We recently completed a 7 day cruise on the Crystal. We travel as a group of friends and one of our fellow travelers is a travel professional who puts together our trips which is how we were introduced to Celestyal. I had some reservations prior after reading the reviews but all I can say is either Celestyal listened and made changes or maybe things are just getting back to normal post pandemic. Regardless, here are my observations. The staff was excellent particularly our cabin attendants Irene and Leo. The food was very good and I am particular and would say so if it wasn't. Waitstaff was attentive and professional. We upgraded to a balcony room and thus had access to a couple restaurants that were a little nicer than the buffet, in that they often had a few more offerings and waitstaff. There wasn't a designated "pay extra" restaurant but the more formal dining restaurants did offer a steak and lobster special for 35 Euro that was worth it, although the regular menu was quite good. I ate at the buffet a couple times and it was surprisingly decent when compared to their competitors. In the dining restaurants long pants are required for men so bring at least one pair. Most women wore dresses or something not so casual. The ship held 1200 people and I think we had roughly 400 at any given time. Much more comfortable to me than the big boats. RCL's Odyssey of the Seas was at a few ports that we were at and it was MASSIVE compared to ours. It may not have had some of the amenities of those ships but I didn't come here for that. For instance the pool was small and jacuzzi held maybe 4-6 people. Size and people wise, the Crystal was in the sweet spot for me.

Covid-wise, Greece had just loosened their pandemic response recently. The majority of people in cities, airports and planes were not wearing masks. But we had to take a rapid antigen test (home test did not work) and have a signed paper by the testing facility within 24 hours of departure that the results were negative.

Celestyal had made arrangements with a lab so it wasn't all that difficult (more info on their website). Masks onboard the Crystal were required indoors in common spaces and politely but strictly enforced. Plastic gloves were provided for the buffet utensils. My take is that, if I got Covid this trip it most likely was NOT from the Crystal. Now the shopping areas of Santorini and Mykonos were another story and I suppose if one wanted to take extra precautions after those ports it wouldn't seem excessive. I really didn't really think much about it until now and honestly traveling through London Heathrow and Chicago were much more concerning. The US had just dropped the negative test requirement for re-entry so who knows? Read more