Luxury Operator Crystal Cruises Offers Discounts on Shorter Cruises

Luxury travelers take note: Crystal Cruises is kicking off 2013 with a younger clientele, shorter cruises, stronger 2013 bookings, a broader collection of ultra-luxe cruise destinations and savings.   How so?

New Book Now fares, guaranteed only through February 28, 2013, offer up to $1500 off Asia, $1500 off Europe, $1600 off New England/Canada, $1700 off South America, $1000 off Holiday sailings, and more.  

What’s more…

·         Reduced Solo Travel Fares on 12 voyages in Asia, Mediterranean, Baltic and South America – as low as 110% for sole occupancy staterooms.

 

·         Kids Sail Free on select July and August Western and Northern European cruises, in a third berth when sharing a stateroom with two adults.

“Booking early reaps great benefits – in savings, third berth capacity, airfares, etc.,” says Jack Anderson, senior vice president, marketing & sales.  “When our last round of Book Now fares expired on December 28, we raised rates on 25 cruises in 2013 and seven in 2014.  By the end of December, we had over 70% of our targeted revenue on the books for 2013.  The word is out that these extraordinary fares for our ultra-luxury cruises are not guaranteed forever.”

Also significant, many more 2013 cruises are 10 days or less (almost half!), including a 250+% increase in shorter European cruises.  Additionally, Crystal’s wildly successful Fall 2012 series of short Getaways, are returning for 2013 with more options to more destinations.

·         Crystal Getaways:  As little as 5 days, 9 voyages in Asia, Australia/New Zealand, New England/Canada and Alaska start as low as $1,470 per person.

“More than 70% of our Getaways guests are new to Crystal and, on average, almost 10 years younger,” says Anderson.  “Some are time-crunched professionals.  Some are combining with land stays.  All in all, they’ve been blending in well with guests on more extended cruise vacations and are raving about their Crystal experience.” 

Also worth noting in 2013:

·         More than 50% increase in shipboard overnight stays in port on embarkation days – to better enjoy the destination and ease the travel experience.

·         25% more port days than 2012.

In 2013, Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity visit 216 ports of call in 63 countries, while 2014 brings 194 ports in 68 countries.  Crystal’s passion for taking care of guests in an inviting environment of extraordinary space, quality and choices has earned the company more “World’s Best” awards than any other cruise line, resort, or hotel in history.  With a host of complimentary amenities, from enlightening enrichment speakers and fitness classes to pampering pillow menus and specialty restaurant dining, featuring the cuisine of Nobu Matsuhisa and Piero Selvaggio, a Crystal cruise offers tremendous value in luxury resort vacationing worldwide.

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Crystal Cruises Offers Discounts on 2013 Repositioning Cruises

9- to 18-Day Voyages Start at Just $221/day for “World’s Best” Luxury

Ultra-luxe Crystal Cruises is offering a bevy of innovative repositioning cruises in 2013, with new itineraries on 60% of the voyages.  As year-round, worldwide cruise ships, the award-winning Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity usually move to different regions (i.e., “reposition”) seasonally.  While repositioning cruises historically offer exceptional value, Crystal ups the ante in 2013, touting handsomely priced, reinvented journeys with unusual twists across the Atlantic, Pacific and American coastlines, from Northern to Southern Europe, North America to South America, and more. 

                New and interesting routes include:

·         Kobe to Vancouver (April 12)—A “Trans-Pacific/Alaska” crossing, on Crystal Symphony, featuring:

Ø  Kobe, Japan overnight.

Ø  Rare visit to Petropavlosk, showcasing Russian Far East culture and natural bounties such as 68 active volcanoes.

Ø  Crystal’s only Alaskan cruise in 2013, with four calls including lesser-visited Dutch Harbor and Kodiak, plus Seward and Ketchikan.

Ø  “Ocean Views” theme featuring lively debate among world affairs experts about current issues.

·         NY to Reyjkavik (May 23)—A rare spring “New England/Canada “Trans-Atlantic” voyage on Crystal Symphony featuring seven ports and:

Ø  Manhattan overnight.

Ø  Traditional New England ports, including Newport, RI; Boston, MA; Bar Harbor, ME; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Ø  New overnight in Reykjavik.

Ø  “Wine and Food” theme with guest culinary experts and complimentary classes.

·         Barcelona-London (May 30)/London-Barcelona (Sept. 2) —These nine-day cruises reposition Crystal Serenity between Baltic/N. Europe and Mediterranean/S. Europe seasons, offering:

Ø  Extended time in the world’s preeminent wine country via Bordeaux overnights.

Ø  Beautiful colonial-architecture-filled Lisbon.

Ø  Intimate southern Spain, with Barcelona overnight and Cadiz/Seville call from London, and Barcelona, Málaga, and rarely-visited Cartagena calls when sailing to London.

Ø  Unique UK islands: Gibraltar (Barcelona-London) and the Channel Islands (London-Barcelona).

• Miami-Rio (Nov. 23)—Crystal Symphony moves from North to South America, offering:

Ø  Convenient Miami departure.

Ø  Rio de Janeiro overnight.

Ø  Caribbean stops in Barbados and Devil’s Island, French Guiana.

Ø  Intimate, off-the-beaten-path Brazil, including a maiden call in Natal, plus Belém, Fortaleza, Maceió, and Salvador stops.

Ø  “Wine and Food” theme and extra-special culinary indulgences during U.S. Thanksgiving.

Additional 2013 “repos” that sail outside of the box include:

• LA-NY Panama Canal (May 6) with rare call to Charleston and a “Garden and Floral Design” theme offering shore excursions to local gardens across the eastern seaboard .
• “Trans-Atlantic” from London (Sept. 2), ending in Boston for Crystal’s first time ever, with two calls in Scotland en route.
• NY-Miami (Nov. 2) offering extended time in the U.S. Southeast (Charleston, Savannah, and maiden call to St. Augustine), plus Baltimore, Turks & Caicos, Curacao, Aruba and a “Film and Theatre” theme.

Classic crossings, each with a “Big Band and Ballroom Dance” theme, include:

• Miami-Lisbon (March 31)—A dozen Ambassador Hosts to dance and dine with guests, 10 days across the pond, and a visit to Portugal’s Madeira Island.
• Barcelona-Miami (Dec. 9)—Nine luxurious sea days plus calls in the Canary Is. and St. Maarten.

“Next year, the variety and value of our repositioning cruises is exceptional: from classic trans-ocean experiences to more port-focused journeys,” explains Crystal’s Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing Jack Anderson. “With more days at sea on most repositioning voyages, guests have even more time to savor one of the World’s Best destinations:  Crystal’s all-inclusive shipboard resort, filled with abundant enrichment, entertainment and pampering.”

With all-inclusive fares for the collection starting at just $2,210/person, couples can save up to $4,000 with current “Book Now” pricing, if booked by December 28.

The renowned Crystal Experience has been rated “World’s Best” more than any other cruise line, hotel, or resort in history.

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Crystal Cruises Offers Shorter Itineraries Special Offers.

Crystal Cruises Luxury Crystal Symphony Offers a 5-Day Sailing From New York to Halifax.

Crystal Cruises is unveiling a new collection of early 2013 “Crystal Getaways”: 5- to 11-day segments that pack a tremendous amount of luxurious value into convenient, shorter itineraries.  Ten voyages aboard the award-winning Crystal Symphony offer shorter versions of published cruises from January through May. 

Due to the enormous success of the “Crystal Getaways” launched for fall 2012 Europe sailings, the ultra-luxury line is expanding its offerings to cruises worldwide, including options in Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, Alaska and New England, USA.  Each shorter segment features at least one overnight stay in some of the regions’ most beloved ports, and fares start as low as $1,365 per guest if booked by December 28.

“The ‘Crystal Getaways’ have proven to be a great way to welcome new Crystal cruisers to the luxury nuances, extraordinary service and value of the Crystal vacation,” says Jack Anderson, senior vice president of sales and marketing.   “The new Crystal cruisers were either travelers with busy schedules who couldn’t take longer vacations, travelers who moved up to luxury to celebrate a meaningful occasion, or travelers who wanted to combine Getaways with their own land programs.  What has been gratifying and consistent is the high level of rebooking from these new Crystal converts.  We know that travelers who try a Crystal cruise are strongly inclined to come back for more.”

To date, “Crystal Getaways” for 2013 include:

5-day sailings:

• January 29, $1,725 – Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington
• March 7, $2,365 – Singapore, Bangkok
• April 24, $1,470 – Seward, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, Vancouver
• May 23, $1,630 – New York City, Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, Halifax

  6-day sailings:

• January 5, $1,365 – Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart
• January 11, $1,365 – Hobart, Sydney, Brisbane

  7-day sailings:

• March 23, $3,235 – Hong Kong, Xiamen, Shanghai
• April 5, $3,080 – Shanghai, Pusan, Nagasaki, Kōbe

  8- and 11-day sailings:

• February 3, (8 days) $2,755 – Wellington, Picton, Christchurch, Dunedin, Sydney
• March 12, (11 days) $5,200 – Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Chan May, Hanoi, Hong Kong

Crystal’s passion for taking care of guests in an inviting environment of extraordinary space, quality and choices has earned the company more “World’s Best” awards than any other cruise line, resort, or hotel in history.  With a host of complimentary amenities, from enlightening Enrichment speakers and fitness classes to pampering pillow menus and specialty restaurant dining, featuring the cuisine of Nobu Matsuhisa and Piero Selvaggio, a Crystal cruise always offers tremendous value in luxury resort vacationing.

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Luxury Operator Crystal Cruises Outlines Fleet Renovations

Crystal Cruises - Ship Renovation Brochure

Crystal Cruises’ alluring new publication illustrates why the ultra-luxe line has been reaping awards lately for its smart spaces and chic cruise experiences.  Styled like a traveler’s vintage photo journal, the six-page brochure builds on the company’s fresh, contemporary Begin a New Story brand campaign, showcasing:

• $100 million+ overall recent investment to keep Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity not just au courant -- but on the cutting edge of cruise ship and hotel design
•  $40 million 2012 and 2011 extreme makeovers of Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, respectively -- via a pictorial photo spread as elegant as the ships themselves
• Crystal’s design-related awards over the past six years
• High-tech digital/electronic enhancements
• Style inspirations
• Luxury design details

With Crystal Symphony just emerging from its dry dock this summer, a majority of the pages flaunt the theaters, play areas, lounges, and other spaces that are freshly made over, completing an ambitious five-year plan to restyle every room on board.

“Design is such an important element of discerning travelers’ vacations – from their decision-making about where to spend it to the experience they have when they get there,” says Crystal President Greg Michel.  “We think travelers will appreciate seeing many of the stylish ways we’ve enhanced Crystal’s ‘World’s Best’ vacations.”  

In 2012, Crystal Cruises has been awarded the Association of Retail Environment’s Crystal design award, three Travel Weekly Magellan Awards, for luxury ship, suite and stateroom designs Hospitality Design magazine’s first-ever Distinctive Cruise Design award, as well as Condé Nast Traveler’s #1 and 2 cruise medium-sized cruise ships and Travel + Leisure readers choice awards for the World’s Best Cruise Line and World’s Best Service in the large ship category.

Crystal Cruises is a luxury operator offering seasonal cruises from New York, Montreal and Boston offering New England and Canada cruises  and transatlantic positioning cruises.

 Brochures can be ordered at 866-446-6625 or downloaded at www.crystalcruises.com

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Luxury Operator Crystal Cruises Focus' on the 'New" in New England Canada With Unique Excursions

Luxury Operator Crystal Cruises Focus' on the 'New" in New England Canada With Unique Excursions

Crystal Cruises’ fall voyages through America and Canada’s “East Coast” roots offer dozens of new boutique adventures ashore; new chic spaces on board; and a brand new, exotic Québécois itinerary with three off-the-beaten-path maiden calls.  Beginning September 19 aboard Crystal Symphony – freshly redesigned during a $15 million extreme makeover – five seven- to 11-day cruises will sail between Boston, Manhattan and Montréal.  The season’s centerpiece, Crystal’s first-ever round-trip from Montréal, is an easy, seven-day intimate exploration of European-flavored French Canada, including a maiden call to France itself.

Twenty-nine new Crystal Adventures offer novel ways for foodies, adventurers, and culture-hounds to experience the historic region’s most iconic and less-expected areas, like: 

• Saint-Pierre & Miquelon: Visit North America’s last vestige of the French Republic and see Al Capone’s “home-away-from-home” during the island’s golden era of Prohibition profiteering.
• Québec City: Join Huron natives in a Friendship Dance and sacred ceremonies following a traditional feast of bison, wapiti meat and Indian bannock bread.
• New York: Sail past the Statue of Liberty to the newly-completed 9/11 Memorial or enjoy an exclusive, private visit to the American Museum of Natural History while closed to the public.
• Havre-Aubert Island (from Magdalen Is.): Listen to a Madelinot fisherman’s tales of maritime life of yore.
• Halifax: Look for the majestic North American bald eagle during a Shubenacadie River Zodiac ride.
• Bar Harbor: Glide over Acadia National Park’s treetops in an open-cockpit biplane.
• Magdalen Islands (maiden call): Learn about the distinct Acadian culture and taste local specialties like porto-style fortified wine, Pied-de-Vent cheese and bagosse “island beer.”
• Montréal: Jet boat away from the Old Port, down the Lachine Rapids.
• Sept-Îles (maiden call): Train-ride to a marshland Innu camp for immersion into traditional First Nations life, from chanting and smoked salmon secrets to moccasin and medicine-making.
• St. John: Heli-fish in the footsteps of Prince Charles on the Miramichi River or have “Tea with Eleanor” Roosevelt at her and Franklin’s former summer residence.
• Boston: See what some call New England’s most well-preserved (and picturesque) Colonial town during a half-day in Marblehead and witch trial-famed Salem.

Aspiring photographers can also learn pro tips to capture the “perfect shot” of Halifax or St. John during photo excursions there, and bike-riders can work off their sea legs through NY’s Central Park, or Montréal’s 236 miles of bike paths.  Additionally, Crystal’s You Care, We Care voluntourism program offers complimentary opportunities to assist with local Canadian food banks or help low-income and homeless Bostonian children.

“New England/Canada is one of the most storied and stunning regions in North America and offers so much to explore and discover.  Each year, we strive to not only expand our offerings with new ports, but also re-invent the journey with new experiences in traditionally popular destinations,” says John Stoll, vice president, land and port operations.

Until August 31, all-inclusive, “Book Now,” cruise-only fares start at $2,355/person, double-occupancy with attractive air add-ons from more than 90 North American gateways, and savings for family/friend groups of six or more.

The renowned Crystal Experience was recently voted the “World’s Best” by Travel + Leisure magazine readers for the seventeenth year in a row, more than any other cruise line, hotel, or resort in history.

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