Delightful cruise--the Crystal Experience is (almost) back

Item: Crystal Symphony
Rating: 4.6
Author: CrystalBill

Crystal Symphony Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

CrystalBill

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 34

Overall rating:

4.6 out of 5

Verified Review

10 Night Europe & Mediterranean (Rome To Venice)

Sail date: September 26, 2023

Ship: Crystal Symphony

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 1054

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

Crystal is getting there, but still has some glitches compared to the last cruises in Jan 2021 (we were on the Symphony on its last sailing). Having first sailed on Crystal in May 1994--and proudly watched as they continued their string of "best ship" wins for many years, Crystal will have to do a lot to ever get back there. It's going to be in the details (such as not keeping the aft decks clean), and returning to better meals, especially dinners. The Crystal of today is not even in the same league as the Crystal of yesteryear. The bright spot is that the staff is still the best!

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Overall excellent, and continuing great butlers, maid, bar staff, deck staff, restaurant staff. Not so good: we spent a fair amount of time on the aft deck. First, no seat cushions for 4 days on hard mahogany chairs. Second--and more disturbing--is that glasses that accumulated on tables starting at, say, 3PM were still there at 10AM the next day, and the decks were only swept/washed every 3-4 days. Not good.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Except for the aft deck problems with cleanliness, everything was excellent

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Simply excellent in all ways

Ports of call

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

3 out of 5

Naples, Italy

5 out of 5

HERAKLION, CRETE, GREECE

5 out of 5

Santorini, Greece

4 out of 5

Nafplion (Nauplion), Greece

5 out of 5

Dubrovnik, Croatia

5 out of 5

Split, Croatia

5 out of 5

Opatija, Croatia

3 out of 5

Venice, Italy

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

2 out of 5

Was told directly by Crystal that we would disembark at Stationize Maritima. Nope. We disembarked in Fusima (?), were bussed to Maritima, had to wait for our luggage to get there, throwing off the schedule for our water taxi. If you booked with Crystal to go to the Marriott or to the airport, there were Crystal reps. If you didn't, no one to help with questions or provide any assistance

7 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe 4 months ago

Thanks for sharing

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willwork4cruz 1 year ago

Wow, great review. Amazing how different the ship is being run. Maybe they have a whole new crew. That’s ok if they didn’t still charge luxury prices for standards much lower than mainstream cruise lines.

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javawoody 1 year ago

Thanks for the update

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Gwbigdog 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing

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TwisterSister86 1 year ago

Thank you for your overall lovely review! May the staff on your next cruise do a much better job with keeping all areas clean!

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cruising2004 1 year ago

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for sharing.

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SRAlbritton 1 year ago

Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us. Glad that overall you enjoyed it.

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