It’s Monday!
Cruise Line Monday!
This week begins the last of the major cruise lines–Celebrity Cruises.
Celebrity Cruises was founded in 1989 by the Greece-based Chandris Group to operate up-market cruise ships to Bermuda. The cruise line’s signature “X,” which is found on the funnel of Celebrity cruise ships, is the Greek letter Chi, and stands for Chandris.
Today, Celebrity Cruises is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and is owned by Royal Caribbean Group. The cruise line’s fleet is one of the simplest in the market and consists of 13 large cruise ships and one expedition vessel. The cruise ships are broken down into three classes–Mellennium Class, Solstice Class, and Edge Class. The expedition ship is very small as it has to be in order to operate in the Galapagos Islands.
Celebrity Cruise Line’s first ship launched in 1990 and was quickly followed by two Horizon-class ships, none of which still sail for the cruise line. Between 1995 and 1997, Celebrity debuted the Century Class–three more sophisticated, larger ships–none of which still sail for the cruise line.
Celebrity Cruises was acquired by Royal Caribbean Group in 1997 and by 2000, the first Millennium Class ship, Celebrity Millennium, was launched. By 2002, three more Millennium-class ships–Celebrity Infinity, Celebrity Summit, and Celebrity Constellation–were in service.
Celebrity Cruises launched its first Xpedition ship–Celebrity Xpedition–in 2004 to the Galapagos Islands. Celebrity Xperience and Celebrity Xploration joined the brand in 2017; however, in 2019, the line debuted an all-new ship–Celebrity Flora–and retired Celebrity Xperience. Celebrity Xpedition and Celebrity Xploration were sold in 2025 leaving only Celebrity Flora sailing in the Galapagos.
In 2008, the first of the line’s Solstice-class ships, Celebrity Solstice, debuted. The Solstice-class ships are slightly larger than the Millennium-class ships, by about 30%. These ships introduced the top deck Lawn Club featuring real grass for picnics and lawn games. The rest of the Solstice-class ships–Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Eclipse, Celebrity Silhouette, and Celebrity Reflection–debuted between 2009 and 2012.
In 2018, Celebrity Cruise Line launched its Edge-class ships with the debut of Celebrity Edge. These ships are the cruise line’s largest and most advanced ships in the fleet. The rest of the class–Celebrity Apex, Celebrity Beyond, Celebrity Ascent, and Celebrity Xcel–debuted one ship every other year, with the latest debuting in 2025. The ships have various innovative features not found on any other vessel and are the cruise line’s largest ships.
In January 2025, Celebrity Cruises announced they had ordered 10 transformative river ships with an “elevated design and sophistication of the Edge Series” that would be Celebrity River Cruises. The first ships–Celebrity Compass and Celebrity Seeker–will debut in 2027 and sail the Rhine and Danube.