Godmother For Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Silhouette Revealed

Celebrity Cruises has announced the appointment of Michelle Morgan, CTC, the president and CEO of Signature Travel Network, to serve as Godmother of the cruise line’s newest Solstice Class ship, Celebrity Silhouette. Who is she? Not a celebrity or even famous, Morgan is the first travel industry executive to serve as Godmother of a Celebrity ship and will preside over the line’s first naming ceremony to be held in Hamburg, Germany, on July 21.

A 33-year travel marketing executive, Morgan joined Signature Travel in 1991, when the company had 30 locations in Southern California. Today, it has grown to 350 locations in 38 states and two providences in Canada, with sales exceeding USD $5-billion. The member-owned co-operative has enjoyed explosive growth over the past 20 years. As president and CEO, Morgan has been instrumental in framing the organization's strategic direction, partnership development, marketing, technology, and member services programs. She takes special pride in the fact that her company has the lowest attrition rate of any network.

Morgan takes her place alongside other Solstice Class Godmothers as a courageous breast cancer survivor. Despite enduring two series of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, she says she didn’t allow the disease to define her.

“Michelle Morgan personifies all of the qualities we seek in our Solstice Class Godmothers: remarkable strength and courage in both her professional and personal life, along with optimism, warmth and a very engaging personality, all of which have made her so admired throughout the industry,” said Celebrity Cruises President and CEO Dan Hanrahan.

Morgan shares Celebrity Cruises’ devotion to the breast cancer cause, through Signature Travel Network’s participation in the industry’s breast cancer awareness month in October, and says Signature’s board will be exploring fundraising programs for breast cancer research this year. Meanwhile, Celebrity Cruises plans to extend its efforts to support the cause, which began in 2008 with its Celebrity Solstice event to raise funds for breast cancer screenings for low-income women, and its sponsorship of the first “Celebrity Sunwalk,” in association with Walk the Walk, a breast cancer charity founded by the Godmother of Celebrity Equinox, Nina Barough. In addition to continuing to work with Walk the Walk in the UK, Celebrity also will introduce a variety of year-long fundraising activities to further support breast cancer research this year.

Following Celebrity Silhouette’s naming cruise July 21-23, the ship will set sail from Hamburg to Civitavecchia (for Rome), Italy, where it will sail 12-night roundtrip Mediterranean/Holy Land voyages through October. The ship will offer Celebrity’s first Solstice Class sailings from the Northeast beginning in November, when Celebrity Silhouette offers 12-night Caribbean vacations roundtrip from the port of Cape Liberty (Bayonne), NJ. For more information, visit CelebrityCruises.com.

Photo: CruiseDiva.com