Other cruise lines are also sending ships to Australia, but often times they tend to be an older design or the ship is several years old. SOLSTICE is an amazing new design and a relatively new ship. I can't think of any other large ship I would rather cruise on out of Australia. I think the Australian's will love her, and it will certainly raise their expectations and awareness of higher calibre ships.

Ernie

Press release follows:

quote:

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Celebrity Cruises to take Solstice Class style to Australia. Award-winning Celebrity Solstice to make Down Under debut

Miami - (March 01, 2011 ) - Get ready for some company, Sydney Opera House. Another thing of beauty will share Sydney Harbour when premium cruise brand Celebrity Cruises sends its award-winning Celebrity Solstice to Australia and New Zealand for the winter of 2012-13.

"Celebrity Solstice has satisfied guests around the world since we introduced her in 2008, and the obvious next step is to send her to Australia," said Dan Hanrahan, President and CEO, Celebrity Cruises. "With this move, we are delivering another way for people to have the best vacation experience possible, in one of the most stunning geographic regions of the world."

Australians will enjoy the return of the Celebrity Cruises brand to the region this coming winter with the deployment of the 1,814-guest Celebrity Century. Her subsequent replacement by the 2,850-guest Celebrity Solstice is a symbol of the premium cruise brand's ever-expanding global presence and the popularity of the service, activities, cuisine, and stylish design exemplified on its Solstice Class ships, which are frequently rated as the best by consumer- and travel agent-focused publications around the globe. Recent accolades include the Solstice Class being named among "Best Cruise Ships" by Frommers.com and Celebrity being named "Best Premium Cruise Line" and "Best Cruise Line in Europe" by the readers of Travel Weekly.

"Travelers around the world value their vacation time, and we want to give them more opportunities to enjoy Celebrity's signature attributes, including the first Lawn Club and Hot Glass show at sea, more spacious staterooms, our AquaClass staterooms geared toward the spa enthusiast lifestyle, multiple specialty restaurants, the Celebrity iLounge and state-of-the-art entertainment, in more places. The culture and way of life in Australia and New Zealand are an ideal backdrop for our Solstice Class style and the overall onboard experience."
Celebrity Solstice will transition from a 2012 summer in the Mediterranean Australia/New Zealand via the Suez Canal and through Southeast Asia before arriving in Sydney, Australia in early December. The repositioning sailings will include multiple overnights in ports including Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Cochin, India.
Upon arriving in Australia, Celebrity Solstice will present a series of 12- and 13-night open-jaw sailings between Sydney and Auckland, New Zealand. The season also will include a circumnavigation of Australia, consisting of two open-jaw sailings between Sydney and Perth (Fremantle). Many of the itineraries include overnight stays in Sydney.

Celebrity Solstice will continue a series of destination-immersive onboard activities that will debut during Celebrity Century's upcoming Australia/New Zealand season; activities include local vineyard and wine shore excursions, onboard talks by local cultural entertainers and speakers, and destination-focused food and drink menus. Some activities will be complimentary.

Celebrity will continue to offer its popular Australia/New Zealand cruisetour program geared toward guests who wish to combine a land-based vacation with a cruise. Premium concierge-style service is the hallmark of Celebrity's four- and five-night pre- and post-cruise escorted land tour packages in Australia, which will visit destinations including Port Douglas (Great Barrier Reef), Ayers Rock (Uluru) and Sydney. A six-night pre-cruise New Zealand package will visit Auckland, Rotorua, Queenstown and Sydney. Highlights include a full-day tour over the Great Barrier Reef and a gourmet barbecue dinner under the outback sky in Ayers Rock. All of Celebrity's cruisetours are escorted by local tour directors, and include hotel accommodations, transportation, select activities, breakfast and some additional meals.

Full details will be available on March 23, when bookings for Celebrity's new 2012-13 Australia/New Zealand itineraries will open for sale. Bookings for the 1,814-guest Celebrity Century's 2011-12 Australia/New Zealand cruises are open now.

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quote:

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:
Wow, this is huge news of course. Seems like Celebrity is one-upping the competition. I wonder if SUTHO will be booking her?

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I think anyone in Australia who is in the market for a locally departing cruise would be crazy not to go for SOLSTICE. Sure as hell blows the Grand, Vista, Sun, and Spirit Class out of the water, not to mention most of the clapped out year round tonnage in Australia!

What is fascinating to me is just how Australia can support so many ships headed their way. Carnival, Celebrity, Princess, Holland America, and Royal Caribbean are all sending additional or increased tonnage to Australia, and in most cases they plan to source passengers locally. Of course there will be sourcing outside Australia as well, but only a small percent of total capacity.

Keep in mind that Australia has a relatively small population. Only around 22.5 million. Just the state of California alone has around 37.2 million and cruise lines can't even fill ships departing from CA (they are pulling out in droves). The UK, which is probably the 2nd largest cruise market after North America has an approximate population of 61 million. It's easy to see the disparity. 22.5 million people is not a lot people considering the amount of capacity being sent Down Under.

One can only assume that a very high percentage of the Australian population partakes in cruises, far more than that of the UK and North America. This may be because Australia is so far away from anywhere else, that Australians take vacations closer to home when possible. In that circumstance a locally departing cruise would be the perfect option.

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:
[....]
What is fascinating to me is just how Australia can support so many ships headed their way. [...]

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Are they all meant for the Australian market 'only' or are they 'just' operating from there being filled with passengers not only from Australia?

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I spoke about this in my previous post. Most of the sourcing for the new and increased capacity is being done locally. A smaller percent will be sourced Internationally.

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:

I spoke about this in my previous post. Most of the sourcing for the new and increased capacity is being done locally. A smaller percent will be sourced Internationally.
Ernie

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Sorry if I am misreading that but your posting was not entirely clear to me: Of course they try to 'source' passengers locally but do you assume that a majority of passengers aboard ships of these lines are from Australia or do you know it?

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Considering that several of the ships have not even started sailing in Australia yet, I can't tell you what the exact passenger demographic will be ... but you are more than welcome to contact the various cruise lines yourself to find out after they start sailing.

In the meantime, my information is from the various press releases and interviews with several of the cruise line CEO's and appointed Australia Sales VP's, which have provided information about how the ships will be marketed and sourced. In just about all cases, the ships are planned to be dedicated to the Australia market with some International sourcing. Feel free to do the research yourself and look up these interviews if you are so interested. It's quite obvious for instance that the typical Carnival passenger is unlikely to spend the time and money that it would take to fly to Australia for a Carnival cruise departing Sydney.

Is this clear enough?

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:
[...]
Is this clear enough?

Ernie

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Take a deep breath and stay calm - all I wanted to know is whether you already did some research or whether you have numbers. Yes, I read those interviews too and I am aware that the Australian market is growing and yes, it won't be the same for all ships or all lines sailing from there.

Being short on time I found only this article publicly accessible 3/11/09 - Australian Cruise Industry Reports Record Year .

So there were 330,949 Australian cruise passengers in 2009 whereof 59 % were 'Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific' = app. 195 000 passengers who would indeed fill Celebrity Solstice 68 times (!).

However, the fleet of P&O Australia alone already has a capacity of app. 7000 passengers (if I am not wrong - I am just adding numbers I have in my head, I might have forgotten some ship that left the fleet by now). So P&O Australia alone 'only' would have to fill their fleet 27 times (essentially every other week) to accommodate all (!) Australian cruise passengers sailing from Australian ports.

Of course, the number of passengers sailing from Australian ports could be some 300 000 passengers by now if that growth rate of 26 % prevailed (I don't know that and I can't look up these number right now - maybe someone here is able to do that).

This is of course only a very coarse estimation but it might be sufficient to come to the conclusion that all these ships based in Australia might indeed have a lot of Australians aboard but can by far not be filled with Australians only (so it can't be just about a few percent of passengers who are not from Australia).

quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

This is of course only a very coarse estimation but it might be sufficient to come to the conclusion that all these ships based in Australia might indeed have a lot of Australians aboard but can by far not be filled with Australians only (so it can't be just about a few percent of passengers who are not from Australia).

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Of course Ernst, you are always right and I stand corrected.

Your one source of information from 2009 certainly proves that.

Also, who is "someone" and who took this personally?

No deep breaths necessary.

Ernie

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: eroller ]

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:
[QB[...]
No deep breaths necessary. [...]
[/QB]

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Are you sure?

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quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:

Quite sure. Are you?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Actually not. I really think that you should take a deep breath - just to be on the safe side.

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It's rather arrogant of you to think that you alone have such an impact on someone, that they would need to "take a breath". Judging from your responses perhaps you may want to take your own advice?

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: Anders ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Anders:

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: Anders ]

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Unfortunately this is usually the path a thread heads in when Ernst gets involved. It's happened with several CT members.

My apologies to you, but to be honest CT has been pretty boring lately.

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:

It's rather arrogant of you to think that you alone have such an impact on someone, that they would need to "take a breath". Judging from your responses perhaps you may want to take your own advice? [...]

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For heaven's sake, all I did is was asking a short, seriously meant question. Read your reply to that and read your reply to my response when I actually tried to improvise some numbers. This was actually an attempt to approach you by contributing some (albeit improvised) 'facts' - read the last sentence of that posting again - if you think that this is about insisting on being right you might indeed have a very serious problem.

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: Ernst ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

For heaven's sake, all I did is was asking a short, seriously meant question. Read your reply to that and read your reply to my response when I actually tried to improvise some numbers. This was actually an attempt to approach you by contributing some (albeit improvised) 'facts' - read the last sentence of that posting again - if you think that this is about insisting on being right you might indeed have a very serious problem.

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: Ernst ]

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Ernst - I'm going to lay it on the line for you as I see it. Your past behavior on CT has been borderline obsessive-compulsive when it comes to being right on all subjects. Most of your posts appear to be an attempt to disprove previously submitted information, and you seem to go to great lengths to do this. Mind you I think we all want accurate information to share, but unless you are truly an expert or an executive at one of these cruise lines, there is going to be some conjecture, speculation, and opinions. This is partly what makes a discussion board so interesting and a "discussion". For you it seems everything is black and white, right and wrong, and you are always right with little room for discussion. This is how I have seen your posts in the past, and I can't speak for others but I've noticed it on your interactions with other CT members as well.

Lately it seems you have tried taking a softer approach, putting happy faces at the end of your posts, etc. Unfortunately the message is still the same, although the style and behavior might be seen as more passive-aggressive.

So while you might have had very good intentions in your post on this thread, your past history suggests you are likely to have your usual motive which is challenge as much as you can, get in the last word, and prove that you are right. If that wasn't the case on this thread than please accept my apologies, but perhaps now you might have a better understanding of why some of your posts by some members are not exactly met with open arms.

All this aside, you seem to think your posts somehow frustrate me and I need to "take a breath". It's actually quite the contrary. It's interesting and amusing to see just how far you will go, and if you know anything about me you know I'm not one to back off or be scared away.

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:

Ernst - I'm going to lay it on the line for you as I see it. Your past behavior on CT has been borderline obsessive-compulsive when it comes to being right on all subjects. Most of your posts appear to be an attempt to disprove previously submitted information, and you seem to go to great lengths to do this.[...]

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Whereas this might be your perception I can assure you that it is certainly not my intention to argue for the sake of being right on all (!) subjects nor is it my goal to generally 'disprove previously submitted information' or to scare anyone away.

I try to base my arguments on facts and you or anyone else is always welcome to response with your opinion or correct wrong statements - this is what a discussion is about. Everyone is entitled to contribute - which on the other hand also means that you have to expect someone else to disagree or to ask you to backup a statement.

I understand that some confuse trying to be factual with insisting on being right but it simply is not the case.

Show me a discussion here in this forum where I continued (!) to insist on a statement I previously made after having been proven wrong during the course of the discussion and I will immediately apologize like I did in the past.

Mind you, I actually try to avoid basing any argument here in this forum referring to my expertise, professional background or personal connections. I know that some other members do that but I do not think that this is an appropriate approach for an internet forum nor do I think that discussions in general should be based on 'authority'. Also, please be aware that very different subjects are discussed here and it is certainly not always about topics where 'only cruise executives' have expertise like you suggested.

Some discussions might indeed be speculative or about opinion or taste but some are also about topics where more factual arguments can be made. Even on such subjects different opinions might be valid but again, do not confuse bringing forward facts or asking another participants to backup a statement with 'insisting on being right'.

If you misunderstand this as me seeing 'everything' 'black and white' I can only assure you that this is certainly not the case and invite you to read my contributions maybe a bit more carefully.

I certainly accept your apology and I can only hope that you do not always take discussions or contributions to this forum too seriously. As you posted above, it can be - and often actually is - entertaining. In that spirit I am indeed looking forward to have more fierce discussions with you.

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: Ernst ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ernst:

I certainly accept your apology and I can only hope that you do not always take discussions or contributions to this forum too seriously.

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I've been a member of CT for a long time now, and I think most members who know me know that I actually like to have fun and don't take life too seriously. This has also been the case with my interactions with the majority of members and topics on CT. For the reasons I described previously, when you are involved the threads seem to take a more serious turn. This is not just with me but with other member interactions I have viewed as well.

In any case hopefully you got something out of all this.

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:
It's interesting and amusing to see just how far you will go, and if you know anything about me you know I'm not one to back off or be scared away.

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It neither interests or amuses me.

Unlike you Ernie I no longer have the energy to engage with a compulsive arguer. This is the reason that I no longer contribute very much to CT anymore.

quote:

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

It neither interests or amuses me.

Unlike you Ernie I no longer have the energy to engage with a compulsive arguer. This is the reason that I no longer contribute very much to CT anymore.

(I'm not going to argue about this post either Ernst).

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I totally get that and respect it Malcolm. I do understand at some point enough is enough.

I have noticed a decline in participation lately on CT. I'm not sure what all the reasons are, but I do hope you decide to participate more often. You have a ton of experience and a lot of great knowledge to share.

The thing about these online forums is that we can never get the full extent of someones meaning or personality. Sometimes someone might seem harsh or superior but maybe that is not how they mean it.

In the case of this thread, I admit that I think Ernie is right, to a point, (please don't take any offense at this Ernst), sometimes Ernst does come off as superior or harsh(at leaste to me). I can't say he means it like that, but he has come off like that at times.. (Its worth noting that many conversations with Ernst involed have been some of the greatest here).

I also have to say that, even though I believe you when you say Ernst's post didn't effect you, Ernie, your posts to him did give the impression that you were overly offended. People can often be very thin skined on here (not you Ernie) and end up fighting. Its sad to me to see how CT has declined in resent times, and I know that a lot of it has to do with the fighting and bickering. This used to be one of the greatest forums out there and now its seems like its dying.

We are all here because of our mutual love of ships and cruising. Lets get over any problems or fights, we have and continue disscussing the thing we love peacefully.

Now...back on topic.

I agree, this seems like a huge step for the Australlian Cruise Industry. I've known that the market down under has been growing but I never would have thought that I would grow this fast. Un untill now, Australlia has been where we send our hand-me-downs, now all of the sudden they are getting ships like the Spirit and the Solstice! Its pretty impressive (at least to me, I thought it would take several more years for for Australlia to get to this point).

Maybe Solstice will stop by Los Angeles on her way there or on her way back!!!

[ 03-02-2011: Message edited by: Cunard Fan ]