We're going to try Crystal Symphony from LA-HK next March with Joe and Karyn Doucet. We'll do 4 days in HK, so I can show Karyn/Joe around the area. We also have the Silver Shadow this Nov. Still trying to find an alternative to Regent and their ridiculous new smoking policy. If anyone has cruised Symphony and has any comments please do comment. We're not jazzed about fixed seating dining, but we'll give it a try. The good thing about the cruise is that there are lots of sea days. We booked a PH category and the price seems to be comparable to Regent with all things factored in.

Hi Doug, I did see your post on CC. I've sailed Crystal several times and would be happy to answer any questions you have. Feel free to email me directly at nlproler@sbcglobal.net or send me a private message. By the way, Crystal has altered their smoking policy and will go into effect in May. You will be able to smoke in your cabin but not on your balcony.

Nancy

We very much enjoyed our cruise on the Symphony in Dec 2006. We didn't mind the fixed seating, had a great group and got late seating. Also, there are two alternative restaurants with no charge, and we enjoyed them very much. I thought the ship was beautiful and I did tour the PH level cabins, and they are very nice. The PH is the smallest, with the PS being pretty much the same layout, just a little larger and then of course there is the Penthouse, which was amazing :) I think you will enjoy Crystal Doug, and Nancy certainly is the expert on this board. We thought the ship was beautiful and found the staff very accommodating. The Officer's and such definitely have a more "formal", less involved style and we never saw the Cruise Director unless he was on stage - but we still had a great time and met some fun and interesting fellow cruisers.
Have a great cruise!!!

Hi. As we have done 19 Crystal sailings -- about 13 of which were on the symphony -- I'd be happy to answer any of your questions. About the fixed seating, you can request a table for 2, 4, 6, or 8 at either the main (6:15) or late (8:30) seatings. If for some reason you wish to change your table, either Josef or Remi (the alternating maitre d's) will be happy to help you. The alternative restaurants are Prego and Silk Road. There is also open seating on the Lido deck many evenings for a casual dinner. There is also 24 hour room service. If you wish lunch or dinner in your penthouse, your butler can serve you items from the room service or dining room menus. For dinner, you may also order from the alternative restaurant menus. Whenever you pay in full, you may go to the prereserve section of the website and either make alternative dining reservations or spa or salon appointments, or classes in the Creative Learning or Computer centers. Enjoy your cruise. Judith (Judithm310@msn.com)

Thanks for the inputs. We do know about the smoking policy change re the balconies, but both Joe Doucet and I think we can live with that. Niether Lynn nor Karyn smoke and that's why I've always used our balcony for smoking. On sea days Lynn and I often just sit out on the balcony and read to rest up for dancing at night. Regarding the alternative restaurants, is there an extra service/tipping charge for them? What about wine at dinner? Do you buy it by the glass, or do you buy a bottle and they keep it for you? I can do without it, but Joe and Karyn like wine with dinner. We're already booked, including air and we intend to make final payment early to get the additional $500 plus discount. One interesting thing re air is that we don't have a deviation fee for our 4 day delay in HK if we book it now. We got late seating and a table for 4. We're doing our own hotel reservations, because we can get the hotel we want and at a much lower price than Crystal's. Better hotel too. Nice to know about the pre-reserved section on the website.

Hi Doug, while there isn't a charge for the specialty restaurant, there is a suggested $7 per person gratuity. I don't know if this number will change in 2009. In regards to wine, you can order by the glass or the bottle and they will keep any unused portion of the bottle until your next lunch or dinner. I have found the wine prices to be very fair and Crystal has an amazing selection of wines. That's great that there is no deviation fee for your 4 day post stay in Hong Kong. Please let us know if you have any more questions along the way. Judith and I are happy to help out. I met Judith on the CC board several years ago and she's an incredible resource and has become a great friend. You will also find that the frequent posters on the Crystal CC board are very helpful and extremely nice! I'm sure Susan Walsh is a great resource as well.

Nancy

Thanks for the info guys! I'm sure we'll have more questions as time passes leading up to the cruise. I sure hope the person at the Crystal air dept. was correct about the deviation fee. They won't be able to give us the air schedule until later this year. It does appear that they will try to honor your airline request in so far as possible. In order to do that with Regent there was an extra charge for custom air.

If you are interested in seeing the daily Reflections newsletters that show the activities for each day or the lunch and dinner menus, the two men at this site blog each of their cruises. They generally take a penthouse and you can read about what to expect from your butler in the blog also.

http://www.jetsetenterprises.com/

I don't believe they have ever done the crossing from LA to Hong Kong which is mainly sea days, but I think you will get a general idea about the Symphony from their blog.

By the way, I can't say if this will be your experience, but when we specify to air/sea the flights we want (if they are not their regularly scheduled ones), we generally pay $100 per person for the deviation fee. I generally do it because I prefer non-stop direct flights rather than stopping and changing planes. I just don't like taking chances on connections or sitting and waiting in airports.