Edge of Tomorrow: Life at Sea with Celebrity Cruises

As Celebrity Cruises plans to launch its Edge ship in Australia later this year, Jackie Sheckler Finch remembers her experience on the ship bound for the Caribbean.

When I boarded the Celebrity Edge in Fort Lauderdale for my weeklong Caribbean cruise, a crew member greeted me with, “Welcome to paradise.” He was right. The Celebrity Edge lived up to its name with its cutting-edge technology and trailblazing features. I was royally pampered as we sailed along the Florida coast to Key West, then on to Costa Maya in Mexico, and Grand Cayman island with its glorious Seven Mile Beach.

Docking in the port of George Town you get to experience the translucent waters and sandy beaches of the Caribbean but with a touch of luxury, after all the Grand Cayman capital is also a British tax haven. Take a glass-bottomed boat out on the ocean, tour a rum distillery or visit one of the many George Town art galleries.

Along the way our ship stopped at the former home of writer Ernest Hemingway, a Spanish Colonial-style villa in Key West that is hewn from the local rock. When The Old Man and the Sea author first bought the property in the 1930s it was rundown, but the stateliness of the property appealed to the romantic in
Hemingway and he set about renovating his new home. The palatial estate, which contains the first in-ground pool in Key West, has now become a National Historical Landmark with visitors coming by air, land and sea.

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Celebrity Edge comes to Australia

This winter, the Celebrity Edge is swapping the beaches of the Caribbean for the sandy expanse of Kangaroo Island and beyond for its first-ever “paradise” cruises in the southern hemisphere. Christened in
December 2018, the 14-deck Edge can carry 2,918 passengers with a crew of 1,320. The ship will be sailing the captivating coastlines of Australia with new ports for its cruises, including Kangaroo Island in South Australia and Darwin in the Northern Territory.

“It’s the great outdoors that makes this region truly exceptional and we can’t wait to welcome an equally exceptional ship that’s been uniquely designed to connect guests with their surroundings,” said Tim
Jones, Celebrity Cruises vice president and managing director of Australia and APAC.

Among those unique designs, Jones pointed out the Edge’s Infinite Verandas. Billed as a first for an ocean-going vessel, Infinite Verandas are designed to bring passengers closer to the ocean and to ports. Walking into my stateroom, it looked like the oceanfacing wall had one giant window that went from side to side and ceiling to floor. With the push of a button, I could lower the top of the window to provide an unobstructed view of the ocean along with the sound of crashing waves. The wide-open indoor space
was about 23 per cent larger than traditional balcony cabins. Of the ship’s 1,467 rooms, 916 are fitted with these Infinite Verandas.

Dining onboard

When it comes to dining, Celebrity Edge features 15 venues with excellent service. The most talked-about dining experience on the Edge is Le Petit Chef. The high-tech entertainment concept for this dinner is that
four tiny, inch-high chefs, projected onto your crisp white tablecloth, are “competing” to create the best culinary treat for passengers.

The mini movie is produced using 4K technology and it shows these adorable, animated characters appearing beside passengers’ dinner plates to prepare each course. The mini chefs float past your plate
in boats, chop up virtual ingredients with samurai swords and load fries onto your plate using intricate machinery before the real dish is delivered by a Celebrity Cruises waiter.

My memorable dessert on my cruise in the Caribbean saw one of the petit chefs head to the North Pole on a sleigh to roll a snowball and toss it on to my plate. Then the cartoon chef sprayed chocolate sauce over the snowball with a firehose nozzle. Another high-tech feature heading to Australian shores is the Celebrity Edge theatre with a stage that extends into the audience. The in-the-round design puts
everyone closer to the entertainment.

Innovative design

But it is the amazing “magic carpet” that is one of the most significant innovations to come to cruising in recent years. The magic carpet is a structure about the size of a tennis court that juts out over the edge of the ship and – as the world’s first cantilevered floating platform – it can be raised and lowered so it
is accessible from a variety of different decks.

It also serves a variety of different functions, for example, when it’s up on Deck 5, the carpet is an unforgettable restaurant as the ship glides over glistening water. Its arrival on Deck 14 sees it reimagined as a late-night bar and when it is close to sea level on Deck 2, the structure shows its real magical function.

Instead of the usual experiences I’ve endured on other cruise ships when attempting to board a small “tender” boat for a shore excursion, the Edge’s magic carpet makes getting on and off the tender boat fun and comfortable. It even turned into a luxurious lounge where I could relax, sip a cold cocktail, enjoy snacks, listen to music, and admire the beautiful scenery.

After a 930-day absence from sailing in Australia, Jones said Celebrity Cruises is seeing increased interest in its return as travellers seek more unique and special experiences.

“Celebrity Cruises is debuting a new, larger ship, new destinations, and new onboard experiences,” Jones said. “All designed to provide an even deeper immersion into this region’s unique culture.”

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