The premium line has signed an agreement with the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in France’s Saint Nazaire for a sixth Edge ship, dubbed “Edge 6” or “Xcel 2”. It follows the success of the class, which started in 2018 with the launch of Celebrity Edge.

Jason Liberty, president and chief executive of Celebrity’s parent Royal Caribbean Group, hailed the order as another milestone for “an award-winning series of ships that has set new standards in the industry”.

It will follow the launch of Celebrity Xcel later this year – the fifth in the series – which Celebrity Cruises president Laura Hodges Bethge said would bring a new dimension to Edge class. “Celebrity Xcel will take forward the best of the Edge series ships coupled with seven new experiences, all perfected with the help of our recently-announced Xcel Dream Makers,” she added.

Celebrity claims the initiative, announced last month in New York, is an industry first. It is designed to harness the support of Celebrity’s global community of consumers, who will help choose key elements of Celebrity Xcel – including aspects of the design, culinary choices and entertainment offerings.

Now Celebrity Xcel has been floated out, attention will turn to fitting out the ship’s interiors ahead of its debut this November.

Speaking at the shipyard ahead of the float-out, senior figures within Celebrity stressed that when completed, Celebrity Xcel would illustrate how much Edge class had evolved – claiming its onboard spaces will have diverged further from Celebrity Edge than any other ship in the series.

However, virtually nothing is known about the new ship’s interior spaces so far. Apart from confirming there will be seven key new experiences, no other details have yet been given, although announcements are set to be made in the coming months.

(TTG cruise editor Harry Kemble’s 2023 Celebrity Ascent ship tour)

Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean Group’s head of newbuild Tor Svensen, said technological advances had enabled multiple new energy efficiencies, which include utilising more waste heat from the engines while improving ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

Xcel will be the first Celebrity ship with a tri-fuel engine, enabling it to run on three types of fuel – including methanol. This represents a first for the Royal Caribbean Group and a key step towards its target of zero emissions by 2050. “This gives us a chance to seriously start using green methanol, and this is quite unique,” Svensen added.

Henri Doyer, Chantiers de l’Atlantique’s senior vice-president of ship projects and engineering, said Celebrity Xcel’s tri-fuel engine was a world first. “We have put a lot of energy into this project,” he added. “We have not started the engines yet, but we have already learned a lot with this new fuel, which could be one of the fuels of the future.”