Celebrity Cruises sending Solstice to Australia and New Zealand

Celebrity Cruises is sending its award-winning Celebrity Solstice to Australia and New Zealand for the winter of 2012-13. Australians will see the return of the Celebrity brand to the region this coming winter with the deployment of the 1,814-guest Celebrity Century, which will be replaced by the 2,850-guest Celebrity Solstice for the 2012-13 season.

Solstice will transition from a 2012 summer in the Mediterranean to Australia/New Zealand via the Suez Canal and through Southeast Asia before arriving in Sydney, Australia in early December. The repositioning sailings will include multiple overnights in ports including Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Cochin, India.

Upon arriving in Australia, Solstice will offer a series of 12- and 13-night open-jaw sailings between Sydney and Auckland, New Zealand. The season also will include a circumnavigation of Australia, consisting of two open-jaw sailings between Sydney and Perth (Fremantle). Many of the itineraries include overnight stays in Sydney. Full details will be available on March 23, when bookings for Celebrity’s new 2012-13 Australia/New Zealand itineraries will open for sale. Bookings for the 1,814-guest Celebrity Century’s 2011-12 Australia/New Zealand cruises are open now.