Xcel is the same hull as Beyond and Ascent with the interior programme rewritten — and Celebrity did something it had never done in this class: it deleted signature venues rather than adding to them. Eden, the space that defined the Edge Class launch, is gone. So is the Rooftop Garden Grill. This is the first ship in the family where what is missing is as big a story as what is new. She is also the only one with an engineering difference: two converted Wärtsilä engines give her tri-fuel capability across marine diesel, LNG and methanol — Celebrity's first methanol-capable ship.
What replaced Eden
THE BAZAAR · DECKS 4–6 AFT
- The entryan immersive tunnel of high-tech archways whose graphics change with the day's theme
- Mosaicdinner-only specialty restaurant with an open kitchen and destination-led menus, US$95 pp. This is what Eden Restaurant became
- Spice Cafécomplimentary grab-and-go — made-to-order rice bowls, destination sandwiches, desserts, with an enclosed glass dining area. This is what Eden Café became
- The Marketartisan local products under four rotating festival overlays — Carnival, Aqua, VIVA! and Flora — which change with the region you are sailing
And the rest of the new rooms
ONLY ON XCEL
- IYKYKthe speakeasy hidden behind a working photo booth at The Club on Deck 4: take three photos and a secret door opens onto a Prohibition-era room with jazz, a roaming magician and pop-up performers. No photos allowed inside. Cocktails average about $22 against a $19 package cap, so you pay roughly three dollars
- Borathe Mediterranean rooftop restaurant that replaced the Rooftop Garden Grill: a bottomless Bloody Mary brunch at $35, becoming a chef-driven tableside dinner at $65, with wine aged in Adriatic sea barrels
- The Attica 24-hour adults-only retro arcade at The Club — Pac-Man, NBA Showtime, Golden Tee, plus pool, darts, foosball and shuffleboard under neon. Nothing like it on the other four
- The Hydra Rooma fleet first inside the largest spa in the Celebrity fleet: a warm bubbling pool with massaging jets, a waterfall wall and submerged heated loungers. Alongside it the Vitamin D Deck, an outdoor forward-facing wellness deck reserved for thermal-suite guests. Thermal suite sampled at $399 a week
- Celebrity Flagshipretail crossed with a museum: Chandris-era artefacts, 1990s crew uniforms, vintage ashtrays and menus, and interactive screens of insider stories. Reviewers name it a favourite
- Celebrity Pool Clubthe rebuilt main pool deck: pool valets with chilled towels and sunscreen, lockers at the poolside, more shade, and cabanas that face inward — the earlier ships' face outward
READ THIS BEFORE PAYING FOR THE RETREAT — Xcel carries 228 suites — 186 Sky and 26 Celebrity Suites, some thirty more than Beyond and Ascent and fifty-two more than Edge and Apex. But the halo rooms did not increase: still two Iconic Suites, two Penthouses and six Edge Villas on every ship in the class. And as far as we can establish, the Retreat Sundeck is the same size as Beyond's. More suite guests, same enclave. If the Retreat's appeal to you is exclusivity rather than amenity count, Beyond or Ascent may serve you better. The theatre, for the record, is where the seventeen-million-pixel kinetic LED wall actually lives — with productions Mainstage, Between Takes and Chapters, plus HOTEL and 254 West at The Club.