Are The NEXT Class Of Celebrity Ships Announced?

[NMTraveller]

10 minutes ago, Nado44 said:

Xcel will look more like RCL than X given the planned use of RCLs color and design schemes. Senior officer also said something like, “The plan is to have both brands seamlessly blend in with CocoCay.”

Xcel of the Seas 😉

[NMTraveller]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:11 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Never been to Vegas , and have no desire to go 

You havent the question about a person of age sitting at the bar and not drinking alcoholic 

 

You could stay off strip and visit the shows.  The shows are some of the best in the world.  Otherwise not my thing either ...

[Volk9048]

In this thread we have a lot of ideas on what they will do with the next ship. 
Right now Celebrity when the Xcel is added has 5 E class ships that carry 3200 passengers, 5 S class that carry 2800 passengers and 4 M class ships that carry 2200 passengers.  I don’t see X getting much bigger than the E class. Royal, Carnival, MSC and NCL are all building the giant catch all family ships.  I am 65 and see the Celebrity base demographic as 45-70 empty nesters into retirement.  In my opinion the next ship will be somewhere in between the M class and S class. Let’s call it 2400-2500 passengers and will replace the M class.  There is a lot of ports that the E class is too large for and many popular smaller ports are adding passenger restrictions now.  There is a good market for a 2500 passenger ship. I also believe they will try to keep the height under the Tampa bridge height not to lose that market. One concept might be to take the base S class and remove a level to keep the height down.  It has so much wasted space on top with grass you could do a lot with it.  It is also possible they build another  E class as well.  Finally at this point RCCL as a corporation needs to stop counting there money ( love by $160 share stock price) and restart the major refurbishment and upgrades that ended with Covid. The S class, Connie and Infinity need serious work to keep them nice.  

Edited June 29 by Volk9048

[Salt Lifer]

Just thought of another thing I would love to see on the next class if ships: a specialty dining restaurant with a menu that features food local to the region the ship is sailing in.  

[kirtihk]

On 6/25/2024 at 2:18 PM, Tom and Ingrid said:

Not in the formal "here's what they specifically look like", but more in the "this is the concept we're following" sense?

 

If I understand it, the Xcel is the final E-class.  Since that has kicked off the build stage recently, I would think X is already deeply into some sort of planning for the NEXT class to come out.  With the E-class ships coming out every 2 yrs or so, it would seem X has a similar time frame to plan and eventually build a next-class ship so it would be operation in 2027 or 2028.

 

Have we heard the direction their next ships will take?

During one of our Celebrity cruises around 7 years ago the captain announced that Celebrity will build 4 new class ships (then he whispered said - "Here is a secret: actually, there will be 5th ship, too").

[Lastdance]

On 6/28/2024 at 5:31 AM, Tom and Ingrid said:

I personally don't think a 65 year old person of 2024 is all that different from a 65 yr old in 2000 nor will be in 2035, EXCEPT they are likely a little more healthy and active later in life and may have a longer "active retirement" span (this really remains to be seen).  As such, active and engaged cruising - good food, good shows, onboard variety, diverse activities, etc. - will need to be a core for X. They have that - skewed for families - on Royal, and X needs to think what empty nesters or 40+ DINKs will want and go in that direction. 

This is my thought too, but that means a lot of people need to choose this type of lifestyle, as it usually starts very early in life and then one has to maintain it.  Definitely not an easy task, but well worth the rewards!  It is always about choices with grey areas accounting for changes, along the way.  Even exercise and eating health cannot control everything that happens in life, but it certainly can help.

[JP350]

With Jason Liberty's recent appointments of Royal Caribbean execs to lead RCG's other brands, as well as the merging of loyalty programs, this leads me, at least to believe that Royal, Celebrity, and Silversea's respective decisions to not only take into account what's good and what needs to be improved upon for each brand, but for the group as a whole. (i.e. maybe building new royal ships in part to address to fill a celebrity fleet shortcoming, such as the new generation radiance class.)

 

I know that all of us CCers want celebrity to build a new class of ship as a replacement to the M-class, but with Royal all but confirmed to be building a class in that category, I don't think Celebrity would want to build new smaller ships at the same time, and completely leave the larger 150,000+ ton market to Carnival and sister brands for 8-10 years. (Princess already has the Sun Class and more to come). Lisa also said that the E-class represents celebrity's sweet spot, so I don't see them going to the complete lengths of princess (175,000 tons), but knowing how royal operates (bigger is better) I  think it would make perfect sense to management to build a 150,000-155,000 ton ship, to split the difference between Holland and Princess, very similar to the E-class, with added retreat space if that market holds, attempting to target the 35-55 empty nester range of guests. 

 

P.S. I also see Silversea expanding to 70,000-75,000 gross ton ships in the future and Royal seeing this as a replacement to M-class cruisers (Who are traditionally older and like their vibe)

Edited July 3 by JP350

[FlipandLora49]

We are on our first E class next month.  Don’t like the IV concept but giving it a try. Not having a card room/library seems so wrong too. As we deal with food allergies the 4 MDRs will be a challenge but we will need to give them a go…we’ve always enjoyed the  a rapport with the serving staff particularly on b2b cruises so that will be missed. We’ve enjoyed most M and S ships and S wins it hands down.  A tweak here and there would suit us. Updated furniture.  Celebrity provides the food, cleanliness and service levels with some of the best crew in the business AND no indoor smoking.  Excessively low seating furniture is a problem on some ships.  Also would like a better mix of exterior chairs and loungers. 

[ijscheer]

On 6/26/2024 at 11:29 AM, Salt Lifer said:

On my last sailing on Ascent our muster station was outside of Blu.  There was no way to get there from our room on deck 11 without going through the obstacle course. All I could think of every time I walked through there going to Eden was if there was a real emergency those of us mustering there would be doomed as no way a large people could get through there quickly in a panicky state without injury.

 

 

I'm sure there is auxiliary lighting which would illuminate the area in an emergency.