The wonderfully named Crystal Symphony arrived in Fremantle this morning from Bali. She’s on a transit visit, which means she’s here just for the day – then departs at 8 pm tonight.
We have to say the name Crystal Symphony makes us think of clinking champagne glasses and ‘rizz’ – an abbreviated word for ‘charisma’ that now appears in the Oxford Dictionary!
Our Shipping Correspondent Jean Hudson captured the cruise ship’s arrival at the heads around 5.40 am this morning.
Crystal Symphony. Fremantle 6 December 2023. Credit Jean Hudson
Here she is again a little later passing under the shadow of the Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay.
The ship is currently on a 41-day cruise from Dubai to Fremantle. Her next stop is Busselton, and then onwards to Sydney.
While she has a capacity for 606 guests, Inchcape Shipping Services, her Freo agents, confirm that on this visit there are only 119 guests on board, of whom 92 will disembark in Fremantle, leaving 27 to enjoy their day out in our fair city.
Another 74 guests will join the cruise in Freo. This means when Crystal Symphony departs Freo tonight, there will be just 101 guests on board attended by a crew numbering 429.
As Luke Geneve from Inchcape told us, it’s a great cruise to be on with such a strong crew to guest ratio. When you realise it’s something like 4 crew to each guest, you realise just what Luke means. Unheard of!
Crystal Symphony last visited Fremantle on February 5, 2018 – coming up 6 years ago. That was before she found a new owner last year after a forced sale and then underwent a smart refurbishment this year. In June last year, Abercrombie & Kent announced the acquisition and refurb of the cruise ship and their entry into the luxury cruise line business. The refurb happened this year. Which may help to explain why there are relatively so few guests on this particular cruise at this particular time.
Here’s a gallery of Crystal Symphony’s arrival.
Crystal Symphony was built in 1995 in Finland, and sails under the flag of the Bahamas. She is 238m long with a beam of 30m. So a medium-sized, luxury cruise ship.
As none of the 27 transitting guests are on pre-booked tours, expect to see them, along with a few, not-so-exhausted crew, discovering the delights of Freo today. Say hello if you do!
There will be a free return shuttle bus from Fremantle Passenger Terminal into Walyalup Koort for a free Woola Walyalup special cultural welcome at 10:30 am. Everyone is welcome, by the way.
FYI, the next cruise ship expected to visit us, Regatta, arrives this Friday, 8 December at 08:30 and leaves the following day, Saturday 9 December at 8 pm. Regatta is a frequent visitor who we reported on when she visited this time last year.
Regatta. Credit Fremantle Shipping News
It’s always a great sight when these vessels arrive and depart. A great excuse, if you need one, to visit Victoria Quay and take in some of the action!
* STORY by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.
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