Celebrity Cruises

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Celebrity Cruises

Type	Public
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Miami, Florida
Industry	Transportation
Products	Cruises
Parent	Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Subsidiaries	Azamara Cruises
Website	http://www.celebrity.com/

Celebrity Cruises is a cruise line founded in 1988 by the Greek Chandris Group.^[1] In 1997 Celebrity Cruises Ltd. merged with Royal Caribbean International to become Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which operates Celebrity, Royal Caribbean International, Azamara Cruises, Pullmantur Cruises and CDF Croisieres de France. Today the company is headquartered in Miami, Florida in the United States. The signature "X" on Celebrity ship funnels is the Greek letter chi, for "Chandris".^[2][3] Common features on board are aft-glass dining rooms, formal foyer areas, alternative restaurants, balcony and suite staterooms, large pools and lounging areas, signature bars and lounges, libraries, elegant spas and gyms, as well as relaxing areas.

Contents 1 History 2 Fleet 2.1 Current fleet 2.2 Future ships 2.3 Retired ships 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

Celebrity Cruises was founded in April 1988 as a subsidiary of the Greece-based Chandris Group to operate upmarket cruise ships to Bermuda.^[1] Chandris had been involved in cruise traffic since the 1960s,^[3] and during the late 1980s they operated in the United States market under the band name Chandris Fantasy Cruises. Chandris Fantasy Cruises mainly catered for the lower end of the market, their fleets consisting of second-hand ocean liners.^[4] Celebrity Cruises came into existence when, in April 1988 Home Lines, at the time one of the world's leading premium cruise lines, was sold to Holland America Line. Home Lines' ships had held two of the five contracts offered by the Government of Bermuda to cruise lines, giving the ships priority berthing arrangement and unlimited access to sail to the islands in exchange for the ships sailing to Bermuda between April and October each year. Although these contract were highly valued, Holland America Line decided to withdraw the former Home Lines ships from this service, leaving an opening for two new ships to gain the contract. Chandris wished to gain these contracts, but the Government of Bermuda was only willing to award them to upmarket cruise lines, which Chandris Fantasy Cruises was not.^[1]

In order to gain the Bermuda Government contracts, Chandris created Celebrity Cruises and immediately begun negotiating with the Bermuda Government in April 1988. As a result of the negotiations Celebrity Cruises was awarded the contract for two ships for a five-year period from 1990 onwards.^[1] In order to fulfill the contract Chandris Fantasy Cruises' Galileo was rebuilt at Lloyd Werft, Germany in 1989, re-entering service as Meridian for Celebrity Cruises in February 1990.^[2][1] As the second ship Horizon, that had been ordered in 1988 as a replacement for Amerikanis in the Chandris Fantasy fleet, was transferred to Celebrity Cruises fleet, entering service in May 1990.^[1][5] In late 1990 Celebrity Cruises placed an order for a sister ship of the Horizon, delivered in 1992 as Zenith.^[1][6]

In 1997 the Chandris family sold their interests in Celebrity Cruises to Royal Caribbean International.^[7] During the same year Celebrity Cruises took delivery of the first Century class vessel, Century, that was followed by Galaxy in 1996 and Mercury in 1997.^[6] Following the delivery of the Mercury, the Meridian was sold to Singapore-based Sun Cruises.^[2] Between 2000 and 2002 Celebrity took delivery of a quartet of new ships, the gas turbine -powered and aptly named Millennium class ships Millennium, Infinity, Summit and Constellation.^[6] The Celebrity Expeditions sub-brand was launched in 2004 with the acquisition of Celebrity Xpedition, a small boutique ship offering specialized cruises around the Galápagos Islands.^[8] In 2005 the Horizon was transferred to the fleet Royal Caribbean's United Kingdom -based subsidiary Island Cruises.^[5] In the same year the first ship of what was to be named Solstice class was ordered from Meyer Werft.^[9] By 2007 three more ships of this class were on order.^[10]

In 2006 plans were made to transfer Blue Moon and Blue Dream from the fleet of Pullmantur Cruises to Celebrity Cruises under the names of Celebrity Quest and Celebrity Journey. The ships would have joined the Celebrity Expeditions sub-brand,^[11][12] but in the end the decision was made to form an entirely new line, Azamara Cruises, to operate these ships in 2007.^[13] Also in 2007 the Zenith was transferred to Pullmantur Cruises 'in exchange' for the Azamara ships.^[11] Transfer of the Zenith also meant the end of Celebrity Cruises' association with Bermuda for the time being, as no ship was brought in to replace her on the cruises to Bermuda.^[14]

In 2007-2008 all Celebrity Cruises' ships were renamed with a "Celebrity" prefix added in front of the pre-existing names.^[6][15] Celebrity Solstice, the first ship in the new Solstice class, was delivered to Celebrity on 24 October 2008.^[16]In May 2009 Galaxy was transferred to the fleet of TUI Cruises, a joint venture between Celebrity Cruises' owner Royal Caribbean International and TUI AG and renamed as Mein Schiff.^[17]

[edit] Fleet

[edit] Current fleet

Ship	Entered service for Celebrity	Class	Capacity	Gross tonnage	Flag	Notes
Celebrity Century	1995	Century class	1778	70,606 GT	Malta	Previously Century
Celebrity Mercury	1997	Century class	1896	76,522 GT	Malta	Previously Mercury.
Celebrity Millennium	2000	Millennium class	2460	90,228 GT	Malta	Previously Millennium.
Celebrity Infinity	2001	Millennium class	2499	90,280 GT	Malta	Previously Infinity, renamed 2007
Celebrity Summit	2002	Millennium class	2499	90,280 GT	Bahamas[18]	Previously Summit.
Celebrity Constellation	2002	Millennium class	2038	90,280 GT	Malta	Previously Constellation, renamed 2007
Celebrity Xpedition	2004	Xpedition class	96	2,329 GT	Ecuador
Celebrity Solstice	2008	Solstice class	2850	122,000 GT	Malta

[edit] Future ships

Celebrity Cruises has ordered five new ships, Celebrity Solstice, Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Eclipse, and two still to be named ships.^[10] These will be Celebrity's largest vessels at 122,000 GT, holding 2,850 passengers each, and measuring 1,033 ft (314.86 m) in length, with a beam of 121 ft (36.88 m).

Ship	Planned delivery date	Shipyard	Projected capacity	Projected gross tonnage	Planned flag
Celebrity Equinox	Summer 2009	Meyer Werft, Papenburg	2850	122,000 GT
Celebrity Eclipse	Summer 2010	Meyer Werft, Papenburg	2850	122,000 GT
Name unknown	Fall 2011	Meyer Werft, Papenburg	2850	122,000 GT
Name unknown	Fall 2012	Meyer Werft, Papenburg	2850	122,000 GT

[edit] Retired ships

Ship	Years in service	Tonnage1	Status as of 2009
Meridian	1990—1997	30,440 GRT	Burnt and sank at the Straits of Malacca, 1999
Horizon	1990—2005	46,811 GT	Since 2005 Island Star for Island Cruises
Zenith	1992—2007	47,255 GT	Since 2007 sailing for Pullmantur Cruises
Galaxy Celebrity Galaxy	1996—2008 2008—2009	76,522 GT	Due to enter service with TUI Cruises as Mein Schiff in May 2009.[19]
1May be specified in gross tonnage (GT) or gross register tons (GRT).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Celebrity Cruises ships

• Celebrity Website
• Celebrity Cruises UK Website

v • d • e Members of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Cruise lines Fully-owned subsidiaries Royal Caribbean International • Celebrity Cruises • Pullmantur Cruises • Azamara Cruises • CDF Croisières de France Joint ventures with TUI TUI Cruises (begins service 2009) Former subsidiaries Island Cruises (50% share) Other companies Air Pullmantur

v • d • e Celebrity Cruises fleet Century class Celebrity Century  • Celebrity Galaxy  • Celebrity Mercury Millennium class Celebrity Millennium  • Celebrity Infinity  • Celebrity Summit  • Celebrity Constellation Xpedition class Celebrity Xpedition Solstice class Celebrity Solstice  • Celebrity Equinox (2009)  • Celebrity Eclipse (2010)  • TBA (2011)  • TBA (2012)