Celebrity Cruises

Celebrity Cruises are one of the world’s leading cruise lines that offer a range of modern ships that are home ported across the globe.

As part of the Royal Caribbean family, you can expect excellent quality but as a premium line, you can expect excellent entertainment, scrumptious food, and top service no matter if you are on one of the lines smaller ships or their large brand new ones.

Celebrity can be split into 2 distinct differences as they offer traditional cruising onboard a modern fleet of large cruise ships but they also offer Galapagos Island cruises onboard smaller ‘yachts’, with the majority of this review been based on their traditional cruising option rather than Celebrity Expedition cruises.

Name: Celebrity Cruises
Founded: 1988
Headquartered: Miami, Florida, USA
Parent Company: Royal Caribbean Group
Focus Location: USA, Caribbean, Europe
Key Home Ports: Fort Lauderdale (Florida), Baltra (Galapagos), Civitavecchia (Rome), Barcelona (Spain)
Onboard Currency:
$ (USD)
Website: CelebrityCruises.com
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The brand is famed for its blue and white ships and for its large ‘X’ logo that can be seen on its funnels but interestingly the ‘X’ is the Greek letter Chi, which goes back to the early days of the line when it established by the Greek based Chandris Group.

That has led to many calling the line Celebrity X or Celebrity X Cruises but no matter what you now know the Florida headquartered cruise as, this review will help you to determine whether or not booking a cruise with Celebrity Cruises is the right choice for you and your family/friends.

Onboard Experience of Celebrity Cruises

If you are more used to sailing on relaxed lines such as Carnival or Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and are wanting to try a premium line but have been put off by the thought of more formality and even any potential snobbery, you have no worries with Celebrity.

The line has made changes to their onboard experience in recent years which has seen a bigger focus on fun and that has included a change from ‘formal nights’ to ‘chic nights’, where guests are encouraged to make an effort but with a focus on wearing the clothes you like and in your style, rather than simply dressing alike in a suit and tie or fancy dress.

Whilst you are not going to be able to enjoy top deck waterparks, massive parties and stand out attractions such as Go-Karts or Rollercoasters, you are going to be able to relax onboard and enjoy yourself throughout your getaway.

If you are traveling with children, there are kids clubs and some great things for them to do including camping on the top deck real grass lawn but there isn’t the range of attractions offered some other lines which makes the line perhaps more suited to toddlers and older kids.

If you love great food, lots of live music and a more relaxed holiday, Celebrity Cruises could be the cruise line for you.

Onboard Style of Celebrity Cruises

As mentioned, ‘formal nights’ are now ‘chic nights’ and it is that word that can best describe the style of the line.

The line have recently launched a new family of cruise ships which feature its already iconic ‘Magic Carpet’ and have undergone extensive refurbishments of their older ships to create lots of spaces to sit and relax on modern seats in lounges and bars with contemporary décor.

That style continues throughout the ships, from the inside to the outside and from public areas to your staterooms which are well known for offering some of the largest and comfiest beds on the high seas.

Celebrity offer a high standard across the board and it is that consistency that makes them stand out over similar lines so no matter if you are looking for fine dining in the included main dining rooms (MDR), quality entertainment acts throughout the ship or modern comfortable lounges and bars, you will find it all onboard a Celebrity Cruises holiday.

What Is Included Onboard A Celebrity Cruise Ship

As is the case with the majority of cruise lines, there is lots included in the coat of your holiday, especially if you take advantage of the lines ‘All-Inclusive’ offering.

Your gratuities, basic drinks (soda, mocktails and some alcoholic), speciality teas and coffees and basic internet are all include in the cost of your holiday over and above everything offered in the sail only prices.

Unlike most lines, you can also have snacks and meals delivered to your stateroom at no extra cost including breakfast.

That rate includes all of your meals in the main dining rooms and buffet as well as snacks at the café, self-service drinks in the buffet and of course access to all of the great entertainment onboard including production shows and guest acts in the theatre.

Speciality Dining Onboard Celebrity Cruises

If you are on the ‘All-Inclusive’ option, you will still need to either upgrade your rinks package or pay extra for any ‘premium’ drinks you want including energy drinks, cocktails, and spirits.

For those without a drinks package, you will need to pay for all drinks in bars and restaurants outside of juices and tea/coffee in the MDR and buffet.

Alongside most cruise lines nowadays, Celebrity offer a number of specialised restaurants where you can pay extra for a more traditional restaurant dining experience and if you want to go on a shore excursion organised through the line, you will have to pay well over the rate you can do it yourself or f you were to book through a local company.

Amongst the other extra costs relating to your cruise are use of the onboard spa, beauty treatments, professional photographs and either port parking or flights and transfers.

Onboard Theatre on Celebrity Cruises

It has to be said that Celebrity X may not be able to match some other lines when it comes to major production shows, for huge nightclubs or for famous one of acts but that is in some ways to the benefit of cruisers.

That is because the line have a well balanced level of entertainment spread out across their ships and throughout your holiday instead of one or 2 big shows or acts held in one location on just a few nights of your show, such as fromer pop stars perfroming in the theatre.

From classical music in the café to pop music in the foyer and from silent discos in the lounge to large productions in the theatre- the line really does have something for everybody.

Best of all, the shows and perfromances offered are of a good to top class quality and if live perfromances aren’t of interest to you, there is lots more entertainment to be found all around their ships including lots of games, quizzes, classes, lectures, sports, DJ’s and movies.

Onboard Food on Celebrity Cruises

The food and drink found onboard a Celebrity cruise ship ranks highly when compared to other mass market lines and is a real highlight of any cruise with them.

The main dining rooms (MDR’s) offer a similar standard to a top ranked restaurant and dining in beautifully decorated restaurants whilst their buffets offers much better quality than most similar lines.

Although the selection cannot match some other big lines in their buffet in terms of variety, there is certainly enough for everybody to have something they enjoy, and that focus on quality over quantity means every meal is enjoyable.

There is a good selection of speciality restaurants offered onboard, either for a set fee or at a la carte pricing, with choices including pub food, sushi/sashimi, Italian, French, a steakhouse and the chance to enjoy the interactive experience offered at Le Petit Chef.

Each of their ships offer lots of drinking venues including wine bars, pubs, lounges, cafes and outdoor seating areas amongst numerous other places to sit back, unwind and enjoy a drink whilst enjoying the great entertainment on offer or simply taking in the views.

Onboard Accommodation on Celebrity Cruises

Each of the ships in the ever growing Celebrity Cruise fleet of ships offer a wide variety of staterooms including inside cabins, outdoor cabins, balcony cabins (known as verandas), infinity verandas (where your room has a decking area and large window in side of it that can open up to become an ‘internal’ balcony), spa rooms and a wide range of suits.

No matter what type of stateroom you choose, you can be assured to a contemporary style completed to a quality finish complete with one of the largest and comfiest beds at sea.

Even the older and smaller ships offered by Celebrity have modern staterooms thanks to fleet wide refurbishments that have either been undertaken or that are ongoing.

Celebrity offer one of the widest ranges of itineraries that any major line does offer although they do have a heavy focus on the more popular regions such as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

You can enjoy sailing onboard the line in regions such as South America, Alaska, the Greek Islands, the Adriatic Sea, Asia, Central America, Australasia, the Baltic, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, Antarctica, the Canary Islands, and the Galapagos Islands via their fantastic expedition cruises.

The company have started to offer a much improved offering out of the United Kingdom with a good selection of round trips and transatlantic journeys from Southampton.

Fort Lauderdale (Florida), Civitavecchia (Rome/Italy), Vancouver (Canada), Barcelona (Spain), Ravenna (Italy) and Sydney (Australia) offer the widest range of cruises in terms of the key homeports for the line whilst Baltra is the start and end point for all of their Galapagos Island expedition cruises.

Celebrity Cruises Cruises From Southampton

Celebrity offer a range of itineraries sailing directly from their base at the City Cruise terminal at the Port of Southampton including to favourites such as the Western Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, the Norwegian Fjords and around the British Isles.

Celebrity Cruises have a vast array of ships, all of which entered service for the line after the turn of the Millennium, with many of their ships built in the last decade or so.

Even their older ships seem to be modern once you step onboard as the line have been not only refurbishing but gutting and rebuilding many of their ships.

As is often the case for a cruise line, Celebrity’s ships can be broken down into a number of classes starting at the 91,000 gross tonnage range and going through to brand new ships as part of the Edge class of ships that are 140,000 gross tonnage.

As mentioned above, the line do operate some intimate yacht sized ship based out of Ecuador and operating exploration style cruises around the Galapagos Islands.

Millennium Class (M Class, 91,000 GT): Celebrity Millennium (entered service in 2000, capacity 2,137), Celebrity Infinity (entered service 2001, capacity 2,170), Celebrity Summit (entered service 2001, capacity 2,158) and Celebrity Constellation (entered service 2002, capacity 2,170).

Solstice Class (S Class, 121,878-125,366 GT): Celebrity Solstice (entered service in 2008, capacity 2,850), Celebrity Equinox (entered service 2009, capacity 2,850), Celebrity Eclipse (entered service in 2010, capacity 2,850), Celebrity Silhouette (entered service in 2011, capacity 2,886) and Celebrity Reflection (entered service in 2012 capacity 3,046).

Edge Class (130,818-140,600 GT): Celebrity Edge (entered service in 2018, capacity 2,918), Celebrity Apex (entered service in 2020, capacity 2,918), Celebrity Beyond (entered service 2022, capacity 3,260), Celebrity Ascent (entered service 2023, capacity 3,260) and Celebrity Xcel (enters service 2025, capacity 3,260).

Expedition ships: Celebrity Expedition (entered service 2001, capacity 48, 2,842 GT), Celebrity Xploration (entered service 2017, capacity 16, 319.5 GT) and Celebrity Flora (entered service 2019, capacity 100 and 5,739 GT).

As a more relaxed, upscale cruise line that don’t have the all-action activities and attractions of other lines, Celebrity are more suited to couples, older friendship groups and families with either really young children or adult kids.

The line does offer kids clubs and teen clubs, so if your kids are happy hanging out with other kids to pass time on, Celebrity can make for a great family holiday.

Celebrity is for those who prefer a more relaxed vibe on holiday couple with quality food, drink, and entertainment.

As far as the onboard service, itineraries offered and professionalism of the cruise staff, there is little to nothing for guests to worry about with the line.

The companies land based operation cannot match their sea based operation as there are often long waiting times if you phone their support, their website often has issues especially on a weekend.

As with each and every cruise line, the cost of their excursions are often highly inflated but it has to be said that it is not as bad with Celebrity Cruises as some other lines.

The line were first established way back in April 1988 as a subsidiary of the Chandris Group where the Greek company would use the upmarket cruise ships to service the Bermuda market.

Chandris were a well-established business in the industry who had been involved in cruising since the 1960’s but they became well known outside of their home market in the 1980’s when they established themselves in the US.

Originally the line operated as Chandris Fantasy Cruises and they targeted the lower end of the cruise market with budget ships, budget prices and a budget offering.

In 1988, Home Lines, who were at that time one of the leading premium cruise brands in the world, were sold to Holland America Line and due to the new owners not taking up the contracts Home Lines had with the Bermudan government for berthing rights, Celebrity Cruises came into existence.

That is because the Bermudan’s didn’t want to offer the new rights to a low budget line and with Chandris wanting to dominate that market even more, they created Celebrity and ordered a new ship to be built which would become known as Galileo.

The line continue to be operated by the Chandris Group until 1997 when the line was sold to the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, who would keep the line separate and that established Royal Caribbean Cruises, later Royal Caribbean Group, to be the parent company of both lines.

The takeover saw plenty of early investment in new ships with Century, Galaxy and Mercury all arriving by the end of 97.

The early 2000’s saw the arrival of the gas-powered Millennium class ships which have continued to prove popular with cruises.

In 2001, the line branched out into expedition cruising with the purchase of Celebrity Xpedition which would offer a different style of cruising around the Galapagos Islands.

The next big change for the line came in 2007 when all of the lines ships added the ‘Celebrity’ prefix to their official name with the Celebrity Solstice becoming the first ship to be inaugurated with the new naming standard.

In 2014 the line announced they were to develop and build a new class of ships which would go onto become the Edge class of ships, named after the Celebrity Edge with first entered service in 2018.

In 2016 the lines expedition cruise offering expanding with the purchase of Ocean Adventures, a Galapagos Islands tour operator that saw 2 new ships enter service.

In 2018, the line announced that their Millennium and Solstice class ship would undergo a huge refurbishment programme to bring them more in line with their new Edge class ships.

In our opinion, Celebrity are simply one of the world’s best cruise lines thanks to modern and innovative ships, competitive pricing, great quality of food, service, and entertainment but most importantly, they also have some unique and incredible itineraries.

Most premium lines still have strict dress codes and can be off putting to younger cruises or for those who want to relax on holiday but that isn’t the case for Celebrity X Cruises as they offer a relaxed atmosphere and vibe.

Celebrity X Review

If you are looking for a Celebrity Cruises review, you are in the right place. Here at CruiseHols.co.uk we bring you are in-depth review of the Celebrity Cruise line based upon our own experience of the cruise industry and from cruising onboard the line.

Celebrity Cruises Shore Excursions Reviews

For some a cruise holiday is all about the destinations, for some it is all about the ships and for some it is all about the excursion but no matter what your preference is, you will want to have the best time on shore.

It can be difficult to pick the best Celebrity Cruises shore excursions, especially as the majority of them are vastly over prcied when compared to booking a shoreex for yourself.

For more options, reviews of Celebrity shore excursions and to see what is available, try a dedicated provider such as this Shore Excursion website

If you are looking for Celebrity Cruises reviews, you are in the right place, as we bring you our honest review of Celebrity X Cruises.