Celebrity Cruises is a cruise line headquartered in Miami , Florida , [ 1 ] and a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group. Celebrity Cruises was founded in April as a subsidiary of the Greece -based Chandris Group to operate upmarket cruise ships to Bermuda. Chandris Fantasy Cruises targeted the lower end of the cruise passenger market, with fleets consisting of second-hand ocean liners.
Home Lines' ships had held two of the five contracts offered by the Government of Bermuda to cruise lines, giving the ships priority berthing arrangement and unlimited access to sail to the islands in exchange for the ships sailing to Bermuda between April and October each year.
Although these contracts were highly valued, Holland America Line withdrew the former Home Lines ships from this service, leaving an opening for two new ships to gain access. Chandris wanted to acquire the contracts, but the Government of Bermuda was only willing to award them to upmarket cruise lines, which Chandris Fantasy Cruises was not. To gain the Bermuda Government contracts, Chandris created Celebrity Cruises and immediately began negotiating with the Bermuda Government in April As a result of the negotiations, Celebrity Cruises was awarded the contract for two ships for five years beginning in [ 5 ] To fulfill the contract, Chandris Fantasy Cruises' Galileo was rebuilt at Lloyd Werft , Germany in , re-entering service as the SS Meridian for Celebrity Cruises in February Celebrity Cruises adopted the Chandris "X," which was slightly stylized for their logo.
Celebrity Cruise's second ship Horizon , which had been ordered in as a replacement for Amerikanis in the Chandris Fantasy fleet, was transferred to Celebrity Cruises fleet, entering service in May Celebrity ordered a trio of newbuilds at Meyer Werft, known as the Century class, with the first ship, the Century debuting in , followed by the Galaxy and Mercury.
Between and , Celebrity took delivery of a quartet of new ships, the first gas turbine -powered cruise ships, and aptly named Millennium -class ships Millennium , Infinity , Summit and Constellation. The livery was short Iived, and after a few years, would revert to Celebrity's original white hull, dark blue stripe color scheme.
