The luxury cruise ships the Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity were arrested on Friday in Freeport in the Bahamas, according to Cruise Law News. The ships are operated by Crystal Cruises, a Miami-based company that is owned by Genting Hong Kong.
Why Were The Ships Seized?
Last week a federal district court judge in Miami issued an arrest warrant for the Crystal Symphony, after fuel supplier Peninsula Petroleum Far East filed a lawsuit against Crystal Cruises “and sought the vessel’s arrest for $4.6 million in unpaid fuel bills dating back to 2017,” according to Bloomberg.
Both shops have stayed out of U.S. ports since the warrant was issued.
As noted by Cruise Law News notes that it is still not clear why both ships had been detained.
“It is unclear how these two Crystal ships were seized in the Bahamas, which is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshall’s Office,” it wrote. One clue may be that apparently the Crystal Symphony’s captain announced over the intercom that Bahaman authorities seized the ships “over unpaid bills.”
Conflicting Reports Over Wages
Crystal Cruise sent a statement to Bloomberg that there are currently no guests on board either ship, and that all of the crew’s wages have been paid, but the company declined to comment on legal matters.
However, according to Cruise Law News, other Crystal crew members said that they are still waiting for wage payments from January. The website also received this message:
“Symphony is out of food so they will have to be taking on provisions. Serenity is out of fuel ... Management says if you wanna go home early and if you didn’t complete your 3 months contract [you] need to resign and buy your own flight ticket to go home.”
The Crystal Serenity was denied port in Aruba, and instead disembarked in Bimini, rather than apparently risk going to Miami. That led to a flood of social media complaints, with customers complaining about waiting in the cold and a disembarking process that took hours.
The Crystal Symphony redirected to the Bahamas instead of docking in Miami on Jan. 22, and then ferried passengers to Fort Lauderdale a day later.
Rough Sailing During the Pandemic
The cruise industry was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, losing 254,000 American jobs and $32 billion in 2020 alone, according to USA Today. Genting Hongkong reported a loss of $1.7 billion last May.
On Jan. 18, Genting Hong Kong petitioned the Supreme Court of Bermuda to appoint provisional liquidators after exhausting “all reasonable efforts” to negotiate with creditors and stakeholders.
Dream Cruises Holding, an indirect non-wholly owned unit of Genting Hong Kong, has stated that it plans to continue to operate its fleet in the region, though new bookings have been suspended until further notice.
