Celebrity Cruises taps iPads for art tours on its ships

by Ralph Grizzle on

Celebrity Cruises debuted self-guided art tours using iPads on its Solstice-class ships, continuing its adoption of Apple products for shipboard activities.

The iPads will flag select works of art on every deck, allowing the guest to touch the screen to learn more about those pieces, such as the artist’s name and the medium used.

Celebrity said its three Solstice-class ships have more than 14,000 works of original, contemporary art with a vast range of mediums represented, including glass, acrylics, oils, photography, digital prints, video, etchings, sculptures and collages.

The cruise line already uses the iPad for its menus and wine list in its Qsine specialty restaurant, which debuted this year on the Equinox, and its ships are home to “Celebrity iLounges,” equipped with MacBook workstations. Guests on board can take courses and get tips on Mac and iPod use.

“We knew our guests would relish yet another opportunity to capitalize on the latest technology in an entertaining, enriching way,” says Celebrity’s senior vice president of Hotel Operations, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo.

Celebrity Cruises starts all-you-can-drink plan

by Katie Hammel on

Despite the advertised low rates for many cruises, I’ve always thought that the extra fees for alcoholic drinks would make the final price rise far above the base cost. Even for a moderate drinker – a few glasses of wine or beer with dinner, a pina colada here, a strawberry daiquiri there – the cost for a few days of booze for two people on a cruise could come out to a couple hundred dollars over the course of a week.

So when I first read Jaunted’s headline that Celebrity Cruises was now offering several all-you-can-drink beverage options, I was intrigued. But upon closer inspection, it seems like you’d pretty much have to spend your entire cruise drunk in order to justify the cost.

For unlimited liquor, you’ll pay over $50 per person per night, and wine packages (which don’t state how many bottles the package entitles you to) start at $114 per night per package. An unlimited supply of domestic and imported beers is $34.50 per night per person. Which means for two people, you’ll need to drink $70 worth of beer in a single day. Though that’s about three 12-packs at your local liquor store, it’s the equivalent of 10-12 beers at Celebrity’s on-board prices.

As CruiseCritic points out, the package only makes sense if you’ll drink 5-6 beers per day. While lots of people could do that over the course of a day at sea, it doesn’t seem likely that many would do it every day of the cruise, and since you have to buy the package for the duration of your cruise…well, it looks Celebrity will be making quite a profit – or ending up with some really drunk passengers.

The next innovation in cruise ship entertainment – real grass

by Scott Carmichael on

Cruise companies are amongst the most creative minds in the travel world – each time a new ship is launched, passengers are treated to amenities never seen before on a ship. In recent years we’ve seen outdoor movie theaters, wave pools and a massive indoor atrium.

The next innovation is being introduced on the Celebrity Cruises Solstice. This 1425 room mammoth of the seas features a half acre of real grass on its upper deck. The grass and irrigation systems add a whopping 150 tons to the weight of the ship, which isn’t that impressive when you realize that the ship itself weighs in at 122,000 tons.

The green is called the “Lawn Club”, and passengers can play a round of golf or bocce, or simply sit down and enjoy a picnic.

If the country club style lawn does not impress you, there are also 10 restaurants, 10 bars, a hot glass blowing demonstration (really!), a theater, a comedy club, multiple pools (including an indoor lap pool) and an art gallery to keep you entertained.

The Celebrity Solstice is currently in operation, and a 7 day cruise of the Caribbean starts at $649 per person.

Fuel surcharges: Royal Caribbean, Celebrity cruise lines to give refund to passengers

by Jeffrey White on

Did you book a cruise on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity before Nov. 16? If so, you’re getting some money back.

On a day that saw more news of soaring oil prices, the two major cruise lines voluntarily settled with passengers and agreed to refund $21 million in fuel surcharges, the Florida Attorney General’s office said yesterday.

The agreement came after a probe by the AG’s Economic Crimes Division, which began investigating the pricing disclosure policies of cruise lines after hundreds of customers filed official complaints that they were charged fuel surcharges retroactively after they had made their bookings and, in some cases, their initial deposit, according to a report in the Orlando Business Journal.

The AG said the surcharges were not properly disclosed. Authorities also looked into whether those charges violated a 1997 agreement among major cruise lines where they vowed not to add additional fees beyond advertised cruise fares in an effort to make prices easier for consumers to compare, the Journal said.

“This resolution will serve as a model for the rest of the cruise line industry, and I expect the other companies to take this example and follow suit,” Florida AG Bill McCollum said in a news release.

Any guest who booked on these two cruise lines before Nov. 16 will get the refund. Those consumers who have already sailed will get the refund for the full amount of the fuel surcharge in the form of a payment. Those who have not yet sailed will get the refund in the form of an onboard credit voucher, the Journal said.

The two cruise companies are said to be contacting eligible customers directly, and must report back to the AG in a month.