I am somewhat 'Crystallised' at 47 years of age, and this was my 5th trip, in as many years. I brought my partner along for the first time to show what all the fuss was about.

Crystal get a lot right, the food is fantastic and flexible, the anticipation by staff of a very high standard and the general standard of the Symphony is high, though I do feel it is getting a wee bit long in the tooth for such a premier brand. My personal view is that the Serenity is much better and maybe that is why our ship was half full, and the last time I was on Symphony it was half full, never have I experienced this on Serenity. I think crystal customers know what they are doing and they know which of the two ships has the edge. Anyway we wanted Alaska and this was the ship that was there and it is still a mighty fine ship.

For the first time ever I regularly found the men's rooms had 'gentleman's spillage' on the floor, I was very surprised by this and it was often. Maybe the cleaning schedule has been reduced or maybe we were just unlucky. Read more