360Guy

Due to the ongoing work on the line, I found this article which may be of help.   If the train service terminates at Solana Beach, Amtrak does usually provide a bus service to San Diego station…and a short walk to the cruise terminal.   You may want to call Amtrak for the latest information on the schedule and possible transfer.

https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/service-impacted-as-work-to-stabilize-del-mar-bluffs-along-lossan-railway-moves-into-next-phase/

I found this from an earlier post on July 29.  The wine list may have changed?

22 hours ago, artbcpa said:

Just completed our New Crystal cruise Hong Kong to Singapore. Overall Crystal is FAR superior to Explora Journeys. Comparing it to old Crystal, I believe there is not much difference with these exceptions:

 

Bad: The ship is much too old. Even with the renovation, the internet does not compare with other newer ships.
 

Good: They are much more flexible with regard to pricing. That may be due to their eagerness to have previous passengers return. Their staff, service, welcoming feeling, speakers, and entertainment are all equal to or better than old Crystal. 
 

Mixed: Food - some better, some worse but overall equal. New Italian restaurant not anywhere near as good as Prego. Waterside main dining room better.

 

Avenue Saloon is still the hit of the late evening. We did miss the casino. We understand they are bringing it back.

 

If you have any specific questions, please ask.

We are sailing first time on Serenity 7/2 Vancouver RT.  If you wouldn’t mind elaborating further with respect to your thoughts on the “mixed” food.   Reviews on this board for Waterside have been very positive.  Thanks!

Very grateful for the daily Reflections and menus!  We will sail Serenity for the first time July 2nd round trip Vancouver.  Can’t wait….I have been so impressed by the variety of the daily Waterside menus!  Food looks amazing!!

We are booked for Onward June 2025 from Lisbon to Southampton including Bordeaux overnight.  We plan to bring local bottles of wine onboard and pay the very reasonable corkage.   So grateful Azamara gives this option to their guests.  Looking forward to our cruise!!

Hi CruisePfan,

We live part time in San Diego.  There is a Rite Aid just a couple of blocks from the cruise terminal: https://www.riteaid.com/locations/ca/san-diego/1411-kettner-boulevard.html

Hope this helps!  Have a wonderful cruise!!

Bob

1 hour ago, ryndam said:

We enjoyed a private Vintage Room dinner last night. 14 bottles of wine. 3.5 hours of conversation, wining, dining and good times. I rarely post “food porn” pics, but here they are anyway.
 

Rob

 

 

Thank you Rob for posting these wonderful pictures of your dinner!  A fantastic food and wine pairing.   Can’t wait for our Vancouver cruise…

We have been loyal for 15+ years.   Just finished a Best of Japan cruise in October 2023.   Great itinerary and hard working crew as always.  The MDR food was fine but limited.  Gone were many favorites.  Have not see the menu “revamp”.  Now booked on Azamara, Viking and Crystal.  The per diem on these are higher for sure.  But the same “Best of Japan” cruise in 2024 is 50% higher.  If Celebrity has an interesting itinerary we would likely book.  The cruise industry is imho trying to recover their COVID losses and have massive debt to service.  The ships are full and prices are way up.  If people are not happy then try another cruise line….they would all love to have you and I think Celebrity corporate hasn’t figured it out.  Staffing is very tight.  Our Millenium crew worked very hard and were fantastic.  So….despite our Elite Plus status we are going to see if the grass is greener….

Keith,

Thank you for sharing your experiences on this cruise and the effort you put into providing the various pictures, daily reflections and Waterside menus.  Much appreciated!  It looked like a fantastic cruise in every way.

We were already booked on the Serenity Quebec City to New York late September, and your feedback as well as others we have been reading motivated us to book the Vancouver-Vancouver cruise in early July!  The suite upgrade was very enticing…and frankly I am just impatient to experience Crystal for the first time!

Have a safe trip home and looking forward to our upcoming cruises with Crystal!

Bob

Hi Keith,

We are booked 9/24/24 on Serenity.   Really looking forward to the cruise!

We understand about the reservations from the helpful thread above.  Should we contact Crystal offices to see which night is formal?  I think we have a sea day after sailing from Quebec City (overnight first night).  We want to dine in Waterside on formal evening.

Thanks for your help!

Bob

We are sailing next year on Azamara.  We may pick up some wine in Porto and Lisbon to bring aboard.

Can anyone advise the current corkage charge?

Thank you!

Bob

On 9/25/2023 at 6:17 AM, newtocruiseinblue said:

I was told by my TA to always keep it locked in the hotel safe and walk around d with a color copy. Also leave a color copy at home with a loved one in case if situations like this. The copies can’t get you in a ship but the it may make it easier to get it replaced having the passport id number and issuing dates. 
 

Hi…question….why a color copy vs B&W?  Thanks!

On 9/18/2023 at 5:59 PM, pmarrsouth said:

We are currently on the Millennium from Vanc to Tokyo in AQ. Have had 3 nights so far in Blu

 

Soups - Could use more flavor overall. I had a corn veloute on day 2, lack of flavor until I hit the single piece of chorizo in it which complimented the dish nicely (needs more chorizo!)

 

Starters - Overall quite decent. Some excellent dishes like the lobster salad on soba noodles

 

 

Mains - Blu is really standing out here. I had herb crusted lamb chops last night, medium rare, which were incredible. My fiancé had the glazed salmon, which she loved. The previous night the short rib really melted in your mouth

 

 

 

 

0 complaints about service, the staff are fantastic and do not ask for our keycards when ordering drinks as they have remembered our room numbers

 

Obviously it will be busy around 7:30pm and one would expect a bit of a wait (enjoy a drink in Cellar Masters with the pager beside you). Come at 5:30/6 or 8:30 and there is no wait

 

A lot of people mention the smaller portion sizes as a negative / cost cutting. Order more than 1 dish, they will serve you as much as you want. We are continually ordering 2-3 starters each and a couple of mains each (there is 0 need to do this, we are just enjoying all the delicious food and then not enjoying so much the gym each morning)

 

We have yet to order from the MDR menu due to there being so many interesting dishes each night on the Blu menu

Thank you for posting!  Looks wonderful.   We are on the Best of Japan 10/12 sailing and have bid for an Aqua upgrade….fingers crossed!   
 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

9 minutes ago, canloan said:

Yes, so far the menus in the App are correct for our 09/15 Trans-Pacific cruise on the Millennium. We are only on day 3 though:)
 

For our cruise, the actual menus for the 14 days were not loaded into the App until during the night of Sept 14th/early morning of the 15th.

 

The menus themselves are definitely not as good as they were when we were on the Millennium for 14 days in May.

Thank you canloan….yes that is what we are seeing also,  we booked this cruise about 18 months ago and survived the ship switch with a number of folks on our roll call getting cancelled.   And we booked before a lot of changes both pricing and food, etc.  We just made Elite Plus which now seems like free 2x laundry/pp is the real perk.   We’ve booked a Viking River, Crystal (yikes $$$) and an Azamara for 2025.  Need to try some others.  This cruise will be a test of sorts.
 

Seems like food in the MDR has taken a real hit in terms of offerings that were standards for many years.  Sad as I looked forward to them.

Hoping the sailing you are on is going well…Millenium is a lovely ship…we were last on her in October of 2021 with 700 total passengers…..something we will never experience again and it was just wonderful all around.

17 hours ago, canloan said:

On the Millennium right now. Hope you like mashed potatoes...

Will be on Millenium 10/12.  Is the app correct for the MDR your transpacific cruise?

If yes it looks like some of the regular menu items are gone like lamb shank, beef short ribs, rack of lamb, etc?   Just thinking that the menu on the app for your cruise will basically be the same for our 12 night Best of Japan on 10/12.

Really would be disappointing if those items are part of the menu changes.

Thanks for your feedback….I like mashed potatoes but not every night!

Bob

We just booked our first Crystal cruise for September Quebec to New York on Serenity.  Technically our second booking but our first was the same itinerary for October 2020 and we all know how that turned out.

So very grateful for all the posts on this thread and others about their experiences.  We are longtime Celebrity and have been anxiously following Crystal’s return and are excited!  
 

Greetings….it has been 11 years since our last Azamara cruise on the Quest along the Croatian coast.  It was really very nice.  The past 12 years have been on Celebrity including a 10/2021return to service on Millenium and a 4/2022 1st sailing on Solstice out of Southampton with a very full ship.   We’ve never really had a bad experience on Celebrity but the recent noise volume on their CC boards is pretty stiff.

We sail on Millenium Best of Japan 10/12 that has been sold out for almost two years (oversold at one point) so will have an opportunity to provide feedback.
 

After this long winded intro we are looking at the Azamara Onward June 1, 2025 Lisbon to Southampton 10 night.  Getting some quotes and hope to book soon.   Wonderful itinerary and we really like that we can bring wine onboard as we make stops in Portugal and France and pay the reasonable corkage.  It has a great itinerary.

We also booked a Crystal Serenity Canada Quebec to NYC in September 2024.  This will be our first foray into the luxury space and their return to service has been very good as CC posts are reporting.  The per diem on this cruise is multiples of Celebrity and Azamara, but we had one booked before COVID and then they went bankrupt. 
 

I really enjoy and appreciate the time everyone takes on these boards sharing their experiences and recommendations!

Keith,

So very grateful for all the posts along with amazing pictures.  We were originally booked for a Crystal cruise in 2020 but COVID and Canada closed the ports.

Now looking at a similar Lisbon to Dover in July 2024 you just sailed on Symphony or the Quebec City to New York late September 2024 on Serenity.  
 

Any thoughts on these for Crystal first timers?

Thank you!

Bob and Ray

Glad the OP had an acceptable quarantine experience.   We had about a 180 degree different experience on the Silhouette in April out of Southampton.  Have cancelled cruises since.  Continue to see a large variance in quarantine experiences that demonstrate Celebrity is struggling to deliver a consistent model.   Staffing shortages seem to contribute along with each ship doing some things well and others do not.  Giving the industry more time to settle.   Looking forward to returning to cruising.

Glad to hear the room service experience was great and that you are feeling better!

23 minutes ago, koolforkatz said:

My husband and I were both quarantined on the Beyond June 4th sailing and carried on into the next sailing as well since I was still positive. We never actually got anything in writing outlining what would happen although I was assured by the fellow who was looking after us that everything would be taken care of at their end and I didn't have to worry about it. A couple of days after I got my two negatives they provided us both with our letters of recovery and positive/negative test documentation and then a couple days later we got off in Athens.

 

I was contacted by the Celebrity engagement team about 4-5 days after that asking for my credit card details. I got back to them and within 5 days the money was refunded back on my credit card. So things went pretty smoothly for us. Hope you have the same experience too!

That is very encouraging and pleased to hear the response was proactive.  Gives us hope the process is improving and we will consider cruising next year.  Hope you are both fully recovered!

As Jim and Suzyluvs2cruise have given excellent information, my comment is why does Celebrity continue to make the process of quarantine such an administrative ordeal?  Why do people have to beg for lab test results or clear written communication regarding a refund (or FCC if that is what the customer wants?). It all seems as though return to service creaks along and COVID experience is sometimes a complete 180 depending on your ship passenger load and crew staffing.  We loved our Silhouette crew on 4/21 but COVID overwhelmed the ship’s ability to handle the needs.  I know others will say it was fine and be prepared, etc.  Just find it frustrating to see others still going through similar stuff three months later.

13 hours ago, bananavan said:

For everyone who has been so supportive and kind, I finally tested negative.

Our bags are packed and we are awaiting reassignment.

We will fly home tomorrow.

So many of you have lifted me up in hope.

I pray none of you ever find yourselves in my position. 
Thank you. 

So very grateful for this wonderful news.  Wishing you a smooth and safe flight and finally being home!  I know your family and friends are overjoyed!  Many hugs!

18 minutes ago, Decotraveller said:

We are scheduled to sail the Silhouette on June 11 from Southampton. I had Covid , 10 days ago, mild, no fever, but still stuffiness. I have now tested NEGATIVE; 
my husband tests positive , but mild symptoms , some coughing.  We are hoping/ assuming by sail time we will both be negative. But reading, or trying to read all the CC comments( have not visited FB yet), it sounds like the Wild West. You really don’t know, from one ship to another , what you will be facing. Isolation was no fun, but at least we were in our own home. What is the point of being on a cruise if you have to be masked all the time or confined. I am wondering what the position of Celebrity with refunds in this instance. We are coming from Canada.. and thinking of just doing a UK visit w local tours? It just sounds like a real gamble to do any sort of cruising. Hopefully things will get better..

think I will contact Celebrity to determine what their/our  position is: I understand one can remain positive for a long time, so guess that means we need Certificates of Recovery? 
thankful to everyone on the CC for their info.

You can sail with a certificate of recovery.  You will need to research providers online and provide your identification and a formal COVID positive test report.  Cost varies.  Check the Celebrity webpages for details on what the certificate requires.   You are within the time frame (10-90 days) prior to cruise.  I assume you can get one in Canada.  Best wishes!

2 minutes ago, Two Boys Cruising said:

What Celebrity does depends on your departure point and date.  If you follow all the rules, you get a prorated future cruise credit or refund (your option, FFC is the default and you have to call for refund) for the days you are quarantined ON THE SHIP.  If you test positive on debarkation day, you are on your own and Celebrity is only involved if local law at your debarkation point requires it.  

Thank you TBC for emphasizing that after 5/1/22 Celebrity will only cover onboard Covid care from medical and the FCC/refund for quarantine days. You should strongly consider trip insurance to cover interruption if disembarked and require quarantine past your scheduled return date.  No hotel or food per diem.  No air deviation cost coverage although they will assist with rebooking.  And cruise with confidence ends 9/30/22 also.  Factor these and all other aspects noted on previous posts as you make your decision.