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Feature: Following in the Pilgrims footsteps ... but with a touch more luxury - with video

First impressions as we explored the ship were grim. Cramped sleeping conditions, little to no sanitation, no gastronomique restaurants ... in fact none of the luxuries we were accustomed to.

But the experience was humbling. After all, we were in Plimouth, Massachusetts, on board Mayflower II, an exact replica of the tiny vessel that transported the first Pilgrims from the UK to what became New England on a 66-day voyage into the unknown.

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Crystal Symphony is a far cry from the sailing experience of the 17th Century pilgrims... ©seaviewcruises.co.uk

For the 102 brave souls who set foot on the tiny Plimouth Rock in 1620, they could not possibly have conceived that almost 400 years later thousands of peple would be leaving luxurious cruise vessels to travel the 25 miles from the bustling city of Boston to this historic site, and the amazing recreated Pilgrim plantation where you step back into the 17th Century.

As humbling as the experience was, it was nonetheless a relief to return to our own luxurious ship, Crystal Symphony, stacked high with all those luxuries that Mayflower lacked and which place it among the few 6-star ships afloat.

Entering our sumptuous Penthouse stateroom and falling in a heap on the kingsize bed, with all its Egyptian linen and softest of pillows, didn’t quite delete from our memory the thoughts of the hardship we had just learned of. But they quickly began to fade as our butler - yes, butler - brought a tray of canapes to accompany our pre-dinner aperitifs.

David - a native of Chile but with the looks of an Italian - pressed my suits and shirts, polished my shoes, replenished the penthouse suite fridge with alcohol, topped up the very more-ish chocolates and left me wondering how I could spend the rest of my life without him. My wife was thinking the same thing too.

This is what you get when you cruise on Crystal’s superior Penthouse deck. You are, however, paying a premium for this pleasure.

Other pleasures include a more spaceous bathroom than the standard cabin, considerably more room to move around in, and a verandah which comes into its own in the warmer climates.

The first port of call in Quebec was simply stunning... ©seaviewcruises.co.uk

The 17 Penthouse suites offer even more space, and the two Crystal Penthousesa are mind-bogglingly beautiful and mind-blowingly expensive.

But after its recent £15million refurbishment, there isn’t a stateroom on Crystal Symphony that you wouldn’t quicky feel at home in.

In fact the entire ship has a very homely feel that leaves you completely relaxed when the time comes to leave.

I have yet to find the perfect cruise, and even Crystal’s undoubtedly superior product was open to one or two small criticisms.

The main one was two-sitting dining at 6.15 and 8.30, which for me was either too early or too late to enjoy the splendid Crystal Dining Room. It did, however, suit many of the passengers, especially the more senior ones - of which there were a good many.

But Crystal has even managed to bypass this problem by devising a ‘dine when you like’ alternative which comes into effect in 2011, leaving you with three dining options.

Happily, there were no such time restrictions for the specialty restaurants Prego and Silk Road which are not to be missed. Amazingly there was no surcharge for eating in these superb Italian and Japanese restaurants - just a small gratuity automatically added to your account.

As for the cruise itself, the golf-themed Links and Lobster voyage, as it was called, was strong on Links and a little lacking in lobster. I was indeed grateful to get the chance to devour one of the creatures on our call at Portland in Maine as there was no such opportunity on board. The highly recommended Gilbert’s Chowder House gets through 100 lobsters a day, and this is just one of many eating places. The breeding area must be colossal.

A visit to see Mayflower II in Plimouth is a must... ©seaviewcruises.co.uk

We flew into Montreal a day before departure as a precaution against delayed flights, but BA got us there on the dot. Then, after a night at the comfortable Fairmont Queen Elizabeth - famous for John Lennon’s love in with Yoko Ono in 1969 and his recording in suite 1785 of Give Peace a Chance - and a short exploration of the old town, we made the short cab ride to the cruise terminal.

Our first stop at Quebec as we sailed up the St Lawrence river was simply stunning, St John, Halifax and Portland were disappointingly shrouded in mist, our two days spent in the historic city of Boston were memorable, especially visiti9ng Mayflower II and the Pilgrims plantation, and Newport was decadent, although it was unfortunately closing down for the winter. Final stop was in New York for the return flight to Heathrow, made simple by the fact that BA is the only airline capable of flying you into Montreal and out from the Big Apple.

A visit to the maritime museum at Halixax - birthplace of the great man Samuel Cunard himelf - is time well spent, graphically detailing not only the retireval of the bodies from the Titanic, many of which are buried in the town, but also the catastrophic dynamite ship explosion five years later in1917.

The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, flattened a third of the town and left thousands dead and injured. Indeed it was the world’s biggest blast prior to Hiroshima, creating a mushroom cloud that soared miles into the air.

Thankfully, butler David was once again on hand to lift our spirits on returning to our stateroom.