Tag Archives: Celebrity Reflection

Celebrity Cruises orders pair of 2,900-passenger ships

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By Tom Stieghorst

Celebrity Cruises said it has ordered two 2,900-passenger ships from the STX France shipyard in St. Nazaire.

The ships are scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2018 and early 2020.

Celebrity’s most recent ship, the 3,046-passenger Celebrity Reflection, was delivered in the fall of 2012.The line recently agreed to send its oldest ship, Celebrity Century, to a new joint venture in China.

Celebrity’s parent, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., said the ships are being built under the Project Edge name. RCCL said they will deliver small-ship itineraries with large-ship amenities.

“STX France designs and builds some of the most innovative and stylish cruise ships in the world, and Project Edge offers them the opportunity to again set a new standard for modern iconic architecture,” said Michael Bayley, presdient and CEO of Celebrity.

Contract costs for the ship were not disclosed. With the addition of the two new orders, RCCL said company-wide capacity is scheduled to increase by 2.4% this year, 5.5% next year, 6.7% in 2016, 3.8% in 2017 and 4.3% in 2018.

The 117,000-gross-ton ships will be part of a new class of vessels for Celebrity. the line currently operates five Solstice-class vessels, including Celebrity Reflection, and four Millennium-class vessels.

Celebrity competes in the premium segment with Holland America Line, which has a 2,650-passenger ship called Koningsdam under construction for delivery in February 2016.

Fuel efficiency and floating on air

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By Tom Stieghorst
*InsightIt’s funny how visions of the future can be both wrong and right.

I had that thought after viewing a museum exhibit of designs by modernist Norman Bel Geddes, including one for a cruise ship.

Bel Geddes’ big idea was streamlining and in the 1930s, he turned out everything from vacuum cleaners to passenger buses with that teardrop profile meant to increase speed. His cruise liner — with room for 2,600 passengers — is a thing of beauty, although it looks as much like a submarine as a surface ship. The exhibit included side views showing how wind eddies swirled around the superstructure of the conventional ships of the time.*TomStieghorst

Today, however, it isn’t wind resistance that is the focus of cruise industry streamlining, but water resistance. And the object is no longer to be the fastest across the Atlantic, but to cut fuel costs.

That accounts for the bulbous projection at the bow of every cruise ship, an innovation that pushes water quietly aside and improves efficiency. Cruise ships in recent years have been slathered in silicon compounds or other coatings to make them shed marine slime and slip through the water more easily.

The newest streamlining idea is set to debut on the Quantum of the Seas, the first full test of an air lubrication system that uses microbubbles to provide a cushion for the ship to ride on.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) has tested the system in a small way on the Celebrity Reflection, but installed a full system on the Quantum as part of the ship’s technology emphasis.

The idea is to form and inject tiny air bubbles below the hull that reduce drag as the ship plows forward. Ironically for Bel Geddes, air is the instrument to provide extra cruise ship streamlining.

Other firms have tried this before, but Royal Caribbean has developed its own method of making the bubbles so that they’re small enough to be effective. It involves first heating the bubbles to shrink them, and then cooling them to prevent them from turning to steam as they hit seawater.

“We’re not only riding on air, we’re riding on air-conditioned air,” quipped RCCL Chairman Richard Fain, on a recent tour of Quantum in Germany.

The system — which only works when a ship is traveling at speed — could knock 7% to 9% off of propulsion costs, even taking into account the energy needed for heating and cooling, Fain said.

Sampling Celebrity’s new spa provider

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By Tom Stieghorst
*InsightCelebrity Cruises had a nice reward for two of the 1,200 agents that attended CLIA’s Cruise3sixty event in Fort Lauderdale. They were picked for a free spa package aboard the Celebrity Reflection.

The two surprise winners were Rosie Perez, a Cruise Planners agent in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Marcia Finkelstein, a vacation specialist at CruiseOne in Long Branch, N.J. “They were ecstatic — beside themselves,” said Dondra Ritzenthaler, Celebrity sales V.P.

What made the prize a little more special was the changeover in spa providers at Celebrity. The two agents were among the first to be treated by Canyon Ranch SpaClub staffers, who replaced the previous team from Steiner Leisure at the end of March.

Other than signage and a new area for retailing beauty products, there wasn’t much physical change to the spa, which includes two decks of treatment rooms linked by a spiral staircase; a hair salon; a Persian Garden area of heated ceramic loungers; areas for acupuncture, weight lifting and aerobics; and a relaxation area with a panoramic view that is just down the hall from the spa-oriented Aqua Class cabins.*TomStieghorst

“It’s almost like their front room,” said spa director Daniel Foxcroft.

The difference between Steiner and Canyon Ranch will come in the products and the people, Foxcroft said.

Gloria Weller, a retired information technology worker from Orlando, was one of the passengers getting ready to cruise on the Reflection who headed for the spa even before sailing.

After a five-minute Thai massage sampler, Weller said the deep muscle massage was very relaxing for her but wouldn’t be for everyone. “If you just want a feel-good massage, you wouldn’t do this.”

Finkelstein said her 80-minute package, which included a sea salt bath and full-body massage, was a very nice treatment. She said the Canyon Ranch name would probably influence a lot of people to go on Celebrity.

Peter Smith, president of Canyon Ranch, certainly hopes so. He got his first glimpse of the Reflection spa at a dedication during Cruise3sixty and said he “loved” the space, which is perched on the forward areas of decks 11 and 12, with floor-to-ceiling views.

Celebrity was smart to reward a few of the more than 200 agents who signed up to tour the Reflection during the conference. There were 24 ships to tour at Cruise3sixty, and providing a little extra incentive will help gain more exposure for its vessels going forward.

“You never know what you’re going to see,” said Perez in explaining why she chose to tour the Reflection. “You can’t sell something unless you see it.”