brescan

I compete at beginner bronze level, so I'm not all that experienced. If you are dancing regularly with a full silver competitor, then you are probably much more advanced than me. For social dancing on the ship, two of the hosts were more than adequate, one was adequate as a social dancer, and one was at least a good lead. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to dance on a cruise some day!

White Night is a "theme" for one of the nights on the cruise. I've only be on one New Crystal cruise, so I'm not sure whether they have one every cruise, but I get the impression that they do. So, everyone who participates wears white, or as close as white as you have with you. I was told that my St. John white and navy striped skirt set was "close enough" to white. The ambassador hosts wore white shirts and black pants. The ship officers were in Dress Whites. I saw one older couple getting their photograph taken, she in what looks like might have been her wedding gown; very sweet. So, after dinner, the party is in the Crystal Plaza. They put on a bit of a floor show with the cruise headliners (female singer, male singer, violinist, and dance pros). They were serving passed hors d'oeuvres. They then opened the Plaza up for dancing - it was a nice dance floor. I got to dance three songs with the dance pro. People who didn't dance lined the balcony on Deck 6 to observe. It was fun. My impression was iff you didn't want to participate, or didn't pack something white, no worries. The dining venues didn't care what you wore. And you could just choose not to go to the Crystal Plaza that night. Or hang out on Deck 6 near the Bistro and observe the festivities.

CC has posted my review from the Serenity Iceland cruise. Warning that the focus of the review is my solo perspective, this being my first cruise without my late husband. Overall, it was a very enjoyable cruise. Crystal treats solo guests very well, but has a few bugs to work out. I'm already looking at booking one or two of those bargain 7 day Caribbean voyages to check out their progress! Here is the link: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=705788

A change I liked: the solo rooms A change I didn’t like: evening dancing moved from large dance floor in Stardust to the tiny, sticky dance floor in Palm court.

I would say that two of the Ambassador Hosts had this range of ability (Latin, Smooth, Club) at a professional level, and were a joy to dance with. One of the guests was really good in Tango, and did some beautiful Tango dances. One Host was competent in Club dancing, but also could lead a decent Latin and Smooth. The last one only knew basic steps and a cross-body lead; maybe an occasional under-arm turn. You can probably tell from my posts that my pet peeve is a lead that doesn't lead, and all the Hosts were good leads. And there were not a lot of solo ladies dancing, so I danced nearly every dance. I forgot to mention that there was a professional dance couple on board. I believe the lead's name was Balint. He was great. I danced about half the White Night party with him. I can't remember the name of the follower; she didn't seem to dance much with guests except during White Night. I was definitely very happy with my dance experience on the ship!

I was on the cruise previous to this one (Reykjavik to Reykjavik). If I had known; I would have booked back-to-back. I am a big foodie, and I absolutely LOVED Umi Uma. Just spectacular food. In particular, I enjoyed the "new style" sashimi; they did a sampler of all three fish options for me. And the black cod is to die for. A warning about the seaweed salad; it is not the usual Wakame that we are all used to in most sushi restaurants. It is a mixture of seaweeds that I would think challenging, unless you have a very adventurous palate. I liked Osteria. In my opinion, it's better than Prego since I don't care for the American Style Italian. They kinda had two sub-menus, Southern and Northern (although you could get some of each). I did the Northern and it was delicious. Next cruise, I will try the Southern. Tastes was also quite good. The octopus was the highlight. Do the Supper Club night! We had lobster thermidor and prime rib. Of course, I had to only ask and they did a lobster appetizer and prime rib main course for me. And a great floor show. And dancing afterwards! I loved it.

I was just on Serenity for the Reykjavik to Reykjavik cruise. There were 4 Ambassador hosts, and they indicated that this was to be the standard. All four were dancing every night, except one was ill a couple of nights. Of the four, two were quite good, professional level dancers. One was fine, social level dancer. One was just okay, but did at least lead the couple of moves that he knew, and would be fine for someone who wasn't experienced.

I am on this cruise. It’s great to be back on Crystal! I also saw the Northern lights.