crystal symphony, west coast wayfarer, june 17, 2019, a review

so much to choose
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crystal symphony, west coast wayfarer, june 17, 2019, a review

Post: # 2379Post drib »

This was not the cruise we wanted to take; that cruise would have been on Regent Mariner, on the Inside Passage, last month, and for which we booked more than one year ago. Then in January, I had unexpected medical expenses. Rather than bust the budget, I cancelled Mariner, while I still could without penalty, and booked Symphony instead. (The out-of-pocket cost for eight nights in the hospital, plus the cost of eight nights on Symphony in an A1 guarantee, was roughly equal to the cost of Mariner in a Category E.)

The Symphony cruise embarked in San Francisco, debarked in Vancouver, and stopped at Monterey, Astoria, Seattle, and Victoria in between. There was one at sea day.

Our last sailing on Crystal was in 2014, on Crystal Serenity, on the St Lawrence River. Afterwards, I lost interest in Crystal. In part this was because of their formality, in part because of their fixed dining, in part because of their older ships, in part because they frequently screwed up our on board credit, and in large part because of their executive in charge. Many of those concerns have since gone away, and so, we looked forward to sailing with Crystal again.

"West Coast Wayfarer" was way fair. Overall, I'd give it a B grade.

However, the physical changes to the ship were much more than fair; I'd give those an A grade. And the service we received was an A+, everyone, everywhere, every time.

We received an upgrade (Hooray!) to a PH, stateroom number 1016. The stateroom had many flaws - understandably because it has old bones (like me) - but it was very comfortable, and at least we didn't have to put up with a bathtub and shower curtain. The stateroom gets a C grade. It's kind of crazy for us to book a PH on Crystal when we can get a near perfect Category F on Regent Explorer or Splendor for about the same cost per day. (We don't really care that we don't get a butler on Regent, but credit where credit is due; our butler on Crystal made this cruise better. His name is Sebastian, and he did a much better job than the last butler we had in a Crystal PH, on the aforementioned St Lawrence River cruise.)

For those folks that dismiss the cabin as unimportant because all they do is sleep there, where are you showering? The cabin is a big deal for us. We're in it more than ten hours of the day; sleeping, dressing, snacking, showering, making sweet, sweet love, and watching the world go by from the balcony - many of those things simultaneously.

I don't want to lump the entire dining experience into just one grade because it would be very deceptive as to the total experience. So I'll just break it down into four categories, as follows:

Great: Prego, Dinner in Waterside (50% of the time), Crystal Cove.

Good: Breakfast in Waterside, butler canopies, Umi Uma, Silk, Lunch in Waterside, Dinner in Waterside (50% of the time), Bistro, Trident Grill, Scoops.

Bad: Breakfast in Marketplace, Churrascaria.

N/A: Palm Court. (For whatever reason, we didn't use it this cruise.)

There's been a lot of discussion about bland food on Crystal. This was often the case on this cruise - not always, but often. To be clear, it's not just Silk that lacks heat in their offerings. Twice I ordered dishes, elsewhere, with horseradish as an ingredient, and it might as well have been cream cheese. (I remember once on Oceania, I was warned that the horseradish was going to be strong. They were right! And not only did I love it, but my sinuses have been clear for three years now!)

There were two dishes served in Waterside that I had to send back. One was over-cooked tuna, which was described as "seared" on the menu, and the other was beef brisket, which was tough. (To be fair, the menu did not describe the brisket as "tender.") Regarding the tuna, I was going to eat it anyway, but a woman sitting near us called an audible and had them bring me a correctly seared rare tuna. She had been served over-cooked tuna too, just a few minutes earlier.

There were occasions where I was served under-cooked lobster, scallops and shrimp - most of those were canopies to the room. They were only slightly under-cooked, but still not what I expect on Crystal.

I made many comments on board using the Crystal online form. I received three phone calls about them. In one case, I didn't return the phone call to the food and beverage manager because I didn't feel like discussing it. He apparently felt otherwise, and the next morning, at breakfast, he hunted me down, like an animal, in Waterside. When we discussed ethnic foods, I mentioned that Crystal used to have French themed nights, and Russian themed nights and so on, and he told me that people didn't like them. People didn't like ethnic food? Then why do they have an Italian, a Chinese, a Japanese and an Brazilian restaurant that serve all ethnic food, all the time?

One of the best dishes I had this cruise, lunch in Waterside, was Hungarian Goulash. That's all I'm asking for - a lot more variety at lunch and dinner - Indian, Moroccan, and so on. Later, I thought about it, and maybe Crystal would be more amenable to theme dinners based on their river ships. That seems to me to be a great way to cross-market. I didn't write a comment about it. (No more phone calls or stalkings while I'm on vacation, Crystal!)

As for entertainment, this cruise gets a B rating. There were two good production shows, and one bad one - using pre-recorded music, which should have been the first clue. I have strong opinions on production shows, so maybe I'll go into more detail later.

As for enrichment, this cruise gets a D rating. There were two lecturers. (Bad news for anyone doing back-to-backs because they were the same two, and over four weeks.) One lecturer read his prepared scripts from memory, which he has been accumulating over many years. The other lecturer read from Fox News talking points. So what's all this about the much vaunted Crystal enrichment series? We only had one at sea day, you say? Last September, on a seven day cruise, on the QM2, there were four outstanding lecturers, one average lecturer, and one crew member who did an excellent series on the history of Rock and Roll.

The Internet was adequate, brakes good, tires fair. And that's all I have to say about that.

We are about to board our plane home. (I'm editing on the plane.) If there are any questions from the hoards of drib critic readers, I'd be glad to take them tomorrow.

And to the reader, on that other message board, who commented that the luggage handles on the chairs in Waterside serve a good purpose, I'll just mention that this morning I noticed many of the handles are already torn off, and many of the handles are already sagging worse than an old man's gut (like mine). I don't dislike them intensely - the handles, that is - but they're weird.

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Re: crystal symphony, west coast wayfarer, june 17, 2019, a review

Post: # 2380Post drib »

All photos here:



Many of the images need to be rotated or cropped, but that won't happen for a few days.

PDF documents, from Reflections and Waterside, are in the last album

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Re: crystal symphony, west coast wayfarer, june 17, 2019, a review

Post: # 2382Post bodogbodog »

Great review - harsh in places though
Email - bodogodog@gmail.com

Future Cruises - who knows if cruising ever resumes? But maybe they’ll include these ones
May 2022 - Silversea Silver Muse - Tokyo to Vancouver - 21 days - nope Japan was closed
Dec 2022 - RSSC Explorer - Singapore to Sydney
Feb 2023 - Silver Muse - Cairns to Singapore
September 2023 - RSSC Explorer - Vancouver to Tokyo
December 2023 - RSSC Explorer - Sydney to Auckland
Dec 2023 - Crystal Symphony - Auckland to Melbourne - 16 days - nope Crystal went belly up

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Re: crystal symphony, west coast wayfarer, june 17, 2019, a review

Post: # 2383Post drib »

If they didn't want harsh, they should have named the cruise "West Coast Way-great-er!

I'm pretty firm on the B grade.

What I complained most about on that other message board, food variety and flavor, is only a complaint because Crystal can do a lot better. Variety was about 80%, flavor was about 87.5%, but they need to go above 95% to exceed my expectations.

And they still get another chance in 2021 because there is a lot I like about Crystal.

Two words: Salsa! (And the other word is also salsa.) It's a really easy way to add some zing!

Palomar hospital had really good shredded beef soft tacos. Of course everything tastes good after four days on IV only. Kind of an idea there - instead of "getaway" cruises, have reduced food cruises by strapping an IV on passengers when they board. There are already some passengers that do a similar thing, but the IV is filled with alcohol.

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a message for skybluewaters

Post: # 2505Post drib »

Thanks for the Big Dog Foto comment! I don't often get them.

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