The Celebrity Edge premium drink package cost extra, but was money well spent. Photo / Celebrity Cruises
First-time cruiser Jacques Steenkamp shares his verdict on the Celebrity Edge all-inclusive experience.
“Caution. We bought the drink package.”
That pretty much sums up what I expected an all-inclusive cruise aboard the Celebrity Edge would entail. It was also a sign posted on a door down the hallway from my stateroom.
This was the first-ever cruise for my wife and me. We did not know what to expect. Well, other than the drinking, of course.
Cruises are often bucket-list items for many travellers, and in 2026 this includes families and couples. For most of them, this was also their first cruise, and for some, it was pre-booked years in advance to take advantage of the discounts.
I was apprehensive of being confined to a small cabin drifting on the open ocean. We’ve all watched how Titanic and Poseidon ended … But alas, my fears were for nought.
When I first laid eyes on this behemoth docked in Auckland, dwarfing everything nearby, I fell in love. It looked sleek and modern, and yes, very, very sexy. It looked ready for the round trip via Fiji, Samoa and American Samoa.
Boarding was a seamless experience, albeit with the chaos of 2000 people milling about midship trying to find their bearings. With 15 decks and dozens of rooms per floor on either side of the ship, it would take some time to get used to where you had to go.
However, and I can’t stress this enough, what makes Celebrity Edge so amazing is its staff. They are cheerful, helpful, and very hardworking. I couldn’t find fault with any of the staff I encountered.
Our stateroom was an Infinite Veranda and situated on the eighth floor. It was spacious, centred around a king-size bed, with a decent-sized bathroom. The veranda was a small, partitioned deck that stuck out from the ship, with a huge electronic sliding window you could open to the elements. This offered astounding views and the fresh, salty smell of the open ocean.
But I remained careful, as one could never know when one’s wife would eventually get fed up with all the dad jokes on a two-week-long cruise and being confined with you, and eventually tip one overboard …
Niry, our Madagascar room attendant, was heaven-sent. He honestly was akin to some magic elf who’d appear in seconds if we summoned him. He also cleaned our room twice a day and did a stellar job as an all-round awesome human being and Celebrity Edge representative.
The room featured a widescreen television that offered several, mostly British, channels, with live views of the ship, an infomercial-type channel on upcoming excursions, what to buy aboard and other cruises, and a dedicated channel for the cruise director to give daily updates on what was happening where and when. This was accompanied by a daily itinerary delivered to each room. All in all, I found these updates super useful and quite innovative, especially when added to the ship’s app and its functionality.
However, we weren’t there to watch television all day. We came to drink, to dance, to enjoy the theatre and other shows, and most of all, to eat. And yes, did we eat.
Included in the standard fare is access to the ship’s complimentary dining, which includes four main dining restaurants (fancy), a couple of cafes, and the mast grill (serving burgers and chips). The standout for us was the ship’s Oceanview Cafe, serving buffet-style food from multiple stations, each with a different theme/style, and open from the crack of dawn to around 1am (anybody say late-night pizza?).
The first few days on the Celebrity Edge, we booked our evening meals at one of the main dining restaurants and got all dressed up for the occasion. The food is good, especially the tender octopus on offer at the Greek Cyprus Restaurant.
But we soon found ourselves preferring not to have to be all dressed to the teeth for dinner, and opted for the more laid-back Oceanview Cafe, where there were plenty of seats and way too much food to choose from. For example, for breakfast, you could choose from British, American, or Asian stations, or opt for fruit salad, pastries, or plain cereal. You could also pig out and eat as much, or as little, as you wanted and return repeatedly. The dessert station, on occasion, looked like a scrumptious work of art.
The food alone, in my opinion, covered the cost of the cruise.
However, let’s get back to that premium drink package. It costs extra, but I can tell you unequivocally that it would be money well spent. Without it, you are limited to machine coffee and certain cheap alcoholic beverages. With it, the drinking world is your proverbial oyster. I saw plenty of people who couldn’t enjoy a freshly brewed, barista-made coffee because they didn’t have the premium package. More fool them. And that’s not even mentioning the multitude of scattered bars and their liquid goodness on offer.
You can get away with skipping the premium dining package that lets you enjoy the specialty restaurants, but why would you want to be limited in your drinking habits? This is, after all, on your bucket list, is it not?
The journalist travelled courtesy of Celebrity Cruises.