Royal Caribbean to deploy Celebrity Century and Celebrity Solstice in Australia.
Royal Caribbean md Gavin Smith has just announced that two Celebrity Cruises vessels will be deployed in Australia for the 2014-15 season.
Celebrity Century will join Celebrity Solstice in local waters, with Solstice also returning for its third consecutive season in 2014-15.
The move follows a highly successful inaugural season for Solstice this year, with the vessel departing Sydney today for Alaska. Smith said that Celebrity had carried 35,000 passengers during its first down under deployment, about 60% of whom were from overseas.
Century was built in 1995 and is smaller than the 2850-pax Solstice, carrying around 1800 passengers. It’s a more “classic” vessel, Smith said, but incorporates a range of Celebrity’s contemporary features including about 50% balcony cabins, an ice bar and a 9000 square foot spa area.
The Century season will see the ship operate 11 Australian based voyages over a three month period before redeploying to Singapore in Jan 2015. New Celebrity destinations for the smaller ship will include Port Lincoln in South Australia, Burnie in Tasmania and Cairns in Queensland.
Solstice will also return for an extended 2014-15 season of 16 voyages.
More information in Cruise Weekly tomorrow.