SAINT-NAZAIRE, France -- The Celebrity Xcel is currently a construction site, where wires hang from the ceilings, signs lead into restaurants without seating and the chandelier in the Grand Plaza is hidden from view with protective wrapping.
But even in its unfinished state, it's clear that Celebrity's Edge class has evolved.
The chandelier is covered in the Grand Plaza of the Celebrity Xcel. Photo Credit: Teri West
The cruise line could have gotten away with building its newest ship as a straight sister to the Celebrity Ascent, its fourth Edge-class ship, which had Celebrity Cruises' best launch, said president Laura Hodges Bethge, both financially and from a guest-satisfaction perspective.
That, however, isn't Celebrity's style, she said.
"It would have been super simple to just check the box and cookie cutter, but that's not the way we do things here at Royal Caribbean Group or at Celebrity Cruises," Hodges Bethge said.
The Eden restaurant is now the Bazaar, with LED screens and marketplace stalls fit for festivals. The spa now includes an outdoor lounge area and product-testing space in the lobby.
And it'll all be finished in less than three months. What better time, the cruise line thought, to bring a group of top travel agency partners, journalists and content creators to the shipyard where the fifth Edge-class ship is coming to life?
There, we saw workers installing those LED screens that Celebrity says will help evoke a festival atmosphere in the Bazaar, with events and activities themed to the destination.
A nearly complete Celebrity Xcel stateroom. Photo Credit: Teri West
In the spa, a gray, tiled wall in what will become the Edge class' first water-therapy space will become a waterfall, said Alex De Roeck, associate vice president of product development at Celebrity, gesturing to the tiling. "So there will actually be water coming down from the ceiling."
I could easily envision it and the calming, elevated atmosphere it would help establish.
The Vitamin D Deck will be a new space on the Celebrity Xcel spa for guests to relax outside. Photo Credit: Teri West
Overall, the ship will have seven reimagined spaces intended to provide new experiences, six that have been announced.
In addition to the Bazaar and the spa changes, they include a new Mediterranean restaurant on the top deck called Bora, an adult-focused gaming area in the upper level of The Club, increased shading and a valet station at the outdoor pool, and a Celebrity store that will have museum-style exhibits.
Secrets and familiar haunts
Hodges Bethge donned a hard hat to guide our group through the spaces most had traveled overseas to experience. But we, like the rest of the world, will have to wait to find out the seventh key change to the ship, she said.
"You can try," she said, "but everybody around is going to be really good at saving our little secret."
There are also more subtle, but still significant, changes in certain spaces throughout the ship.
The Solarium on the Celebrity Xcel. Photo Credit: Teri West
The Blu dining venue, for example, will be larger. The theater will have pyrotechnics and more advanced lasers to create 3D effects, said senior manager of entertainment Tania Ordonez Prieto when we visited that space, one of the few that looked complete.
But though the Edge class is evolving, it is clear that the majority of the ship is still the one so many Celebrity guests know and love. Having disembarked the Celebrity Ascent just three days prior after a weeklong cruise, I felt like I'd returned home.
There was Cafe al Bacio, where I grabbed iced teas up to twice a day, though missing its sofas and tables. There was the outdoor screen area on Deck 15 where I'd caught the end of "Wicked," its surrounding planters not yet sprouting vegetation.
Caroline Hay, vice president of cruise at Trevello World Holdings, was happy the Martini Bar in the Grand Plaza remained the same.
"That's the heartbeat in the evening," she said. "I think it's such a fun environment, so I'm super glad they didn't change that."
The Xcel's captain, Kyriakos Matragkas, plays the guitar in the unfinished ship's theater. Photo Credit: Teri West
The Xcel's captain, Kyriakos Matragkas, known as Captain Kirk, most recently helmed the Celebrity Beyond. As we gathered in the theater, a guitar rose up from below the stage, where Captain Kirk appeared, surprising us with the only show of the day, an instrumental guitar medley in front of the theater's towering, lit-up screens.
Captain Kirk called it a sound check, and I'm happy to report the sound system, and the captain's guitar skills, sound just great.
First look at the Celebrity Xcel