Celebrity Eclipse 'iLounge' described as an 'Apple store at sea'
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 18th 2010 5:04PM
posted February 18th 2010 5:04PM
Ah, yes. The open sea, fine dining, relaxation, and an Apple-certified employee available to troubleshoot your iMovie problems. That's the case on the new Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship at least, which is set to make its maiden voyage this April complete with a "Celebrity iLounge" on board. Described as a "hip, modern lounge," the iLounge includes an internet cafe equipped with 26 workstations, a second retail space where guests can try out and buy various Apple products and accessories (yes, Celebrity is now an Authorized Apple Reseller), and a third "enrichment center" that will offer classes on the iLife suite of programs and other general topics. Of course, it's not a real Apple Store at sea. Floating cubes can be a bit tippy.
why
@kojo87
Ah apple what will you come up with next. May I surgest iSink?
@oproski Shaun white, boy oh boy..
@1800BelowMe i dont know but i would like to see what happen when the man will come back to the moon in 30 years, they will probably put a apple store there too, with an apple logo big enough to be seen from earth...since there is no wind the logo will stay there forever....
*dreams of putting every iPad on the ship and sending it on the same route as the Titanic*
I'll leave the rest up to your imagination ;-)
Cross-marketing at it's finest. Go Apple!
@pbase
downranked for the last part of your comment...
@oldpass56
Downranked for pointless Apple hate.
@pbase dbags with more money than they know what to do with probably already have all their Apple gear before they get on their luxury cruise.
@thewelshboyo
@oldpass56
down ranked for pointless comments...
Imagine trying to play an iPhone game with the accelerometer in rough waters :D
(I think that's what it's called)
@kojo87 downranked for inadvertent c-c-combo breaking.
@pbase
C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
Unless you downrank me. : (
Weird for sure but for the lucky tech that gets to work there...probably not a bad gig.
"second retail space where guests can try out and buy various Apple products and accessories"
What all three of them?
@lilo
Eh?
You think a bigass cruise liner like that sails with just 3 passengers?!
@FORDY I think he meant Apple products somehow
mac ipod iphone maybe?
desktops laptops ipods/iphones?
@University of Pi
You are right. The range of Apple products is laughable. The good thing is that they do not need much space for this iLounge. All apple products could fit on one table :-)
@lilo
Ever been to an Apple store. Guess not!
@lilo
What's really ironic is that Microsoft also has retail stores. You think Apple's selection is small? Welcome to the Microsoft retail store, where we have... Windows. Oh and a keyboard, and a mouse I think.
Oh, an enrichment center, Maybe they can help me with my Weighted Companion Cube.
I'm on a boat!
*sigh*
You forgot to mention mystery illnesses, pirates and murder.
Wait, so they found a way to make Apple products even more expensive to buy?
@ltfields
that's the spirit
Aren't they aware that iLounge is a registered trademark?
@Galley of someone else never stropped apple before...
examples include iphone ipad etc.
@University of Pi Except Apple PURCHASED the rights for the iPhone... and the iPad trademark was no longer active.
So Royal Carribbean has a carousel, zip line, and wave riders.
Disney has that water-tube roller coaster thingy and Castaway cay.
Celebrity responds with - Apple on board.
Somehow I don't think it adds up.
Something odd they added is that part of the Enrichment Center will include classes that will teach the difference between Mac's and PC's.
Thats just asking for trouble.....
Floating cubes?!? IT'S A TRAP! They want to add your technological and biological distinctiveness to their own. Sail with them and you'll be stuck servicing them for life.
Whine all you want, but name another brand that can pull this off? Microsoft has more money than god, but they can't buy the publicity and mindshare that Apple gets free.
@Ed T
Free my ass. Have you seen Apple's marketing budget?
@jon
Totally, Apple has always had a large % spent on marketing.
@Cy Starkman
And yet it's still millions less than Microsoft. Millions and millions. You can't argue with results.
this is a knock off of Holand America's Degital Workshop Powered By Microsoft (which for ayone mildly expirenced in tech is a waste of time)
@haubey Yeah it is. The source article from Cruise Notes links it to their original post about it.
http://bit.ly/aaq88g
I climb buoys, motherf**ker.
Products for the ordinary people.
in related news, I'm breaking it two years in advance. Microsoft announces a deal with Holland America Cruise lines.
And how much do they charge for that? Last time I took a cruise ( Carnival 2003 ) They had two internet computers on the whole ship, which cost $20 for 15 minutes of dialup speed access.
But then again..... How much does a Mac cost Duty Free?
This is the one time I wish Somali pirates the best of luck.
then those pirates can make sweet websites and youtube videos! and make slideshows of their pirating trips with backgound music that they made themselves. then they can finally add software piracy to their line of work.
I thought Mac's "just worked" ?
@TwiggenBerries They do, the users don't always. Does your mother know how to operate her VCR just because she has one?
I think they took the movie 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' too literally...
I wonder how much ilounge.com can get for their domain name.
Celebrity implemented Apple technology on their last 3 cruise ships (Solstice, Equinox and Eclipse).
Meaning that the entire onboard iTV is running on Mac minis for guests and AppleTV for crew members all with HDTV sets.
Having in mind that there is over 1100 crew members all with their own little cabin and AppleTV and over 2000 guest cabins, all with Mac minis, plus an entire set-up of Apple Xserve to run everything, it's pretty obvious that Celebrity invested a lot of dough in Apple technology.
Expensive, but being on Equinox myself as a crew member, I can tell you that it just works.