Shoeman1

Paul , we were on Crystal in November and Explora in Jan. We found Explora to be superior to Crystal in many ways. 1. The Sapphire suite on "new" Crystal is a disaster. There is at least 4" step to the both doors on bath, a disaster in the making. Internet was off-on and poor selection of channels, forget bluetooth, etc. TheCrystal closet could hold enough clothes for 7-10 days if you pack lightly, guess the world cruisers will be using the dry cleaning...To make matters worse when you walk into the tiny closet you must step to the L to close door and pull out shelves. Only one telephone. The shower on Crystal is huge and the water spigot from end of shower hits the front and water escapes to the floor. No great place for makeup, no makeup The lighting is beyond understanding, and there is no way to have a small light in bath at night. Explora solved this issue. 2. Food is subjective and we found Explora to be more up to date. Juice bar in AM, Servers giving you requested food rather than passengers touching, by far the best baguette, delicious and varied pastas, and superb sorbets (not as sweet as Crystal). Agree that there is nothing as good as Uma Uma. I am a coffee afficienado and no issues, in fact some of the iced coffee drinks were wonderful 3. Service was terrific in both. 4. Beds and linens far superior on Explora 5. We feel like Crystal is an assisted living home on steroids..Far younger crowd on Explorer 6. Agree shops are expensive such as Rolex, Cartier, and nothing in reasonable price range 7. We find Explora to be inline with high end resort... Nice to have choices isn't it?

We sail Crystal as well; the ship, tours, cuisine and staff all top notch. We just returned from Scenic Crystal, and it was quite the opposite. Tours were repetitive, cuisine was ok for lunch and breakfast but inedible at dinner. Meats were uniformly tough, soups watery, composed salads were yesterday's leftovers in a vinagrette, and desserts uninspired. Wines were ok, and bar service available all day. Staff is exceedingly polite and ship well maintained (just an old ship) The most insulting item was the lack of nighttime travel; the ship would dock somewhere outside the city,, passengers disembark at 8:30 am for tours then ship would sail around the city and pick up passengers on the other side and continue on the Rhine. There was no time when we spent a day in a city, hence no time to enjoy the cities. IMHO the cost cutting measures on Scenic are glaring; by the way the ship holds 160 and booked to 94. And to add insult to injury Scenic put us on a 6:30 van to Zurich where we sat until our noon departure. Crystal ships were purchased by Riverside... let's see how this unfolds.