New cruise ship Celebrity Eclipse has cancelled the first leg of her launch celebrations - scheduled to begin on April 22 - in order to assist U.K. travelers whose return from their Easter break has been halted due to the impact of ash clouds from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland Celebrity Cruises is working with U.K. tour operators to collect these stranded vacationers affected by the airport closures and subsequent flight cancellations that have affected travelers in Northern Europe. Celebrity Eclipse will arrive in Southampton as scheduled at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, and will depart that evening to Bilbao, Spain, where she is scheduled to arrive in the early hours of Thursday, April 22.

Stranded travelers will join the ship throughout Thursday morning. The ship will return to Southampton, arriving late Friday evening.

This sailing will replace the activities planned during the two-night, round-trip launch celebration cruise from Southampton. On her new operation, Celebrity Eclipse will collect the delayed vacationers - some delayed by up to seven days - who were on package holidays with major U.K. tour operators.

Over 2,000 travelers are currently expected to join Celebrity Eclipse in Bilbao.

The naming celebrations for Celebrity Eclipse are planned to go ahead unchanged, and she will be named by Hampshire yachtswoman and breast cancer survivor Emma Pontin late afternoon on Saturday, April 24.