''Crystal Esprit'' is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours know ...

previously operated by

Crystal Cruises } Crystal Cruises is a cruise line now headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 1988 by Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and sold to Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate Genting Hong Kong in 2015. Following in ...

. Built by Flender Werft in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, Germany, she was laid down in 1988 and floated out as ''Lady Diana'' in 1989. She was completed in December 1991 as ''Aurora I.'' She and sister ship ''Aurora II'' were purchased by

Star Cruises Star Cruises was a cruise line headquartered in Hong Kong and operating in the Asia-Pacific market. The company was owned by Genting Hong Kong. It was the eighteenth largest cruise line in the world after Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbe ...

in 1994. ''Aurora I'' was renamed ''Megastar Taurus'' and served from 1994 until being laid up in 2008. In July 2015,

announced that she would join its fleet as ''Crystal Esprit'', and on December 20, 2015, she was rechristened at Eden Island Marina in

Mahé, Seychelles Mahé is the largest island of Seychelles, with an area of , lying in the northeast of the Seychellean nation in the Somali Sea part of the Indian Ocean. The population of Mahé was 77,000, as of the 2010 census. It contains the capital city ...

, by Lady Gaenor Anne Meakes (fiancée of yachtsman Mark Richards). In September 2021, Crystal announced that they had sold the all-suite ship following a review of its post-pandemic offering. The new owner is

Lindblad Expeditions Lindblad Expeditions (Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic) is an expedition travel company headquartered in New York, NY. The company currently offers expedition cruises to destinations on all seven continents aboard 15 ships with capacitie ...

, which has renamed her ''National Geographic Islander II'' and intends to base her in the Galapagos Islands, replacing its current , in its the alliance with National Geographic Travel. The ship was christened in October 2022.

References

External links

Official website
1989 ships Cruise ships Ships built in Lübeck {{Cruise-ship-stub