Crystal Cruises - Cruise Line and Cruise Ship Reviews

Offering the best of both worlds, Crystal Cruises delivers an intimate, upscale experience but on ships large enough to provide many spacious public rooms and dining venues, plus the industry’s most extensive repertoire of onboard classes, lectures and workshops.

Adding to the great value of a Crystal cruise, the line will be going all-inclusive starting in spring 2012, bundling all alcoholic drinks (wines and spirits) in the fares along with free round-trip airfare from two dozen North American cities, plus soft drinks, bottled water, specialty coffees and tips.

Carrying 922 and 1,070 passengers apiece, Crystal Cruises' two ships, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, globetrot around the world with well-heeled mostly American couples in their 50s plus, spending significant time in the Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, and New England and Canada, as well as the Far East, the South Pacific and South America.

Dining On Crystal Cruises
Food, and the lavish table settings and smart service that come along with it, is a highlight of a Crystal cruise. Each ship has an elegant formal dining room with two seatings as well as three chic alternative restaurants: an Italian venue and two pan-Asian restaurants featuring cuisine by renowned master chef Nobu Matsuhisa, including a sushi bar.

There’s also a poolside grill serving everything from salmon burgers to tuna melts, plus an indoor café with a delectable spread of pastries, cheese and cold cuts. Enjoy the daily elaborate high tea service and the great themed luncheon buffets that are legendary in cruise circles.

Activities Galore On Crystal Cruises
Crystal Cruises' impressive roster of activities is another high point. A typical Crystal cruise hosts four or five accomplished lecturers, from authors to politicians, scientists and other luminaries, as well as complimentary computer training classes, Berlitz language classes and Yamaha keyboard instruction.

Sign up for art classes conducted by the Parsons School of Design and wellness programs organized by the Cleveland Clinic and the Tai Chi Cultural Center. Further, there are dozens of themed sailings spread over the year and focused, food and wine, art, film, dance, jazz, wellness, and other subjects.

For more physical pursuits, large oceanview gyms are stocked with the latest equipment and offer complimentary classes like spinning, yoga and pilates. There are also golf-driving nets, a putting green, paddle-tennis courts, shuffleboard and walks along the 360-degree Promenade Decks.

Multiple entertainment venues include a theater for production shows, plus several romantic lounges, a dance club, a couple of bars and a spacious casino.

Family Cruising On Crystal Cruises
Of all the luxury lines, Crystal Cruises does the most for families with bright playrooms and supervised activities whenever demand calls for ages 3 and up. Teens also get their own space and you can borrow kiddy books and videos in the library.

Though considered the largest true luxury vessels in high-end cruise market, the cabins aren’t as roomy as they are aboard Crystal’s smaller high-end peers (ie, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea Cruises, and Seabourn). Still, the recently refurbished cabins are comfortable, and all categories have a mini-fridge, exceptionally comfy bedding and a huge offering of in-cabin movies.

Accolades For Crystal Cruises
For more than a decade running, readers of upscale travel magazines have given top honors to Crystal Cruises. The distinction is well-deserved for Crystal, which succeeds in its goal to provide guests with the finest luxury services available.

Crystal Cruises Goes All The Way: All-Inclusive Beginning March 2012

Big news for luxury cruisers. Crystal Cruisers is going all-inclusive beginning spring 2012, when cruises on Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity will include complimentary fine wines and premium spirits throughout the ships, open bar service in all lounges, and pre-paid gratuities for housekeeping, bar and dining staff. The complimentary gratuity amenity also includes Penthouse butler service as well as service in all of Crystal’s specialty restaurants and sushi bar.

The new benefits begin with each ship’s first transatlantic cruise next year: Crystal Symphony’s “Beyond the Sea” sailing from Miami to Lisbon on March 19, 2012, and Crystal Serenity’s “New World to Norway” voyage from New York to London on May 8, 2012.

Also included with all cruises is free round-trip air transportation from two dozen North American gateways (or a generous air credit), with airport/ship transfers included.

Since its inception, Crystal Cruises has added to its vacation experience each year with more and more complimentary amenities, services, workshops and dining opportunities.

Always included at no additional cost are:
• non-alcoholic beverages such as bottled water, specialty coffee drinks, soft drinks and fresh juices
• meals, including dining in specialty restaurants that feature the cuisine of Nobu Matsuhisa and Piero Selvaggio
• high tea
• ice cream and frozen yogurt bar
• gym, steam, saunas and whirlpools
• numerous fitness classes such as Spinning and group Pilates Reformer instruction
• golf lessons with PGA pros
• Walk-on-Water weighted vests and Nordic Pole walking equipment
• Yamaha keyboard classes
• Berlitz language classes
• paddle tennis
• dozens of computer/technology classes
• art classes
• Crystal Visions lecture series, featuring Crystal Visions lecture series featuring distinguished speakers
• award-winning entertainment
• in-stateroom movie and CD rentals
• film screenings in the onboard cinema
• dance lessons
• dedicated junior cruiser facilities
• early embarkation luncheon
• welcome champagne
• shuttles to town
• pillow menus
• self-service laundries
• twice-daily housekeeping with nightly turndown service
• 24-hour room service.

Penthouse accommodations also feature personal butler service, pressing, stocked bar, and other amenities and services.

All guests enjoy Six-Star service from gracious European-trained wait staff, concierges who belong to the prestigious “Les Clefs d’Or,” and sommeliers certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers. Crystal’s passion for taking care of guests in an inviting environment of extraordinary space, quality and choices has earned the company more “World’s Best” awards than any other cruise line, resort or hotel in history.

Crystal Cruises: Sushi At Sea

Spend an evening at Matsuhisa Restaurant in Beverly Hills, and you can easily rack up a tab totaling a few hundred dollars. Sushi of this quality does not come cheap. But at the famed chef’s restaurants on the two ships operated by Crystal Cruises, you’ll need to pony up only $7 per person after you’ve laid down your chop sticks for a final rest.

Long a land-based favorite, sushi has returned to the sea at Nobu’s restaurants on Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony. And at what a price. That $7 per person? It’s for suggested gratuities; Crystal charges nothing for dining at Nobu’s Silk Road and The Sushi Bar.

“Nobu is about as good as it gets,” says Thomas Mazloum, senior vice president of hotel operations for Crystal Cruises. “His cuisine is unique, creative and healthy, and he has a name that resonates well around the world.”

While Crystal claims perhaps the world’s best known sushi chef, other cruise companies are introducing Asian-themed specialty restaurants aimed at rivaling the best of their land-based counterparts.

For people who love sushi, cruises on these vessels, with rates that range from $100 to $500 per person per day, can prove to be quite a value, especially considering that you could dole out $100 or more per person for similar dining experiences ashore.

And it would be hard to swallow that the sushi is fresher elsewhere than in a restaurant floating directly over sushi’s natural habitat.

Crystal Cruises’ Vintage Room

Crystal Cruises Vintage Room pairs some of the worlds best wines with specially prepared dishes. With a capacity for 12, the special dinners are served in a private dining room. Patrons, who pay on average $210 per person depending on the wines they have selected, are attended to by the ships head sommelier.