''Celebrity Eclipse'' is a operated by Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of

Royal Caribbean Group Royal Caribbean Group, formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., is a global cruise holding company incorporated in Liberia and based in Miami, Florida, United States. It is the world's second-largest cruise line operator, after Carnival C ...

. After she was ordered with German shipbuilder

Meyer Werft Meyer Werft is one of the major German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. Founded in 1795 and starting with small wooden vessels, today Meyer Werft is a builder of luxury passenger ships. 700 ships of different types have be ...

in July 2006, she saw her keel laid in February 2007 and she was formally delivered in April 2010. The -vessel followed sister ships '' Celebrity Solstice'' and ''

Celebrity Equinox ''Celebrity Equinox'' is a built by Meyer Werft in Germany. ''Celebrity Equinox'' is the second of the five ''Solstice''-class vessels, owned and operated by Celebrity Cruises. She is a sister ship of , , , and the . ''Celebrity Equinox'' entere ...

'' as the third ''Solstice''-class ship in the fleet.

Design and construction

The

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

of ''Celebrity Eclipse'' was laid on 14 February 2007 and she was floated out of her drydock on 28 February 2010. The ship was delivered to Celebrity on 15 April 2010 in

Eemshaven Eemshaven (; en, Ems Harbor) is a seaport in the province of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. In 1968, the Dutch government declared the Ems estuary ( Eemsmond) to be an economic key region. One of the key developments for the regi ...

and was christened by British yachtswoman Emma Pontin on 24 April 2010. ''Celebrity Eclipse'' is the third ''Solstice''-class ship, preceded by '' Celebrity Solstice'' and ''

''. ''Solstice''-class ships were designed to save energy through their photovoltaic systems and an optimized hull design with efficient hull coatings and lighting systems using

light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (co ...

Service history

2010 Iceland volcanic eruption

In response to the 2010 shutdown of UK airspace due to the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, the newly completed ''Celebrity Eclipse'' returned 2,000 British tourists stranded in Spain as "an act of goodwill" by the owners, sailing from Southampton to Bilbao on 21 April and returning on 23 April.

2011 crew member overboard incident

On 20 May 2011 a 31-year-old crew member was lost overboard north of Cherbourg, France; despite an extensive search the man's body was not recovered.

Allegations of poor working conditions

In October 2012

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

TV aired a '' Dispatches'' undercover documentary that exposed poor working conditions and exploitation of workers on ''Celebrity Eclipse''. Allegations include flying under a

flag of convenience Flag of convenience (FOC) is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag state ...

to enable the ship owners to be unconstrained by employment legislation, including minimum wages and working hours. The documentary showed footage of workers who had no rest days in many months, and workers who had to pay helpers to enable them to fulfil their duties. Celebrity Cruises denied the allegations in the documentary.

COVID-19 pandemic

Celebrity Eclipse passengers disembark in San Diego to a jet waiting to take them to their home countries - 49739184623

Celebrity Eclipse at Circular Quay Sydney

Passengers began disembarking from the ship in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

on 30 March 2020 after her last sailing. In April, allegations surfaced that the ship had failed to protect passengers from known cases of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. Passengers and crew had tested positive despite Celebrity's original public denials of any cases on board. One man died in the United States four days after returning home in the United States and his wife also tested positive. Another passenger, an 83-year-old man, was reported dead in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia, on 18 April. After disembarking the passengers the ship was placed under a no-sail order, effective through July, by the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

. As of May 2020 ''Celebrity Eclipse'' and two other cruise ships were still at anchor offshore from San Diego. Approximately 700 crew were reportedly still aboard ''Celebrity Eclipse''.

References

External links

Official website
{{Celebrity Ships Eclipse Ships built in Papenburg 2010 ships Cruise ships involved in the COVID-19 pandemic