Celebrity Cruises ships from newest to oldest

What’s the newest Celebrity Cruises ship? If you’re thinking about booking a trip with Celebrity, it’s a good thing to find out.

The newest Celebrity ship is typically also the Celebrity ship with the most bells and whistles and the most up-to-date venues, including cabins, restaurants, bars and attractions. It’s what you want if you desire the very latest and greatest in a vessel for your Celebrity Cruises vacation.

Right now, the newest Celebrity cruise ship is Celebrity Beyond. It just debuted in April 2022.

Although Celebrity Beyond is barely more than a year old, it’ll soon be supplanted as the newest Celebrity Cruises vessel by Celebrity Ascent — a very similar vessel in the same Edge-class series of ships as Celebrity Beyond. Celebrity Ascent begins sailing in December 2023.

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Other relatively new Celebrity cruise ships include Celebrity Apex, Celebrity Flora and Celebrity Edge. All began sailing in the last five years.

In all, Celebrity Cruises operates 15 vessels. On average, the line comes out with a new ship every two years, and it typically keeps vessels in its fleet for around 20 to 30 years before retiring them from the fleet. The oldest Celebrity ship, Celebrity Millennium, is 23 years old.

In general, Celebrity’s newest ships are bigger and packed with more venues than its older ships. If you are looking for Celebrity ships with the most restaurants, bars, lounges and other amenities, you’ll want to stick to vessels built in the last few years.

That said, the above is a generalization that comes with an asterisk. One of Celebrity’s newest ships, Celebrity Flora, is also one of its smallest ships.

With room for just 100 passengers, Celebrity Flora is one of three very small vessels in the Celebrity fleet that operate year-round tours in the Galapagos. It’s essentially an entirely different business for Celebrity than the mainstream, big-ship cruising that is at the core of the company.

Celebrity is, in a sense, two cruise lines in one: a big-ship brand with 12 vessels that carry 2,000 to 3,000 passengers and sail around the world, and a Galapagos cruise tour operator with three tiny vessels that carry just 16 to 100 people. We include all of the vessels in this guide.

Here, every Celebrity Cruises ship currently in operation is ranked from newest to oldest:

1. Celebrity Beyond

Maiden voyage: 2022
Size: 141,420 tons
Passenger capacity: 3,260

2. Celebrity Apex

Maiden voyage: 2020
Size: 130,818 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,910

3. Celebrity Flora

Maiden voyage: 2019
Size: 5,739 tons
Passenger capacity: 100

4. Celebrity Edge

Maiden voyage: 2018
Size: 130,818 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,908

5. Celebrity Reflection

Maiden voyage: 2012
Size: 135,366 tons
Passenger capacity: 3,046

6. Celebrity Silhouette

Maiden voyage: 2011
Size: 122,210 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,886

7. Celebrity Eclipse

Maiden voyage: 2010
Size: 121,878 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,850

8. Celebrity Equinox

Maiden voyage: 2009
Size: 121,878 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,850

9. Celebrity Solstice

Maiden voyage: 2008
Size: 121,878 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,850

10. Celebrity Xploration

Maiden voyage: 2007
Size: 320 tons
Passenger capacity: 16

11. Celebrity Constellation

Maiden voyage: 2002
Size: 91,000 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,170

12. Celebrity Summit

Maiden voyage: 2001
Size: 91,000 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,158

13. Celebrity Infinity

Maiden voyage: 2001
Size: 91,000 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,170

14. Celebrity Xpedition

Maiden voyage: 2001
Size: 2,842 tons
Passenger capacity: 48

15. Celebrity Millennium

Maiden voyage: 2000
Size: 91,000 tons
Passenger capacity: 2,137

What is the newest Celebrity Cruises ship?

The newest Celebrity cruise ship is Celebrity Beyond. As noted above, it debuted in April 2022. Measuring 141,420 gross tons, it’s also the biggest cruise ship in the Celebrity fleet.

What is the oldest Celebrity Cruises ship?

The oldest Celebrity cruise ship is Celebrity Millennium. It was unveiled in 2000, right at the turn of the millennium (hence its name).

What new Celebrity Cruises ships are coming?

Celebrity Cruises currently has two new cruise ships on order. The first to arrive will be Celebrity Ascent in December 2023. It will be followed by an as yet unnamed vessel in 2025.

The two Celebrity Cruises ships on order will be the fourth and fifth ships in Celebrity’s Edge-class series of vessels that began debuting in 2018. The first three ships in the series are Celebrity Edge, Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Beyond.

The Edge-class vessels are being built at the giant Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France.

What is the newest Celebrity Cruises ship available for booking?

Celebrity Ascent is the newest Celebrity Cruises ship that you can book right now. While Celebrity Ascent isn’t yet sailing, its initial sailings scheduled for December 2023 are already on sale, as are future sailings through April 2025. The other, as yet unnamed Celebrity Cruises ship on order for delivery in 2025 has yet to open for bookings.

What is the newest class of Celebrity Cruises ships?

The Edge class is the newest class of Celebrity Cruises ships. Currently in the midst of rolling out, it’ll be made up of at least five vessels.

The first Edge-class vessel, Celebrity Edge, debuted in 2018. Two more — Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Beyond — began sailing in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

The last two ships in the series currently on order, Celebrity Ascent and an as yet unnamed sister vessel, are due in December 2023 and sometime in 2025, respectively.

The Edge-class vessels aren’t just the newest ships in the Celebrity fleet but are also the most advanced vessels in the Celebrity fleet. Designed to carry 2,908 to 3,260 passengers apiece at double occupancy, they each have such innovative new features as “infinite veranda” cabins with outward-facing walls that are entirely made of glass.

Another innovative feature of the Edge-class ships is the 90-ton platform along the side of each of the vessels called the Magic Carpet. As big as a tennis court, the platforms are cantilevered over the side of the vessels and can be raised and lowered to serve different functions — from a waterside bar to a water shuttle boarding area.

What’s the difference between newer and older Celebrity Cruises ships?

Newer Celebrity Cruises ships generally are bigger than older Celebrity ships — in some cases by as much as 35% bigger. As a result, they have room for more onboard venues and attractions than the line’s older vessels.

On Celebrity’s newest and biggest Edge-class vessel, Celebrity Beyond, for instance, you’ll find an expanded resort-within-a-resort area for suite passengers called The Retreat that isn’t on the smaller vessels in the Edge-class series or on other older ships in the Celebrity fleet. It offers a new two-story sun deck with hot tubs, lounge chairs and private cabanas that are open exclusively to passengers staying in suites.

Celebrity Beyond also has 179 more cabins than its sister vessels, each of which has 1,467 cabins. As a result, it holds 3,260 passengers at double occupancy. That’s up from a 2,910-passenger capacity at double occupancy for Celebrity Apex and a 2,908-passenger capacity at double occupancy for Celebrity Edge.

Celebrity’s oldest Millennium-class ships, by contrast, only carry about 2,100 passengers at double occupancy. As a result, they have a more intimate feel, at least in the pantheon of relatively big, mass-market ships.

That makes them a good choice for someone who wants to try Celebrity but isn’t eager to travel with big crowds. The oldest ships in the Celebrity fleet thus appeal to a subset of Celebrity fans who prefer more intimacy in a cruise vessel and don’t mind giving up some onboard amenities to get it. They are also often less expensive per day to sail on.

Celebrity’s three very small Galapagos-based vessels have the most intimate feel of all. They are like tiny boutique hotels that float.

Note that all Celebrity ships are renovated and upgraded on a regular schedule every few years, so even the oldest Celebrity cruise vessels have newer carpeting, updated furniture, modern decor in cabins and other updates. In many cases, they also have had entire eateries and bars renovated over the years with concepts that first debuted on newer vessels.

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