Cruise liners Celebrity Millennium and Voyager of the Seas met in Sydney harbour last night, delivering a boost to the profile of parent firm Royal Caribbean.
Voyager of the Seas is the largest ship to come to Australia and it sailed past the stationary Celebrity Millennium vessel near Fort Denison as water cannons were shot from tug boats.
“It raises awareness of the Celebrity brand, raises awareness of cruising and of this big ship Voyager coming as well and it’s captured the imagination of Australian cruisers and non-cruisers,” Royal Caribbean Cruises Australasia commercial director Adam Armstrong said.
Voyager of the Seas and Celebrity Solstice are the heroes of this year’s cruise scene, according to Armstrong.
“You would ordinarily have to go to the Caribbean or Europe to sail on this type of ship so we are bringing that quality and size of ship to the Australian market,” he added.
While it is a smaller ship, the Celebrity Millennium has had a $140 million retrofit to incorporate the successful features of Celebrity Solstice and create consistency across the Celebrity brand.
“We take those best bits that people love the most and put them on old ships,” Armstrong said.
Celebrity Millennium set sail for Singapore last night to start Celebrity’s first season in Asia.
“There’s just demand for Asian cruises… and what Celebrity is doing is longer Asian cruises for the international market,” Armstrong said.
