Claire Stirrup, Celebrity Cruises’ UK and EMEA managing director, told TTG the trade had requested more capacity with the premium line on course for “another record-breaking year” for revenue and passenger numbers in the UK and Irish market.
Celebrity Apex has homeported in Southampton for the past two summer seasons and is scheduled to continue offering UK summer sailings until October 2027.
Speaking onboard Celebrity Xcel on Monday (17 November), Stirrup said: “The trade would like a second ship out of Southampton. They asked me on this preview sailing, they asked me on the last preview sailing, that’s what they’re telling me they want. Who knows what is going to happen?
“If we can keep performing as we are who knows what might happen. We’ve got a fleet of 16 so who knows which ship it would be.”
Celebrity is still deciding when it’s going to launch its 2028 itineraries, but Stirrup suggested they may be announced after March.
This should be when agents will learn if their efforts to get a second UK-based ship have been successful. Celebrity has never deployed two ships in the UK before.
Before Apex, the line deployed Celebrity Reflection, Celebrity Eclipse and Celebrity Silhouette in the UK.
Nicola McNeish, Celebrity’s UK and Ireland sales director, noted how the brand’s president Laura Hodges Bethge had previously said the UK and Irish market would have to hit certain targets to ensure an Edge series ship remained in Southampton.
McNeish added: “The UK trade are delivering that for us. They’re doing what they promised. We’re on track for another record-breaking year.”
She highlighted how agents invited on the Xcel preview sailings from Fort Lauderdale, US, had been given a toolkit to help promote the ship to their customers.
“One of the things that we done for the trade out here is put together a toolkit,” she said. “They’ve been given a bank of assets, including HTML email templates and social posts ready to go.
"Within an hour of being onboard they had posted on their social channels using the assets we had provided. The assets say ‘I’m one of the first onboard Xcel’.”
McNeish also explained how Xcel could attract new-to-cruise passengers next summer when it will operate 30 sailings from two homeports – Barcelona and Piraeus.
“The US will sell a lot of short Caribbean cruises to new-to-cruise passengers,” she said. “The equivalent for us is it is about the seven-night Europe itineraries. Xcel is a perfectly placed to do that. Next summer, Xcel will do 30 sailings in Europe. There is a whole chunk of seven-night sailings which are perfect for new-to-cruise.”
Meanwhile, Stirrup appeared to suggest efforts were being made to see if UK and Irish travel agents could experience Xcel on a ship visit next summer.
“From a ship visit point of view, we’re looking at how we can get trade on,” she said.
