thinking of a Crystal cruise to tide us over until our second disney cruise - Info??

[disneyholic family]

we're thinking about taking a Crystal cruise to tide us over until we can all get together for a second disney cruise in 2005....

has anyone been on the Crystal Harmony or Symphony?...
how do they compare to the Magic/Wonder?
How is Crystal as compared to DCL?

thanks in advance...

 

[Denine]

Sounds like a good idea. I haven't been on a Crystal cruise, but I have read it is a very nice cruiseline. My cruise book lists the Harmony a rating of 9 and the Symphony a 10 out of 10.
I couldn't wait until 2005 for my next Disney cruise or other cruise. After October back to back Disney cruises, we go on HAL for a 7 day cruise in January. I am already looking into cruising next October!

 

[liza]

They are very different. (You're serious, right?) I haven't been on Crystal, but my in-laws have, and they said it is wonderful. It's much more of an adult experience, however. You sign as "disneyholic family". I don't know the ages of your children, but if they are pretty young I wouldn't think Crystal is for them. Also, my guess is the other passengers would be resentful of other peoples' young children on board. Finally, I think Crystal tends to have longer cruises, and to places like Europe and Asia, and I'm not sure very young children would be well suited to shore excursions like tours of cathedrals.

I have heard good things about Celebrity, though.

 

[disneyholic family]

Denine - what book is that? as for wanting to cruise...yes...that was our first cruise and now i'm hooked....if i lived in florida, i'd probably become as addicted to cruises as i am to WDW....

liza-
actually we're on the wrong side of the atlantic which is why i was looking for a cruise line in europe/the mediterranean...
my kids are old (15 and 18) and love visiting new cities and countries....we just did the total tourist experience in NYC (museums, double decker tour bus, theatre, etc) and they loved it....just as we did 2 years ago in paris.....so that aspect of it isn't a problem....(in fact, we were supposed to go to japan at the end of september for 2 weeks....one week at tokyo disneyland and disney sea and one week for me to show them all the beautiful places i remember from my childhood......alas my daughter and i are too terrified to get on another airplane after all the flying we just did this summer, so i've cancelled the trip)......

i've been trying to work out when we all can get to the US for a DCL cruise, but summer 2005 seems to be the earliest time....
but we might be able to take a cruise closer to home before then....
because of the cost and time involved in a trip to the states we like to have at least a full month of time available....this past trip (we got back home a week ago) we traveled around the states for 6 weeks......it makes the huge investment in plane tickets worthwhile....

of course it won't be the same as being on DCL......but 2005 is so very far away....the problem is, i know nothing about cruising and cruise lines.....we took the disney cruise because we knew that when disney does something they tend to do it right....and besides....we are disneyholics after all....

but still.....we enjoyed that cruise so much we'd love to do it again.....i'm just worried about being disappointed after being on the Wonder.....

another thing i've been considering for 2005.....a repositioning cruise to get us to florida for the disney cruise...only problem is, how would we get back?.....hmmmmm......i hate airplanes....
maybe i could convince my husband to move to florida...

 

[liza]

Well, since your children are 15 and 18 and are accomplished overseas travelers and sightseers, my thought now is that once you cruise on Crystal you won't want to go back to Disney!

I will do Disney while my children are very young, but when they are much older I would love to go on Crystal! When they are a LITTLE older we would probably try something like RCI's Voyager of the Seas. If I ever cruise without children, I want to try the Paul Gauguin (Radisson Seven Seas). I bet you will LOVE the Symphony or Harmony! Go to www.cruisecritic.com for a discussion board on Crystal.
Have a great trip!

 

[disneyholic family]

thanks!..
i'll go check out that site...
(and read up on the paul gauguin...and radisson....)

 

[Denine]

The book I have is "The Unofficial Guide to Cruiselines". It tells you everything you wanted to know about all the cruiselines.

There are a lot of the smaller luxury cruiselines that I'd love to try when I am old and rich!

 

[peagreenid]

Is very nice- Although I haven't sailed them before, I work as an agent part time and have priced them a couple of times.
They ranked #1 in Conde Nast magazine for LUXURY cruises 6 years in a row.
Unfortunately you will pay for it.
The last one that I priced was for a family of 4. The inside and oceanview cabins I priced only SLEPT 2. So you had to have 2 cabins and paid the 1st and 2nd rate for all 4 passengers.
They have an awesome looking cruise San Francisco to San Francisco going thru alaska......
I hope that some day I can afford to go on one of these.
I just received some new sale flyers.....pm me with an address and I can send you one.
smiles Patty

 

[cotomom]

Crystal is TOP of the line. You will have a fantastic time onboard, with service and food being at the ultimate.

I have cruised on both Crystal and DCL. We were on the symphony for a med. cruise and going on harmony in about 2 weeks. We went on DCL 5/02 and we too have rebooked with Disney, but not until 2004.

DCL was wonderful, and definitely geared towards the kids. Crystal will be geared towards adults, but don't let that scare you if you have kids. My kids were babies when we took them on a Med. cruise (Greece to Turkey) and they loved it (the Dead Sea and Jordan Rivers especially). And we loved it, with all of the extra attention we received. You have to remember, that most of the staff members are married and their families are far away. They **loved** playing with our kids and catering to their every whim (tho' I was not the one requesting the every whim deal). The other cruisers never looked down on us for having kids, they always commented pleasantly and showed us pics of their kids back home!

You will not have the crowds on Crystal like DCL. Shows are spectacular with top notch entertainment. But you will pay MUCH more for Crystal.

Other cruiselines you may want to look into that are in between DCL and Crystal are Princess and Celebrity. Radisson is comparable to Crystal ~ also very upscale.

Any more questions, fire away!

 

[disneyholic family]

wow!...
thanks for all the information everyone...
this board is incredible...

Denine - i'm going to run out and buy that book...no such thing as too much information...

Patty - i just ordered their brochures from them online...although i couldn't find anything on pricing but i only glanced...

cotomom - i don't mind if things are pricey, assuming you actually get what you pay for...sometimes things are just expensive without being better than anything else..
it's good to hear that they actually provide service commensurate with the price..

as for not wanting to go back to DCL...not possible...disney is disney and will always be our first choice....
(and it doesn't matter if the kids are big or little, it's their first choice too....why do you think we spend 3 weeks at WDW every summer....other people think we're nuts...nope...just disneyholics)