Just Back From Crystal Symphony

[jim]

Took the cruise from Cape Town to Lisbon (October 25 to November 17) and had a wonderful time. Port of calls between Cape Town and Lisbon were Walvis Bay, Namibia; Bom Bom Island, Principe; Lome, Togo; Takoradi, Ghana; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Banjul, Gambia; Dakar, Senegal; Porto Grande, Cape Verde; and Las Palmas, Canary Islands. This was my third cruise on the Symphony, and although I enjoyed them all, this one was probably the best. I enjoyed the food, service, lecturers and entertainment, plus I was able to visit a part of the world that I have never been to before and I feel learn a great deal about the countries that we visited. I would recommend this cruise to anyone.

[Jason]

I did Symphony to Europe last year. Excellent ship as you said. Do you know anything about the clean-up they did to it? Have they done it yet?

Crystal Symphony was in drydock in France for approximately 10 days in November - haven't been on it but I did see pictures of the improvements and they were fabulous. Go and enjoy.

[jim]

Jason, when we left Crystal Sympony in Lisbon on November 17th, it went into drydock there the same day, for about two plus weeks. After drydock it was scheduled for a trans-Atlantic crossing to U.S. I don't recall the details of what specific work they planned while in drydock, except that they were taking the crew off the ship during that time, and planned to refurbish the cabins (new carpeting, etc.). I also know that a German firm was standing by in Lisbon to re-do completely the Jade and the Italian restraurants. Also they were having problems with one prop while we were cruising, and they planned to scrape the bottom and rework the props. I think in general they were going to redo most of the interior, and that is why no crew was staying onboard.

[Kelly]

We were on the crossing right after drydock and we saw what they had done during those two weeks. They completely replaced the carpet in the Crystal Cove area, in the hallways on deck 6, and in the Lido. They redid the chairs in the Lido. The only rooms they re-did were both Crystal Penthouses---no other rooms were touched. They only refurbished the Jade Garden, not the Prego. Not much else was done other than what I just wrote.