Travel Advisor Shares Experience of Being Onboard a World Cruise as Its Canceled

Steven E. Shulem, the owner of Strictly Vacations in Santa Barbara, Calif., boarded the Crystal Serenity on January 17 with high hopes for the 116-day Grand Voyage through the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East.

It was almost two years ago that his Crystal World Cruise ended in Perth, Australia, as borders began to close due to a novel coronaviruses.

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Shulem wrote on Facebook that he hopes to get through all 116 days.

He received an email on Day 3 that the World Cruise would end in January due to the financial crisis of Crystal's parent company.

They say history repeats itself. I was not able to finish the 2020 World cruise and now on day three of this world cruise Crystal goes bankrupt, Shulem posted on Facebook.

Shulem was contacted by TravelPulse on the ship and said there may be good news for Crystal Cruises.

Shulem said that all staff were called into a meeting and told that a potential buyer wanted the crew to remain intact in hopes the ship could resume sailing. It's not clear how likely this scenario is.

Shulem thinks they would only say something like this if they had a serious buyer. We don't know who the buyer is and we don't know when it will happen, but that's what the staff on the ship were told.

Crystal has suspended ocean and expedition cruises through April 29, 2022. The last voyage of Crystal Symphony was to end in Miami on January 22, but the ship is still in Bimini under an arrest warrant. The passengers were taken to Fort Lauderdale.

Most passengers contacted their travel agents to book flights or rooms at resorts on the island. If the line originally booked the flights, Crystal helped passengers rebook.

Shulem, who was the travel agent escort for Signature Travel Network, said that many passengers will disembark from the Crystal Serenity and board the Regent Seven Seas Cruises. The World Cruise was canceled and replaced with mostly Caribbean itineraries. Passengers who want to continue sailing can be picked up by the Mariner of the Seas.

gent has been working around the clock, including weekends, to modify its itinerary, work with the Aruba government, and work with luggage transfers and the Ritz-Carlton, and reached out to the travel agent community so they could let their clients know about this. Regent did a great job with this and made it easy to use. I believe about 80 people will move over to Regent and take the cruise for anywhere from 13 to 94 days. It was easy to send an email to the travel agent to help me get home from my cruise.

Since the beginning of the Pandemic, travel advisors have been doing that.

Shulem said that there are about 400 people on the ship.

Did he feel like he was on a World Cruise again?

The last one was canceled on Day 59, so we got to enjoy most of the cruise, but it was a coronaviruses, which is not a disease. The whole thing went sour after Day 3. Will we get our money back, will the cruise line still be in business, and when will they come back? Two years ago, we thought it was a temporary pause. We didn't know how bad it would be to get our clients' money back.

It was a bad year for Crystal and many clients wanted to come back. Guess what, they're in love with Crystal. They came back in 2021 and everyone was very excited about it.

The news is sad for many Crystal passengers and Shulem, who was a top seller for the luxury line for more than 20 years. Crystal worked hard to build close relationships with travel sellers, from hosting lavish gala trips for top producers to being responsive to any questions.

Shulem said that shoreside people are very engaging with the travel agent community. The food-and-beverage director or hotel director can talk about food. It was a great way for the travel agent community to touch the shoreside staff at Crystal. Many travel agents feel connected to Crystal Cruises. They have a lot to sell, from seven days to a full World Cruise, they really did it all.

Shulem hopes to board the Seven Seas Mariner for 13 days. After that? If you want to see the Northern Lights, you can head toIceland and then just veg out in a bungalow on the beach in Mexico.