Hi all,

I thought I would chime in since my family and I have gone on 7 Crystal cruises vs. 4 on Regent. However, of the last 4 cruises we went on, 3 were on Regent, so you can understand why my travel agent asked if we had given up on Crystal. We do love Crystal but there are several advantages that Regent offers - open dining, all-inclusive, much larger rooms - that keep us coming back. I think one of the other things that is related to the all-inclusive is that the Regent ships are just more fun. Not to say that alcohol is necessary to have fun, but not having to sign does make it easier to join groups and have a drink, etc. We had a great time on the recent Regent Norway cruise, and we stayed up later than we ever have! Contrast that to the message I read on the Crystal board where apparently the CD was imploring people to attend the evening shows - it seems that only 35 people showed up to the show the evening before. So Crystal spends all tha that money on those "Broadway shows" but then no one attends. In fact, we had seen them so many times, on our last cruise, we just didn't go either.

Another thing that is becoming a deal breaker to me on Crystal is that they charge full price for a child after 12 years old. So, there we are in the relatively small stateroom and having to pay full minimum fare for our daughter who is 12. On Regent it is 50% unless in a named suite.

Another positive for us for Regent is the new non-smoking policy. Smoke just really bothers us and so we are happy to see the change.

I did run the numbers comparing Regent and Crystal for the recent Norway cruise. It was almost exactly the same money, so with the larger stateroom on Regent and all-inclusive, I cancelled Crystal and went with Regent.

We will go back to Crystal someday I am sure, but I would like to see them go all-inclusive and do something about the 3rd passenger charge.

NJBelle