We cruised Crystal Serenity in May, 2005, Athens - Venice and loved everything about the trip. They had deluxe shore excursions, outstanding shore lecturers & superb food. We do not drink so that was not a problem. They provide soft drinks & water in your room refrigerator & water on shore excursions.

We were therefore looking forward to our Crystal Serenity cruise last March, Dubai - Istanbul. On this trip we noticed how loud & crowded the breakafast & lunch buffets were. The speakers had nothing to do with the historic ports we were visiting & even though we asked for a table for 2 in the dining room they assigned us to a table of 10. As soon as we boarded I went to see the Food Manager & he graciously gave us a "floating" table for two. So for several nights we would sit at different tables for 2 until we got our assigned table for two. The alternate dining is nothing more than the pool deck snack menu.

What Crystal has over Regent is a beautiful well stocked library with lounge chairs & aa very large selection of DVDs. Great music & exercise programs. They also have a Catholic priest & protestant minister on all sailings so I was able to go to daily mass. We were sailing during Holy Week in biblical areas so this made the trip very meaningful to me. They have a large dedicated movie lounge where they show recent movies every night & on sea day afternoons. We met same nice people as sail Regent. They have a great bistro but Regent has not got something like that on its ships. Crystal does serve Mighty Leaf tea in all dining areas which to me is the finest tea.

We are finished with Crystal & will sail strictly Regent in future. The dining room & tiny cabins is the deal breaker.