Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

Get ready for some company, Sydney Opera House. Another thing of beauty will share Sydney Harbour when premium cruise brand Celebrity Cruises sends its award-winning Celebrity Solstice to Australia and New Zealand for the winter of 2012-13.

“Celebrity Solstice has satisfied guests around the world since we introduced her in 2008, and the obvious next step is to send her to Australia,” said Dan Hanrahan, President and CEO, Celebrity Cruises. “With this move, we are delivering another way for people to have the best vacation experience possible, in one of the most stunning geographic regions of the world.” [Read more →]

Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

How do you make the best even better? Celebrity Cruises believes you break the rules, stay ahead of the curve, and provide what vacationers want most – often before they even say they want it. That belief is vividly reflected in the distinctive, luxurious, vacation-enhancing venues Celebrity will introduce on the fourth and fifth ships in its award-winning Solstice Class fleet, Celebrity Silhouette and Celebrity Reflection.

“We recognize that consumers’ vacation time is precious, and that’s what drives us to continually create new and unique experiences that enhance their rare time away,” said Celebrity Cruises President & CEO Dan Hanrahan. “The host of honors our Solstice Class and Millennium Class have won have been incredible validation of that commitment, and on Celebrity Silhouette and, we’re capitalizing on the opportunity to further elevate our onboard offerings, particularly in our Solstice Class’ iconic Lawn Club, and with our wildly popular AquaClass category of accommodations and its exclusive specialty restaurant, Blu. Initially, we planned to introduce these exciting new enhancements only on Celebrity Reflection, but to our delight, our outstanding partners at Meyer Werft were able to also deliver every new feature with the exception of AquaClass Suites on Celebrity Silhouette.” [Read more →]

Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity Cruises is adding spa, salon and personal fitness appointments to its ever-growing line-up of onboard experiences available for pre-cruise booking. In today’s fast-paced world, vacationers are looking to make the most of their time away from daily pressures, and Celebrity aims for this latest offering to present cruise guests with yet another way to make the most of their time onboard.

“One of the most valued elements of a Celebrity Cruises vacation is the outstanding service that we offer to our guests,” said Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Senior Vice President, Hotel Operations. “Even the process of planning for specific experiences such as spa and salon appointments reflects our commitment to service and our ‘Designed for you’ brand platform. Our guests tell us that the more they can arrange in advance, the less they have to think about once they step aboard our award-winning ships. We’ve designed our more than 100 AquaSpa, salon and fitness offerings to help our guests enjoy relaxation and renewal, from men’s barber services to hot stone massages, from the Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Facial to Brazilian Blowout Keratin treatments for hair, and more.” [Read more →]

Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

Playing off the series of hip, high-tech “firsts” it has introduced in recent months, premium cruise line Celebrity Cruises is debuting the industry’s first self-guided art tours on an iPad®. Earlier this year, Celebrity introduced the first “Celebrity iLounge” – a modern lounge equipped with MacBook® workstations, a retail space featuring Apple products and accessories, and an enrichment center where certified staff present a variety of courses and offer guests tips on Mac and iPod® usage. Celebrity Cruises is itself an iPad pioneer, having become the first cruise line to present a menu and wine list on an iPad when it introduced its engaging “Qsine” specialty restaurant earlier this year.

“The response to the Celebrity iLounge and to the iPad menus in Qsine was so positive, we knew our guests would relish yet another opportunity to capitalize on the latest technology in an entertaining, enriching way,” said Celebrity’s Senior VP of Hotel Operations Lisa Lutoff-Perlo. “Celebrity’s ‘Designed for you’ platform is built on our commitment to listen to our guests and offer experiences inspired by them and their sophisticated travel desires.” [Read more →]

Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity Cruises has long been recognized for offering award-winning cuisine, and in August, the brand will pair the top-rated megaship, Celebrity Solstice, with invitation-only events sponsored by Food Network and designed for culinary enthusiasts, through the first “Food Network at Sea” program.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Food Network to offer such enticing and exclusive experiences,” said Celebrity Cruises President & CEO Dan Hanrahan. “This program is yet another demonstration of our ‘Designed for you’ brand platform, built around our longtime commitment to identifying and designing what our guests want. We know our guests enjoy cooking and great dining experiences, and many are followers of chefs such as those featured on this sailing, so this is a perfect pairing.” [Read more →]

The Cruise Web is pleased to welcome back several Cruise Consultants from another educational Seminar-at-Sea cruise. Jacques Botty, Tina Colicchio, Jarren Matthews, and Heather Wasson represented The Cruise Web on the 7-night Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Celebrity Solstice. The cruise was a well deserved vacation for the group and we are glad to hear that they had a wonderful time, with Celebrity’s glassblowing demonstrations proving especially memorable. Tina was kind enough to provide the following post about the hot glass shows performed aboard the ship:

I have been to a few renaissance fairs in my time and I have seen live glassblowing before. A good friend of the family is an amateur glassblower herself. For me, glassblowing was “been there, seen it, done that…” But my preconceptions about the art of glassblowing shattered right then and there. I became hypnotized by what I saw.

There were three young men on stage: Matt Decker, Gabe Bloodworth, and Eric Meek. One of them was doing the actual glassblowing, one of them was assisting, and the other was narrating what was going on over a microphone-headset. What struck me immediately were two things. [Read more →]

Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity Cruises has once again won top honors in one of the most trusted surveys of consumer travel preferences in the world. The prestigious Conde’ Nast Traveler magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards ranked Celebrity number one in the new Mega-Ship Cruise Lines category, recognizing the widely heralded Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Equinox.

More than 25,000 experienced travelers made their voices heard in the prestigious annual poll ranking more than 10,000 cruise lines, hotels, resorts, cities, islands, airlines and car rental agencies. Celebrity Cruises was among the honorees featured in a segment airing Monday on NBC’s Today Show to highlight what led to the number-one ranking. [Read more →]

Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.

“Dazzling,” “stunning,” and “in a word, wow,” are among the praises Celebrity Solstice has received from members of the press since the ship launched in November 2008, and its hip style and design is receiving similar recognition from the architecture and design community.

The prestigious International Interior Design Association (IIDA) put Celebrity Solstice front and center in an installment of its “Pioneering Design Lecture Series” in New York focusing on influential professionals in the hospitality, fashion, and theater arts design arena. Among the designers invited to participate were noted hospitality designer Adam D. Tihany, who created Celebrity Solstice’s Grand Epernay main restaurant with gleaming crystal wine tower, the inviting, casual Oceanview Café and Bar, and the Napa Valley-inspired Tuscan Grille steakhouse; Francesca Bucci and Hans Galutera of BG Studio International, who led the design of Celebrity Solstice’s elegant “Murano” specialty restaurant and four of the ship’s chic bars and lounges; and Celebrity Cruises’ AVP of Newbuilding & Design Kelly Gonzalez, whose team headed up the design of the ship’s Mediterranean-influenced “Blu” specialty restaurant. Each participated in a panel discussion about the history of ocean liner design, which evolved to how “Celebrity’s Solstice Class has become the new benchmark in the industry,” according to the IIDA New York Chapter.

That new benchmark – Celebrity Solstice – will have an equally stunning sister ship when Celebrity Equinox enters service July 31, 2009, and three additional ships in the class will join the fleet annually through 2012. Guests on every Solstice Class ship will experience the series of brand-defining, industry-first attributes that guests, travel agents and press have praised about Celebrity Solstice, including a half-acre Lawn Club with real grass, a glassblowing show and studio developed with The Corning Museum of Glass, unrivaled dining venues offering trendsetting cuisine and design, and widely varied entertainment, including spectacular new shows in partnership with Poet Theatricals. The 2,850-guest vessels also have spacious staterooms and bathrooms, and several categories of accommodations, including Celebrity’s new, spa-inspired AquaClass staterooms.