Are Crystal's River Cruise Ships Up For Sale?
(12:46 p.m. EDT) -- Luxury brand Crystal has reportedly put its river cruise fleet up for sale, according to an industry publication. The potential sale was revealed by an email a Florida shipbroker sent to a number of European river cruise operators, noting the five vessels can "be developed for sale". The shipbroker also noted that "the owners are very serious sellers." The five ships make up the entirety of the Crystal River Cruises fleet, operating exclusively in European waterways. A statement from a travel agent posted on the Cruise Critic Message Boards did not directly address the question:  "As far as our River Ships, we are focused on preparing for the late August restart of service for Crystal Debussy and Crystal Ravel as well as taking record-breaking levels of bookings for 2022 for all five ships, including the reintroduction of Crystal Mozart to our North American source markets with the industry's only dedicated suites for solo travelers. "Our fully-vaccinated crew have been hired, the technical teams are readying the vessels and we are all very excited to get true luxury back on Europes greatest rivers. "I hope this will set your clients mind at ease that Crystal is here to stay and ready to begin sailing again." Crystal Says River Cruises Will Resume This Summer  Responding to Cruise Critic, Crystal stated its river operations would proceed as scheduled this summer. "Crystal is aware of the email sent to our competitors by a Florida ship broker," said a Crystal spokesperson. "It is customary for brokers to put out feelers, assets to be put on the market as part of a valuation exercise and companies making overtures for possible mergers and acquisitions. In fact, since Crystal River Cruises launched to great acclaim, the company has been approached by suitors in the past. "We would like to assure our valued guests and travel advisors that Crystal River Cruises is steadfastly focused on pivoting away from the travails of the pandemic as we prepare to restart service this year on August 29 with Crystal Ravel on the Danube and August 30 with Crystal Debussy on the Rhine. With the 2022 return of the Crystal Mozart to our core fleet, we are expanding our global-sourced capacity by 28 percent and, thus far, our record-breaking levels of bookings have supported this decision. "Our 2023 season is already open for bookings with a host of new innovative itineraries including a lovely roster of 5-night voyages, and these bookings are coming in at a strong pace as well. "Finally, on Monday, our parent company, Genting Hong Kong, completed its financial restructuring agreement with its global creditors." Since the global health pandemic shuttered travel in March 2020, Crystal has struggled with financial woes while parent company Genting Hong Kong has flirted with bankruptcy. In August of 2020, Genting halted payments to creditors totalling $3.4 billion. A 70-page thread on Cruise Critic's Crystal Cruises message board tracks woes Crystal's passengers have had in their attempts to get refunds for their cancelled cruises. Crystal's fortunes have been looking up as of late. The company unveiled a series of brand-new voyages sailing from the Bahamas and Iceland, and is returning its oceangoing fleet to service under strict vaccination protocols. Crystal's river cruise operations remain paused until August 29, 2021. Recently, Crystal announced it would suspend select sailings aboard Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler through the end of 2021. Affected passengers were to be moved to sister-ships Crystal Debussy and Crystal Ravel.