Celebrity Cruises to shuffle up the pack……….

Well Celebrity are certainly moving and shaking at the moment with a big reshuffle planned. After eight extremely successful years sailing out of Southampton during the Summer season, Eclipse is heading off and being replaced by her sister ship Celebrity Silhouette from 2018. Eclipse has been a favourite with UK cruisers but I have no doubt that Silhouette will be welcomed and will prove as popular as Eclipse for the duration of her time here. I must say I can’t quite understand why Celebrity are swapping from one ship to another which is virtually identical but no doubt they have their reasons and as I say, cruisers can be assured of the same excellent cruise experience on board. There are some exciting and varied itineraries planned, ranging from 7 to 14 nights and as well as the Med, she will be sailing to Ireland, Iceland and the Azores, amongst other places. Nice to see some new itineraries from Celebrity.

So where is Eclipse off to? She is going to divide her time homeporting between Dublin and Amsterdam – yes, Dublin! Celebrity are the first ever major cruise line to use Dublin as a homeport and although it will be a short season, between end of April through to June 2018, how fantastic that people will be able to board a ship locally in Dublin rather than have to fly to join their cruise! The itineraries will feature a 10 night Ireland and Iceland voyage as well as Norwegian Fjords itineraries. At the end of June Eclipse will move to Amsterdam from where she will offer Around the UK itineraries and 12 night Scandinavia and Russia cruises too. Following this she will move to Barcelona for the remainder of the season from where she will offer 12 night cruises to the Western Med, Italy and the Greek Isles. 2018 is going to be a busy old year for Eclipse!

We will also still have Reflection and Constellation offering a variety of Med cruises during 2018 while Infinity, Solstice and Millenium will be flying the flag over in Alaska.

Later in 2018 see’s the start of ‘Project Edge’, four new ships which will be identical. Celebrity Edge is due to launch in Autumn 2018 and will be joined by sister ship Celebrity Beyond in Spring 2020. The other two ships, yet to be named but watch this space will be launched late 2021 and 2022. That’s forward planning for you, and many more berths to be filled by Celebrity. Good luck with that guys though if you maintain your unquestionably high standards and excellent on board experience I don’t doubt that your loyal cruisers and many new ones besides will be embarking in their droves.

Happy Cruising Folks!