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Celebrity
is the most stylish of the mainstream lines, operating big
megaships spiced up with above-average service and a
cutting-edge sense of design and style.
Celebrity juices up
the mainstream cruise experience with a touch of refinement and
a dash of class, all the while keeping things fun, active, and
within the price range of Joe and Sally Cruiser. Each ship is
glamorous, exciting, and comfortable, offering sleek modern
styles accented with cutting-edge art collections. The new
Solstice-class ships are, bar none, the most elegant megaships
in the cruise world.
An exceedingly
polite and professional staff contributes greatly to the overall
mood. Dining-wise, the dashing alternative restaurants on the
line's Millennium-class ships outclass all other mainstream ship
restaurants for presentation and gorgeous decor, and match the
best for cuisine.
Like all the
big-ship lines, Celebrity provides lots for its passengers to
do, from enrichment lectures to shows, sports, talent shows, and
pool games. The line's spas are among the most attractive at
sea, decor ship-wide is the most original, and the art
collections are the most compelling you'll find on any cruise
ships, anywhere.
Celebrity's
roots go back to the powerful Greek shipping family Chandris,
whose patriarch founded a cargo shipping company in 1915. The
family expanded into the cruise business in the late 1960s and
by 1976 had the largest cruise fleet in the world. In the late
1970s, they introduced the down-market Chandris-Fantasy Cruises,
which served a mostly European clientele. In 1989, the Chandris
family dissolved Fantasy and created Celebrity Cruises, building
beautiful, innovative ships that were immediately recognizable
by their crisp navy-blue-and-white hulls and their rakishly
angled funnels decorated with a giant X --
which was really the Greek letter chi, for
Chandris.
The
company's rise to prominence was so rapid and so successful that
in 1997 it was courted and acquired by the larger and wealthier
Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., which now operates Celebrity as a
sister line to Royal Caribbean International and newer brand Azamara
Club Cruises, which
Celebrity launched before turning it loose as a stand-alone
company. In 2008, Celebrity
introduced the first of its new generation of 118,000-ton,
2,850-passenger megaships: Solstice
-- the
loveliest new ship to debut in years. Sister ships Equinox and Eclipse followed
in summer 2009 and winter 2010, and two more sisters are
scheduled to follow.
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Celebrity
tries to focus on middle- to upper-middle-income cruisers and
even wealthy patrons who want a great megaship experience
(especially while nestled in one of the line's amazing upper-end
suites), but its generally low prices -- more or less comparable
to those of sister-line Royal Caribbean -- ensure the
demographic stays democratically wider. For clients who choose
their cruise based on more than just price, Celebrity is
appealing because it offers a well-balanced cruise, with lots of
activities and a glamorous, exciting atmosphere that's both
refined and fun.
Most
passengers are couples ages 35 and up. Many have cruised before
and want something a little more hip and stylish than the cruise
norm. That said, you'll still see passengers of all ages, with a
decent number of honeymooners and couples celebrating
anniversaries, as well as families with children in summer and
during the holidays.
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