Sunday, November 22, 2009

Celebrity Life, Photo Tour of Celebrity Constellation and a Talk with the Capatin Of Caribbean Princess


The cruise lines have come a long way from the days when it was the passengers’ responsibility to entertain themselves. The daily programs published by each ship have pages of information about what is going on around the ships and those are not even complete listings of all that one can do.

Celebrity Cruises has traditionally had a good program of onboard activities. It is a premium line whose target market tends to be interested in more sophisticated activities. They also are more demanding about cuisine, wine and the type of offerings in the ship’s spa. The line has received good marks in the past for its efforts to fulfill these demands.

Nonetheless, Celebrity is revamping its onboard programming. It is reorganizing its activities so that there are tracks of activities that are geared toward specific areas of passenger interest. It is also establishing hosts for each area who will help to guide passengers. The idea is to give the passenger a more valuable and meaningful experience at sea than he or she gets from having a cruise full of unrelated, albeit interesting, activities.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to Ms. Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations for Celebrity Cruises, about the new “Celebrity Life” program. The interview is posted at: http://beyondships.com/Celebrity-art-Lutoff-Perlo.html. It can also be accessed through Beyondships new Celebrity Cruises page. http://beyondships.com/Celebrity.html

I spoke with Ms. Lutoff-Perlo onboard Celebrity Constellation, a ship that I have always found particularly photogenic. She has nice exterior lines that give her a sleek look and the appearance of cutting through the water like an arrow, to use a mixed metaphor. Inside, the ship has a splendid contemporary design with an interesting art collection woven into it. Accordingly, I have updated and expanded the Celebrity Constellation section of Beyondships with quite a few new photos as well as with new menus, recipes and other information. The profile page for Constellation is at http://beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-Profile.html and the photo tour begins at http://beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-Tour-1a.html

Last month, I published an article about the revitalization of Caribbean Princess based in part upon my interviews with Captain Marco Fortezze. During the voyage from which that article arose, I had several talks with Captain Fortezze in which we talked about his career, his style of command and what it is like to drive a ship like Caribbean Princess. Since he is an articulate and intelligent man who has had an interesting career - - he was promoted to captain at the young age of 40 - - I thought I would do a second article specifically about Captain Fortezze. This article should also be of interest to those of you who are interested in the way a ship likes Caribbean Princess operates. It can be found at: http://beyondships.com/Princess-CB-art-Fortezze.html

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