It’s great to be home again, but our first task was to look at the 3-foot-tall stack of mail that our dear friends Darryl and Barbara collected for us while we were gone. That stack didn’t even include all the shopping catalogs that we received; Ginny told Barbara to keep the ones she wanted and throw out all the rest. We didn’t see any correspondence that needed immediate action, which was good. As for finances, we had all incoming money and outgoing bill payments processed electronically while we were gone, and that seemed to work perfectly.
Our last three days on Crystal Serenity went by very quickly, but there was a lot going on. The six of us at our table (the two of us plus our great tablemates Dave, Jerry, Karen, and Suzanne) skipped the last Black-Tie-Optional formal night (May 4) and went up to Tastes instead. We had gone up there (on Deck 12) as a group about six weeks ago and enjoyed it; so we decided this would be a more relaxing place to celebrate our next-to-last night on the ship. Tastes is less formal (although there were some tuxedos seen up there that night), with small portions served of several different food types. We needed to eat fairly quickly, in order to get good seats for the gala show in the Galaxy Lounge.
The final World Cruise Special Event show was nothing short of amazing. There was a large orchestra and a few entertainers brought in (we assume from San Francisco) for a Motown show. The Galaxy Lounge stage had been extended way out into where the audience normally sits (at least five rows of seats had been removed), and we believe there were more than 45 entertainers on stage most of the time. The show was loud and lively, with two very strong stars as singers, along with the four Serenity singers, and the eight Serenity dancers energetically going nonstop for a full hour. We were exhausted just watching this show and don’t think anyone (including Las Vegas) could have done a better job with the music and dancing. We were sorry we didn’t bring our camera to the event. Raphaël Derkson led and directed the whole show; when it was over, he came out to center stage and was very emotional about what a thrill it was and thanked all of us for our strongly positive response to the results of their hard work preparing for the special event show.
Our last day (May 6) we woke up early, as we were scheduled for a 7:00 am departure from the ship in San Francisco. As it turned out, we were the first ones off the ship in the morning when it was announced that the local authorities had cleared all passengers to disembark. From that point everything went perfectly for us.
Crystal must have contracted for about 20 local people to help departing guests in the terminal. We found our five suitcases and gave them to a porter, went through customs very quickly, and found the Luggage Concierge truck right outside the door. They checked our names, counted bags, and put the bags on the truck immediately. The bags were scheduled for delivery to our home in 5-7 working days. Two of the ship’s concierge staff led us to a waiting car and driver, who promptly took us to the airport. We had already “checked in” for our flight over the Internet the previous day; we didn’t even stop at the ticket counter and just walked right through TSA security to our gate. We were seated at our gate by 8:00 am – amazing! Our flight wasn’t until 11:23, so we spent our time reading until boarding started early at 10:45.
Both flights were uneventful, including the transfer of planes in Atlanta. We landed at Fort Myers on-time at 10:30 pm (Eastern Time). A driver from Shell Point picked us up and took us directly home. We even remembered to bring our front door keys with us!
Our observations after 3½ months on board Crystal Serenity are very positive. We had a remarkably good voyage. The ship itself ran very smoothly, with nothing breaking down. All the hardware -- elevators, lights, air conditioning and heating, and so forth all worked perfectly. Food and service in the six eating venues (Dining Room, Prego, Silk Road, Lido, Tastes, and the Trident Grill) were all extremely good. Officers and crewmembers, without exception, came across as happy to be on board and willing to do anything possible to keep guests happy. We were especially impressed with how many crewmembers with whom we spoke had been proudly working for Crystal for more than 15 years.
Here’s a list summarizing our experiences on World Cruise 2016 - Grand Pacific Panorama:
1. Making Us Feel Special. Crystal has a strong reputation in the cruise industry for customer service. We would agree with that description. At the basic level almost all cruising is the same – cruise overnight and visit local port cities during the day, or spend a relaxing day by the pool or reading during days at sea, while enjoying good food and entertainment. On many ships, the crew goes about doing their jobs efficiently, with little consideration of the passengers. But on Crystal Serenity, all crewmembers, from the Master of the Vessel on down, seemed to have customer service as their number one priority. We felt like we were very welcome guests at all times while on board.
Here’s a list summarizing our experiences on World Cruise 2016 - Grand Pacific Panorama:
1. Making Us Feel Special. Crystal has a strong reputation in the cruise industry for customer service. We would agree with that description. At the basic level almost all cruising is the same – cruise overnight and visit local port cities during the day, or spend a relaxing day by the pool or reading during days at sea, while enjoying good food and entertainment. On many ships, the crew goes about doing their jobs efficiently, with little consideration of the passengers. But on Crystal Serenity, all crewmembers, from the Master of the Vessel on down, seemed to have customer service as their number one priority. We felt like we were very welcome guests at all times while on board.
2. Entertainment for the World Cruise was absolutely superior to anything we’ve seen on any other cruise ship. The permanent entertainment team of a 6-piece orchestra, four singers, and eight dancers, plus the support staff (lighting, sound, stage crew), were professionals of the highest caliber.
There are five “standard” shows they apparently do regularly on all cruises (depending on cruise length) – ‘My Life: The Music of Billy Joel”, “Across the Pond”, “Curtain Call”. 6/8 Café Jukebox Musical”, and “iLuminate”. These are great shows - lively, fun, challenging - all of which produce thunderous applause from guests. Admittedly, they were a little repetitive when performed more than once on a lengthy 6-segment,102-day World Cruise. However, we did enjoy seeing all of them at least twice.
World Cruise “Entertainment Events” were really noteworthy. There was at least one unique home-grown stage show performed on each of the six World Cruise segments. Rick Spath (Cruise Director) told us these shows were all developed, written, choreographed, and produced totally on board ship by the entertainment team and only performed once – an amazing accomplishment by a very talented crew of professionals. The shows were all great. Here’s the list: “Elvis Show”, “Jazz – A Crazy Rhythm”, “Radio Hour – A Sentimental Journey”, “Lord of the Dance”, “Sound of Music”, “Motown”.
There was a first-class, special show by an orchestra and performers from the San Francisco Opera (“Viva Voce”) staged on-board ship exclusively for Full World Cruise travelers the night before other cruisers were allowed on ship.
Local cultural shows were brought on board for several ports, including Bali, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. These were always interesting and fun.
There are five “standard” shows they apparently do regularly on all cruises (depending on cruise length) – ‘My Life: The Music of Billy Joel”, “Across the Pond”, “Curtain Call”. 6/8 Café Jukebox Musical”, and “iLuminate”. These are great shows - lively, fun, challenging - all of which produce thunderous applause from guests. Admittedly, they were a little repetitive when performed more than once on a lengthy 6-segment,102-day World Cruise. However, we did enjoy seeing all of them at least twice.
World Cruise “Entertainment Events” were really noteworthy. There was at least one unique home-grown stage show performed on each of the six World Cruise segments. Rick Spath (Cruise Director) told us these shows were all developed, written, choreographed, and produced totally on board ship by the entertainment team and only performed once – an amazing accomplishment by a very talented crew of professionals. The shows were all great. Here’s the list: “Elvis Show”, “Jazz – A Crazy Rhythm”, “Radio Hour – A Sentimental Journey”, “Lord of the Dance”, “Sound of Music”, “Motown”.
There was a first-class, special show by an orchestra and performers from the San Francisco Opera (“Viva Voce”) staged on-board ship exclusively for Full World Cruise travelers the night before other cruisers were allowed on ship.
Local cultural shows were brought on board for several ports, including Bali, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. These were always interesting and fun.
3. Special Full World Cruise Events. Two special off-ship events were arranged for Full World Cruise travelers. First was in Honolulu, where Crystal booked an exclusive Flash-back to the 1940s USO Evening and Show on board the restored Battleship USS Missouri. This was a lavish show by local entertainers, followed by private tours all around the ship. The second special event was in Singapore, where Crystal rented the entire S.E.A. Aquarium on Sentosa Island for an exclusive, full evening of entertainment and aquarium-viewing. We enjoyed both the events and fully appreciated the effort (and cost) it must have taken to stage these events.
- Chauffeured ground transportation to and from the ship at both embarkation and disembarkation of the 102-day voyage (in both cases we were transported by sedans).
- One hour per day of exceptionally good Internet coverage for each of us
- Photo Directory of all Full World Cruise travelers who were willing to appear in the directory – given to travelers early in the World Cruise
- End-of-cruise DVD, prepared by a professional videographer, showing highlights of the full 102-day experience
- Unlimited visits to the three specialty restaurants if space was available (and it always was)
- Outstanding program of very highly qualified enrichment speakers (always 2, sometimes 3 or 4 speakers per day) on sea days
- Very large list of class offerings in the Creative Learning Institute – Spanish language, learning to play piano (using Yamaha keyboards), bridge, yoga, dancing, arts & crafts, golf, computers, knitting/needlepoint, exercise/fitness (Pilates, spinning, etc.), plus many more.
- Ten Ambassador (Dance) Hosts for women who love to dance, along with many dancing opportunities (live band or orchestra) almost every evening for the full 102 days. We didn’t get involved with this, but it was very popular.
- A different magician (from Magic Castle in Hollywood) every segment of the voyage, with small shows (10 - 15 spectators) scheduled many nights per segment in the Pulse nightclub venue. We attended shows by five different magicians and were amazed (without exception) by what they were doing.
5. Some Small Nits
- We ate at the main (early) seating, and noise level in the main dining room was high. We originally were at a table for eight people, and it was impossible to hear everyone at the table. After the first segment, we were down to six people and were able to move to a smaller table. Then it was better, but not ideal.
- We felt that, at times, the dining room chef was trying a little too hard to be pretentious with the menu offerings. This might be because the passengers on this ship were definitely from a wide mix of nationalities. Luckily, we were able to find something to our liking on the menu every evening.
- There were long waits (an hour or more waiting in line) to get off the ship at several ports. We believe this was probably caused by local customs & immigration procedures, but we wish the ship’s staff had been able to mitigate the situation somehow.
In summary, Crystal's World Cruise 2016 was a marvelous experience. We signed up for this voyage because of the itinerary – it was a great mix of 47 ports of call in 19 countries all the way across the vast Pacific Ocean and back, along the “Ring of Fire.” We weren’t disappointed in any way - everything was incredibly good. Our congratulations and thanks to Crystal for a job very well done, and for getting us home safe and happy, with wonderful memories.
Jim & Ginny
Thank you for taking the time to do this blog. I really appreciate the effort!
ReplyDelete