A CRUISE ship is to make its final voyage from Southampton this month.

After eights years based in Southampton Celebrity Eclipse will be leaving the port for the last time on Wednesday.

However, this does not mean an end to the Celebrity presence in Southampton as the Celebrity Silhouette will homeport in the city from next summer.

The Silhouette will be offering a mix of cruises to the Norwegian fjords, Russia and Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, Canaries and Azores, Iceland and Ireland.

The six-year-old Silhouette is a year younger than her sister ship the Eclipse and around the same size – just over 1,000ft long with a passenger capacity of around 2,850.

Guests onboard will enjoy recent enhancements including Slush, a poolside frozen drinks bar and the Passport Bar.

In recent years Silhouette has worked in the Caribbean during the winter, sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, and during the summer switched to the eastern side of the Atlantic where she sails on Baltic voyages from Amsterdam, and on Mediterranean cruises from Rome.

Eclipse is off to Dublin making Celebrity Cruises the first major cruise line in the world to base a ship in the Irish capital.

During a mini-season running from April to June 2018 – her itineraries will include a 10-night Ireland and Iceland sailing calling at Belfast, Northern Ireland, Reykjavik, Iceland, Akureyri, Iceland, Lerwick/Shetland, Scotland, and Cork, Ireland, as well as offering an eight-night Norwegian Fjords cruise.

From late June 2018, Celebrity Eclipse will be based out of Amsterdam, offering cruises around the British Isles, Scandinavia and Russia. In September, the ship will be cruising the Mediterranean from Barcelona.

Celebrity Cruises celebrated four wins at the recent TTG Travel Awards, including top prize, Travel Company of the Year for the second year running.

Celebrity also won Luxury Cruise Line of the Year, Ocean Cruise Line of the Year and Supplier Sales Team of the Year at the awards which are voted for by travel agents.

Next year the company is due to launch its first new class of ship in ten years. The Celebrity Edge, which the company claims will “change the face of cruising”.

The ship will feature the Magic Carpet –a bar the size of a tennis court on a cantilevered platform jutting out from the starboard side of the ship 13 storeys above sea level and staterooms with “infinite balconies” which at the touch of a button “the entire living space becomes the balcony, letting passengers walk right out to the water’s edge”.