Every spring Crystal Cruises honors its top-selling travel agents on an annual gala cruise. This year was no exception as more than 100 agents sailed between London and Lisbon in April on a five-night cruise onboard Crystal Serenity. The event celebrated the sales accomplishments of those agents, but it also gave Crystal executives the chance to provide an update on the new programs and amenities they have implemented over the past year, as well as offer plans for the future.

To Build or Not to Build
Crystal continues to be a perennial award-winner for its ships, cruises and service from top consumer travel magazines and leading travel groups. But it remains a relatively small luxury line in contrast to larger contemporary and premium cruise companies, though it has some of the largest ships in the luxury category. While such high-end lines as Regent Seven Seas and Seabourn have unveiled plans to build new ships in the near future, Crystal has stuck with its existing fleet. Indeed, it reduced its fleet from three to two ships in 2006 when the first ship it launched, Crystal Harmony, was transferred back to Crystal’s parent NYK, the Japanese shipping company.

Since then Crystal has refocused its efforts on completely revamping and renovating its existing two ships, the 922-passenger Crystal Symphony, launched in 1995, and 1,070-passenger Crystal Serenity, which debuted in 2003. These two vessels have been updated enough to effectively make them nearly brand-new ships.

Nevertheless, travel agents and customers have long wondered when Crystal will build a new ship. Edie Rodriquez, Crystal’s new president—who joined the line last fall—says the company ultimately envisions a product with seven ships for seven continents. But during the gala cruise she did not announce a newbuild as some agents had hoped she would.

At the same time, Rodriquez keeps hinting that a new ship is in the works as the company gets ready to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2015. “It is a natural evolution — given the wonderful [fiscal] year we’ve had, and concurrently with [our] awards and product delivery — that this brand will grow,” she says. “We’re just not ready to announce it yet. Nobody would have liked to announce it more than I would have at this forum. It is my hope that, by the end of the year, we’ll have some really great announcements to share.”

New Programs
While it didn’t announce a new ship, Crystal did unveil a slew of new programs, from culinary changes to new shore excursions, pre- and post-cruise programs, entertainment, technology as well as new efforts specifically to help agents sell the company’s cruises.

First up, Crystal debuted a new menu concept for its Crystal Dining Room, the main restaurant on both ships, which will now feature both “modern” and classic cuisine. The “modern” side of the menu features food prepared using molecular cooking techniques and technologies.

The new menus in the Crystal Dining Room come just months after the line introduced a completely new dining venue, Tastes, on Crystal Serenity’s pool deck in what had formerly been an indoor pool area. That restaurant, open for light breakfast, lunch and dinner, features a tapas-like array of international cuisine inspired by Sapphire Laguna Restaurant in Laguna Beach, Calif. Tastes also has three “living” walls of plants and olive trees as décor.

Beyond the new dining venue, Crystal also offers two other specialty restaurants, Prego, featuring Italian cuisine, and Silk Road, offering meals designed by famed Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa.

In addition to cuisine, Crystal also is working to attract a younger demographic with more active programs, including a new “Site Run” jogging adventure series, set to debut in April, which takes guests on runs through such places as St. Petersburg, Russia; Greenock, Scotland’s Loch Lomond; Bar Harbor, Maine’s Acadia National Park; and Auckland’s Mount Eden volcano. These runs, designed to last between 5 and 10 kilometers, incorporate fitness into the sightseeing experience.

Crystal also is expanding its active experiences ashore with 16 new bicycle Crystal Adventures in 2014. Offered on May-September voyages in Europe onboard Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, the half- and full-day excursions combine fitness with new, intimate perspectives on top destinations. All details are arranged by Crystal’s staff and partners ashore, including helmets, bottled water, refreshments in most locales and terrain-appropriate bikes; prices for bicycling excursions in Europe range from $89 to $249 per person.

In September, Crystal will introduce a new outdoor gym on Crystal Symphony’s Promenade Deck, allowing guests to work out by the sea and intersperse jogging or laps around the deck for increased interval training.

Going Places
On the itinerary front, Crystal introduced its destinations and World Cruises even earlier than usual, giving travel agents the chance to get brochure information on sailings and pricing in May for cruises in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. New for 2016 is a return to Alaska, a Hawaii roundtrip sailing, and a new Berlin and London experience as part of a Baltic cruise. Crystal also will return with new sailings out of New Orleans round-trip and to Fort Lauderdale.

In addition, Crystal also will return to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Sydney for 2016, including an exclusive viewing of fireworks from a point right near Sydney Harbour Bridge. There’s also a new 21-day roundtrip Sydney sailing featuring an Outback experience and stops in Fiji. A new World Cruise offering in 2017 will include Antarctica and South America in a round-trip sailing out of Miami. While another Grand Cruise will sail from Melbourne to Tokyo.

Back in 2012, Crystal became an all-inclusive ship where all liquors and gratuities are included. What the line won’t do quite yet is offer inclusive shore excursion programs, as some other companies in the luxury and upper premium market have done. That effectively means those excursions are commissionable to agents.

“We continuously look at all of these things,” says Rodriquez. “At this point in time, what our guests tell us is they want individual choices, so we are sticking with offering them a plethora of choices, be it a boutique land adventure or one of our typical bus tours.”

At the same time, Rodriguez says Crystal will continue to evaluate inclusive shore excursions to see if they are something the company can incorporate. But she points out that the Crystal Celebrations program, which develops special events for larger groups celebrating major occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, is commissionable at 10 percent. “That’s not necessarily equivalent to a shore excursion, but nonetheless another tool in an agents’ tool kit,” she says.

Crystal also is expanding its pre- and post-cruise options with a new series of Extended Land Programs in 2014 and 2015. These programs, commissionable at 5 percent to travel agents, take guests to iconic destinations such as Cappadocia, Turkey; Iguacu Falls, Brazil; Angkor Wat, Cambodia; Ayers Rock, Australia; and more.

In addition, Crystal is debuting a new post-cruise program on its Chairman’s and Crystal Society cruise — departing July 8, 2015 — that will feature Highclere Castle, site of PBS’ “Downton Abbey,” along with a visit to Bampton, the village depicted in the television series.

For Travel Agents
On the travel agent front, Crystal has updated its Cruise Builder travel agent booking engine to provide an expert mode that will allow agents to book in 90 seconds or less. The system, which no longer requires a guest name or other information to research or get a quote for a cruise, has an easier advanced search function and provides more pier arrival and departure information. Agents also can now book Crystal Getaways’ shorter cruise programs and get a more detailed stateroom availability list.

Crystal’s Priority Check-in and Planning Center (PCPC) now gives agents the capability to book Crystal Adventures shore excursions upon deposit. In addition, dinner reservations can now be made in advance for Crystal Serenity’s Tastes restaurant.

Crystal, at press time, was also set to introduce a new air booking search engine allowing travel agents to choose the best flights and fares for their clients with the benefits of Crystal’s flight protection, airport transfers and less expensive fares starting 10 months prior to the sailing.

With all these announcements and product improvements, however, many agents and past guests are still wondering when Crystal will commit to a new ship, especially when its competitors are building new vessels. But Rodriquez observes that more new ships in the luxury market haven’t necessarily affected Crystal in the past. “Seabourn released three new ships previously and it didn’t seem to hurt us at all,” she says. “So I’m staying very bullish on Crystal and I welcome the competition because it’s a good thing. We work in a great industry, so we’ll be ready.”

For more information or reservations, call 800-446-6620, or visit www.crystalcruises.com.