Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven makes ready for big "Crystal Symphony" refurbishment
In a few days time a team from Lloyd Werft will go on board the luxury cruise ship "Crystal Symphony" in Lisbon to start preparations during the ship’s delivery voyage to North Germany. They precede her forthcoming large-scale refurbishment which is scheduled to take place on arrival at the traditional German shipyard. Crystal Cruises announced the multi-million refurbishment in the spring calling it the "Evolution of Crystal Luxury", the company said in its press release.
It will be the first direct internal contract between Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven and Crystal Cruises, both of which are part of the Hong Kong based Genting Group. Lloyd Werft has been a 100% subsidiary company of the Genting Group since 2016. A year earlier Genting took over the American luxury cruise shipping company along with its two ocean going cruise ships from the Japanese shipping concern Nippon Yusen Kaisha.
"Crystal Symphony", built in Finland in 1995, is expected to arrive at the entrance to Lloyd’s giant Kaiserdock II in the early evening of September 23rd. The luxury cruise ship is expected to remain in Bremerhaven for the multi-million Euro refurbishment until October 16th. The work is actually being shared. The interior refurbishment will be carried out directly by Crystal Cruises or its partner companies while Lloyd Werft will be responsible for the shipbuilding aspects and for all the logistical demands of the contract. As a result, not only a large part of the Lloyd Werft work force but also several hundred crew members and sub-contractors will all be busy on the site.
Along with regular ship maintenance work the vessel, which currently has a capacity of 922 passengers, will get two new restaurants. The technical pre-requisites for the introduction of free on-board WLAN will also be created on the ship up to October 16th. In addition, ultra-slim 24 inch screens will be installed in every cabin. In the course of the refurbishment some smaller cabins on Deck 9 will be converted into luxury penthouse suites with butler service. A total of 40 of these new suites, of 34 to 45 square metres in size, will be created, reducing passenger capacity to 848.
After the refurbishment work has been completed, the ship will head back to Lisbon where she is scheduled to begin a 15 night cruise to the Mediterranean on October 21st.
Crystal Cruises also plans to upgrade other ships in its existing fleet as part of an ongoing process, along with the river and ocean going ships currently being built by MV Werften in Wismar - also part of the Genting Group. Also planned for autumn 2018 is a major refurbishment of the "Crystal Serenity", which entered service in 2003, although the contract for that work has not as yet been awarded.
The Lloyd Werft welcomed the contract with Crystal Cruises – the first to be placed with the yard since it announced in spring that it was to tread a new and positive course of re-orientation. "It is a commitment from Genting to our traditional shipyard here in Bremerhaven. The yard can point to many years of experience and competence in the refurbishment of cruise ships". In addition to that, further projects are expected in the weeks ahead, such as the overhaul of the research ship "Polarstern" and yacht new building, providing the yard with a good basic workload.