It's official: MERCURY going to Australia, New Zealand Dec. '07

[poetic license]

Celebrity Cruises to Take Guests to the Wonder Down Under Exotic Product Offering Expands Significantly With Australia, New Zealand MIAMI, May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sightings of koala bears, kangaroos and kiwi birds await vacationers sailing with Celebrity Cruises next year. At a special event in New York today, the line's President Dan Hanrahan announced that Celebrity will sail for the first time in Australia and New Zealand beginning in 2007.

"This marks a significant expansion of our product portfolio, and is particularly exciting because it's a market our guests and agency partners have told us they want to experience with Celebrity," said Hanrahan. "Based on that valuable feedback and our extensive research, we're looking forward to a very successful inaugural season there next year."

Celebrity's Mercury will present six 14-night open-jaw sailings between Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia from December 2007 through March 2008. Among Celebrity's destinations "down under" are Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound, and Milford Sound, New Zealand, along with Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney, Australia, and Hobart, Tasmania.

The line's first calls on Papeete, Tahiti; and Moorea and Bora Bora, French Polynesia, will precede Mercury's six Australia/New Zealand sailings on a 16-night voyage departing Honolulu on November 23, 2007, concluding in Auckland.

"Imagine pairing such exotic destinations as these with the extraordinary service and experience we offer onboard every Celebrity ship," said Hanrahan. "It's an unbeatable combination."

Celebrity also has created a new series of Cruisetour packages in the region, complementing the cruise with options including a two-night stay in Sydney, an escorted three-night experience in Sydney and Cairns, or a five- night adventure featuring the best of Sydney, Ayers Rock and Cairns, including visits to the famed Great Barrier Reef.

A total of nearly 40 new ports of call have been added to Celebrity's deployment lineup for 2007, including those in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Celebrity's 2007-8 Deployment Overview

 

Ship Summer Winter

 

Century 12-night Baltic from 4-/5-night Caribbean from

Amsterdam with new Arctic Miami

Circle and Fjords; 10-/11-

night Mediterranean from

Barcelona with first calls on

Morocco

 

Constellation 14-night Baltic from Dover, 10-/11-night Caribbean

featuring first calls on from Fort Lauderdale

Cherbourg, France; Cornwall,

England, and Visby, Sweden;

Canada/New England cruises

from Cape Liberty, NJ,

featuring first calls on

Prince Edward Island and

Newport, RI.

 

Galaxy 7-/10-/11-/12-night Med from 10-/11-night Caribbean

Rome featuring calls on from San Juan

Alexandria,Egypt; Casablanca

and Agadir, Morocco; and the

Bosporous Strait

 

Infinity 7-night Alaska from Vancouver 14-night South America

from varied ports,

featuring new port of

Coquimbo, Chile; 14-night

Panama Canal

 

Mercury 7-night Alaska and 3-/4-night New 16-night Pacific and

Pacific Northwest from 14-night Australia/New

Seattle Zealand sailings from

Auckland and Sydney

 

Millennium 12-night Mediterranean from 7-night Eastern Caribbean

Barcelona and Venice, from Fort Lauderdale

including Casablanca and

Tangier on Transatlantic

 

Summit 7-night Alaska from Vancouver Hawaii and Panama Canal

and Seward from varied ports; 7-night

Caribbean from San Juan

with first calls on

Kralendijk, Bonaire

 

Zenith 7-night Bermuda from Cape 4-/10- and 11-night

Liberty, NJ Caribbean from Tampa

 

 

Celebrity Cruises offers a comfortably sophisticated, upscale cruise experience with highly personalized service, authentic five-star dining, and extraordinary attention to detail. Its nine ships and the line's service, cuisine and spas consistently dominate top travelers' surveys. Celebrity sails in Alaska, Bermuda, California, the Caribbean, Europe, the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, the Mexican Riviera, the Panama Canal and South America. For more information, call your travel agent, dial 1-800-437-3111, or visit the Celebrity web site at http://www.celebrity.com .

SOURCE Celebrity Cruises

-0- 05/11/2006

 

 

Sign me up!

Cheers~

Nicki

[joeyanddavid]

Needless to say I am so syked

[patval]

I started an ealrier thread but thank yuo for the heads up.

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=345617

 

 

Paul

[cruzin4us]

I can think of one cruiser that won't be on this cruise :)

[Moeve]

The pricing isn't on the website yet or am I missing something?

[joeyanddavid]

I haven’t heard the fares yet either. however that still doesn’t stop me from being excited about the "possibilities".. No matter what the fare,the vacation budget starts with a deficit!. I have to start at $1000PP air I do believe…… so I already would be in to it for at least 2 grand... not including pre hotel , cruise, tips, excursions plus misc. ….. This would be a major purchase no doubt about it.

[greeneg]

I didn't see it either, but it should be interesting.

 

The airfare from Charlotte to Melbourne is $2600 per person and the flight takes between 26-30 hours........

 

Assuming that a CC class cabin goes for the same rate per person per diem as our January Cruise on the Mercury, that would be 2201 x2 =4404 + 5200 for a grand total of $9600.

 

Plus, of course, incidentals........

 

Suspect that we will pass.........

[joeyanddavid]

It will be interesting to see how Celebrity prices the air fare too!

[Jimsgirl]

I have a Princess cruise LA to Sydney via Auckland Aug 2007 (31 days)and the Economy Air Fare from Fort Myers to LA and return Sydney to Fort Myers Fl is $1149 pp

 

I had wanted to do Business class , but Princess cannot quote at this time, and all I could find would be $7000 Sydney to LA one way. Too much so will stick with the Economy Air.

 

I will have to add Hotel in LA Precruise (one night) . Inside cabin cost at %200 for single occupancy is $6552 (this would be same total of course for two people )

 

It is not inexpensive but the cruise itself is for 31 days , difficult for those still working

[joeyanddavid]

did i do the math right?? thats 8,000usd for a full month of room and board

[greeneg]

The other thing that I find interesting is that they have had all of this hoopla about the announcement, which at this point surprised no one who reads the posts on these boards, and just if you want to know the dates, pricing, and availability, so that you can try and evaluate whether or not it might be do-able, the Celebrity website, like good old Schultz, "Knows notting"........

 

Sometimes I wonder if the left and right hands at Celebrity know each what the other is doing.....:)

[patster67]

I know what you mean, I'm very anxious to see the intinerary and can't find anything!

[CRUZBUDS]

I'm happy for those of you who are pleased with the new itineraries. We cruise to cruise and not so much for the ports. Maybe when we retire the ports will become more important to us. Now we just want an easy stress free vacation. We love the Mercury and she sailed from our home port - we're disappointed and wish Celebrity had waited for the new builds to come on line before expanding their choices using the same number of ships.

[soos]

Hooray!

 

Finally we can cruise on Celebrity without spending 1000's of dollars or points in order to get to a port of embarkation.

 

Well done Celebrity.

[Deb_in_Aussie]

The other thing that I find interesting is that they have had all of this hoopla about the announcement, which at this point surprised no one who reads the posts on these boards, and just if you want to know the dates, pricing, and availability, so that you can try and evaluate whether or not it might be do-able, the Celebrity website, like good old Schultz, "Knows notting"........

 

Sometimes I wonder if the left and right hands at Celebrity know each what the other is doing.....:)

 

I think the cruise lines like to get everyone hyped up and talking about it which is why they make these press releases befire they have details ready.

 

The reason there are no prices is that the sailings are not open for sale yet. However as a TA I can access the itineraries and have listed the first two AKL/SYD and SYD/AKL below, the others should be the same. They must still be working on the positioning voyage which is 23 Nov Honolulu to Auckland as that one is not in my reservation system.

 

09DEC AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND 600P DOCKED

10DEC TAURANGA,NEW ZEALAND 700A 1000P DOCKED

11DEC AT SEA

12DEC NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND 700A 500P DOCKED

13DEC WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND 700A 600P DOCKED

14DEC CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND 700A 600P DOCKED

15DEC DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND 700A 500P DOCKED

16DEC DUSKY SOUND 900A 1000A CRUISING

16DEC DOUBTFUL SOUND 1130A 100P CRUISING

16DEC MILFORD SOUND, NEW ZEALAND 430P 600P CRUISING

17DEC AT SEA

18DEC AT SEA

19DEC MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 800A 600P DOCKED

20DEC AT SEA

21DEC NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA 800A 700P DOCKED

22DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 900A DOCKED

23DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA DOCKED

LINE-CEL SHIP-MERCURY DATE-23DEC07 LEN-14

ITINERARY -14 NIGHT SYDNEY TO AUCKLAND CRUISE

DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART COMMENTS

23DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA DOCKED

24DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 600P DOCKED

25DEC AT SEA

26DEC MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 700A 600P DOCKED

27DEC AT SEA

28DEC HOBART, TASMANIA 700A 600P DOCKED

29DEC AT SEA

30DEC AT SEA

31DEC MILFORD SOUND, NEW ZEALAND 830A 1000A CRUISING

31DEC DOUBTFUL SOUND 100P 200P CRUISING

31DEC DUSKY SOUND 300P 400P CRUISING

01JAN DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND 800A 600P DOCKED

02JAN CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND 700A 600P DOCKED

03JAN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND 700A 500P DOCKED

04JAN AT SEA

05JAN TAURANGA,NEW ZEALAND 900A 600P DOCKED

06JAN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND 700A DOCKED

Cheers,

Debra

Cruise Vacations

[Deb_in_Aussie]

The other thing that I find interesting is that they have had all of this hoopla about the announcement, which at this point surprised no one who reads the posts on these boards, and just if you want to know the dates, pricing, and availability, so that you can try and evaluate whether or not it might be do-able, the Celebrity website, like good old Schultz, "Knows notting"........

 

Sometimes I wonder if the left and right hands at Celebrity know each what the other is doing.....:)

 

I think the cruise lines just like to get everyone hyped up and talking.

As a TA I can view the itineraries and info is below.

No info on the 23 Nov 07 sailing Honolulu to Aucaklnd yet, they must still be working on it.

No prices yet as the cruises are not open for sale yet.

 

Cheers,

Debra

Cruise Vacations

 

09DEC AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND 600P DOCKED

10DEC TAURANGA,NEW ZEALAND 700A 1000P DOCKED

11DEC AT SEA

12DEC NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND 700A 500P DOCKED

13DEC WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND 700A 600P DOCKED

14DEC CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND 700A 600P DOCKED

15DEC DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND 700A 500P DOCKED

16DEC DUSKY SOUND 900A 1000A CRUISING

16DEC DOUBTFUL SOUND 1130A 100P CRUISING

16DEC MILFORD SOUND, NEW ZEALAND 430P 600P CRUISING

17DEC AT SEA

18DEC AT SEA

19DEC MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 800A 600P DOCKED

20DEC AT SEA

21DEC NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA 800A 700P DOCKED

22DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 900A DOCKED

23DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA DOCKED

LINE-CEL SHIP-MERCURY DATE-23DEC07 LEN-14

ITINERARY -14 NIGHT SYDNEY TO AUCKLAND CRUISE

DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART COMMENTS

23DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA DOCKED

24DEC SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 600P DOCKED

25DEC AT SEA

26DEC MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 700A 600P DOCKED

27DEC AT SEA

28DEC HOBART, TASMANIA 700A 600P DOCKED

29DEC AT SEA

30DEC AT SEA

31DEC MILFORD SOUND, NEW ZEALAND 830A 1000A CRUISING

31DEC DOUBTFUL SOUND 100P 200P CRUISING

31DEC DUSKY SOUND 300P 400P CRUISING

01JAN DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND 800A 600P DOCKED

02JAN CHRISTCHURCH,NEW ZEALAND 700A 600P DOCKED

03JAN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND 700A 500P DOCKED

04JAN AT SEA

05JAN TAURANGA,NEW ZEALAND 900A 600P DOCKED

06JAN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND 700A DOCKED

[Deb_in_Aussie]

oops - sorry for the double post, computer playing up.

 

Cheers,

Deb

[turtlemichael]

Deb, Perhaps we should let Celebrity know that Tasmania is actually part of Australia as they seem to think its a different country?

 

Michael:rolleyes:

[excitedofharpenden]

Deb, Perhaps we should let Celebrity know that Tasmania is actually part of Australia as they seem to think its a different country?

 

Michael:rolleyes:

Michael, there's me thinking it was part of New Zealand...........Runs for cover:D

 

Phil

[pinebro]

DebINaussie

 

Do You Know The Repo ItINERARY ??

[Jimsgirl]

I confirm that my invoice is $8270.88, for cabin,economy air R/T from Ft Myers to LA and from Sydney to Ft Myers, Govn. Taxes, Princess travel ins. , Air Fees, and ground transfers. on Regal Princess Aug 2007 LA to Sydney via Sth Pacific Islands and New Zealand , 31 day cruise.

 

I will have to add on my hotel in LA which is not yet available form the cruise line.

 

Cannot say what Celebrity will charge, my agent tried to "book" Mercury at 6A.M this morning in case I wished to change and was told that all bookings are now closed.!!!!!!

[turtlemichael]

Michael, there's me thinking it was part of New Zealand...........Runs for cover:D

 

Phil

 

Hi Phil,

How are you? I suppose I shouldn't quibble - it will be enough f the Mercury captain can find it!

 

Michael

[excitedofharpenden]

Hi Phil,

How are you? I suppose I shouldn't quibble - it will be enough f the Mercury captain can find it!

 

Michael

Doing good Michael. Pleased to see you will have a Celebrity cruise a bit nearer to home. Looks a great itinerary. Now for the prices.......

 

Phil

[patster67]

Yes, prices AND itinerary for the Nov 23 repositioning cruise, please!!!!!!!

 

Anyone have any idea approximately how many sea days would be involved in the Honolulu, Tahiti, Australia 16 nite trip?

 

Oh, and that's frustration towards Celebrity, not any TA's that don't have access to that info yet!

[Aussie Gal]

I am thrilled that Celebrity is finally coming "down under" as I have always wanted try the other "big" one being a HAL fan for many years and also having had a few cruises on Princess.

 

I would love to know the itinerary for the Honolulu - Tahiti - Australia leg. It would be a fabulous cruise.

 

Jennie