Itinerary changes coming to Crystal 2025 World Cruise

[History&Wine]

The 2025 World Cruise will almost certainly have many itinerary changes due to the continued unrest in the Middle East.  It looks like the plan is to stick with the initial schedule through Carnival in Rio.  After that…Crystal has presented four options to those booked on the 2025 WC. All options are heavy in Europe, with two options emphasizing Northern Europe and two options emphasizing the Mediterranean. Deadline on return of the surveys is May 5.  It looks like results will not be published.

 

In my opinion all four options are better than the original itinerary. In any case, I give Crystal credit for asking for feedback…something that was not done for those of us on the 2024 World Cruise. 

 

 

[History&Wine]

Here are the proposed changes…

 

 

[emckeeve]

8 hours ago, History&Wine said:

The 2025 World Cruise will almost certainly have many itinerary changes due to the continued unrest in the Middle East.  It looks like the plan is to stick with the initial schedule through Carnival in Rio.  After that…Crystal has presented four options to those booked on the 2025 WC. All options are heavy in Europe, with two options emphasizing Northern Europe and two options emphasizing the Mediterranean. Deadline on return of the surveys is May 5.  It looks like results will not be published.

 

In my opinion all four options are better than the original itinerary. In any case, I give Crystal credit for asking for feedback…something that was not done for those of us on the 2024 World Cruise. 

 

 

Which ship?  We are booked for a segment on the Serenity.  Mobassa Kenya to Mumbai India.

[Texas Tillie]

10 minutes ago, emckeeve said:

Which ship?  We are booked for a segment on the Serenity.  Mobassa Kenya to Mumbai India.

 

Crystal's World Cruise is always on the Serenity. It's highly unlikely your cruise will happen as booked.

[ryndam]

9 hours ago, History&Wine said:

In my opinion all four options are better than the original itinerary. In any case, I give Crystal credit for asking for feedback…something that was not done for those of us on the 2024 World Cruise. 

Thank you, Dwight. We agree with your assessment, too. My only other observation would be to consider a stop in FL or NYC or San Juan or somewhere else on the US East Coast, prior to the eastbound TA crossing. Hopefully a decision will be announced sooner, rather than later.

 

Rob

[TRIPACIAN]

1 hour ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Crystal's World Cruise is always on the Serenity. It's highly unlikely your cruise will happen as booked.

That may be a premature observation.

[Texas Tillie]

9 minutes ago, TRIPACIAN said:

That may be a premature observation.

 

Could be, but I doubt that they would already be asking passengers about alternative itineraries if it wasn't a distinct possibility. They've already been stung with Middle Eastern problems. Doubt that they want to go through that again. Time will tell.

[FlyerTalker]

7 hours ago, History&Wine said:

Here are the proposed changes…

 

I am going to assume that after Rio, the ship will make a few other Brazil stops before Ilheus.  Are they talking Buzios and Vitoria?  Both are delightful stops IMO.  (Nothing on the pics for March 6-8)

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Keith1010]

48 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Could be, but I doubt that they would already be asking passengers about alternative itineraries if it wasn't a distinct possibility. They've already been stung with Middle Eastern problems. Doubt that they want to go through that again. Time will tell.

Patty like you said earlier I am sure it will be Serenity. After all we are talking about 2025.As Dwight said if the plan is to start in Miami and go to Rio so it would not be possible to get  Symphony over there unless they somehow could do a Star Trek and beam it over. And I think it can't be flown over either by airplane.  And its 2025 itinerary is set other than whatever they do with respect to the cruises later this year and Serenity is set other than the World Cruise.

 

Keith

[History&Wine]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

I am going to assume that after Rio, the ship will make a few other Brazil stops before Ilheus.  Are they talking Buzios and Vitoria?  Both are delightful stops IMO.  (Nothing on the pics for March 6-8)

 

Thanks.

 

 

March 6 is another day in Rio.  March 7 and 8 are both sea days.  These three days are the same on the original itinerary and all four of the proposed changes.  

Dwight

 

 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

Could be, but I doubt that they would already be asking passengers about alternative itineraries if it wasn't a distinct possibility. They've already been stung with Middle Eastern problems. Doubt that they want to go through that again. Time will tell.

 

Totally!  Even assuming all of those port calls are based on current availability and not actual contracted, held space, planning those viable alternative itineraries is still WAY more work than anyone in their right mind would do unless the needle is heavily leaning towards a change.  That grid speaks volumes.

 

Vince

[TRIPACIAN]

This is confusing.  The 2025 WC is in Rio from March 5th thru March 7th, and the is scheduled to go across the Atlantic to Africa.  This revision starts on April 22nd. What happens between those dates?

[History&Wine]

8 minutes ago, TRIPACIAN said:

This is confusing.  The 2025 WC is in Rio from March 5th thru March 7th, and the is scheduled to go across the Atlantic to Africa.  This revision starts on April 22nd. What happens between those dates?

There are three posted pages of revisions which cover all the dates. 

[TRIPACIAN]

Sorry I could not read the other pages on my computer.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, TRIPACIAN said:

Sorry I could not read the other pages on my computer.

 

Suggestion.....save the images to your computer. Then use an image program, such as XNView, where you can rotate the images, as well as view them.  IMO, always far easier to deal with separate images than trying to read within web pages.

 

 

[TRIPACIAN]

None of the options is appealing to me, we would fly home from Rio.

[ryndam]

1 hour ago, TRIPACIAN said:

None of the options is appealing to me, we would fly home from Rio.

And this is where the oft-repeated "choice is good" comes in. We find every alternative routing opportunity after Rio more appealing than the currently scheduled itinerary. We have no interest in the circle-South America cruise from FL or LA to Rio. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

 

Rob

Edited May 2 by ryndam
update comment

[TRIPACIAN]

2 hours ago, ryndam said:

And this is where the oft-repeated "choice is good" comes in. We find every alternative routing opportunity after Rio more appealing than the currently scheduled itinerary. We have no interest in the circle-South America cruise from FL or LA to Rio. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

 

Rob

Are you booked on the cruise?

[ryndam]

2 hours ago, TRIPACIAN said:

Are you booked on the cruise?

Not booked with the current itinerary. Will evaluate once a revised itinerary post-Rio is confirmed and becomes available for bookings.

 

Rob

[FlyerTalker]

19 hours ago, ryndam said:

And this is where the oft-repeated "choice is good" comes in. We find every alternative routing opportunity after Rio more appealing than the currently scheduled itinerary.

 

And some may have wanted to go to St Helena, Namibia and South Africa.

 

 

[Texas Tillie]

36 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

And some may have wanted to go to St Helena, Namibia and South Africa.

 

 

 

Many world cruisers do it every year and they are getting most of those this year, as a surprise! All things considered, changing itinerary before the cruise starts seems like the better "route".

 

Patty

[FlyerTalker]

On 5/1/2024 at 11:26 PM, History&Wine said:

Deadline on return of the surveys is May 5. 

 

Well....that was yesterday.  Haven't they gotten the results back and made the appropriate changes and announced it to the world?  What kind of operation is this?

 

😀

 

(Written to save the impatient folks from having to post)

 

 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Well....that was yesterday.  Haven't they gotten the results back and made the appropriate changes and announced it to the world?  What kind of operation is this?

 

😀

 

(Written to save the impatient folks from having to post)

 

 

 

😆 

 

In fairness, most port agents on the proposed itineraries are in earlier time zones than Crystal.  Everyone at Crystal could have stayed up all night and analyzed the results, debated the implications, had a decision in the wee hours, and started contacting the European port authorities this morning as they came online.  😆 ...That's what I would have done.  (And if you believe that, I have a world cruise through the Suez Canal to sell you.)

 

I'm sure the web content managers could have also had the ports updated online, with the help of unicorns...  And there's a new kind of lawyer these days that can turn around batches of contracts  in minutes, instead of weeks, I hear.  😆 What a wonderful time to be alive!

 

Vince