Crytal River Cruises: Scheduling changes announced on June 4, 2021

[Psoque]

I was just poking around the Crystal Cruises website and noticed that cruises from late August through most of September on both Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler have been cancelled and some, but not all, of the cruises were consolidated into similar itineraries on Crystal Debussy and Crystal Ravel.  I wonder why Crystal is doing this?  I can think of a few possible reasons, including staffing shortage or perhaps Crystal is planning to downsize??

Edited June 6, 2021 by Psoque

[BWIVince]

Just a shot in the dark, but I assume they’re scaling to demand.  Peak season transatlantic is pacing very low, I can only imagine how post-season Europe is pacing.  IIRC this was forecasted in another thread here.  It simply wouldn’t make sense to run all the European ships until demand returns.

 

Unless pandemic regulations are preventing the River crews from working (I don’t know EU labor regs), I can’t see how it would be a labor shortage — especially since the crews aren’t measurably interchangeable anymore and they’ve had no problem staffing the ocean ships from their countries.

 

Vince

[crickette]

Interesting tidbit:  On Crystal Manning Facebook, Crystal River cruises are posting for galley crew.  They say:  "We can only consider candidates with EU passport and EU resident with Covid vaccination approved by EMA. Send your resume and portfolio to ..."

 

Positions on Endeavor and ocean ships say nothing about vaccination.

[nancygp]

From crystal’s website:

 

 

 

VOYAGE CANCELLATIONS

• Cruise Cancellations: Crystal River Cruises' Voyages On Select August and September 2021 Departures

  
  UPDATED  Friday June 4, 2021  7:30pm EST

  As a result of ongoing challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have made adjustments to our 2021 sailing schedules which affect the cruise on future dates. It is with regret that we have had to cancel select August and September 2021 Crystal River Cruises sailings aboard Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler.
  
  We sincerely apologize to our guests for this disruption to their travels. All affected guests, and their travel advisers, were contacted directly with details of this cancellation along with their compensation and rebooking options. We encourage all affected guests to contact their travel advisor to assist them in selecting the future voyage/s of their choice.

  Affected sail dates include:

  CRYSTAL BACH: 

  • RBA210830-07 | Crystal Bach | August 30 - September 6, 2021 | 7 Nights | Amsterdam to Basel | Romantic Rhine 
  • RBA210906-07 | Crystal Bach | September 6 - 13, 2021 | 7 Nights | Basel to Amsterdam | Legendary Rhine 
  • RBA210913-10 | Crystal Bach | September 13 - 23, 2021 | 10 Nights | Amsterdam Roundtrip | Enchanting Moselle
  • RBA210923-10 | Crystal Bach | September 23 - October 3, 2021 | 10 Nights |  Amsterdam Roundtrip | Enchanting Moselle
   

  CRYSTAL MAHLER

  • RMH210829-07 | Crystal Mahler | August 29 - September 5 , 2021 | 7 Nights | Vilshofen to Budapest | Delightful Danube (Eastbound)
  • RMH210905-07 | Crystal Mahler | September 5-12, 2021 | 7 Nights | Budapest to Vilshofen | Delightful Danube (Westbound)
  • RMH210912-07 | Crystal Mahler | September 12-19, 2021 | 7 Nights | Vilshofen to Budapest | Delightful Danube (Eastbound) 

  While our fleet is paused, we have developed new  Crystal Clean+® 5.0  health and safety policies and procedures that address COVID-19 and support all local public health and regulatory requirements, ensuring our guests’ vacations continue to be not only relaxing and pleasurable but safe and healthy. The new measures, which are continually reviewed based on the latest scientific data and requirements, include a mandatory Covid-19 vaccine for all guests and crew who must be fully inoculated (with both doses if recommended by the manufacturer) at least 14 days prior to boarding any Crystal ship. Please note that you will be asked to provide proof of vaccination at embarkation.
  
  Finally, please note that Crystal River Cruises has streamlined sales and booking processes to include a relaxed final payment schedule at 60 days prior to first date of service and a waived Admin Fee for all cancellations.

  On behalf of everyone at Crystal River Cruises, we look forward to welcoming our guests aboard an enriching voyage with the World’s

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, crickette said:

Interesting tidbit:  On Crystal Manning Facebook, Crystal River cruises are posting for galley crew.  They say:  "We can only consider candidates with EU passport and EU resident with Covid vaccination approved by EMA. Send your resume and portfolio to ..."

 

Positions on Endeavor and ocean ships say nothing about vaccination.

The staffing requirements for the river vessels ensure that all of the crew will already have vaccine availability prior to restarting, unlike the crew for Endeavor, Symphony and Serenity which come from additional countries with other situations.

 

Vince

Edited June 6, 2021 by BWIVince

[NJCruiserBoy]

11 hours ago, Psoque said:

I was just poking around the Crystal Cruises website and noticed that cruises from late August through most of September on both Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler have been cancelled and some, but not all, of the cruises were consolidated into similar itineraries on Crystal Debussy and Crystal Ravel.  I wonder why Crystal is doing this?  I can think of a few possible reasons, including staffing shortage or perhaps Crystal is planning to downsize??

Cruise lines and airlines have been saying for a while that returning to service would be gradual.  I can’t even imagine the logistics behind getting everything going again and besides Europe is saying only vaccinated travelers can cross their border.  I was scheduled to take my extended family on Crystal in 2020, that was pushed to June 2021 and well we all know how that has turned out. Now my family doesn’t even want to consider this year and so we’ll go June 2022.  Dad isn’t convinced the Europeans won’t close the borders again and ruin his vacation.  I think there are a lot of people thinking the same way.   

[Psoque]

Now, as of 12 PM today, there is a new announcement that more Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler cruises have been cancelled for September/October 2021.  On a more selfish note, we hope our November 2021 cruise on Crystal Bach will not be affected too badly (a switch to another ship or a slight change in itinerary would be just fine, but a big change in dates would require some planning on my part).

 

Though it is entirely possible, I would be surprised if there is substantially decreased demand vs supply for these river cruises, based on the reported demand for the Bahamas/Caribbean cruises on Crystal Serenity/Symphony for this summer, and my assumption (perhaps incorrect) that Crystal was voluntarily reducing the capacity on all of their ships, including the river ships.