Crystal ready to sparkle and shine
New ocean ships, new river cruisers power luxury line’s dominant look
Few cruise companies can make a case for owning their category — whether it’s river, ocean or luxury class.
Viking Cruises became the dominant player on European rivers with just less than 50 per cent of that market. On the oceans, Carnival Corp. and all its brands operate 100 ships, more than any other company. Seabourn, Silversea and Regent Seven Seas are prominent players on the luxury side, and all have new ships in the works.
However, there’s about to be a runaway leader in the luxury league: Crystal Cruises, which hadn’t built a new ship in 12 years but was always ranked at or near the top of luxury lines, now boasts a dominant look. It began when Genting of Hong Kong purchased Crystal Cruises last year for US$550 million. The new owners immediately appointed Edie Rodriguez as chief executive officer and president. From there, the fun began.
With fresh capital, Crystal went on a buying and building spree. Last summer, Crystal announced:
That three new ships would be built at German shipyard Lloyd Werft
That two river ships would launch Crystal into that market
That Crystal’s mega-yachts and jet aircraft were coming
That Genting was buying that shipyard, ensuring there would be no wait-list when the time came to add more ships.
Before long, the river-ship order was raised from two ships to five, followed by announcements of a new expedition ship, a second Boeing jet and a Canadian-built Bombardier Global Express XRS jet scheduled to go into charter service this week.
The all-suite, all-balcony ocean ships — more than 1,000 feet (305 metres) long, carrying 1,000 passengers plus 1,000 crew members (a 1:1 passenger-to-crew ratio) — will be operational by 2017. Meanwhile, Crystal’s two original ships, Symphony and Serenity, will continue cruising for the foreseeable future.
The three new ships will have cabins starting at 400 square feet (37 square metres), larger than ones on other luxury brands, and there will be suites for sale — 48 of them ranging from 61 square metres to more than 4,000 square feet (371 square metres). Listing prices have yet to be announced.
The river cruise venture is a first for a luxury ocean line. If you’re a fan of classical music, you’ll love the ships’ names — Crystal Mozart, Crystal Bach, Crystal Mahler, Crystal Ravel and Crystal Debussy. The Mozart’s a refurbished ship that will commence sailing on the Danube in July. Two new ships cruising the Rhine and Danube rivers will carry 110 passengers, the other two will carry 84 passengers on the Seine, Garonne and Dordogne rivers.
The previously launched expedition mega-yacht, Crystal Esprit, has a helicopter, small submarine and other adventure accessories. Its expedition partner, coming in 2018, will be the Crystal Endeavor, named after English explorer James Cook’s 18th-century research vessel. It will have two helicopters with landing pads for flightseeing and two seven-person submarines.
And if you don’t want to cruise in luxury, you can fly the same way aboard Crystal’s 300-passenger Boeing 777 or their Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Both will fly 28-day, around-the-world air cruises each month for about $100,000 per person. You won’t be jammed into undersized seats; each plane will only carry 88 passengers in first-class, luxury flatbed style.
Let’s hope we don’t have a recession in the near future.