May 10, 2018 – World Cruise Summary

Any ocean cruise is an exciting adventure – unpack once, and your floating resort hotel takes you from city to city or from island to island, and you don’t need to drive or lug a suitcase night after night. From our perspective, a world cruise is the ultimate seagoing adventure vacation – three months traveling to some of the most exotic destinations in the world, in a carefree way. Someone else makes the bed, cooks the meals, plans the itinerary, and offers world-class entertainment. Most exciting is that you wake up in a new location every morning on a world cruise.

We selected Crystal Cruise’s World Cruise Option 4, “South Pacific Reflections” for our 2018 adventure because, as the name implies, we spent 75% of our 98-day vacation cruising in the South Pacific – south of the equator. We left from Los Angeles, California on January 23rd and returned to Fort Lauderdale on April 30th (after passing through the Panama Canal into the Atlantic Ocean).

This was our third world cruise, and the second one with Crystal Cruises. Crystal’s two ocean-going ships – Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony, are mid-sized vessels (capacity of 1,070 and 850 passengers respectively), big enough to have almost all the amenities of larger sized ships, but much less crowded. Both of the ships were doing world cruises this year, on far different itineraries, but they met in Sydney, Australia on the same day. We (and 44 other world cruisers) switched ships (from Serenity to Symphony) in Sydney and experienced life on both vessels, while remaining mostly in the South Pacific.

Our observations after 25 days on board Serenity and 73 days on Symphony are very positive. We had a remarkably good trip. Both ships ran very smoothly, with nothing breaking down. Food and service in the dining venues were all exceptionally good. Officers and crew members, without exception, came across as happy to be on board and willing to do anything possible to keep us happy.

Here’s a list summarizing our experiences on World Cruise 2018 - South Pacific Reflections:

1. Making Guests Feel Special. Crystal has a strong reputation in the cruise industry for customer service. We would agree with that description. All crew members, from the Master of the Vessel on down, seemed to have safety and customer satisfaction as their top two priorities. We felt like we were very welcome guests at all times while on board both ships.

2. Entertainment for the World Cruise was absolutely superior to anything we’ve seen on any other cruise line. The permanent entertainment teams on both ships were professionals of the highest caliber. Especially noteworthy were the “house bands” on both ships. No matter what the event, be it a “headline entertainer” brought on board for one show, a world cruise special event planned on board ship, or one of the “standard shows” with the Crystal singers and dancers, the bands backed them up beautifully, almost always with little time for rehearsals.

3. Off-Ship Full World Cruise Events. Three special off-ship events were arranged for Full World Cruise travelers only. First was with Crystal Serenity in Honolulu, where we were treated to an exclusive visit at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. The museum was closed to the public, and we were free to wander around the museum on our own. There were also Hawaiian foods to sample and a Polynesian stage show that was very well done. When we visited Easter Island, with Crystal Symphony, we experienced a special “World Cruisers only” event at the Toki Rapa Nui Music & Arts School. This is a wonderful organization that was formed within the past five years, to focus on preservation of the music and arts culture of Easter Island. There was a children’s orchestra, a piano concert by Mahani Teave, a well-known concert pianist who grew up on Easter Island, and an energetic dance performance by a native folk group.

Most exciting of all was a World Cruise Gala Celebration at the huge auditorium in Sydney’s historic Town Hall – exclusively for full world cruise passengers on both ships, Symphony and Serenity, which were both berthed in Sydney at the same time. We all wore white clothing, and the food and local entertainment were spectacular and special. It was a wonderful evening, a once-in-a-lifetime event. We fully appreciated the effort (and cost) it must have taken to stage this memorable event. For more detail, see our blog posting for that date -- 

http:// wc18-jimandginny.blogspot.com/2018/02/february-18-2018-change-ships-in-sydney.html 

The sail-away out of Sydney was almost as exciting, with both ships – Symphony and Serenity – cruising together out to the open sea. We don’t know if that’s ever happened before. By this time, we had moved to the Symphony, and we could watch Serenity (which had been our home for the previous 25 days) cruising along with us until leaving the harbor.

4. On-Board-Ship World Cruiser Private Parties. For Symphony, Crystal hired two very talented and experienced people (Jonathan Hawkins and Sarah Hayes) to plan special events and entertain-ment on-board the ship for Full World Cruise travelers. These involved private receptions with many of the ship’s officers, private group gourmet meals, and private entertainment. They also hosted “Waffles on the Bridge with the Captain,” backstage tour in the Galaxy Lounge, private tour of the crew quarters on Deck 4 (including a party in the Crew Lounge), a private “Casino Night” with free chips and prizes for the big winners, etc.

5. Refurbishment of Crystal Symphony. One of our (lesser) reasons for taking the World Cruise Option-4 was to look at the multimillion-dollar refurbishment of Symphony, completed last October. The major changes included: (1) Conversion and enlargement of many “Deluxe Stateroom with Verandah” cabins on Deck 9 to become larger “Penthouse Suites.” This reduced total passenger capacity on the ship to 848 from previous value of 922. (2) Rede­signing the main dining room and renaming it as “Waterside” with open seating, meaning “come when you want” ─ no more early and late seating ─ and no assigned dining companions; the redesign included new décor and ambience, as well as many more 2-person tables. We liked the new décor but didn’t care for the open seating. (3) Free, unlimited Internet access for all guests; (4) Two new restaurants – Silk (Chinese food for lunch and dinner) and Churras­caria (with a Brazilian-themed menu). Two other restaurants were renamed (“Silk Road” became “Umi Uma” and “Lido” became “Marketplace”) This ship is 23 years old, but we thought it looked very nice after refurbishment – clean, modern, and relaxing, without the garish features found on many new, larger ships coming on the market these days.

6. Our 2018 World Cruise Experience ─ Notable Positives

• Crystal staff and crew members handled the transfer of our group of 44 world cruise passengers (including our luggage and financial information) from Serenity to Symphony very well in Sydney. The planning and execution went perfectly; thus, we were able to enjoy the world cruise on two different ships.

• The World Cruise Gala Celebration in Sydney was great -- venue, food, and entertainment were superb. Bravo to everyone involved!

• The twelve days we spent in New Zealand were the highlight of the trip for us. Scenery was beautiful (and interesting), the people were warm, friendly, and welcoming. Luckily, the weather was mostly pleasant over that period. 

• Our 2-day visit to Easter Island was another highlight, as we weren’t able to reach the island on a previous cruise, due to rough seas. Meeting residents of Pitcairn Island onboard Symphony was also a positive experience. 

• Technology upgrades on Symphony for unlimited free Internet access for all guests was fantastic. We had strong Internet signal every single day of the trip, even in some of the most isolated, uninhabited parts of the world. This was the case on both Jim’s PC and Ginny’s Kindle. 

• There were numerous interesting enrichment lecturers on both ships, although we had some repeats at the end of the trip. One of the most notable was British-born chef Jon Ashton, who has a passion for teaching and sharing his craft. His “cookie of the day” was prepared daily by Symphony’s culinary team and stocked in two of the ship’s casual eateries – the Bistro and the Trident Grill/Scoops Ice Cream Bar.

• On Symphony, Sarah Hayes (World Cruise Hostess) and Jonathan Hawkins (World Cruise Special Events Coordinator) seemed to really care about the world cruise passengers, planning many special events, and always available to chat or help. They both are very talented entertainers and sang in solo performances many times during the world cruise. 

• “Magic Castle at Sea” is always amazing. There was a new “master magician” on each segment of the world cruise. They totally astonished everyone during their up-close shows. These magicians are all performers at The Magic Castle, located in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Seating was limited and signups were in the library, well in advance.

• One of the better improvements made to Symphony included new, large-screen, high-def TVs in most staterooms. We hope they do the same in the Serenity refurbishment. It’s needed. 

• As Cruise Director on Symphony, Shane Morely’s youthful energy and enthusiasm were contagious and much valued. 

• The following features of any Full Crystal World Cruise were greatly appreciated: ground transportation to the ship from our Los Angeles hotel; photo directory of all Full World Cruise travelers – given to travelers early in the world cruise; end-of-cruise DVD, prepared by a professional videographer, showing highlights of the full experience; unlimited visits to the specialty restaurants; large selection of onboard activities, including bridge, yoga, dancing, arts & crafts, golf, computers, knitting/needlepoint, exercise and fitness (Pilates, spinning, etc.), plus many more.

7. A Few Small Nits

None of these “nits” are meant to be overly disparaging, but merely to point out our experiences factually, as were the positive comments shown above.

• There were only 283 Crystal full world cruisers this year, split between two ships. After some travelers swapped ships in Sydney, the breakdown was 212 (75% of the total world cruisers) on Serenity, and 71 (25% of the total world cruisers) on Symphony. This led to a feeling on Symphony that we (the world cruisers) were actually on the ship for five independent cruises ─ not a contiguous full world cruise ambience. This was not the case on our two previous world cruises on Crystal and Holland America.

• For our tastes, there were too many repeats of stage shows on every segment of Symphony’s world cruise; for example, Neil Lockwood repeated his two shows four times each. Same with the other “standard” shows. They’re all very good, but how many times can you watch the same show? In fact, there are many other activities on Symphony in which to participate, but we normally enjoy attending evening entertainment offerings. 

• There wasn’t the same atmosphere in Symphony’s main dining room (Waterside) as on our previous Crystal cruises on Serenity, due to the open-seating concept. Unless we arrived at Waterside with a group of people, the two of us were always seated at a table for two. Also, the main dining room (Waterside) is now just one of many “open-seating” restaurants on the ship. More than once, we saw less than five tables occupied in the entire Waterside restaurant while we ate dinner there.

• At one point, only one entertainment show was offered per night (late at night) on Sym­phony, instead of the normal two showings (early & late). We assume this was because of a low passenger count on one segment. 

• The last segment on Symphony was a letdown for many world cruisers. With 200+ award-winning (non-paying) travel agents on board, everyone on ship seemed to be catering to them. Several venues on the ship were closed to other cruisers every day, because of special sessions for the travel agents. On the other hand, their presence did lead to exceptional entertainment offerings on the last segment. Crystal’s CEO was on board Symphony (to meet with the travel agents) but never bothered to even say hello to world cruise travelers (or any other passengers). In their defense, several key Crystal home office (LA) staff people attended a social function for world cruisers on board and appeared eager to talk with us. 

• Every day on Symphony, there was a strong smell of cigars (and we assume cigarettes) on Deck Six coming from an always open door to the Connoisseur Club, where smoking is permitted. This was not a problem on Serenity with their Connoisseur Club.

In summary, Crystal's 2018 World Cruise-4 was a marvelous experience. We signed up for this particular voyage because of the itinerary; it was a great mix of ports of call all the way across the vast Pacific Ocean and back, plus we experienced both Crystal ships on this one voyage. We enjoyed the relaxed approach, which was formal at times (16 “Black Tie Optional” nights), but “Crystal Casual” most of the time. Our congratulations to Crystal for a job very well done, and for getting us home safe and happy, with wonderful memories.

For those of you who were following us on our Internet blog site
(http://wc18-jimandginny.blogspot.com), we hope you enjoyed traveling with us on this World Cruise.

Jim & Ginny

April 30, 2018 – Home

We’re home now in Florida. Our disembarkation from Crystal Symphony went very smoothly in Fort Lauderdale. We woke up early and ate our final shipboard breakfast at 7:00am in the Market­place (Lido Deck). We were surprised that the ship wasn’t docked yet; but, once that happened, everything (including downloading of luggage) moved quickly. We efficiently left the ship at 8:15am, found our luggage in the terminal (with the help of an excellent porter), breezed through customs, transferred our four large suitcases to the Luggage Concierge staff waiting for us outside of the terminal, and called the Shell Point person (who was waiting in the “cell phone lot”) to pick us up for the drive home. From the time we left the ship, we were on our way in less than an hour. All went very smoothly, with no problems or delays – we were home by 11:30! The next day, Luggage Concierge (via UPS) delivered the four suitcases to our front door.

It’s great to be home again, but we have big jobs facing us to unpack the suitcases and sort for laundry and dry cleaning, as well as look at the mail that accumulated while we were gone. We have wonderful neighbors, Darryl and Barbara, who collected the mail for us while we were gone. The two 1-foot-tall stacks of mail didn’t even include all the shopping catalogs that we received; Ginny told Barbara to keep the ones she wanted and throw out all the rest.

The last several days on the ship were a whirlwind of activity. We attended a few enrichment lectures, when we had time ─ Futurist Tom Faranda and destination lecturer Bob Aalberts are two of our favorites. The entertainment team finished the world cruise with a big bang over the last few days ─ featured Broadway entertainer Josh Young was great; Naki Ataman with his 45-minute, nonstop “Around the World” piano show is always a favorite with Crystal cruisers; The “Edge Effect” acapella group from Orlando was a big hit; the remarkably talented (and lively) Canadian recording star Lovena Fox was fantastic; and, comedian John Joseph was lots of fun in his cabaret act.

We attended two spectacular entertainment shows the last nights on board, both of which were designed, produced and directed by Jonathan Hawkins, Crystal Symphony’s World Cruise Special Events Coordinator. Saturday evening (Apr 28) was “The Symphony, a Concord of Sound” special event – a high energy spectacle of entertainment starring Jonathan, Sarah Hayes, Heather Lundstedt O”Neill (a vibrant and talented young soprano singer, with whom Jonathan has performed in concerts all across the U.S. He brought her on board Symphony just for this event.), as well as the two lead Crystal Symphony singers – Carina Kärcher and Karl Grunewald – and the Crystal Showband.

The next night was a “Farewell Variety Show” with Lovena Fox, John Joseph, The Edge Effect, Jonathan Hawkins, Heather Lundstedt O”Neill and, of course, the Crystal Showband.

The last port-of-call for Symphony’s 2018 World Cruise was in Key West, Florida on Sunday, Apr 29, the day before our cruise ended in Fort Lauderdale. We’ve been to Key West several times, so we stayed on the ship all day and packed our suitcases. We finished packing just before dinner time and left all the big ones out in the hall for the crew to pick up and organize in the cargo hold for delivery to the terminal the next morning.

After dinner, we went to the Crystal Cove/Plaza for a World Cruise farewell party, with bands and dancing, climaxed by an exciting balloon drop at the end. Everyone went crazy popping the balloons -- lots of fun!

Crystal Cruise’s 2018 World Cruise 4, “South Pacific Reflections,” was a great experience, and we have wonderful memories. We’ll send out one more blog posting, within the next few days, to summarize this incredible journey from our perspective.

Jim & Ginny