Cruising on the Celebrity Xcel!
I’ve just returned from a week on Celebrity’s newest ship, the Edge-class Xcel! This was my first time cruising on Celebrity, and my first time cruising in the Caribbean.
About the ship
The Xcel launched in November 2025. It has 15 decks and holds
up to 3,950 passengers. According to Guest Services, about 3,300 people were on
our sailing. Cruisemapper.com
The Celebrity Xcel docked next to Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas in St. Thomas
The Celebrity Xcel docked next to Royal
Caribbean’s Star of the Seas in St. Maarten
Itinerary
We started in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida then had a sea day to get to Puerto Plata, Dominican
Republic, on day 3. Day 4 was St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Day 5 was St.
Maarten (Dutch side). Then we had 2 full sea days before returning to Fort
Lauderdale. We went straight to the airport to head hom.e
My favorite places
on board
One of the most impressive areas onboard was the three-deck Grand Plaza, which includes the Martini bar on Deck 3. This multi-level lounge has lots of little spaces for seating for small or big groups and a very beautiful Art Deco light feature. We played trivia here multiple times and listened to the guest performer, violinist Katerina Rossa, perform a short afternoon show. Decks 4 and 5 overlook the Grand Plaza and feature many dining options.
Watching Katerina’s afternoon matinee in the Grand Plaza/Martini Bar
At the back of
the ship on Decks 5 and 6 is the Bazaar. The coolest feature is the tunnel you
walk through to access the Bazaar shops, lounge, and Spice café, which feature
arched LED screens that daily! On sea days, the Bazaar featured Festivals titled
“Carnival,” “Aqua,” and “Viva,” including pop-up performances from singers and
dancers and free or for a fee crafts.
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Tunnel to the Bazaar
The Bazaar stage when we were docked
The Bazaar dressed up for the Viva Mexican
Festival
Another area we
visited was the secret Speakeasy! Photos were not allowed. It wasn’t really a
secret because it wasn’t hard to find out about. You access it through the
photobooth in The Club (also an area that hosted trivia, game shows, family
events, and musical events). You go into the booth, take photos of yourself,
then the door on the other side of the booth opens and you can access the
speakeasy. They limit access, there’s always a staff member monitoring the door
and even giving out buzzers to alert you when it’s your time to enter. The vibe
inside was 1920s, kinda smoky, with performers on small stages doing magic
tricks or sultry dance numbers. I had a yummy drink (above my $12 limit, but worth
it). You’re limited to 2 drinks and an hour inside.
If you want to
get some steps while at sea, check out the walking track! 5 laps is one mile. Here’s
a video I made of us walking the whole track.
https://youtube.com/shorts/BjXXIxnBo_8?si=NJiOl2Iv1qxiEkzW
Food and
drinks
Our group package
deal included the Classic drinks package, which allowed us to have free cans of
soda, bottled water, and alcoholic beverages up to $12. This was a little hard
to figure out because every restaurant and bar has a different menu and not all
options were listed. I had to ask the server, “Can I have a glass of *type of
wine* that’s included in my package?” Then they’d ask for your room number or
take your Seacard to run it through the system. We also couldn’t get free
bottles of water delivered to our room; they were $5 each! Instead, I frequently
asked for 4 bottles of water from the buffet to take back to our room.
Strawberry Daiquiri on the Pool Deck
There are 2
coffee shops onboard. The original is Café el Bacio on deck 4, and inside the
buffet is El Secondo Bacio. At both you can get free coffee drinks and sweet
treats, so a lot of people stopped there for a daily (or twice-daily) coffee. I
liked my decaf latte with skim and syrup; the Chai latte was not good (brewed
from a tea bag; I’m used to the chai concentrate).
There are 4 main dining rooms, and your party is assigned a time and location for the whole cruise. We were a group of 14 (shocked face) and our reservation was at 6 pm in Normandie on Deck 3. This part was confusing: we weren’t allowed to cancel this reservation because it would eliminate our table for everyone, for the whole week. So inside, we just showed up at a different time, and in different numbers, for some variety. After 7, it’s easy to get a different table, so my husband and I did this a couple of times (so we could sit by the window one night, and to avoid the lobster on surf and turf night – food allergy to shellfish). The food was pretty good… but the menu was not extensive. The 4 restaurants have separate kitchens, but they are in the same area. We were told you could order off the menu from any of the restaurants, but we were never offered those menus.
Pork chop with sweet potato puree
The Oceanview Café
is the buffet, which has a lot of food options and plenty of seating. I went
there most days for breakfast and some lunches. It took me a few days to find
the oatmeal! Servers come around and ask what you want to drink, or you could
go to one station and order your drinks (cans, bottles, and alcohol; there were
fountains for juice and water).
Stateroom
We had a
Concierge Infinite Veranda on deck 12 midship. Here’s the layout from
cruisemapper.com:
We had the
layout with the bed closer to the bathroom. This meant the closet door was
right next to the bed, which wasn’t great for the person on that side of the
bed (not me). But I liked having the sofa next to the balcony, so all our
seating areas were to one side of the cabin. However, I never sat on the sofa,
as it doesn’t have arms! I like to lounge along the whole length of the sofa with
my back on an arm. Instead of using it as seating, I kept my once (or twice)
worn clothes and other stuff spread out on it. Even our attendant piled up the
decorative pillows on the sofa, so he must know no one sits there.
The infinite veranda
has a big window that comes down from the top, so you do have access to fresh
air. At night you can close the blind, which blocked out most of the light. The
veranda doors were very noisy when they were closed, but maybe I didn’t know
how to lock them tight. After a few nights I kept them open. We sat on the
balcony chairs a lot and watched the ocean. I also washed some of our clothes
in the sink then hung them to dry on the balcony chairs. They dried fast with
the window open!
The bed was VERY
firm and HEAVY. They don’t use fitted sheets (angry face) so the bottom sheet
was always getting pulled up and wrinkly. I asked for a mattress topper after
the first night, which made it more comfortable but still not perfect. I got
used to it. I also got a firmer pillow. But the first couple of nights I didn’t
sleep well for all these reasons (noisy door, hard mattress, flat pillows, being
in a new place, ship movement).
Everyone always
wants to know about the outlet/charging situation! The side of the bed by the
closet had a bigger end table but NO OUTLETS! Surely that’s the biggest design
flaw on a ship that launched 5 months ago. A lot of people use their phones as an
alarm clock, so we want them by our beds. My side of the bed had a US outlet and
2 USB ports (types A and C), so I could charge my devices there, but I had to
stretch my charger with a long cord over to Matt’s side of the bed (and it didn’t
reach the table; he charged his stuff in the middle of the king-sized bed). There
was a charging station on the desk where we put our watches, but that didn’t
have enough space either.
Would I stay in
this type of room again? If the price was right, I would upgrade to a Sky Suite
or a cabin with more space to move around. But we made it work for a week, for
2 people.
Activities
There is a lot
going on, especially on sea days! As mentioned, we went to a lot of Trivia.
Some of the questions were hard! The prizes were lame (a Popsocket for your
phone). I played Bingo with my mother-in-law and a few others in our group. We
didn’t win! ☹ During sea days, the casino hosted Texas
Hold ‘em tournaments. Matt and I played in one on my birthday, but we both went
out quickly (I had no illusions of winning). But Matt played again the next
day, and he took second place! So he earned back our buy-in money. I also lost
$40 on slot machines; it’s gone fast!
The only show
we went to in the Theatre was violinist Katerina Rossa. She played Lindsey Stirling-type
arrangements of modern songs and some classic violin pieces, like Vivaldi. I
edited my videos together here:
https://youtu.be/aQgZDhE81EE?si=nVhPy5ox3HMr1i-1
All in all, it was a pretty good cruise! Smooth seas, no illnesses acquired. If you have any questions about this ship, ask in the comments!
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