jmkclee

The first time we ever sailed on a luxury cruise line (Crystal) was for my 40th birthday.  I’m now 56 with 5 Crystal cruises under our belt and 2 Seabourn cruises under our belt.  We have a Crystal cruise scheduled for January, and a Seabourn cruise scheduled for the end of May.  Hubby is 3 years older than me.  I’ve never felt uncomfortable on any of our luxury cruises.  Sure, when we were younger we were definitely on of the youngest on board.  But speaking with more seasoned travelers was wonderful for us and has guided us on our travels along the way.  

We still continued to cruise with our kids on Disney (our favorite for families…6 times) and once with Celebrity and once with Royal Caribbean.  We are empty nesters now, so only luxury cruising for us!

14 hours ago, n2wdw said:

 

Wow, was that a single continuous trip?  We also have done a Bordeaux river cruise, on Crystal.  If we had to do it again, we'd do a land tour.  Not because of Crystal, the ship and crew were great.  But Bordeaux is such a small area we ended up having to take a lot of buses, and the ship didn't really go any where -- I don't think there is any way of getting around that due to the area and location of the ports.  It would have been better if we did a land tour and stayed at a couple of hotels as home bases.  But that's just our experience.

 Hi,  wife here...our Bordeaux river cruise was on Uniworld. We did a Danube River Cruise on Crystal. And yeah, Uniworld was great...but I hated all of the long bus rides. (We joke that when an excursion says “panoramic tour of” we know it is a bus tour...and we avoid it like the plague. Would do a land tour next time. 

We’ve been on 5 Crystal cruises. We love Crystal. But our last cruise wasn’t as fabulous as the others. 7 days in the Med on Serenity a few weeks before it went into rehab.  There was a black ring in our toilet the day we arrived...and wasn’t gone until I complained a few days later (I even had tried to get it out myself). The cabinetry was chipped and there was a few stains in the upholstery.  Also, the whole cruise felt rushed...although that was clearly our fault for picking a 7 day in the Med...7 days in the Caribbean is ok, not for the Med.  The staff just wasn’t as on point as earlier, and the cruise seemed to not have that Crystal pizazz that our earlier cruises had. That said, we absolutely would take another Crystal cruise...

However, Crystal had no interesting itineraries in the late April/early May timeframe that we were interested in. All seemed to be places we’ve already been, and/or 7 days. So we are on a Seabourn Odyssey cruise in the Med on May 1 for 11 days, which stops in at least 2 places we haven’t been (Sicily and Malta) We are looking forward to seeing the difference.  Hubby is doing a trip report that he started today. I’m sure he will have comments/concerns on Crystal vs. Seabourn. 

Pretty much everything goes (except sweats, t-shirts, shorts, etc.) at dinner. A couple of nights I wore nice jeans with heels and a nice blouse and a couple of nights I wore a skirt. Depended on my mood and how active we were that day. Twice I wore whatever I had on for touring as we would get back and pretty much go straight to the bar (jeans & blouse or sweater, walking shoes). People were dressier for the Michelin dinner and the Belevedere Palace thingy. (My hubby work a jacket sans tie to both, some wore ties, some wore just khaki's and oxford). I wore a silk maxi dress and heels to both.

We were on Uniworld in Bordeaux last year and it was pretty much the same thing.

Hope this helps.

Jennifer

Just got off the Crystal Mozart yesterday.

Some notes:

Wtih the exception of Budapest and Bratislava (and *maybe* Durnstein & Melk? I don't remember... maybe Linz, but we took the all day Cesky Krumlov tour so got right on a bus), none of the docking locations were right "downtown" i.e. walk off the ship into the heart of downtown. Passau was maybe 2 miles downriver at Lindau. Vienna is at the Millenium Tower, in a non-touristy part of the city. Budapest was right near the market (yum), but probably a 15 min? walk to Parliment (everything was definitely within walking distance of 5 (market) to 20 min (museum), but Crystal bussed us to the sites (although we did walk back from the market). Bratislava was right downtown.

Wi-fi is definitely spotty, but during our cruise they made it part of the all inclusive deal, and not just 60 min per day. Didn't really advertise it, but most of us figured it out when we ran out of minutes early in the cruise and weren't online. Trip to the front desk and we were told wifi was now included. Yeah! Except it was really really slow and spotty. Boo!

Hairdryer in the bathroom is horrid. When I saw Anne's pic of the bathroom, I knew I'd have to bring my own, which I did (it's dual voltage with a switch, but US pronged and folds in half for travel). HOWEVER...as we were packing to leave, low and behold there is a REAL hairdryer in a bag in the closet which would have sufficed for my uses (I have just below shoulder length hair). I do have a European 2 circle prong flat iron that I picked up in Thailand once when mine died (Thailand has the same voltage/2 prong). Someday I will get an European hairdryer to make my life easier...

The e-bikes are awesome! Not mopeds, but more like giving you a "boost" depending on how you set it (from eco to turbo). For the 42 km bike ride in Passau, they were awesome! You have to keep pedaling like a real bike...not like a moped where it keeps going after you stop pedaling. They were always available for use by anyone, and I believe there were even some available even during times when there were bike excursions.

Jennifer

Thanks Anne! I'll check out your blog.

Hi Claudia,

We leave on Wednesday for our Mozart cruise on Thursday. I'm debating about whether or not I need to take my travel hairdryer. So how powerful are the hairdryers on board?

Thanks,

Jennifer