Celebrity introduced the first of a new class of ships in January 2018 when the Edge entered service. This 129,500 ton vessel was designed to carry over 3,300 passengers with a crew of over 1,000. The Edge class ships were designed to upgrade Celebrity’s already established premium reputation with more restaurants, larger staterooms and a number of upscale features. Visit the Celebrity Edge web page HERE.
The Edge was followed by the Apex that entered into service in the summer of 2021 and soon to be joined by the Beyond cruising in the summer of 2022.
Onboard Celebrity’s Apex
This Apex entered service in the Mediterranean in 2021 and is now heading for a season in the Caribbean. It is the second in the Edge class and will be followed soon by their newest ship the Beyond. While decorating themes are different for each ship the basic layout and features are virtually identical.
The Apex at anchor off Santorini
The appearance, atmosphere and design of these newest Celebrity ships is another step up for this line in cruise ship luxury and innovation. Unlike many cruise companies, Celebrity has always pursued style and a sophisticated experience over thrill rides and unusual offerings like go-cart races and water flume rides. For this reason Celebrity seems to attract more refined passengers that eschew the wild party atmosphere found on many other lines.
Welcome aboard the Celebrity Apex
The Newest Stateroom Addition – The Virtual Infinite Balcony
The new feature we like the most on these ships is the virtual balcony stateroom. This stateroom provides a wall of glass with the top half capable of sliding all the way down to open the stateroom to the outdoors. The advantage this has over a typical veranda room is that it adds considerable room to the stateroom interior while still providing unrestricted viewing and a great place to sit and enjoy ocean breezes and port sights. It also incorporates a completely opaque shade that comes down to cover the entire wall along with a set of folding, frosted glass doors for privacy in the cabin. This cabin is amazing.
A standard infinite balcony stateroom is also large at 285 square feet and features much larger beds up to a full king size being one option. The room also comes with a control panel where you can configure the lighting and wall shade with the push of one button from movie watching to open veranda to sleep.
On top of the new stateroom addition the bathrooms are a major upgrade. The showers are the largest we’ve experienced on a cruise ship outside of upscale suites and the bent glass shower doors provide two serious advantages. First the hinged door is almost half the shower so access is amazing. Second the bath is vented by a fan in the shower stall with only about an inch of opening above the glass. For the first time ever you can now take a steaming shower without any hint of fogging on the mirrors. One of my reasons for often preferring an inside cabin is the total darkness they provide and this infinite balcony stateroom can now be as dark as an inside cabin if you wish.
The Celebrity App
While late to the game with ship intranet apps for cell phones and tablets, Celebrity and the Apex have caught up in grand style. Using the onboard app you can make dinner reservations, check the menus in each dining room option and stay up to date with entertainment and activities around the ship for your entire cruise. You can look at events and meals for each day of the cruise and add reminders quickly to your own individual calendar inside the app. Hour by hour reminders keep you from missing any selected events and notify you of any schedule changes.
Dining Options
The Apex features a number of speciality restaurants along with four themed main dining rooms. Each themed dining room has meals dedicated to their speciality which include Normandie, Tuscan, Cosmopolitan, and Cyprus. Each dining room also offers a common menu with selections shared by them all. The Ocean View buffet serves three meals a day offering something for any taste. The only real change is you cannot serve yourself and that may change in time as the pandemic subsides. Ocean View offers sections for Asian, Mexican and Indian cuisine along with traditional favorites.
In the premium restaurant options there’s a steak house, a sushi based venue, a rooftop garden barbecue restaurant, an experimental venue where a digital chef prepares your meal at the table before it comes out of the kitchen. There is also a French bistro and the popular El Bochio cafe. Apex also features Eden, a concept eatery, bar, lounge and entertainment venue with an open kitchen surrounded by its dining room with an immersive entertainment environment and a huge wall of glass with ocean vistas.
The Eden Restaurant
Entertainment Options
Eden is a fabulous venue featuring a four story glass wall looking aft at the sea, an upscale restaurant, a bar and a multi-use entertainment area.
The Apex theater and its theater-in-the-round feel includes a huge and unique digital display wall that provides spectacular backdrops for the featured guest talent and the ships production numbers. The ship also includes two additional offerings providing a small-room nightclub feel for music and other acts.
A large rooftop garden on Apex is equipped with a bright video screen where daytime and evening movies are shown.
These Edge class ships also have a feature called the Magic Carpet, a cantilevered, floating platform that reaches heights of 13 stories above sea level. Centrally situated on the starboard side of the ship, it makes the Celebrity Edge class ships unique profile recognizable from miles away. Designed to include comfortable seating, a full bar, and space for live music performances, it truly is a destination in itself offering unostructed ocean views.
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