSC”, and you’re getting MSC’s notoriously bad service, which is one reason they are struggling in the US market, as many agents a have had dreadful experience with MSC’s lack of service. 

14 minutes ago, RD64 said:

Crystal needs to build a ship to compete with Vikings Octantis and Polaris. I am fortunate to live in a Great Lakes port that has the O and P pass through on a regular basis. The two ships are truly majestic - hard to explain, but I was driving down a hill the other day and saw the O or P passing by - drove down to the marina for a better look - and the view took my breath away.

I find those 2 Viking ships odd, as they were built for polar conditions but only spend half the time in Antarctic waters, where one of them suffered damage resulting in a passengers death. 

1 hour ago, PaulMCO said:

Paltry commission on a 20K fare  -- highly doubt that..  

 

Do you think Crystals sales are stunning??  The same is true with Crystal but MSC does not have the history of OC stiffing their agents.

 

The initial Explora photo's are not just impressive but stunning.  So are the menus.   That is why it is important for Crystal to have new ships ASAP.  The announcement is good.

 

I would criticize the the small company going in many directions by going after the crowded expedition market.  It is crowded and competing against luxury incumbents SS and new luxury ships by Seabourn will not be easy and resources could be spent in other areas.

 

We all know what happens when you start diversifying and not focusing on your core. We saw it with GHK.

Re:commission—that’s for an MSC cruise but illustrates the poor service agents receive and have to fight to get, which leads to leeriness about booking Explora. On the agent preview cruise, I’ve seen photos of many top OC Agebts who were stiff HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars commissions but they still showed up by virtue of Manfredi. Their challenge will be to convince any of theirclients who got stiffed to rebook. I do agre with you that to go off and start up with expedition ships may be misguided given the glut of ships now in that category. Lindblad just released their quarterly financial report and mentioned that they had to contend with competition slashing rates. 

4 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

Really --- you think two old ships are going to compete with new ships like the Explora class ships also sailing for TA's???  Just compare the photos and remarks...

 

I would be interested in which banks and export credit agencies are going to loan money to A&K.  I bet Hermes is not one of them.

 

High interest rates are not the best time to be building and financing new ships.

Re: Explora….the initial photos are impressive, but I have it on very good authority that sales haven’t been a “slam-dunk” Many agents were  waiting to see the finished product first, and a real impediment is MSC’s reputation for dreadful customer service and back office operations. Regardless of what the front line executives say, it’s all MSC behind the scenes, and I know many agents who refuse to book them, as they can’t waste dozens of phone calls over many weeks to receive a paltry $100 commission 

After seeing some videos of the cabins I’m very surprised to see that the bathrooms don’t have double sinks, even in the largest suites. 

Thank you all for the replies. An NCL rep used to call me if I’d been surfing the NCL web site but was unable to tell me if singles outside the studio were welcome at their gatherings. Now I feel more comfortable. 12 days until Getaway transatlantic!

I’ll be sailing shortly on the Getaway as a single in a balcony cabin and wondering how I’ll be accommodated in the dining room. I’d previously sailed in the Breakaway as a single in one of the Studio cabins and the studio concierge always asked who’d like to dine and formed a table, so I never had to dine alone.  I’d appreciate any guidance from other singles who’ve sailed before outside of the Studio area accommodations. 

I can help but think back to 1992 when the QE2 hit a rock on her way back to New York during a New England cruise.  The Transatlantic crossing had to be cancelled and all passengers were put up in hotels at Cunards expense and flown to the U.K., again at Cunards expense. Back then, they realized that this was not a “cruise” but a crossing as a form of transportation and did right by all the passengers.  Unfortunately Carnival/Princess never seemed to grasp this concept. 

I’m not sure if this has yet been mentioned, but shortly after the announcement of this initiative, two major agency consortia signed preferred partner agreements with NC, first Signature, then, Virtuoso…the #1 and 2 biggest agency groups OC had. I’m sure to get this much needed  show of confidence, NC had to make some sort of concession to all the past guests who’d lost money. 

Also take into account the billions of dollars of debt that they took on over the last 2 years.  This precipitated a reexamination of all areas of the company and they’ve seen where staff is not needed or the need to remove a layer of management if they deem it non essential 

Thanks for advice. Access to the activities and mingling in the solo lounge with the cruise staff is the deciding factor in my decision as well as the studio vs sole occupancy rate for the inside doubles. 

I sailed on the Getaway several years ago in a studio and was impressed with the attention single guests were given..a cruise  staff member arranged group table reservations when we gathered each night in  The studio lounge so I never had to dine alone. 
I'm looking at booking another trip but have noticed on many that the Studio cabins are more expensive than sole occupancy of an inside cabin.  Does anyone know if you still get access to the studio lounge? I’d reached out to my “personal cruise consultant” who contacted me from NCL but they were useless.  I’m also puzzled why some sailings are priced that way. Any insight would be appreciated. 

I think Cunard is having their annual “Inner Circle” top agency award cruise on this segment. 

Any space still available on the SFO to YVR segment?

This appointment follows Carnivals new CEO, being from the financial side of the business. Keep in mind the billions and billions of dollars that cruise lines have borrowed over the past 2 years. At this point a person with a firm grip and understanding of finance is critical to enable the. To service the debt in an expedient manner and restore the balance sheet to a healthy state following 2 years with several billion dollars lost each year.  
as most finance people aren’t  as adept at PR as sales peop,e, I’d expect the to promote their senior VP’s of sales and marketing to be their front men and company face to the public and trade. 

On 2/11/2022 at 2:11 PM, Keith1010 said:

How come there are so many advertisements with our song What A Wonderful World.

 

Now I see Vanguard has one out too.

 

Are they trying to rub in what has happened with Crystal?

Keith

The other day while watching TV I was totally ambushed by a Celebrity advertisement using that song!

Is this the first time a person has retired from a company that has yet to start operations?