This is the Title Part 3

nowhere special, i always wanted to go there
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An semi-affordable cruise.

Post: # 3396Post drib »

The title should be "A semi-affordable cruise," no?
Dolebludger wrote:Can anybody find me one on Regent? Now, by semi-affordable I mean one with a pp/pd cost of under $1K. I shall not complain here if there are none. I just recall our first Regent (then Radisson) cruise on the Paul Gauguin in 2002. We were picked up at our home (then in Oklahoma City), taken to the local airport. All the air was decent (not like economy is now), and with two plane changes we were in Tahiti. The cost was about $275 pp/pd. Now, with less service and some downgraded air to the point of unacceptable air I find a Navigator cruise with similar itinerary at about $1500 pp/pd. Of course, there has been inflation since 2002. But to this extent?
Friendly Boats wrote:
Dolebludger wrote:Now, by semi-affordable I mean one with a pp/pd cost of under $1K.
This is not difficult at all; it's not even semi-tough ... if you take the air credit.

On Explorer, I can find three itineraries between $628 and $700 per person, per day. On Grandeur, it's seven itineraries between $451 and $550 - and the air credit was not much because those are all Caribbean and Panama Canal. On Mariner, there are seven between $440 and $500. On Navigator, there are three between $387 and $450 - but those are for non-balcony cabins. There are ten on Splendor for between $450 and $550. And finally, trailing the semi-affordable parade is Voyager with two itineraries between $394 and $500 - both repositioning cruises.

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Thanks to Keith

Post: # 3398Post drib »

ctjon wrote:IN case this forum disappears:

Although we all don't agree with him all the time and we all feel sorry for Anne-Marie, Keith has provided huge amounts of help to many, many people who have an interest in or who have traveled with Crystal. His forum on tips for first time cruisers contained so much great information for first timers and all.

Thank you and I hope we can continue to thank you as all our cruising continues.

THANKS
May B wrote:That’s nice, ctjon, even the tongue-in-cheek part.
What exactly did you think was tongue-in-cheek, May B?
K. Sera wrote:If I may express another opinion ... K's post encouraged me to book a Crystal at a time which as it turned out was unwise. And now I'm waiting in the refund line.

I know in the end it was my responsibility. But maybe sometimes unbridled enthusiasm should be bridled.
Need a few more commas there, K. Sera.

Que sera sera?
Coral wrote:I hope you have filed a dispute with your credit cards. This should be one of the first things you do. I hope you are able to recover your money (along with anyone else).

I think it is fair to say that Keith had nothing to do with Crystal's demise. Keith basically presented his experiences with Crystal which I agree with were exceptional. Cruising on Crystal was a great experience - obviously many agreed with him as they won several awards year after year. I understand you being upset but I don't think Keith is the one you should be upset with.

Your frustrations should probably be targeted at Genting Hong Kong for mismanagement. If they had taken action/secured financing when other cruise lines did in 2020, they may still be operating. Though - most cruise lines right now are not in a good place. There are a few exceptions but my cruise line stocks have taken a huge hit and I wish I did not own them.

I hope we all find cruise lines in the future that provides us with an amazing travel experience.
Joywrk wrote:We found Keith to be balanced in his comments and very helpful. Anne-Marie is fortunate to be married to such an optimist and his sunny disposition likely is related to his great love for her. Hope to run into you someday on the seas.
Balanced?

Well, until I'm home and can draw an image of the scales of justice tipped in K's view of Crystal, this will have to suffice:

imgx
Emdee wrote:Keith didn’t make you do it…you are responsible for your own actions…as an adult. Presuming that you are not a minor.
Many of us have lost money with the Bankruptcy but we will never lose those memories.
Que sera sera.
I believe K. Sera stated that he, himself, was responsible. (Weird that Emdee also liked K. Sera's post.)

But I believe K1010 was encouraging CFCers to book Crystal even as it was apparent that they had not paid their bills. Suppose your financial guy tried to get you to purchase Enron knowing that there was something wrong there?

K1010 now blames Genting HK for Crystal's demise. So I suppose the question is how much did he know about Genting's bad actions, and when did he know it?
1st time aboard wrote:Absolutely agree!

Keith has been consistently helpful, kind, and gracious.

We’re all missing (mourning may be more appropriate) Crystal. I’m sure Keith is more than others.

Keith, I hope you keep up your blog and continue to post on Cruise Critic, whichever line you choose next. We’ll enjoy hearing from you and Anne Marie!
hypercafe wrote:Keith has some good advice and had good facts about the now defunct Crystal and was very willing to share them. I would advise to learn to say his say in far less words and separate his enthusiasm and personal opinion from the facts.
:bow:
doglover214 wrote:I, for one, have always valued whatever Keith had to say. His advice on all things Crystal was much appreciated by me. His enthusiasm and personal opinions are what people want from these boards.
His was an unbiased opinion from someone who truly loved the cruise line and its crew.*
I share his feelings completely. I am hoping that tomorrow brings the welcome news many of us are wishing for.
I was supposed to be on the last Symphony cruise that ended with a ferry from Bimini to Fort Lauderdale. I canceled a week prior to sailing, due to the CDC warning.
I am booked, with my group of 7 others, on another cruise line.
Except for Crystal, the single supplements are ridiculous. Crystal cherished their solo travelers with fair supplements. Not so, with the others.
Here’s my message to Keith- never stop writing!
* Emphasis added. :lol: I do not think it {unbiased} means what you think it means. -Ed
KenzSailing wrote:Three posts. Three whole posts and someone drops in to blame a bad experience on someone else they never met, and never will. My gosh, the fundamental anonymity of the internet does not bring out the best in human behavior.

Or, in some cases, it reveals it.
Hitler, many had bad experiences with him, and yet they never met him.


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Zayo Bandwidth

Post: # 3400Post drib »

Who are you?

You are now blocked, so you couldn't read this anyway.

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Thanks to Keith

Post: # 3401Post drib »

Gone.

I wonder what I missed.

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Re: This is the Title Part 3

Post: # 3402Post fezzik »

The most likely reason for this thread to have been removed is that K. Sera reported all of the nasty comments directed at him/her/them. What a wimp!

Alternatively, K asked that the thread be removed because he was too modest to see people saying nice things about him.

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Sneak dripsy preview ...

Post: # 3403Post drib »

#17

Once there was a critic named Keith,
Thought he could make some good from his grief.
While others had struck a reef, chief,
Keith kept up this leitmotif:

Yes, he was ... hopeful,
He was ... hopeful,
He had thousands of posts,
And was never ... mopeful.

So any time you're feeling sad,
Instead of feeling bad,
Just remember this post:

Sometimes you ... can go home again,
Sometimes you ... can go home again,
Sometimes you ... can go home again ...

almost.

Kerplop!

=======

K is dead, fezzik. Get over it ... you and your one million and six posts!

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Not that anyone would have bookmarked it, but I moved the original dribnuts' files to my public user, instead of drib/public, so it needs no password:

dribnuts on bd foto


And this is dripsy on drib-arts:

dripsy on public art

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schnorrer of the seas - gone in 30 minutes

Post: # 3405Post drib »

... but not forgotten.

Image

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And will this one be gone by morning?

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(It's not as wide because I had to zoom out with the browser to get the screen print.)

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Okay = so that was removed in 43 minutes by Keith1010, which I know because he posted again on the off-topic topic just a minute or two ago, But as was on the day drib bit the dust, he does not have the authority to delete Schlemiel. Thus Schlemiel liked his post, and will now continue to post.

As to the over/under, although the original post was under an hour, the re-post is now over three hours. So all bets are off and your wagers will be returned to you.

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schlemiel of the seas

Post: # 3406Post drib »

So ...

After the original Schlemiel post was removed, I reposted it. And it was removed again, so I started to try to converse with Keith in the off-topic thread.

Then, I saw that he, or maybe someone else, had the moderator right to hide a post in the moderator's queue. We went through the exercise of posting and re-posting several times. (But why not delete the post as happened to the others?) And finally, at about 12:30am PST, they gave up.

As of this writing, Schlemiel has two visible posts in the Crystal Forum, and one in the Test Forum, my old friend.

Image

I think many at CFC will be mad as hatters in the morning.

I think I will have the last laugh, though, because schlemiel liked a bunch of posts in the I Am Hopeful thread, and those don't disappear when the member does - or at least not yet.

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the triplets

Post: # 3407Post drib »

Image

Image

Image

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shmegegge of the seas

Post: # 3408Post drib »

Well, I lost a Schlimazel, so this new guy will have to do. * This is what I was going to write:

Cruise Critic should stop treating their members like nameless, faceless, lemmings. When members do something wrong, write to them, person to person with an explanation as to why their posts were deleted. In my case, you don't have to tell me why - I already know. But I will abide by my previous offer, that if you just write to me, as a person, and tell me to stop posting on Cruise Critic, I will.

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* Host Dan, when you block an IP address you are not blocking my IP address. I don't own one!


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Responding to FlyerTalker:
shmegegge of the seas wrote:I think many forget that Crystal Symphony and Serenity* were not selling well for several years now, maybe five years, even before the pandemic. And the way that we know that is because those ships, more often than not, sold at a discount. NO LINE REDUCES FARES WHEN REGULAR FARES ARE SELLING WELL. And consequently, they never produced the income they needed to sustain their high level of service.

* Except for world cruises, which might be why some CC members never appreciated that, on the whole, they did not sell well.

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The ships were sold

Post: # 3411Post drib »

Keith1010 wrote:Another one. Continental buys United Airlines who was bankrupt.
That's not at all what happened between Continental and United. It's not worth my risking a character to correct this misstatement. I'll just take the "under" (16 hours *) on when FlyerTalker will comment on it.

I always thought it was interesting that the new, merged, airline compromised by using the United name and the Continental tail design. I like the Continental tail design, but not as it looks with the rest of the airframe. It makes me think of Frankenstein's monster. Abby Normal.

Which reminds me that I don't think anyone has mentioned that Crystal logo has some value.

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* All bets are off. This innocuous post was removed. Why? Does Keith now remove his own posts after it's pointed out that they are factually wrong?

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