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Latest Press Release from Celebrity
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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
from aboard Celebrity Silhouette
February 13, 2012 |
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Greetings!
After some wonderful comments from members who sailed as part of our small hosted group aboard Celebrity Silhouette our future hosted cruises will contain more of these personal touches such as the hosted dinners in the alternative restaurants. It seemed everyone had a great time enjoying great food while sharing their personal stories.
My thanks to my good friend Bill Miller for making everyone feel so welcome!!
We are currently planning our hosted cruise schedule. If you would like to join us on a cruise and would like to suggest a ship line or itinerary, please send me an email to membership@wocls.org.
If you have requested, and are waiting for, your 2012 Holland America Coupon please check your envelope containing your next Ocean & Cruise News.
Sincerely!
Tom Cassidy |
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 Switching places!
The 3,006-bed Carnival Splendour will move to New York beginning in the spring of 2013. Just before, having been based on the West Coast, the 952-ft long ship will circumnavigate South America, which will include an 18-night Buenos Aires to New York segment. Meanwhile, the slightly smaller, 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle is leaving New York & heading for reassignment on the US West Coast. |
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Wonderful cruise! 
Cruising the Eastern Caribbean for 12 nights aboard the superb, excellently run & served Celebrity Silhouette, we returned to very convenient Bayonne last Friday. It is of course a huge treat, like big strawberries on a cake, to live in northern New Jersey & to be ashore, bags in hand & home in less than a hour. Fantastic! The 133,000-ton Silhouette was delightful: exceptionally friendly staff & crew, fine service & lots of great dining venues. On one of the last nights of the trip, we visited the Tuscan Grill. A note from my Scribblings from that trip:
Pass the breadsticks, please! My cabin mate Michael & I take another turn hosting the WOCLS members, but this time in the ship's Tuscan Grill, the Italian themed specialty restaurant done in that faux wooden beam, almost rustic style. With dark red leather seats & the kind of chandeliers you'd see in some Transylvanian castle, it is all antipasto, a dozen kinds of pasta, thick Bolognese sauce. Gorgeous food surpassed only by flawless service! |
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Saving the Concordia! 
Wintery weather in the Mediterranean has slowed things & so the 952-ft long sadly rests on her side as often roaring seas pound the six-year old ship. The first phase will be to pump 500,000 gallons of fuel oil out of the ship & then planning her salvage. As many as 10 international salvage firms are studying the possibilities, but one leading firm, from New Orleans, has hinted strongly that scrapping the ship might be the most likely. Alternately, and using braces, steel chains & powerful cranes and tugs, she would be the largest liner ever to be righted. |
Greece - Vintage craft! 
The 24,800-ton The Emerald & 12,200-ton Sapphire are laid-up & idle these days at Eleusis Bay in Greece. Reportedly both ships are soon to go to the scrappers. The 1958-built The Emerald is the former Santa Rosa of the Grace Line, which sailed in New York-Caribbean service until 1971. After an interim period as the Pacific Sun and then Diamond Island, she was rebuilt as the Regent Rainbow for now long gone Regency Cruises. The 1,200-passenger ship has not sailed for Louis Cruise Lines in the Eastern Med for the last two years. Meanwhile, the 573-berth Sapphire dates from 1967 when she was completed as the Italian-owned Italia (later sailing as the Princess Italia for the then newly established Princess Cruises). This 489-ft long ship later became the Ocean Princess for Ocean Cruise Lines and then she too had interim names such as Sea Prince & Princesa Oceanica before being refitted as the Sapphire, also for Greece's Louis Cruise Lines. |
Beds to fill! 
With the announcement that the 3,006-passenger Carnival Splendour is being assigned to fulltime New York cruise service in spring 2013, this comes as NCL has two liners, the 2,394-passenger Norwegian Gem and then the brand new, 4,000-berth Norwegian Breakaway, for fulltime cruising from the Big Apple. And let's not forget the annual schedule of the 3,600-passenger Explorer of the Seas. Then there's the 2,600-passenger Queen Mary 2 and the 2,038-capacity Celebrity Summit, both of which spent part of their yearly schedules in New York service |
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Ocean Liner Collectibles - Bound for the sun!
A festive poster of Cunard Line cruises to the sunny West Indies in 1934 fetched $1200 at a recent sale |
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Ocean Liner History - French Anniversaries!
It was 70 years last Feb 9th that the exquisite Normandie caught fire while lying at Pier 88 in Manhattan. The accidental blaze spread quickly, scorched much of the 83,000-ton ship, but it was the subsequent fire-fighting that finished off the ship, being converted to a 15,000-capacity troopship at the time, and made her a complete loss to Allied fighting effort (and no less than just two months after the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor). Fireboats in particular poured so much water onto the smoldering 1,029-ft long ship that, at 2:30 in the chilling dark of the following morning, the former French flagship capsized & then tragically and grotesquely laid on her port side in the icy waters of the Hudson. Ruined beyond repair, she was not righted until November 1943, then towed away and all but mothballed until sold in November 1946 to Newark, New Jersey scrappers. It is also 50 yrs to the day that the splendid France arrived in New York harbor for the very first time. It was said that the France arrived precisely on February 9th, the same day that the glorious Normandie was destroyed, as a sort of renewal & official replacement. Over in Le Havre, I have been asked this week to send some recollections to Philippe Brebant, France's top ocean liner buff & historian and based at Le Havre, for a newspaper article about the still well-remembered 1,035-ft long France.
It was a gray, overcast day, but the mood was festive & joyous nevertheless and the Port was filled with the sounds of seemingly non-stop whistles, horns & sirens. While I myself was returning to high school for the afternoon session, I missed the spectacle as "the world's longest liner" proceeded slowly and majestically from the Lower Bay, along the Hudson and finally to the north side of Pier 88. Dressed in flags and looking futuristic with her distinctive, winged, Mexican sombrero-hat funnels, she was dubbed "the new Normandie". Later that day, after school, I went directly to the Hoboken waterfront & looked upriver for my glimpse of the new French flagship. She looked wonderful --- the ship of a new age! And that night, she was gleaming in floodlit splendor. Just months before, in November, I had watched patiently (and sadly), on a flawless, but chilly early afternoon, as her predecessor, the Liberté, sailed off on her final crossing (and later away to scrappers in Italy).
The France was the future for Atlantic liners and that future still looked bright in 1962 --- with the maiden arrival of the stunning Leonardo da Vinci two years before and then the excitement building for the commissioning in three years, in 1965, of not one but two Italian super liners, the Michelangelo & Raffaello. Then there was the upcoming debut of the likes of the Empress of Canada, Shalom, Oceanic and strong hints that Cunard was planning a super ship to replace the Queen Mary. On the night of the maiden arrival, Mr van Wie, a neighbor in Hoboken & a US Customs official, stopped by & presented me with a black leatherette, monogrammed case stuffed with press releases, lots of printed information sheets & a set of 8x10 black & white photos of the new France. Of course, it was like Christmas to me --- items from a brand new super liner! It took many months, until the day after Thanksgiving, in November, before I actually visited the France, which seemed very modern & so different from the Queen Mary, which was docked nearby, at Pier 90. After joining the local branch of the World Ship Society in 1965, a group of us often visited the France and, one occasion I especially recall, was Saturday night sailing. The France set in nighttime glamour, the whistles sounding & passengers tossing streamers to thousands of well-wishers. It was magic, ocean liner magic! It was a long-held ambition, something quite thrilling, when I finally crossed myself, sailing to Le Havre onboard the France, in July 1973. All seemed well, there were reassurances from the staff of "years of further service," but in only fourteen months she was all but yanked from service, plagued with union problems & as the French Government pulled her $14 million annual operating subsidy. The monies were allocated to Air France for their Concorde project. Silent & forlorn, the France sat idle for 5 years, then was rebuilt as the cruise ship Norway and sailed until 2005 & then was scrapped in far-of India four years later. |
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Too much fun!
A group of 16 passengers, all in their 20s, had to be evicted from the Pacific Dawn on a recent cruise from Brisbane. Arguments developed into brawls aboard the 69,800-ton liner.
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 Outbreak!
The Norovirus is second only to the common cold as a dilemma to cruise lines. Last week, the 3,100-passenger Crown Princess had to cut short a cruise by 2 days & return to her port of origin with 226 passengers & 63 crew being affected by the Norovirus. The Ruby Princess & Royal Caribbean's 3,600-bed Voyager of the Seas were also affected, but on different voyages. |
Rough weather! 
The 46,000-ton Seven Seas Voyager encountered very heavy weather while in the Tasman Sea recently. Winds reached 100 knots and there were 40-ft high waves. |
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 Cosmetics!
In the wake of the great success of the 6,400-bed Oasis of the Seas, the 1,998-berth Rhapsody of the Seas will be getting a makeover, adding more Oasis features. |
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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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
Veendam - Bermuda (7 Night)
Jun 3, 2012 - Call for Currant Rates
Queen Mary 2 - Independence Day Cruise
July 1, 2012 - Call for Currant Rates
Queen Mary 2 - Canada / New England (11 Nights)
Sep 21, 2012 - Call for Currant Rates
*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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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.
Great Passenger Ships 1910-1920
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 brilliant Mauretania & 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.
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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 WOCLS E News & Renewals
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