Submarines and Jets May Well Be the Future of Cruising

RP Members if you like to cruise and you are missing that Submarine or Airplane take a look at the future to come in the Cruising Industry.
“You either grow or die.”

To Edie Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of Crystal Cruises, those words weren’t just lip service for the journalists and VIPs gathered in the Seychelles recently; they’re a rallying call for a brand that’s won a raft of travel magazine reader polls since its founding in 1988 but has never grown beyond two midsize cruise ships—until now.

It’s here, with warm winds blowing over the cerulean Indian Ocean, that I met with Rodriguez and her top executives at the christening and three-day maiden voyage of their new luxury yacht, the 270-ft. Crystal Esprit. After the company’s ownership changed hands in March 2015, she immediately set a new course with a dizzying array of new products and brand developments.

To wit:

Five new luxury river cruise boats in Europe (up from zero)—one revamp of an existing ship (Mozart) setting sail this summer on the Danube; four newly built ships (Debussy, Bach, Ravel, Mahler) to be delivered summer 2017.

Three new massive 100,000-grosse-ton luxury cruise liners (that’s more than two times the size of the Titanic) with condos for sale on board to start hitting the water in 2019—another completely new class of ship for Crystal.

Three new jets, which the company just purchased for airborne cruising. Two of them are wide-bodies (a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and a Boeing 777) that will go into service in 2017. A GlobalExpress charter plane is up and running now.

Then there’s the glamorous, elegant Esprit, the first in its new yacht line and straight out of the luxe playbook: It sleeps a maximum of 62-inch spacious “suites,” each with a couch and sitting area, in-room iPads for newspapers and entertainment, a complimentary stocked bar, Etro Robes, satellite TV, butler service, and sizable two-sink marble bathrooms. The ship itself offers a casino, sauna, state-of-the-art gym, pool and Jacuzzi, piano bar (naturally), and a staff of 75 (that’s better than a 1:1 guest-passenger ratio, in case you’re counting). For active water sports, there are kayaks, water skis, snorkel gear, and the showstopper, its two-passenger James Bond-ish submersible. I’m not one for scuba diving, so for once I could actually take part in the “we saw the most amazing fish and reef” conversations over dinner. I even caught sight of a shark. And never got wet.