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Itineraries of the Crystal Esprit

Price and Availability Notice
Prices displayed are provided for informational purposes only. They reflect the rates in effect at the time of their most recent update and are shown in Canadian dollars, per person, based on double occupancy, unless otherwise specified.

Supplier rates, exchange rates, taxes and fees, room or cabin categories, and promotions are subject to change at any time. The applicable price is the one confirmed by a travel advisor at the time of booking, subject to availability. Only the confirmed price shall be considered valid.

It is the traveler's responsibility to confirm the price, inclusions, and applicable terms and conditions before making a reservation. While every effort is made to keep our content up to date, transmission, display, or pricing errors may occur. In such cases, the correct price will be communicated to the traveler before any booking is confirmed. Certain terms, restrictions, and exclusions may apply.

    manque specs

    This ship no longer carries this name

    Crystal Esprit no longer sails under this name. She is called National Geographic Islander II today, and this page sells no departure. It exists because the old name still circulates, and because a reader looking for it deserves an answer rather than a dead page.

    What she was

    Her keel was laid in 1988 and she was completed in December 1991 at the Flender Werft yard in Lübeck. She carried three names before this one: Lady Diana, Aurora I, then MegaStar Taurus with Star Cruises for twenty-one years. Crystal announced her in July 2015 and renamed her that 20 December at Mahé, in the Seychelles. Sixty-two guests. She was the smallest ship in the fleet and the only yacht.

    Where she is today

    Crystal sold her to Lindblad Expeditions in September 2021, five months before the other ships were arrested. She is the only one in the fleet to leave before the bankruptcy, and the only one whose sale was a choice rather than a consequence. She was christened National Geographic Islander II in October 2022 and has sailed the Galápagos since. You can still board her: her page is here, National Geographic Islander II.

    Why this page still exists

    Why keep this page rather than delete it? Because deleting it would leave the reader with a 404 and an unanswered question. The line was arrested on 4 February 2022 at Freeport, in the Bahamas, over 4.6 million US dollars of unpaid fuel, then sold at auction. Nine ships carried this name; two still do and a tenth is being built. Crystal Serenity is still here. Crystal Symphony is still here. The line's own page tells the whole of it.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    No. The Crystal name is no longer hers, and this page sells no departure. We keep it to say what happened rather than leave the reader with a 404.
    National Geographic Islander II. She was renamed in October 2022 and has sailed the Galápagos since, with Lindblad Expeditions.
    No, not under this name nor with this line. Her new owner is in our catalogue and her page is up to date.
    No. Zero departures measured on this page, and that zero is accurate. If you want the same thing elsewhere, look at National Geographic Islander II.
    Because the name still circulates and a reader looking for it deserves an answer. Deleting it would only replace stale information with a dead page. We prefer to tell the truth and point somewhere useful.
    On 4 February 2022, Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony were arrested at Freeport, in the Bahamas, over roughly 4.6 million US dollars of unpaid fuel. The line had suspended operations days earlier. On 11 February it filed an assignment for the benefit of creditors in Florida; on the 14th its 238 shoreside staff in Miami lost their jobs. A&K Travel Group took the brand and the two ocean ships at judicial auction in June 2022.
    Lindblad Expeditions, in September 2021, five months before the other two ships were arrested. She is the only one in the fleet to leave before the bankruptcy, and the only one whose sale was a choice rather than a consequence.
    Nine. Two still do, Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony, and a tenth is being built at Fincantieri for 2028. The other seven changed owners between September 2021 and January 2023.
    Yes, two: Crystal Serenity, back on 31 July 2023 out of Marseille, and Crystal Symphony, back on 1 September 2023 out of Athens. Both were rebuilt by Fincantieri at Trieste.
    An ocean ship. She sailed the open sea under the Crystal flag.
    Flender Werft, at Lübeck in Germany, completed in December 1991.
    Sixty-two. She was the smallest ship in the fleet and the only yacht.
    National Geographic Islander II. It is not the same ship and we will not pretend otherwise: it is the closest match our catalogue offers today for the same kind of voyage.
    It did. It described a departed ship in the present tense, without saying where or why. That is fixed, and so are the six other pages in the same state. If you still see an error, report it: we measure before we correct.
    Your agency, and it alone. Voyages AquaTerra operates under a licence from Quebec's Office de la protection du consommateur, your payments pass through a trust account, and the compensation fund for travel agency clients covers your departure. Nothing establishes a Quebec licence for this carrier.
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