Leejnd4

I'm reluctant to pile on because I see you've already been told this by several others, but I just couldn't help but to add to the cacophony: why not use a TA? There's literally no downside, and significant upsides! My TA not only got me exactly what I wanted (including the specific cabin), but I'm getting a pretty substantial on-board credit from this agency PLUS additional OBC from their travel consortium! And I didn't have to wait on hold one single minute. We did it all through email. I told him what I was interested in, he gave me several options, I chose, he took care of everything. I don't disagree that you had a horrible experience, but my thoughts are that few people actually book directly with the cruise line, so they are not as adept at this phase as our TAs are. Our TAs have relationships with the people at the cruise line, and THEY deal with them, insulating us from their less-than-perfect booking process and agents. Let THEM deal with waiting on hold. Let THEM work out the details. And - it costs us LESS in the long run (due to the OBC)! As I'm sure you know, we can't recommend TAs on Cruise Critic. But there are several who have long relationships with Old Crystal, and have now established new relationships with New Crystal. I hope you are able to find one so you don't have to deal with this again. 🙂

GREAT NEWS! I'm so relieved. Given that my next Crystal cruise is going to be me solo, I didn't want to have to wander around begging 11 other people to join me. LOL! (On the other hand, it could have been a great way to make new friends onboard.)😂 That you did! 🙂

I'm with you! I think they did quite well at both before...I see no reason for them to fall down on either now. 🙂 And I am soooo looking forward to reading the first reports. In the meantime, tho...I guess we gotta talk about something. Might as well be hopes, fears, and LOTSA speculation!

Great pics, thanks for posting! And it's making me crave some good sushi. Hard to find a decent sushi restaurant down here in Mexico. The only time I get sushi anymore is when I catch the fish myself! That's a Mahi Mahi in my profile photo - I caught that one off the coast near Puerto Vallarta. That sushi was as fresh as it gets! But nothing like the sushi from Nobu, which involves lots of prep and ingredients I can't get down here. 😉

Thanks Keith. I'm hoping by the time of my next Crystal cruise (more than a year away 😢) things with VR will be back to normal. And if not, I guess I'll wear one of @FlyerTalker's "I'm interested in the Vintage Room. Are you?" buttons! 😝

I don't disagree with any of this. 🙂 I am currently living in Mexico, and some of the best food here is street food. In fact we had street tacos followed by elote from a cart last night for dinner. DELICIOUS! We sat on benches at a park to eat. It was our first time eating off this particular taco cart...we will be going there again for sure. But that's a very different dining experience from gourmet cuisine in a beautifully decorated restaurant. I enjoy both types of dining. My only point is, I don't forget about the beautiful decor the moment I sit down. It all adds to the experience. And I very much enjoy Crystal's upscale ambiance. I would be disappointed if their restaurants were not beautiful to look at while dining on their exquisite cuisine. That's part of what makes Crystal, Crystal. (To me, anyway.) 🙂 All that being said: you are completely right in that it doesn't matter how lovely a dining venue is if the food sucks. 😉

I can't say I agree with this. YES of course the food and service are the key factors in any dining experience, but the decor definitely has a huge impact on my enjoyment as well. I personally don't "forget" how lovely a place looks once I sit down. I find that a beautifully designed and decorated restaurant adds enormously to the pleasure. Ambiance matters to me. I personally wouldn't want to dine on exquisite fine cuisine in a dull, boring room.

Yes, and the poster didn't even use the right term for it, so that tends to make me question their credibility. And you are correct, if my memory serves: I was unable to pre-book Vintage Room in advance. I recall I had to submit a request once onboard, and then they would get back to us to confirm if they got enough people, and what night it was going to be on. It's possible we may have had the option to indicate *interest* in doing a VR in advance, but not actually book it. I had that thought too...but Cruise Critic roll calls are simply not as active as they once were. I remember my first Paul Gauguin cruise many years ago we had DOZENS of people in our roll call! For my upcoming November PG cruise we have a grand total of - six (three couples). Granted, there are some other PG roll calls that appear more active, but there are others for cruises coming up soon that have virtually no activity. So we just can't trust that will work anymore. That being said...the Crystal forum is definitely one of the more active ones, for a cruise line with only two ships! 😉 Thanks Keith. I suspect @KenzSailing is probably right...that things may take some time to settle and initial cruises may not reflect the way things will be once NC finds its rhythm.

Oops, I guess that should have read 12 people. My memory is imperfect. 😉 I'm still hoping this is misinformation.........

I saw a post on Facebook saying that the Vintage Room will no longer be something passengers can book individually, but will instead require booking the full room with 14 attendees. Is this true? 😳 I'm hoping it's a misunderstanding. Vintage Room dinners have been some of the best nights I've ever had on a cruise anywhere. FAR superior to any of the other cruise lines' wine-tasting dinners (e.g. Oceania's La Reserve). I understand it's always been dependent on them being able to fill up the seats, but I never had to worry about filling them up MYSELF - I would simply submit a request to attend, and then wait to hear if they'd found enough attendees. And in my case, they did each time. Not too many people go on a Crystal cruise with 14 friends, so expecting the passengers to fill the room is rather unrealistic, IMO. I'm really hoping this was a misunderstanding of some sort.

WHOA! Now I'm REALLY glad I got the warning in advance! Sorry that happened to you. Given that we plan on driving completely around the island, and checking out Tahiti Iti as well, I suspect we'd have been gobsmacked by mileage charges if we hadn't heeded that warning. Thanks Nancy! That's a great deal. But yeah, that is a long time to wait. 😉 Watch the Paul Gauguin forum for my daily reports in November! I always enjoy doing a daily travelogue when I'm on a cruise. That will whet your appetite even more! I have a long wait for my next Crystal cruise myself: it's not until November 2024.

Wow, that's cool! Looks like they are working hard, and it's going to be beautiful!

I've got a car reserved with Europcar at the airport in Papeete, which has unlimited mileage. I reserved it through my Amex Travel, and was careful to pick a vehicle that clearly stated "unlimited miles". I learned from this forum that many of the cars rented in Papeete do NOT include mileage, or I wouldn't have known to look for that! And sure enough, the first ten or so cars that showed up in my search did not have mileage included. We're spending 4 days pre-cruise in Tahiti at an AirBnb, and plan on touring the island, so unlimited mileage was important. It's quite a bit more expensive per day than the ones without mileage included, but I suspect I'll come out ahead. Looking forward to hearing your reports from your cruise! Enjoy!

Yup! I've spent countless days hanging out right there. My favorite spot to stage my gear is to the left along that barrier, just outside the field of this photo. I look forward to going back there to dive once we move back to being dirt-dwellers. 🙂

I was the one in the wetsuit. 😉 haha We used to sail our boat over there for the weekend. Or, if I just wanted to do a few dives and not stay over, I would take the Catalina Flyer fast ferry from Long Beach just for the day. It's some of the best scuba diving in the world! Although it's challenging diving - cold water, lots of kelp. Not for everyone. And unlike so many vacation dive destinations, you dive on your own...there are no requirements to go with a Dive Master. Which is how I like it. 🙂

Our "dirt" home is in SoCal, and being scuba divers, we've dived at Catalina countless times. Did you ever walk over to Casino Point and see all the divers staging their gear there and entering the water from the stairs? That's the famous Casino Point Dive Park. You might have even seen me there. 😁

Nancy you will enjoy Windstar. Just keep in mind, it's not Crystal! 😉 It's a much more casual cruise line, heavy into a nautical theme. In our experience the food was very good, but didn't compare to dining on Symphony. And it's not all-inclusive, although fortunately we didn't feel "nickel-and-dimed" on our Windstar cruises, the way you do on the mass-market lines. I'm off to the South Pacific myself in November, but I'm going on the Paul Gauguin. They are a bit more upscale than Windstar, and all-inclusive. But you're probably right that they don't offer a good single supplement. You'll have a marvelous time. The South Pacific is truly magical!

I'm sorting through a lot of old photos now, and came across these photos from our 2009 Baltics cruise. Nobody's going to be getting any of these shots any time soon! These are all from our private tour in St. Petersburg. The first three were at the restaurant where we had lunch - our guide told us it was Putin's favorite restaurant. No idea if that's true, but it was a very unusual restaurant - taxidermy seemed to be a theme!

It's super easy to rent a car in Moorea. We spent several days there and rented a car. And it's super easy to take the shuttle to Moorea - and definitely easier to walk on rather than drive a car on. Plus, then you don't have to pay both ways for the car. The ferry terminal is next to the cruise pier in Papeete...you can just walk right over to the ferry. If you pre-arrange your car rental in Moorea, it will be waiting for you where you disembark the ferry. Price is about the same...maybe a tiny bit more in Moorea, but not by much.

Wellll…I’ve gotten into baking sourdough over the past year. 😁 I could always make a few smaller loafs and try the soup in that! I’m just not sure I’ll be able to find all those different mushrooms down here in Mexico. I might be able to find most of them at one of the wonderful Mercados municipales. The herbs will be no problem, they are plentiful and easy to find.

I am too…and this is the first time I saw the recipe. I love to cook so I’m going to try to make it! I can’t wait over a year until my cruise. 😉

Maybe we will bump into each other on your disembarkation day!

I'm with you! Hey, I'm all for creativity and innovation in dining, BUT...some of the classics are classics for a reason.

LOL you're right! We're arriving in Tahiti on November 4, spending a few nights in an AirBnb. So I got my dates mixed up. Thanks for pointing out my error!

I guess it's about time to post my upcoming cruise, since our final payment date is upon us! I'll be on the Nov. 4 Paul Gauguin 10-day Society-Tuomotus cruise. This will be my third PG cruise. Can't wait to get back to FP!