Celebrity's Former Ship...Zenith

[Mermen]

So last summer / fall, we sailed on =X='s (then) newest ship, Eclipse.

 

After a few days, we hit our first port in Italy, Cagliari, off the Italian coast of Sardinia. After a long day, cleaned up and ate supper at the Tuscan Grille...(which by the way, was so amazing from the stellar service to the gastronomy)! Our dinner was during the sail-away, at around 7 PM.

 

We're at a table for 2 against the floor to ceiling windows and as we're pushing back, notice the ship next to us. It looked strikingly familiar with the =X= on its funnel! The waiter confirmed that this was the former Celebrity Zenith, which now belonged to Pullmantur cruise lines. It was fun to sail away on the most recent Celebrity ship, looking at one of the earliest...she still is beautiful though!

 

The earliest =X= ship we've sailed on was the Mercury, and that was wonderful. Kind of a surreal experience - and a great sail-away.

[Karen@Steve]

The Zenith was our first cruise and we got to sail her one more time to Bermuda in 2001. Our Zenith cruise hooked us for crusing. She was a fantastic ship.

[shofer]

Our first cruise in 1993 was on Zenith. We loved it and have been cruising ever since.

 

Sue

[JandD Mom]

Thanks for this! DH and I were on the Zenith on our honeymoon in its inaugural season. I think we were on her 5th or 6th cruise.

 

As an aside, I think it's hysterical that the new owner didn't bother to change the obvious identifier of the "X" on the smokestack!

[Essiesmom]

Actually, the ship you saw was Horizon, which also sailed for Pullmantur as Pacific Dream. Zenith also sails for Pullmantur, but she does 7 day trips between Ravenna and Piraeus. EM

[CruiseAdict218]

Zenith in her current livery.

 

The Horizon in her newest livery.

[norn iron]

Zenith in her current livery.

 

The Horizon in her newest livery.

 

We were on board Adventure of the Seas two weeks ago and The Horizon (as your photograph shows new livery) was berthed beside us in Civitavecchia. i wasn't aware of an additional name change, however once i saw the design of the funnels and stern I was sure it was Zenith - Thanks for confirming this.

[davekathy]

We sailed on the Zenith in 1994. That was our second Cruise. At the time she was the newest and biggest ship we had sailed.

[Mermen]

Actually, they are still beautiful ships!

[arpster]

ah the lovely Zenith...enjoyed a wonderful repositioning cruise on her circa 2000...Caribbean to New York via a Bermuda stopover....and still the finest dining we've ever experienced on any ship....and this before the days of 'premium' restaurants!...5 courses every night for 2 and a half weeks in the main dining room and not a single course short of truly excellent....have cruised Celebrity 8 or 9 times since, and nothing has compared to the standard and the service that we experienced on the Zenith

[ginnyks]

Happy to see the Horizon! We took her from Philly to Bermuda--two years in a row and probably would have repeated the cruise again, but atlas it was sold and Celebrity no longer used Philly as a port. We actually saw the Mercury, another I believe in the same class, last year --we realized it was her when we didn't have our camera---we had sailed 2 twice out of Baltimore on her. What wonderful ships these were, the perfect size and I think that the staff was nicer to the passengers, than on the larger ships(if that is possible)! Looks as if Century is the only one left of that class, lets hope that Celebrity keeps her.

[wvufan]

The Zenith was our favorite ship-we even sailed on her fantastic last voyage. Shame that she and the Horizon are gone. The Horizon used to sail back to back 10 and 11 nighters out of Tampa. I would do that every year if still available.

 

Thanks for the updates and the photos.

 

Happy Sails to You

 

OOOEEE :D:D Bob and Phyl

[Lois R]

I saw Zenith back in May when I was on Equinox in the Med. I can't

remember which port we were docked in but there she was......

so little;)....I sailed her twice before she left the fleet.

[j3studio]

Horizon and Zenith were both wonderful ships.

[runner15km]

Mercury was our 1st cruise, followed by Zenith. :)

[Mary El]

Loved both the Zentih and Horizon. Sailed Zenith twice and Horizon 3 times. Saw the Zenith while on the 11/5 Equinox cruise while in Pireus. Brought back so many fond memories. Absolutely wonderful cruises. I wish Celebrity would bring back smaller ships.

[The Big Booper]

As many of you know, Celebrity, Pullmantur and the company running the old Horizon are all owned by the same holding company, RCCL which also owns RCI.

 

So these are internal transfers of older ships, not sales to an independent company.

 

Which is why the =X= is still there on the stack.

[iheartbda]

ah the lovely Zenith...enjoyed a wonderful repositioning cruise on her circa 2000...Caribbean to New York via a Bermuda stopover....and still the finest dining we've ever experienced on any ship....and this before the days of 'premium' restaurants!...5 courses every night for 2 and a half weeks in the main dining room and not a single course short of truly excellent....have cruised Celebrity 8 or 9 times since, and nothing has compared to the standard and the service that we experienced on the Zenith

 

Sailed her 5 times. Many nights I could not decide what to have for dinner since everything looked wonderful.....and it was. Now, on 3 other lines many times I couldn't decide what to have since nothing looked wonderful.

 

Sailed her last trip to Bermuda and have coffee everyday in my Cape Liberty-Hamilton-St. George mug.:)

 

At one time, Pullmantur had a virtual tour on their web site after they took her over. There were some changes but not so much that she was unrecognizable inside, she had good bones.;)

[arpster]

Sailed her 5 times. Many nights I could not decide what to have for dinner since everything looked wonderful.....and it was.

 

indeed... the very thought of the Filet Mignon that we were served on Zenith still makes my mouth water..a decade later! :cool:

[lweber05]

We sailed the Horizon to Bermuda in May of 1990. Meals were outstanding. We will always remember sailing into and out of St. George harbor.

 

A few years later, we sailed the Zenith out of Tampa to the Western Carribean. We had a good time, but noticed that food quality was not quite up to the same standard as that served on the Horizon in 1990.

 

We particularly liked the smaller size of both ships and we were sad to see them sold.

[Downdie]

As many of you know, Celebrity, Pullmantur and the company running the old Horizon are all owned by the same holding company, RCCL which also owns RCI.

 

So these are internal transfers of older ships, not sales to an independent company.

 

Which is why the =X= is still there on the stack.

As someone who has recently sailed on Pullmantur's Zenith and Horizon I can tell you the reason the =X= is still on their funnels is because they are integral structural crossmembers of the smokestack and impossible to remove without major reconstruction. Maybe with Pullmantur's new livery they will be better disguised http://www.pullmantur.es/en/barco/zenith/camarotes.html

Both are still great little ships and provide an outstanding cruise experience for their mainly Spanish speaking clients.

[The Big Booper]

As someone who has recently sailed on Pullmantur's Zenith and Horizon I can tell you the reason the =X= is still on their funnels is because they are integral structural crossmembers of the smokestack and impossible to remove without major reconstruction. Maybe with Pullmantur's new livery they will be better disguised http://www.pullmantur.es/en/barco/zenith/camarotes.html

Both are still great little ships and provide an outstanding cruise experience for their mainly Spanish speaking clients.

 

Same situation with one of Royal's old 80's ships, sailing with Thomson Cruises. The Viking Crown Lounge is still on the stack because it is impossible to remove w/o redoing the whole superstructure.

 

http://smile.webshots.com/images/afabb570f958012f577d12313f021506/jpg/800x600

 

 

http://smile-media-production-1.s3.amazonaws.com/images/afabb570f958012f577d12313f021506/168x168.jpg

 

 

 

I would bet that if the Zenith/Horizon had been sold to a Carnival sub or an independent European line, the X would have been masked or covered.

 

We saw either the Zenith or Horizon when we stopped in Falmouth in 2011 and because the Allure is so tall we were able to shoot down for some pictures of the former =X= ship. I can't locate that image since I didn't put it on the internet