Celebrity Cruises cancel Australia 2009/10 cruises

Celebrity Cruises have announced that they will be removing their Australia and New Zealand sailings from their winter 2009/10 itineraries. Celebrity Cruises begun the sailings in 2007 but have now decided to operate Celebrity Millennium in Alaska which is a more popular destination and will ensure a fuller capacity on board.

Celebrity Millennium will take over from Celebrity Mercury, who will move to the Caribbean where it will be based out of Baltimore for future voyages. Celebrity Cruises final Australian cruise will be in April 2009.

For those customers that have made bookings for the Australia sailings after April 2009, Celebrity Cruises will be in touch imminently, with the option of cancelling the booking with a full refund or to re-book similar itineraries including Celebrity Millennium’s final sailing ‘down under’.

Captain's to perform wedding ceremonies at sea

Azamara and Celebrity Cruises now offer weddings with a difference in that you can be married by the ship’s captain in the new captain-led ceremonies. Currently offering a vow renewal and in-port wedding service, this new service will lead the way in cruise weddings with ships such as Celebrity Millennium able to offer on board weddings.

Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Azamara Cruises and Celebrity Cruises Vice President of Hotel Operations believes "While many of our guests come onboard seeking a once-in-a-lifetime wedding or vow renewal location, and we've been happy to provide them with in-port weddings led by a local official, their number-one request is for captains to perform the ceremony," this request has now been granted and it offers the wedding guests a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Celebrity Cruises have recently re-registers most of their ships in Malta where government regulations have changed, allowing ship’s Captains to perform weddings at sea. Azamara Cruise ships were already registered at Malta and so there is now a wider choice of cruise weddings available.