Crystal Serenity set sail last month, and Crystal Symphony last Saturday evening, both after extensive makeovers undertaken at Fincantieri’s Trieste shipyard. The latter will undertake her first commercial cruise starting September 1, from Athens.
Crystal Symphony was purchased in 2022 for $25m and Crystal Serenity for $103m. To get the two vessels (the former, built 28 years ago and the latter, 20 years ago) back at sea has amounted to in excess of €278m just for the hardware and the refurbishments.
Does this level of investment in older tonnage make sense in the highly competitive luxury market where newbuilds are arriving at a rate of knots?
Seatrade Cruise News spoke to both A&K Travel Group’s executive chairman Manfredi Lefebvre and CEO Cristina Levis onboard Crystal Symphony during her shakedown cruise in the Adriatic and posed this question, along with several others.
Bringing Crystal back to life
Both replied without hesitation and to the same tune: ‘Most definitely it was the right decision to bring Crystal back to life,’ commented Levis.
‘Crystal is a great brand, has exceptionally loyal and attentive crew and great assets in its two ships,’ echoed Lefebvre, adding ‘we needed to get the ships, the crew and passengers back on board quickly and could not wait the four years it would have taken to introduce a newbuild which is why we chose the refurbishment options.’
He complemented Levis on the amazing job she has gone to steer the Crystal rebirth.
Crew loyalty
The CEO, who has spent almost the entire year overseeing the Crystal project is delighted that over 80% of the crew wanted to come back and sail on the two ships, ‘when they knew we were bringing the ships back they waited until they could re-join us rather than going to other cruise lines or leaving the industry. This speaks volume for the brand and the ships.’
Levis was quick to point out that in addition to the makeovers in the public areas and accommodations, ‘we have spent a lot on deck and engine too on the things you don’t see on making the ships more fuel efficient and more environmentally friendly to bring them not only up to IMO standards but also to the Posideon Principles,’ - a framework for assessing climate considerations into ship financing lending decisions in support of shipping decarbonization goals.
Larger suites
The accommodation makeovers on Symphony, like on Serenity, are extensive with all rooms sporting new carpets, hard and soft furnishings at a minimum: the problem with the configuration previously was a large compliment of 19 sq mtr cabins, explained Levis. By combining the area of two cabins into one, and in some cases three into one, we have created a large number of 47sq mtr suites resulting in a capacity now of 606 guests.
The dining experience is very important to Crystal and besides the Waterside main restaurant both ships feature two alternative specialty restaurants to enhance the evening dining options: Osteria d’Ovidio is in honour of new owner, Lefebvre and features cuisine inspired by various regions of Italy. ‘We stripped this space down to steel and rebuilt it completely,’ says Levis.
Nobu Matsuhisa connection
Umi Uma by Nobu Matsuhisa Restaurant and Sushi Bar is partially refurbished on Symphony and fully refurbished on Serenity. The Japanese-Peruvian inspired fusion cuisine is open in the evenings and has been a signature dining experience on Crystal ships for over 20 years.
The Bistro has been fully refurbished as a European-style coffee car and café serving speciality coffees and teas from Julius Meini as well as patisseries and is a popular meeting place throughout the day.
A completely new space on both ships is The Lounge, a multipurpose room with comfortable but purposeful chairs and tables for those wishing to sit quietly, work on their laptop, read or play board games and can also be utilised for art or other displays/presentations.
Casinos to return
It replaces the casino but since Serenity’s relaunch Levis has had second thoughts about removing the casino.
‘We listened to our travel partners feedback during the Serenity shakedown and are already planning to address the lack of no casino onboard both ships,’ she revealed.
‘We have engaged a casino concession company to draw up plans for its configuration and costs and will review it when competed.’ She hopes to install the casinos onto both ships ‘sometime’ next year.
Levis has a location in mind which is not ‘a large space’ and where the addition of a casino could be completed whilst the ships are sailing.
Levis believes both ships have a soul. When I first went onboard I felt the ships had a story to tell, the crew have an affection for the ships, past Crystal passengers also have an affinity to the ships.
New passengers
For the inaugural seasons for both and up to the end of this year, between 70-73% of guests sailing will be past passengers she shared. ‘For next year, the ratio will be more around 60/40 in favour of loyal guests and of the 40% we hope to attract half who have never cruised before.’
The North America source market still represents over 70% of guests, followed by the UK and Australia, with Germany and German speaking source markets significant too. According to Levis. becoming ‘more important’ is South and Central American sourcing and Crystal is beefing up sales and marketing in this region to build this market.
Exceptional at Sea
So, the new Crystal may have dropped the Cruises in its name but has added a tagline: Exceptional at Sea.
Levis explained her confidence in making this claim: ‘When we acquired the IP (after the liquidation of Genting Hong Kong) we got together our marketing, sales and operations teams for a brain storming session to question what made Crystal so special in the luxury cruise space?
‘We looked at consumer feedback too.
‘When I joined the luxury cruise industry twelve years ago Crystal was always held up as the benchmark to aspire to, commented the former Silversea executive - the service, the curated entertainment, the culinary offer – all exceptional and that is the word that kept coming through which is how we arrived at Exceptional at Sea.’
So now phase one is complete; the story moves to fleet expansion, news of which was announced last month with talk of four newbuilds in six years.
Expedition newbuild first
Nothing is signed yet but first will come the announcement of a one plus option expedition ship with an Italian shipyard, Levis disclosed. ‘The GA has been developed, we are now working on the interiors and have appointed a team of designers to scope the public areas and another to work on the suites. The lead architect for the newbuilds (an Italian professional designer) who has overseen the Serenity and Symphony refurbishments will also oversee the newbuild projects, Levis shared, although her name has yet to be revealed.
She will also work on the interiors of the classic new ships which will also be ordered on a one plus option basis, however these are not as advanced as the expedition ships.
‘We hope to finalise and announce the expedition newbuild by end of 2023 and the classic newbuild by Q2 2024, but only when the financing is secured,’ Levis stressed.
Any reason why she chose to push the expedition expansion first? Levis says she has a love for expedition cruising and discloses the first ship will definitely be PC6 as it will operate in the traditional expedition polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctica. Size? ‘Ability to land in all of the 40 landing places possible across the continent means the ship has to be 200 pax or less.’
She does not discount the possibility of warm water expedition in future especially with the expertise A&K has with cruising in the Kimberleys and Russian Far East for example, ‘but this will not be considered until we firm the option for the second ship and then we have to decide wether to operate only in warm weather and therefore decide if the ship is built to PC6 or not allowing the flexibility to operate both traditional and warm weather expeditions.
A&K has long been involved in expedition cruising and last December, the company formed a partnership with Santiago Dunn and his Galapagos travel company, Ecoventura.
The A&K factor
This brought the conversation neatly onto the A&K factor and the synergies the parent of Crystal is providing and plans to expand on in future.
‘I have spent a lot of time on Crystal these past 12 months as A&K is such a well-oiled team. However we have an exciting expansion plan for A&K in South America particularly in Chile, Colombia, Peru and in the Amazon at Iquitos, both on the land and rivers.’
The plan is to buy and refurbish two small (20-30 passenger capacity) second hand river cruise ships to operate on the Amazon and Magdalena rivers.
‘On the shorex side, A&K’s experience on land tours can really compliment the pre and post Crystal cruising experience and will be fully integrated by mid-2024, and offered on Serenity’s World Cruise 2025.’
A&K is to also craft an ‘Exceptional’ destination experience at each place visited by Serenity and Symphony whilst Crystal’s shorex team will concentrate on the wider tour programme at each destination.
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