Crystal Unveils 2025 Itineraries

[Keith1010]

Great news about 2025 Itineraries.

 

 

Keith

 

 

CRYSTAL UNVEILS 2025 ITINERARIES

 

From Visits to Monaco Timed to The Formula 1 Grand Prix to Experiencing the Northern Lights in Norway, Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony Set Sail to 112 Countries and 281 Ports

 

MIAMI – (Sept. 7, 2023) – Today, Crystal announced its inspiring lineup of 2025 itineraries onboard Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony. Following the brand’s acquisition by the A&K Travel Group, Crystal is poised to offer travelers unparalleled opportunities for exploration and cultural immersion - both on and off the ship - with industry-leading voyages of discovery across the globe to both iconic and off-the-beaten-path destinations. 

 

Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony will visit an extraordinary selection of guests’ favorites and approximately 144 new handpicked destinations such as the Faroe Islands, Haifa and Shanghai, for a combined total of 720 days over the course of 73 sailings visiting a total of 112 countries and 281 ports.

 

"We’re excited to offer both past and future Crystal guests an inspiring assortment of itineraries in 2025,” said Cristina Levis, CEO of A&K Travel Group. “Guests onboard Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony will have the opportunity to explore a treasure trove of lesser-visited corners of the world and check off some truly once-in-a-lifetime bucket list destinations with bespoke, industry-leading experiences designed by Abercrombie & Kent.”  

 

Crystal Serenity 2025 Itinerary Highlights

• After completing the World Cruise in May 2025, Crystal Serenity will depart from Marseille and sail the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas, visiting destinations like Pablo Picasso’s hometown of Málaga, the charming, half-timbered town of Ronne, Latvia’s capital, Riga, known for its pedestrian-only medieval Old Town and more. 
• Guests will have the rare opportunity to visit Longyearbyen, the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway - famous for its incomparable views of the Northern Lights.
• With calls to the Faroe Islands, and Iceland, passengers will discover dramatic landscapes and breathtaking views in the world’s most stunning Nordic destinations including Tórshavn, Djupivogur, and Reykjavik among others. 
• For a perfect leaf-peeping getaway, guests onboard from September to November 2025, will visit iconic North American ports of call such as Québec City, Gaspé, Newport, Boston, Portland, New York City and more. 
• For those who wish to partake in the holiday season at sea, sun-filled voyages include Caribbean and South American destinations like Montego Bay, Aruba, Cayman Islands, Cartagena, the Panama Canal and more.

 

Crystal Symphony 2025 Itinerary Highlights

• Kicking off 2025 in Southeast Asia, the newly refurbished ship will explore remote destinations including Sihanoukville, known for having the best beaches in Cambodia, along with Sabang and WehIsland, the small active volcanic island to the northwest of Sumatra. 
• With multi-day port calls to the region’s top urban centers including Ho Chi Minh City, Halong Bay, Laem Chabang and Shanghai, passengers will have even more time for in-depth cultural immersion. Guests can also visit Palawan, the Philippines’ ecological jewel with pristine beaches, and Brunei, known for its verdant rainforests.
• Timed with the Grand Prix, the ship will visit Monaco and Villefranche-sur-Mer, allowing guests the chance to embrace their inner Formula 1 driver, as they watch the iconic race in two of Europe’s leading destinations.
• Mediterranean highlights include calls to Haifa, Dubrovnik and Cyprus, in addition to Greece’s increasingly popular destinations of Zakynthos, Corfu and Santorini, among others. 
• The latter half of 2025 will be spent in the Middle East visiting a variety of destinations ranging from the small Egyptian port of Safaga (Luxor), to Dubai, known for luxury shopping and ultramodern architecture, to the more remote Salalah, the third-largest city in the Sultanate of Oman, known for its marine life.

 

These just announced 2025 voyages will be available to book on Sept. 27 at crystalcruises.com.

 

For more information on these new 2025 Itineraries or any of Crystal’s exceptional voyages, contact your travel advisor, visit crystalcruises.com, or call 1-800-446-6620.

 

# # #

 

About Crystal

For more than three decades Crystal has been synonymous with exceptional, award-winning voyages. In 2022 the A&K Travel Group acquired the Crystal brand and its two vessels, Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony, ushering in a new era of Exceptional at Sea. The globally-renowned cruise line offers discerning travelers’ industry-leading, authentic, and enriching experiences both onshore and at sea. Crystal’s pioneering partnership with Abercrombie & Kent provides guests with unparalleled access to the most sought-after experiences, destinations, and the latest cultural makers around the world.  The reimagined ships boast larger, updated suites with artisanal finishes, new cutting-edge wellness offerings, spectacular entertainment, and complimentary world-class dining - including the return of UMI UMA - the only dining experience by Michelin-Star Chef Master Chef Nobuyuki (Nobu) at sea. With a legacy of unrivaled service and commitment to sophistication and elegance at every touchpoint, once on-board passengers feel as if they are perfectly at home. 

 

[wearesiamese]

unfortunately  no place  that I really like to visit ,,but if there is a repositioning cruise, that would be great because I love sea days!  I am not a cruise snob,  thank goodness, and do sail on HAL, Celebrity occasionally,, and will be trying Princess  2024...along  w my b2b Alaska to Los Angeles  cruise on Serenity in August 2024 ,and   over new years  eve 2025 on Crystal Serenity   

Edited September 7, 2023 by wearesiamese

[happy cruising]

Where do we find the detailed itineraries for each of the 2025 cruises? 

[Keith1010]

5 minutes ago, happy cruising said:

Where do we find the detailed itineraries for each of the 2025 cruises? 

They are not up yet.

Stay tuned.

 

Keith 

[wearesiamese]

4 hours ago, wearesiamese said:

•  

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by wearesiamese

[TER777]

Crystal Society members of 15 cruises or more can make bookings as of September 13; 14 cruises or less, September 20; general public September 27. 

[SnoBirdCruiser]

I am sorry to see that Crystal Symphony will not be in North or South American waters in 2025.

No Caribbean ports,😪😪 for us.

Pat

[Texas Tillie]

9 minutes ago, SnoBirdCruiser said:

I am sorry to see that Crystal Symphony will not be in North or South American waters in 2025.

No Caribbean ports,😪😪 for us.

Pat

My understanding is that Symphony will never be back in North America, so probably not South America either. This is for environmental reasons. If my understanding is wrong (and I’d be ecstatic if it was), please let me know. 
 

Patty

[crickette]

Interesting - I googled when the F1 will be in Monaco because we are interested in the Symphony cruises in early 2025.  Google tells me "There are no rumors or expected news for the Formula 1 season 2025 yet"  I know nothing about F1, and am not interested in knowing more (!) except the dates.  Yet Crystal implies it knows the dates.  Hmmmm....

 

[crickette]

540 days from Sep 13 is March 6, 2025.  We all know that special number!

[Keith1010]

32 minutes ago, crickette said:

Interesting - I googled when the F1 will be in Monaco because we are interested in the Symphony cruises in early 2025.  Google tells me "There are no rumors or expected news for the Formula 1 season 2025 yet"  I know nothing about F1, and am not interested in knowing more (!) except the dates.  Yet Crystal implies it knows the dates.  Hmmmm....

 

I am also not into F1 but I did go to the Monaco Grand Prix in 2015. And we've been there a few other times a week or two before the Grand Prix.  I believe it is held around the same time each year.  I also would think that although the schedule hasn't been published that a cruise line from Crystal would know who to contact to find out what the date will be and we know that there are people from A&K who reside in Monaco. 

 

Keith 

[dimundsR]

Crickette, I'm not interested in the F1 races either, but as an exercise in sleuthing, I found the race was May 29 in 2022 Monaco and in 2023, it was May 26-28.  So with that, I am assuming they will be there the last weekend of May.  Ta Da!

 

 

[dimundsR]

And another thing to keep in mind, the Cannes Film Festival usually ends right before the Grand Prix.  I remember being there at that time some years ago and both were being set up at the time.  There were fences all around both areas. Flights and hotels will be tight!

[Keith1010]

18 minutes ago, dimundsR said:

Crickette, I'm not interested in the F1 races either, but as an exercise in sleuthing, I found the race was May 29 in 2022 Monaco and in 2023, it was May 26-28.  So with that, I am assuming they will be there the last weekend of May.  Ta Da!

 

 

And that is why I said it is usually the same time each year. Not rocket science but this is not like the NFL Schedule where it changes each year. 

 

Keith 

[PaulMCO]

For 2024 -- 24-26 May.. 

[May B]

9 hours ago, wearesiamese said:

unfortunately  no place  that I really like to visit ,,but if there is a repositioning cruise, that would be great because I love sea days!  I am not a cruise snob,  thank goodness, and do sail on HAL, Celebrity occasionally,, and will be trying Princess  2024...along  w my b2b Alaska to Los Angeles  cruise on Serenity in August 2024 ,and   over new years  eve 2025 on Crystal Serenity   

I don’t think they can get from the Far East to the Mediterranean without a repositioning. Nor from Iceland to Quebec. For one on the US coast, it looks like you’ll have to go down the east coast.

[tnm6217]

7 hours ago, happy cruising said:

Where do we find the detailed itineraries for each of the 2025 cruises? 

 

7 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

They are not up yet.

Stay tuned.

 

Keith 

 

4 hours ago, TER777 said:

Crystal Society members of 15 cruises or more can make bookings as of September 13; 14 cruises or less, September 20; general public September 27. 

 

I am not a fan of this process. Silversea released their 2025 summer and fall sailings to TAs prior to going on sale to the public. I was able to see the specific itinerary for each, which made it easy to pick out the two that worked best for me. I'm likely going to book another with Silversea tomorrow since it will be 2+ weeks until I could book a November 2025 cruise with Crystal. It may seem silly, but it irks me that they won't even publish the sailings. I'm still excited for the two Serenity sailings I have booked for November 2023 and 2024, even if I'll be in steerage!

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by tnm6217

[Keith1010]

4 hours ago, tnm6217 said:

 

 

 

I am not a fan of this process. Silversea released their 2025 summer and fall sailings to TAs prior to going on sale to the public. I was able to see the specific itinerary for each, which made it easy to pick out the two that worked best for me. I'm likely going to book another with Silversea tomorrow since it will be 2+ weeks until I could book a November 2025 cruise with Crystal. It may seem silly, but it irks me that they won't even publish the sailings. I'm still excited for the two Serenity sailings I have booked for November 2023 and 2024, even if I'll be in steerage!

 

I understand but wanted to note that all of the details will be on the web site including the detailed itineraries and pricing in a few days. It is a lot to add to the system and to review it all. And even when it is reviewed we know there will likely be some mistakes.

 

Keith 

[vistaman]

I did 20 C cruises but how can I book  when I am not aware of the itineraries ? 

After my recent Explora I disaster I never will go to "unknown " cruise ships anymore ...

 

[Keith1010]

7 minutes ago, vistaman said:

I did 20 C cruises but how can I book  when I am not aware of the itineraries ? 

After my recent Explora I disaster I never will go to "unknown " cruise ships anymore ...

 

We will all know the itineraries and the pricing before sales open.

 

Keith 

[vistaman]

58 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

We will all know the itineraries and the pricing before sales open.

 

Keith 

thank you , but so far  I got very few messages from new C 

[BWIVince]

13 hours ago, crickette said:

Interesting - I googled when the F1 will be in Monaco because we are interested in the Symphony cruises in early 2025.  Google tells me "There are no rumors or expected news for the Formula 1 season 2025 yet"  I know nothing about F1, and am not interested in knowing more (!) except the dates.  Yet Crystal implies it knows the dates.  Hmmmm....

 

This is one of the biggest advantages of being owned by one of the most prominent DMCs in the world — they have to begin contracting space for major international events for their other clients 2-3 years ahead of their announcement to the public.  😇 

 

Vince

[BWIVince]

17 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

My understanding is that Symphony will never be back in North America, so probably not South America either. This is for environmental reasons. If my understanding is wrong (and I’d be ecstatic if it was), please let me know. 
 

Patty

 

I was kind of pondering this earlier this morning, and this is actually something I'd love to get a lot more clarity on.  We all know the history here with Symphony, but there seems to be some new developments on that front, yet we're still kind of in the same place with the itineraries.

 

I've seen and read various interviews with Crystal execs talking about environmental upgrades to both ships, and how Symphony now meets certain environmental standards (or maybe she always met some of those).  What I don't know is how this impacts her deployment away from the Americas, if at all, or if environmental compliance has anything to do with where she sails anymore.  If they're going to invest in environmental upgrades, you would think they would choose meaningful ones that allow greater flexibility in deployment and reduced limitations, but there are some specific requirements out there which are very expensive to retrofit or not really feasible for Symphony, so I get that too.

 

When I first started in the travel industry in the travel industry as a young'n in the late 80's and early 90's, cruise lines almost universally deployed their newest/largest ships on the highest demand markets with the easiest access to their core customer base, and their smallest/oldest ships on the most remote deployments with the narrowest demand.  

 

Looking at 2024 and 2025, at a high level, this sort of fits that M.O. the same way it fits the environmental compliance situation.  It's just hard for me to tell where one situation starts and the other situation ends...  It would help me if they would elaborate on some of these things that just kind of get glossed over in some of these interviews.

 

Vince

[seasack]

On 9/7/2023 at 4:09 PM, TER777 said:

Crystal Society members of 15 cruises or more can make bookings as of September 13; 14 cruises or less, September 20; general public September 27. 

Where do you find that information on the Crystal website?

 

September 13 is only two days away yet nothing listed on the Crystal website yet any idea when that info will be posted?

[Keith1010]

29 minutes ago, seasack said:

Where do you find that information on the Crystal website?

 

September 13 is only two days away yet nothing listed on the Crystal website yet any idea when that info will be posted?

 

The details will be available before bookings are open.  

Based on similar types of things I expect an e-mail will go out to Crystal Society Members.

 

I know that those who are on-board right now were told about this.

 

Keith