Celestyal Crystal Review
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We are seasoned cruiser's and world travelers. We fully understand that places outside the USA can be quite different since we have traveled to China (lived there for a total of 12 weeks) , Russia and many other countries. This cruise ship, and I have to assume company, are by far the worst we have encountered. Avoid this company unless you are prepared for very poor service, food and tours. Here are a few of the events that caused four of us to come to that conclusion.
1. Food: The standard fare is buffet unless you can time your life to their inane sit down schedules. The food served in sit down is the same as the buffet.. Coffee is instant unless you pay for the upgraded beverage package. Getting a glass of water is via ONe small , very slow spigot at the bar. Que lines abound at the buffet with little thought given to flow. (folks wanting desert have to step through the line waiting for the main foods). Forgot your silverware? back to the line for you! Tables to sit to eat can be scarce. Institutional food is a description that gives more credit than is due.
2. This is a converted passenger ship and it shows. They like to tout that is is not like other cruise ships in that it is not "cookie cutter" but in reality the room selection is built to confuse and has no rhyme or reason as to the price and value. Our initial room was with limited view two beds and two chairs. On the second day out the ship was refuled. Somehow fuel oil got into our cabin. We asked to be moved since the odor was strong and affected our breathing. We were told nothing was available. They sprinkled some chemical around the room. No help. They cleaned the carpet. No help. On the fourth day we were given an option to take another room. We moved to clean air but a smaller cabin with two beds and no chairs. We had to crawl over each other to get in bed. All along I asked for a consideration to our expenses. I was told we were given an upgraded room. At the end of the cruise I asked to speak to a manager regarding our room experience. The person on duty refused to come out to speak to me. The messenger just kept saying we were treated fairly and should be happy we got an upgrade. So the bottom line here is if you have a problem during the cruise , you are not likely to get any sympathy or assistance.