NEW YORK -- Celebrity Cruises unveiled its plans for a yacht-cruise
operation in the Galapagos Islands.
The new venture, which confirmed industry speculation that the
line planned to make such a move, will operate under a "sub-brand"
called Celebrity Xpeditions.
The brand also will focus on unusual adventure travel-oriented
excursions packaged with Celebrity's other ships, such as side
trips to the Arctic Circle and Antarctica.
The yacht-cruise move is an about-face for the line, which
operates a fleet of megaships, the newest of which carry nearly
2,000 passengers.
Celebrity said the Sun Bay I -- a 100-passenger yacht it
purchased in 2003 -- will be renamed the Celebrity Xpedition,
reflagged to Ecuador and will offer seven- to 10-day cruises around
the archipelago starting June 11.
The product's "official launch" was last week, when the line
started taking bookings, but Celebrity executives said the company
has been working on its Xpeditions plans for about 18 months.
Some agents said they had heard rumors about a potential
Galapagos product, although Celebrity vice president of sales
Dondra Ritzenthaler said the line did "zero" advance marketing.
Celebrity has established a dedicated phone number, (866)
XPDTION, and staff in its Wichita, Kan., sales office for the new
operation. The cruises will be offered only to members of
Celebrity's loyalty program until Jan. 29, but nonloyalty clients
can be wait-listed.
"At first I just said, 'No, we don't do that,' " Celebrity
president Jack Williams said about his initial reaction to starting
an adventure cruise line. "But the more I thought about it ... why
not?"
Agents attending the product launch said they were pleased with
the product.
"This ship is separate from the main brand," said Bob Silverman,
president of Majors Travel in Staten Island, N.Y. "That's OK. A lot
of their passengers are high-end and want to move up."
In order to get the permits to sail in the tightly controlled
Galapagos National Park, Celebrity plans to buy an Ecuadoran-based
operator, Islas Galapagos Turismo y Vapores, which sells another
Galapagos-based ship, the Ambasador I. The 2001-built Xpedition
will replace the aging Ambasador.
The Xpedition experience itself will be oceans away from a
typical Celebrity cruise, even without the blue-footed boobies and
other Galapagos species.
Alcoholic beverages, house wines, gratuities and shore
excursions will be included in the price. Shoulder-season per diems
start at $260 per person.
In addition, the guest-to-crew ratio will be higher than the
line's standard 2:1 ratio.
The Xpedition may be a niche product for Celebrity, but people
with knowledge of Galapagos cruising said the line will compete
with several other luxury-level products in the region.
Williams stressed that Celebrity, by taking over an existing
permit, is "not adding new capacity." He also touched on the
strenuous environmental regulations in the Galapagos, promising
that "we will not discharge anything that isn't drinking-level
quality."
In addition to launching Galapagos cruises, the line said its
Celebrity Xpeditions brand will include "over-the-top"
shore-excursion options on other Celebrity ships.
Those options will be rolled out throughout the year, but some
ideas include an ice-breaking cruise in the Arctic Circle, trips to
Antarctica, race car driving in Florida or sport fishing in British
Columbia.
According to Celebrity, the excursions will be offered in
conjunction with cruise offerings "or as individual journeys."
That doesn't mean that Celebrity wants to become a tour
operator, according to Bill Rammos, the line's managing director of
international sales and marketing.
"The idea is you do it as part of your cruise," he said.
Rammos said the excursions also will be offered first to
Celebrity's loyalty members.
Williams said the costs for passengers to take some of the
excursions will be high -- because space will be limited.
To contact reporter Rebecca Tobin, send e-mail to [email protected].