Celebrity Goes 'Beyond' with its New, Edge-Class Ship

Celebrity Beyond Top Deck
Celebrity Beyond Top Deck

The third of Celebrity Cruises’ Edge-Class ships has an aspirational name: Beyond.

Beyond the pandemic.

And beyond anything Celebrity has done before. Rather than resting on its Edge-class laurels and punching out another ship from the same – albeit showstopper of a template - the cruise line’s executive team decided to go a few steps further.

The Celebrity Beyond, revealed this week in a virtual event, is the tallest, longest, and, according to the cruise line, most luxurious ship Celebrity has ever built.

WATCH Allan Brooks, Director of Market Sales, Canada, tell Open Jaw about his favourite innovations on the Celebrity Beyond, plus insights on the resumption of cruising and how Celebrity’s new inclusive pricing was made for the Canadian market.

The Edge-Class’ architectural signature, the Magic Carpet, re-appears on the Beyond. The ground-breaking, tennis-court-sized, cantilevered Magic Carpet scales the side of the ship, transforming from a dining venue when ‘docked’ at upper decks, to a tender platform at sea level.

Sunset Bar Celebrity Beyond
Sunset Bar Celebrity Beyond

Other spaces have been transformed, while amplifying the ‘sea-facing’ sensibility that maximizes the connection of guests to the outdoors and marine atmosphere.

“With Celebrity Beyond, we saw an opportunity to take the extraordinary features of Celebrity Edge - like the focus on the connection with the ocean and the grand spaces - and really amplify them,” said Richard Fain, Chairman of Royal Caribbean Group, parent company of Celebrity Cruises. “We focused on providing more openness, height and spaciousness throughout the ship’s most popular spaces. The end result is a next generation ship that embodies the intersection of architecture and design.”

Celebrity’s Celebrities

The cruise line’s design collaborations include globally renowned designers Kelly Hoppen, Nate Berkus and Jouin Manku, responsible for designing the Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, as well as architect Tom Wright, best known for designing the world-famous Burj Al Arab Hotel and also responsible for the Edge-class Magic Carpets, who were tasked with redefining a luxury cruise travel experience.

On the lifestyle front, Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud continues his partnership with Celebrity. On the Beyond, Boulud launches his first restaurant at sea.

Gwyneth Paltrow will serve as Well-Being Advisor, and she and her team at goop will also curate onboard wellness programming and participate in the line’s new Women in Wellness initiative.

Above and Beyond

Wright’s design of Beyond lengthens the ship by 20 meters and heightens her to 17 decks tall.

Cantilevered pools on Celebrity Beyond
Cantilevered pools on Celebrity Beyond

That allows for the re-imagination of The Retreat, the Resort Deck, and the Rooftop Garden outdoor spaces.

The main open deck is 40 percent larger than on previous Edge-class ships. It features an enormous and expanded, living Rooftop Garden, with increased seating offering new private nooks and more spaces for movie watching, enjoying live music and outdoor dining at the expanded Rooftop Grill.

In an industry first, the Beyond features two spectacular floating pools, cantilevered 2 metres over the side of the ship, taki

ng guests beyond the water’s edge.

On Hoppen’s Resort Deck, guests will enjoy a stunning asymmetrical space with a 25-yard lap pool surrounded by a terraced pool deck and new sunken seating areas.

The Sunset Bar on Beyond is multi-level and nearly twice as large as previous iterations, designed by Berkus as a chic, Moroccan-inspired escape. The space redefine’s the ship’s aft with cascading terraces and spectacular views of the ship’s wake.

The Grand Plaza, designed by Jouin Manku at the center of the ship, is inspired by the piazzas of Italy that serve as town squares. Three-stories high and larger than Grand Plazas on its sister Edge ships, the added space allowed designers to move the Martini Bar into the center of the venue as a full, circular bar, topped with a spectacular chandelier in an organic shape with hundreds of LED lights that spotlight bartenders at night during their exciting and theatrical Flash Flair Fusion performance.

Celebrity Beyond's Grand Plaza
Celebrity Beyond's Grand Plaza

Le Voyage is a new, 50-guest restaurant by Daniel Boulud, connected to the Grand Plaza. As the name suggests, ‘travel’ is the inspiration for the globally inspired flavors and award-winning wine collection. Jouin Manku’s design created seating cocoons surrounded by luminous portals highlighting the themes of journey and travel, while graphically lit “glass flutes” provide layers of light and texture to create an enchanting experience.

New to the ship are AquaClass SkySuites, with floor-to-ceiling ocean views, private verandas, luxurious bedding and other wellness amenities to nourish its guests’ mind, body, and spirit on vacation. AquaClass guests will be treated to onboard wellness offerings, including fitness kits from Paltrow’s modern lifestyle brand goop, aimed at enhancing self-care and collective well-being.

Celebrity says it will have more dining, entertainment, and activities announcements to come in the months ahead while the Beyond is under construction.

Inaugural Season Voyages

Bookings have already opened for Beyond’s inaugural season. The ship is scheduled to embark on her maiden voyage April 27, 2022 from Southampton, England on a 10-night Western Europe cruise visiting Bordeaux, France; Lisbon, Portugal; and Seville, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona, Spain.

Beyond will spend the season in the Med sailing a variety of itineraries, including nine-night Italian Riviera and France itineraries and 10-night Greek Isles itineraries.

In OCT 2022, the Beyond sails to the Caribbean for the winter season.

For more information on Celebrity Beyond’s inaugural 2022-2023 sailings, visit www.celebritycruises.com

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