PaulMCO

We have done several Regents and 3 more booked. Just off Crystal. You should be able to find active excursions. I do think Crystals excursions are better planned. They always have a minder from the staff on each bus. If you have ever been on Oceania, you will find that Regents is the same level (very glitzy descriptions and less glitzy execution). The smaller group excursions that you pay extra $$ are better. Cabins -- any of the Regent cabins will beat out a Crystal equivalent. More room. Food -- I give the edge to Crystal. But Regent is good. Ship -- have not been on Grandeur yet, but Splendor is the older sister and it has a great passenger to space ratio with more modern decor than either Serenity or Symphony. In short, if you like Crystal you will likely enjoy Regent.

This is not NCL, Carnival or RCI... Paid upgrade -- yes but at full or near full price. Those empty PH's are reserved for the influencers or TA's to impress. 🙂 There was one braggart YouTuber in Crema who got upgraded. Very loud and of course several paying guests just shook their heads. I did meet one person at embarkation who got upgraded to a Cove from a Grand PH with some additional $$. He had his TA call them a few weeks before the cruise and they gave him an offer. That would be my suggestion.

If you believe the influencer paid 21K pounds pp - I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn that is for sale. That Champagne issue -- only a few weeks ago. They pulled that trash with us in January and the promised DP was removed from the web site also in January. What they could not change were the thousand of brochures they mailed to all of those influencers.

not a good suggestion. Many ports check this before you enter the check in area.

Nothing has really changed. Everyone is noticing the change because Regent instituted and it was visible to all. But they have been doing this constantly, every time a book by date -- passes. Contract fares are all over the place. I still do some biz traveling as a consultant and book my own. I seen flight to South Africa as low as $5K or as high as 9K. To the Middle East from 4K to 11K I looked at our Regent Tokyo of March 2024. Booked in Feb 2023, the air credit was $4200 return from MCO. By final payment the air was well over $6000.

No off boat excursions (none listed)? That was the highlight of our last cruise there.

It is. We were offered a pad, as my wife thought the mattress was too firm. They do not offer another mattress as that would be a nightmare to keep changing.

We were in the EU last time and he had Cousin Brucie "live" at 3am. Don't think so. His trivia quiz on his last performance is a good test. 60% won the prize the last time on Regent.

Has Bob Ray changed his presentation??? Have seen it three times 🙂 A large number of crew disembarked in San Diego. We saw several of them at the San Diego airport including our number 1 waiter Joshua.

Just to add an odd point about Regent. No paper cups for to go coffee. It has to be done in a normal ceramic cup. So bring your own travel mug if you like your to go to stay hot.

Enjoyed your narrative. Have a great remaining holiday.

@boooomer those prices are consistent with the 23/24 Dec/Jan cruises 14 days were 18 to 19K for PH and 23K for Residences. The reason the OT1's are sold out is because of last November's sale where OT1's were $350pp per day and OT3 (which we booked) was $400.

Might I suggest you try the My Explora APP and do it on the phone to check in. Never could get the Web version to work. Do you have a B2B itinerary?? If so you need to wait until that one is also within the window. The APP says the Window is 90 days - last year it said same and was actually 60 days. @Sthrngary love it... We have two English Bulldogs, one who is named appropriately Churchill.. @Waltershipman logged on for our January cruise, it was missing on the weekend and appeared today LOL. Was able to set the bedding and liquor preferences as well as update my passport.

We booked our Barcelona to Capetown cruise just before the change. Biz Air was $4200, now its $6200 pp

Actually Sabi Sands in Krueger is an amazing place. I have used East Cape Tours in Port Elizabeth for tours.

To answer specifically: 1) Overall Crystal is tops on food. Majority of meals eaten in Waterside. I think Regent does do the buffet morning and afternoon better than Crystal.No Hapag Lloyd cruises so far. Considering I have worked for 30 years for an Austrian firm, no issues with German. 2) Yes the TV was unplugged in the bedroom. other issues were not so simple. 3) Large shower only with three modes, rain water, hand spray and body spray. This is for the 2023 and 2018 designs. The Classic has a tub and a small separate shower. Two spas by the pool, were broken at the start of the cruise - supposed to be fixed by day 3. 4) That was Starlink. Crystal throttles Starlink. For what reason? Possibly the the rest of the IT infrastructure cannot handle this. We were on Explora journeys and that being a new ship had no limits as to speed, bandwidth, or content allowed. 5) We did private tours most of the time. One excursion was the Mangrove Cruise in Quepos. Which was excellent. 6) Not really. We are early diners. We like to keep the same waiter. So being one of the first in Waterside mad that easy. 7) We did not attend any of the formal shows. You can see what was available in a previous thread where the Reflections was being posted daily. Hope I answered most of your questions...

Maybe 10 children at most. It was good for email, Facebook. For WiFi calling it was inconsistent. Did a Teams call at 6am with my office in Austria. But could not do a WhatsApp call at noon.

Hello fellow cruise critic Crystal cruisers. We recently completed our Miami to San Diego cruise aboard Serenity. We have been very active cruisers since COVID and the Genting/Crystal bankruptcy with multiple cruises on Regent, Seabourn, Silversea and one on Explora Journeys. Admittingly, I was a nay sayer and thought Crystal would never sail again and had 5 bookings lost from the bankruptcy. This was our first break to schedule a new Crystal cruise and in short – we are happy we did. Embarkation from Miami Terminal E was quick and smooth. Drove from home to Miami and left car at airport parking and Ubered to the Terminal. We arrived at 11:30 and by noon we were onboard. First the ship. Nothing really has changed. Same layout. Same venues. New carpets. Bistro has a new look, and the casino is gone (to be revived in December) and now is an empty unused lounge (soon to be the bridge room). Ship has a well-maintained old fashion look. Umi and Osteria (replacing Prego) restaurants have new lighter furnishings. Demographics. Old. This is something Crystal must improve on going forward to survive. A few younger families but most of the passengers in the mid to late 80s the rest in late 60s and 70s. The oldest was a spry 101 who did a tour with us. We are in our 70’s and 60’s and I just retired (except for a few consulting projects). Staterooms. We had a Saphire veranda suite on deck 9 which was a promotion free upgrade from the Aquamarine suite that was priced. Totally brand new the cabin we selected was added when the ship was refitted in 2023. Extremely nice – some annoying nits, which I will discuss later. Some photos are posted below. Suite Attendants we fantastic. Our butler was meh… Food. The food was exceptional. From the appetizer to the mains to the desserts, all exceptional. The complementary wine also was good with lots of selections. Don't like the wine of the day, they have all the previous ones also available. The select wines and champagnes were extremely pricey around x3 retail. Still the best overall food at sea. We were on Regent in April. Regent is probably a close second. All subjective. Specialty restaurants. Umi is the same. Menu the same. We ate there once, and the food was good. But having been to Japan the previous month, it was good but not over the top. One issue was that they had ZERO of the specialty sushi/sashimi on board. The best venue is the new Italian Osteria. Superb. Pool Area – this was not Regent – there were very few chair hogs. Trident Grill – the same with the same Grill guys – super friendly and efficient. Staff and Management. Nothing changed only better. Staff are engaged with passengers and willing to do anything possible to please customers. Managers know passengers’ names. Our waiter in Waterside was exceptional. By mid-cruise, we walked up to the Matre’d, and he did not even have to ask for our cabin number and just said table 20. Enrichment. Good speakers. Great sessions with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. Speakers varied in topics from dry politics/history to engaging personal stories. Dress. This cruise is less formal than what we have seen in the past -- a few tuxes. Many suits and sport jackets on formal nights. There were MANY who brought no jackets, and they had a large supply of these in the office. Excursions had been good. Well organized and Crystal had one of its staff on every bus. Let’s talk about the NITs. TV issues from day 1 – was off more than on. We had two TVs in the room – both same brand and both used RF remote controls. Guess what the issue was. Turn one on and both came on. Turn one off and the other came on. Crystal is aware of the issues (probably for a year). The TV reception issue was an antenna issue to be fixed by the contractor MTN in San Diego. Internet. The Internet was spotty and Crystal is throttling speed and access. Not all VPNs were allowed by their IT configuration. Note: I was a Star link beta tester and still a user at home and never have VPN issues. We are on luxury line, paying luxury prices why are there 2 tiers of service? (Yes, we know some other lines do same, but some also have download speeds greater than 100 mbs) The lack of an APP was really frustrating for some. To get the APP on your phone, you need to get a QR code from your room iPad. I helped several people do this and then pin that link to their browser. Then again, the APP was very buggy and locked up and there was no way to see your account balance. The TVs are supposed to allow you to see the reflections and menus daily, but the link on the TV also disappeared after day 2. Tastes. Again, our opinion, they still have not gotten Tastes right and obviously others think the same with the upcoming Beefbar changes. Dinner was blah. Lunch is horrible, bad pizza, bad Chinese noodles, and spaghetti. Can we be more creative here?? Marketplace. I have always had mixed feelings about the food and the space. I hate those table partitions; they make the space feel even tighter than it is. The food was just OK. Nothing special, but temps were very inconsistent. Other cruise lines like Regent and Seabourn do this better. We ended up preferring lunch in Waterside on sea days. Would we book another?? YES indeed in a second. The issue is that at least for 2024/2025 nothing interests us. Maybe 2026. Some foodie pics below.

You know as being a "cruise expert" the Crystal owner is going to have a big input into the ships design, more so than the CEO. Very similar to that which was done on Silversea and also Frank Del Rio with Oceania and Regent.

I meant Explorer... Agree on the wine. The non included Champagnes were $$$ (about 2X what they should be)

It depends on the tour. For our upcoming one (Victoria Falls) Regent will ship one bag per person to the airport hotel in Jo-burg where you will overnight prior to the flight home. Victoria Falls and Chobe Game Lodge.pdf

Many hotels put large groups into a ballroom for their buffet meal. Why -- imagine 200 guests descending on the restaurant at the same time, one hour before the schedule tour. In Tokyo Regent/Hilton did not do this and we had both Regent and Oceania guests at the same time and the line extended into the reception desk area.

Just off Regent Encore in April and Crystal Serenity this week. Have several more Regents booked. Second many of the pro's and cons. They are both good cruise lines. Think the service was great on both. Food comparable. Waterside vs. Compass Rose - probably a tie. Buffet much better on Regent, Specialties a slight advantage to Crystal. Enrichment -- much better on Crystal. The biggest advantage to Regent is the size of its fleet and more varied itineraries. Two ships of Crystal means limited choice.

@Sthrngary Almost a reason to NOT to sail with Explora Journeys. Having to go through all of those hoops to make a simple refaring. Silversea, Regent, or Seabourn do not require this non sense.

The ship has yet to be designed. Financing still has to be arranged. A contract has NOT been signed it is just an MOU. Once the design is complete, the price can be negotiated and financing will be arranged, and a contract will be signed. The point of this is they now have a reserved space in the shipbuilders production schedule. @BWIVince stated Regent is far along in the process and they have an initial design they are working with. One other point -- no mention of an Expedition ship. Though this is NOT a Fincantieri specialty, more likely Meyer Werft.