CruiseMates Cruise Bargains

by Paul Motter

Celebrity Solstice Revealed

For the first time since the late 1990s, the cruise industry will soon welcome several new classes of ships. The most anticipated are the Oasis class from Royal Caribbean, the F3 class from NCL, and the Solstice class from Celebrity. There are also all new and bigger ships coming from MSC, Silversea, Oceania and Seabourn.

Celebrity Solstice is the first, the only all-new class coming this year, in November. Cruisemates is hosting 106 cruisers on Solstice's second voyage out of Fort Lauderdale, November 30, 2008. We negotiated a fantastic rate for this group cruise, some $500 below the going rate for this cruise anywhere else, and we do still have a three cabins left, 1A, AQ and S2 categories. If you are interested in booking these rooms, go here and call now.

Solstice is 122,000-tons, 1033 feet long and has an occupancy of 2850. She has an abundance of stylish veranda cabins, created by a team of lady designers and averaging 20% larger than prevvious Celebrity staterooms.

This ship is larger than the new Dream Class coming from Carnival in 2009, but will carry 800 fewer passengers. Similar to Queen Mary 2, she will be expansive and spacious, with dramatically large rooms and plenty of personalized service from the elite Celebrity staff.

Like many new ships, the Solstice will have a deck devoted to suites, centered on a private pool area just for those suite passengers known as the AquaClass suites. There are other suites available, all bigger and more beautiful than the current Millennium-class ships.

The Solarium areas on this ship, reminiscent of a glass-enclosed Winter Garden, is beautiful in the renderings, with soaring glass enclosures to keep passengers warm in Alaska and cool in the Caribbean - while still getting plenty of invigorating sunshine.

Celebrity just announced a whole new cuisine selection for their ships last month designed by Elizabeth Blau, who gained fame matching well-known chefs to new venues in Las vegas hotels.

This is the beginning of a new era for Celebrity in appealing to a classy, upscale demographic. This ship will be beautiful in ways no one has seen before, including the new lawn of natural grass on the top deck, the glass blowing factory and museum and the unique Solstice diamond, a brand new cut created especially for Solstice and only available on the ship.

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