Celebrity Apex

Celebrity Apex is the second ship of Celebrity Cruises' Edge class, following the template that the line's president Lisa Lutoff-Perlo had championed of designing a ship "outward" toward the sea rather than inward toward an atrium. Like her lead sister, she was built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, France, at a cost of roughly US$900 million, and floated out of the yard as a 130,000-plus-GT vessel of some 306 metres, carrying around 2,900 guests at double occupancy across fifteen decks. She was delivered in early 2020, arriving just as the global cruise industry was thrown into an unprecedented pause.

Apex carries the full suite of Edge-class innovations that reset expectations for the premium segment. The signature feature is the Magic Carpet, a bright-orange, tennis-court-sized cantilevered platform that rides up and down the starboard hull on rails, serving in turn as a specialty restaurant, an open-air bar, an extension of the pool deck, or a tender embarkation platform at its lowest position. The Infinite Veranda staterooms fold the balcony into the cabin itself, with bi-fold windows that lower at the touch of a button. Inside, the double-height Grand Plaza is crowned by an illuminated sculptural chandelier, while the three-deck Eden venue wraps a glass-walled lounge and restaurant around sweeping sea views.

The ship's christening reflected Celebrity's public emphasis on gender equality: her godmother is Reshma Saujani, the founder of the nonprofit Girls Who Code, chosen to underscore the line's advocacy for women in technology and leadership. Because of the pandemic, Apex did not enter regular commercial service until 2021, when cruising resumed.

Since then, Celebrity Apex has become a mainstay of the line's transatlantic deployment, homeporting at Southampton in the United Kingdom for European summers with itineraries including the Norwegian Fjords, and repositioning to the Caribbean for winter seasons. Registered at Valletta, Malta, and sailing under the call sign 9HA4960, she operates as one of four near-identical Edge-class sisters and remains in active service with Celebrity Cruises.