Celebrity Cruises earns a new recognition within the travel industry

[CruiseNews]

Miami - (October 13, 2011 ) - In the midst of its most award-winning year in its 20-year history, Celebrity Cruises this week added a tremendously meaningful honor to its lineup. In the prestigious annual Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards celebrating the world’s best hotels, airlines, cities, islands and cruise lines, Celebrity ranked #1 in the highly competitive large-ship (2,500+ guests) category.

“All of us at Celebrity are thrilled with this recognition, which is a genuine validation of everything we’re devoted to offering our guests on every Solstice Class ship – and on our Millennium Class ships, particularly as we continue our ambitious, $140-million ‘Solsticizing’ initiative on each of those ships,” said Celebrity’s President & CEO Dan Hanrahan. “To have our new Solstice Class ships recognized as the best in the category, just as our Millennium Class ships have been for several consecutive years, is extremely rewarding. We’re honored that the sophisticated readers of Condé Nast Traveler appreciate the modern luxury we’re focused on providing across the fleet.”In addition to its ambitious Solsticizing program, Celebrity this year alone launched the fourth sleek ship in its stylish Solstice Class series, Celebrity Silhouette, complete with the industry’s first outdoor, interactive barbecue area, “The Lawn Club Grill,”; initiated construction of the fifth Solstice Class ship, Celebrity Reflection, which sets sail in 2012; announced the line’s first sailings in Asia; announced a very special collaboration with The Breast Cancer Research Foundation®; introduced specialty dining packages, as yet another illustration of Celebrity’s culinary leadership and innovation, and published an engaging hardbound book filled with recipes, tips and personality profiles, Excite the Senses. Additionally, on October 10, further showcasing its expertise in wine and food, Celebrity announced plans to introduce an entirely new series of wine-themed cruises in France, Spain and Portugal during peak harvest season in 2012, enhancing its already broad and varied European vacation options, with several itineraries featuring visits to the destinations Conde Nast Traveler’s poll ranked as the top three in Europe: Florence, Barcelona, and Rome.

Nearly 29,000 readers participated in Condé Nast Traveler’s 24th annual survey, evaluating cruise lines in seven areas: Food/Dining, Staterooms, Design/Layout, Crew/Service, Shore Excursions, Activities/Facilities and Itineraries/Schedules. The complete listing of award winners is featured on Conde Nast Traveler’s website and in the magazine’s November 2011 issue.

About Celebrity Cruises:

Celebrity Cruises’ iconic “X” is the mark of modern luxury, with its cool, contemporary design and warm spaces; dining experiences where the design of the venues is as important as the cuisine; and the amazing service that only Celebrity can provide, all created to provide an unmatchable experience for vacationers’ precious time. In addition to offering vacations visiting all continents, Celebrity also presents immersive cruisetour experiences in Alaska, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Europe and South America. One of the fastest-growing major cruise lines, Celebrity is one of five cruise brands operated by global cruise vacation company Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE, OSE: RCL). Celebrity’s fleet currently consists of 10 ships, with an additional Solstice Class ship, Celebrity Reflection, scheduled to join the fleet in Fall 2012. For more information, dial 1-800-437-3111 or call your travel agent. Follow the brand socially at www.facebook.com/celebritycruises.

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[AndiD]

We took our first cruise on Celebrity in September 2010 to Bermuda. We were on the Celebrity Summit and extremely pleased with the overall package: ship and crew, itinerary, price, food... What most impressed us was the way they handled the glitch in schedule: our ship was coming in from a Canada/New England cruise that had encountered problems with a hurricane in the vicinity. They had been forced to go further out to sea and were going to be late getting into port after experiencing very rough seas. They attempted to contact all of us to tell us to arrive a little later but of course many people were already en route. We arrived at the port in New Jersey about 1:00 and were taken into a large "warehouse". We were made aware of the situation at check-in and told they expected to start boarding about 6:00 p.m. They had lots of chairs set up and big buffet tables that they kept stocking with food, both cold and hot, and beverages. They had other tables of just snacks - bags of chips and cans of pop. Also they set up tables for all the services that they would have been offering around the ship on embarkation such as the wine packages, the soda wristbands, dinner reservations, spa service reservations... so passengers could take care of all that and not feel rushed to do so once we were on board. They made our wait as pleasant as possible and sure enough, at 6:00 they started busing us over to the embarkation point. Transport was very orderly - by numbers we had been given - and we were gazing at the Statue of Libery from our cabin balcony with a glass of champagne in our hands by 6:30 p.m.