Good for me is that the Crystal Symphony is still 'alive and well' - I first sailed on her back in 2006 and have always preferred her over the Serenity, but as my cruises are usually itinerary driven it depends which ship is going where and whether it fits my budget!! Secondly, the demise of that silly little bathtub in the standard staterooms and the arrival of a spacious walk-in shower - what a long overdue and welcome sight that is!!!
Bad for me are the Single Occupancy Staterooms. Strange you may think for someone who travels solo, but if you are going to introduce something then at least do it properly. Considering the number of regular solo passengers who have historically cruised with Crystal, across all categories of staterooms or suites, why on earth would you simply just rename a block of double occupancy staterooms located in the least favourable location on the ship for them!!! Even paying the lowest fare on a guarantee basis in the past I've never been assigned a stateroom that far forward on Deck 7 of the Symphony. In fact the only time I was even close my neighbours were either guest entertainers, dance hosts, dance instructors or enrichment lecturers. Single Occupancy Cabins should have been designed for solo use not just be regular double staterooms with a change of label on the deck plan key, and be scattered around the ship not just lumped into one small area of a single deck - what were we, an afterthought!!! What a wasted opportunity for the new Crystal to benefit from the number of solo travelers - past, present and future in the market for solo travel opportunities these days...
Indifferent: The itineraries released so far are a bit ho hum, same old same old, but they may have been limited in options for these early voyages. I'm not overly concerned about the other internal changes - restaurants, bars, gym, spa, casino or no casino etc. Although I think the phasing out of the Computer University at Sea and the introduction of something like an Arts Studio or a Cookery Skills Academy would be far more relevant to todays world....However, the ship is not the destination for me, but the means of getting to those places on my chosen itinerary so it will be interesting to see what shore excursion choices/prices are like when they are released..
I won't be rushing to have my travel agent make a booking for me, I'm happy to sit back and wait for the full story to be published for now!!!... Once bitten, twice shy....😀
Anne..