River Cruise Launch Delayed?

It looks like the July inaugural Rhine cruises have been pushed back from July to August. I have not seen any announcement but the July dates are gone from the reservation systems and I came across a reference to delays in another discussion.

Anyone heard anything official / an explanation? Didn't they purchase the ship building yard that is building these ships???

Both the Mahler and the Bach appear to be affected.

Mahler's first cruise listed for 30 Sep; 13 Aug for the Bach - on the new website and the legacy website

Thank you for this information. We are on on the August 27th Bach departure and I have already sent an email to my TA to enquire after more details on the delay and if it might extend and affect our trip. I didn't really want to be on the 1st or 2nd departure, preferring to have them iron our a few potential issues, but it seems that might end up being the case now.

Hi Everyone,

Crystal has confirmed that the Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler will require a little more time to fully implement all the new innovations planned for these vessels. Travel agents with booked guests, and guests who have booked directly who were affected, were notified on Friday, 3/17 and offered a generous compensation package to ensure complete guest satisfaction.

If you are holding a booking, please contact your travel professional or Crystal to review rebooking options.

Thank you.

Hello Andy

We were booked on the Bach Inaugural and have now been booked on a Symphony cruise in July. When is Symphony going into that "unscheduled" dry dock I read about? We are concerned that the rebooked cruise might also be cancelled. Please respond asap

Hello Andy

We were booked on the Bach Inaugural and have now been booked on a Symphony cruise in July. When is Symphony going into that "unscheduled" dry dock I read about? We are concerned that the rebooked cruise might also be cancelled. Please respond asap

Crystal Symphony dry dock is from Sep 19 to Oct 21. You will be fine for July 2017

Your question is now in the wrong forum since it is about ocean cruises instead of river cruise.

Once again I can only be critical of Cruise Critic's posting policies - separating Crystal River cruises to the River Forum causes more annoyance and frustrations for instances like this.

Once again I can only be critical of Cruise Critic's posting policies - separating Crystal River cruises to the River Forum causes more annoyance and frustrations for instances like this.

It wasn't my decision, but IMHO the benefits outweigh these minor annoyances. For instance, our community got the benefit of your knowledge of Prague hotels (which you probably wouldn't have posted if you weren't 'forced' to monitor this forum) and harpy3 got the tip about Tauck to replace her canceled Crystal Bach cruise. There is a lot of sharing and commonality among river cruises, regardless of cruise line.

Once again I can only be critical of Cruise Critic's posting policies - separating Crystal River cruises to the River Forum causes more annoyance and frustrations for instances like this.

I'm glad Crystal river cruises are in this forum because I don't read the Crystal ocean cruises forum. I read the postings here even though I have no current plans to cruise on Crystal river cruises as I'm sure many others do.

To have Crystal River cruise threads on this forum makes perfect sense to me.

To have Crystal River cruise threads on this forum makes perfect sense to me.

Me too, would be illogical to do otherwise.

It would be a huge mistake to assume that only Crystal ocean cruisers are interested in Crystal river cruises.

Similarly it would have been a mistake to leave Viking ocean cruises here just because the majority of Viking customers were already here.

Me too, would be illogical to do otherwise.

 

It would be a huge mistake to assume that only Crystal ocean cruisers are interested in Crystal river cruises.

 

Similarly it would have been a mistake to leave Viking ocean cruises here just because the majority of Viking customers were already here.

While you may think it is "silly" to market Crystal River Cruises to Ocean passengers, that has not stopped Crystal from marketing these, their little old yacht, the airplane or the residences at sea, etc. to the Ocean passengers. Crystal believes that they are expanding their brand, not creating an entirely new concept. Since the marketing materials are sent to prior Ocean travelers very often, it makes sense to me to discuss all Crystal products in one place.

That being said, at least Cruise Critic has a reason behind what they do - I cant say that I understand what the heck Crystal is doing with its business strategy / plan and it doesn't look they they do either!!

Here's a story on Cruise Critic with some more information:

Crystal Cruises Delays Launch of Its Two New River Ships

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7663

Thank you for the link. We are working with our agent to secure refunds.

Andy Geller, have you heard anything new on the Bach & Mahler? Are the crews on board yet getting everything set up? I have been looking at the info on these vessels and nothing has been mentioned about their draft, only their length 135 m. Since Crystal will not have multiple river boats running the same itineraries such that they can do ship swaps, the draft will make a huge difference when there is low water.

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Andy Geller, have you heard anything new on the Bach & Mahler? Are the crews on board yet getting everything set up? I have been looking at the info on these vessels and nothing has been mentioned about their draft, only their length 135 m. Since Crystal will not have multiple river boats running the same itineraries such that they can do ship swaps, the draft will make a huge difference when there is low water.

 

 

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Hello Swn4,

I'm pleased to advise that Our Management team stated that everything is looking wonderful for our beautiful new Rhine class vessels. The Crew and ship are excitedly undergoing last minute preparations for Crystal Bach’s big debut next month. Crystal Mahler follows shortly after.

Hope this is helpful !

Great!

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