Our First Ever Crystal Cruise!

We sailed for 15 nights from Singapore to Mumbai on Crystal Serenity. This was the last segment of a World Cruise which had started almost four months prior. It was our first Asian ocean cruise and our first cruise with Crystal.

Here’s my guide to this stellar ocean itinerary and to the wonderful Crystal Serenity.

A Cracking Itinerary

This was a fabulous itinerary although a word of warning – in April, it was hot. And humid. Verrrrry humid.

Ports, in order, were: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown (Penang, Malaysia), Phuket, (Thailand), the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (India) Hambantota and Colombo (Sri Lanka) and, finally, Goa, Cochin and Mumbai (India). There were five relaxing sea days along the way. 

Have a look at our YouTube long-form episode to see the itinerary in some detail - https://youtu.be/n9ErCv3cL9U?si=EDRwzPQ9kYXTHGFs

Excursion Highlights 

We did a mix of Crystal excursions and our own independent excursions.

Crystal excursions are an extra charge (there is a large range and a large price range also) and they can be booked online before you board. By the time we went to book, some had sold out so my advice is to organise yourself as early as possible.

Our best value Crystal excursion was only USD$70 (approximately £52) per person and was to the Orang Utan Bukit Merah Sanctuary on mainland Malaysia (out of Penang). Included were a coach ride, a boat ride, admission to the Sanctuary and a snack with a drink. The stars of the show were, of course, the orangutans. We were metres away from them. It was very special.

Another great Crystal excursion was the Phang Nga Bay excursion. This was pricier at USD$280 pp (approx. £208) but it included a coach ride, a speedboat ride, a guided canoe ride, lunch at a lovely restaurant and use of snorkelling equipment. It was a fabulous day!

Our independently organised excursion highlight was a half day safari game drive at Yala National Park (out of Hambantota). This excursion was available through Crystal but was fully booked so we organised our own safari through GetYourGuide.

This safari trip was a private tour for the two of us and it was not cheap at USD$320 (approx. £238) but it included our transport and game drive in a game vehicle. We saw loads of birds, deer, water buffalo, even crocodiles but the stars of this show were the elephants. We were so close to a solo male and, later, to a mum and her two babies. We watched the babies splash and muck about in a waterhole. It was amazing!

What’s Crystal Serenity Like?

• Crystal Serenity has capacity for 740 guests and 655 crew. That’s an almost 1:1 ratio!

• The ship has 545 staterooms and suites, many of which have verandas.

• Crystal Serenity is 250m (820 feet) long and is 32.2 metres (105 feet) wide. It features thirteen decks (nine of which are accessible to guests).  

• Crystal Serenity was refurbished in 2023. This was no lick of paint refurbishment. A couple of decks were stripped back to bare metal.

The Crystal Serenity is opulent and spacious. Elegant and sophisticated with artwork adorning public spaces, incredible light fittings which double as art and stylish furniture. It might be 23 years old but, after the massive refurbishment in 2023, it is contemporary, classy and in immaculate condition.

Food, Glorious Food

I could write pages about this but I’ll restrain myself to a few comments about each of the dining venues. The dining was truly Exceptional at Sea!

In short, there are four signature restaurants: Umi Uma, Sushi Bar, Osteria d’Ovidio and the Beefbar. Crystal has unique partnerships with all these restaurants, making them the only venues at sea.

In advance of the cruise, you can book online into Umi Uma, Osteria and Beefbar once without payment of any surcharge. When onboard, you can dine at any combination of Umi Uma, Sushi Bar and Osteria four times. After that, a fee of USD$75 per person applies but,let’s be real, USD$75 is a pittance compared to what an Uber or parking would cost on land, let alone the cost of the meal so this is really incredible value. (Note – these are the standard “rules.” There are different “rules” for repeat Crystal cruisers or for guests in some Suite categories).

All of the signature restaurants have menus with many choices but, unlike Waterside, those menus do not change during the cruise. Beefbar opens for lunch and dinner (a different menu for both) but the other signature restaurants open for dinner only.

I don’t want to pick favourites so, in no order, here’s my summary of the dining venues:

Beefbar

We ate lunch there most days (and had dinner there on several occasions too!!) Our favourite dishes at Beefbar were the smoky Bao buns, the mini kebabs, the smashed burgers, the beef samosas and the steak frites with its signature special sauce.  

Osteria d’Ovidio

There’s a choice here of a Tasting Menu (three to choose from) or ordering à la carte, mixing and matching the Tasting menu items. Most dishes can be ordered as a half serve. There are also some specials which are not on the menu.

Favourite dishes for us here were a mix of traditional Italian dishes like Cotoletta alla Milanese, tiramisu, pasta alla Carbonara and eggplant parmigiana and dishes we had never tried before like a gratinated saffron risotto with licorice and cuttlefish with a light potato cream. 

Service here (and at all the restaurants actually) was top-notch and dining here was amazing.

Italian but elevated. In fact, the fanciest Italian food we have ever had.

Umi Uma

The only partnership at sea with Master chef Nobu Matsuhisa (“Nobu”), this is a highlight. Japanese-Peruvian fusion, dining here is a taste explosion.

Favourites at Umi Uma were the yellowtail sashimi with jalapenos and the wagyu sashimi from the Sushi Bar menu plus the rock shrimp tempura and the broiled eggplant topped with a Nobu-style miso sauce. As for mains, there was the Nobu–style black cod marinated in miso with baby peach and young ginger and the grilled Australian “wagyu” beef filet steak served with three kinds of sauces, my favourite being the Nobu-style wasabi pepper. So.

Much. Flavour.

Sushi Bar

This is the hottest ticket on Crystal Serenity as it is first come, first served and there are only six seats.

We had a special private seating there so that we could film it for our long form YouTube episode. You can watch it here - https://youtu.be/Td0EcxtVGCA?si=onPU8LWdAjX-T2yH

Supper Club

This was offered on Formal Nights but you had to book as only about 100 people could be accommodated in the Stardust Club.

Set up as tables of four, there is a four-course meal with live music and dancing. Dishes included Beluga caviar, Alaskan King Crab, Maine Lobster and Beef Wellington. Yumm!

Waterside

This is the Main Dining Room. It is enormous and you don’t need to make a booking.

Serving breakfast every day, lunch on Sea Days and dinner every day, we had à la carte breakfast there one day and dinner quite a few nights. For dinner, the menu changes every night!

Andrew particularly loved the nightly premium cheeses including some amazing French cheeses.

24/7 In-Suite Dining

Given that we had a butler and given that room service onboard Crystal Serenity is a 24-hour service, we just had to order room service (!!) and we did so for breakfast one day.

Our Butler, Mukesh, wheeled in a trolley absolutely brimming with breakfast choices. We had a silver service table spread within the privacy of our own Suite and we felt thoroughly spoiled.  

Marketplace

Buffet breakfast and buffet lunch were served here. We had a couple of lovely lunches (which includes a carvery) and we went almost every day for breakfast, starting with freshly squeezed orange juice. There were loads of brekkie options. Although the food is self-service, there is waiter service for drinks.

There’s both outdoor and indoor seating.

The Trident Grill

Open 11.30am-6pm, this was a lovely, casual lunch option. Cook to order burgers and sandwiches were the highlights.

Scoops Ice-Cream Bar

Open all day, we usually had “lunch dessert” here. (Beefbar next door doesn’t offer dessert at lunch service). There’s an array of flavours and toppings. 

It was very hot and humid on our cruise so Scoops was a fave spot!!

The Bistro

We had barista-made coffee from here every day. During the day, there are self-service snacks including fruit.

Palm Court (Crystal Afternoon Tea Time)

This was lovely. The usual finger sandwiches, cakes and scones with a choice of tea and accompanied by live music. We tried it one Sea Day.

Phew…..that’s a list isn’t it??!! Dining on Crystal Serenity was a true highlight. 

Drinks

French champagne – Jacquart - is available complimentary to guests 24 hours a day as are a large range of fine wines, premium spirits and cocktails.  Guests’ suites are stocked with bottles of whatever spirits you request.  When our Butler learned that we like an evening G&T, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire appeared and our mini bar was suddenly full of tonic. 

The mini bar was actually restocked twice daily and the ice bucket in our suite was always stocked with ice too.  

The range of included cocktails is enormous and we never even got close to sampling them all although we had a lot of fun trying!

There’s a huge variety of still and sparkling water too from the environmentally friendly Nordaq system of filtered water which is produced via onboard desalination to many different brands of bottled water.

Coffee onboard is barista-made at The Bistro or via an automatic machine in other parts of the ship.  We also had a Julius Meinle espresso machine in our Suite and I became very accustomed to an espresso in bed first thing in the morning.

What Facilities are there onboard?

• Outdoor pool.

• 2 x jacuzzis.

• Aurora Spa including: twelve (!!) treatment rooms, a hair salon, a nail salon, sauna and steam room, Various services including acupuncture are available.

• A huge fitness centre including a yoga/stretching room.

• Several boutiques selling everything from Rolex watches to diamond jewellery to Hermès handbags.  There were vintage Birkin and Kelly bags on sale during our cruise!

• A library (including “stations” for listening to audiobooks, complete with over-ear headphones).

• A disco.

• Several bars and lounges including a cigar lounge.

• 2 Paddle ball/Pickle ball courts.

• A Shuffleboard court.

• Golf driving nets and a putting green.

• The only Casino de Monte-Carlo at sea.

What's Included in the Cruise Fare?

• All the restaurants. With no surcharge!

• Self-service laundrette (there’s five of them, each with multiple washers, dryers, ironing boards and irons).

• Excellent WiFi.

• Unlimited drinks (not just with meals) including: fine wine, beer, spirits, champagne, specialty coffees and tea. 

• Complimentary shuttle into town (mostly – in some places e.g. India the local taxi union prevented a shuttle).

• Lots of enrichment speakers.

• Lots of activities including Bridge and puzzles. On our cruise, there was a knitting club!

• Church services for several religions.

• A daily hard copy newsletter called “Reflections.”

Our Sumptuous Suite

We stayed in Suite 9044 - a Sapphire Veranda Suite. This was the biggest and fanciest Suite we had ever had on a ship - approximately 40 square metres (430 square feet) with a 10 square metre (107 square feet) veranda. 

Our Suite comprised two rooms with a dining area and lounge, bar area, desk, coffee maker, walk-in robe and a huge ensuite bathroom. We slept in a cloud-like Queen-size bed with Jesurum 1870 cotton sheets and we had a massive wall-mounted TV in each room.

The Suite was elegant with muted colours other than a couple of colour pops – the sapphire velvet couch and the blue and white glass artwork come light installation on the wall of the lounge. And, of course, the blue sea which we had a lovely view of through our two sets of sliding doors.

The bathroom was bigger than our bathroom at home with dual vanities, marble everywhere, copious storage and a cavernous walk-in shower including a marble seat and three different water directions – rainfall, handheld and sideways jets. Each was controlled by a temperature dial and three separate on/off buttons. All three water jets could be used at once if you wanted!

Lovely Ortigia toiletries were refilled every day and the fluffy white towels were always being refreshed.

There was loads of light too - natural light which came from the bedroom but also electric lights including an illuminated magnifying makeup mirror and a huge bathroom mirror framed with lighting.

The whole Suite was amazing.

Some Sapphire Veranda Suite guest benefits include:

- 24 hour in-suite dining;

- Shoeshine service;

- Assistance packing and unpacking;

- One bag of laundry every ten cruise days (second day service);

- Five items of clothes pressed every day (second day service);

- Dry cleaning for five items (second day service);

- A fully stocked and continually replenished minibar; 

- A Butler

- Afternoon canapés delivered to your suite.

Entertainment

We have cruised on large ships with serious entertainment programs right through to smaller ships and expedition ships where musical entertainment is not a high priority.

Coming onboard Crystal Serenity we had super high expectations for the dining but we reallyhad no expectations about the entertainment.  We were shocked…in a good way. There was so much choice from the eight-person Showband (including a vocalist) to the Ensemble Dancers and Singers to the pianists, singing duos, electric violinist, dance hosts, guest entertainers and Enrichment Speakers. There was so much choice that you couldn’t possibly see everything. I would look at the Reflections newsletter and circle what I wanted to see so that I didn’t miss it. The Enrichment Lectures were recorded so that you could watch them on demand on TV.

My favourite line from an Enrichment Lecture was from Dr Sherry Hut who said, “We are travellers; not tourists.”

The Crystal “special sauce”

We felt that the crew were always smiling and always wanting to please and make sure that we were satisfied.  There’s a very high crew to passenger ratio of about 1:1 and the crew went out of their way to remember things like our drink preferences, our names and our seating preferences (yes, we loved a window table at Waterside!)

The crew were chatty and friendly but professional and not stuffy. A fine line but they managed it very well! They wanted to make us feel at home. We thought the service onboard was a key part of what makes Crystal Serenity a six-star experience.

Dress Code

Before 6pm, Crystal suggests “Day Casual.” Swimwear is only allowed poolside.

After 6pm, “Evening Resort” is suggested.  This means no ripped jeans and long pants for men. No flip flops, swimwear nor hats after 6pm. In the evenings, this was definitely thedressiest cruise we have ever been on.

There were two Formal Nights on our cruise and a White Party where most guests dressed in white. On Formal Nights, most men wore a jacket whilst a good number (including Andrew) wore a dinner suit. Women were dressed in cocktail wear and some were wearing long gowns.

Fun facts

• Crystal has two ships Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony.  A brand new ship, Crystal Grace, will be launched in 2028.  One of the features we loved on Crystal Serenity was the teak Promenade Deck which wraps the whole way around Level 7. We used it every day for a run or walk.  (Ten laps around the ship is about five kilometres). It’s such a “fan favourite” that it is being retained on the new ship, Crystal Grace.

• Crystal has been owned by the A&K Travel Group (A&K) since 2022. A&K is owned by travel industry icons Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio and Geoffrey Kent. d’Ovidio previously built and owned another luxury cruise line whilst Kent founded the luxury Abercrombie & Kent travel business. Not a bad luxury pedigree!

Leonie and Andrew Jarrett cruised from Singapore to Mumbai in April 2026 as guests of Crystal. Crystal Serenity will enter drydock in October 2026 for a little makeover.

Leonie and Andrew are Panache Ambassadors and you can follow them on socials here:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/we_like_to_cruise_and_travel?igsh=MTlucmNkenJicngzMg==

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@weliketocruiseandtravel

Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/share/1GQcv92N9j/?mibextid=wwXIfr
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cruise_and_travel?_r=1&_t=ZN-96qPz7br9Uc

You can find out more about Crystal here.