Celebrity Cruises has announced its 2012 lineup of European cruises, with five ships visiting 70 ports in 22 countries. They will sail from six departure ports and offer 19 Mediterranean itineraries. The lineup also will include a variety of cruise vacation opportunities in Alaska, Bermuda, and Canada and New England, as well as a series of immersive cruisetours in Europe and Alaska. The European expansion includes a new Venice homeport, Iceland cruises, extended overnight stays and eight new ports -- Klaksvik, Faroe Islands; Akureyri, Iceland; Bari, Catania and Ravenna, Italy; Skijolden, Norway; Koper, Slovenia; and Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Celebrity is deploying four Solstice Class ships to sail full Europe seasons in 2012, in addition to the recently “Solsticized” Celebrity Constellation.

The 2,886-guest Celebrity Silhouette, which will debut later this year, will offer sailings from Venice. These will be a series of roundtrip cruises and open-jaw cruises between Venice and Rome, ranging from 11 to 13 nights, from May through mid-August 2012. Sailing along the Adriatic Coast, as well as in Greece and Turkey, these itineraries will be port-intensive, with only one or two sea days on each cruise. In mid-August, the Celebrity Silhouette will offer eight Holy Land voyages roundtrip from Rome, ranging from 11 to 14 nights.

The 2,850-guest Celebrity Eclipse, which launched in 2010, will be based in Southampton, England, for summer 2012. It will offer four 14-night itineraries in the Mediterranean, Scandinavia/Russia, Iceland/Fjords and Canary Islands/Azores. An expanded Baltic season will include cruises to Iceland and the Norwegian Fjords, with an overnight stay in Reykjavik, Iceland, and a full-day visit to Akureyri, the country’s second-largest urban area.

The Celebrity Constellation, which was retrofitted with a series of Solstice-class venues last year, will offer cruises from Amsterdam, including seven Scandinavia/Russia cruises, one Arctic Circle cruise and one Norwegian Fjords cruise. Additional offerings on will include three port-intensive, 12-night Greek Isles and Turkey cruises with only two sea days, and three 12-night Holy Land sailings, each of which features three immersive days in Israel: a two-day overnight stay in Ashdod and Alexandria and a full-day call in Haifa.

The Celebrity Solstice and sister ship Celebrity Equinox will continue 2011’s itineraries. The Celebrity Solstice will offer two 12-night Mediterranean sailings roundtrip from Barcelona, one with an overnight in Venice and the other with calls at Mykonos, Santorini and Kusadasi. The Celebrity Equinox will homeport in Rome (Civitavecchia) and sail on 10- and 11-night cruises to the Eastern Mediterranean, visiting ports in Greece and Turkey. The 11-night itinerary will include an overnight in Istanbul.

Celebrity also is offering cruisetours in Europe, which combine a cruise with a three- to five-night, pre-cruise escorted land package in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. The packages are designed to immerse guests in culture-rich destinations such as Amsterdam, Venice, Paris, the Italian Lakes, Florence, Madrid, London and Cappadiocia, Turkey. The Celebrity Silhouette will offer two new cruisetour packages -- a three-night pre-cruise Italian Lakes and Venice itinerary that now offers two nights in Como and includes a lake tour to Bellagio; and a five-night Venice, Florence and Rome pre-cruise tour designed for guests who wish to book roundtrip air to and from Venice and sail from Rome to Venice after the land portion of the cruisetour. All of these packages are escorted by local tour directors and include hotel accommodations, transportation, select activities, breakfasts and some additional meals.

Celebrity's Europe season will be bookended by trans-Atlantic sailings that will transition the ships from Europe to their next destinations. These cruises range from 13 to 15 nights and feature ports including Barcelona, Lisbon, the Azores, the Canary Islands and Paris/Normandy (Le Havre). For more information, call 800-437-3111 or visit www.celebritycruises.com.