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Celebrity Cruises plans
By Russ Lynch
2 trips to Hawaii
Star-BulletinAnother luxury cruise line has put Hawaii on its destination list, planning two multi-island visits in 2001.
Miami-based Celebrity Cruises said today it will use a new French-built liner, the Infinity, for the trips in February and April.
The company expects to take delivery of the $350 million, 91-ton Infinity in time for its maiden voyage leaving from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 3 and going through the Panama Canal to San Diego, via Mexico and Costa Rica.
Because it is a foreign-built ship, the 1,950-passenger Infinity is not permitted to carry passengers between American ports so the shipping line plans to use Ensenada, Mexico, as its departure point for the 11-night Hawaii cruises.
The first leaves Ensenada Feb. 17 and the second on April 7, with calls at Kailua-Kona, Hilo, Nawiliwili, Lahaina and Honolulu before returning to Mexico.
The ship also plans a trip starting from Honolulu April 18 to Ensenada, with stops at the neighbor islands.
Prices for the round-trip Hawaii voyages begin at $1,099.
In between the trans-Pacific runs, the Infinity will make a run from San Diego to Mexico and Florida, through the canal. Later it will settle down into its normal summer-season business, Alaska cruises.
Other cruise lines also use Hawaii as a destination in the Alaska off-season.
State figures show that 46,000 tourists arrived in Hawaii by cruise ship last year, a 12 percent increase over 1998 and the business keeps growing.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has budgeted $96,000 to support port greetings for the cruise ships on the four main islands this year, bringing back the traditional "Boat Days" spirit of music and hula on the docks.
Celebrity Cruises is owned by Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. It will take delivery of a new vessel in June, the Millennium. There are no plans for the Millennium to call at Hawaii.
Celebrity said 80 percent of the staterooms in the two ships will have ocean views and 74 percent will have verandas.
The ships will also feature external glass elevators.
