The Bistro- Off topic and fun posts!

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from a stormy morning.  This was the Prinsnedam 2019 Prinsendam Grand South America cruise and later on January 28 we sailed the fjords of Chile.

 

 

Roy

[imcpa]

How different was Harmony from Symphony?

 

[BWIVince]

19 minutes ago, imcpa said:

How different was Harmony from Symphony?

 

 

Very similar....  The biggest difference was the layout of the deluxe staterooms and bathrooms, which were completely redesigned.  The other changes were incremental "improvements", some of which were big improvements and others which were notsomuch.  Symphony combined the disco (Stars) and Cabaret  (Club 2100) into the Starlite Club, the two specialty restaurants were moved from the Lido area on Harmony to Deck 6 aft, the view lounge (Vista) and Palm Court combined into one, one of the two outdoor jacuzzis moved under the magradome...  Stuff like that.  Popular areas like the Avenue were greatly enlarged -- sometimes to their detriment.  Despite the difference in age, a lot of effort was made to make the ships appear similar in decor -- the dining rooms were almost identical originally, and the finishes in the deluxe staterooms were nearly identical despite the different design.  

 

There are some good threads in the Forum that reminisce about Harmony, if you search a little...

 

Vince

[Keith1010]

Vince, well done.  

 

A few additional differences.

 

Harmony had some indoor guest rooms and that was eliminated on Symphony.  

 

Symphony had a different Asian Restaurant than Harmony and eventually became Silk Road (aka Umi Uma).

 

Am I correct that the bathrooms on Harmony had one sink rather than two?

 

Harmony had an outdoor bar by the swimming pool.  Was it trident?

 

Symphony's Palm Court was not the focal point for parties as was Harmony.

 

I believe when they designed Serenity they incorporated guest feedback and tried to take some of what the guests preferred on each ship and put it into Serenity.  Of course like a new house they were successful on somethings and not on others.

 

Loved the experience on all three Ocean Vessels.

 

Keith

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

Vince, well done.  

 

A few additional differences.

 

Harmony had some indoor guest rooms and that was eliminated on Symphony.  

 

Symphony had a different Asian Restaurant than Harmony and eventually became Silk Road (aka Umi Uma).

 

Am I correct that the bathrooms on Harmony had one sink rather than two?

 

Harmony had an outdoor bar by the swimming pool.  Was it trident?

 

Symphony's Palm Court was not the focal point for parties as was Harmony.

 

I believe when they designed Serenity they incorporated guest feedback and tried to take some of what the guests preferred on each ship and put it into Serenity.  Of course like a new house they were successful on somethings and not on others.

 

Loved the experience on all three Ocean Vessels.

 

Keith

You’re spot on, Keith.  The bathrooms were one of the biggest areas of overreach in Harmony’s design…. Like with the staterooms they tried to check off a lot of boxes with little space, using an Italian design firm with specialized knowledge in that challenge (Garroni).  They did only have one sink, but all the deluxe staterooms originally also had deep soaking tubs, which many guests found difficult to get in and out of.  The bathrooms had very little floor space too, and the doors originally swung in, which required many guests to step into the tubs to open the doors, which only exasperated the problem.  There were other quirks too, like the design of the deck 8 and 9 stateroom bathrooms specifically, which used mirrors along the party wall to make the bathroom feel larger.  That mirror wall extended into the shower, causing you to stare at your full naked body every time you climbed into the shower, at least until the mirror fogged.  I can only imagine how much more awkward I’d find that now than I did even then.  😱 

 

With the exception of Serenity’s Jacuzzi shuffle between the pools, the Trident and Neptune Pool had the same general features with one exception…. Harmony’s Trident Bar originally had a sunken, swim-up section in the middle (later removed).  The swim-up pool bar seemed to be THE feature around 1990 that no ship could be without — they popped up all over the industry for a few years.

 

Photo Credit: Crystal Cruises

Memories…

 

Vince

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2018 Crystal World Cruise.  On January 29 the Crystal Serenity visited Maui, Hawaii:

 

 

Roy

[ctjon]

I also remember that the texture on the wall coverings in the rooms on Harmony were very cheap looking compared to Symphony

[imcpa]

@BWIVince goodness you're good.  Did you have to refer to old notes and pictures to remember all of that?

[travelberlin]

Two years ago in February we started to hear about COVID in China. We had a trip booked to the Bolivian Salt Lakes and we almost did not go because of fear of being quarantined in such a remote place, which receives lots of international guests. We are glad now that we did that trip. It was magical…

Ivi

[Keith1010]

So good and band news.

 

Bad news was when someone started threat that a former leader of Crystal had passed away  just from a Face Book post not mentioning a last name. 
 

Bad news was spending three hours on something I felt could not be true.

 

Best news is verifying that the post was wrong and the person was alive and well.

 

Valuable lesson.  Get your facts right on something like this. Don’t make assumptions 

 

Keith 

[KenzSailing]

34 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

So good and band news.

 

Bad news was when someone started threat that a former leader of Crystal had passed away  just from a Face Book post not mentioning a last name. 
 

Bad news was spending three hours on something I felt could not be true.

 

Best news is verifying that the post was wrong and the person was alive and well.

 

Valuable lesson.  Get your facts right on something like this. Don’t make assumptions 

 

Keith 

 

My Twitter feed is more reliable than most of the recent posts to this board, and that's saying something.

[BWIVince]

5 hours ago, imcpa said:

@BWIVince goodness you're good.  Did you have to refer to old notes and pictures to remember all of that?

That stuff was from memory, but I do have LOTS of reference materials that I often have to refer to — my memory isn’t always that good.  Glad you enjoyed it — maritime architecture and design is an interest of mine, and I’ve been following Crystal (among other lines) since before it was named…. So I have a lot of history of studying them.

 

Vince

[Ant@sea]

On 1/28/2022 at 4:04 PM, BWIVince said:

 

Very similar....  The biggest difference was the layout of the deluxe staterooms and bathrooms, which were completely redesigned.  The other changes were incremental "improvements", some of which were big improvements and others which were notsomuch.  Symphony combined the disco (Stars) and Cabaret  (Club 2100) into the Starlite Club, the two specialty restaurants were moved from the Lido area on Harmony to Deck 6 aft, the view lounge (Vista) and Palm Court combined into one, one of the two outdoor jacuzzis moved under the magradome...  Stuff like that.  Popular areas like the Avenue were greatly enlarged -- sometimes to their detriment.  Despite the difference in age, a lot of effort was made to make the ships appear similar in decor -- the dining rooms were almost identical originally, and the finishes in the deluxe staterooms were nearly identical despite the different design.  

 

There are some good threads in the Forum that reminisce about Harmony, if you search a little...

 

Vince

I always felt that the Symphony “felt better” ..more ergonomic in her  layout than Harmony with movement  from one room to another in a smoother flow. In addition, Harmonys stair towers were too close together making public rooms at each end a far walk…especially the Harmonys wonderful but under utilized Vista Lounge. 

[Keith1010]

7 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

My Twitter feed is more reliable than most of the recent posts to this board, and that's saying something.

My twitter feed is great too because although I have twitter the feed has almost nothing on it.  You know. No news is good news so if I don't get a feed things must be great.  😀

 

Keith

[rafinmd]

 

Today's sunrise is from my 2016 Crystal Symphony Antarctica cruise.  On January 30 we visited Puerto Madryn. Argentina.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

My memories of Harmony are just a bit different.  My first Crystal cruise was on an almost new Symphony in May 1996.  I never sailed Harmony until nearly the end of her Crystal life, a trans-Pacific in 2004 and a short getaway in 2005.  I remember them as very nearly twins, probably the result of many changes from things learned from the Symphony. 
The one thing I do clearly remember that was different (probably from being alerted by one of the future sales consultants) was that while the Harmony had rectangular mattresses, the corners on Symphony were rounded off giving a little bit more manoeuvring room.

 

Roy

[Texas Tillie]

29 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

My memories of Harmony are just a bit different.  My first Crystal cruise was on an almost new Symphony in May 1996.  I never sailed Harmony until nearly the end of her Crystal life, a trans-Pacific in 2004 and a short getaway in 2005.  I remember them as very nearly twins, probably the result of many changes from things learned from the Symphony. 
The one thing I do clearly remember that was different (probably from being alerted by one of the future sales consultants) was that while the Harmony had rectangular mattresses, the corners on Symphony were rounded off giving a little bit more manoeuvring room.

 

Roy

 

Roy, you made me laugh out loud. Thank you, I needed that. The corners on the mattresses!😲😄

 

Patty

[BWIVince]

23 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

My memories of Harmony are just a bit different.  My first Crystal cruise was on an almost new Symphony in May 1996.  I never sailed Harmony until nearly the end of her Crystal life, a trans-Pacific in 2004 and a short getaway in 2005.  I remember them as very nearly twins, probably the result of many changes from things learned from the Symphony. 
The one thing I do clearly remember that was different (probably from being alerted by one of the future sales consultants) was that while the Harmony had rectangular mattresses, the corners on Symphony were rounded off giving a little bit more manoeuvring room.

 

Roy

Indeed…. All three ships benefitted a bit more from timing when Serenity was launched, and it was more appropriate to refit the older two ships to match the new brand standard of the third than to do what they had done with Symphony, and reverse-designed it to match the existing ship.

 

Harmony underwent extensive refits in 2000 and 2002 to completely update her look and features to work better with Crystal’s new era, so by the time you saw her she had been more or less redone, though not all of it as extensively as Symphony’s.  Harmony’s dining room got some new lighting, new center ceiling dome (her third), new fabrics and carpet, but with the exception of some carried over mirror fixtures, Symphony got a complete and total makeover of her dining room in that era — despite being newer.

 

Vince

[BEAV]

Waikiki sunset, January 30, 2021

 

[ryndam]

Crystal Harmony - February 1996

 

Rob

[Txcotn]

Fun! I remember that dining room, look so dated now but it was beautiful back then! And those tiny little rooms and the round bathtub - impossible!

[BEAV]

1 hour ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Roy, you made me laugh out loud. Thank you, I needed that. The corners on the mattresses!😲😄

 

Patty

It’s the little things that make big impressions! 😉

[Ant@sea]

3 hours ago, rafinmd said:

My memories of Harmony are just a bit different.  My first Crystal cruise was on an almost new Symphony in May 1996.  I never sailed Harmony until nearly the end of her Crystal life, a trans-Pacific in 2004 and a short getaway in 2005.  I remember them as very nearly twins, probably the result of many changes from things learned from the Symphony. 
The one thing I do clearly remember that was different (probably from being alerted by one of the future sales consultants) was that while the Harmony had rectangular mattresses, the corners on Symphony were rounded off giving a little bit more manoeuvring room.

 

Roy

Re:2004 Trans Pacific…was this the Tokyo(not Yokohama)to San Francisco voyage “Sail the Great Pacific “ May 16, 2004? If so, I was onboard that crossing and it remains one of the greatest cruises I was ever on  with spectacular weather and sailing at less than 50% capacity. I recall the large contingent of Japanese passengers who disembarked in Honolulu, and we sailed to San Francisco with only  about 200. 

[rafinmd]

5 minutes ago, Ant@sea said:

Re:2004 Trans Pacific…was this the Tokyo(not Yokohama)to San Francisco voyage “Sail the Great Pacific “ May 16, 2004? If so, I was onboard that crossing and it remains one of the greatest cruises I was ever on  with spectacular weather and sailing at less than 50% capacity. I recall the large contingent of Japanese passengers who disembarked in Honolulu, and we sailed to San Francisco with only  about 200. 

That's the one except I boarded in the Tianjin/ Beijing.

 

Roy

[Ant@sea]

42 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

That's the one except I boarded in the Tianjin/ Beijing.

 

Roy

I have the passenger list in front of me!  The weather was amazing and we had a following wind so the decks were calm. I remember the crew had to post Japanese instructions in the laundry room. The Captain’s Welcome reception was wonderful with the Japanese ladies in kimonos and the men in their robes.