Long before we boarded the Celebrity Eclipse, the first cruise ship with its own iLounge, we were Mac people. How “long before” is two decades, when a brilliant young graphic designer and computer geek named Michael Guy talked us into buying a Mac or two for our desktop publishing business.
That’s how our “logical obsession” with Apple products began and, ever since, we’ve been driven by our Mac-addicted elder son Lincoln, like him always wondering why the rest of the world has been so slow to get on board. Well, the R.O.W. is on board now, not just with computers but also iPods and iPhones and iPads, and nowhere is that more evident than at the iLounge.
As lounges go, it’s not that big, and passengers are lined up waiting to get in whenever the resident geeks (IT specialists) are on site. Yesterday, Day 3 of the six it will take to cross the Atlantic, we slipped into a class to help passengers in our demographic to get the most out of their Apple communications device, whatever it may be. We arrived — on time — to a standing-room-only crowd.
For most people in our demographic (as well as the R.O.W.), the simplicity of life with Apple is relatively new. We’re lucky to have that basic familiarity, and yet iPhones and iPads and the world of “apps” can be challenging for us, which is why we went to the class.
The teacher is Milos Lazic, a patient and articulate young man from Serbia who has been involved in Celebrity’s Apple connection from the start, which was last spring.
“We were anticipating what guests wanted, and we kept hearing ‘Apple, Apple, Apple,'” he says. “They love the iLounge. We’re Apple-authorized and we have Apple-certified instructors. The concept was to teach Apple classes, to use Apple for the Internet and sell Apple products. The demand is huge. Everybody wants to buy at bargain prices, and there is no tax at sea.”
In the case of iPads, there is also no product. The only ones for sale on the Eclipse were snapped up by the time we entered international waters. Milos is trying to buy an iPad 
2, which he pursues every time he passes an Apple store.
“Best Buy can’t get them, and they’re really big,” he says. “We’re just small. I read in the news that there are six million pre-orders waiting to be filled.”
On this 13-day cruise, there are 18 classes in the first true iLounge on the seas. On other Celebrity ships (such as the Solstice and the Summit), designers ran out of time to capture the clean and efficient look of an Apple store but the rooms are fine for teaching classes. And it’s clear Celebrity will have an iLounge expansion when the Silhouette comes out of the shipyard in July.
The owner of an IT services company in Belgrade, Milos was recruited specifically for this ship, after a three-day courtship. On the Eclipse, he heads a team that doesn’t admit to finding the passenger demographic challenging.
“We try to leave everyone satisfied,” he says. “There are just three of us, and 3,000 guests. One of us is always on call, 24 hours a day. We have to know how to deal with a situation. I always try to treat every guest like my grandmother.”
Ever the salesman, Milos patiently explained to us why Apples are actually cheaper than comparable PCs…that they use much less electricity…that they have no virus issues….that they…
But we’re the iPeople, remember. They had us from “Apple.”