Celebrity Cruises

Our take

Celebrity Cruises sails 16 ships and sits at the top of the mainstream tier — what the industry calls premium-mass-market. Crisp contemporary interiors, a serious culinary program, and an audience that skews adult-couples place it a tier above Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian without crossing into true luxury price territory. The Edge-class series is the modern face of the brand: Edge (2018), Apex (2020), Beyond (2022), Ascent (2023), and the announced Xcel (2025). Each ship was tweaked from the last, and the differences are meaningful enough to book around — the Magic Carpet (the cantilevered orange platform that climbs the side of the ship) and the Eden lounge are signature spaces, and the Retreat (Celebrity's all-suite ship-within-a-ship product) is one of the strongest mass-premium suite programs on the water. The Solstice-class — Solstice (2008), Equinox (2009), Eclipse (2010), Silhouette (2011), Reflection (2012) — is the prior-generation flagship tier, recently revitalized through the Celebrity Revolution refit program with new finishes, updated kitchens, and modernized cabins. Solstice-class ships often price meaningfully below Edge-class on the same itinerary and remain credible bookings, especially for travelers who don't need the Edge-class signature spaces. The Always Included fare structure (the brand's standard pricing as of 2021) bundles WiFi, beverage package, and gratuities into the headline fare. The result is that Celebrity's published fare is comparable on a like-for-like basis to a Royal Caribbean booking with the equivalent perks added — a structural advantage when comparison-shopping. Celebrity's Galapagos operation (three small expedition ships — Flora, Xpedition, Xploration — sailing year-round seven-night Galapagos itineraries with included excursions and a guide-to-guest ratio of 1:8) is a separate brand vertical that no other major cruise line operates at this scale. Best for: couples and adults trading up from mass-market, travelers who care about food and design, Alaska itineraries (Celebrity runs a strong Alaska summer program from Vancouver and Seattle), Retreat-suite buyers wanting a hospitality-led suite product. Less good for: families with young kids (Royal Caribbean and Disney are the better picks), budget-driven bookings, or travelers wanting party-deck programming.