| Beyond to fulfil Celebrity ambitions

CELEBRITY Cruises’ newest ship Celebrity Beyond (CW yesterday) is geared toward the cruise line’s ambitions to occupy the “new luxury” segment of the market, believes Vice President & Managing Director Australia, New Zealand & Asia Pacific Tim Jones.

With 22 more suites than her Edge Series sister ships, Beyond’s suite size is almost doubled, and there is also more room dedicated to The Retreat, with a 40% larger sundeck now occupying two storeys.

Jones said Celebrity’s shift toward “modern luxury” has occurred organically, and is reflected in recent booking patterns, which strongly represent the upper classes of the cruise line’s product.

“It’s happened naturally…the business we’re seeing is coming from that affluent luxury audience, and it’s coming from the top end of the ship,” he said.

“There’s such a dynamic market that’s so destabilised by world events such as the pandemic, it’s people who have a greater confidence around travel we’re seeing booking, more predisposed to travel internationally, more predisposed to book the upper end of the ship.”

However, Jones noted as the curtain was further pulled back on Beyond, the longer, taller ship’s new spaces would not just be accessible to Retreat guests.

“That’s the great thing about Beyond — we haven’t had to sacrifice that space elsewhere because we’ve made that part of the ship bigger, and we’ve added an extra deck,” he said.

“One of the things you’ll see over the coming months also as we reveal more, you’ll see more of those spaces that aren’t just available to Retreat guests, those spaces have been opened and expanded as well.”

Pictured: A render of Beyond’s Resort Deck, and its quirky elephant statue.