I just wrote a similar post on Cruise Critic, which inspired me to basically write the same here. While I was on the Equinox two weeks ago, I talked to some crew members and the glassblowers who will roll out Eclipse in the spring (they were really awesome, btw. I wish our cruise had been longer so I could see more of them in action!). All of them confirmed that the next ship name will be Silhouette. Blahblah, I know we shouldn’t trust the cruise ship rumor mill and all, but I’ve seen this name mentioned often on the internet, too. I don’t think we would have heard the name so many times without reason. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?
So what do I think of the name? (Because I know you’re so dying to know!) I like it, personally. It’s soft and pretty, has good alliteration with Celebrity, and it’s different from all the other names out there. (Cough – RCI and Carnival, I’m looking at you unabashedly copying names from each other constantly). I don’t see it fitting in with the other names in the S-class, but really, do all of the M-class or C-class names go together? Not really. BUT – and this is a big one – I think it’ll be a pain in the butt (to put it nicely) for most people to spell it. 9 years later and it still hurts my heart to see people butcher Millennium on a daily basis. Finally, I liked the name immediately, which says a lot for me, because it takes awhile for names to grow on me. I didn’t like Equinox or Eclipse initially, but the former won me over (still waiting on the latter).
However, I can’t help but wonder why Celebrity has waited so long to reveal the name. If I remember correctly (forgive me if I don’t), the names for Solstice and Equinox were announced closely together, with Eclipse not far behind. So what’s the holdup? As someone who really loves ship names – guessing them, dreaming up new ones, and hearing ones cruiselines select – I wish Celebrity would get a move on with this. Maybe they do have name(s) already. What do I know? It can’t be fun to constantly refer to the ship as Meyer Werft #854. (Please no hate mail, it’s a random guess). Maybe they’ll reveal the new name(s) shortly before they release Eclipse, to get the buzz going for her.
Come on, Celebrity – inquiring minds want to know!
