23 September 2008

Celebrity ditches Down Under sailings

Celebrity Cruises is dropping plans to sail Australia and New Zealand cruises in winter 2009-10.

The lineÃ¢â¬â¢s ship 2,038-passenger Celebrity Millennium will instead operate in Alaska and from San Juan, taking over a programme due to be run by smaller ship Celebrity Mercury.

This enables the line to offer additional capacity on popular sailings.

The 1,898-passenger Celebrity Mercury will instead offer Caribbean cruises from Baltimore and Charleston.

The new itineraries on Mercury replace southern Caribbean cruises from San Juan previously scheduled from November 2009 to April 2010.

Passengers with affected bookings will be contacted and offered the option to be re-booked in like accommodations on identical southern Caribbean itineraries on Celebrity Millennium at the rate paid, the company said.

Those booked on Millennium's previously scheduled Australia and New Zealand cruises between October 9, 2009 and March 22, 2010, will be offered the option to either re- book on the shipÃ¢â¬â¢s Australia and New Zealand cruises between October 17, 2008 and April 12, 2009, subject to availability, and receive a $600 per-cabin or $800 per-suite onboard credit.

Any reservations on the late-2009 and early-2010 Millennium sailings in Australia and New Zealand that have not been moved or cancelled by October 3 this year will be cancelled automatically.

Celebrity president and CEO Dan Hanrahan said: "Australia and New Zealand are charming and beautiful destinations, and we're confident we'll return again as our brand and fleet grows.

"Currently, though, our travel agent partners and guests have repeatedly said they want more options to sail with Celebrity from the Eastern seaboard, where our brand was founded, and still has a very large and loyal base of cruisers. So, we're pleased to present some very attractive new cruise vacations from that region."

by Phil Davies