Celebrity Cruises Announces New Deployment for Celebrity Millennium & Celebrity Mercury

Celebrity Cruises has announced new itineraries for Celebrity Millennium and Celebrity Mercury, presenting guests with new cruise vacation options from the historic coastal cities of Baltimore, Maryland, and Charleston, South Carolina, along with the brand’s popular Caribbean cruises from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Correspondingly, the line announced plans to discontinue its Australia and New Zealand cruises previously scheduled for late-2009 and 2010 on Celebrity Millennium.

“Australia and New Zealand are charming and beautiful destinations, and we’re confident we’ll return again as our brand and fleet grows,” said Celebrity’s President & CEO Dan Hanrahan. “Currently, though, our travel agent partners and guests have repeatedly said they want more options to sail with Celebrity from the Eastern seaboard, where our brand was founded, and still has a very large and loyal base of cruisers. So, we’re pleased to present some very attractive new cruise vacations from that region.”

Celebrity Millennium Takes On Celebrity Mercury's Territory: The 2,038-guest Celebrity Millennium will cap its 2009 season in Alaska with cruises previously scheduled for the 1,898-guest Celebrity Mercury, offering more capacity on the popular sailings. The itineraries will reflect those previously announced for Celebrity Mercury, with the addition of a 12-night wine-themed cruise departing from Vancouver on Sept 28, 2009, followed by an eastbound, 16-night Panama Canal cruise on Oct 10, 2009, from San Diego to San Juan, where Celebrity Millennium will offer a series of 10- and 11-night Southern Caribbean cruises roundtrip from San Juan, beginning Oct 26, 2009. Guests with reservations on the sailings previously scheduled for Celebrity Mercury will be contacted and re-accommodated on the same sailing dates on Celebrity Millennium, at the rates paid.

Celebrity Mercury Offers New Options on the Eastern Seaboard: Celebrity Mercury will sail a 17-night Panama Canal cruise from San Diego on Oct 23, 2009, ending in Baltimore. There, from Nov 2009 to Feb 2010, the ship will present a series of new 12-night Eastern Caribbean cruises, as well as four 9-night cruises. Celebrity Mercury then will present a series of 10- and 11-night Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages from Charleston from Feb through April 2010. The new itineraries on Celebrity Mercury replace the Southern Caribbean cruises from San Juan previously scheduled from Nov 2009 to April 2010. Guests with affected bookings will be contacted and offered the option to be re-accommodated in like accommodations on identical Southern Caribbean itineraries on Celebrity Millennium at the rate paid.

For additional information, including ports of call for each ship's new itinerary, and options for guests holding bookings on the canceled Australia and New Zealand cruises, see CruiseDiva.com's Cruise News.