| IMO | 9838395 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 141,420 GT |
| Length | 326.5 m |
| Beam | 39.5 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 3260 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 3937 |
| Crew | 1416 |
| Service speed | 22.6 knots |
| Builder | Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Yard | Saint-Nazaire |
| Hull number | L34 |
| Launched | 2021 |
| Maiden voyage | 2022-04-27 |
| Class | Edge-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Celebrity Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Celebrity Beyond is the third Edge-class cruise ship for Celebrity Cruises and the ship on which the class grew up — literally. Built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, France, launched in 2021 and in service from April 2022, she is about 20 metres longer and one deck taller than the original Edge design of Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Apex, at 141,420 GT against their roughly 130,818 GT. She carries 3,260 guests at double occupancy and up to 3,937 at maximum, with a crew of 1,416 and a recorded speed of 22.6 knots.
That enlargement set the template every later Edge ship has followed, including her younger sister Celebrity Ascent. Beyond is also notable for the people attached to her debut: she was the first ship in the fleet captained by Captain Kate McCue on her entry into service, and she was christened by the gymnast Simone Biles. Her name, like those of her sisters, is taken from the language of Celebrity's own brand slogans.
Key specifications
The dataset gives Celebrity Beyond as 141,420 GT, 326.5 metres long and 39.5 metres in beam, capacity 3,260 passengers at double occupancy and 3,937 maximum, crew 1,416, speed 22.6 knots, IMO number 9838395 and Saint-Nazaire yard number L34. Her Wikipedia infobox adds the registry details — Malta, with Valletta as port of registry — and records her order date as 16 May 2016, her launch on 31 March 2021 and her acquisition by the line on 6 April 2022. The dataset records no separate names list for her; she has only ever carried the name Celebrity Beyond.
Design and construction
The Edge design, introduced in 2018, turned the cruise ship outward: a parabolic, fuel-efficient bow form, the Magic Carpet — a cantilevered platform moving up and down the starboard side, serving as tender station, bar and restaurant extension at different levels — and Infinite Veranda staterooms whose glass outer wall folds away to merge cabin and balcony. For Beyond, Celebrity and the yard stretched the hull — the class overview notes the steel cutting on 28 January 2020 and the lengthening to about 327 metres — and used the extra volume to expand the spaces guests had rated most highly on the first two ships.
The changes were concentrated where the design was already distinctive: a larger, two-level Sunset Bar aft designed by Nate Berkus in contemporary accounts, an expanded Retreat suite enclave with a two-deck sundeck, a reworked Rooftop Garden with floating pools, and one additional specialty restaurant, Le Voyage by Daniel Boulud, the chef's first restaurant at sea. Propulsion follows the class pattern recorded in her particulars: Wärtsilä diesel-generator sets driving two ABB Azipod units, with tunnel thrusters for manoeuvring.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Beyond continues the Edge class's vocabulary of single aspirational words drawn from Celebrity's slogan language — Edge, Apex, Beyond, Ascent. She was launched at Saint-Nazaire on 31 March 2021, in the middle of the pandemic's disruption of both shipbuilding schedules and cruising itself, and was delivered on 6 April 2022.
Her maiden voyage began on 27 April 2022, the dataset's date: a ten-night sailing from Southampton to Barcelona that opened her service. The formal christening came later in the year, as became common in the post-pandemic period — she was christened on 4 November 2022 at Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades) by her godmother, Simone Biles, the most decorated American gymnast in history, joining Malala Yousafzai (Celebrity Edge) and Reshma Saujani (Celebrity Apex) in Celebrity's deliberate line of barrier-breaking godmothers. Her first captain, from 2022 to 2025 according to her Wikipedia account, was Kate McCue, the first American woman to captain a large cruise ship.
Career by operator
Celebrity Beyond has had a single name and a single operator throughout her short career: ordered in 2016, delivered in April 2022, and in continuous Celebrity service since her maiden voyage that month. The notable features of that career so far are ceremonial and human rather than commercial — the November 2022 christening by Simone Biles, months after she had entered service, and Captain McCue's tenure in command from 2022 to 2025. No transfer, renaming or charter away from Celebrity is recorded in the sources consulted, and her seasonal deployments are not described here, as they change year by year.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2022–present | Celebrity Beyond | Celebrity Cruises |
Onboard character
Beyond's character is the Edge idea at full size. The Magic Carpet remains the signature moving part; the Grand Plaza gives the ship a hotel-style social heart under a sculptural chandelier; Eden, the three-deck garden venue aft with its living plant wall, blurs restaurant, bar and performance space in a way no earlier Celebrity ship attempted. What Beyond added was air: the enlarged Sunset Bar sprawling over two aft terraces, the Rooftop Garden's cantilevered plunge pools hanging over the ship's edge, and a Retreat for suite guests big enough to function as a private club with its own restaurant, lounge and two-level sundeck.
Reviewers at her debut consistently described the result as a high-end hotel that happens to move — design-led, adult in tone even though families are carried, and organised around food, with Le Voyage as the culinary flagship. That hotel character, set by Edge and completed by Beyond's extra deck and length, is the era-defining statement of the class; individual venue rosters are revised over a ship's life and are not catalogued here.
Major refits and incidents
None recorded in the sources consulted. Celebrity Beyond entered service in 2022, has undergone no major refit, and no major incident involving her appears in the sources used for this guide.
Sister ships and class
The Edge class, all from Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, comprises Celebrity Edge (2018), Celebrity Apex (2021), Celebrity Beyond (2022), Celebrity Ascent (2023) and Celebrity Xcel (2025), with Celebrity Xcite under construction for later delivery according to the class overview. The class falls into two generations: Edge and Apex at about 130,818 GT, and Beyond and her successors at 141,420 GT on the lengthened hull Beyond introduced. Her closest sister is Ascent, which repeats her layout most nearly; her own place in the sequence is as the ship that defined the class's second, larger form.
Fate and where she is now
Celebrity Beyond is active and operating for Celebrity Cruises, as recorded in the dataset. She is in the early years of her career; no sale, transfer or withdrawal has been announced in the sources consulted.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Beyond, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge-class_cruise_ship, https://www.travelmarketreport.com/cruises/articles/gymnast-simone-biles-presides-over-celebrity-beyond-naming