The reveal was made at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, as executives from both Royal Caribbean Group and the yard celebrated the steel cutting.
“The Edge Series has shattered preconceived notions of cruising, and I am thrilled to announce our next bold step as a brand with Celebrity Xcel,” said Celebrity Cruises’ President Laura Hodges Bethge. “True to her name, this next ship will ‘Xcel’ beyond her sister ships with entirely new experiences, yet to be revealed, but that will change the game all over again.”
The Celebrity Xcel will make her debut in November 2025 in the Caribbean, sailing her inaugural winter season from Fort Lauderdale, on 7-night itineraries alternating between the Bahamas, Mexico and the Cayman Islands, and Puerto Plata, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. The sailings are now open for sale.
Independence of the Seas in the port of Southampton, photo credit Spacejunkie2 (Flickr).
Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) saw booking volumes in the first quarter of 2023 perform “considerably” better than expected, enabling the company to “significantly” improve its revenue expectations for all three remaining quarters of 2023.
In a recent trading update covering the three months to 31 March, the group, which owns Royal Caribbean, Silversea and Celebrity Cruises, saw an earlier start to an extended wave period generate a record level of bookings.
The strong trends resulted in an acceleration of the group’s booked position in relation to prior years, with the company generating “significantly” more bookings at “meaningfully” higher prices.
This year’s wave resulted in strong close-in demand at higher prices for the first quarter and enabled a significant improvement in revenue expectations for all three remaining quarters.
The increase in yield expectations for the year is predominantly related to higher load factors in the first quarter and higher prices for all four quarters, especially for Caribbean sailings.
Consumer spending onboard, as well as pre-cruise purchases, continue to exceed 2019 levels driven by greater participation at higher prices. The company expects load factors to reach “historical” levels by late spring.
“We knew that demand for our business was strong and strengthening, but we have been pleasantly surprised with how swiftly demand further accelerated well above historical trends and at higher rates,” said Jason Liberty, president and chief executive of RCG.
“Leisure travel continues to strengthen as consumer spending further shifts towards experiences. Demand for our brands is outpacing broader travel due to a strong rebound and an attractive value proposition.”
The company reported a net loss for the first quarter of $47.9 million compared to a net loss of $1.2 billion for the same period in the prior year.
The group also experienced particularly strong close-in demand for Caribbean itineraries, which accounted for close to 80% of first-quarter capacity. Load factors in the first quarter were 102%.
Adjusted earnings per share for the full year are expected to be in the range of $4.40 to $4.80 per share.
RWO, a leading supplier of intelligent water management solutions, has successfully completed two installations of its next-generation advanced water treatment system (AWTS) – the CleanSewage Membrane Reactor (CS-MBR) for Celebrity Cruises. The sewage treatment plant on the Celebrity Solstice-class vessels, Celebrity Silhouette and Celebrity Reflection, have been upgraded to the CS-MBR system, with an additional three orders placed to complete the fleet-wide upgrade.
RWO’s CS-MBR is a sustainable biological treatment technology that has been designed specifically to minimise a vessel’s impact on the environment, achieve the highest standards for effluent discharge and perform well ahead of regulatory requirements.
The installations upgrade existing RWO MEMROD sewage treatment plants on board the Celebrity Cruises ships, reflecting new regulations for existing vessels operating in Special Areas and anticipate the expansion in regulatory parameters for such vessels from 1 June 2023*. The CS-MBR is fully type-approved as conforming with IMO MEPC.227(64) including the standards of section 4.2 which addresses nitrogen and phosphorus removal.
Nikolaos Kolyvakis, Senior Ship Manager, at Celebrity Cruises commented: “Sustainability is a top priority for Celebrity Cruises and we seek out every opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the highest possible standards in environmental stewardship.”
Lars Nupnau, Business Development Manager, at RWO said: “RWO has developed a strong working relationship with Celebrity Cruises over the last 10 years and we are delighted that the RWO CS-MBR has been selected as part of its Solstice-class upgrade strategy.”
Unique among shipboard AWTS solutions, the CS-MBR treatment process features submerged membranes in their final stage and can remove more than 99% of solids and bacteria, including microplastics and viruses.
“By using membranes in this way, the resulting water is pure enough to be re-used in other ship functions such as laundry or as technical water. The automated cleaning-in-place (CIP) control also makes the system far easier for the crew to operate and extends the membrane lifecycle significantly,” said Nupnau. “If that wasn’t enough, the CS-MBR also has a smaller footprint and uses less energy than comparable systems.”
“The new CS-MBR goes beyond regulatory compliance to minimise environmental impacts and maximise operational efficiency,” added Kolyvakis. “It strongly aligns with Celebrity’s commitment to investing in technologies which help protect the world’s oceans and the communities where we operate.”
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