Too much to do: On board ‘the world’s most innovative cruise ship’

“Are we there yet?” is not a question you hear a lot on the Celebrity Edge. There is an appalling variety of things to do on board. Far too many. It’s ridiculous.

You can start the day with yoga as the sun rises, immerse yourself in a living rooftop garden, play Jenga, get lost in a laser maze or have your portrait taken. And surely it must be time for breakfast already.

The Magic Carpet was designed by Tom Wright, responsible for the cloud-piercing Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

“Australians are massive joiners,” says Tim Jones, vice president and managing director of Celebrity Cruises Australia. “They will join everything, do every activity, join the dance classes in the Plaza, do the silent disco, dress up for an ABBA night. In part, I think they do this to spend time with other guests, which leads to a richer cruise experience for everyone.”

When I join Celebrity Edge in Christchurch half-way through an 11-day Australia-New Zealand round trip, it’s in time for a day in the charming Scottish-influenced town of Dunedin, before four days at sea. On some ships, that could be a yawn, but not when you’re living life on The Edge.

Named “one of the world’s greatest places” by Time magazine, Celebrity Edge is widely regarded as the world’s most innovative cruise ship. With a capacity for 3000 passengers, it’s big enough to offer variety, without being a floating city.

“This is the best size for us,” says Celebrity Cruises president Laura Hodges Bethge, who is also on board. “It allows us to keep things intimate, yet provide amazing premium features and experiences for every type of passenger.”

Celebrity Edge is thought to be one of the world’s most innovative cruise ships.

Clearly, you will need to prioritise or go home exhausted, so I ask the top brass on board, right up to and including the captain, for their favourite onboard activities.

Cruise director Giuseppe Jay Moschella’s favourite break is playing ping-pong on the pool deck, followed by a furious game of pickleball. Invented in 1965, the game is a mash-up of tennis, badminton and table tennis, played on a smallish court that is netted, for obvious ball-overboard reasons. The name is a reference to American college “pickle boat” rowing races, the crews made up of left-over rowers racing just for fun, but never mind that, just pick up the two short-handled bats and the funny-looking hollow ball with holes in it, and have a go.

You’ll need the strategy of Bill Gates, the resilience of Ellen DeGeneres and the steely showmanship of Nick Kyrgios (all three are pickleball fans). Yes, it’s a sport, but it’s also an open invitation to have fun, interact with others, and get active without actually having to run a mile.

Food is another welcome distraction. “On this voyage, we’ll go through 3600 fresh eggs, 3629 kilograms of potatoes, 500 kilograms of lobster, and 13,000 kilograms of fresh fruit,” says executive chef Kuldeep Singh. Without being in the slightest bit judgmental, he says “plus 3600 bottles of Champagne and 18,400 litres of beer.”

There are 29 different culinary experiences on board.Credit: ©2018 Michel Verdure

It takes a lot of chefs to create the almost 20,000 dishes for guests and crew, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. More than a dozen sous chefs and pantry chefs oversee a brigade of 167 cooks and 81 kitchen cleaners, in fact. The entire food and beverage division, which encompasses all bars, restaurants and galleys, totals 670 crew members and is by far the biggest department on board.

The chefs change every four to eight months, depending on their contract, one chef tells me. So the chef in charge of soups is simply known as “Soup Man”; the baker “Dough Man”. Harsh, but that’s the reality of shipboard contracts. Luckily, the nick-naming doesn’t extend to guests, or certain people might be known as Negroni Girl, or Breakfast Sausage Man.

There are 29 different culinary experiences on board including four complimentary dining rooms, seven specialty restaurants, and the buzzy, open-all-hours Oceanview Cafe, so it pays to have some tips up your sleeve. Here are a few.

Firstly, don’t feel you have to book a specialty restaurant every night. The food in the Oceanview Cafe is excellent. Indian and Asian dishes are a highlight, from the rice congee for breakfast, to saffron pilaf and chicken curry for lunch. The dedicated bakery is excellent, doing multiple bakings a day. Seek out the lemon meringue cake in particular, and make it your friend. (Say hi for me.)

That said, it’s fun to dress up to “go out” for dinner, with wine in stemmed glasses and windows framing the ocean. (The Tuscan restaurant is a better bet than the Greek offering, Cyprus.)

Le Petit Chef is completely bonkers.

Bethge likes Le Grand Bistro the best. “If eating is a sport, then having the French onion soup in Le Grand Bistro is my sport,” she says. “It’s absolutely exceptional. I’ve had it three times on this trip already.″⁣

Celebrity’s many regular guests will know this already, but you must experience Le Petit Chef; it’s completely bonkers and very entertaining. Here, your dinner is wrapped up in a remarkable feat of technology, including innovative 3D projection that brings the table alive. A six-centimetre tall but bossy animated chef magically appears on your plate and explains how to become the world’s greatest celebrity chef by taking you through the history, art, lore and technique of classic French cuisine. (Watch the table, not just the plate, for the full experience.)

Meanwhile at the stern, Eden is a dramatic and theatrical space encased in soaring windows that span three decks. Order a cocktail and the bar manager might pop over to the living wall to hand-pick a fresh herb for the garnish.

The absolute best dining hotspot on board is Fine Cut, the American steak house. Have the signature crab cake and a magnificent 400 gram rib-eye with parmesan fries, and you’ll feel as if you’ve just eaten at Brooklyn’s famous Peter Luger’s.

Gin-lovers, note the ongoing collaboration with Australia’s award-Hoovering Four Pillars Gin, which means the G&Ts are exceptional. And keep an eye out for more gin-themed cruises on 2024 and 2025 itineraries.

My tip? Try a different bar every night until you find your own. You might be the flash Martini Bar type, a laid-back Sunset Bar sort, or you could be your best self at the Eden Bar with its live music amid spectacular greenery and towering walls of glass. Each bar also has a good selection of alcohol-free cocktails and drinks.

Those looking for more unusual distractions are well-catered for. This is that crazy ship with the tangerine-coloured Magic Carpet platform suspended on the side that can glide from the surface of the ocean to the tippy-top of Deck 16.

Designed by Tom Wright, responsible for the cloud-piercing Burj Al Arab in Dubai, the bright orange Magic Carpet soars cantilevered above the sea, moving up and down the decks to offer different ways of enjoying its uninterrupted views. When anchored at Deck Five, it becomes an instant outdoor terrace extension of Raw, a casual, contemporary seafood restaurant with sushi chefs in full view.

Dining at Raw on Celebrity Edge.

On this New Zealand voyage, it offers thrilling front-row seating for a day in Milford Sound and its adjacent glacier-etched fjords; all green towering cliffs, wheeling seabirds and postcard waterfalls.

Sometimes, a feature as unique as this is reserved for a certain level of passenger, or it is booked out before you can even think about it, but that’s not the case here.

The Magic Carpet is remarkably accessible and is open to all, with comfortable lounge seating or stools at bars. The ship can even use it as an embarkation point, allowing easy access to tenders. Tom Wright says his task was to create “a space that was unlike any other space”.

Mission accomplished.

The Celebrity Edge Theatre is a glamorous spot that seems smaller than most, but it makes up for that with attitude. Here’s where the full benefit of a “big-ship budget” kicks in: performances are visual feasts, with creative use of rotating spiral staircases, synchronised projectors and aerial rigging exploited by top-class, high-energy, big-personality performers.

It’s Bethge’s favourite spot on board. “I was a dancer for 20 years, so I love watching the show,” she says. “I sit right at the back so that nobody is behind me, and get my dance on. Especially if there’s an ABBA song on.”

There’s also a special joy in being in the water, on the water. Moschella says he has the most fun holding the aquarobics dance classes in the pool. “I think we need a bigger pool because it is packed,” he says. “I love bringing new music into the mix, like the songs from Barbie the movie.”

But there are calmer spaces to enjoy the benefits of water in its many forms. With 120 spa treatments, and a thermal suite that includes a steam room, float room, salt room and heated tile loungers, you could enjoy facials and massages all the way to Australia. But don’t leave your spa bookings until you are aboard, or you may miss out; it’s deservedly popular, especially on sea days. In the gym, you’ll find Peloton bikes and F45 training, and good luck to you. (None of the crew I interviewed mentioned the gym as their favourite spot on board. Funny, that.)

View from the Wellness Spa.

And there are even special touches for those who prefer the comforts of home. Most cruise ship staterooms have heavy doors that push or slide open to the balcony, so Celebrity Edge’s “Infinite Verandah” is a huge cultural shift. Just press the button on the wall and the top half of your outer floor-to-ceiling window glides open with a little hum. Watching languid sea lions basking on the rocks, or waving to the (far more intrepid) small tour boats in Milford Sound while having a cup of tea in your stateroom? Priceless.

And finally, what of the captain’s pick? Greek-born Captain Matt Karandreas says his highlight of activities is the Liar’s Club, a cheeky late-night quiz show in which he and the cruise director try to catch each other out. “Giuseppe and I get together and make fun of each other and have such a good time,” he says.

Apart from that, his favourite thing to do is his job. “I love docking and undocking the vessel,” he says. “It’s always exciting because even though we may have been in the same port 10 times, it is always different. I have the best job on the best ship in the world.”

The Details

Cruise

The Celebrity Edge.

Upcoming itineraries on Celebrity Edge include 11 nights’ Great Barrier Reef, departing Sydney on October 22, and a four-night Taste of Luxury cruise departing Sydney on November 2. The next 11-night Australia-New Zealand itinerary is January 27 to February 7, 2025, from $1409 a person. Verandah Staterooms from $3231. See celebritycruises.com/au

The writer was a guest of Celebrity Cruises.