Crystal Serenity
Compared to the other luxury lines Crystal fares well in almost every area. The ships are beautiful, the staff friendly and competent, entertainment is at the top, lecturers are generally terrific, and the food is fine. They have many venues and opportunities to learn computer, piano, and foreign languages. They even have golf pro on board.
They still charge for many items that are included in other lines, but that is changing and never has been a big deal for me.
The very biggest problem is their assigned seating at assigned times in the main dining room. They now have an option for a dine by reservation, but it still means locking in a time in advance and setting up your own table. Often on other luxury ships it is fun just to go to a dining room at will and ask to sit with others or alone. Plus every dinner is huge rush in their dining room and it is terribly noisy.
Compared to other high end lines their cabins are very small.
Maybe they take themselves a bit too seriously. Regent definitely is more fun and often like grown up camp. They always have a large trivial pursuit group, group games, late night guest joke nights, and liars club.
Life is good when the tough decision is deciding which luxury cruise to take next. I suppose we could always factor in the itinerary.
