Where Should Celebrity Create New Routes & Sailings?

[Tom and Ingrid]

...that they don't already have or have long ago dropped?

 

The lack of a world cruise option got me seeing the big gaps they have to prevent even building a B2B2B cruise around the world, but then I also heard they dropped one of our favorite routes - the Buenos Aires to Valparaiso (or reverse) we so enjoyed in 2015.  

 

I get "political" instability can have big impacts (like perhaps Israel, the Suez Canal, or the East coast of Africa right now), but working around those hotspot areas, there still seems to be some gaps in their geographical options.  Especially with many of us (but not nearly all of us) not choosing to repeat ports if possible, it would seem like there are more options out there for them than putting multiple ships in Alaska or the Med or the Carib. They could likely make repositioning sailings also be "world" legs and/or at least open up some places that have never been a Celebrity option or have been, but have been dropped.

 

Where would you see them expand and include?  Or are they doing just fine with the current coverage?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Celebrity should really take a Mclass ship and use it to do something interesting 

here a couple from HAL , that would probably be money makes for them 

[leaveitallbehind]

Not trying to avoid your question of where new itineraries could be.  But while additional non-existent itineraries may be desirable, it may be a question of feasibility. Celebrity's fleet size is somewhat limited and the question may be what current ships and itineraries become sacrificed in order to generate new ones?  As newly launched "E" class ships come into service new itineraries would become more feasible.  At present, I think the "M" class ships would be the more likely option for this.

 

Keep in mind as well that most itineraries are scheduled 18-24 months ahead, so it likely may be a timing issue as well as a ship availability issue.  That being said, as mentioned I would expect the option for new itineraries to gain better odds as they move forward with new launches.

 

And there are many great options for this, along with a world cruise option, to include more exotic South Pacific itineraries that are not repositioning based.  I'm sure there would be many others.

Edited June 6 by leaveitallbehind

[mahasamatman]

South Atlantic transits would be interesting.

[Jeremiah1212]

I don't know what areas of the world they have in mind, but it's been mentioned several times that they are trying to create more back to back opportunities to piece together longer itineraries without repeating ports. 

[jelayne]

They have done the Buenos Aires -Santiago route previously, we did it twice.  We have also done a B2B that included the circumnavigation of Australia. These were before the pandemic.
Celebrity has chosen to do shorter cruises vs the longer unless repositioning a ship requires a longer itinerary.  
I would speculate that Royal Caribbean or Silverseas may do some of the routes. From a RCG big picture standpoint, there may be routes that are covered by one or both of those brands where the market may not be large enough support another RCG ship. 

[hcat]

Maybe M class ships if upgraded could fit in ok at some of the less visited islands of the Caribbean.. but ports would need  development along with  with local gov cooperation..

 

Wish  for cruises  to Trinidad & Tobago.

 

The Carib trend seems more toward pvt Islands or port areas...or hotel operated resort areas like on Bimini...

 

More excursions to smaller places from the "usual" ports  are another good option.. we loved Nevis from St Kitts.

[PTC DAWG]

46 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Celebrity should really take a Mclass ship and use it to do something interesting 

here a couple from HAL , that would probably be money makes for them 

I like that Miami one for sure..I didn’t know they could go that far upriver. 

Edited June 6 by PTC DAWG

[Ex-Airbalancer]

29 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I like that Miami one for sure..I didn’t know they could go that far upriver. 

I believe the HAL ship is about the same tonnage as M class ship

[cbfb]

I wish they would drop the horrible Bahama ports and add more interesting islands. We are definitely looking at other lines for something new. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Not trying to avoid your question of where new itineraries could be.  But while additional non-existent itineraries may be desirable, it may be a question of feasibility. Celebrity's fleet size is somewhat limited and the question may be what current ships and itineraries become sacrificed in order to generate new ones?  As newly launched "E" class ships come into service new itineraries would become more feasible.  At present, I think the "M" class ships would be the more likely option for this.

It's not avoidance because clearly logistics, planning, and a whole lot of stuff outsiders like us can't think of.

But the HAL fleet is, as far as i can tell, the same size as the X fleet.  If "they" can do it, "we" can do it!  I've never spent much time looking at HAL, but honestly, I'd hope the cruise lines all try to learn from each other.

Corporate overlap definitely seems to be a potential issue, but X is by far the more logical line vs the RCL ships - especially the new RCL stuff.  To some extent, I am a little confused by X at times when they add the short cruises (say 4 days or the like), and knock off some like that 14 night BA-Valparaiso cruise.  

M or S class for sure for a lot of those with the E class filling the most "exciting" routes. I'd be fine with that.

[Liao]

Id love to see them take a page from some of the longer itineraries Oceania offers.  Reduce the 3-4 night booze cruises they have become fixated on.

[Tom and Ingrid]

5 minutes ago, cbfb said:

I wish they would drop the horrible Bahama ports and add more interesting islands. We are definitely looking at other lines for something new. 

I find those ones "out of character" for X, but I may be wrong since they keep them in the line-up.

What I do know is that when I talk to someone about cruises, if someone says they'll never cruise AGAIN, it is almost always because their first and only experience was an inexpensive, short, and not surprisingly not-so-fun Bahamas out and back.

If I was Celebrity, I'd make sure ANY cruise I offered wouldn't be one that made folks never return, and those shorter ones seem to be the most likely to cause that to happen 😞

[Tom and Ingrid]

47 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I like that Miami one for sure..I didn’t know they could go that far upriver. 

Me too.  And other than St Maarten, they'd be all new ports for me.

[PTC DAWG]

15 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I believe the HAL ship is about the same tonnage as M class ship

Zaandam 61k gross tons, 27 foot draft vs Summit 90k gross tons 26.5 draft..the Summit (M Class) is around 200 feet longer, that might make a big difference..

 

Still a cool route by HAL, the others are great too, but the Wife doesn’t have that much time off, yet, 

[PTC DAWG]

2 minutes ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Me too.  And other than St Maarten, they'd be all new ports for me.

I have done the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity, some pretty water down that way…

[cbfb]

1 minute ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

I find those ones "out of character" for X, but I may be wrong since they keep them in the line-up.

What I do know is that when I talk to someone about cruises, if someone says they'll never cruise AGAIN, it is almost always because their first and only experience was an inexpensive, short, and not surprisingly not-so-fun Bahamas out and back.

If I was Celebrity, I'd make sure ANY cruise I offered wouldn't be one that made folks never return, and those shorter ones seem to be the most likely to cause that to happen 😞

We love celebrity and have been cruising exclusively with them since 2013. Back then the ports were great. Now it’s far and few between good Carribean ports especially on the S class ships, which we prefer to the E class. Hopefully we’ll get some new ports in 2026 but we are trying princess in November for something new. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

3 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Zaandam 61k gross tons, 27 foot draft vs Summit 90k gross tons 26.5 draft..the Summit (M Class) is around 200 feet longer, that might make a big difference..

 

Still a cool route by HAL, the others are great too, but the Wife doesn’t have that much time off, yet, 

Yeah, maybe that's where Silversea could find some success.  

[Tom and Ingrid]

3 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I have done the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity, some pretty water down that way…

Our Southern Caribbean had Aruba & Curacao (plus Jamaica and the Bahamas).  Fun for sure, but just touching the surface.

[Liao]

8 minutes ago, cbfb said:

We love celebrity and have been cruising exclusively with them since 2013. Back then the ports were great. Now it’s far and few between good Carribean ports especially on the S class ships, which we prefer to the E class. Hopefully we’ll get some new ports in 2026 but we are trying princess in November for something new. 

Now that I am -1 year to retirement, doing a very close look at some nice Oceania itineraries.

[leaveitallbehind]

39 minutes ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

It's not avoidance because clearly logistics, planning, and a whole lot of stuff outsiders like us can't think of.

But the HAL fleet is, as far as i can tell, the same size as the X fleet.  If "they" can do it, "we" can do it!  I've never spent much time looking at HAL, but honestly, I'd hope the cruise lines all try to learn from each other.

Corporate overlap definitely seems to be a potential issue, but X is by far the more logical line vs the RCL ships - especially the new RCL stuff.  To some extent, I am a little confused by X at times when they add the short cruises (say 4 days or the like), and knock off some like that 14 night BA-Valparaiso cruise.  

M or S class for sure for a lot of those with the E class filling the most "exciting" routes. I'd be fine with that.

Good point.  But maybe the HAL itineraries have more to do with their demographics and possibly some of their itineraries are geared towards those with more time and disposable income to do longer or more exotic itineraries away from the more typical oversaturated mass market itineraries.

 

And although they are different companies, RCCL, Celebrity, And Silversea are all part of the RCI family and each targets a different primary demographic.  As a whole they have more diverse itineraries but within each a lot of repetition and sameness.

 

I think Silversea has more itinerary diversity away from RCCL and Celebrity which may address the question. We just may have to look outside of Celebrity for some of that diversity.  But they also go where the money takes them.  In this respect HAL is part of the Carnival family, and that parent's cruise line diversity also addresses a wide variety of demographics and itineraries.

Edited June 6 by leaveitallbehind

[Cruise Junky]

Adding to some of the excellent suggestions above, I’d like South Africa.  

[tscoffey]

1 hour ago, Liao said:

Reduce the 3-4 night booze cruises they have become fixated on

That's what is most affordable to their target, 30-40 years old audience is.

(And no, I won't take one either)

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

2 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

Adding to some of the excellent suggestions above, I’d like South Africa.  

 

Yes!

 

I'd like to see the return of the 14-night cruises in the Caribbean.  Or to Canada/New England out of Cape Liberty.  Sailing from Boston is not fun.  The terminal is old and the longshoreman's union prohibits Celebrity personnel from coming ashore to aid passengers.  It's ugly.  The short ones they're doing now may be bringing in the dollars but they're also wearing out good crew members with frequent turnarounds.

[mahdnc]

Yes, I also would like to see the Caribbean 14 nighters come back.