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Latest Press Release from Celebrity
Cruises | |
Miami - Consistently striving to provide its guests with unmatchable vacation experiences, Celebrity Cruises is now offering guests an inside look into the fascinating world of cruise ship operations. A new addition to the unique and robust Celebrity Life onboard activities program, "Celebrity Inside Access" takes guests on a once-in-a-lifetime journey behind the scenes of Celebrity's renowned fleet, inviting them to discover the intricate details and functions behind modern luxury at sea. Celebrity's Inside Access program invites guests to join two intimate and exclusive activities, the "See How It's Done Tour" and the "Bridge Sail Away Experience."
Designed to provide a thorough and rich three-hour experience, the See How It's Done Tour guides an intimate group of guests through several otherwise non-public areas of the ship, including the bridge, mooring deck, crew gym, theater, engine control room, prep rooms and the main dining room galley. At each area of the tour, guests have the opportunity to interact with expert members of the Celebrity crew. Each tour is followed by a savory wine-paired lunch hosted by an officer in the main dining room.
The Bridge Sail Away Experience presents the opportunity for vacationers to join the navigational team on the bridge as the ship sails away from port. Beginning 30 minutes before and concluding 30 minutes after departing, guests are given a tour and an overview of the bridge conducted by a senior Celebrity bridge officer. Guests also have the opportunity to meet and take photos with the ship's captain.
"Celebrity has dedicated itself to providing guests with the finest in culinary experiences, award-winning service and engaging onboard activities," said Simon Weir, Director of Hotel Operations, Celebrity Cruises. "Now, with the addition of Celebrity Inside Access, vacationers can also satisfy their curiosity and gain rare, behind-the-scenes insight into a Celebrity ship's inner workings."
The Celebrity Inside Access program is offered on all ships and available for purchase onboard.
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. |
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E NEWS SUPPLEMENT...by Bill Miller
January 2, 2012 |
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Greetings!
Our "Ship of the Year" survey is almost complete. Only a few days remain for your entries!
In an effort to serve our members better we have changed our phone number to a toll-free number.
Please make note of this number. While there is supposed to be a message on the old number for some reason the phone company is struggling with this request. Our new number is (866) 631-0611.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!
Sincerely!
Tom Cassidy |
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Cruising - On the horizon!
Last year, and despite the ongoing international monetary problems as well as considerable political discord (particularly in the Mediterranean region), the cruise industry overall seems to have survived, weathered the storm so to speak. There haven't been any major bankruptcies or even noted reduction in ships such as lay-ups. And the future does look quite healthy. About two-dozen ships are being built or on order, which is of course encouraging. But with considerable & often startling discounting in fares, cruise lines --- and from top to bottom of the market --- are very clearly trimming, even if in small areas. On some lines, food quality & even offerings has dropped, the likes of special buffets stopped & one line has even eliminated trays in the casual dining area so as to lessen consumption & reduce waste. On another noted ship, the annual Christmas-Holiday buffet was gone. Entertainment has been trimmed as well, such as using lead singers in production shows in place of solo cabaret performers. (One otherwise very popular performer told me that his assignments with one company has plummeted from 24 to 6 engagements between 2011 to 2012.) Another, quite noticeable area is in hotel services. It seems that stewards & stewardesses on many ships are being given added responsibilities, such as more cabins to care for, with the result that (and noticeably) some cabins are not made-up until lunch (or sometimes after lunch) and that evening turn-down service now extends well into or sometimes even after dinner. In some cases, the smiling faces of hotel staff have turned to harried, even worried faces. There is clearly lots of belt-tightening, watching those budgets, keeping the ships going. Yes, the cruise industry is wonderful, indulgent, very often luxuriant, indeed a taste of fantasy & escape, but it is still a business. Back in those home offices, it is very much about economics, about dollars & cents. |
France - Big Business! 
The niche cruise operator, Compagnie du Ponant, has been sold to Lebanese buyers, Merit Corporation, but will retain its French tone & style. Recently, Ponant has been in a state of change --- they've sold the 3,500-grt Le Levant (to Paul Gauguin Cruises) and then the 8,200-grt Le Diamant to Bahamian-based investors. The latter is a rebuilt freighter that was later superbly converted for North American cruising, first as the Explorer Starship & later as the Song of Flower. Meanwhile, Ponant recently added the luxurious, 10,700-grt sisters Le Boreal & L'Austral and, based on their great success in the high-end French cruise industry, have now ordered a third sister. Ponant itself was owned by CMA-CGM (the successor to the bygone French Line, among others), today itself a huge container cargo ship operation, but itself now owned by Merit (80%) and Turkish interests (the remaining 20%). Indeed, the wheels --- or should I say, diesels --- of the cruise industry keep churning & turning! |
 Return from Down Under!
The 15,500-grt Finnmarken, which has been serving as an accommodation ship in Australia for the past two years, has returned to home waters, been refitted & has resumed service on the famed Norwegian coastal run, from Bergen north to Kirkenes. Temporarily, the 660-passenger Finnmarken replaces a near-sister, the Nordlys, which is being repaired following a fire last fall. |
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Good News! 
Cruise business seems to be booming for the famed Crescent City. Three large liners are making New Orleans their winter homeport --- the Carnival Elation & Carnival Conquest of Carnival Cruise Lines and the Voyager of the Seas of Royal Caribbean. |
 Looking to the future!
The Color Line is Norwegian & runs ferry services in & around the North Sea. They operate the likes of 60,000-grt ferries, ships that are much like cruise liners in fact & afford just about every amenity. But for their next pair of ships, each of them carrying 1,600 passengers & 600 cars, they are looking back to the grand days of the Norwegian America Line, an Oslo-based company in business from 1910 until sold to Cunard in 1983. The new Color ferries are being named Stavangerfjord & Bergensfjord, both illustrious choices as they were famed Atlantic liners (and the Bergensfjord a noted cruise ship as well). The stately, twin-funnel Stavangerfjord was an Atlantic veteran, sailing for 45 years, from 1918 until 1963; the more modern, very trim Bergensfjord was commissioned in 1956 & sailed for NAL until sold to the French Line in 1971, becoming their cruising De Grasse (she later sailed as the Far Eastern cruise ship Rasa Sayang, but was destroyed in a fire in 1980). Passengers, especially the Norwegians themselves, might well appreciate the names of these two new liner-ferries. has been busy, already planning for the 2013-14 cruise schedules. |
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Ocean Liner Collectibles - Dining in the main restaurant!
A 2-inch tall, silver-plated toothpick holder from the Italian liner Cristoforo Colombo, which sailed the seas from 1954 until 1977, recently sold for $150. Of course, if it had been from the Colombo's sister, the infamous Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956, pricing might have been far different, indeed greater.
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Ocean Liner History - Heading East!
Some thirty years ago, in 1981, Holland America's grand Rotterdam offered a 19-night cruise through the Panama Canal, sailing from San Francisco to New York, with minimum fare of $2,770 (or approx $145 per person per day). |
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Rotterdam - For sale sign! 
We still keep hearing that the superbly restored Rotterdam, built in 1959 for the Holland America Line, retired in 1997 (by the Dutch) and in 2000 (by her final owners, Premier Cruises, as the renamed Rembrandt) has been lovingly, generously but very expensively restored for use as a museum, hotel & all-around entertainment center within Rotterdam harbor, is for sale. Currently worth about $100 million, the ship attracted 500,000 visitors last year, but her owners, a Dutch housing developer, are not satisfied & losing tons of money on the project. So, stay tuned... |
 Congratulations!
The fantastic, 6,400-berth Oasis of the Seas & her twin sister, the Allure of the Seas, are getting high praises. They've been winning some awards as great "all around cruise liners". They are indeed special as well as spectacular --- 225,000-tonners & at 1187ft from stem to stern --- and, of course, the biggest passenger ships ever created. Comparatively, the infamous Titanic was 46,000 tons, the legendary Normandie at 83,000 tons and the illustrious QE2 at 70,000 tons. A year ago, in Jan 2011, I cruised on the $1.5 billion Allure. I traveled as a regular passenger (not a guest speaker or even cruise journalist). In the end, it was --- and in every way --- beyond my expectations. It is very much a ship worth experiencing. |
South Korea - Biggest Yet! 
Daewoo Shipyards are busily constructing the world's largest passenger-vehicle ferry, a 56,000-grt vessel that is as yet unnamed. The vessel will be able to carry up to 3,200 passengers and some 1,060 vehicles. In her passenger areas, she'll be just like a cruise ship --- with a swimming pool, shopping center, restaurants & show rooms. Running at a top speed of 27 ˝ knots, she'll sail for COUTNAV, Tunisian owners, between Tunisia, Italy & France as well as make periodic Western Mediterranean cruises. |
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Ocean & Cruise News
Current & Past Issues Members can download a PDF of current and past issues using the following links
Past Issues of this "new" Email Supplement beginning with the Feb. 21, 2011 issue can be found by clicking our logo below
The above listed items are copyrighted material and are for the exclusive use of paid members in good standing. Any unauthorized duplication, transmission or distribution of this material without the written permission of The World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society is strictly prohibited. |
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About Bill Miller 
Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships --- from those "floating palaces" of yesteryear to the current generation of cruise ships, the "floating resorts". Called "Mr. Ocean Liner," he has written some 80 books on the subject: from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to other titles on their fabulous interiors, in post card form and about the highly collectible artifacts from them. He has done specific histories of such celebrated passenger ships as the United States, Queen Mary, Rotterdam, France, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Crystal Serenity.
In all, he has also written over 1,000 articles for newspapers, magazines and nautical journals & newsletters. He even had his very own ocean liner quarterly, the Millergram. He has made nearly 450 voyages to date: Atlantic crossings, tropical cruises, coastal runs and even trips on container cargo ships and exotic banana boats. He has appeared in some three dozen video & television series, both in the USA, Britain, Europe and Australia, including Castles of the Sea, The Floating Palaces, The Super Liners, Inside the World of a Cruise Ship, Disasters at Sea, Deco: Age of Glamour, and Lady in Waiting: The Story of the SS United States. He has also appeared on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, NBC Evening News and many other news broadcasts. He has been guest lecturer aboard over 50 different liners, sailing with the likes of Crystal Cruises, Cunard, Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Radisson-Seven Seas, Saga Cruises and others. Miller was a public school teacher, in middle school and for social studies, for 32 years. He was named "Teacher of the Year" in 2002.
A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, the once busy port just across the Hudson River from New York City, Miller was named Outstanding American Maritime Scholar in 1994, received the United States Maritime Preservation Award and also the Ocean Liner Council's Silver Riband Award, both in 2004. Also, he has been chairman of the Port of New York Branch of the World Ship Society, deputy director of the New York Harbor Festival, served on the selection committee for the American Maritime Hall of Fame, created the passenger ship database for the Ellis Island Museum and currently serves as Curator of 20th Century Maritime History at Manhattan's South Street Seaport Museum. He has also organized a 14-week college course on liners, and helped to create & then served as historian at the US Merchant Marine Museum. His private collection includes 4,000 books on ships, over 15,000 photos and some 1,500 miniature ship models, most of them being passenger ships.
By 2011, Miller had 10 new books in the works, was curator to Decodence (an exhibit at the South St Seaport on the design & décor of the grand French liner Normandie) and himself was the subject of a one-hour film documentary aptly titled Mr Ocean Liner. In 2011, he hosted Cinematic Crossings: Ocean Liners on the Big Screen, a 5-day film festival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center. Currently, he spends some 200 days a year lecturing onboard ocean liners & cruise ships.
Follow Bill's look back at ship's of yesteryear..
Heard Along the Boat Deck
And his current and past cruise experiences...
Scribblings |
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William Miller Books!
Busy scribbling! Our good friends Anthony Cooke & John Maxtone-Graham have new titles out on the shelves. London-based Anthony has just released Favourite British Liners with 216 pages & 216 photos (96 of them in color). Check through Mainmast Books in the UK. Meanwhile, Manhattan-homeported John has just finished a new title on the immortal Titanic. It was published by W W Norton & Company.
In the works! The presses are rolling over in England, at the History Press. I've penned a short, 10,000-word overview of passenger ships entitled The Great Liners. It should be out soon. It will be followed, at the same publishing house, by Great Passenger Ships 1910-20 and then Great American Passenger Ships. Happily, my finger keeps on typing ... and happily, there are still photos and anecdotes and maybe something new to be shared.
Another new book project! Happily, I have been signed to do another edition of the Classic Liners series for the History Press over in the UK. In the wake of our book on the Caronia, Cunard's "Green Goddess," this project will deal with two of the most popular, most beloved post-Second World War French liners, the Ile de France & Liberte. The Ile was built for the French but back in 1927; the larger Liberte came to them as post-war reparations, having been the German Europa of 1930. The Ile sailed the Atlantic between 1949 and 1958; the Liberte ran between 1950 and 1961. They transported thousands on the regular run between New York, Southampton or Plymouth and Le Havre, and even had occasional cruises. They were of course predecessors to the much larger, faster France, commissioned in 1962. If any of our readers has anecdotes, reflections, comments and shared materials on these great liners, please contact me through Ocean & Cruise News.
On the horizon! Brian Hawley is penning a new book, filled with lots of photos, about the Olympic, the White Star liner completed in 1911 and sister to the infamous Titanic
Ocean liners in words & pictures! An updated list of my published ocean liner books ... and available thru bmce48@yahoo.com.
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It was an age of evolution, when size and speed were almost the ultimate considerations. 'Bigger was said to be better' and ship owners were not exempted from the prevailing mood. While the German four-stackers of 1897-06 and then Cunard's brilliantMauretania & Lusitania of 1907 led the way to larger and grander liners. White Star Line countered by 1911 with the Olympic, her sister Titanic and a near-sister, the Britannic. The French added the France while Cunard took delivery of the beloved Aquitania. But the Germans won out -- they produced the 52,000-ton Imperator and a near-sister, the Vaterland, the last word in shipbuilding and engineering prior to the First World War. They and their sister, the Bismarck, remained the biggest ships in the world until 1935. But other passenger ships appear in this decade --- other Atlantic liners, but also ships serving on more diverse routes: Union Castle to Africa, P&O to India and beyond, the Empress liners on the trans-Pacific run. We look at a grand age of maritime creation, ocean-going superlative, but also sad destruction in the dark days of the First War. It was, in all ways, a fascinating period.
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Last Atlantic Liners: Getting There is Half the Fun (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011
RMS Caronia: Cunard's Green Goddess
(co-authored with Brian Hawley) The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011
Floating Palaces: The Great Atlantic Liners(Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011
Great British Passenger Ships (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010)
SS Nieuw Amsterdam: The Darling of the Dutch (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010)
Cunard's Three Queens: A Celebration (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
Under the Red Ensign: British Passenger Liners of the '50s & '60s (The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
SS United States: Speed Queen of the Seas (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)
And yet to come.....
Great Passenger Ships 1910-20 (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due Sep 2011)
I Was Born in Hoboken: Memories of the 1950s & '60s (Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ, due fall 2011)
Along the Hudson: Great Passenger Ships at New York in Photos (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
The Last Great Dynasty: The Royal House of Windsor (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
Great Atlantic Liners of the 20th Century in Color (co-authored with Anton Logvinenko; Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
Great American Passenger Ships (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
The Cunard Yanks (co-authored with Ian Wright; pending but due 2012)
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WORLD OCEAN & CRUISE LINER SOCIETY'S
HOSTED CRUISES
One of the great things about being a World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society member is joining us aboard one of our "Hosted" member cruises. Each cruise features low group rates, special amenities plus onboard lectures and events
Noordam - Southern Caribbean (10 Night)
Dec 2, 2011 - from $1,019*
Silhouette - Eastern Caribbean (12 Night)
Jan 29, 2012 - from $1,499*
Veendam - Bermuda (7 Night)
Jun 3, 2012 - from $799*
Queen Mary 2 - Canada / New England (11 Nights)
Sep21, 2012 - from $2,695*
*Rates are per person based on double occupancy.
Government fees are additional.
For Reservations and Information Call WOCLS Group Coordinator Beth Schmitt at (800) 828 4813 Ext 1009
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