a lawsuit against Crystal Cruises claiming nearly US$4.6 million (NZ$6.8 million) of unpaid fuel bills. Anticipating that US marshals would be waiting ashore in Florida, the Crystal Symphony diverted to the Bahamian port of Bimini 50 miles (80km) away.
The roughly 300 guests remained aboard the ship an extra day, disembarked in Bimini and were offered a ride to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, via ferry – a journey the company later acknowledged was “uncomfortable due to inclement weather”. (One Crystal Symphony passenger described getting up during the two-hour ferry ride to throw up, only to find “nine or 10” other seasick passengers doing the same.)
“This end to the cruise was not the conclusion to our guests’ vacation we originally planned for,” a Crystal spokeswoman, Susan Robison, said in a statement.
The company declined to discuss the lawsuit it faces in federal court from the marine fuel supplier Peninsula Petroleum.
Elio Pace, a musician who was contracted to perform aboard the Crystal Symphony for the next month, called the situation “surreal” in an interview with The Washington Post on Monday.
“Who’s ever heard of a ship being arrested?” Pace said. “It’s like Pirates of the Caribbean. They say, ‘We’re going to seize the ship’ and the ship goes, ‘No you’re not!’ and it turns around and escapes to Bimini.”
Although Sunday marked the end of the Crystal Symphony’s latest voyage, the embattled cruise line and hundreds of the ship’s crew members still are navigating uncertain waters.
According to a stock exchange filing released on Monday, Lim Kok Thay, the chief executive of Crystal Cruise’s parent company, Genting Hong Kong, resigned last week. Genting Hong Kong and its subsidiaries have been in financial trouble since 2020 when it first halted payments on outstanding debts, in part because of the collapse of the cruise industry amid the coronavirus pandemic.
