Crystal lack of customer service ..shame on you!!

The printed descriptions of the excursions are not always 100% clear, and the briefing allows people the opportunity to ask questions [which provide more details that everyone can benefit from]. Since many river cruise lines offer a choice of excursions, this not only helps prevent post-complaints that the tour wasn't as expected but also helps guide everyone to their best choice. But the briefings aren't mandatory – feel free to play hooky if you like ;)

If that is the case the descriptions of the excursions on the ocean cruises might also not be clear and those come at an extra charge. Sorry, but I don't follow your logic at all. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I appreciate being treated like an adult and know how to ask questions at the front desk in case I might have a question.

Communication has never been Crystal's strong point. Count yourself lucky you are not taking a Crystal ocean cruise since communication on Crystal's river cruise is much better which is not saying Crystal river boats have good communication. When you get on a Crystal river boat, your only "communication" while on board is the daily newsletter because there's no Program Director nor daily briefing or updates. It's up to you to read the details on the daily newsletter for the latest on changes or special presentations. Crystal river boats strive the importance of privacy and they make sure there's no daily pre-dinner briefing. For people who've done Viking river cruises, they are spoiled by the daily briefing from the Program Director and we really missed that while on the Crystal Bach in June sailing on the Rhine. To get the latest info on Crystal river, you need to talk to the front desk or wait till the evening to read the latest announcement on the newsletter.

 

Fortunately for us, the lack of communication on the Crystal Bach was offset by really excellent service from the Butler to the dining room staff to outstanding top notch excursions. When Bach couldn't get to Frankfurt, our final port for disembarkation, Bach made sure all the passengers including the ones with independent travel arrangements were all taken care of.

 

Last fall we were on the "inaugural" (fresh from dry dock) 14-day Crystal Symphony ocean ship from Lisbon to Rome. The "communication" or the total lack of it was the worst we've ever seen on any ocean cruise ship let alone Crystal. Since a number of items had to be fixed before it could sail, Crystal Symphony had to dock in Lisbon an extra night. Half of the passengers were not notified and the worst part was Crystal's own ground crew at the Lisbon terminal to check in passengers didn't even know the ship was staying an extra night. Communications and customer care seemed to be totally lacking on the Crystal Symphony. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the Crystal Bach river cruise itinerary especially the constant pampering by the staff, a far cry from our very bad experience on the Crystal Symphony ocean ship. Good luck to you and others. Hopefully the weather or the river condition will be favorable.

Sorry you had a bad experience, but clearly things changed on the Crystal Symphony by the time we took our AK cruise in early June. We had no problem with communications before or during the cruise. Each night you got the list of activates for the next day and during certain parts of the cruise, usually when we were at sea, we got communication from the bridge about the glaciers, etc. The schedule was also available on the TV. We found this quite adequate, as we don't want to hear constant announcements. Signage was always good when areas had to be closed off for things like the location of the gangplank, portage of luggage (the night before departing), etc. If you needed info the staff was always available. We found all of the staff we encountered pleasant and helpful when needed. I saw no reason for us not to sail on the Symphony again.

On 9/13/2018 at 6:08 PM, Crystal Cruises said:

My team can also be reached at Guestsupport@crystalcruises.com for any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Bertha Espinosa
Vice President, Guest Services
Crystal

Hi Bertha - 

We emailed (as you suggested) over four weeks ago, and while we got the auto-reply acknowledging our email we never got a response.  Is there a different email address we should have used?  

John

Communication,

well I have always had - since their first days of announcing they would be doing river cruises - the feeling that Crystal is very good at marketing. On the ground communication - could do with a bit of improvement it seems. Now Walter Littlejohn has had time on the ground - on the ship sipping cocktails, or just the passengers, it is not clear from the article - in Germany with first-hand experience of what low water is like. On travelweekly.com look for the article: Dry October follows dry summer on Europe's rivers. I cannot link the article currently, some internet-error.

I hope the communication soon matches the positive experience cruisers have had of crew, ship and food.

notamermaid

21 hours ago, johng75370 said:

 

Hi Bertha - 

We emailed (as you suggested) over four weeks ago, and while we got the auto-reply acknowledging our email we never got a response.  Is there a different email address we should have used?  

John

Dear John,

Please let me apologize on behalf of Crystal as we continually strive to be responsive to our guests' concerns in a timely manner. We have reviewed the GuestSupport@crystalcruises.com inbox and, unfortunately, we cannot identify your specific email. Please contact 1 (800) 290-0032 where our River Support Team will be happy to assist you. Our River Support Team's business hours are from 9 am to 6 pm EST. 

Sincerely,

Bertha

Bertha Espinosa
Vice President, Guest Services

On 10/18/2018 at 2:36 PM, Crystal Cruises said:

 

Dear John,

 

Please let me apologize on behalf of Crystal as we continually strive to be responsive to our guests' concerns in a timely manner. We have reviewed the GuestSupport@crystalcruises.com inbox and, unfortunately, we cannot identify your specific email. Please contact 1 (800) 290-0032 where our River Support Team will be happy to assist you. Our River Support Team's business hours are from 9 am to 6 pm EST. 

 

Sincerely,

Bertha

 

Bertha Espinosa
Vice President, Guest Services

Hi Bertha - 

We've kind of given up on any response, especially now that we are in December.  When we emailed again we were told that the original email was forwarded to the right department, they would check with them, but here it is months later with no reply.  The email we sent was from amiza (not wanting to spell out whole email), in case that helps track it down.