celebrity-century.jpgDue to the weak U.S. dollar, Europe cruises have grown in popularity and most cruise lines will increase capacity in Europe next year as well. 

With its largest European deployment ever slated for 2009, Celebrity Cruises announced five ships, including two new vessels, will visit the region in a single European season for the first time in the line’s history. Celebrity’s 2009 Europe season includes six homeports, overnight stays in eight different ports, and five unique cruisetour options. Celebrity also will offer nine transatlantic sailings in 2009. The cruises open for sale today.

Ships slated for the 2009 Europe season include Celebrity Solstice, Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Century, Celebrity Constellation,  and Celebrity Summit.  Celebrity’s home ports will be Amsterdam, Holland; Barcelona, Spain; Harwich and Southampton, England; and Rome and Venice, Italy.  In 2009, cruising regions will include Scandinavia and Russia, the Arctic Circle and North Cape, the Mediterranean, Israel and Egypt, and transatlantic sailings.

* Celebrity Century will offer seven-night Western Mediterranean sailings roundtrip out of Barcelona from September 19-November 21. The ship will also offer a 13-night “Best of Europe” sailing September 6, that begins with an overnight stay in Amsterdam and the line’s first call on Antwerp, Belgium.

santorini.jpg* From August 18 through October 23, Celebrity Equinox will sail 13- and 14-night “Ancient Empires” itineraries out of Rome, featuring calls on Ashdod and Haifa, Israel, an overnight stay in Alexandria, Egypt, and ports throughout Greece, Turkey, and Italy.

* Celebrity Constellation’s 14-night transatlantic sailing from Harwich on September 5 will feature a stop in Reykjavik, Iceland, a country named by National Geographic magazine as one of the world’s top destinations. This will be the first time Celebrity has called on an Icelandic port since 2004; the voyage, which ends in Cape Liberty (Bayonne), New Jersey, also features stops in France, Ireland, Scotland, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick.

* Beginning May 10, Celebrity Summit will alternate 12- or 14-night “Classical Mediterranean” and “Mediterranean Legacies” sailings between Venice and Barcelona, calling on ports in France, Italy, Greece, Croatia and Turkey, collectively. To see Celebrity’s full European schedule for 2009, guests are encouraged to visit www.celebritycruises.com.