Celebrity Cruises
Introduces Australia Cruisetours

Like Australia's native boomerang, Celebrity Cruises' guests can return for more of the land "down under" the minute they step off the ship, with enticing new cruisetours offered during Celebrity's first season in the region beginning in November 2007.

Celebrity Cruisetours pair a Celebrity cruise through New Zealand and Australia with a land-based vacation experience either before or after the cruise. Guests can choose to enhance their vacation down under with one of two packages featuring some of the region's most extraordinary locations not visited on the cruise journey, including the marine wonderland of the Great Barrier Reef and the giant red monolith known as Ayers Rock.

Offered out of Sydney, the three-night cruisetour experience features one night in Sydney, followed by two nights in Cairns. While in Cairns, guests will be treated to a tour of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, renowned for its incredibly clear waters, abundant marine life and spectacular coral formations. Guests also will participate in an authentic Australian crocodile adventure in tropical North Queensland.

The five-night land-based portion of the adventure combines one night in Sydney, two nights in Ayers Rock and two nights in the picturesque seaside village of Port Douglas.

While in Port Douglas, guests will travel to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, as well as participate in the authentic, tropical crocodile adventure highlighted by a "crocodile attack" show.

The experience at Ayers Rock includes a private sightseeing tour in the desert featuring the "Olgas," a series of massive, brightly colored domed rocks rising from the plains; an Aboriginal tour retracing the path of Liru ancestors through the bush, and the "Sounds of Silence" private dining experience in the desert, complete with champagne, a native barbeque dinner, and an astronomer's presentation of the southern night skies.

Both of Celebrity's new Australia and New Zealand Cruisetour packages are now open for bookings.

All Celebrity Australia and New Zealand Cruisetours include in their land portions fully escorted tours, some meals, four-star hotel accommodations, and all transportation, including transfers to and from the ship and airport, as well as flights between destinations. Ample time also has been built in for guests to independently shop, dine, sightsee or relax.

The seagoing companion to Celebrity's new Cruisetours - Celebrity's Mercury - will present six 14-night open-jaw sailings between Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia, from December 2007 through March 2008. Among the line's new destinations are Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound, and Milford Sound, New Zealand, along with Melbourne, Newcastle, and Sydney, Australia, and Hobart, Tasmania.

Celebrity Cruises offers a comfortably sophisticated, upscale cruise experience with highly personalized service, authentic five-star dining, and extraordinary attention to detail. Its nine ships and the line's service, cuisine and spas consistently dominate top travelers' surveys. Celebrity sails in Alaska, Bermuda, California, the Caribbean, Europe, the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, the Mexican Riviera, the Panama Canal and South America. For more information, call Connection To Cruise 1-888-798-9133 or visit www.connectiontocruise.com

(South Coast Magazine - Winter 2006)