The Journey by Celebrity

[KStimpson1]

I have never taken a celebrity cruise. My family and I are booked on the Journey for a cruise to Bermda this summer. Can anyone give me any info on celebrity cruises?

[Johnsy81]

You'll get more responses if you ask for specific information. What are you interested in learning about Celebrity - onboard activities, ship information (Journey is new to Celebrity as of this year so there's very little information out there right now). Perhaps you'd like to learn more about Bermuda.

 

Hope you have a fabulous time on Journey...sounds like a very different kind of cruise.

[dkjretired]

A lot is up in the air as far as the Journey goes since it is not in service with the Celebrity fleet yet. Normally a Celebrity cruise is more formal as far as dress codes, etc but the Journey will apparently not have formal nights and will have a much more relaxed feel to it. The cruise itself to Bermuda is great with one day at sea on both ends and 3 1/2 days in Bermuda. Don't miss the short sail to St. George especially when you go into the harbor at St. George. Bermuda is beautiful with nice beaches, very expensive and very polite and nice people. Once advantage of a smaller ship is you are berthed right in Hamilton which is where you want to be. Celebrity has great childrens programs however they apparently are not going to have them on the Journey. Anything else, ask a specific question.

[swigso]

Hi,

The Journey wil be refurbished before joining X, there is a thread "all you need to know about Journey/Quest which will give you more info also if you go to the roll call boards there is a thread for your cruise, Celebrity is a great experience.

Have a great cruise

[Rev22:17]

KStimpson1,

 

I have never taken a celebrity cruise. My family and I are booked on the Journey for a cruise to Bermda this summer. Can anyone give me any info on celebrity cruises?

 

By way of background, the ship that will become MV Celebrity Journey is the sixth of eight sisters of the R1 class originally built for Renaissance Cruises. She entered service as MV R6 in 2000. Renaissance Cruises went bankrupt in the wake of the "9/11" attack, and the ship subsequently landed with a Spanish cruise and tour operator, Pullmantur S. A., that Celebrity's parent company, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL), acquired last November. She is currently operating as MV Blue Dream for Pullmantur Cruises. An identical sister, originally built as MV R7 and now operating for Pullmantur Cruises as MV Blue Moon, will follow as MV Celebrity Quest in the fall of 2007.

 

Celebrity has announced plans for major renovation and reconfiguration of both vessels before they commence operation as MV Celebrity Journey and MV Celebrity Quest. The reconfiguration will replace forty-eight (48) standard cabins on the aft half of Deck Eight with thirty-two (32) Sky Suites, and will also apply standard Celebrity branding to many of the existing facilities while upgrading them where necessary to match Celebrity's standards. By way of example, the existing spa will become an Aquaspa by Elemis, the Internet Cafe will become Celebrity@Sea, the upper level of the lobby area will become Cova Cafe di Milano, with a coffee bar and a pastery station, and there's also a Michael's Club lounge going in somewhere. As reconfigured, both vessels will displace just over 30,000 tons and carry 710 passengers.

 

Celebrity also has clearly stated that MV Celebrity Journey and MV Celebrity Quest will join MY Celebrity Xpedition (a yacht that operates cruises in the Galapagos Islands) in the "Celebrity Expeditions" fleet, which will be distinct from the "Celebrity Cruises" fleet. There will be several significant differences between the "Celebrity Cruises" and "Celebrity Expeditions" products, including the following.

 

>> 1. The "Celebrity Expeditions" vessels do not have children's, youth, or teen centers. It is not clear whether they will have consellors aboard to run the respective programs in sailings with significant numbers of each age group or not.

 

>> 2. The "Celebrity Expeditions" vessels serve dinner on an "open seating" basis rather than the traditional arrangement of assigned first and second seatings.

 

>> 3. The "Celebrity Expeditions" vessels will have butler service in every cabin.

 

>> 4. The "Celebrity Expeditions" vessels will not have "formal" evenings. Rather, all evenings will have "casual" dress.

 

>> 5. The shows aboard the "Celebrity Expeditions" vessels will not be as elaborate as the production shows aboard the "Celebrity Cruises" vessels because the showrooms are not configured to support that type of show.

 

Many of these policies are already in place aboard MY Celebrity Xpedition. In any case, be aware that what you are getting will not be quite the same as a normal Celebrity Cruises voyage.

 

Having taken a cruise aboard another of the original eight sisters, MV Tahitian Princess (nee MV R4 and acquired out of the Renaissance Cruises bankruptcy by Princess Cruises) in April 2003, I can tell you from personal experience that these are very impressive little ships overall. Princess did a fantastic job of developing or adapting shows for the showrooms on these vessels, which offer all of the amenities that one expects of a modern cruise ship except chldren's, youth, and teen centers (on my cruise, they commandeered the card room to use as a teen center). The ship had a slightly different configuration because Renaissance made a few modifications to the layout of the last three vessels and Princess operated a more traditional cruise with fixed seatings in the main dining room and the usual "formal" evenings, but that did not interfere with my evaluation of the vessel.

 

During her inaugural season, MV Celebrity Journey is operating the Bermuda itineraries originally arranged for MV Zenith, which will go to Pullmantur Cruises in the spring. This includes the itineraries on which you are booked. Celebrity has announced that both ships will operate longer cruises to more "exotic" destinations starting in the fall.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Norm.

[jezzdogg]

Also Journey will have 2 alternative restaurants one like the Murano/ olympia of other celebrity ships and one a food and wine pairing type.

Their will be open seating between 6 and 10 in the regular restaurants at night. Micheal Rowe's cuisine will be followed until the end of this year, when Celebrityh announced her new "head" chef.

[nlvc12]

Go to the Roll Calls. I'm on the 10/27 Repositioning cruise and we're up to 11 pages. A lot of information, some of which was presented here.

 

Welcome aboard!

 

nlvc