By Joyce Landry

Want an insider’s “sneak peek” of Celebrity Apex, the newest addition to Celebrity’s fleet of MICE-ready ships? I recently returned from Saint Nazaire France, where I took a hard hat tour of the new Celebrity Apex. In addition, I had the honor of attending the steel cutting ceremony for the next ship in their gorgeous fleet, Celebrity Beyond.

A Sneak Preview of Celebrity Apex

Celebrity invited an intimate group of travel leaders, company executives, and press to a sneak preview of the highly-anticipated Celebrity Apex. The 2,910-passenger premium ship is due to launch on March 30, 2020.  After sailing the Mediterranean, Apex will move to Ft. Lauderdale in November to begin 7-night Caribbean cruises.

My tour was personally led by Harri Kulovaara, Naval Architect and Executive Vice President of Maritime & Newbuilding for Royal Caribbean Cruises, LTD (the parent company of Celebrity Cruises). This was a real treat, as I learned some fascinating back-of-the-house details from Harri (which will be the subject of another post)!

NOTE: Since the ship was 7 weeks from completion. some of my photos are raw. And, as anyone in the industry knows, the finishing touches take place at the end.

Our Celebrity Apex Tour Begins at the Bridge

We made a beeline for the bridge to visit the state-of-the-art command center. This precedent-setting technology won Celebrity the Safety Award of the Year from the Royal Institute of Naval Architects. No ship afloat can match this!

The Suite Life on Celebrity Apex

Suite guests will get a notched-up experience on Apex with their own website and phone number for personal service. And now…. all the suites will be all-inclusive/all included! In fact, Celebrity is the only premium cruise line to offer every suite guest a personal butler as well as access to a private restaurant, exclusive lounge, and luxurious sundeck.

Celebrity Apex Advances Sustainability

Celebrity is leading the way in cruise ship sustainability with their choice of materials. For example, to save weight, they chose a lightweight material called ETFE for the ceiling in the Apex Solarium. It has 1% of the weight of glass and is like a pillow that provides insulation and lighting effects in the evening.

To neutralize the wind resistance at the Rooftop Garden (something that Celebrity discovered was happening on Celebrity Edge), they added sailcloth and plexiglass panels.

Dazzling Art & High-Tech Entertainment

Eden represents the epitome of Celebrity Apex’s outward-facing concept. This transformative venue will offer three levels of sensory experiences completely wrapped in glass. With over 11,800 square feet of event space, Eden is the ideal location to host engaging events. 

We just loved this art display on the way to Eden. It shows a peek-a-boo glimpse of the Celebrity Apex hull, exposed to celebrate shipbuilding.

Lisa Lehr, Celebrity’s new Vice President of Entertainment outlined the three new shows, Crystalize, interactive Rockumentary, and the Tree of Life. She astounded us with statistics for their theater’s new surround digital wall, which boasts 17 million pixels (!). The 20-foot Tree of Life sculpture alone will have 3,000 LED color-changing leaves. Get ready to be mesmerized!

I took a moment to congratulate Richard Fain, Chairman & CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., on yet another beautiful addition to his company’s fleet.

What’s Next? Celebrity Beyond!

The day culminated with the steel cutting of Celebrity’s next Edge class ship… Celebrity Beyond. It’s hard to imagine just how far Beyond they can go from here.

Kudos to Celebrity for staying ahead of the curve and producing award-winning ships every time! We’re proud to recommend Celebrity Apex, Celebrity Beyond, and all their beautiful ships to our MICE clients.

Want to learn more about meeting at sea?

Request a quote, give us a call at +1.305.661.1880, or email inquiry@landrykling.com.