With the completed Solsticizing of Celebrity Summit – the reconfiguration and remodeling of the Millennium-class ships to more closely resemble the newer, fresher Solstice-class – Celebrity Cruises is just one more ship away from completing their extensive fleet transformation.
Beginning with the Constellation in 2010 and followed by the Infinity, Summit, and in April, the Millennium, the Solsticizing process has been quite the undertaking. While many of the new and retooled venues have rolled out onto these sister ships uniformly, there have been some variations along the way as well.
The first of its class and the not yet Solsticized Millennium acts as a helpful point of reference for comparing the evolution of the ship alterations. Starting from the top decks and working our way down, you’ll notice in the graphic below that the Constellation doesn’t exhibit all of the new features, color highlighted. Most notably she is missing the additional AquaSpa and inside staterooms on deck 11 that replaced the old Fun Factory kid’s facility on the Infinity and the Summit. However, Tuscan Grill, was introduced midship, a specialty restaurant repeated on the Infinity and Summit as Qsine – the trendy dining experience that invites you to order from an iPad menu.
Removing the old Fun Factory (below left) to make way for the new staterooms dramatically changed the appearance and function of the aft portion of deck 11 on the Infinity and the Summit.
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To accommodate this modification, a new Fun Factory was installed on the same deck at the front of the ships, displacing a stretch of their forward observation lounges. Now all the kid’s facilities, X Club and Fun Factory, are located conveniently together.
The immediate result of this relocation is that the entire left side of the observation lounge is now gone with the old circular bar (below left) giving way to a new partition that encloses the new Fun Factory (below right). The Constellation’s observation lounge remains unchanged.
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Continuing down the stairs to deck 9, the Millennium, Constellation, and Summit still sport double decker libraries midship with their acupuncture facility and internet cafes on the decks below. Of these ships, only the Summit’s internet cafe is currently a Celebrity iLounge, Apple authorized reseller.
And the Infinity was always a curiosity on these four stateroom decks with its internet cafe, now an iLounge, atop a single deck library and the midship space on decks 6 and 7 – repurposed as inside staterooms well before the Solsticization program.
As you can see below, to convert Online @ Celebrity to a Celebrity iLounge takes much work.
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The Champagne Bar and Martini Bar on deck 5 have since been replaced with Bistro on Five and Cellar Masters respectively onboard the Constellation, Infinity, and Summit. The port (left) side passageway once available through The Champagne Bar has been closed off to likely support new Bistro on Five galley facilities for the casual creperie. And a portion of the main dining room’s upper level, on the Infinity and Summit only, has now been recreated as Blu – Celebrity’s new AquaClass specialty restaurant devoted to spa enthusiasts.
Blu (below right), along with the other specialty restaurants like Qsine (below left), revitalize the older fleet mates by sharing the light and colorful boutique styling of the Solstice-class.
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Finishing off deck 5 on all of the ships but the Millennium is the replacement of Cova Café and its side oval venue with Cafe al Bacio and Gelateria straight from the Solstice-class.
And while the Martini Bar was replaced by Cellar Masters on deck 5, it makes its return along with Crush on deck 4 surrounding the grand foyer with its inviting bar spaces.
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Lastly on deck 3 aboard the Infinity and Summit is the installation of a new band of additional outside staterooms that was made possible by the removal of the side meeting rooms and the reduction of the cinema and conference center. These executive spaces remain the same onboard the Constellation.
Next up to be Solsticized is the Millennium in April and into May. And I would anticipate the Constellation will soon follow again with an additional remodeling pass to bring the ship even closer in resemblance to her newer Solsticized sisters. Time will tell.