I tried Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Carnival’s newest cruise ships to see how they compare

Cruise fans will agree: there’s something extra special about sailing on a cruise line’s brand-new ship. While older ships have charm, you can also find outdated decor, old-school ship design and a little bit more rust than you might prefer. 

Sailing on a brand-new cruise ship feels like buying a new car. Not only are you experiencing the latest and greatest from an innovation standpoint, but everything just feels modern, clean and fresh. 

This fall, I had the unique opportunity to cruise on the newest ships from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line. My travels weren’t necessarily planned with the intention solely to experience these brand-new ships; rather, it was more serendipitous. 

All three of these brand-new cruise ships were stylish, sleek and modern; however, each ship embodies its own ambiance and distinct offerings onboard to create a unique cruising experiences. 

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line are three of the biggest names in the industry; here’s my honest review of how these newest cruise ships stack up against one another.

Ship Overview

In late October 2022, I sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas from Rome, Italy for a 12-night cruise to Israel and Greece. 

Odyssey of the Seas is the second newest cruise ship for Royal Caribbean, debuting in 2021. While not the biggest ship in Royal Caribbean’s fleet, Odyssey of the Seas is the second Quantum Ultra-class cruise ship for the company and the final ship of the Quantum-class. At maximum capacity, Odyssey of the Seas can hold 5,500 passengers. 

In a quick turn of events, I bopped down to Fort Lauderdale just a few days after returning from Europe to board Celebrity Beyond. This was a hosted media event for the Celebrity Beyond’s North American debut. We only stayed onboard for 2-nights, but the dazzling new cruise ship left a lasting impression.

Celebrity Beyond is the third ship in Celebrity’s Edge class, holding nearly 4,000 passengers. 

A few weeks later, I sailed on Carnival Cruise Line’s newest cruise ship, Carnival Celebration. We were lucky enough to be on Carnival Celebration’s second sailing from the U.S and one of the ship’s very first inaugural sailings ever. 

Carnival Celebration is the second ship in Carnival’s new Excel-class of cruise ships, which has completely revolutionized the company’s fleet.

The Excel-class of ships has introduced the biggest cruise ships for Carnival Cruise Line, holding early 40% more passengers than any other Carnival ship. When sailing at maximum capacity, Carnival Celebration can hold around 6,500 passengers. 

Design

Although each cruise ship is brand new, Odyssey of the Seas, Carnival Celebration and Celebrity Beyond have distinct ambiances onboard thanks to thoughtful design elements.

When thinking about which ship had the best design, it’s hard not to immediately think of Celebrity Beyond.

In all honesty, I fell in love with Celebrity Beyond’s art and design. The brand-new ship for Celebrity exudes a special warmth onboard, especially considering the first thing you see onboard is the spectacular chandelier in the Grand Plaza. 

In a love-at-first-sight kind of way, I was blown away by Celebrity Beyond’s remarkable attention to detail and stunning designs throughout the ship. 

Celebrity’s brand-new ship felt more like a boutique hotel than a cruise ship - even the pool deck revealed a Mediterranean beach club. In fact, Celebrity collaborated with world-class interior designers to create such an unparalleled experience onboard, and it definitely shows.

Celebrity Beyond blows any competition out of the water when it comes to design, but that doesn’t imply the designs of Odyssey of the Seas or Carnival Celebration fell flat by any means. 

As a longtime, loyal Royal Caribbean cruiser, Odyssey of the Seas’ design felt like home for me. As the cruise line’s name suggests, Royal Caribbean does the Caribbean better than any other company; likewise, Odyssey’s design is Caribbean-inspired with bright pops of color, palm trees and cabana-style seating. 

Of course, Odyssey of the Seas has modern - even technological- design elements, but nothing about the onboard designs or details took my breath away like Celebrity Beyond. 

Keeping with the modern design elements, Carnival Celebration was a welcomed change for the cruise line. With this new Excel-class of ships, Carnival has completely ditched their outdated style of design, which used to feature dark, cramped spaces with an overload of neon color - almost like a nightclub. 

Instead, Carnival Celebration has a more open, sleek and subdued design with hints of Carnival’s classic colors. A few design-heavy areas left us really impressed, such as destination-themed zone called The Gateway. 

While Celebrity Beyond’s design left us nearly speechless, Carnival Celebration’s design felt necessary for the cruise line to stay relevant and competitive in the current cruise industry. 

Dining

One of my favorite aspects of cruising is all of the food available onboard to try - including both speciality and complimentary dining. Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Carnival have some of the best food in the cruising industry, but each shine in their own way. 

To start, Odyssey of the Seas had the best speciality dining when comparing Celebrity Beyond and Carnival Celebration. We dined at Chops Grille Steakhouse and Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen during our cruise. Both of these experiences were excellent with attentive service and high-quality cuisine. 

While we tried Carnival Celebration’s steakhouse and teppanyaki and Celebrity Beyond’s Le Petit Chef, the experiences fell short of the specialty dining restaurants on Odyssey of the Seas. Between the service and food-quality, our money was best spent on Odyssey’s specialty restaurants. 

When it comes to casual dining, Carnival Celebration blows Odyssey and Celebrity Beyond out of the water (no pun intended). Between Big Chicken’s fried chicken sandwiches to Guy’s Burger Joint’s greasy cheeseburgers, these quick service options were phenomenal.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the food venues available, such as the stone-fire pizza, freshly made burritos, and smoked pulled pork. 

Where Carnival Celebration gravely disappoints is the ship’s onboard buffet. I’ve never been impressed with Carnival’s buffets, and, unfortunately, Carnival Celebration was no exception. 

In comparison to Celebrity Beyond serving international cuisine like flavorful paella and desserts straight from a Parisian patisserie, Carnival Celebration’s bland buffet had little variety or appeal. 

Staterooms

Comparing staterooms across Odyssey of the Seas, Carnival Celebration and Celebrity Beyond will be more difficult since we stayed in different stateroom categories on each ship. 

On Odyssey of the Seas, we bid to upgrade from an inside cabin to a junior suite in the weeks leading up to our cruise; the accepted bid was a pleasant surprise and we sailed in a spacious, junior suite during our 12-night European sailing.

During the Celebrity Beyond media event, we were lucky enough to experience an Infinite Veranda stateroom, which is the cruise line’s modern take on a traditional balcony.

Finally, our stateroom during one of Carnival Celebration’s inaugural sailings, we stayed in an inside cabin guarantee  

Each of these staterooms were functional and well-designed to utilize the space to its full potential. All three cabins had tons of storage for us to unpack and get comfortable, although Celebrity Beyond’s closet location was not as desirable being right against the bed. 

All three staterooms had multiple outlets to use throughout our cruises, including USB outlets as well. This is a necessary and welcomed change in the cruise industry, as allocating one or two outlets for everyone to use in a single stateroom is cumbersome.

Another positive shift in the cruising industry is allocating more bathroom space to bigger showers. Even our small inside cabin on Carnival Celebration had an unexpectedly large shower - a huge upgrade from the old-school capsule showers with clingy shower curtains.  

Perhaps not surprising, our junior suite on Odyssey of the Seas was the most impressive of the three staterooms with a massive balcony, bathtub and separate toilet area with an additional sink. 

To our disappointment, Celebrity Beyond’s infinite veranda felt more like a sunroom and less like a private balcony. With the veranda having little exposure to the open air and likely contributing to poor circulation in our stateroom, we wouldn’t pay to book an infinite veranda on a future Celebrity cruise. 

Bars and Lounges

Crucial to any cruising experience, the bars and lounges onboard each of Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity’s newest ships featured plenty of fun, themed places to grab a cocktail. 

Like Celebrity Beyond’s design, the brand-new ship’s onboard bars and lounges are tough to beat. From the Moroccan-themed Sunset Bar with sweeping views of the ocean and the Grand Atrium’s Martini Bar with 20-something martinis, Celebrity Beyond had us sipping cocktails almost nonstop during our short sailing.

Carnival is also known for having the most fun ships at sea, so it’s only appropriate that Carnival Celebration had more than a dozen bars and lounges onboard to try. One of our favorite spots to grab a drink was The Gateway, which featured cocktails from around the world.

Similarly, the Golden Jubilee - which pays homage to the cruise line’s past, present and future - was a delightful spot to grab a cocktail. Don’t forget Carnival’s RedFrog Tiki Bar on the pool deck and chemistry-themed Alchemy Bar as well! 

Odyssey of the Seas featured Lime & Coconut on the pool deck, serving up a creamy rum cocktail in a Malibu bucket as its signature drink. Royal Caribbean’s ships always feature a Schooner Bar, Boleros Wine Bar and more recently English-style pub. I’d love to see more interestingly themed bars and lounges on Royal Caribbean ships. 

Entertainment

Similar to our stateroom comparison, it will be a little difficult to compare equally the entertainment options onboard Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Carnival’s newest ships. 

To start, our Odyssey of the Seas cruise was a very port-intensive cruise in Europe. Therefore, we weren’t always wanting to stay up late each night to experience all of the entertainment onboard. 

We were able to see Odyssey’s main headliner shows, including the cruise line’s very own Broadway-style Effectors show, which showcased excellent music and energetic dances. Additionally, The Book is an imaginative show that takes place in Odyssey’s Two70 Theatre - located at the aft of the ship with impressive views of the ship’s aft - featured singing, dancing, acrobatics and memorizing LED screens. 

Similarly, our 2-night stay on Celebrity Beyond only allowed us to try one show onboard, which is not nearly enough time to really get a feel for the ship’s entertainment offerings. The only show we were able to see was the Jazz Joint in The Club. This interactive, slightly risqué show was delightfully entertaining with jazz singing, dancing and even acrobatics. 

With the most time onboard Carnival Celebration, we were able to see each headliner show. Prior Carnival cruises always left me disappointed in the production quality, often feeling like high schoolers were performing onstage. Carnival Celebration’s new show at Center Stage, The Most Magnificent Circus, was one of the best shows I’ve seen at sea (although the chaotic seating situation took away from the show’s captivation). 

Ultimately, we were impressed with all of the entertainment options onboard Odyssey of the Seas, Carnival Celebration, and Celebrity Beyond.

Thrills, Innovation and Technology

Cruise lines are always looking for new, bold ways to push the envelope of innovation and technology. Sailing on Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity’s brand-new ships gave us the opportunity to test out all of the new technology and innovation. 

Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line are two of the most family-friendly cruise lines in the industry. You can always expect to find tons of onboard thrills with these cruise lines - Odyssey of the Seas and Carnival Celebration are no exception. 

Carnival’s new Excel-class ships feature the cruise line’s newest innovation, Bolt: The Ultimate Rollercoaster at Sea. After trying out this industry-first for ourselves on Carnival Celebration, we thought the roller coaster was well-worth the money! Other onboard thrills include adrenaline-pumping waterslides and a ropes course. 

Odyssey of the Seas packs more onboard thrills than any of these brand-new cruise ships. With the iFly skydiving simulator, bumper cars, FlowRider surf simulator and North Star, we had tons of options for cool experiences to try out. The North Star was something I’d never done before - and it was complimentary in port, so we were excited to see the ship from a bird’s eye view. 

While Celebrity Cruises isn’t exactly family-focused, the cruise line is still focused on innovation and technological advancement. The Magic Carpet is one of the most revolutionary elements of Celebrity Beyond; this catapulted, versatile space serves as a tender launch by day and a rooftop bar by night.