Celebrity names newest ship

First, an apology for not bringing today’s news to you yesterday, but I was stuck in a car in the snow, as the worst weather in years (well, since last year) hit my part of Hampshire. Global warming, eh? Who would have thought that the Copenhagen summit would have had such an immediate effect?
Anyway, as I prepared to spend the longest night of the year in the cosy confines of my car, Celebrity Cruises took the opportunity of the winter solstice to announce the name of their fourth Solstice-class ship.
The 2,850-passenger vessel will be called Silhouette, and follows Eclipse, which will be launched in Southampton next April, Equinox, launched in June, and of course the original Solstice. A fifth ship in the series is yet to be built, or named.
Like its 122,000-ton sisters, the ship will have a half-acre lawn of real grass, a glass-blowing show, and a Corning Museum of Glass.
Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean announced yesterday it has secured the $1.1 billion needed to finance Allure of the Seas, the sister ship to Oasis of the Seas, currently being built at the Turku shipyard in Finland. The credit is being provided by the Finnish national credit agency, Finnvera, and amounts to 80 per cent of the total cost of the 225,000-ton vessel which is expected to be launched in December next year.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, I eventually made it home last night after my unfortunate Christmas shopping expedition. Unlike thousands of other drivers who were forced to abandon their cars.
If only I was enjoying warmer weather on a cruise ship . . .