We returned yesterday, from our Crystal mini-cruise, and I thought I'd post some of our observations, while they are fresh.

Embarkation: We arrived early, for our 3:00 boarding...(perhaps, a mistake on our part, but we are accustomed to RSSC's policy of allowing early boarding.) We were told that they do not board until 3:00! (Altho, they did board a few minutes before that) We were ushered into a rather small holding area with lots of fellow cruisers...small space..not enough places to sit, for about 30 minutes. Finally, we did get to check in and then allowed to go upstairs to a much more confortable room, with music, and we were handed a glass of champagne. The process improved from there. Could have been the champagne. ;)
Ship: The Symphony is, simply put, absolutely beautiful . The decor elegant! No flash...no splash, just simply elegant! After a nice lunch at the Trident Grill, our stateroom was ready. Very nice, though very small. (202 sq ft in basic room, opposed to Mariner's 252 sq ft and Voyager's 306 sq ft in H cat.) The bathroom has double sink, but I'd challenge two people being able to get into the space at one time. Nice tub and shower. (plenty of head room) ;) There is ample closet and drawer space, but I did miss RSSC's walk-in closet. Small TV and DVD combo. Queen bed with great linens, fluffy duvets, and down pillows. We were actually pretty comfortable in our stateroom.
Service: The staff was excellent, very professional, and very friendly. We only ordered room service once, for coffee and juice. I was amazed that it arrived in four minutes flat!
Activities: We were 3 days at sea..no ports. We were busy, busy, busy! There were two guest lecturers, both very good. Bob Froehlick, Chair. of Investor Strategy for Deutsche Bank, familiar to us, from his appearences on Lou Dobbs..MacNeil/Lehrer, etc. Smart man..excellent speaker. The other was Leo Thorsness, Medal of Honor recipient. Also very good. They do offer computer classes, fitness classes, trivia, bingo, and have an actual theater for movies. etc,etc.
Food & Drink: Best part! :) They take reservations to the specialty restruants at 3:00. We met NancyP in the line. We really enjoyed meeting and sailing with her. She is a delight! Pregos was great! Wonderful mushroom soup, served in a bread bowl. I enjoyed my Kobe steak and Larry said that his Rack of lamb was one of the best he had ever had. Both days, they did a lavish buffet on the Lido deck, one Asian, and one Latino. Both were wonderful! All meals we had in the Crystal Dinning Room were very good and special requests were accommodated, cheerfully. Larry is a sweet lover and really enjoyed the desserts, and there is always ice cream, variety of luscious flavors, offered in the food venues and the ice cream bar on the Lido deck. The Palm Court is a lovely lounge, reminiscent of the Observation on the Mariner or Voyager, and they do an afternoon tea. Beautifully done.
Debarkation: The easiest, by far, we've ever done. No immigration...we went nowhere,.. and we literally came from breakfast, collected our carry-on and walked off! We gathered our luggage and were on the highway by 9:00 a.m.

Wow! Can you believe I could have so much to say about 3 days? We had wondered, about how Crystal stacks up to RSSC. In my opinion, the experience is close. The food, in general, was comparable, and maybe better in some instances. My favorite specialty restaurant remains to be Signatures. The entertainment and enrichment lectures are better on Crystal.
All that being said, we are not ready to abandon our beloved Radisson Seven Seas, but would certainly entertain the possibility of another cruise on Crystal, if the itinerary and price were right.

Betty

Nice review, Betty. Thanks for doing this.

From what you've said, I think we'd be open to Crystal, too.

Welcome home Betty!

Enjoyed your report. :)

Leo Thorsness, WOW! I got to meet Leo in the late 70's while we were working on a "Weasel" upgrade. Leo was flying an F-105G Weasel when he was shot down. Normally, he speaks about his time in the Hilton but he is also the "inovator" of a lot of the Wild Weasel tactics we used through the 80s and 90s. If you've ever seen the newsreels of of guys getting on the plane in Hanoi to come home, Leo is the last guy boarding the C-141. He still had the limp 7 years after being shot down (broke his leg during the ejection). Hope he looked well and gave you a good presentation.
Greg

Betty, Thanks for the review.
What was your embarkation port?
Sounds like we will have to try Crystal.
Happy sailing,
Joanne

Betty, thanks for taking the time to let us know of your short cruise on Crystal. I'm sure Judith will enjoy reading it as well! It falls in line with my general impressions over time, cabins better on RSSC, entertainment and lecturers a slight edge to Crystal, and food a toss-up. A couple of questions...was the ship full and had early and late seating? Were you put with others that you already knew? Or did you book a table for two?

Thanks, all.

Greg,
Sadly I missed Colonel Thorsness first lecture, but the one I did hear, he talked about the Medal of Honor and some of his fellow recipients. Some very colorful stories there, and he told them well. There was a mention of his 92 Wild Weasel missions in his bio. We saw him out and about, on the ship, and he was very friendly and personable. He seemed to be really enjoying himself, I might add.

Joanne,
We left and returned to Ft. Lauderdale. I do not think you would be disappointed, if you choose to cruise on Crystal.

Olivia,
Yes, you know that I am only repeating what others have said. Ngaire did a wonderful comparison review and Judith is a wealth of Crystal information. To answer your specific questions...yes, I think this cruise was near full. We did have a choice of early or late dining, but I think this cruise was unique, I guess, in that, we did not have a table assignment. So you could dine with whomever you pleased. I liked that! We had dinner one night, just the two of us, and one night we dined with Nancy and another couple.

Betty

You mentioned the 92 missions. Leo was shot down on his 92nd mission and this was in the days of "complete 100 missions and you get to go home." I don't know how he told the story about his Medal of Honor on the ship but earlier in his tour he led a two ship Weasel package to protect some Thuds going after the Ty Ngyuen steel works. One of the Thuds was shot down and the pilot ejected. Leo's Weasel, though low on fuel, stayed with the pilot and shot down two Migs and damaged a third (the Migs were going after the rescue helo). This is pretty good since the F-105G wasn't designed for air-to-air combat! He ran out of fuel and his engine flamed out about 20 miles from base and barely made the runway. However, his had saved the downed pilot and he had brought his Thud Weasel home (for those of you that fly, the Thud has the glide rate of a rock).

Thanks for the review, Betty! Sounds like you had a great time going nowhere!

Betty - thanks for the mini review! I agree with what others have said - I'd be open to trying Crystal at some point given what I've heard (though I'm still not sure about the tipping thing).

Greg - you used to fly Wild Weasel missions? My respect for you went up yet another notch!

Masaki

Betty - what a great chance to "sample" Crystal. Sounds wonderful, I think the only real negative we would find is the fixed times for dining. Of course we're pretty spoiled by the larger cabins too - but the food and entertainment might tip the balance - decisions, decisions. Such a dilimia!

Betty, I enjoyed your review. From what I have heard, the main differences between the two lines are that the staterooms on RSSC are far nicer and there is open dining with no charge for wine or gratuities. Crystal (I've heard) is better for the food, lecturers, entertainment, and the shops. There are certain things we like -- the Repertory Company at Sea, the specialty restaurants, the Asian buffet, tea time, and the Bistro. Both cruise lines are known for their excellent service. You are right in that the open seating with still the two distinct dining times is unusual on Crystal. Did you meet our favorite maitre d' Remi?

I know Nancy reads this board and I'm sure she will appreciate your comments. Betty, there is a mini cruise thread on the Crystal cc board. Please post your comments there (called "First short Crystal cruise"). I think the Crystal posters would enjoy reading them.

We leave on a 9-all sea day cruise on the Symphony on April 25th. Lecturers and entertainment galore! It is a Big Band cruise and we'll dance our way from Ft. Lauderdale to Lisbon to the music on the Tommy Dorsey band. We've already booked through September 2006 (Egypt in May and the golf-themed cruise through British Isles in September) but we still hope to squeeze a Radisson cruise in there. We are doing a golf-themed cruise to Spain, Portugal, Casablanca, and the Canary Islands in October 2005.

Crystal is doing a year long Share the Experience promotion. The sponsor (past passenger) and the new passenger both get additional on board credit (usually starts with one's third cruise) and the past passenger gets a discount on a future cruise (in addition to the Crystal Society and on board booking discounts). If anyone decides to try Crystal, either post a note to me here or on the cc Crystal board and I'll try to match you up. We have special STEX threads for matches. Judith

Betty, thanks for the review! The no immigration aspect sounds wonderful!

Karen, that was only because they did a round trip from a US port and had no port stops. We've never had that luck. Usually about 7 a.m. we are in a fast line walking through the lounge with our passports.

Only once have we had a really long wait for disembarkation and it truly was not Crystal's fault. That was when we got to New York in September from our London cruise.

Part of the reason I hated it was that I had pneumonia after our stops in Iceland and Greenland (I didn't dress warm enough and didn't wear a hat), but the worst part was the dozen or so inconsiderate passengers who refused to go through customs (only people who had spent more than the alloted amount, not everyone). They finally had to be rounded up by the crew and taken to the customes officials before customs would clear the ship for disembarkation (about one hour later than planned) and we could leave the lounge area. Then both Pres. candidates were in NY to give speeches and traffic was horrid. Finally, we got to the airport and our luggage was on a later shuttle from the ship, but arrived about 20 minutes later. Oh well, one bad disembarkation against all our cruises isn't too bad! Judith

I was also on this cruise, it was my second time on Crystal. I really enjoyed meeting Betty and Larry and spending time with them. I felt that everything was great and the same as my previous experience. Since I have never been on Radisson, it's hard to make comparisons except for what I have read or have been told. Yes, the cabins are smaller on Crystal and the main dining room cannot accomodate open seating in one seating time. However, the food was great, wonderful service, great lectures, ...etc. Getting on board was not as smooth as my last trip but they did serve champange! The main thing I would like to see Crystal change is to offer complimentary wines with dinner. I hope many of you get to meet Betty and Larry on a cruise, they are wonderful people and alot of fun. Nancy

Masaki,
I do agree about the "tipping thing", but interestingly, because our cruise was a Virtuoso sponsored cruise, the gratuities were included for us. Nice!

Judith,
Your upcoming Symphony cruise sounds wonderful. Now, having had my mini-cruise experience, I will be a little green on April 25. HAHA!! Hope you have a wonderful cruise.
Those disembarkation nightmares can happen on any cruise, due as you said, to inconsiderate passengers. No fault of the cruise line!

I did not mention the wine issue. We are wine drinkers, and while I feel that RSSC's free flowing complimentary wine is a very classy touch, it's not a deal breaker for us that we have to buy our wine.

Hi Nancy!!

Betty

Thanks for posting Betty. We've always had it in the back of our minds to do a Crystal at some point and we'd certainly be open to that with the right itinerary.

Sounds like you had a great time.

Judith, the no immigration aspect is what makes this mini cruise to nowhere so appealing to me!
Also no excurisions, total relaxation!

Hi, Betty- Thank so much for your thoughtful and expressive insight into the Crystal experience! Being close to Port Everglades makes the "minicruise" a great option --- another reason Mark and I also love the Sunshine State!

Betty - Thanks for posting your impressions about Crystal. Really nice to hear about Symphony as I booked a sailing on her just a couple days ago. Pricing was excellent, single supp was 10%, and I have a "Share the Experience" sponsor so I will get some onboard credit!

I've hesitated about booking Crystal in the past because of the fixed-seating dining, but decided other positives might make up for that.......

Claudia

Claudia, enjoy your Venice Cruise. Glad our STEX board thread worked for you. If you have any further questions about Crystal, leave a message on the cc board and we'll be happy to answer it. Judith

Betty,

I did a 4 day on the Diamond. It was wonderful. Thanks for the post.

JPar