Review: Penthouse Suites on Crystal Symphony

The back side of the lido deck on the Crystal Symphony.

Before I review the penthouse suites on Crystal Symphony, let me say that although I am not really a fan of cruises, I seem to end up on ships through no fault of my own. Probably because in some cases it’s the best way to see a lot of territory or to visit hard-to-reach foreign places. Like a cruise to the Inside Passage of Alaska or to the Galapagos or tooling around Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. All of those vessels were very small ships. Fewer than 30 passengers.

The thing small ships offer is an intimate experience sans obnoxious people, for the most part. There is always that one person, though, you wished would shut up but continuously yaks and yaks.

Penthouse Suite on the Crystal Symphony is on Deck 10.

When I found a Mediterranean cruise offered penthouse suites on Crystal Symphony, it seemed like an interesting idea to try this sort of experience. The penthouse suites featured almost 500 square feet. Additional delights: a Jacuzzi tub in the bath with dual sinks and a separate shower. A master bedroom with its own window, separate from the living area. Huge walk-in closet.

Penthouse suite verandah on Crystal Symphony boarding in Lisbon, Portugal

This type of accommodation appealed to me because it meant no more crouching over the toilet to take a shower. Penthouse suites on the Crystal Symphony offered a bit more elbow room. Plus, we could enjoy our own private balcony without having to lounge in the company of hundreds of other passengers on the noisy Lido deck where you have zero chance to choose the music that offends your ears.

Window dining with Elizabeth Weintraub aboard the Crystal Symphony

The Crystal Symphony has 476 cabins that can accommodate 952 to 1,095 passengers. The hallways are long, like Twilight Zone long, where the rooms seem to go on and on and on, never ending. There are elevators, though. And the staff knows your name, everywhere you go, and being a Penthouse Suite guest, you get special treatment. In fact, you don’t really have to mingle at all with anybody else if you don’t want to. Nice option for introverts.

Elizabeth Weintraub with a glass of champagne at Penthouse Suite Crystal Symphony.

Our first day, we were introduced to our butler, Malind. He explained all the stuff that was included in the penthouse suites on Crystal Symphony, like everything in the mini bar, bottles of wonderful Portuguese, French and Spanish wines, a daily refreshment of gourmet chocolates and fresh fruit, plus snacks in the afternoon like shrimp cocktails with a bowl of cashew nuts.

Malind mentioned the French champagne chilling on ice as our welcome gift. I waved my hand toward the bucket and joked, “You better make sure to refill that every day, OK?” And his response was, “Yes, Ma’am.” My jaw dropped. Yes, we had died and gone to heaven.

Our penthouse suite was number 1033, right in the middle of the ship on the 10th deck. Being mid-ship means you don’t feel a lot of the rocking and rolling that you can get by being near the port or bow areas. I had a slight concern that the close proximity of the elevator would be a bit noisy, but it was very quiet. Sleeping was fairly easy except for the night we sailed from Casablanca north along Africa toward Gibraltar.

Crab salad aboard the Crystal Symphony Accent on Spain cruise.

Every day when we appeared at the entrance to the dining room, serving staff and managers lined up in front to welcome us. Usually I don’t like that kind of fawning, but after a few days you did recognize the staff and they probably also recognized us, so it wasn’t necessarily put on.

The meals were incredible, of course. Crystal Symphony also offered selections that fell into the lighter / low calorie / low carbs category for lunch, which was a great sign that they figured out not everybody enjoys high fat / high caloric meals. At the end of the cruise, our evening server presented us with an envelope containing all of the menus for all of the dinners. Why? I don’t know. We threw it away.

Adam Weintraub at Deck 5 lounge on Crystal Symphony

We did not participate in many of the evening activities, and there were many options, generally because after shore excursions in the hot sun, we did not have a lot of energy left at the end of our days. Plus, we often had to get up early to prepare for the next shore excursion the following day, which meant no all-night partying for us.

One night we stopped in the lounge on Deck 5 for a nightcap, and Adam ordered an 18-year Glenfiddich, which has now become my new favorite scotch. Everybody else seemed to be occupied in the casino or the movie or the show theaters. The only movie we saw was Suffragette, which was better than we expected it to be.

Elizabeth Weintraub at Captain’s Cocktail Party on Crystal Symphony.

One night we attended the Captain’s Cocktail Party. Guests who stay in the Penthouse Suites on Crystal Symphony received a private invitation to this event, although I suspect the penthouse stateroom guests were invited as well, but maybe not. This was the second time we appeared at the Captain’s door as we had misread the invitation and showed up a day early the night before. A bit embarrassing. Which meant, of course, we had to go the following night because who shows up a  day early for an event and then does not attend the event at its scheduled time?

Elizabeth Weintraub playing Mastermind on Crystal Symphony

You can see by this angle that I was very close to winning the first game of Mastermind.  I was completely unaware that Adam had shot this photo, so focused on strategy, just like I concentrate on Sacramento real estate. I zone in. The library offers games, videos, books, maps, all sorts of stuff. Outside of the library and down the hall were large engraved plaques hanging on the wall with photos of Mary Tyler Moore and Angela Lansbury who, for some reason, christened the maiden voyage of Crystal Symphony.

In retrospect, if we planned another cruise on Crystal Symphony, I would probably opt for the penthouse staterooms and not pay extra for the suite. The two differences that I noticed were the living area and bedroom were closer together in the stateroom, and there is no window in the bedroom. But we kept the drapes closed at night and early morning, so having the extra window was not a big deal. The penthouse stateroom is a bit under 400 square feet, so it’s still a decent size for a cruise ship and would have been just as acceptable as well.

To give you an idea of cost, take an upcoming 14-day cruise from Lisbon to Rome next month aboard the Crystal Symphony. The advertised non-discounted fare for penthouse staterooms is 12,950 per person versus 17,580 per person for the penthouse suites.

The entire Accent on Spain cruise was like a fairytale I wished would never end. The only real complaint I have is the internet. Crystal Cruises limits the satellite internet to 60 minutes for most guests and 90 minutes for penthouse stateroom guests. After you figure in the downtime wasted loading websites, unblocking pop-ups, and receiving mail, I could not handle as many emails as I needed in an expedient manner.

Sometimes, the traffic was so heavy I could not send an email through my client server and had to switch to webmail. Thank goodness I could rely on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team for support, much as I prefer to do everything myself.

Some of us still work and carry on business aboard a cruise ship, even while on vacation. All the luxury hotels have done away with limiting internet, and you’d think the cruise ships would follow suit. Well, the ships will conform eventually. I would not return to a Crystal Symphony cruise until it does.