1.
Celebrity Concierge
Class: First Class Cruising at Coach Prices!
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Ever paid full-fare Coach? Then
you know the story. You paid a premium price
yet got a middle seat in the back of the plane,
ate the same meal everyone else in Coach got
and received the same level of service, too.
It's almost like you were being played for a
sucker, right? Sort of made you wonder what
they did with your money, didn't it? Kind of
made you mad, right?
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Celebrity hears you. They've just
introduced a new class of cruising for those who
pay a little more for their accommodations and expect
something significant in return - not just a higher
deck, a bowl of fruit and a smile. They call it
"Celebrity ConciergeClass" and
it's already available aboard the Millennium, Infinity,
Summit and Constellation. All Celebrity ships will
feature this new level of service by May of 2004.
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Here's what Celebrity ConciergeClass
is all about.
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• A welcome aboard bottle of chilled
champagne in your stateroom
• Fresh flowers and a selection of
fruit
• Leather key holder
• Personalized stationery
• Oversized logo tote bag
• Complimentary afternoon canapés
• Exclusive room service menu selections
• Large verandah table and softly cushioned
chairs for relaxation and al fresco dining
• High-powered binoculars for
improved verandah sightseeing!
• Tension-absorbing pillow-top mattresses
• Plush duvets and a selection of conformance,
body, goose down or Isotonic pillows
• Plush bath rugs, double-thick bathrobes
and oversized Egyptian cotton towels
• Two hair dryers, a special
showerhead, and upscale lotions and toiletries
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| ConciergeClass Priorities: |
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• Early embarkation/debarkation privileges
• One-touch telephone connection to
ConciergeClass Desk
• Priority luggage service
• Dining time and seating preferences
• Shoe shine service
• VIP invitations to special shipboard
events
• Priority choice for shore excursions
• Large verandah table and softly cushioned
chairs for relaxation and al fresco dining
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| Celebrity will also be adjusting
their stateroom category names and codes to achieve
a standardized naming convention throughout their
fleet. ConciergeClass will be coded fleet-wide as
a "CC" category. Formerly, this stateroom
category was listed as "3" on Century,
Horizon and Zenith; "2" on Galaxy and
Mercury; and "1A" on Millennium, Infinity,
Summit and Constellation.
Click
here for more information about Celebrity's nine
beautiful ships.
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2.
Featured Homeland Port:
Norfolk
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Homeland cruising makes sense.
More ships sailing from more ports in North America -
about 20 and counting - means less driving or (ughh!)
flying, shorter travel times, less hassle and a certain
peace of mind that comes only with itineraries that travel
familiar, close-to-home journeys. To this, add the broader
choice of new embarkation ports that offer not just sand,
salsa and sunshine, but a full range of family vacation
fun, too. |
| So, it was just a matter of time before someone landed
on Norfolk. Tucked away just a few miles from the vast
Atlantic at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk makes
sense. |
• Accessibility
to major cruise destinations?
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Check. The Bahamas
can be reached within 24 hours. The
Eastern Caribbean is just a two-day
cruise away. |
• Accessibility to major
population centers?
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Check. Norfolk's
metropolitan area numbers over 1 ½
million residents. Richmond, Washington,
D.C. and Baltimore are within a few
hours' drive. Uncongested regional
airports are minutes away. |
• Port Facilities?
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Check. We're
talking major, deep water port facilities
here. The Norfolk Naval Base wouldn't
be here if the city didn't provide
one of the nation's best, most strategic
port locations. |
• Tourism Center?
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Check.Get out
your map. Norfolk's neighbor is Virginia
Beach, one of the Atlantic's premier
beach vacation destinations. Colonial
Williamsburg and Jamestown are just
up the Chesapeake, next to the historic
Yorktown Battlefield. Side-trips to
Mt. Vernon, Washington D.C. and Baltimore
are easy one-day excursions. |
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Norfolk: the cruise port no-brainer! (What
took them so long?) |
BACK TO TOP OF PAGE
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3.
Pick a Name, Any Name: How do They Pick Those
Ship Names?
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| Like us, maybe you've
wondered how the cruise lines come up with names
for their new ships. Clearly, the fear of confusion
isn't a deterrent. As result we have the Norwegian
Majesty and Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas.
There's the Dawn Princess, the Star Princess and
the Sun Princess as well as the Norwegian Dawn,
the Norwegian Star and the Norwegian Sun. Go figure.
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| So, how do they come up with these names,
anyway? Here are our not-so-serious theories. |
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• Dartboard. A dartboard imprinted
with such names as Sun, Star, Dawn, Legend, Majesty
and Pride is affixed to the cruise line's Boardroom
wall. When a new ship is up for a name, a dart
is thrown.
• Thesaurus System. The word "imperial"
is located in the thesaurus and a listed synonym
is then randomly selected. This explains Crown,
Monarch, Majesty, Empress, Grandeur, Royal, Regal,
and Sovereign. Similar trips to the thesaurus
may have led to the war-like Triumph, Victory,
Valor, and Conquest or the more peaceful Serenity,
Serenade, Symphony, Magic, Wonder, and Harmony.
• Globe Spin. The cruise line CEO
spins the globe and points, stopping the globe
in the Pacific, the Caribbean, on a Coral reef,
atop Tahiti or an Island somewhere on earth. This
method appears to be a Princess favorite. One
assumes that multiple spins may be needed as we've
yet to hear of a Bronx Princess, for example.
• Romantic Fantasy. Carnival patented
this method. Back in 1990 they named a ship "Fantasy"
and then let their Imagination go loose. In quick
order out came the Elation, Fascination, Inspiration,
Sensation, and Paradise. The hands-down winner
in this methodology goes to the good ship Ecstasy.
• Jewelry Store Field Trip. CEO's
head downtown to the nearest jewelry store and
choose their favorite Sapphire or Diamond. This
trip no doubt would account for Jewel and Golden
and probably had a hand in Radiance and Brilliance,
too. 7 Blue Seas awaits a budget cruise line to
one day launch the Cubic Zirconium!
• Heaven Can't Wait. Celebrity now
has the edge on this scheme, what with their Constellation,
Galaxy, Horizon, Infinity, and Mercury. But there
are enough Stars, Dawns and Suns to go around
suggesting that they hardly invented this method.
• Holland Has It. Holland America
"swears" by this method. Every ship
ends with the suffix "dam." Take the
compass points of north, south, east and west,
roughly translate them into the Dutch "Nord,"
"Zuider," "Ooster," and "Wester,"
tack on the suffix and presto! - a ship name.
Also, points of interest and towns were used in
this methodology; hence the ship names Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, Volendam, and so forth.
• Recycle! Ditch the dartboard! Throw
out the thesaurus! If an old name can be recycled,
use it! Not surprisingly, the cruise lines who've
been around the longest - Holland America (the
Rotterdam is the line's sixth edition) and Princess
(Dawn, Golden, Island, Pacific, Star and Sun are
all number twos for the line!) favor this method.
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