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We caught up with Captain Birger J. Vorland on one of his final voyages before retiring to hear the highlights of his 50-year career.
Most people imagine the route to retirement to be a gradual easing off the gas, a gentle transition from the maelstrom of working life to long, leisurely days pursuing private passions. For Captain Birger J. Vorland, however, the start of his retirement season was a little more fraught.
After nearly 50 years at sea, almost half of which were spent with Crystal, Captain Birger announced his retirement last year to an outpouring of congratulations and affection from guests and crew alike. One final World Cruise would bring him back to the Mediterranean for his final voyages.
But the world had other plans. A reignition of conflict in the Middle East resulted in the early end of our 2026 World Cruise and a waiting period to see if a Suez Canal transit would be possible.
Thankfully, it was – and Captain Birger found himself navigating Crystal Serenity along the Suez Canal under cover of total darkness with a pared-back crew to ensure safe transit. “It was a little more intense than what we had planned initially,” he laughs, as he sits in his quarters, Bodrum’s harbor glinting behind him. “But I wasn't too concerned. I've studied this area in detail for many, many years. I spent a long night on the bridge but it was a very smooth transit, and when we came out of the area of concern, we were very happy.”
From then on, it was plain sailing ahead into his final season, and a time to reflect. “I've been everywhere pretty much, and that’s incredible,” he says. “I look at the world map and I can pull in memories from almost everywhere.
“I have met some incredible people – and some very famous people. But the thing is that everybody, in the end, we're all just humans. Everybody has a story.
“When I first came to Crystal, I heard this about this Crystal family. It sounded cheesy, you know, but as time went on, I realized that it really is like that. And because we have such a high retention of crew, guests will be recognized by crew members, and it also goes the other way because guests recognize the crew and that makes the crew feel good, too. So it's a wonderful combination, a wonderful mix.”
After such an illustrious career, Captain Birger has many memories to choose from, but he still comes back to his record-breaking voyage through the Northwest Passage in 2016 – which sold out in 48 hours – and again in 2017. “I feel very, very fortunate to have done that,” he recalls. “That was the highlight of my traveling experience. But it wasn't something that came easy. We spent four years planning. After the first one, people asked, ‘Captain, what was the biggest surprise you had?’ And I said, ‘we didn't have any surprises because we had basically thought about everything.’ We were super prepared. And that is the only way to do such a thing, you know. My countryman Roald Almundson, who was the first to cross the Northwest Passage from 1903 to 1906, always said there is no such thing as bad luck, only bad planning. And we had very good planning, so we had no issues.”
Such attention to detail has been a hallmark of Captain Birger’s voyages ever since; he is hugely respected throughout the whole industry. “My number one job is to make sure that everybody is safe and secure,” he says. “Some people think you're just walking around in white uniform, having a good time and making speeches. That's partly true, but there's a lot of responsibility. I like to have a happy ship but an efficient ship, because a ship can only be efficient if it's happy, and vice versa.”
And on both counts, happiness and efficiency, Captain Birger has delivered in spades. As we bid him a fond farewell, he sums up what his career has meant. “What I take with me is the incredible life I've had meeting people, hearing people's stories, sitting down for a meal and discussing things and learning about people's view on different topics. I feel very blessed with that – I’m just someone who comes from a rock on the west coast of Norway.”
