Comparison between Crystal and Seabourn

[won2go]

This is being posted on both Crystal and Seabourn boards.

My wife and I are currently on the second leg of a back to back cruise on Crystal Symphony from Singapore to Hong Hong. This is our first Crystal cruise and I wanted to share our thoughts of the differences we found between Crystal and Seabourn.

Please note that this post is very subjective and you may or may not agree with my comments.

Pre-cruise documentation from both lines similar, except that Seabourn, through our travel agent, mailed luggage tags before departure.

Welcome on board and check in procedures very similar on both cruise lines.

As you all know the size of the standard balcony cabins on Crystal is a lot smaller than the newer three Seabourn ships and this is definitely a negative for Crystal.

Dining is another issue. We had dining by reservation and although the concept is good it falls down when you select 8pm as your preferred time as there is a large exodus of early diners and the subsequent noise created with the table clean ups and reset for the late diners. Quality of food served is excellent on Crystal and on a par with Seabourn. Obviously the two speciality restaurants both offer a great product and this is superior to Restaurant 2 on Seabourn.

Quality and variety of wine available on the free list is similar on both lines, my wife is equally happy with the Jacquard served on Crystal and the Nicolas Feuillate on Seabourn. Crystal appears to serve more USA wines while Seabourn serves more new world wines.

Production shows on Crystal are certainly of a higher standard than on Seabourn, the entertainment budget for 900+ passengers will be much higher than the 450 passengers on Seabourn.

Crew on both lines are excellent and I cannot choose a winner here.

Communications and back of the house operations on Crystal are less than what I expected. While it could be said that the following issues are minor, they detract from the great work being done by public contact crew.

We were sent an email from Crystal stating that they would be taking care of the Myanmar visa, pity they didn't include a requirement that we needed a photo for the visa.

Other arrival documents were printed on board and were not in the format required on the forms, US date format of MM/DD/YEAR was given on every form despite requested DD/MM/YEAR. No big deal but their onboard computer system should be able to adjust for the different day formats.

We had booked a guarantee room and Crystal advised my travel agent that they would try to ensure that no room change would be required at the end of the first cruise. About 5 days before the second cruise we were advised that a room change would be required. Several days later I was advised that the room we currently were in was empty and that we could keep the same room. OK, so why did Crystal in LA not do their homework properly?

With the removal of Bangkok ( very premature decision in my opinion), Sihanoukville in Cambodia was added. We received an email stating that a Cambodian visa would be arranged on board, once again no advise that a photo was required. Same for a Vietnam visa which requires two photos.

There are some things done better by Crystal, Mozart afternoon tea is very special.

Seabourn provides bottled water at the gangway when leaving the ship and certainly does sailaways better, piped music playing What a Wonderful World on Crystal really is second best.

Would we travel on Crystal or Seabourn in the future? Yes, itinerary will be the primary factor but both lines provide a first class product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[vistaman]

thank you for your comments.

concerning champagne : that is always very personal - i prefer the Jacquart

concerning wines : it is ashame Crystal does not improve the upper medium level Crystal does have all the big names - so the very expensive ones Pétrus Latour Yquem etc. - but lacks for example a great Meursault...

i also liked the fact great wines were available by the glass - for purchase - on the Collonade at Seabourn

and yes the speciality restaurants are better on Crystal - despite i do not a great fan of oriental food.

on the other side on Seabourn they nearly send you of the ship on embarkation day...

[wripro]

Thanks for the comparison. And I wholeheartedly agree that Crystal canceling Bangkok was way premature.