Travel Blog: Renewing our Acquaintance with Crystal Symphony

Boarding day always seems to involve a lot of waiting - have breakfast, wait until hotel checkout; check out, wait for the transfer vehicle to arrive; get to the port, wait for instructions from the staff about being organized in the terminal building; get into the building, wait for your check-in group to be called; finally get on the ship....no waiting to complete check-in!!!

And, true to form, even though we have not been on this ship in 12 years, the first person we met on board was our very old friend, Andrew Triplow. We first met Andrew in 2005 on Crystal Harmony where he was the Crystal Society Host. Now they call that position the Loyalty Manager and it is combined with Future Cruise Sales. As we sailed out of Piraeus in the evening, I was on the Promenade Deck looking for some photo opportunities when I ran into another old friend: Yvonne, the Chief Accountant who we know from Crystal Serenity. When there were still hosted tables in the main dining room, we would more often than not end up at Yvonne's table on formal nights.

Of course, the first thing to do after finding our suite was to go to the Trident Grill and have lunch.

What is a Crystal cruise without at least
one steak sandwich??

The Chicken Caesar Wrap

We sailed way from Piraeus a little before 7 p.m. But before that we all had to attend lifeboat drill. Crystal Symphony is probably the only ship sailing that still requires guests to go out on the Promenade Deck, although now without their lifejackets, for the muster drill. We figure that it is because the lifeboats are hanging over the deck, as opposed to more modern ships that have them tucked in and accessible from inside the ship at the stowage point. They may also not be able to change this because they would have to be able to accommodate all 600 guests on Deck 7 in case of an emergency, and they can't do that because there aren't any public rooms there.

Muster drill - at least we were on the
shady side of the ship!

A church near the waterside as we sailed
out of Piraeus

The pilot boat leaving us

We made a last-minute decision to try the Sushi Bar at Umi Uma for dinner, and were fortunate to get seats there. The food was excellent as always and it is a treat to watch the sushi chefs do their magic.

Tuna tartare in a wasabi sauce

Yellowtail with Jalapeno

Nobu's New Style Beef Sashimi

The Head Sushi Chef with the plate
of sashimi he had just prepared for us

Shrimp Tempura Roll

And we always have to have Shrimp
and Vegetable Tempura

Larry really likes the Welcome Aboard show because it includes an Irish Dance number, so we made a point of going. We had forgotten just how much smaller the show lounge is - we were sitting right in front of the technical booth, and were only about 5 rows from the stage! On Serenity, we would be about 10 rows back.