Supplement to Travel Trade
October 2003

Crystal Serenity:

A Luxurious Trendsetter

By Ethel Blum

The name of Crystal Cruises’ new vessel, the Crystal Serenity, gives passengers a pretty good idea of what to expect.

“The name and the ship speak to what people desire now more than ever — a soothing, yet rejuvenating travel experience,” said Gregg Michel, president of the line. Crystal chairman Mitsuhiko Takahashi added that the ship “was designed to be a trendsetter in this new century.”

The 250,000 members of Crystal’s past passenger club — as will as first timers — will not be disappointed. The vessel offers everything they have come to expect and more: more space, more choices, more dining options, more penthouses and more opportunities to experience a true luxury vacation at sea.

Spacious, quietly elegant and peaceful, the ship is similar in layout to her two older siblings, Crystal Harmony and Crystal Symphony, and shares the same type of refined approach to design and ambiance. Crystal Serenity is an outgrowth of the features that continue to win high marks for the Harmony and Symphony, but she boasts new amenities that go beyond anything seen on cruise ships today — or yesterday.

A relative newcomer to the industry in 1988, Crystal Cruises made an immediate impact on luxury cruises by designing a product that went beyond the usual. The company continues to chart its own course by setting trends such as not charging extra for alternative dining venues, non-alcoholic beverages, computer classes, Yamaha keyboard classes, yoga or Pilates.

As one veteran cruiser from California put it, “They don’t nickel and dime you — and even shore excursions are priced fairly, with complimentary bus transfers into port cities.”

When Crystal Serenity was launched in July 2003, she raised the ceiling on luxury cruising in several areas — service, food, entertainment and an environment that feels like an upscale resort, country club and a spa rolled into one.

With 1,080 guests and at 68,000 tons, Crystal Serenity has an even greater space ratio than Harmony and Symphony, which carry 940 passengers in 50,000-ton vessels. Crystal Serenity is 36% larger than her siblings, but carries only 14% more passengers, for a space ratio of 63.

Most evident in the ship’s design is the principle of feng shui, which is used in the placement of furniture and décor. Even travelers not aware of the 4,000-year-old practice that allows a free flow of “life force” to emanate within a given environment will find that feng shui elements, such as zen gardens, incense and fountains, wind chimes and specially placed mirrors throughout, elicit feelings of peace and harmony.

Wide open spaces and the minimalistic placement of furniture and artworks make the ship seem larger than she is. Even with a full complement of passengers, there are no lines and no rushing for seats at any event.

Rich dark wood, luxurious fabrics, plush deep butterscotch tones enhanced by muted colors, along with fresh plants and flowers, add to the understated ambiance.

Crystal signature pieces and places have been carried over to the Serenity. The Crystal Cove’s lighted waterfall on Deck 5 is the backdrop for the magnificent bronze harp, while the Lucite piano and live pianist in the bar area are familiar features for pre- and post lunch and dinner guests.

Like her predecessors, Crystal Serenity is elegant, but not ostentatious. Passengers are well dressed, but not in bangles and beads. They are also well traveled: Over 90% on the first revenue cruise in mid-July were past passengers. The most traveled was a gentleman from California on his 100th Crystal voyage.

All of the 548 cabins and suites have unobstructed ocean views and 85% offer private verandas. The biggest change noted by Crystal veterans is the increased storage space, even in average staterooms, and larger bathrooms, each with a tub.

Cabin sizes range from 226-square feet without a veranda to the top-of-the-line Crystal penthouse at 1,345 square feet. Suites come with fully stocked mini bars. Data ports for passengers’ laptops ($25 to configure and 75 cents a minute) and DVD players are in all accommodations.

One improvement is the addition of a penthouse deck, thereby increasing the number of suites — which sell first on all Crystal voyages. The ship has twice as many penthouses as on the other ships and more staterooms enjoy the luxury of butler services. The 100 penthouse accommodations include four Crystal Penthouses, 43 Penthouse Suites and a new category, Penthouse staterooms with verandas. They start at 269-square feet, the same size as average staterooms, which include butler services.

These mini Penthouses are on Deck 9. Go down one deck for the same size stateroom and veranda, but without a butler, and your clients save about $900 per person. Is the butler worth the price? Ours brought hors d’oeuvres, including caviar, every evening, made dinner reservations in optional restaurants and took care of laundry and dry cleaning requests. These staterooms have double sinks and separate stall showers. Eight wheelchair accessible staterooms and penthouses round out the range of accommodation levels.

The Crystal Dining Room takes up the aft section of Deck 5. Although the room is larger than on the other ships, it has been configured with small tables, particularly for two or four, which make for an intimate dining experience. Tables are spaced out of eavesdropping distance and the noise level has been reduced dramatically.

A sensational mural complements the raised center of the room. Starched white tablecloths and signature Crystal dinnerware along with Christofle flatware give table settings a distinct aura. Floor to ceiling windows add dimension to the room.

Menus highlight the cuisine of the cruising region. Vegetarian and low calorie offerings as well as an extensive kosher menu are offered nightly, but it’s the special requests and the tableside cooking that set Crystal apart. It’s rare these days for section captains to encourage special orders and to remember your favorites.

Although traditional early and late sittings (6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.) are at assigned tables, dining is not limited to the main venue. Three alternative specialty restaurants allow for five dinner options, and stateroom service is available.

Daytime options are just as varied. Tastes, a permanent hot food counter aft of the second pool, offers international fare throughout the day, as well as luncheon buffets and casual evening dining. The Bistro is an enlarged version of a European coffee and wine bar for morning and afternoon snacks. Lido Café is open for breakfast and lunch and the Trident Bar & Grill offers casual poolside lunches. One of the most popular venues is Scoops Ice Cream Bar, which remains open until 6 p.m.

Serenity has three exceptional optional dining rooms. Prego features a seasonally changing Italian menu from Piero Selvaggio, proprietor of Valentino, located in Los Angeles and in Las Vegas’ Venetian Hotel.

Master chef Nobu Matsuhisa was originally tapped to consult on the menu for The Sushi Bar. But the alliance proved so successful that his role was expanded, and now both The Sushi Bar and Silk Road restaurants feature Nobu’s trademark specialties on their menus. Described as the “sushi mogul,” the chef has restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Miami’s South Beach, where it could take weeks to get a weekend reservation.

Food and service in all three restaurants is superb, with a wide choice of courses. My favorite was the Nobu-style lobster.

None of the alternative restaurants and eateries have surcharges. A gratuity of $6 per person is recommended, but after dining on meals that would have been priced at more than $100 for two, we more than doubled the recommended amount.

Crystal planners took advantage of the additional space on Serenity by adding The Studio, a creative environment for hands-on learning experiences. There is emphasis in the areas of health, fitness and wellness and on classes that run the gamut from languages to computer to several professional lecturers.

Alliances include the Cleveland Clinic, which offers wellness seminars, and the Tai Chi Cultural Center, which offers courses to improve strength, agility and balance. Others include Berlitz for language instructions, Yamaha, which teaches passengers to play a keyboard, and speakers and educators from Parsons School of Design, Barnes & Noble and Books Magazine.

Scheduled entertainment takes place in The Galaxy Lounge, with the largest stage on any Crystal ship. Sightlines have been improved and entertainment includes a couple of fast moving song and dance production shows. On other nights, individual performers brightened the stage. Cruise director Gary Hunter is a veteran of the seas and has a way of holding the audience’s attention.

Many rooms and features are worthy of note. They include:
The Palm Court/Sunset Bar, the line’s signature top deck lounge, is used for afternoon tea, evening dancing and entertainment, special events and for simply watching the changing scenery from panoramic windows. A new extension offers a unique view of the glass-enclosed bridge wings one deck below.

The Spa and Fitness Center is 60% larger than on Harmony or Symphony and has more treatment rooms, a well-equipped fitness center and weight room as well as a separate aerobics studio. Operated by Steiner Limited, which runs most of the spas at sea, it is a beautiful setup with large treatment rooms.

The Seahorse Pool is flanked by two outdoor Jacuzzis. A second indoor/outdoor Neptune Pool is covered by a magrodome roof. A full Promenade Deck around the exterior of the ship is for walking and jogging. The Sports Deck has a golf driving range for complimentary instruction by PGA pros, a shuffleboard court, two tennis courts and a table tennis area.

Crystal remains the only cruise line with casinos operated by Caesars Palace.

Then there’s Pulse disco and nightclub for late night dancing and Karaoke; the Hollywood Theatre cinema and conference center with seating for lectures, movies and religious services; The Bridge Lounge for avid card players; the well-equipped library filled with books, videos and DVDs; Fantasia, the main venue for supervised Junior Activities Programs; and Waves for teenagers and avid video game players.

As for its boutique-like shops, Crystal has an alliance with several designers (St. John is most prominent) and fashions are more fairly priced than on other ships.

While Crystal wins awards in every category for luxury cruising, it is best known for on board service. The line’s European-trained staff takes service to old-time levels where guests are greeted by the lowest level employee up to the Captain, who has somehow managed to remember almost every guest’s name. That’s also true in bars, lounges and dining venues. Service is impeccable. While two-thirds of the Serenity staff is made up of veterans from Harmony and/or Symphony, the other third were quickly absorbed into the Crystal family.

The Internet is available, albeit pricey. Unlike other ships where you swipe your card and sign in to your own mailbox, Crystal has a totally different system. It costs $5 for the set up and then about $1 a minute. The timer keeps rolling while it takes about five minutes to connect to AOL, for example. We ended up using Internet Cafes on shore where the charge was less than 50 cents a minute.

Who sails Crystal Cruises? True, most of the passengers were over 50, but Crystal is again bucking a trend in which kids don’t usually sail on luxury ships. With family and extended-family travel increasing, Serenity (and the other ships in the line) has facilities and supervised programs for kids upwards of three years old.

On our cruise there were a couple of hundred under-15 year olds, and we hardly saw them. Serenity has purpose-built activity rooms divided by age groups. Private babysitting is available in the evenings ($12 an hour).

Travel agents will have no problem selling this ship and they probably will have no complaints when clients return. About 20% rebook their next voyage on board and the reservations are forwarded to the travel agent who booked the current cruise.

Crystal Serenity will cruise the Mediterranean on 12-day cruises until Nov. 6, when she comes trans-Atlantic for three 11-night cruises from Ft. Lauderdale before sailing trans-Panama for a couple of holiday cruises prior to her inaugural world cruise. In 2004 following the world cruise, Crystal Serenity will return to the Mediterranean for a series of 8-, 11- and 12-day Mediterranean voyages.