Celebrity Cruises has made a giant leap toward transforming a century into a…
Celebrity Cruises has made a giant leap toward transforming a century into a millennium in just five weeks. The line has signed with Fincantieri in Palermo, Italy, to handle the revitalization of its Century cruise ship in 2006.
The makeover designed to incorporate on Century a variety of Celebrity`s most popular Millennium-class attributes marks the line`s most extensive refurbishment to-date, and the first time the company has worked directly with Fincantieri. The Century project will be the largest cruise ship modification to-date for the Palermo yard.
Century will emerge on June 2, 2006, from a five-week drydock period at Fincantieri. The contract with Fincantieri involves Century`s major structural modifications, new verandas and associated stateroom interiors, new staterooms on deck 12, and regular drydock work. Other interior outfitting contractors also will handle portions of the work.
This is an absolutely phenomenal project, said Celebrity`s President Dan Hanrahan. Century already is an incredible ship, ranked among the top 10 in the world. Our goal now is to align the ship even more with our Millennium- class ships, to offer every Celebrity guest a consistently extraordinary experience across the fleet.
Fincantieri`s Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Bono said, We are most pleased to have acquired this order from Celebrity Cruises. This further strengthens the growth strategy which Fincantieri has identified in the business area of ship repairs, refurbishments and conversions aimed at providing ship owners with a full range of services, and able to accompany the vessel throughout its entire working life with the maintenance of high quality standards.
Following its revitalization, Celebrity`s new Century will set sail on a series of 12-night Baltic and 10- and 11-night Mediterranean sailings, a 13-night Best of Europe voyage, and a seven-night Norwegian Fjords cruise.
Century also will be one of the first Celebrity ships to offer short cruises from the cruise capital of the world, the Port of Miami, beginning in November 2006. The ship will present four- and five-night roundtrip Caribbean cruises through April 2007, offering travelers with more limited vacation time the opportunity to experience what the award-winning Celebrity brand has to offer.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
