Celebrity Cruises has hinted that work has already begun on the next class of cruise ships, with Celebrity Xcel now confirmed as the final Edge-class ship for the fleet.

At the CruiseWorld event, Celebrity’s brand president Laura Hodges Bethge was speaking about the future of the brand and revealed that Project Nirvana was the codename for the next ships.
It’s expected that the first ships in the new class would debut sometime in 2029 or 2030 but nothing is official.
“For those who have been doing this for a long time, you know you go from the dreaming stage to the receiving stage in five-ish years,
“We’re excited about what’s next for the brand.”
Laura Hodges Bethge, Brand President for Celebrity Cruises
While Celebrity Cruises fans can start to get excited about the next generation of ships, there’s still other exciting news too.
It’s expected that we’ll get details of Celebrity Xcel’s features in spring, with seven new products and experiences onboard the ship compared to her sister Edge-class ships.
Bethge also revealed that the Solstice-class ships would soon undergo a renovation, with Celebrity Solstice set to undergo an extended drydock in Spring 2026.
No dates have been confirmed for the rest of the class, which includes Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Eclipse, Celebrity Silhouette and Celebrity Reflection.
“Those five beautiful ships are at what we call internally their half-life. Ships last around 30 years, and they’re about 15 years old, so right now we’re dreaming up what’s going to happen with the modernization of the Solstice ships,
“There’s three different areas of the ship where we’ll be paying a lot of attention,”
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
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I think that the new class of ships for Celebrity will be just as unsightly as the Edge class crammed with cabins, gimmicks, and less deck space