Celebrity Eclipse in Helsinki, 28 June 2013

Celebrity Eclipse

IMO 9404314
Built 2010, Meyer Werft Papenburg, Germany
Tonnage 121 878 GT
Length 314,80 m
Width 36,80 m
Draught 8,30 m
2 852 passengers
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 67 200 kW
2 azipods (?)
3 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster(?)
Speed 24 knots

In terms of exterior design, the Celebrity Cruises' Solstice-class area my favourite post-panamax megaships (and actually amongst my favourites even if you drop the post-panamax part). Yet ships of the class have been featured here only once before, in the form of the Celebrity Eclipse (that entry, with a short history of the ship, can be seen here). The reason for this omission is very simple: the Celebrity Eclipse has thus far been the only ship of the class to visit Helsinki, and naturally, since I've photographed her before, never-before-seen ships take priority. But the Celebrity Eclipse was here on the multi-ship day of 28 June 2013, so I took a second set of photos of her then, as seen from the traditional vantage point for ships departing the West Harbour, the small island of Sisä-Hattu.

Click on the images to see them in a larger size.

I do dislike it when cruise ships use the newer Jätkäsaari cruise quays instead of the older ones in Hernesaari, as the latter usually grand better views. Still, this one turned out okay.

I still don't quite understand why they only painted the X on the forward funnel.

Tallink's inbound Star dwarfed by the outbound Celebrity Eclipse.

Such fantastic exterior design.

Juxtaposition: Smooth granite with angular ship.

More rocks.

Celebrity Eclipse, 2 July 2010

Celebrity Eclipse

IMO 9404314
Built 2010, Meyer Werft Papenburg, Germany
Tonnage 121 878 GT
Length 314,80 m
Width 36,80 m
Draught 8,30 m
2 852 passengers
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 67 200 kW
2 azipods (?)
3 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster(?)
Speed 24 knots

Celebrity Eclipse is the third ship in Celebrity Cruises's five-ship Solstice-class. The Solstice-class ships are Celebrity's largest ships to date, and the Celebrity Eclipse is at the time of writing the largest (passenger) ship ever to visit Helsinki.

Visually the Solstice-class is, in my opinion, but far the most successful of the mega-cruise ships. Despite the immense size the ships look sleek and attractive. The two-funneled design evokes memories of Chandris Line's (Celebrity's original owner) ocean liner Australis - although the funnels could perhaps be slightly more substancial (they should really call the final Solstice-class ship Celebrity Australis if you ask me). The only real negative aspect in the ship's looks is having the X only on the forward funnel. Not having it on both funnels really makes it look like an afterthought. Which of course it is, originally the plan was that some of the balconies would have different-coloured gazing which would make a large X on the side of the ship. In practice this was found to be almost invisible on the lead ship Celebrity Solstice and an X was added to the forward funnel instead. Why the company insisted on just one X for the subsequent ships is beyond me. Although not unpleasant to look at, I am slightly disappointed at the colour scheme chosen for the Solstice class. In the past Celebrity have had interesting and bold colours for their ships, but with the Solstices these have been reduced to just a single wide blue stripe. Not unattractive, but a bit bland when compared to, say, the colour scheme on Celebrity Constellation (not to mention the company's older and bolder ships).

Celebrity Eclipse photographed departing Helsinki West Harbour on 2 July 2010, photographed from Lauttasaari.