Sunday, May 1, 2011

Talking with the Captain and Key Players on Celebrity Constellation



The objective of Beyondships is to give readers a feel for the various ships profiled on the website. One of the ways that we do that is to let the people who run the ships talk about the ships and the kind of cruise experience that they seek to provide on their ships. I think that gives you a more personal perspective. This week, we present four interviews with key people on Celebrity Constellation.

As shown in the new photo tour of Constellation posted last week, the ship has come though a multi-million dollar refurbishment. Such refurbishments are often a turning point in a ship’s career.

Captain Gerry Larsson-Fedde took Constellation through the two week refit. In our interview, he describes what was done and how it was done. As Celebrity’s first non-Greek captain and as a veteran of Royal Caribbean, Captain Gerry has a unique perspective on Celebrity and the Constellation in particular. His interview is posted at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-captain.html

The changes made to Constellation were made with a goal - - to make the cruise experience on Constellation more consistent with the cruise experience on Celebrity’s Solstice class ships. The Solstice class ships - - Celebrity Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse and coming this summer Silhouette - - are beautifully designed and innovative ships. While Celebrity’s Millennium class ships, which includes Constellation, have long had a reputation for providing a good premium cruise product, Celebrity has decided to upgrade them by taking features from the Solstice ships and incorporating them into the Millennium class ships. Celebrity calls this process “Solsticizing.”

Hotel Director Ryan Kingston worked on the Solsticizing of Constellation and is slated to work on the Solsticizing of sister ship Celebrity Infinity. In his interview, we discussed how the changes made to Constellation relate to each other and how they make the cruise experience more like the experience you have on the Solstice class ships. It is posted at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-HD.html

Leaving aside what changes have been made to Constellation and why they were made, there is still the question of what type of cruise experience is being offered on the Constellation today. To answer this we have interviews with two more key players.

Cruise Director Rich Clesen describes Celebrity’s new emphasis on entertainment and gives examples of how this has affected the programming onboard. http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-CD.html

Finally, with all of the additions to Constellation, the ship now has quite a few dining venues. Executive Chef Andy Bouchard discusses what to expect from each of these venues including some of his favorite dishes. http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Constellation-CD.html

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