Crystal Cruises Is Officially Back — and Just Announced It’s Expanding, With Over-the-top Tours and New Ships
Crystal Serenity has relaunched, with Symphony coming next month — and new ships already in the works.
Crystal Cruises is back on the water — and ready to expand.
The cruise line, which went bankrupt early last year, was acquired by luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent Travel Group in June 2022. A&K bought Crystal’s two ocean vessels — Serenity will sail its inaugural journey from Marseille, France, to Lisbon on Monday, July 31, with Symphony following suit on Sept. 1, sailing from Athens to Istanbul.
Today, during a preview sailing for press and travel agents, Cristina Levis, CEO of A&K Travel Group, announced that Crystal plans to expand with four new ships by 2029, including two expedition vessels. The company will start construction on the 650-passenger ocean ship and 220-person expedition ship next year. (Crystal previously offered expedition cruising on Endeavor.) The contracts are not finalized, but Levis said the plans are “quite advanced, particularly for the expedition ship,” which will sail to the Arctic and Antarctica.
It’s worth noting that A&K already has robust Arctic and Antarctic expedition offerings, which sail on Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot. “For the foreseeable future, A&K will charter Ponant ships, though over 40 crew members from the former Crystal team will be on board the Ponant voyages,” Levis said.
For the present, though, the focus is on Serenity and Symphony as Crystal returns to the seas. Both ships were given a hefty refresh before welcoming guests — 80 percent of whom are returning fans — back on board. “We went down to the steel,” Levis said. “We’ve rebuilt the rooms [and public spaces], not just refurbished.”
This summer, both Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony will sail the Mediterranean Sea and Northern Europe, to destinations like Istanbul; Santorini, Greece; and the U.K.’s Isle of Man, with fares from $3,800 per guest. Symphony will then sail in Asia, Africa, and Australia this fall and winter, while Serenity will tour the Caribbean.
The fleet isn’t the only thing Crystal plans to expand. Crystal’s senior vice president of global marketing, Jacqueline Barney, confirmed plans to weave A&K land tours into Crystal’s 2025 world cruise. “Imagine, if you have a three-day gap between Guayaquil and let’s say, Lima, being able to jump off and taking an extraordinary A&K expedition to the Galápagos and checking that off the bucket list,” she said.
Crystal will announce more itineraries for 2025 in the coming months, but you can book 2023 and 2024 sailings at crystalcruises.com.
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