Review of Crystal Symphony from the Sydney Morning Herald

[Stickman1990]

A review of Crystal Symphony from todays Sydney Morning Herald 

 

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/reviews-and-advice/cruise-ship-review-a-new-owner-saved-this-luxury-ship-from-ruin-20240220-p5f6cg.html

[NWX]

Thank you, Terry! We've seen far too few posts from those on Symphony and we pine for news.

[USCAdventurer]

her review of symphony is fabulous and she loved the whole ship.  so why did she only give it 41/2 stars out of 5?  she didn't like the cruise termial in sydney.  could that be the reason for the less than 5 rating?  we'll never know but she should have put in her feelings why she gave the ship only 4 1/2 stars.  when travel writers are given veranda suites on deck 10, they must feel obligated to give a good reveiw.  why don't they put some travel writers on deck 7 and then they can see what cabins on that deck are like?  i sure would like to see those reviews but fear i never will.

[Texas Tillie]

55 minutes ago, USCAdventurer said:

her review of symphony is fabulous and she loved the whole ship.  so why did she only give it 41/2 stars out of 5?  she didn't like the cruise termial in sydney.  could that be the reason for the less than 5 rating?  we'll never know but she should have put in her feelings why she gave the ship only 4 1/2 stars.  when travel writers are given veranda suites on deck 10, they must feel obligated to give a good reveiw.  why don't they put some travel writers on deck 7 and then they can see what cabins on that deck are like?  i sure would like to see those reviews but fear i never will.

 

On Symphony, only 76 out of 303 cabins or 25% are the old "cabins" and not suites. So, if a travel writer is given an Aquamarine or higher, they will write about the majority of accommodations on the ship.

[mnocket]

1 hour ago, USCAdventurer said:

so why did she only give it 41/2 stars out of 5? 

Because it wasn't perfect? Perfection is an aspiration that is rarely, if ever, achieved. Some critics will never give a perfect score as it's akin to saying "nothing could ever be better".  Only a true pessimist could believe such a thing😄

[USCAdventurer]

Love your reply thanks😊

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, USCAdventurer said:

her review of symphony is fabulous and she loved the whole ship.  so why did she only give it 41/2 stars out of 5?  she didn't like the cruise termial in sydney.  could that be the reason for the less than 5 rating?  we'll never know but she should have put in her feelings why she gave the ship only 4 1/2 stars.  when travel writers are given veranda suites on deck 10, they must feel obligated to give a good reveiw.  why don't they put some travel writers on deck 7 and then they can see what cabins on that deck are like?  i sure would like to see those reviews but fear i never will.

David, I reread what she wrote having read it earlier. There are some items she just described but never said what she thought so if we say that five means excellent maybe there were a couple of items that she thought were very good.

 

Keith

[USCAdventurer]

Thanks for your comment Keith

[Stickman1990]

5 hours ago, USCAdventurer said:

her review of symphony is fabulous and she loved the whole ship.  so why did she only give it 41/2 stars out of 5?  she didn't like the cruise termial in sydney.  could that be the reason for the less than 5 rating?  we'll never know but she should have put in her feelings why she gave the ship only 4 1/2 stars

If it worries you that much why don’t you email her and ask her - her email was at the bottom of the article - jrichards@fairfaxmedia.com.au

 

Let us know what she says

[USCAdventurer]

I’m not worried

[History&Wine]

I realize this thread is about Symphony.  I wonder where the Australian reviews of Serenity are.  We picked up a bunch…I counted 25…TAs in Sydney for a multi day stay, a similar number in Melbourne and a lesser number in Adelaide. 

[Stickman1990]

4 minutes ago, History&Wine said:

I wonder where the Australian reviews of Serenity are

It won’t be the TAs that do reviews - they will

come from journalists from newspapers and magazines. If I come across any I’ll post links to them 

[lincslady]

But they are hardly likely to be unbiased, surely.  You only get those, sometimes,  from a fair minded paying passenger.  Any journalist reporting on a ship will almost certainly have been 'comped', and  will have been shown the best the ship can offer.  Anyone on a freebie is not going to bite the hand that feeds it.

[travelberlin]

I find it also interesting that when looking at the reviews for the ships on Cruise Critic, we hardly find people who post on this board. For example for the Serenity there are several reviews now, and I can only recognize Keith, who writes 5 stars reviews of all his cruises with Crystal. Other reviewers I do not recall having see them posting on the Crystal boards. Are they travel agents or travel journalists just coming to Cruise Critic to write reviews?

 

On the other hand, other Crystal loyals here, who have already sailed with Crystal, and seem to love the product do not write reviews of their cruises, although their opinions might be helpful for the new company.

 

Ivi

[Keith1010]

40 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

I find it also interesting that when looking at the reviews for the ships on Cruise Critic, we hardly find people who post on this board. For example for the Serenity there are several reviews now, and I can only recognize Keith, who writes 5 stars reviews of all his cruises with Crystal. Other reviewers I do not recall having see them posting on the Crystal boards. Are they travel agents or travel journalists just coming to Cruise Critic to write reviews?

 

On the other hand, other Crystal loyals here, who have already sailed with Crystal, and seem to love the product do not write reviews of their cruises, although their opinions might be helpful for the new company.

 

Ivi

Ivi,

 

Even with old Crystal and for that matter some of the other luxury lines the number of reviews written were relatively small.  I do recognize four people who wrote Serenity review, including yourself and I recognize one who wrote one of the reviews for Symphony.  Sometimes people write reviews on this board and not on the review board. I remember someone did a couple of months ago and I suggested she copy and paste it onto a review for the review board.

 

I doubt travel journalists would write a review on CC.  I can't be sure but travel journalists work and ones I have spoken with over the years already have a lot on their plate and I can't see them taking their time to write one here. I also doubt many TA's would write reviews. In fact, most of the TA's that I've met over the years read CC but don't post. Yes, I know there are exceptions as we have some on this board who post.   Often people writing reviews at least on the luxury lines are people who have taken their first or maybe a handful of cruises with a line.

 

Speaking for myself, I try to write a review each time as I do on CC's sister site for hotels and restaurants. I do this because there was a time where I read reviews about other cruise lines when I was looking to sail other lines as I do today when staying at hotels or going to restaurants that we have to been to before. I feel that some of these reviews helped me so I have felt I could return the favor by writing a review.

 

Keith

[Gregrat]

Keith, what/where is CC’s sister site?

2 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

 

[travelberlin]

Thanks Keith for your answer. Same as you, I try to write reviews from my cruises and from hotels and restaurants to give others an idea of what to expect. I benefit a lot from reviews from others when searching hotels and restaurants. I have to say, I benefit more from the lower rated reviews than from the 5 star reviews. If posters write something negative, I see if the negative things are very important to me or not. For example if someone mentions a security and safety issue in a hotel, it doesn’t matter how many others write 5 star reviews, I do not book on that hotel. 
 

I have indeed written a review of my cruise with the Serenity. I have given the experience 5 stars, not because every thing was perfect and better than ever from my point of view. But because I appreciate the efforts that the new company is making and I have given my honest review with some suggestions for improvement. Nothing is perfect but I did not find the issues that I did not like to be a problem in order to diminish my 5 star rate of my experience. 
 

I do not recognize the names of the other reviewers because they do not post on this board. This is why I was wondering. Thanks again for your explanation.

 

Ivi

Edited March 25 by travelberlin

[travelberlin]

11 minutes ago, Gregrat said:

Keith, what/where is CC’s sister site?

Trip advisor 

[Gregrat]

13 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Trip advisor 

Thank you lvi.

 

 

2 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

 

[ryndam]

4 hours ago, travelberlin said:

I find it also interesting that when looking at the reviews for the ships on Cruise Critic, we hardly find people who post on this board. For example for the Serenity there are several reviews now, and I can only recognize Keith, who writes 5 stars reviews of all his cruises with Crystal. Other reviewers I do not recall having see them posting on the Crystal boards. Are they travel agents or travel journalists just coming to Cruise Critic to write reviews?

 

On the other hand, other Crystal loyals here, who have already sailed with Crystal, and seem to love the product do not write reviews of their cruises, although their opinions might be helpful for the new company.

 

Ivi

I beg your pardon. I spent considerable time and effort during 30+ days on Serenity in January-February 2024 and consistently posted my observations almost daily on a "live from" thread. My comments were certainly not all rose-colored, 5-star. I recall reading some of your observations that were also posted on that thread.

 

Terry (sn Stickman) also did a very nice "live-from" Serenity on his most recent journey Tahiti-Aukland.

 

I do not duplicate my efforts by repeating comments on the secondary CC "review board". I post my observations live, get home, unpack, start planning our next adventure and then move on. I also complete Crystal's emailed survey, which gives a greater opportunity to address issues directly to Crystal management, without posting potentially controversial comments on a public forum.

 

There are so many available outlets for one to post their impressions, the specific/dedicated "cruise review" section of the CC message boards is probably my least visited forum of any available online cruise sites.

 

Rob

 

Edited March 25 by ryndam
typo

[Keith1010]

53 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Thanks Keith for your answer. Same as you, I try to write reviews from my cruises and from hotels and restaurants to give others an idea of what to expect. I benefit a lot from reviews from others when searching hotels and restaurants. I have to say, I benefit more from the lower rated reviews than from the 5 star reviews. If posters write something negative, I see if the negative things are very important to me or not. For example if someone mentions a security and safety issue in a hotel, it doesn’t matter how many others write 5 star reviews, I do not book on that hotel. 
 

I have indeed written a review of my cruise with the Serenity. I have given the experience 5 stars, not because every thing was perfect and better than ever from my point of view. But because I appreciate the efforts that the new company is making and I have given my honest review with some suggestions for improvement. Nothing is perfect but I did not find the issues that I did not like to be a problem in order to diminish my 5 star rate of my experience. 
 

I do not recognize the names of the other reviewers because they do not post on this board. This is why I was wondering. Thanks again for your explanation.

 

Ivi

Ivi, I benefit from a range of reviews.

 

I don't see a one star review being any better than a five star review or a five star review being better than a one star review.

 

A five star review by a lot of people says a lot and a one star review by a lot of people says a lot.  

 

The reality is we all see things from different perspectives and for that matter can have different experiences at the same venue but on different dates or even on the same date.

 

I go with the 80/20 rule which also served me very well in business.

 

If I am unfamiliar with a product and 80% of the review are positive or 80% are negative I accept that as fact until I experience it myself. 

 

As to the CC reviews. They keep it simple by having nine categories but by doing so they do miss certain aspects that people might want to know about.  On the other hand they constrain this a bit by not letting you provide comments under each category if you so choose to do so.  

 

Also there are very few things that are perfect or if they are they aren't always 100% perfect and that applies to pretty much everything.

 

When it comes to reviews I do like to read the details when I am unfamiliar with the product and find them more helpful than the actual rating.

 

I do enjoy reading the comments of people on this board who post live reports and reviews on these threads.  

 

With NC I have also enjoyed seeing how comments have evolved as the on-board experience has evolved.  

 

Keith

 

 

[travelberlin]

2 hours ago, ryndam said:

I beg your pardon. I spent considerable time and effort during 30+ days on Serenity in January-February 2024 and consistently posted my observations almost daily on a "live from" thread. My comments were certainly not all rose-colored, 5-star. I recall reading some of your observations that were also posted on that thread.

 

Terry (sn Stickman) also did a very nice "live-from" Serenity on his most recent journey Tahiti-Aukland.

 

I do not duplicate my efforts by repeating comments on the secondary CC "review board". I post my observations live, get home, unpack, start planning our next adventure and then move on. I also complete Crystal's emailed survey, which gives a greater opportunity to address issues directly to Crystal management, without posting potentially controversial comments on a public forum.

 

There are so many available outlets for one to post their impressions, the specific/dedicated "cruise review" section of the CC message boards is probably my least visited forum of any available online cruise sites.

 

Rob

 

Thank you. No offense was intended.

 

Ivi