After spending 14 days mooching around parts of Europe on the Celebrity Constellation last year, it was inevitable that we’d want to book another trip. Our new cruise friends had told us how amazing the Celebrity Edge was – the new Edge-class ship from the company that had launched a few years prior.
So, when we visited the ‘Future Cruises’ area onboard, we knew we wanted to be on the latest and greatest ship on offer.

We booked ourselves an 11-night cruise that included an overnight stop in Aruba and immediately tried to convince our new friends to come with us. They declined as 11 nights was too long for them (American statutory vacation allowances being what they are), but we were looking forward to it. The cruise was on the Celebrity Beyond, another of the new Edge-class ships.

A few months after booking, our friends reached out to us. They had booked a 7-night Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Apex, sister ship to Edge and Beyond. To sweeten the deal, the cruise would take place over January 25th, the shared birthday of the two ladies of our foursome. We immediately switched plans, securing ourselves a massive discount in the process.

Fast forward to January 2023, and we’re onboard the Celebrity Apex, Celebrity’s newest-of-the-new vessels, “designed to leave the future behind”.
So, how good is it really?

I’m going to spoil the rest of this for you.
The Celebrity Apex is really, really good. If you’re thinking of sailing on one, just book the trip now.
The Edge-class design is a significant step above the other ships we’ve been on, and I think it truly represents the current cutting edge of cruising.

But what, exactly, is so good about it?
I could just say ‘everything’, but let’s dig into that.

If I could sum the Edge class up in one phrase, it would be ‘everything refined or redesigned’.
We’ve previously sailed on the Equinox and the Constellation. The Equinox was the newer vessel, and it’s since been ‘Revolutionized’ – Celebrity’s term for ‘overhauled and made nicer’. When we sailed in 2017, it was already a very nice ship, and we’re keen to sail on her again. The Constellation was showing her age but was still a fine vessel with excellent amenities.

The Apex took everything we noted about the other vessels and said, “this is nice, but …” and took care of the “but”, sometimes in interesting ways.

Take the staterooms, for example. The Apex mostly comprises ‘Infinite Veranda’ staterooms on the outside of the ship. Instead of a room with a sliding door and a balcony outside, the rooms are longer, with a floor-to-ceiling window at the end. The top half of the window retracts downwards at the push of a button, turning your room into a huge balcony – if you want it. If you don’t, you simply have a larger room with a beautiful view.
Personally, I love this. We used the balcony on previous ships, but only occasionally. In fact, we’ve probably lowered the window and enjoyed the warm sea air more on this trip than on the others, despite this being the shortest cruise we’ve taken to date.

The staterooms themselves are a vast improvement. Undoubtedly, the miniaturization of technology has helped compared to previous ships, but there is much more room now. The bathroom is luxurious rather than a convenient vestibule for brushing your teeth, and the shower is a proper shower behind glass, with a door. On the Constellation, it was a two-foot wide strip at the end of the room with a crappy pull-across shower curtain, and showering was something you did hurriedly to spend as little time in there as possible.
The showers on board Apex are nicer than those in some houses I’ve lived in.

The elevators are now digital, meaning the ‘button display’ can be dynamic. If you’re in port, there’s a large button at the top to take you directly to the gangway, and when you’re on the move, the button will take you to wherever the Magic Carpet currently is.

Ah, yes, the Magic Carpet. This was the party piece of the Edge when the new class was launched. It seems that each cruise line tries to outdo each other in the ‘new shiny thing’ for their new ships, but it has to be in keeping with the general feel of the cruise line; Royal Caribbean seems to be about packing ever more families onto a boat with ever more water slides.

A big orange glasshouse hangs off the ship’s starboard side and can move between Deck 1 and 16. It houses a lounge and bar area and can be used as a restaurant.
I seem to recall the original concept had the Carpet assuming a different form and function on each floor, but the reality of logistics means that it’s mostly just a bar and lounge, whatever floor it’s at, except on special occasions when it goes up to Deck 16 and becomes a restaurant for the night.
It’s really special. After boarding, we went straight there. Our friends had boarded a few hours before and were enjoying drinks in the Florida sun, and we spent a couple of hours doing the same.

The theatre onboard is magnificent, making the one aboard the Constellation look like community theatre. An enormous screen wraps around the circular stage, and the whole thing can split apart, open, and move around as demanded by the production. Need a small door for someone to walk through? You got it. Need to split the entire screen into multiple apertures for people to appear from as if floating in the air? No problem.
As well as being straight-up impressive, it allows the productions to be bigger and brighter than ever before. When using the theatre as a staging post for excursions in port, the screen shows an underwater scene that is uncannily realistic at times whilst showing videos of local excursions imposed over the top. Pictures and videos don’t do it justice, but they are impressive.

The design, fit and finish and general attention to detail onboard the entire ship is astonishing. Form and functionality go hand in hand, and everything is beautifully finished. I’m sure there are ways of travelling the oceans that are finer still, but for my money, this one’s hard to beat.