Cruise lines set their sights on growing Asian markets

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The Celebrity Silouette will sail seven-day Caribbean tours, including to the new cruise-ship port of Falmouth, Jamaica.

Celebrity Cruises has released its schedule for the 2012-13 winter season.

This time, its offering fewer cruises in the Caribbean but more in Hawaii and, for the first time, in Asia.

That's 2012-13. Next winter, Celebrity will have seven ships serving the Caribbean, and will then reduce that inventory by one the following year. Does this mean the Caribbean is maxed out? Hardly, but it does mean many cruise lines are going farther afield, and Celebrity is one of them.

While Celebrity will have plenty of capacity in the Caribbean -- four of the five large Solstice Class (2,800-passenger) ships serve the market -- it shows a trend that even in the winter, cruise lines are looking around the world for new markets.

Let's start with changes to the Caribbean schedule for 2012-13:

-- Celebrity will no longer have a ship sailing out of the New York area.

-- Silhouette will move from New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale and sail alternating seven-day Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises. The Western trips have some new ports. The Roatan and Costa Maya will be replaced with the Labadee and Falmouth, where the parent company, Royal Caribbean Cruises, has a vested interest. Labadee is exclusive to Royal Caribbean ships, while Falmouth is a joint venture with the Jamaican government.

-- Eclipse will leave Miami for Fort Lauderdale and take over the 14-night, round-trip Southern Caribbean cruises from Constellation.

-- Constellation will operate the four- and five-day cruises out of Miami.

-- Solstice will be moving Down Under to spend the winter in Australia.

Celebrity is increasing its Hawaii cruises with the Century sailing eight round trips from San Diego. Solstice, on her return trip from Australia in the spring, will offer a Honolulu-to-Ensenada cruise with several stops in the Hawaiian Islands.

However, Celebrity's most ambitious move will be the positioning of the 2,100-passenger Millennium in Asia. For the 2012-13 season, the Millennium's home port will be in Hong Kong and Singapore, sailing a series of open-jaw voyages (one-way trips).

In order to attract North Americans, this cruise line realized if you are travelling that far, more time in ports is necessary. As an example, on a February 3, 2013 departure that ends 14 days later, Millennium will overnight in Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hong Kong.

For cruisers with lots of time, there are two Transpacific cruises.

The Westbound trip goes south in November 2012, a 19-day itinerary from Honolulu to Sydney (Australia) via New Zealand. As a bonus, you will witness a full solar eclipse when the ship sails between Fiji and New Zealand (too bad it wasn't Celebrity's Eclipse!). If you still want more, you can combine that with a 17-day, Sydney-to-Singapore cruise that has an extensive list of ports in Australia.

On the return trip in April 2013, Millennium will re-position from Hong Kong to Shanghai with an overnight in Beijing. The final leg leaves China for Alaska, via Japan and Russia.

Asia is just in the embryonic stages of development for the North American cruise lines, and Celebrity is among the first to get a toe in that water, following the lead of its parent company, Royal Caribbean. The offspring company (Celebrity) will specialize in longer cruises than Royal Caribbean and offer more overnights. That means the Asian market will continue to grow at a faster pace as more major cruise lines test its viability.

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Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 7, 2011 D2