For Millennium vessels, a Solstice-style makeover
When the Celebrity Solstice debuted in 2008, the ship represented a leap for Celebrity Cruises, with its size, abundant dining options and new-to-cruise amenities like a lawn with real grass.
The success of the Solstice class is evident in Celebrity's decision earlier this year to "Solsticize" its Millennium class.
"After the introduction of the Solstice, none of us knew how much she would be loved by guests," said Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity's senior vice president of hotel operations. "We realize we needed to add the iconic Solstice-class venues to our other ships."
The Millennium vessels are receiving Solstice amenities such as the Tuscan Grille steakhouse, Bistro on Five, the ice-topped Martini Bar, the Cafe al Bacio and Gelateria, the Cellarmasters wine bar, more suites and restyled cabins and public areas.
The Constellation was "Solsticized" earlier this year.
Celebrity said that the Infinity, which will emerge from a scheduled drydock on Dec. 3, will also have the AquaClass spa cabins, which debuted on the Solstice ships, and the iLounge, which features Apple products.
The Summit and Millennium will get those features when they go into drydock in January 2012 and April 2012, respectively.
The Infinity will also receive 60 additional cabins, and balconies will be added to eight of the Celebrity Suites.
The new cabins are being placed in what were formerly a kids' area and a conference center. The kids' club will be part of the Observation Lounge. -- J.J.
Celebrity Cruises was able to show off the Celebrity Eclipse, its newest ship, to U.S. travel agents this week, with the ship's arrival from Europe for the winter season.
And although the Eclipse is the third in the Solstice class, the vessel carved out a niche with two features not found on its sister vessels.
The Eclipse debuted Qsine, easily the most innovative restaurant on any cruise ship afloat, and the iLounge, an Internet center that enables passengers to use, learn about and buy Apple products.
When the $750 million Celebrity Solstice debuted in 2008, it represented a major departure from the Celebrity fleet, chiefly in its breadth of dining options.
There are 10 places to eat on the 2,850-passenger ships, including five alternative venues. Celebrity's other ships had one alternative restaurant each.
Qsine: 'Uniquely unordinary'
Qsine takes the place of Silk Road on the Eclipse's sister ships.
Jacques van Staden, Celebrity's vice president of food and beverage operations, said that in Qsine he was given the task of creating "a concept that doesn't exist."
"That's right up my alley," van Staden said. "I looked at all my years of experience at high-end resorts and regular bistros and said, what are you going to do with food that makes it uniquely unordinary?
"Quite frankly, with Italian food or a steakhouse, you have either good food or bad. At Qsine, we wanted to do something 360 degrees from your perception."
True to his description, Qsine, starting with handing out menus on iPads, is a dining experience like no other. It has no distinctive cuisine type, so its menu is likely to change with van Staden's inspiration. (See a video of the iPad menus here.)
During an almost four-hour meal -- Celebrity said diners tend to stay in Qsine about 25% longer than the other restaurants on the Eclipse -- it was clear that a big difference in the dining experience is the interaction diners have with the food.
Ordinary offerings like sliders and tacos are "deconstructed," van Staden explained, so that the passengers help build their meals.
The tacos, for example, come with a mortar and pestle for diners to make fresh guacamole. The cupcake dessert arrives in a bento box and includes the bare cupcakes, which arrive warm, three tubes of icing (peanut butter, strawberry and chocolate flavors -- no vanilla) and a variety of sprinkles and nut toppings.
There are other familiar dishes like sushi that end up looking and tasting like no sushi anyone's ever had.
Called "sushi lollipops," they come standing on sticks in flavors such as spicy salmon dipped in crushed Doritos. (View a video of the sushi lollipops here.)
Diners, who pay $30 per person at Qsine, not including alcoholic beverages, need to pace themselves. Each portion is small at Qsine, but the waiters bring quite a few courses, and they are filling.
About 85% of the dishes at Qsine are unique to the restaurant, which van Staden said was an important part of his process.
Van Staden said that the timing of the iPad's debut, which coincided with the Qsine's introduction, was an alignment of the stars.
"We needed something unconventional for the menus," he said.
The iPads describe each dish in terms of its tasting notes and ingredients but purposely do not display photographs.
"The food is the surprise element of the cuisine," van Staden said.
iLounge
The other new feature on the ship is the iLounge, connected to Qsine with its Apple products and high concept.
Ultimately, the iLounge is a mini Mac store -- Celebrity is an authorized Apple reseller -- that is likely to net Celebrity some nice onboard revenue. The products are sold tax free.
The iLounge has several rows of Mac computers that passengers can use to get online (users must pay for Internet use).
An iLounge rep gives classes on the Apple products and sells various products, such as iPods, iPod Touches and MacBooks.
For a slideshow of photos from the Celebrity Eclipse, click here.