Celebrity… Why the X on the funnel?

Celebrity… Why the X on the funnel?

 

 

A funnel is the smokestack or chimney on a ship used to expel boiler steam and smoke or engine exhaust. They can also be known in as stacks.  The letter “X” on the funnel of the Celebrity ship is actually a Greek Letter “Chi” Transliterated "CH" Ancient Pronunciation: "kh" as in "chanukkah".

The Greek Chandris Family founded Celebrity Cruise line.

It is traditional for the Greek shipping families to have their surname on the stack - for example the Costa ships have a "C" on their stack to indicate the family name - so therefore the Chandris family has an "X" on theirs.

History...

Celebrity grew out of the Greek shipping company, Chandris Lines.  That original line was begun after World War I as a cargo line.  After the Second World War, it expanded into the passenger business.  When commercial jets made transporting passengers by ship from point-to-point unattractive, Chandris started to use its fleet of re-conditioned ocean liners for cruising. Following a period of expansion, in 1974 Chandris Line merged with Chandris Cruises a separate company founded in 1960 by Anthony Chandris' brother Dimitri Chandris to operate cruises in the Mediterranean to form Chandris Line Chandris Cruises. After 1977 the company concentrated solely on cruising and was rebranded Chandris Cruises. In 1985 Chandris Cruises acquired Fantasy Cruises, and subsequently their North American operations were rebranded as Chandris Fantasy Cruises. The company ceased trading in 1996. All of the company's ships had a chi, a letter X of the Greek alphabet, on their funnels. The chi also acted as a logo for them and their subsidiary Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity…

In 1989, Chandris announced that instead of revamping its existing cruise line, it was starting an entirely new brand.  Furthermore, this new brand would not be aimed at the lower end of the mass market cruise business as its previous cruise line had been but would be targeted at the premium end of the market.

The line started off using a reconditioned Chandris ocean liner, the Galileo, which was renamed the Meridian. However, she was soon joined by a newly built state-of-the-art cruise ship, the Horizon.  The two ships began with cruises from New York to Bermuda and the Caribbean.  As the new line caught on, the itineraries were expanded, and new ships added to the fleet. An almost identical sister ship to the Horizon, the Zenith, was delivered in 1992.  Three larger new builds, Century, Galaxy and Mercury were added between 1995 and 1997.  With the arrival of the Century class ships, the Meridian was sold and Celebrity had a fleet consisting entirely of new, luxurious, state of the art ships.

In 1997, Celebrity merged with Royal Caribbean International with the two companies operating under a new parent company Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. Although the two companies share some common operations, they have retained their own identity and have their own managements.

Following the merger, four technologically-advanced Millennium class ships joined the Celebrity fleet.  In 2008, the first of five 122,000 gross ton Solstice class ships was delivered with the remainder due to arrive by 2012.

True to its original concept, Celebrity remains a premium cruise line.  This is evident in the sophistication of its activities and entertainment, the innovative dining and the attention to detail in design which is the hallmark of a Celebrity ship.  The lifestyle onboard is relaxed but sophisticated with the majority of the passengers participating in the formal nights.  Indeed, the line describes itself similarly as offering “a comfortably sophisticated, upscale vacation experience with highly personalized anticipatory service (guest to staff ratio of 2:1); fresh gourmet dining; understated elegance and exceptional attention to detail.”

Celebrity’s description of who it would like to have onboard is also a good description of the type of guests that one encounters onboard.  “Celebrity Cruises target demographics are Baby Boomers, with a household income of $75,000 and up.  Celebrity tends to attract experienced travelers who appreciate service with style, and who desire a superior vacation within an inviting, engaging and unpretentious environment.  In terms of geographic distribution, Celebrity has sourced primarily the U.S. and Canadian markets, but is increasingly tapping the European and Latin American markets, as well.”