Crystal Suspending All Operations After Parent Company Files for Liquidation

Crystal Cruises is suspending all operations until at least the Spring.

In a letter to advisors sent on Wednesday, Crystal, which is owned by Genting Hong Kong, announced that it has suspended all its ocean and expedition operations through April 29, 2022, and river operations through the end of May 2022.

The company said that the suspension is an “opportunity to evaluate the current state of business" and "examine various options moving forward.”

All of the ships currently sailing—Crystal Serenity, Crystal Symphony, and Crystal Endeavor—will finish their current journeys, the last of which will end on Feb. 4. After that, Crystal will enter an indefinite suspension and an unclear future.

Crystal president Jack Anderson called the move “an extremely difficult decision but a prudent one given the current business environment and recent developments with our parent company, Genting Hong Kong.”

“Crystal has been synonymous with luxury cruising for more than 30 years and we look forward to welcoming back our valued guests when we resume operations. We wish to thank our guests and travel advisors for their incredible support during these ongoing challenging times,” he added.

Genting has been working through a difficult financial environment for a few years—in August 2020, after news broke that the company, a resort, and cruise conglomerate, was having financial troubles, Crystal issued a statement saying it was not going out of business.

The difficulties continued through the pandemic, a time period that included the sale of Crystal's 2015 passenger Yacht Esprit, until, last week, Genting said it could face potential cross-defaults on some $2.8 billion of financing agreements stemming from the insolvency of MV Werften, a German shipbuilding subsidiary that was part of its portfolio.

On Wednesday, those issues came to a head when Genting, in a filing to the Hong Kong exchange, said it would “imminently be unable to pay its debts” and filed an application to wind up the company at the Supreme Court of Bermuda.

While the future for Crystal remains unclear, in that filing Genting said that it expects the majority of its operations—Star Cruises, Dream Cruises, Resorts World theme park in Manila, and Crystal—to “cease to operate.”

Crystal will refund all monies to the original form of payment on file. If bookings were made via a Future Cruise Credit, Crystal said the full value will be returned to their account.