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1 November, 2018

Royal Caribbean VP calls those yet to cruise a “94 per cent opportunity”

By Alexandra Coulton

Good news everyone! Celebrity Cruises has confirmed Celebrity Eclipse will be homeporting in Australia during the 2020/2021 summer season.

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The 2850-guest, 120,000 tonne Celebrity Eclipse will be the newest ever ship to homeport in Victoria. She arrives in Melbourne fresh from a multi-million dollar modernisation on 23 December 2020 for her inaugural season, which runs until April 2021.

“When we were thinking about our ability as we’re expanding the brand and delivering new ships one of the first places that we had in mind was the Australian market,” Royal Caribbean Vice President and Managing Director told Travel Weekly.

“The Australian Market has the highest penetration of cruisers today, it’s almost six per cent which we believe is a 94 per cent opportunity.”

Following a 14-night Singapore to Sydney repositioning via Australia’s east coast and the Great Barrier Reef, Eclipse will arrive in Sydney on 8 December 2020 to sail a two-night Sampler voyage from Sydney, before departing on a 13-night cruise via New Zealand to her new Melbourne homeport.

From her arrival to Victoria on 23 December, guests can choose from seven round-trip sailings from Melbourne, between eight and 14 nights to destinations in the South Pacific, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia.

“Knowing that Melbourne itself is 19 per cent of the population but represents about 13 per cent of the cruise industry, we thought if we were gonna go look after that 94 per cent of people who have yet to cruise that Melbourne was probably the right place to go,” Bonner told us.

Not to mention, the ship is set to being some major benefits to locals.

“Our estimation is just having Eclipse there as a home port would bring approximately 13 million dollars of tourism revenue into the region,” Bonner said.

“And when I say tourism it’s actually broader than that because a home porting ship has to source all of our supplies there it also sends crew members coming through there, we’re bringing international guests who might not otherwise have travelled there.

“In addition to that, Solstice will call five times in Melbourne throughout the season and that figure isn’t even including the calls from Solstice.“

Celebrity Solstice – the highest rated ship in Australia – will meanwhile continue her decade-long reign in Sydney, arriving for her 20/21 season on 16 October 2020.

Before she makes her Melbourne debut, Eclipse will be the first ship in Australia to undergo the AUD$700 million “Celebrity Revolution”, a modernisation of Celebrity’s nine-strong, mid-sized fleet which is already underway.

The revamp will see her accommodations, culinary programme, technology, public spaces completely modernised by a formidable line-up of world-renowned experts, including famous UK interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

More details of her new features to be announced in 2019. Solstice will follow her sister’s lead and undergo the modernisation in 2021.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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