5 Things to Love About the Celebrity Edge

My colleague and I were lucky enough to just come off a Mediterranean sailing of the Celebrity Edge, still a babe at two years old. Part of a three ship (so far) class which includes the Apex and the just launched Beyond, Edge and her sisters are Celebrity’s fusion of luxury experiences with a contemporary feel. Turns out luxury doesn’t have to be stuffy and contemporary doesn’t have to be all cold steel, hard edges (get it?) and foam food. While below is not a comprehensive recap, we wanted to share with you five things that if they speak to you mean the Edge is your ship.

1. Bye-bye Main Dining. For those of you that abhor the “main dining” concept where you go to eat all of the same food at the same time as your 600 closest friends, have we got good news for you! Celebrity is already known as the “foodie” ship and with Edge and her sister ships they have re-imagined the included dining as a more intimate, restaurant approach. The Edge has four dining rooms rather than one, each with a slightly different focus and totally different feel and decor.

· Cosmopolitan — Contemporary cuisine, but no worries, no foam or tiny portions here!

· Tuscan — Italian of course!

The dining room at Tuscan

· Normandie — French inspired

· Cyprus — Mediterranean

Each of the four has a menu split into three pieces

1. Celebrity Classics — the same items that will be available every day in every restaurant
2. Dining Classics — the same items that will be available every day but only in that specific restaurant
3. Daily Selections — these change every day, but are consistent across all four dining rooms

I know it sounds confusing but you’ll get the hang of it — we sure did. Overall it meant everyplace felt less crowded and more like a special experience. With the differences in not just food but decor and design, you could differentiate between the four and actually know where you were.

2. Truly Specialty Dining. Edge has a variety of specialty (or “additional fee”) dining options. So many in fact that in our one week cruise we didn’t get to all of them. They range from burgers and casual cuisine on the Rooftop Garden to a stellar steakhouse at Fine Cut, a meal that will have your phone on video the entire time at Petit Chef and more. From our experience, the meal not to be missed on the Edge is dining at Eden, where every course is outstanding, the decor is other-world and the service is amazing. If you’ve seen the menu online and thought “eh, a bit frou-frou for me” no worries, the menu may not have caught up but the offerings are both accessible and amazing. If you only try one specialty dining, check out Eden.

Eden is an experience not to be missed

3. Your Cabin. Let’s assume for a moment that you’re not a suite kind of person (more on that later) but do like a bit of fresh air, so a cabin with a balcony is for you.

• Infinite Veranda — For its balcony (verandah) cabins, Edge has brought the outside in. Rather than a traditional balcony with a curtain, a sliding door and potentially suspect weather, they have expanded your inside space. In lieu of that slider you now have a full size window (think the size of your old balcony), and when you want or the weather merits you can lower the top half to get that wonderful ocean air. You can also use the automatic blind to make the room so dark you might sleep for days. In a best of both worlds approach, it is also possible to close off this space with folding doors so that if you do truly want that separate space it’s there for you. All in all a great additional to the ocean cruise cabin universe.

Infinite Verandah — your (open) window to the world

• Shower space — Gone is the Star Trek-ish ‘beam me up Scotty’ pod that you can’t turn in, let alone raise an arm. Still circular in nature, it now has an actual glass door that opens wide enough for you to actually get yourself all the way in and all the way out. Not quite suite-level, but a huge improvement over the standard balcony cabin of the past.

4. The Martini Bar. Edge has reimagined its public spaces and the Martini Bar in its Grand Plaza (think Atrium of old) not only has a chandelier that doubles as a light show, but live music and a martini menu so interesting even this wine lover had to try it out. Oh, and check out the show the bartenders put on (they are all over YouTube and even Celebrity’s official videos). It is for sure the main hang out space on the ship, and can be seen by the restaurants, bars and lounges on the two decks above it.

5. The Retreat. Last but not least. If you like the idea of all of the options I’ve talked about but really prefer a smaller ship, Edge has got you covered. The Retreat, which includes a separate lounge space, restaurant, pool and outdoor space for all Suite guests, is essentially a ship within a ship. Beautifully appointed and well positioned, a suite on the Edge allows you all of the quiet enjoyment of the retreat along with the ability to access the speciality dining, the Martini Bar and all of the other fabulous spacious onboard.

And yes, they also have shopping (Bulgari, Tiffany, etc) as well as a Casino, spa, great pool deck and lots more. But since the title says “5 Things”, we’ll wrap this one up for now. So if you take this article and the one recapping why you might like their traditional ships more, you’ll get a pretty good sense of what to expect. For me, the most important thing is the one I haven’t mentioned yet, and which I believe can truly make or break a cruise experience. THE STAFF WERE AMAZING. PHENOMENAL. WONDERFUL. This isn’t me blowing smoke, since that’s not who I am. Every single team member on that ship was welcoming, friendly, helpful, yadda yadda yadda. So I’ll end this with a shoutout to our cabin steward Thais — Mwah!