This is not an obituary. It is, instead, a love letter to a company
and its people that made me proud to work in this industry. Crystal
Cruises and its two grand dames, the Symphony and the Serenity, are in
trouble, deep trouble, along with their young sibling, the Crystal
Endeavor expedition vessel, and, to my thinking, Europe's most respected
riverboat brand.
The Symphony was headed back to Miami on, perhaps, its final cruise
under the Crystal brand we came to love when a Miami judge ordered U.S.
Marshals to "arrest and detain" the ship when it docked in Miami. It
quickly diverted to the Bahamas where passengers were ferried back to
Port Everglades. One final indignity.
Many years ago, I wrote a piece trying to figure out the "secret"
behind Crystal Cruises' unusually high guest satisfaction and service
scores. At that time, the line was owned by NYK, a giant Japanese
shipping conglomerate. I discovered that they had set up a training
facility in a suburb of Manila, Philippines, that turned out crew who,
somehow, understood better than any other crew at sea how to relate to
guests on a human and personal level.
I recall spending two different embarkation days arriving early at
the pier and seating myself at a corner table with my notepad so I could
observe passengers sitting down for lunch or snacks after a long
flight. I observed something I had never seen on any previous ship I had
inspected.
Crew members walked up to repeat guests and were able to remember
their past voyages and even some of their preferences. They called other
crew members over to the table to introduce them to the guests, and
soon I realised that before lunch was over, many Crystal guests, perhaps
most, had met Crystal crew members who knew their names.
By the time they headed back to their staterooms to unpack, they knew four or five crew members by name.
It was an amazing exercise to observe, and the sincerity of it all
made me realise I was witnessing something rare in the cruise industry. I
was not naive. I had been on several dozen cruises and had worked for
more than a decade at one of the largest lines. No one was doing what
Crystal was doing.
Now, a billionaire in Malaysia owns Crystal, and his company, Genting
Hong Kong, has filed for liquidation in a Bermuda court. The court will
decide what happens to the various parts of the group—including a
casino, the shipyards in Germany, Dream Cruises in Asia—along with
Crystal Cruises. It will likely be broken apart, and no one knows where
the pieces will land.
My guess, my hope, my prayer is that the Crystal brand will be deemed
far too valuable to disappear. If Royal Caribbean Group, Norwegian
Cruise Line Holdings or Carnival Corp want to enter the riverboat
market, what better way to do it than to purchase the top-ranked brand
with a fleet of the latest ships?
The cruise fleet will, I imagine, be attractive to investors that
have previously shown a strong interest in travel and hospitality. These
could include Apollo Global Management, which previously had a major
investment in Norwegian Cruise Line; the private equity firm Certares;
or perhaps another major investment group new to hospitality and
leisure. Capturing the Crystal brand would be an intriguing first step
for a firm eager to enter an industry with an enviable financial record
since 2008 and until the pandemic.
Next time: A few personal stories about the ships and Crystal's people.