Celebrity Cruises Unveils Most Extensive Entertainment Programme Ever on Celebrity Xcel

Are you not entertained? 

If you’re not now, you will be soon as Celebrity Cruises have this week revealed new details about upcoming Edge-class ship Celebrity Xcel—and it’s safe they have taken their entertainment offering to dizzying new heights.

In addition to the largest troupe of resident performers aboard any Celebrity ship, Xcel will boast five brand new shows, alongside the live music, dance parties, festivals and games that have made Celebrity Cruises one of the leading names in onboard amusements. Featuring aerialists, parkour artists, dancers, pyrotechnics, laser video etching, kinetic lighting and a 110-foot curved kinetic LED screen, this is entertainment at sea as you have never seen it before. 

Guests will be transported to 1920s Hollywood with interactive show, ‘Between Takes’, whilst they can look forward to a tour of the world’s most iconic music festivals with ‘Mainstage’, a high-energy live music concert featuring hits from decades of musical icons. For those in search of something a little more thought-provoking, the ‘Chapters’ show will take them on a moving, spiritual journey through nature, renewal and the beauty of the world around them. 

Spacious, dynamic and humming with electric energy, The Club is a popular entertainment venue on all of Celebrity’s Edge-class ships. By day, The Club is a bustling hangout space where people can take classes, play games or simply mingle. By night, it transforms into a glowing nightlife hotspot, drawing in guests for drinking, dancing, DJ sets and - all-new for Celebrity Xcel - two never-before-seen shows. HOTEL places guests right in the middle of glitzy cabaret style comedy, featuring twists, turns and musical numbers galore, whilst 254 West is a 1980s inspired romp, followed by a lively after party. 

As well as scheduled performances, live music and dance parties will feature prominently throughout each voyage, as they do on every Celebrity sailing. Think live piano players serenading guests in the bars, jazz quartets, acoustic renditions, DJ sets and candlelit concerts. Good-time guests will revel in the ever-popular pool parties, Saddle Up Saloon country music party and of course, the besequinned ‘Shine the Night’ party, which no Celebrity voyage would be complete without.

Brand new to Celebrity and debuting on Xcel is the Bazaar, a multi-sensory, multi-level space set to be the cultural hub of the ship. Showcasing a range of entertainment options morning, noon and night, the centrepiece of this space will be series of four festivals, each celebrating the heritage and culture of a different region. A live mariachi band, make-your-own papel picado decorations and endless tequila will immerse guests in the spirit of Mexico, whilst they’ll get a taste of the Dominican Republic with the make-your-own jewellery and rum cocktails of the Flora festival. On a more tranquil note, the space will be bedecked in shades of blue and sand sculptures for the Aqua festival, which celebrates the Caribbean Sea itself. The festival run culminates in the Carnival, featuring troupes of dancers and acrobats, vibrant costumes, samba music and fireworks. 

When it comes to a more interactive style of entertainment, the name of the game is…games. Live games have always formed a large part of Celebrity’s entertainment programme, and they’ve once again raised the bar with Xcel. Aboard, guests will have access to an array of activities including:

• Brain Spin, a rapid-fire, wheel-spinning, puzzle-solving quiz game.
• High Stakes, a live elimination game show. 
• A destination-themed, map-reading mystery in The Club. 
• A robotics inspired escape room.

Celebrity Cruises vice-president of entertainment Lisa Lehr said: “Celebrity Xcel will further elevate Celebrity’s award-winning offering to create a world-class entertainment destination our guests are going to love. With over 75 resident performers, guests will find unforgettable experiences and unexpected surprises at every turn”. 

With Xcel, Celebrity Cruises have strived to craft the entertainment experience guests want to see, and what better way to do that than to get the guests involved at every stage? That’s right, this enhanced entertainment programme was created in collaboration with the Dream Makers, a cohort of guests who had the final say on each and every detail of the ship from the cocktail menus and party themes all the way down to the dancers’ costumes and the pattern of the carpets. With this in mind, it’s little surprise that onboard entertainment is set to surpass anything seen before. 

Celebrity Xcel makes her debut in November 2025, homeporting in Fort Lauderdale and operating itineraries in the Caribbean, Mexico, the Cayman Islands and The Bahamas, before repositioning to Europe in Summer 2026 for her first Mediterranean season.

Interested in sailing with Celebrity Cruises? You can find out more here.