Celebrity Lays Out Biggest Europe Season Ever for 2009

Celebrity Cruises has scheduled its largest European deployment ever for 2009 with five ships, including two new vessels. The line will visit 76 ports in 29 countries, five of which are new to Celebrity.

Celebrity’s 2009 Europe season includes six homeports, overnight stays in eight ports, and five cruise-tour options. Celebrity also will offer nine transatlantic sailings in 2009. The cruises opened for sale Thursday.

Two new ships will debut in Europe in 2009, Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Equinox. Joining them are Celebrity Century, which underwent a $55 million makeover in 2006, Celebrity Constellation, built in 2002, and Celebrity Summit, which launched in 2001.

The six homeports are Amsterdam, Holland; Barcelona, Spain; Harwich and Southampton, England; and Rome and Venice, Italy, Celebrity’s ships will explore Scandinavia and Russia, the Arctic Circle and North Cape, the Mediterranean, Israel and Egypt.

Celebrity Century will offer seven-night Western Mediterranean sailings roundtrip out of Barcelona from Sept. 19-Nov. 21, 2009. Celebrity’s European itineraries have traditionally lasted 10 nights or longer, and this shorter offering is designed to appeal to those with less vacation time.

Celebrity has increased the number of “Scandinavia and Russia” cruises roundtrip from Amsterdam, with nine of these itineraries scheduled between May and August 2009. These voyages feature an overnight stay in St. Petersburg and calls in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Denmark.