Keith1010

We like the Pan Pacific and stay on the Club Floor. Appreciate they will come by your room the morning if embarkation and take your checked luggage to the pier. If your cruise doesn’t stop at Victoria you can take the ferry over there. We enjoy walking the nearby area and also visiting Stanley Park. There are sone restaurants we have enjoyed but the last time we were there was 2016 so I would read reviews starting with trio advisor. Keith

Yes, each room on the deck plan needs to be designated where there is more than one version. Good catch Vince. Keith

Been hearing from friends getting on the inaugural and first few cruises who had rooms waitlisted which is good news for them. Keith

This guy got it wrong about The Beatles. I guess he's not alone in underestimating the impact of some events. Some laughed at the telephone. IBM thought the number of Personal Computers sold would be relatively small. All You Need Is Love. Keith

Thank you Vince. I don't get why some people can't make their point without the insults. It's just childish IMHO and unfortunately very predictable. In the end, each person is going to have to figure this out as they always have and make their cruising decisions. I don't think anyone needs to be told who to book with. They can decide for themselves. As to old Crystal and new Crystal. This is new Crystal but that doesn't mean that several of the attributes of the old Crystal won't be embedded in the new product. They will for sure. This includes the crew. This includes the ship because after all the ships are the same with interiors changing but interiors are not what they were when each ship made its maiden sailing and that includes a lot of things including names of some of the restaurants and the food served. When ships rolled out no Tastes on Symphony, Taste on Serenity very casual and you just walked in, No Crystal Dining Room, No Supper Club, Marketplace was Lido and was very much like a cafeteria. Again, people will make decisions. People will make their opinions known here. But people can make their points without putting down others for their opinions and they need to remember even those who booked cruises on the old Crystal did so for different reasons and that is where choice came into play. If we all came at this the same way it would be easy. All cruise lines would price the same way and offer one type of accommodation and the same style of dining. Etc,. Etc. Finally some of our reasons for cruising and what we like and not like change over time based on many factors from disposable income to amount of time available for travel, to changes in tastes, to our age, whether we travel with someone and before we didn't or we no longer travel with someone and before we did and given our travel experiences just to name a few. Keith

Vince, we don't know. Specifically, are there planned renovations not reflected in the renderings. I wouldn't go to the bank based on the renderings and that includes the guests rooms at this point in time. JMO. Keith

Right now the reservations and incomplete data on the Crystal Website are the weak links IMHO and they do need to improve. I don't think anyone would disagree with this and I don't think anyone has. The strength will be the ship experience and yes there will be lots of familiar faces on board between the crew and returning guests. Keith

You have 90 days to make the booking from the time the itineraries were released to get the OBC. So you still have time. If you don't use it by then there would be no advantage for keeping it out there. Keith

No worries. Our experience was great and it was reflective of Iranian culture. Having many work colleagues and friends who lived in Iran until the Shah was overthrown was a big help in my understanding of the culture. The people we met were very much like my friends and former work colleagues. My visit to Saudi Arabia while only for the day conformed my thinking and having some friends who worked there for a number of years also conformed my impressions. Those itineraries are what I would call true discovery itineraries. Keith

Lots of people we know have booked and as they say the night is young. In a few days those who didn't do the open bookings will have a chance to book and I know several who are doing just that. We had no trouble finding itineraries that we like. It seems ash several voyages are getting heavily booked from what some people are saying who were looking at availability and their TA's said there wasn't a lot to choose from. Vince as usual you are very logical. Why do an open booking if you likely can't take advantage of the booking window to realize the on-board savings. Bags are packed. Ready to go. Can't wait. Keith

This is one that since I am not100% certain on I prefer to wait until we see the final deck plan knowing that there is always a chance things could change until final plans are announced. Keith

Similar to a land based entertainer who was paid for his work.. A wonderful person and a great chef. Sailed with him several times. And he's from Liverpool and enjoys The Beatles too. Keith

I know this is frustrating but the good news is you are booked, and this will get fixed. Hopefully, the TA will be able to connect with Crystal Reservation with less hold time as the next set of bookings doesn't open for a few more days. Good luck with this and remember time is on your side for the invoice to be updated. Keith

Thanks for sharing the story. We watched them on a small TV. Black and while. My parents thought their hair was long. I think I was the only one who liked them at the time. Fast forward to 1991. We had moved to North Texas. My parents visited. My children were five and nine respectively. I was driving the family to a restaurant and a Beatles song was playing on the radio and my parents explained to our children, their grandchildren, how special The Beatles were. I will never forget that. My brother five years older than myself was more of an Elvis Presley fan. Me, no way as Elvis was way before my time. LOL but true. The Beatles are like Mozart and Beethoven IMHO. Some will disagree but their talent is amazing. Keith

Roy, you rest. Get well. Thinking of you. Keith

One week from day of the booking, not the day the invoice was issued. Keith

Early on a few days because of the volume. Book it today likely faster. Keith

That was Saudi Arabi. Iran was terrific. I have several former work colleagues and friends who came to the States when the Shah fell and most of the people reminded me of them. As our tour guide said about 80% are more are like them. It is the small number who are fanatical and have the military behind them. In Iran we could go on tours or on our own. Keith

Vince as usual all excellent points. I wanted to add Nobu would come on for at least one sailing each year up until the Pandemic and was very engaged. Someone disinterested would not do this even for compensation or a free cruise. There was no need for him to promote Crystal in his restaurants. In fact , no upside IMHO. Keith

Today in history. Well I should say in Beatle history. 59 years ago The Beatles performed live for the first time in America on The Ed Sullivan show where it is estimated that 79 million people turn into CBS to watch. I was one of them along with my family. I remember the evening as if it was "Yesterday". Ummm. That would make a great name for a song. As they say, the rest is history. Keith

Anne you are right. I remember that night very well dining with you in Silk Road along with the time Anne Marie and I spend in Dubai on our second visit in three years at the time. 😃 Keith

I just want to add we learned so much from each place we visited and that is part of travel. In fact, I learned on this adventure the key is to take the time and small the roses. In other words, don't rush around to say you saw 10 things. Sometimes better to see less but to truly absorb what you are seeing. On top of this we had an extraordinary team of enrichment people. Overall, collectively the best combined team of speakers who did a fantastic job of covering each place before and after our visit. For us the other parts of the itinerary were superb as well. First time on a World Cruise they visited the Black Sea as this was early in the season and we visited Ukraine. We were supposed to visit another time but that didn't happen. The overall occupancy on many of the segments was not very high for two reasons. It was 2010 and the economy was still recovering from the great recession because in 2009 people would have to be putting down final payments for the full World Cruise. In addition, some people refused to book the entire World Cruise due to some of the countries being visited in the Middle East. I think some segments might have been as low as 350 people. As Larry mentioned a few times no wine or spirits were served and I remember the butlers had to remove all of this in the rooms (this was back in the day were you got a certain number of bottles of wine in the suites as it was way before inclusive) and stewardesses had to do the same in the staterooms. We had extra security come on board for part of the world cruise to be on the lookout for pirates. Crystal stopped sailing some of this afterwards and revised itineraries due to security concern. This was likely driven by NYK. I believe on CC some said what kind of World Cruise is this as we didn't go to Australia, New Zealand and Asia and we had two stops in South America. For us it was extraordinary. With that said, the first time we looked at the Itinerary a few of us said "Crystal what are you smoking". Whatever they were smoking turned out for us to be amazing. So glad we got to see some of these places with our own eyes as opposed through the lens of someone else. So one of my takeaways is on things like itineraries sometime look at what is offered, put them away and look at them again. It reaffirmed two other items. Some places you think will be great but turn out so so and other places you think will be so so and turn out great. The other is returning to places you have been to several times can be good so you have time to see portions you didn't see before while revisiting those places you enjoyed but want to see more of. Keith

The men were allowed to just walk through. The women were patted down from head to toe. I think that says it all. Keith

Roy takes photos of the sun rising. I take photos of salad. And Rob and Vince take photos of carpeting. Who would have guessed. Keith

Choice is good. Glad we saw it. I would never go back. But I learned a lot. A couple of things about our visit. Unlike even Iran we could not go out on our own. We had to go on a shore excursion and were pretty much isolated from speaking with the locals. On the way back to the ship, the local authorities performed security checks on all returning guests. Men in one line and women in another. Men went through easily. Women were patted down and I won't say more. WIth that said it did confirm some of my thinking and I am glad we saw it though our own eyes. Some people didn't book the WC because of the ports. Others did. Some wouldn't get off in some of the ports. We got off in all of them. For us it was extraordinary but for us the deciosn to go had nothing to d with thinking it was impossible to visit. Keith