Crystal Cruises, the luxury cruise operator whose ships were pursued through Bahamian waters by federal agents over unpaid bills, has laid off all 238 of its Miami-based employees and intends to wind down its operations.
According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing with the state of Florida, the company started to lay off top executives, managers and staff members in Miami on Jan. 21, and intended to complete the task by last Friday.
“We are taking the action because we will be undertaking an assignment for the benefit of creditors, or seeking similar relief,” a company human resources staffer said in a letter dated Feb. 10 to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
The letter was posted on a state DEO website Friday.
It was not immediately clear how customers who have booked cruises not taken would receive any refunds or other compensation.
Attempts to reach the offices over the weekend were met with disconnected telephone lines and a company website, crystalcruises.com, advises customers that cruises have been temporarily suspended and that the company’s call center has been “paused.”
One number that is in operation directs callers with accounts payables questions to a line with a full mailbox. Callers with other issues are advised to remain on the line, only to have the call dropped.
Voyages for the company’s ocean and expedition ships were suspended through April 29, with river cruises suspended through the end of May, the website says.
Those suspensions, according to the website, “will provide Crystal’s management team with an opportunity to evaluate the current state of business and examine various options moving forward.”
Interim president and CEO Jack Anderson, who was appointed in October 2020, also posted on the website: “This was an extremely difficult decision but a prudent one given the current business environment and recent developments with our parent company, Genting Hong Kong.”
But Crystal’s top executives, including president and CEO, are among those listed on the company’s termination list filed with the state.
Bermuda court action
The halt in Crystal’s operations is a direct result of financial troubles encountered by its parent, Genting Hong Kong, according to Fortune. While other major cruise operators resumed sailing as government COVID restrictions eased, hardline policies to curb the virus in Hong Kong and other areas hindered Genting Hong Kong’s recovery, Fortune said. In addition, a Genting Hong Kong shipbuilding subsidiary in Germany went insolvent early last month and the company petitioned the Supreme Court of Bermuda to wind down its operations.
That marked the apparent end for Crystal Cruises. Two of its ships were seized in the Bahamas over $4.6 million in unpaid fuel bills.
The ships are now in the hands of a company called V.Ships, a vessel management firm named by a court-appointed liquidator, according to Cruise Industry News.
