Celebrity Cruises announced it is changing the ship sailing summer voyages from Philipsburg (St Maarten Island, Dutch Antilles).
An email sent to travel agents on June 3 indicates that Celebrity Millennium will be swapped out for July & August cruises with Celebrity Summit.
The reason is the recent bill signed into a USA law to allow liners to visit Alaska. According to Celebrity, the legislation had inadvertently listed the Celebrity ships originally scheduled to sail in Alaska, which didn't include the Summit. The Alaska Tourism Restoration Act listed all the cruise ships the law applies to, and Celebrity Millennium is listed, but not Celebrity Summit. As a result, Celebrity Summit wouldn't legally be able to sail to Alaska in 2021 without visiting Canada.
After evaluating the situation, the cruise line has decided that in order to comply with the new law, its Celebrity Millennium has to sail roundtrip from Seattle WA in Alaska.
This means that bookings will be transferred to the Celebrity Summit ship and itineraries will remain similar. This will take Celebrity Cruises a few weeks to complete transactions.
When Celebrity Millennium reaches Alaska, some calls at Skagway will be replaced with Icy Strait Point at the end of the season.
Celebrity Summit will change the itinerary's port order, and on Monday (June 7), she will visit Bridgetown (Barbados), followed by a day at sea on Tuesday (June 8), Willemstad (Curacao Island, Dutch Antilles) on Wednesday (June 9), Oranjestad (Aruba Island, Dutch Antilles) on Thursday (June 10).
The sailings on Celebrity Summit for Alaska are due to be altered to make way for Celebrity Millennium.
Celebrity Millennium arrived at St. Maarten on Tuesday in preparation for her first cruise on June 5, 2021.