Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven, the German cruise ship refurbishment specialist, is preparing to receive the 1995 built Crystal Symphony its owner, Crystal Cruises in Los Angeles, begins to upgrade its existing deep sea fleet of two ships.

Also planned is a major refurbishment of the Crystal Serenity, which entered service in 2003, although the contract for that work that is due to take place next year has not as yet been awarded.

The contravtr to upgrade Crystal Symphone is the first direct internal contract between Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven and Crystal Cruises, both of which are part of the Hong Kong based Genting Group.

Crystal Symphony, is expected to arrive at the entrance to Lloyd’s giant Kaiserdock II in the early evening of 23 September. The  ship is expected to remain in Bremerhaven for the multi-million euro refurbishment until 16 October.

“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,” the shipyard said in a statement.

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.

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.