Millennium class
At the end of the 1990's, everyone was talking about the same thing: the Millennium-bug. Not just a weird insect, but the thought that all computers could be crashing because they did not recognize the year '00. In all, this 'bug' was extinct very soon after the start of the new millennium. Everywhere in the world, things were named after the new millennium, like the giant wheel in London and the new bridge over the river Tyne in Newcastle. And also at Celebrity Cruises, the first ship of a new class was fitted out under this name. It was the biggest ship for the company, and three other sisters were about to follow. Also, they introduced the glass elevators at the side of the ships, just before Holland America Line followed with this on their new Vista-class. Another change to the ships in contradiction to the earlier Celebrity-ships was their different colouringsceme. They recieved darkblue hulls with wide, golden bands. A few years later this was altered and put back in line with the older ships of the company.
Millennium was built at Chantiers de L'atlantique at St.-Nazaire under yardnumber R31. She has accomodations for 2460 passengers and 999 crew. The ship is 294 meters long and 32,30 meters wide. She is driven by 2 pods and has a gross tonnage of 90.228. The ship can sail at 24 knots and floated out at the 7th of november 1999 and was supposed to be delivered to Celebrity Cruises at the 31st of may 2000, but she wasn't delivered before the 22nd of june so the first cruise for the 17th of june had to be cancelled. Her first cruise was thus on the first of july out of Amsterdam to the Baltic. Just after she left, she had to make an unplanned stopover at Warnemünde, because she started to devellop some problems in her pod-propulsion and had drifted powerless for aroud five hours. The stopover lasted for two days and the term Millennium-bug could soon be re-introduced by Celebrity Cruises because the problems were not over yet. On the second cruise of the new flagship, vibrations started to occur and the ship was sent to Newport News in November to resolve this issue.
In januari of the next year, again the pod-system was failing and two cruises had to be cancelled. Throughout her carreer, untill this very day, these problems kept going on. And not just with her, but also the second ship of the class, Infinity, had the same issues that started three months after she was delivered and also two cruises had to be cancelled, but the problems kept coming back for the Infinity also.
The thirth ship, Summit , was also designed with the same pods and suffered also the same problems after her introduction in october 2001. A Caribbean cruise of this ship was to be cancelled in march 2003, and another one was cancelled in june 2005.
Constellation was the forth and last of Celebrity's Millennium-class and was built as yardnumber U31, also in St.-Nazaire. She is slightly bigger than Millennium at 90.280 tons. Her passenger-capacity is 2450.
As the forth and last Millennium-class ship, Constellation floated out at the 31st of october in 2001 following her three earlier sisters. Constellation was not an exception to the problems that they had suffered and her maiden cruise in may 2002 had to be cancelled because her pods had sprung a leak. Her first cruise started in Barcelona on the 12th of may 2002 and she sailed that summer in the Mediterranean Sea before moving to the Caribbean in the winter that followed. The ship kept this sailing scedule 2006, but from then on she also sails regular Northern and Western European cruises throughout the summermonths.
These ships were among the biggest cruiseships also seen in Europe and I think this class of ships looks more appealing then the Galaxy-class of the mid nineties. In contradition to the ships of their parent company Royal Caribbean, that are mostly built with curved roundings and smooth lines, the ships of Celebrity, that became a part of Royal Caribbean in 1997, are very boxy and square.
Millennium was drydocked in Brest on the 3rd of april 2007 and there she recieved two new engines. She floated out again on the 20th of april and I photographed her four days later. Constellation was also re-engined in the first weeks of may this year, and with this conversion she also recieved her new name Celebrity Constellation. Also the other ships of the Millennium-class were renamed in this manner for the purpose of easier recognition of the brand.
