Live From Crystal Symphony - A New Adventure - Reykjavik to Dover

[Keith1010]

Thank you David. I appreciate your comments.
 

This was a private guide our Travel Agency arranged for us. 
 

Keith 

[Keith1010]

A very good early morning from Crystal Symphony and for some of you good evening.

 

This is the daily Reflections and Waterside Dinner Menu for September 25.

 

Keith

 

September 25 Reflections.pdf

 

Sept 25 Waterside.pdf

 

 

[Keith1010]

Yesterday, we travelled the River back to the English Channel.

 

Very few ships make it to the Port of Rouen as they often stop at a different port.

 

Why?

 

Likely because you are spending seven hours going in each direction of the River so you are talking about two days.

 

I am reminded that on the 2010 NYC to Los Angeles sailing that many of us were on, it took awhile for the sail-in to Philadelphia. Similarly very few passenger ships sailed to this city and I believe due to lack of demand there are no longer accepting passenger cruise ships. But I could be wrong about that.

 

One of the Head Waiters was on that 2003 Crystal Symphony sailing with us that stopped in Rouen and said that was his only time there until the other day.

 

We didn't have time to explore the city of Rouen but those who did enjoyed it. For us, this was all about going to Normandy.

 

It was raining quite a bit yesterday but as usual it was bright and sunny inside Symphony.  

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[USCAdventurer]

Keith, some good friends of mine from Boston and Ft. Meyers, just departed Southampton on the new Sun Princess for a transatlantic crossing via Spain, the Canary Islands and into Ft. Lauderdale.They reminded me of you because for their first lunch on the ship they had a cobb salad and champagne!

[Keith1010]

37 minutes ago, USCAdventurer said:

Keith, some good friends of mine from Boston and Ft. Meyers, just departed Southampton on the new Sun Princess for a transatlantic crossing via Spain, the Canary Islands and into Ft. Lauderdale.They reminded me of you because for their first lunch on the ship they had a cobb salad and champagne!

David, an excellent choice by your friends. I hope they have a great time.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Greetings From Crystal Symphony

 

Let's begin with the Palm Court.

 

The Palm Court is a beautiful lounge found on both Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity.  

 

It serves several functions.

 

It is used for Captains/Crystal Society reception on Serenity and other cocktail parties on Symphony and Serenity, and get-togethers, enjoying a beverage, dancing, afternoon tea, stretch and Pilates on Symphony.

 

Guests also use the lounge to see panoramic views of the sea and shoreline, for selected port arrivals and departures and for other viewings such as when transiting the Panama Canal.

 

 

 

 

Last evening, we attended the Captains Reception and Crystal Society Party before dinner. This was held in Starlite Club. Captain Nenad thanked the guests for being on the sailing and recognized all the countries that the guests were from. Like Daniel Puma did on the last crise, Future Cruise & Loyalty Manager Maria Lopez recognized a couple with 60 cruises, other milestones on this cruise and those with the most sailings to date who were on-board this cruise.

 

The turnout was very good, and we enjoyed chatting with fellow cruisers and members of team Symphony.  It was noted there are 97 first time Crystal cruisers on board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cruise Director Raphael spoke about last evening's entertainment. 

 

We were invited to attend dinner at Waterside and didn't take any photos.  Sorry.

We thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful dinner between non-stop conversation with lots of laughs, outstanding cuisine, and a beautiful dining venue.  You hear us saying beautiful dining venue and it truly is.  This includes lovely tables with tablecloths and a traditional table setting.  

There were many excellent choices on the menu including caviar, and a cream soup of selected Italian mushrooms served in an Oregano Bread Cup. Although there were other choices three of our tablemates enjoyed the soup, and one other person and myself had the caviar. After we had salad, or some other second course, it was time for the entree and that was split again with three people including myself having the fresh Turbot Fillet and two others including Anne Marie having the Veal Marsala.  A range of desserts were enjoyed by all.  I had the cheese and I asked Senior Waiter Hannah to surprise me with the selections. She is an amazing Senior Waiter.

 

Great news. Before going to sleep we set the clocks back one hour. We needed that extra hour for sure.

 

 

 

 

We anchored off Guernsey this morning and tender service began taking guests to and from Guernsey.  

Since today is the last full day of the cruise and we have been to this charming area several times in the past we decided to stay on-board to pack and to visit with fellow guests and members of Team Symphony.  

 

More tomorrow so stay tuned.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

 

 

[ryndam]

11 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

I am reminded that on the 2010 NYC to Los Angeles sailing that many of us were on, it took awhile for the sail-in to Philadelphia. Similarly very few passenger ships sailed to this city and I believe due to lack of demand there are no longer accepting passenger cruise ships. But I could be wrong about that.

 

Keith

 

NCL returns to Philadelphia in April 2026.

https://www.nclhltd.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/617/norwegian-cruise-line-announces-port-of-philadelphia-as-a

 

Rob

[Keith1010]

That's good news.

 

I can see cruises starting or ending there. Not sure if there will be demand to transit through there due to the time it takes to get to the port but would love to see it happen. We love the history of Philadelphia so that would be a plus on a sailing for us.

 

Keith

[BWIVince]

8 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

That's good news.

 

I can see cruises starting or ending there. Not sure if there will be demand to transit through there due to the time it takes to get to the port but would love to see it happen. We love the history of Philadelphia so that would be a plus on a sailing for us.

 

Keith

I always found the dynamic between Philly, Baltimore and Norfolk as regional drive-in cruise ports to be really interesting.  Each has strengths and weaknesses, but I’ve long been surprised that Philly hasn’t been more competitive with Baltimore on luring persistent home porting given its massive drive-in market (which includes Baltimore) and more convenient logistics geographically compared with Baltimore.  For other reasons though, Baltimore’s strengths have offset all of the Chesapeake’s disadvantages and have led more of the traffic to drive to Baltimore from Eastern PA, DE and NJ than drive to Philly to sail.  I’m glad to see that shift a little, I think it’s overdue.

 

Vince

[Keith1010]

Today's Daily Reflections for those getting off in Dover today.

 

Keith

 

Sep 26 Reflections.pdf

[Keith1010]

You can listen to most of What A Wonderful World on this video. Turn up your volume.

 

Keith

 

 

 

[Keith1010]

From yesterday afternoon.

 

Question

 

Where would you rather be? Now be truthful.

 

With the Pilot or on-board Crystal Symphony?

 

 

 

 

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

It was extremely windy for our arrival to Dover. You couldn’t tell from our room location but it was. In fact so windy that it took the port personnel quite awhile to get their gangway up and when they did it needed more work. It was pouring but as we went from terminal to the parking area where our Crystal provided transfer was waiting the rain changes to a slight drizzle. We had lots of assistance getting out to meet the driver from our  utter and concierge. And from there between the driver and our butler we got to the SUV. 
 

For those of you who know Thomas who joined Serenity last year at the reception desk he moved over to Symphony starting with this past voyage as Concierge. Like his brother Frederick who is butler on Serenity and like his Father who swings between both ships as chef of Osteria he is a very kind man and will be super as concierge. 
 

Keith

[USCAdventurer]

Keith,

glad you arrived safely in dover.  how long are you planning on staying in london?  do you have any tours planned?  any shows to see?  enjoy your stay there.

i'm leaving tonight for new york so friday will be our day in the city and saturday morning we'll go to the ship for our canadian and new england birthday cruise.  i'm really looking forward to it!

[Txcotn]

10 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

From yesterday afternoon.

 

Question

 

Where would you rather be? Now be truthful.

 

With the Pilot or on-board Crystal Symphony?

 

 

 

 

 

Keith

🤢

[Keith1010]

On the last night of the cruise the past few years we started a tradition to enjoy the evening from our room. Thank you, Head Butler Jaison, for taking excellent care of us over eighteen days. 

 

Fantasia.  Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity each have a room for young children. It can be used by families on their own and is also used when there are enough children on-board to have one or more Junior Activity Directors.

 

Throughout this voyage we have shared photos of various venues on board Symphony. The venues found on Symphony and Serenity have many similarities including their names other than venues such as Starlite (Symphony) and Stardust (Serenity) and Jade (Symphony) and Pulse (Serenity). There are differences in the layouts and size of some of the venues as well.

 

Another difference is Symphony has 12 decks and Serenity has 13 decks.

 

What is common between the two ships is significant including an experienced and extraordinary crew who are warm, charming, friendly, and professional.  

 

We want to give another shout-out to the deck hands and to housekeeping, and other parts of the hotel including food & beverage for always keeping the ship looking as spotless as possible given guest traffic and in fine working order.  I walk the ship early in the morning and even at that hour furniture is in its proper position and the ship is sparkling while at the same time the night crew is still working on cleaning the public rooms and is literally on hands and knees cleaning flooring and areas of the carpet on the floors and on the staircases. In those early hours the decks are being washed off.  It takes a team effort.  The crew represents around 50 different nationalities who work together regardless of their position. Can you imagine if countries from around the world adopted that same approach of working together? Maybe someday. 

 

I have said this before, but Crystal Symphony looks much younger than its actual age because of the investment that has gone into the ship and because of the time and effort that goes into maintaining her each day and literally 7x24.  

 

Other areas that are common include an amazing dining experience between the cuisine, service, and the beautiful dining venues. Cuisine has been upgraded by new Crystal including the Italian Specialty restaurant Osteria, cuisine served in Waterside, offerings in Marketplace and even the canapes served in the lounges and in the suites.

 

Enrichment and entertainment continue to also be strong strengths of Crystal.

 

I included a collage of four photos with three crew members; two of Jessie who is the lead person in the Computer University; Daniele who is the Future Cruise & Loyalty Manager and Mario the Specialty Restaurant Maître d’ who also swings up as Restaurant Manager when Remi goes on Holiday.

 

We have known all three for many years.

 

Jessie from his time on both Serenity and Symphony.

 

Daniele, starting in 2007when he was at the Reception Desk, then Concierge, then Assistant to Hotel Director, then Future Cruise Sales Consultant and now in his current position.

 

Mario as Head Waiter, then Senior Head Waiter, then swinging up to relieve Leo as Maître d’, then swinging between ships as Maître d’, then swinging between Maître d’ and Specialty Maître d’ on Serenity and now in his present position.

 

So why two photos of Jessie?  One of the photos is from outside the Computer University when we would both wave to Jessie and he would wave to us each time we would pass by when we walked inside the ship when the weather was not conducive to walk outside on the Promenade Deck.

 

All three are warm & friendly, caring, and professional. Like so many members of team Symphony & Serenity they are part of our extended Crystal Family and the number one reason we love and sail with Crystal, and why we can’t wait to sail again and again.

 

Success takes a team and success takes strong leadership. On board each Crystal ship you have Senior Officers, Junior Officers, Senior Staff and Crew who are focused on the safety of the ship for crew and guests, for keeping the ship in great working order and who are focused on making the guest experience so very special.  When Crystal emerged from bankruptcy 85%+ of the staff returned to both ships. This says a lot about Crystal, the crew, and the guests.  

 

At the same time those on land for Crystal have a nice mix of seasoned Crystal employees combined with many seasoned personnel from A&K and other areas of the cruise industry and some land-based areas. More recently some members of former Crystal have returned in land-based functions that directly support service and food and drink on board the ships as well as some people from outside of old Crystal.  It is a magical recipe for success. 

 

We have enjoyed an amazing time on Crystal Symphony as we did on our last Crystal Symphony voyage in 2018. We adore the ship, the new public areas, and the new suite we stayed in, and most importantly the amazing team of very talented and caring people who are part of the Crystal Symphony Team. They have made us feel very welcome from the moment we arrive to the Port of Reykjavik, Iceland where we were greeted by some members of the team and from the moment, we boarded Serenity and throughout the cruise. They have touched each of our hearts in more ways than one. It has also been a pleasure being reunited with guests who we have sailed with before, while meeting several guests for the very first time.  

 

I am including two photos of the Crystal Symphony Senior Officers as Cruise Director Raphael came on board the last week of the cruise to lend a hand.

We enjoyed our final meal (breakfast) on-board Crystal Symphony. We had a glorious time and words cannot express how much we have enjoyed these two cruises both on and off Symphony and the care that we have been shown by the members of Team Crystal Symphony.  

When we last sailed Symphony in 2018, we loved it so much we added a cruise for 2019 in addition to one we had booked for 2020.  Unfortunately, first one was canceled due to a medical reason and the second one old Crystal cancelled due to Covid-19.  We plan to return to Symphony in less time than we waited this time around and maybe we will add another cruise so we can return sooner rather than later.

 

This morning we disembarked Crystal Symphony and were drive from the Port of Dover to the Rosewood Hotel for a four-night post cruise stay in London.

 

We have more to post and we will do that tomorrow.

 

Photos follow.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

[oakridger]

Enjoy London you two!  Thank you for all the information about Symphony.  

 

~Nancy

[Keith1010]

Thank you so much Nancy.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Yesterday was an example when people ask can I make a flight after a cruise. I always think each experience is different and alway error on being cautious. This dates back from my days flying pretty much weekly for work and from what you see when a cruise ends.

 

So what about yesterday.

 

We arrived with extraordinary winds and even though we arrived on schedule it took the port a long time to get the bridge up connecting the ship with the terminal. In fact, once they had it up with the winds it had to be secured again.  

Because of the weather there was a shutdown of one major roadway.

 

I understand some people missed flights.

 

This is why when a cruise ends we will leave a lot of time to get a flight because in addition to all of this you never know what check in will be like at the airport.

 

If we were not staying over in London, our go to flight which is a direct flight we would have booked but not for the day we disembarked but for the next day and would have stayed over at the Sofitel LHR hotel as we have done many times.

 

Ever since our first cruise even when I worked and minimized time away from the office we would at least fly in one day before the cruise and since retirement we fly in a few days prior to the cruise.

 

Yes, I do believe in Murphy's Law.

 

Anyway, just a reminder that when someone posts asking if we they can make a particular flight  that even though it might have been fine for some or all of us, things do happen.

 

Keith

 

 

[Keith1010]

 

Over the next two days I wanted to share additional thoughts from our cruises on Serenity in August and our just completed cruises on Symphony this month and I can best sum this up by starting with Crystal. I will also interweave some photos and items from our post cruise stay in London. While the hotel we chose to stay at we booked independently via our Travel Agent, it is a hotel Crystal as using as Anne Marie saw the Crystal Rep yesterday.

 

Did I say how much we enjoyed our cruises on Crystal Symphony this month and Crystal Serenity last month?

 

There is so much to enjoy and love about new Crystal.

We were asked yesterday, what do we like about new Crystal?  Answer is simple we love the total package. 

 

I often say if you liked old Crystal, you will find that new Crystal brought back all that we liked about old Crystal and then enhanced it so it is better than ever.

 

To me this includes:

 

Many new suites and combining the different ones under fewer categories to make it easier to choose from.

 

Having solo rooms that are the same size as double rooms.

 

Updating some of the public rooms including Umi Uma, Osteria, The Spa/Salon and The Bistro.

 

The Lounge. On our recent cruises on both ships, we have seen them utilized a lot more than last year, plus they now have bridge and for those who wanted casinos they are coming soon in the former bridge rooms.

 

Upgrading the cuisine including Waterside, rolling out Osteria, bringing back Tastes and soon to be Beefbar.  From all I have read and looking at the Beefbar menus this is an upgrade to Tastes.  As to Waterside we feel the cuisine is better than before. The service remains great and the dining venues are beautiful. We consider them to be similar to specialty restaurants with the difference being the number of guests served, the diversity of cuisine and the menus which change daily for dinner and the same for lunch when they are opened on sea days.

 

Enhancing the Crystal website including adding stories and making the website more interesting to view and providing other capabilities such as easier ways to sort and find cruises.

 

Bringing back the amazing crew with 85%+ returning.  Unlike anywhere else we have sailed, they are experienced, charming, welcoming, friendly, and professional. Let me add to this they are not “robotic”.  

 

And showing the willingness to invest and grow the product.

 

We have lots to look forward to.

 

Tomorrow I will touch on the conclusion of the Symphony cruise and interweave some photos from London.

 

I wanted to mention that A&K has a presence in London with several executives and other team members very involved with several products including A&K program and Crystal.  

 

Today was cooler than yesterday in London and we had on and off rain. Ironically, when in Vancouver prior to a last month's Alaska cruise on Serenity, we purchased waterproof jackets and inserts at the same store we purchased some items for the Crystal 2016 Northwest Passage Cruise.

Enjoyed a walk over to the London theatre district at Strand and to adjoining areas. In the afternoon, we decided to visit the British Museum.  We have visited this museum often but usually when it opens.  Do you think anyone was there?  We think half of London was there. Then as we queued on line the gentleman asked do you have tickets? We said no but he said you could go in anyway. A short while later another gentleman asked doe we have tickets? Anne Marie said no and that we are old. Old. Are you kidding me I thought to himself? He let us proceed.

In spite of the enormous crowds we made our way to exhibits we were most interested in and enjoyed the visit.  

Weather outlook for tomorrow looks great so we will enjoy several outdoor areas of London.

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

 

 

 

[Keith1010]

I was just going through photos from Liverpool.  As they say, you learn something everyday whether it is important or not in the scheme of things.

 

Many people think the Beatles first performed at the Cavern Club which is wrong. Most thought the Casbah Coffee Club which the Best family would say.  But more recently it was learned their first performance as The Beatles with John, Paul, George, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe was at The Jacaranda.  This would make a good Trivia Question on board Crystal.

 

Keith

 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. As always thank you for your posts and pictures.  All the best!

[Keith1010]

3 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. As always thank you for your posts and pictures.  All the best!

Thank you so much. Aloha.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

As I did yesterday, I will post about Crystal including our final morning on Crystal Symphony, some additional thoughts,  and interweave some photos and comments from our post cruise stay in  London.

 

Yesterday I posted about overall Crystal experience and today I wanted to take you back to the end of our Crystal Symphony Cruise.

 

Despite the very strong winds as we made it into the Port of Dover, we arrived on time.  Many of us we couldn’t feel the impact of the winds, but they were very strong for sure and if you went outside you would know.  Thank goodness for the tub boat.  In fact, the winds were so strong it was a big challenge for the local port to put up the bridge between the ship and the cruise terminal.  

 

We had a lot of help as we departed the ship.  We did have a Crystal private transfer where you meet at the Crystal Plaza 15 minutes before you depart.  We got down there earlier and saw Captain Nenad, Hotel Director Herbert, Dr. Soto and a few minutes later Cruise Director Raphael who was pinch hitting for a few days, along with several other members from Team Symphony. 

 

Butler Jaison, and new Concierge Thomas and Concierge Sasha were with us as we departed Symphony. They were a big help as the first few steps onto the bridge would have been a lot more challenging if Anne Marie had to pull a carry on. They stayed with us as we claimed luggage and then Sasha and the driver got us out to the SUV.  Since it was raining, we didn’t want Jaison to go outside although he would have done this.  This is another example of Crystal at its finest.

Everyone’s help was appreciated as it was still windy with some rain. I know, welcome to England.

 

Thanks to the weather and an accident on another major roadway that drive from Dover to London became a three hour and 20-minute drive as many more vehicles were in London due to the problem on one of the major roads.  The saying about the last mile was very true as I could have walked that last mile in 25% of the time it took to drive it. 

 

London is as vibrant as ever. A&K has a major presence in London, and this includes the Crystal product.  

 

One thing for sure while we had some rain on the Symphony cruises and some rain on the Serenity cruises in August is that on-board and inside each ship it is total sunshine and to Anne Marie and myself better than ever.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, is it perfect? Well, who is and what is? But to us it is truly outstanding including all of the attention to detail and all of the care that has done into new Crystal from the leaders of A&K/Crystal and from both land-based teams and from the on-board teams across both ships.  

 

I remind myself that they didn’t buy a company. They bought two ships, a name, and a customer database. Most everything else had to be built from the ground floor including systems, itineraries and all that goes into creating them, supplier arrangements for food, beverages and other supplies, upgrades to the ship, new dining venue, hiring of land-based personnel, securing offices for them, and the list goes on and on and on.  In short creating a new company and even with the benefit of having people who knew how things worked on the ships there was so much to create from the bottom floor.  And add to this the skepticism that some former guests had, others who never sailed Crystal along with vendors and others including travel consortiums and travel agents, etc. new Crystal was able to bring the ships back to life the year following the purchase.  To me it is remarkable and since the relaunch of the company and the two ships with each passing day, week, and month they are enhancing many of the components that together make Crystal so very special.

 

A few thoughts from London.

 

Today's weather started with cool temperature but the good news no rain and sunny skies.

Our morning destination was Buckingham Palace.  We did do a special tour during the evening in 2004 while visiting with Anne Marie's late sister and her husband who lived in Scotland at the time and met us for a few days in London.  We also toured there one other time.

We walked several other nearby areas. In the afternoon we walked for several miles including a visit to Covent Garden. There are many more restaurants and stores than we remember but the last time we visited this area was quite a while ago as we didn’t get there on more recent visits.

 

London is a very vibrant city and a fun one to take in all around yourself while walking. So much history which we love.

 

 

 

 

 

I will let the photos do the talking.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

[pathdoc]

Keith,

Thank you for putting in so much time and detail regarding your experiences on both Serenity and Symphony.  We're doing b2b starting in late October.  This will be our first adventure with Crystal.  The only thing that we'll miss is meeting you and Anne Marie.