Celebrity Flora Could Shake Up Expedition Cruising

Celebrity Cruises is riding the next wave of industry developments into the future of the expedition market.

Its next Celebrity Flora new-build may be small, but it means big things for the Galapagos and potentially beyond.

Before the vessel was announced, the premium line’s expedition product consisted of three acquired craft—recently expanded from the Xpedition alone to also include the Xperience and Xploration. Meanwhile, it aimed high to an overall fleet led by the fresh Celebrity Edge by December 2018.

The Flora is a bold move in step with the flagship to come, but you may wonder how it will affect the brand’s existing ships in the Galapagos. After confirming with Celebrity, TravelPulse can report that the latest Xperience and Xploration will be phased out of the regional offering as of June 1, 2019, when the Xpedition first embarks on its new 7-night Saturday-to-Saturday itinerary.

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TravelPulse has also learned that the new ship—scheduled to launch on May 26, 2019—is already under construction at the DeHoop shipyard in the Netherlands.

The greater significance of the Flora is twofold: One, it is proving again that newly constructed expedition ships are in vogue as one uniquely purpose-built for the Galapagos.

It also marks one of the big three cruise corporations showing stronger support for dedicated expedition vessels.

The expedition cruise market has been mostly serviced by aging ships renovated for their modern deployments. The recent building boom among companies like classic Crystal Cruises to newcomer Norwegian Yacht Voyages is looking to change that with completely new hardware. Until now, though, sensibility has taken an indie approach.

READ MORE: Celebrity Cruises Plans Fleet-Wide Renovation

Celebrity, alternatively, is coming from a mainstream cruise line perspective.

One could argue that giant Carnival Corporation’s Seabourn is one to already embark on expeditions, but the luxury line does so with ships not explicitly designed for adventure travel. Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited via Celebrity is really the only major player to operate a true year-round expedition vessel.

Now the Flora is set to take things further by applying some mega-ship design cues to the small ship world. Just one look at the exterior renderings of the vessel indicates that it will share some of the same angular undulations as the dramatic Edge, and common features will even extend to innovative Infinite Verandas in the suites.

From a functional standpoint, the ship’s means to simultaneously accommodate up to three Zodiacs at its marina—a huge advancement when most can ever embark and disembark one at a time. Plus, the anchorless positioning system to protect the seafloor while in place is great for the environment.

READ MORE: Celebrity Takes New Eden to the Edge

Of course, the fact that all of this is intended exclusively for the Galapagos is quite extraordinary as other new expedition new-builds are earmarked for several different locations. One can’t help but wonder if in time it may also wander elsewhere.

Or if it proves successful enough, could a sister-ship sail to other parts of the globe? The Netherlands shipyard could easily supply internationally.

How the competition responds will be the most interesting to watch. More and more veteran lines will likely have to ponder building new ships as the trend definitely leans towards starting from scratch.

Other mainstream lines may eventually throw their hat into the ring as well.

For years, it was predicted that the bigger companies might pursue river cruising, but it might just be that they head for the dedicated expedition market instead. Other major sub-brands that could follow Celebrity’s lead include aforementioned Seabourn or those already well-known for offering intimately-sized offerings like Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Limited.

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