Celebrity Cruises recently unveiled details of a triple-deck theatre/restaurant/greenhouse venue called Eden.
To be installed on ‘Celebrity Edge’, the venue will be located on Decks 4, 5 and 6 at the vessel’s aft end. The area’s spiral design was inspired by the Fibonacci Sequence. It will be surrounded by more than 7,000 sq ft of glass and will contain a 300-ft ramp to give passengers panoramic views to the sea and a view of what’s happening inboard.
Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Celebrity’s parent company, Royal Caribbean International, said Eden is “a unique advance in cruise ship design, an experience that is multi-faceted and innovative.”
Celebrity collaborated with three partners on the design. Scott Butler of Wilson Butler Architects and newcomer to ship design, Patricia Urquiola. Also involved was Variety Worldwide, creator of a the New York dinner-theatre experience ’Queen of the Night’.
The result is claimed to be “an individualised, ever-evolving theatrical journey that puts guests at the epicentre of the performance.”
At a reception in New York to launch the project, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, said “The entire space is magical throughout morning, afternoon, and evening when our guests will experience Eve at Eden, an experience produced by the visionary Variety Worldwide and our very own Cornelius Gallagher. They have all created something magical and magnificent.”
During the morning, Eden will offer coffee and a croissants, while in the afternoon it turns into a seminar and tastings venue to satisfy passengers’ appetite for cocktails and culinary experiences, Celebrity said.
Early evening will see Eve at Eden, a fusion of performance art and for dinner, the Eden Restaurant will be available.
At an earlier presentation, ‘Celebrity Edge’ was claimed to be the most innovative ship of its kind. Contemporary art by Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst will be hung on board, while private villas will have plunge pools and retracting glass roofs.
Two double-storey 2,500 sq ft suites will be sited above the ship’s bridge, designed with a butler’s pantry, a walk-in closet and a 700 sq ft open-air veranda. A private sun deck with pool bar and dedicated concierge will be accessible only by villa and suite guests.
Cuisine will be overseen by Michelin starred chef Cornelius Gallagher, while the so-called ‘Magic Carpet’, a tennis court-sized cantilevered elevator, will transform from a 16th-floor restaurant into a sea-accessible jetty.
Innovative technology on board will include walls with X-ray vision through a system of high definition cameras, to allow guests a view into certain closed rooms, such as the bridge and anchor room. Other features will include facial recognition software and keyless entry technology with the use of a digital key on a smart phone.
Much of the prototype design was carried out at Celebrity Cruise’s Innovation Lab in Miami, which includes an immersive virtual reality simulator, which is claimed to be the world’s largest and highest resolution 3-D virtual reality simulator.
“At the beginning, Harri Kulovaara [an executive at Royal Caribbean Cruises, the parent company] said, ‘this ship is going to be a paradigm shift in cruise industry design’. And we said, ‘I’ve heard that before.’ But actually, as it started to progress, we realised it really was going to be transformational.”
The $1 bill ‘Celebrity Edge’ will carry almost 3,000 pax on week-long cruises from Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean. She is being built at STX France at St Nazaire with her maiden voyage scheduled for 16th December, 2018. Another three sisters vessels will be delivered in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Fain said that the new fleet will “establish a new baseline for ships from here on out.”
