London

Greetings From London

We arrived to London shortly after noon on a ride that took much longer than usual due to the weather. We are staying at the Rosewood Hotel in London. We have varied where we stay on most London visits as there are so many wonderful hotels to choose from.

Several functions for Crystal are performed at the A&K office in London and we visited there for a few hours shortly after arriving to our hotel. In spite of some rain showers we managed to walk to and from the A&K offices and also go out for another walk after a quick stop to the hotel.  

We wanted to share a few additional thoughts from our cruises on Serenity in August and our just completed cruises on Symphony this month and I can best sum this up by starting with Crystal.
 
Did we say how much we enjoyed our cruises on Crystal Symphony this month and Crystal Serenity last month?
 
There is so much to enjoy and love about new Crystal.

We were asked yesterday, what do we like about new Crystal?  Answer is simple we love the total package. 
 
We often say if you liked old Crystal you will find that new Crystal brought back all that we liked about old Crystal and then enhanced it so it is better than ever.
 
To us this includes:
 
Many new suites and combining the different ones under fewer categories to make it easier to choose from.
 
Having solo rooms that are the same size as double rooms.
 
Updating some of the public rooms including Umi Uma, Osteria, The Spa/Salon.
 
The Lounge. On our recent cruises on both ships, we have seen them utilized a lot more than last year plus they now have bridge and for those who wanted casinos they are coming soon.
 
Upgrading the cuisine including Waterside, rolling out Osteria, bringing back Tastes and soon to be Beefbar.  From all I have read and looking at the Beefbar menus this is an upgrade to Tastes.  As to Waterside to me the cuisine, service and the beautiful dining venues are very similar to specialty restaurants with the difference being the number of guests served and the diversity of cuisine.
 
Enhancing the Crystal website including adding stories and making the website more interesting to view and providing other capabilities such as easier ways to sort and find cruises.
 
Bringing back the amazing crew with 85%+ returning.  Unlike anywhere else we have sailed, they are experienced, charming, welcoming, friendly, and professional. Let me add to this they are not “robotic”.  
 
And showing the willingness to invest and grow the product.
 
We have lots to look forward to.
 
Now back to the Symphony cruise.
 
In spite of the very strong winds as we made it into the Port Of Dover, we arrived on time and for many of us we couldn’t feel the impact of the winds but they were very strong for sure and if you went outside you would know.  In fact, the winds were so strong it was a big challenge for the local port to put up the bridge between the ship and the cruise terminal.
 
We had a lot of help as we departed the ship.  We did have a Crystal private transfer where you meet at the Crystal Plaza 15 minutes before you depart.  We got down there earlier and saw Captain Nenad, Hotel Director Herbert, Dr. Soto and a few minutes later Cruise Director Raphael who was pinch hitting for a few days.  
 
Butler Jaison, and new Concierge Thomas and Concierge Sasha were with us as we departed ship and claimed luggage and then Sasha and the driver got us out to the SUV.  

Everyone’s help was appreciated as it was still windy with some rain. I know, welcome to England.
 
Thanks to the weather and an accident on one of the major roads that drive from Dover to London became a three hour and 20-minute drive as many more vehicles were in London due to the problem on one of the major roads.  The saying about the last mile was very true as I could have walked that last mile in 25% of the time it took to drive it. 
 
One thing for sure while we had some rain on the Symphony cruises and some rain on the Serenity cruises is that on-board each ship it is total sunshine and to Anne Marie and myself better than ever.
 
As We mentioned in an earlier post, is it perfect? Well, who is and what is? But to us it is truly outstanding including all of the attention to detail and all of the care that has done into new Crystal from the leaders of A&K/Crystal and from both land-based teams and from the on-board teams across both ships. 
 
We remind myself that they didn’t buy a company. They bought two ships, a name, and a customer database. Most everything else had to be built from the ground floor including systems, itineraries and all that goes into creating them, supplier arrangements for food, beverages and other supplies, upgrades to the ship, new dining venue, hiring of land-based personnel, securing offices for them, and the list goes on and on and on.  In short creating a new company and even with the benefit of having people who knew how things worked on the ships there was so much to create from the bottom floor.  And add to this the skepticism that some former guests had, others who never sailed Crystal along with vendors and others including travel consortiums and travel agents, etc. new Crystal was able to bring the ships back to life the year following the purchase.  To me it is remarkable and since the relaunch of the company and the two ships with each passing day, week, and month they are enhancing many of the components that together make Crystal so very special.
 

Today was cooler than yesterday in London and we had on and off rain. Ironically, when in Vancouver prior to a last month's Alaska cruise on Serenity, we purchased waterproof jackets and inserts at the same store we purchased some items for the Crystal 2016 Northwest Passage Cruise.

Enjoyed a walk over to the London theatre district at Strand and to adjoining areas. In the afternoon, we decided to visit the British Museum.  We have visited this museum often but usually when it opens.  Do you think anyone was there?  We think half of London was there. Then as we queued on line the gentleman asked do you have tickets? We said no but he said you could go in anyway. A short while later another gentleman asked doe we have tickets? Anne Marie said no and that we are old. Old. Are you kidding me Keith thought to himself? He let us proceed.

In spite of the enormous crowds we made our way to exhibits we were most interested in and enjoyed the visit.  

Weather outlook for tomorrow looks great so we will enjoy several outdoor areas of London.

Cheers,

Anne Marie & Keith