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Sometimes even the BEST need improvement! |
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Reviewed By: Arjani, Albany, NY USA on 16th Dec 2008
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| Cruise Line: Crystal Cruises |
Times cruised before: 10+ |
| Cruise Ship: Crystal Serenity |
Sailed:
November,
2008 |
| Destination: Transatlantic |
Age: 65+ |
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This was a Transatlantic cruise from Lisbon, Portugal to Miami, Florida, USA - a 10-night crossing.
Let me preface my remarks by the overarching statement that the ship IS beautiful and CRYSTAL is my favourite cruise line, this being my 14th cruise with this line. CRYSTAL is truly a remarkable product.
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BUT, management slipped up. The ship had gone into dry-dock just prior to our cruise. Even with a special "promo" she was less than half full. The Captain of the ship came up with a wry joke: "There are 424 of you and a crew of 603!" Well, that may sound like a tremendous benefit to us, but converted the dining experience into a serious problem. As a start, the CRYSTAL arrangement is always to have two sittings, an early one around 6:15 and the later one at 8:30. But, because of the dearth of passengers, they changed to open sitting, from 7 to 9 pm. While some may appreciate the enforced flexibility, it did not do most of us any good. How can we all, 8 strangers, assigned to a table agree on what time to come for dinner. Some would like to start at 7, others much, much later. One would be enjoying his dessert while another is still downing his soup... Not a good deal.
And, then to top it off, there were too few waiters and assistant waiters. Evening by evening the service was, without question, s-l-o-wwww. We tried to laugh it off and be patient . . . On the 7th night, one of the ladies at our table called in the "Head" waiter and complained. So, on the 8th night we had three individuals hovering over our table for half the dinner. For a cruiseline of this calibre, why does one have to complain?
My personal S.Holmes-mind suggests that they realized that there were going to be serving fewer than usual passengers and so decided to cut the wait-staff by half and sent the rest on an enforced vacation. Maybe, I'm wrong and not a Holmes!
In general, food was good to excellent. A small point but nevertheless needs to be stated. The crossing included Thanksgiving Day. To Americans, it is a special holiday and one of the basic items at dinner is Pumpkin Pie. Now, this was mentioned in the evening's menu and all of us ordered this item expecting to get what we are treated at home: wedges of 2-3 inches at the circumference from an 9-inch pie. What we got was tarts with a bit of pumpkin. I should describe them as tartlets to give you an idea of what we got. As a famous U.S. Presidential contender once said, "Where's the beef?"
HOWEVER, the owners had organised the best, the most thorough, the very well-rounded cadre of speakers that I have ever had on my other 13 cruises. They had three speakers in the morning and one just after lunch. Truly, a feast for the mind and one's frail sensibilities.
AND, we were entertained by a very remarkable band of musicians, a veritable BIG BAND. Dancing was a fun time and CRYSTAL had six "Dance Hosts" to keep the unaccompanied ladies very, very busy. Also, as part of the band we had the pleasure of dreaming off into memory lane as we heard a young man do an amazing job of copying the crooner Frank Sinatra!
To repeat, CRYSTAL is a top-shelf cruiseline.
(Review supplied by Kobad Arjani, 259 South Pearl Street, Albany, New York 12202-1805 USA)
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