Past experiences on Crystal have been superb. Symphony has recently been remodeled and things have changed. While it continues to be a very good cruise, there are some very evident changes. As a repeat World Cruiser, my hundreds of days aboard Crystal gives me a basis for comparison.
The overall atmosphere is not as friendly. Many of the crew are top notch but the remaining leave much to be ...
We wanted to see as much of Australia as possible in a brief time. We also went to Tasmania, which was a bonus! Best shore excursions were in "The Bush" where we got to look around for kangaroos and koalas in the wild.
Though I am not a big drinker, I enjoyed not having to pay attention to the drinks I was ordering and once I gleaned on to it, I enjoyed trying the "featured drink" listed on the ...
I was interested to see if the hype around the recent dry dock was justified, it was not. Sure the new penthouses are impressive, our request for one of the new penthouse suites prior to the cruise went unanswered by Crystal, yet on the open day there was one available for viewing, very annoying. However, the existing penthouse suite allocated was very comfortable, if a little dated, for my mother ...
We were excited to take our first Crystal Cruise as Crystal is known to be the "top of the line" in cruising. We found our cabin to be adequate but cramped and dated. The bathroom was above average.
While the ship is old, it is quite beautiful, the service excellent, the enrichment excellent, the entertainment very good, however the food was very disappointing. The dining room menu was not ...
Wanted to go to the Great Barrier Reef and see the ports on the Eastern coast of Australia.I didn't realize that we would need to wear "sting suits" which are full bodied slip on net suits to avoid being stung by the tiny jelly fish and other poisonous creatures while in the ocean. The food was especially good and the other people on the cruise varied in age from young to old, a good mix of ...
This was my tenth cruise with Crystal and every one of them has been excellent. Sure, there are always small things to quibble about but the overall experience on Crystal is consistently excellent. Once again the friendly and professional staff were a huge part of why I keep returning to Crystal; I did a short cruise last year on a three star ship and that reinforced to me how much better Crystal ...
A mix of good and bad. The service was generally excellent. The onboard lecturers were very good. The Palm Court is a lovely room with excellent staff and quickly became our room of choice on board. The food, in particular the main courses in the MDR, were mostly very disappointing. Every meal seemed to emphasis Salmon or Shrimp and the meats were dry, bland or overcooked. Considering this was ...
Crystal Symphony cruise departing on January 5, 2017
I chose the cruise for two reasons. One was the ports of call and the area that the cruise was visiting. The other was the fact that it was a bridge cruise and I wanted to but participate in playing bridge and learning bridge
I loved the luxury of the cruise. The service was excellent especially the young lady who took after me in my ...
We chose this cruise because of its proximity to our home and no long haul flying needed.
We boarded in Melbourne and this was orderly but we had to wait to be called as it was a full sailing.
Once onboard we dined in the dining room and later went to our cabin to find the bags on the bed.
TIP: we brought our own wire hangers and discarded the Crystal ones and the heavy robes.
Our ...
We went to Crystal Symphony because our past experience was excellent even though the company was bought by an Asian company. We had been cruising with different cruise lines for over a long time. We still decided to try again even when we saw some bad reviews recently. First, the embarkation was a total disaster at Melbourne. There were hardly any Crystal agents and there were no instructions ...
