Aqua Class. Is it worth the money?

Celebrity Cruises is considered to be the luxury brand of Royal Caribbean. With the entry into service of the Solstice Class ships, came into play a new way of "crucering", the AQUA CLASS. The passengers have apreciated this innovation so much that Celebrity Cruises has imposed a renewal of the Millennium Class ships to "Solstized" them. That means adapt the advantages of the Solstice class ships to the other celebrity ships. Celebrity Constellation was the first one to pass this renovation and now is navigating with the new Aqua class and a Tuscan Grille. The next one will be the Summit, and it's expected to include a Blu Restaurant.

PERSIAN GARDEN CELEBRITY ECLIPSE

The new AQUA CLASS is considered to be better than Concierge Class, although the C1 Concierge staterooms are usually more expensive in fact than Aqua Class staterooms. The advantages of this new class are on the one hand the same as concierge class such as priority boarding, sparkling wine in your stateroom upon arrival, fresh fruit in the cabin, expanded breakfast room service, large towels and bathrobes, free use of umbrellas and binoculars in the cabin, different kind of pillows, restaurant seating preferences...

On the other hand you'll enjoy other benefits when travelling in AQUA class such as:

• Hansgröhe shower panel with massage effect in the cabin

• Personal care products in the cabin

• Unlimited free access to the Persian Garden, which is the Turkish bath area and thermal beds (the rest of the passengers have to pay about $ 20 / day to access

• You will be assigned table in the speciality restaurant Blu instead of the main restaurant. Blu is a Mediterranean restaurant with littlle tables for two or four people. The other passengers have to pay if they want to have dinner at the Blu restaurant

• Blu serves a healthy breakfast for Aqua Class passengers

Is it worth the AQUA CLASS? The answer is yes, but not at any price. In the brochure you will usually find that the price of the Aqua Class is more expensive than Concierge, but if you check out Celebrity Cruises web, they'll give you a lower price (less than C1). If you're thinking to travel in Concierge class, check out the Aqua Class prices and you'll be surprised.  If you've reserved a 2A or 1B cabin you'll find out that the difference to AQUA CLASS is $300 per person or less. If you can afford it  do not hesitate and change category to Aqua Class, because that's about what it would cost the access to the Persian Garden for the whole cruise and the meals in the Blu, and you´ll also enjoy the other benefits of Aqua Class.

Links:
Aqua Class Video

Celebrity Silhouette

On May 29th the brand new ship of Celebrity Cruises was floated out of drydock in Papenburg Meyer Werft shipyard (Germany). With 122,000 GT, Celebrity Silhouette is the fourth ship of the Solstice class (Celebrity Solstice, Celebrity Equinox and Celebrity Eclipse). In 2012 will be released the fifth and last ship of this class, the Celebrity Reflection. Once work is finished inside the Silhouette, the two funnels are installed and performed the naming ceremony, Celebrity Silhouette will join the European market for the summer season and later the Caribbean (leaving from Cape NY Liberty) for the winter season.

CELEBRITY SILHOUETTE

Celebrity Cruises is the luxury line of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and is oriented the customer, offering a ratio of staff to passenger 2:1. Other companies such as Royal Caribbean, MSC, Costa and Carnival offer a ratio 3:1. It is flagged in Malta like the rest of of Celebrity Cruises ships (except Xpedition). It has a length of 315 meters, a maximum speed of 24 knots and a capacity of 2850 passengers (it is said that the shipyard won during the construction 17 cabins compared to the other Solstice Class ships).

The Silhouette offers most of the facilities of the other Solstice calss ships, like Aqua class, restaurants Murano, Tuscan Grille and Blu, Cafe Al Baccio, Bistro on Five, Art Gallery, Martini Bar... But they've also added new elements to improve, if possible, the Solstice class facilities with the goal of making the Lawn Club a more interactive place and less decorative.

QSINE. It is not new, because the Celebrity Eclipse already replaced the Asian restaurant Silk Harvest for this option. Qsine is a speciality restaurant with the best international dishes

LAWN CLUB GRILL. A new speciality restaurant in the Lawn Club, replacing the glass blowing show. It?s a grill with show cooking.

THE PORCH. Another new speciality restaurant located next to the Lawn Club dedicated to sandwiches, but with superb views over the ocean.

THE ALCOVES. Unique private areas in the Lawn Club equipped with WiFi which can be rented for half day or full day.

ART STUDIO. Will be next to the entrance to the Lawn Club. Guests can go there and show their crafts with exhibitions of painting and drawing.

Special mention to the AQUA CLASS, a new form of "crucering" that has been spreading to the rest of Celebrity ships as they've passed through drydock. If you stay in an Aqua Class cabin, you'll enjoy all the benefits of staying in Concierge Class (Aqua Class is usually cheaper than the cabins C1) such as priority boarding, expanded options of room service breakfast, huge towels and bathrobes, complimentary use of umbrella and binoculars... Aqua class guests will enjoy the use of a Hansgrohe shower in the cabin and specialized personal care products and unlimited access to the Persian Garden (the rest of the passengers have to pay for the access). You will be assigned table for dinner at Blu (specialty restaurant with healthier menus) instead of the main restaurant. The Blu's more comfortable than the main restaurant and is equipped with litlle tables two to four people.

We don't know who will be the master of the Celebrity Silhouette, but I will not be surprised they choose Panagiotis Skylogianis, current captain of Celebrity Eclipse, and responsible for the conveyance of Celebrity Solstice and Eclipse. It also said that the friendly young captain Dimitris Kafetzis will be the new master of the new flagship of Celebrity Silhouette. Kafetzis is well known throughout the Celebrity fleet for his jokes from the bridge (this is the captain from the bridge... OUT!). I was fortunate to spend some time talking to him, his brother and his wife while on a Mediterranean cruise two years ago, before they disembarked in Athens (his wife was pregnant) and captain Skylogianis took over. He is a close, fiendly person always disposed to talk to you. In this cruise, in the welcome ceremony during the champagne toast, Dimitris Kafetzis made a move to drink a second sip of liquid and backed off saying that if he did so he would not find Santorini the next day. He also asked the passengers upon arrival in Athens to go out to the deck and salut his family that were waiting for him at the pier. I was told that on another time during a transatlantic crossing he asked the passengers for a GPS device, because the people on the bridge were a bit lost ...

Anyway, we wish calm waters for the Silhouette...

LINKS:
MEYER WERFT PAPENBURG

CELEBRITY SILHOUETTE

SOLSTICE CLASS VIDEO