Nearly every year, in nearly every poll of travel publications and their readers, Crystal Cruises tops the "Best" list in the large ship category. And deservedly so. Aboard the line's two sister ships, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Harmony, service and cuisine are nearly flawless, and the ships feature a wine list that would do any Michelin three-star restaurant proud.

The ship has some of the best passenger flow we have experienced. There are no notable bottlenecks, and signage is excellent. There is ample exterior space on both fantail and around the pools for passengers to enjoy meals, lounging, or refreshments. Crystal Symphony herself is an exercise in understated elegance. Every detail is attended to with class and quality. Our only criticism is the paucity of artwork. With two exceptions, the ship is wanting of sculpture, as well as lacking notable paintings. Even the stair towers with their vast vertical spaces—which on most other ships are usually covered with wall hangings, tapestries, and mobiles—are curiously bare.

Crystal Symphony's cabins are all substantially larger than industry norm, and exceptionally well appointed. There are no inside cabins. The minimum cabin (Category E) measures 202 square feet and features a picture window, though all 110 Category E cabins have obstructed views. The décor of all cabins reflects the pale pastel overall décor of the vessel as noted earlier, with lots of light colors and bleached wood accents. Almost 60 percent of the shipboard accommodations (278 cabins) have balconies. These accommodations range from deluxe cabins (246 square feet) to the two Crystal Penthouses, each 982 square feet. Each cabin is richly endowed with amenities, including TV/VCR (with free videotapes available through the ship's library), alarm clock, safe, mini refrigerator/minibar, plush terry cloth bathrobes, and hair dryer. Storage space in bathrooms is excellent, and each bathroom has twin sinks and a bathtub. There are seven handicapped-accessible cabins.

Crystal Symphony's single dining room accommodates her entire passenger load in two formal dinner seatings, augmented by two alternative restaurants: Prego (Italian) and Jade Garden (mixed Asian), and room service from the complete dinner menu. The main dining room also serves breakfast and lunch, as does the Lido Café and Gardens. Guests can also dine on freshly made burgers, hot dogs, steak sandwiches, and other grilled specialties, as well as piping hot French fries, between 11 AM and 6 PM at the Trident Bar and Grill, also on Lido Deck

The Crystal Dining Room is spacious and open with large windows and brass and crystal accents. There are a number of tables for two, as well as a handful of tables for parties of more than eight guests. Cuisine served in the dining room is contemporary American/Continental with a few lagniappes of Pacific Rim thrown in for good measure. Where the food service operation really shines is in the freshness of ingredients, especially seafood. Maine lobsters are typically flown in live, and kept alive until the day they are served. Fresh fish is provisioned "on the fly" as well. Both breads and desserts are notably superior. Each menu features vegetarian, low-fat, and salad entrées. Any entrée can be ordered without sauce. Kosher, as well as other specialized menus, can be preordered at the time of booking. There is a special children's menu and, during peak family travel periods when there are a greater number of children aboard, Crystal will institute a special early family dinner in the Lido Café and Gardens. On request, the galley will puree fruits and vegetables for Symphony's youngest guests. The Lido Café and Gardens serves a quality buffet breakfast on fine china with linen napkins and sterling silver flatware. Service is particularly accommodating, with a committed staff of servers anxious to assist the guest with his/her tray to the table. We found the buffet lunches in the Lido less satisfying, but on sea days, Crystal Symphony mounts elaborate special themed brunches—Asian, American, Mediterranean, etc.—amidships around the Neptune Pool. These proved superior.

The two alternative restaurants provide welcome options to the regimentation of assigned seatings and the opportunity to dine with new-found friends. Of the two alternative restaurants, we preferred Prego. Its Italian menu never disappointed. We found Jade Garden less satisfying. On the sister ship, Crystal Harmony, the Asian alternative is Kyoto, serving Japanese cuisine. Faced with the quandary of whether to serve Japanese on the Symphony, or to differ by offering Chinese, Crystal compromised by making the restaurant "mixed Asian," a potpourri of various cuisines of the Pacific Rim's western edge. Like most compromises, this one turns out to be less than the sum of its parts. Reservations are required for both restaurants, and Crystal suggests a $6 per guest gratuity.

The pivotal public area is the Crystal Plaza, Crystal Symphony's central, two story atrium lobby, with a water sculpture descending from the skylight ceiling to the marble floor. Circling the top level of the atrium on Deck 6 are the three shops of Symphony's "Avenue of the Stars" shopping arcade; along with the Bistro, an airy wine, cheese, and espresso lounge. Deck 6 is home to most of Crystal Symphony's public rooms, including the Galaxy Lounge (showroom), cinema, casino, library, business center and computer lab, alternative restaurants, and several lounges (including our personal favorites: Avenue Saloon and Connoisseur Club, whose dark woods and clubby atmospheres formed a welcome counterpoint to the ship's overall pale décor). Decks 7, 8, 9, and 10 are passenger cabin decks, three of which have self-serve laundries.

Galaxy Lounge is Crystal Symphony's 463-seat showroom. All seats have excellent sight lines. The seating is arranged in alternating horseshoe-shaped rows of chairs and banquettes, with ample legroom and tables with adequate surface area for plenty of drinks. I found the production shows ordinary and typical of cruise ship entertainment (Big Band, '50s/'60s, Hollywood, and Broadway Musical tributes). However, I should note that the ship's passengers seemed totally enchanted and enthralled with the productions, so this clearly represents my personal reactions. Production singers and dancers also double as cruise staff. Additional nighttime entertainers included a comic, singer, and violin virtuoso. In the lounges two pianists held court, and we found them so similar as to be interchangeable. There is also a lounge combo, which we did enjoy. I liked the friendly and casual atmosphere of the casino, Caesars Palace at Sea. For most of the cruise the casino had adequate capacity for a ship of this size. However, on popular gambling nights, such as the last night of the cruise, I found there were too few tables. There is only one dice table, one roulette wheel, and a handful of blackjack tables. Caribbean Stud is not offered.

Though children over the age of six months are welcome, Crystal's longer itineraries and luxury category fares discourage many passengers from choosing these ships for family vacations. During peak family traveling periods, Crystal adds youth counselors and organized activities for passengers age three through 17. Crystal Symphony has an excellent children's playroom called Fantasia and a teen video room called Waves. In-cabin babysitting is available on 24-hour advance notice through the concierge, and at a reasonable charge. Pregnant women may not sail after the second trimester.

Most passengers are urbane, erudite, and well-traveled. The average age is around 60. You will find a smaller number of passengers under 55 relative to lower-priced, shorter itinerary lines, though each sailing has a sprinkling of upscale honeymooners. Families are more commonplace during summer vacation, Christmas, and spring break

A suggested tip of $10.50 per person, per day as follows: $4 to your cabin steward/stewardess, $4 to your waiter, and $2.50 to your assistant waiter. A $6 per person gratuity is suggested for each of the two alternative restaurants (though many passengers we talked to actually tipped higher), and when applicable, $5 pp/pd is recommended for your butler. Tips can be charged to your account or paid in advance.

On sailings over seven nights there are three formal nights, with a roughly 50/50 split of informal and casual nights for the remainder, plus one '50s/'60s dress-up night. By and large, formal means formal: Black tie for men, gowns for women. On our sailing, a good 80 percent of the men wore tuxes. And this is a ship where, on formal nights, passengers remain in their finery. Any guest who changes into casual clothes immediately after dinner will feel very out of place indeed. On this ship, informal is jacket and tie, and casual is country club casual.

• Total cabins - 480
• Passenger capacity - 940
• Private balcony cabins - 276
• Wheelchair accessible cabins - 7
• Ship length - 952
• Square feet per passenger - 53.1
• Officers nationality - Scandinavian/Japanese

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