Having done 15 cruises on the "old" Crystal I was really looking forward to sailing with them again (having switched by necessity to Silversea and Seabourn in the interim). Finally boarding Crystal Symphony for two back to back cruises, my expectations were immediately confirmed, this is still Crystal, only better!!! The food was truly outstanding, the service superb, the whole experience absolutely top rate - welcome back Crystal.

All my old favourites remain - like the Louis Armstrong sailaways, the daily catholic mass, walks around the promenade deck, high tea, the new casino which opened during our second cruise- all as it was!!. Some less obvious things also better, hot menu items were served hot as were hot drinks, not like on most ships where lukewarm is the standard. I don't know what Crystal has changed to improve so much in this area but it's working. We found the menus and service in the MDR superb, the specialty restaurants not so much, the Italian restaurant in particular had a limited and frankly disappointing menu. Service everywhere was unmistakably Crystal, all staff quickly got to know our preferences and in many cases our names, there was never a wait of any description for service, in some venues there seemed to be more staff than passengers. By taking the passenger count down from 900 to 600 some of the entertainment areas sometimes seemed empty, maybe they can do a bit more to gather guests together, the only busy areas we saw were Crystal Cove just prior to dinner and the Avenue Saloon after dinner,

Our only gripe is the size of the level entry rooms; sure they have been refurbished but they are just too small to be sold as doubles. At 20 sqm they are a tight fit, compared to say Silversea where the entry level is 30sqm. There were six of us sailing together, two singles found their rooms satisfactory - but for the rest of us it was really unacceptable for a luxury line like Crystal to sell these as doubles. After five days or so we decided to upgrade (at a silly price) to what was previously tagged as a penthouse suite - at 30sqm much more comfortable but the same size as entry level rooms on other cruise lines. There were only 400 on board out of 600 so plenty of spare rooms for Crystal to come to a better arrangement with us, but after "conferring" with head office we were charged more the $8,000 to upgrade. There was some sort of plumbing malfunction outside our new room and we had to put up with a noisy air blower right outside our door for four days and nights, plus inside during the day on occasion which made the room unusable, They never told us the exact problem but mentioned "flooding", our toilet never flushed properly, Reception said they would send a plumber but that's the last we heard on the subject, again not good enough for a luxury line.. Read more