Crystal Cruises lays off staff and announces it is winding down operations

WLRN 91.3 FM | By David Lyons - Sun Sentinel

Published February 14, 2022 at 5:57 PM EST

FILE - The cruise liner Crystal Symphony leaves the harbor in Charleston, S.C. on May, 21, 2013. Scheduled to arrive in Miami on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, the ship, with hundreds of passengers aboard, was diverted to the Bahamas after a U.S. judge granted an order to seize the vessel as part of a lawsuit over unpaid fuel.

Crystal Cruises, the luxury cruise operator whose ships were pursued through Bahamian waters by federal agents over unpaid bills, has laid off all 238 of its Miami-based employees and intends to wind down its operations.

According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing with the state of Florida, the company started to lay off top executives, managers and staff members in Miami on Jan. 21, and intended to complete the task by last Friday.

“We are taking the action because we will be undertaking an assignment for the benefit of creditors, or seeking similar relief,” a company human resources staffer said in a letter dated Feb. 10 to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.