Crystal Symphony Review

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Surpassed All Expectations for First Crystal Cruise

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Crystal Symphony
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YoungDubFan
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jun 2014
Cabin: Deluxe Stateroom with Large Picture Window

This was my first Crystal Cruise and it was wonderful. This is going to be a lengthy review but I had such a hard time finding out any info on specifics for the Baltic Cruise that I want to give future cruises the info that I wished I had beforehand. I had done quite a bit of research before selecting which line to use for the Baltic Cruise and I am very happy that I picked Crystal. We really liked the fact that the ship overnighted in Copenhagen at the beginning and Stockholm at the end of the cruise. This saved us from hotel stays at the beginning and end of the cruise. We were also very pleased that we had 3 full days in St. Petersburg. Many of the other lines only spend 2 days in St. Petersburg. I am very glad that we had the time to experience everything that we did. This cruise was titled “White Nights” due to the extensive amount of daylight we had. When I review the ports, I’ll mention sunrise and sunset times.

Embarkation: Very smooth. Our flight landed in Copenhagen around 7:00 am the morning of embarkation. We had paid for Crystal transfers on both ends, just for convenience sake. We were met in the arrivals hall by multiple Crystal Reps. They stayed with us while we waited for our luggage. We were able to send whatever luggage we wanted to the cruise ship. We kept a small day bag with us and were taken by bus to a local hotel (Scandic Hotel Copenhagen). A conference room was available for us. There was tea, coffee, and water along with some danishes. There were a few Crystal reps here who had maps of the areas and suggestions for what to do until we would be bused to the ship at 11:45. There was free wifi available at the hotel. We walked around some lakes right in front of the hotel and just rested. We had had a long flight and did not sleep at all. The ride to the dock was quick and we were on the ship with bording cards within 15 minutes. Very smooth and painless.

We were told that cabins would be ready at 3:00 pm. We went to the MDR for lunch. After lunch, we dropped our day bags into our Cabin and put stuff into the safe, then went up to the Lido deck with our books and read and rested for a bit. We went to the cabin at 3:00 pm and were a bit disappointed to discover that it had not been completely cleaned – the mini fridge still had ½ consumed drinks from the last cruise, there was only 1 robe, and other minor things. Our cabin stewardess Marisa quickly appeared and apologized for the state of the room. It seems our originally assigned stewardess quit with no notice that morning and Marisa had been pulled very late from another floor to take over. She told us the cabin would be to Crystal’s standards when she made up the room in the evening, and it was. The only other hitch was that our two checked bags were in the cabin by 4 pm, but our two pieces of hand luggage were not there. I went to reception and notified them. Within 20 minutes our luggage was located and delivered. We then had 3 follow up phone calls from different departments confirming that it had been delivered.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Stateroom with Large Picture Window

Cabin D

Port side 2nd cabin off reception. We were very happy with the location. Being right off the Crystal Cove and reception was very convenient. Some days the gangplank was on this floor and others it was on deck 4. We really liked having a bar just off the cabin. Other that the first night with some noise in the hallway, it was very quiet. We never heard neighbors on either side of us or anyone above us. We had the cabin made up as 2 twins. There was ample storage room, both in the cabin and bathroom. We pushed the table up against the window for a bit more walking room by the couch. My only suggestion is to replace the barrel chair at the desk with a more straight backed chair that didn’t take up too much room. I should note that the blackout curtains worked very well the entire cruise. We used the table up against the wall to help keep them closed. We never had issues with the very early morning sunlight coming into the room.

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