Celebrity Edge

The cruise market is the fastest growing sector of the travel industry and there are ships built to suit all ages. I was excited to attend the CLIA conference in Southampton recently so that I could finally get to see Celebrity’s brand-new ship ‘Edge’ which stopped briefly in Southampton to host us en route from her maiden season in the Caribbean. She’s Celebrity’s first new ship for 10 years and the hype began over a year ago.

The innovation starts with check in. For passengers who complete their check-in process in advance — which includes loading a photo and scanning a passport — the boarding process can be as smooth as walking into the terminal, past a few devices, and onto the ship. When all her extra berths are occupied, she can take 2918 passengers. The goal is to go “from the car to the bar in less than 10 minutes” and the feedback from those that used it was very good.

Another one of her innovations is the ‘Infinite Balcony’ stateroom which can expand your cabin space by roughly 23% to include your balcony. Using your smartphone, you can now control your lighting, blinds and temperature without getting out of bed! Folding doors can still separate the balcony area from the rest of the room, and a blind can be mechanically lowered to block the light. The balcony is glass, like what you would find on a river cruiser, but the top section can also be raised and lowered to allow you to feel the sea breeze. To allow multi-generational families to holiday together, there are 174 interconnecting staterooms with various combinations which will create accommodation to sleep up to 10 guests. Kelly Hoppen MBE has designed the suite class accommodation and the Retreat facilities bringing in a stylish, sophisticated vibe using clean lines, neutral tones with warm accent colours.

If you’ve heard of the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, you will remember how ground-breaking the design was at the time – even for Dubai. Tom Wright was one of the key designers and he was brought into the Edge project to look after the ‘resort deck’. With giant 2-storey Martini glass hot tubs, huge art installations and some cabanas that face the sea for privacy he’s certainly brought a fresh contemporary look to the area. The Rooftop garden with its Garden Grill is beautiful.

The Magic Carpet is the world’s first cantilevered floating platform on the side of a ship. It’s the size of a tennis court and services four decks. It can be an outdoor dining addition to the ‘Raw on 5’ seafood restaurant, a full white glove ‘Dinner on the Edge’ experience when on the highest deck, a funky bar alongside the pool deck and it’s also designed to be an easier platform to board the tenders from deck 2. We all wondered why on earth it was, tangerine in colour, but apparently the only reason is that the designers wanted the carpet to be visible from as far away as possible and to be recognisable. I think they succeeded on that score too!

There are 29 drinking and dining options and the main dining here has been split into four contemporary restaurants. You will be assigned Cyprus, Normandie, Tuscan or Cosmopolitan and the idea is that you will have signature meal choices which rotate but are available in all and regional speciality dishes that will only be available exclusively in your assigned restaurant. These are themed restaurants, and each can seat approx. 350 guests. Michelin star chef Cornelius Gallagher has created many of the menus and the food was excellent.

One of the funky restaurants is ‘Le Petit Chef’. Celebrity has teamed up with Tablenation to bring tabletops to life, created by the world-famous artists of skull mapping. This combines animation with 3D projection mapping technology to tell stories in new ways and mini cartoon chefs will create your meal in front of you before the actual dish being brought to your table. It does have a USD55 cover charge but it’s a truly unique dining experience and the reviews are great from adults and children alike.

There are small innovations all over the ship but the final area for me was the ‘Garden of Eden’. This area spans three decks and is a very versatile space. During the day it’s filled with natural light and it’s easy to find a comfy spot to settle in with a coffee and a good book. During the evening it becomes a cover charge dining venue with sensory entertainment throughout the 7,000sq ft space. Some people love this kind of thing, some people don’t, but if you fancy it, use up some of your on-board credit to give it a go. It’s billed as a Chillful, Playful, Sinful culinary journey so definitely not one for the kids!

All in all, Edge didn’t disappoint, and I’d love to spend more time on her to see everything working with more passengers on board. Maybe I’ll get a chance as she’s being closely followed by the Celebrity Apex sister ship due to be sailing from Southampton in April next year.