Thursday, January 29, 2009

Celebrity Cruises' Millennium-Class Foursome 'Takes 10' Again in Prestigious Conde Nast Traveler's Annual Readers Poll

MIAMI, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- While relishing ongoing rave reviews of its new Celebrity Solstice, Celebrity Cruises also is celebrating high honors bestowed on its Millennium-class fleet in the prestigious Conde' Nast Traveler magazine's annual "Top Cruise Ships in the World" poll.

The eagerly-anticipated poll once again places every Millennium-class ship in Celebrity's fleet in the top 10 in the large-ship category -- double the number of ships in the top 10 among any other major line -- retaining Celebrity's domination of that category.

In the large-ship category, Celebrity Constellation earned the number-two slot -- and received top marks among all large ships in itineraries/schedule and food/dining -- while sister ship Celebrity Summit ranked number three overall, Celebrity Millennium came in sixth, and Celebrity Infinity netted ninth.

Celebrity Solstice entered service several months after the votes were tabulated, but will be eligible for next year's poll.

"We're grateful to the well-informed readers of Conde' Nast Traveler who have repeatedly ranked all of Celebrity's Millennium-class ships in the top 10 in this prestigious poll," said Celebrity's President and CEO Dan Hanrahan. "We're equally grateful to our extraordinary staff, who so successfully deliver Celebrity's Star Treatment(SM) across the fleet to our valued guests."

Conde' Nast Traveler subscribers rated a total of 418 ships on a 100-point scale in seven categories: itineraries, shore excursions, crew/service, cabins, food/dining, activities/facilities, and design/layout. Only ships that received a required minimum number of responses were eligible to be included in the rankings.

Celebrity Cruises offers comfortably sophisticated, upscale cruise experiences with highly personalized service, exceptional dining, and extraordinary attention to detail. Celebrity sails in Alaska, Australia/New Zealand, California, Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Europe, Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, the Pacific Coast, Panama Canal and South America. The line also offers unique cruisetour vacations in Alaska, Australia, Canada, Europe and South America. Noted for four of the top 10 "Top Cruise Ships in the World" in the large-ship category, as voted by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler (February 2009 readers' poll), Celebrity's fleet -- including the new Celebrity Solstice -- will be joined by Celebrity Equinox this year, Celebrity Eclipse in 2010, a fourth Solstice-class ship in 2011, and a fifth in 2012. For more information, call your travel agent, dial 1-800-437-3111 or visit www.celebritycruises.com.