Celebrity adds second Edge maiden voyage

Celebrity adds second Edge maiden voyage

Celebrity Cruises is to take delivery of new ship Celebrity Edge almost a month earlier than originally planned.

The ship is expected to be completed ahead of schedule and enter service with four special short cruises.

The line is also scheduling two seven-night maiden voyages in the Caribbean rather than one as first planned as part of an expanded inaugural season.

Celebrity Edge will homeport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, making its first sailing on November 21, 2018. This will be one of four new three-day preview sailings to the Bahamas which will also run on November 24, December 3 and December 6.

The first seven-night inaugural voyage departs to the western Caribbean on December 9, followed by a previously announced seven-night eastern Caribbean cruise leaving on December 16.

Celebrity Cruises’ president and chief executive Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said: “Thanks to the amazing work of the STX France shipyard team, the industry-changing Celebrity Edge is now scheduled to arrive much earlier than anticipated, which gave us the opportunity to offer not one, but two maiden voyages.

“Both of these maiden voyages, plus the taste of luxury preview sailings, will have all of the festivities one would expect from the launch of such a revolutionary new ship, and now even more guests will have the chance to experience these one-of-a-kind inaugural sailings.”

Celebrity Edge will be joined by three sister ships in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Celebrity Edge to sail in Europe in summer 2019

Celebrity Edge to sail in Europe in summer 2019

Celebrity Cruises’ president and chief executive has told UK agents to “sell the hell out of Celebrity Edge” to ensure one of the next Edge-class ships is based in Southampton.

Speaking as she announced European deployment for Celebrity Edge in summer 2019, including a two-night cruise from Southampton for UK agents, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said: “It’s in agents’ hands. We have five Edge-class ships coming between 2018 and 2023 and depending on how the UK trade reacts to the first ship, then there’s always a chance I could deploy a future ship to Southampton.

“It’s in your hands. Sell the hell out of Celebrity Edge and you will leave me no choice but to bring a future one to Southampton.”

Jo Rzymowska, vice-president and managing director, UK & Ireland and Asia, said: “The fact that our president and chief executive is coming to London to make the announcement about Edge’s European deployment speaks volumes for how she views the UK cruise market. It’s hugely important to Celebrity Cruises.”

She added that Celebrity hadn’t staged an inaugural sailing for trade partners in Southampton since the launch of Celebrity Eclipse in 2010.

“Seeing truly is believing so this will give us the chance to show agent partners exactly why Celebrity Edge is so revolutionary and so unique,” said Rzymowska, adding: “Edge is such an outward-facing ship, connecting guests to the sea wherever possible, so we wanted to showcase her in Southampton in the spring rather than in the depths of winter.”

The next generation ship, which launches in October 2018, is Celebrity’s first new build for six years and first of a new class of vessel for a decade.

It will be showcased to the UK travel trade from May 13-15 in Southampton before setting off on a 10-night Iberian Peninsular cruise to Rome, calling at various ports in Spain, Portugal and Italy.

From there, it will offer seven, nine, 10 or 11-night sailings from Rome and Barcelona. Customers wanting to sail for 14 nights can book the two full cruises back-to-back and will call at only one repeat port during the fortnight.

Rzymowska said: “For the UK audience, we expect the 14-night open jaw sailing to be really popular. The only repeat port is Florence, so guests can go to Florence one way, and then Pisa the other.”

Ports of call include Monte Carlo, Capri and Mykonos, along with the likes of Ibiza and Valencia where Celebrity Edge will offer longer evening stays in port.

The ship will also visit two brand new ports – Nauplion in the Peloponnese region of Greece and Santa Margherita, on the Italian Riviera close to Portofino.

Rzymowska added: “We’ve taken a lot of time to really plan itineraries that will appeal to the modern luxury lover. In total, Edge will sail to 30 ports of call, to 10 countries with five overnights in one season [May-October].”

The announcement of Edge’s 2019 summer season in Europe takes Celebrity’s European deployment to five ships, and cements Celebrity’s commitment to the region and its European markets.

Edge’s summer 2019 European season will go on sale at 8pm tonight (Tuesday) and the operator warned agents to be ready for an anticipated surge in calls and bookings.

“We expect there to be quite a race for space for the high-end affluent suites on this ship,” said Rzymowska. She added that all of the line’s 2019 summer deployment would be released at the same time.

Celebrity Cruises has developed a range of supporting materials and assets for the trade to enable agents to promote the new itineraries on their websites. This will include a 20-page direct mailer that agents can over-brand and distribute to their own customers; digital guides, itineraries and images.

Rzymowska revealed a new shore excursion programme, offering in-depth, authentic and locally-inspired experiences, was being curated.

Lutoff-Perlo said: “The UK & Ireland is such a significant market for us that we wanted to celebrate the start of her summer season by offering guests the first scheduled European cruise direct from Southampton.

“To further support our key trade partners, we will also be hosting an exclusive 2-night preview, so that our beloved agents have the opportunity to experience Celebrity Edge first-hand.”

From Celebrity, wind of change

The Celebrity Edge Stateroom Concept.

By Tom Stieghorst

I suppose a 90-ton platform that hangs over the side of a ship and moves over the span of 14 decks is impressive, but there's another marvel of technology on Celebrity Cruises' new Edge-class ships that shouldn't be overlooked.

The Edge-class cabins will have hair dryers in the bathroom.

What's the big deal, you ask?  Isn't just about every hotel room in the civilized world so-equipped?

Exactly the point.

I'm not 100% positive that Edge is the first with this cutting, er, edge equipment, but I can say that to the best of my memory, none of the ocean ships I've been on recently have had them.

Instead, there's usually a dryer in the drawer of a bureau, or in a cloth bag sitting on a cabinet shelf, for use in the cabin itself. A few older ships have low-powered dryers fastened to the wall.

I don't know exactly why wiring cruise cabins for hair dryers has been such a difficult challenge. I do know that the problem goes back a long time.

Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, trade support and services at Royal Caribbean International, once looked back on how the industry has changed and recalled that when she worked at Carnival Cruise Line in the 1970s, she couldn't plug in a hair dryer in any outlet in her cabin.

Carnival solved the problem by designating a cabin on each deck as a blow-dry suite and wiring it specially so that the appliances wouldn't blow all of the circuit breakers that they normally would have.

Cruise lines eventually figured out how to wire the cabin for portable hair dryers, but not the bathrooms.

Most of the appliances that are going to be plugged into a cruise ship cabin outlet don't draw as much wattage as a hair dryer, which can pull as much as 2,500 watts. That's more than a coffee maker or a toaster (not that they're allowed) and way more than a laptop computer, which only draws about 100 watts.

That much power consumption can use up a lot of the capacity of a typical household electrical circuit.

Most cruise ship bathrooms don't have any outlets at all, except for one that is limited to electric shavers, which consume about 20 watts. Lighting is about the only electrical application in the bath.

That has left cruise passengers perched on an upholstered stool, their knees shoved into a little cubby space beneath the desk, in a posture that may or may not be comfortable, at the mirror above the desk in their cabin trying to dry their hair before a gala night out at some specialty restaurant.

So three cheers for the bright engineer at Celebrity or STX France that has figured out the age-old hair dryer in the bathroom problem. That's progress we can all believe in.

Celebrity unveils Edge-Class ships

Celebrity unveils Edge-Class ships

The pre-launch hype was almost unprecedented – generating excitement and anticipation without actually revealing anything about what was to come. It could have been a gigantic anti-climax, but the long-awaited reveal of Celebrity Edge surpassed all expectations.

The design of this next-generation cruise ship is truly transformational – the word preferred by Celebrity president and CEO Lisa Litoff-Perlo and her boss, Royal Caribbean’s Richard Fain.

Design ambassador Nate Berkus, who presented yesterday’s event in Miami and stole some of the thunder from British designers Kelly Hoppen and Tom Wright, called it revolutionary, and few would argue.

The vessel, built to carry around 3,000 passengers, turns traditional shipbuilding concepts inside out, allowing for virtual balcony staterooms that simultaneously open up the connection with the sea while creating extra space for living and sleeping.

Even more spectacular is the Magic Carpet, inspired by the magician that is Richard Fain – who has already been behind innovations such as the Central Park on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships, the NorthStar observation pod on the Quantum class, and the living lawn on Celebrity’s Solstice class.

What began as his demand to improve the process of getting passengers into tenders to be carried ashore has developed into an unprecedented 90-ton construction – the size of a tennis court – that rises from Deck 2 to Deck 17 and will also be used as a bar and a restaurant.

 

Edge, the first of four ships in the class, is being built in France and will make her maiden voyage in December 2018. Celebrity Beyond follows in 2020, and the other two arrive in 2021 and 2022.

There will be a total of  1,467 staterooms, with 176 of them designated as suites. For the first time on a Celebrity ship there will be designated accommodation for solo travellers. There were to have been eight single cabins but the number was doubled last week at Fain’s insistence.

Hoppen has been involved in creating much of the look of the ship’s interior, from cabins to the exclusive Retreat area for suite guests, and even the public toilets aboard the ship.

Architect Tom Wright, who was responsible for the Burj al Arab and the Jumeirah Beach resort complex in Dubai, worked on the Magic Carpet and also created the Solarium and the Rooftop Garden.

Edge’s pool deck has been re-named Resort Deck, and most of the sunloungers are placed to look out to sea rather than inwards to the pool. Instead of the usual jogging track one deck above the pool, Edge has a sweeping quarter-mile figure-of-eight track that swoops between two levels.

Two hot tubs rise above the pool in constructions that look like a cross between a tulip and a martini glass. Truly spectacular.

 

Edge borrows from, or perhaps improves upon, the top-of-the-range suite on Regent Seven Seas Explorer – dubbed the world’s most luxurious cruise ship – by having two vast forward-facing suites immediately above the bridge.

Fain has booked one for his own family’s Christmas holiday in 2018, but Lutoff-Perlo had a twinkle in her eye when she announced that the twin suite had been booked and sold within minutes of Edge’s Caribbean cruises going on sale yesterday.

Celebrity is working on a smartphone app that they say will replicate the medallion technology announced earlier this year by Princess Cruises – allowing remote-control ordering of drinks and unlocking cabin doors without the need for a keycard.

Other innovations include facial-recognition technology that lets passengers check in without having to queue at a desk.

Fain claims that many of the design innovations on Edge are the result of using 3D computer technology instead of having everything drawn in 2D blueprints.

He is too modest. The technology might be an invaluable tool, but it cannot create. That’s down to his inspiration and the skills of Hoppen, Wright, and a whole team of Celebrity innovators … all working close to the Edge.

Click the above image to play the Video.

1st Celebrity ships in new class to be named Edge and Beyond

Celebrity Edge steel cutting ceremony

 Celebrity Cruises has named two new ships being built for 2018 and 2020: Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Beyond.

They will be the first two ships in a new class. Two additional Edge-class ships are due in 2021 and 2022.

It will be Celebrity's first new ship class since the debut of Celebrity Solstice in 2008. There are five Solstice-class ships (Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse, Silhouette and Reflection).

Celebrity and shipyard STX France cut the first steel for the Celebrity Edge this week.