Celestyal Crystal Review

4.5 / 5.0
241 reviews

Loved this cruise

Review for Cuba Cruise on Celestyal Crystal
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kc20202
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Mar 2017

I'm a little late adding my review, but better late than never. My sister and I chose this cruise as a break in between land tours of Mexico and Cuba. It gave us the opportunity to travel and see more places whilst still getting to sleep in the same bed every night, so it was a great break from the land tours where we were packing and unpacking and moving every couple of days. We sailed Havana to Havana, which gave us the opportunity to spend more time in Havana before and after the cruise (and it was also the starting place of a land tour we did). We loved the ship. Neither of us are fans of huge cruise ships, so this was the perfect size. The staff were all friendly and helpful. Breakfasts, lunch and afternoon tea were all served in the buffet and there was always plenty of choice. There were 2 restaurants open for dinner. We preferred the smaller one on deck 5, but they both served the same menu. The food was very good. I think there was only one meal that wasn't great, and that was the shrimp on the last night. Alcoholic drinks were included in the cruise price and I did my best to get through the cocktail menu, but didn't quite make it! The drinks weren't very strong (which was probably just well!) but they were good. The shows each night were not to be missed. The theatre is quite small and has some columns which block your view if you don't get there early enough to get a good seat. The performers were all very talented and put on a great show each night. We used the laundry service which was fine, but the drycleaning service wasn't very good. The shore excursions were also included in the price. They were all pretty good. They were well organised too, make sure you're on time in the mornings because there is no delay in getting you off the ship and away on the excursion.

Response from CrystalP, Celestyal Cruises

Thank you for sharing your experience on board the Crystal with us. We are delighted that you have enjoyed your cruise and that you chose to experience the wonders of Cuba with Celestyal...

Cabin Review

Cabin XB

The agent we booked through didn't give us a lot of choice when booking. The first one offered was on a lower deck with a porthole. We were happy with 5012 though. We had a large picture window. Deck 5 has the promenade deck, so I think our cabin was probably smaller than similar cabins on other decks. There wasn't a lot of space between the two beds once they were separated into twin beds, but we didn't spend a great deal of time in there anyway so it didn't matter. The bathroom was small, but the shower had a glass door which I thought was fantastic. No clingy shower curtain and the water stayed in the shower! There was a bin in the bathroom to put your toilet paper in, but the cabin was cleaned twice a day so there were no issues about smell or anything like that. We loved being on deck 5 - our favourite bar was the Thalassa Bar on the rear deck, and the Olympus restaurant, reception and shop were all there too. I've attached a photo of the cabin and the deck outside the cabin window.

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