We just returned from our 1 week Celestyal Crystal. Every cruiser is different but for us our overall rating was "good". (using excellent, good, fair, barely passing, and avoid, as criteria standards). Considering all our cruises recently have been with Azamara, who we consider the best match for us, we were surprised at our overall impression being "good".
As I've written earlier in this thread, my previous research on Celestyal had caused me to have some basic concerns. Thus we considered this to just be just a "fling" cruise. If it worked out great but if it didn't this was the lowest pricing we've ever had on a cruise, so no big deal.
Specifically food in dining rooms (not the buffet which was "barely passing") was varied, always hot, and well prepared. We were shocked at how good it was. (excellent) Of course, Greek food was emphasized and we love Greek food.
Wine, beer and selected spirits are included. Whisky was J.W. Red Label, Smirnoff Vodka, Bacardi Rum, and Beefeater Gin.
There were about 500 guests and way too many crew on board to service 500 guests, so a lot of standing around. All were friendly, helpful, and courteous.
The variety of entertainment for us was was 'good' and also a real surprise as it was much better than expected. However, about 1/3 of the songs performed were in English, 1/3 Greek and 1/3 Spanish.
The items mentioned above in this comment are the most important to us. The items below were not positive but relatively minor.
The interior of the ship was kept very clean ... but ... there were dirty outside windows throughout ship caused by accumulated dirt on the outside windows over time. This constantly bothered us. I finally was able to ask an officer about this and was told only that I wasn't the first to mention this. They were trying to hire people for this outside work. ???? (barely, barely passing)
It has been mentioned that the ship is "dated". However, this was not really a big deal to us as on the whole. Everything was neat, clean and organized. However, our cabin only had two electrical outlets which did cause some logistical issues. (fair)
As a whole the cabin seemed dated in the size of items in the cabin. I am 6 foot 2 inches and in the bathroom everything seemed designed for a much smaller person including a very low bathroom toilet seat. (barely passing)
We had been spoiled by Azamara on not needing a cruise card for anything except boarding. With Celestyal we had to show the cruise card for every drink (even ice water). Very annoying. (barely passing)
Most cruise companies do announcements in the language of the last country they were in and English. Celestyal does four or five languages loudly for each message throughout the ship and inside your cabin. Very annoying. (barely passing)
All in all we do plan on doing another Celestyal cruise. They do provide a compelling quality/value offering. We hope they can work on some of the mentioned minor issues. I have written to Celestyal directly.