Celebrity Xcel Embarkation Day: Smooth Day 1 Tips

We were the first paying passengers to set foot in Infinite Veranda Stateroom 6272 — a fact we only appreciated in hindsight, since getting there meant a 2 AM hotel check-in, a government shutdown threatening our flight, and a $36 Uber to the cruise terminal. Celebrity Xcel’s maiden voyage was scheduled for November 18th. We boarded nine days earlier, on the first sailing with paying guests, with First Mate Rolo already perched on the bed for his photo.

This post is the Celebrity Xcel embarkation day, part of our Celebrity Xcel 2025 preview cruise review series — the story of how we ended up on a ship that, as far as the passenger experience was concerned, Celebrity was still finding its feet on right alongside us. Celebrity added a 4-night preview sailing on November 9th, round trip from Fort Lauderdale with a single stop in Cozumel. We’d booked an Infinite Veranda guaranteed rate back in early May, meaning the cruise line would assign our stateroom closer to sailing — $2,367, not including gratuities, drink package, or wi-fi, which we added later.

Embarkation & Priority Check-In at Port Everglades Terminal 25

With the U.S. government shut down, we were fortunate that our flight made it to Fort Lauderdale at all, arriving at our hotel at 2 AM the day of the sailing. After an abbreviated sleep and rushed breakfast at the Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port, we took a 15-20 minute Uber to Port Everglades — $36 with tip for the two of us, less costly and more comfortable than the hourly hotel shuttle.

Rideshare drop-off at Port Everglades Terminal 25 is right next to the entrance, with luggage porters waiting to take checked bags. After a quick stop for a photo we didn’t buy in front of an Xcel balloon display, by 11 AM we were riding the escalator up to priority check-in, taking advantage of our purchase of the Premium Access: Wi-Fi & More Perks package. More on that package later. 

Check-in was mostly seamless. Our Xpress Passes briefly vanished from the Celebrity App, but the agent had our information and Xpress Passes on their iPad, so on we went. By 11:20 AM we were the first paying passengers standing inside Stateroom 6272, dropping our bags and snapping Rolo’s photo on the bed. Our SeaPass cards had been waiting for us in a slot by the door.

The mandatory safety briefing was all handled on the Celebrity App. We watched it in the Uber. After a quick muster station scan to complete the briefing, it was time for our favorite coffee shop at sea, Café al Bacio.

Café al Bacio sits in the Grand Plaza on deck 4, open 6am to midnight every day including disembarkation day, with a daily-rotating case of cakes, pastries, and finger sandwiches alongside its coffee and tea menu. You can order at the counter or from one of the 90+ seats, a mix of larger tables and cozy two-tops, some overlooking the Martini Bar below — a great spot to relax and people-watch, which is exactly what we did over an Iced Americano for Rona and a hot one for me.

Well-caffeinated, we decided to check out the Bazaar on deck 5 in the aft of the ship. Fair warning: the Bazaar is also where we ran into Zach the Traveling Man. More on that below, but first, the Bazaar itself.

Exploring The Bazaar & Spice Cafe: Included Dining Upgrades

The Bazaar — first of its kind on an Edge class ship — is a multi-deck experience with a market, festivals, and entertainment all of which are reached through an immersive, LED-lit and projection-mapped tunnel. The tunnel and everything in the Bazaar is themed to the day and destination.

Between the tunnel and the Bazaar proper is the Market at the Bazaar, part of Celebrity’s aim to blur the line between ship and shore. It is a rotating sea-day marketplace where local artisans, cultural tastings, and destination-inspired pop-up shops bring the flavor of each port directly onboard.

On the other Edge-class ships, much of the area is called Eden, and on deck 5 it includes a bar, seating and entertainment area that hosts a variety of shows. There are huge panoramic windows along the aft of the ship, with a ring of seating overlooking the entire space on deck 6. Eden’s theme tends to be more about nature, while the Bazaar is themed with the changing festivals as well as that sailing’s destinations. 

Below on deck 4, Xcel’s Mosaic restaurant replaces the Eden specialty restaurant on the other Edge-class ships. We did not try Mosaic, so cannot speak to whether it is as good or better than Eden, which was our favorite dining experience on the Apex earlier this year.

One notable upgrade is the presence of Spice, a casual dining / “grab and go” location that replaces Eden Café on the older ships. Its menu includes rotating dishes inspired by the ship’s itinerary. Spice is open every day for breakfast and lunch, as well as afternoon snack time, whereas Eden Café was only open on sea days.

Spice also offers more seating with natural light and floor to ceiling windows.

Spice has a counter offering a variety of coffees, teas, espressos, and some cakes and themed pastries much like Café al Bacio. Perhaps most importantly for the folks who may be upset that the Xcel does not have the Spa Café found on other Celebrity ships, this counter also offers the healthy juices and smoothies typically found in the Spa Café.

On our way out through the tunnel from the Bazaar, we had our first of two encounters with cruise content creators we follow. A familiar-looking guy was moving with purpose in the opposite direction, and I leaned into Rona and said, “I think that’s Zach the Traveling Man.” Rona looked over and, without any reservation, called out, “Hey, Zach!” He turned and walked back over, and could not have been nicer — we talked for a few minutes about the ship and his impressions, particularly how much he loved the Celebrity Flagship area. Epic fail that we didn’t get a picture with him. We’d repeat that mistake the next day.

Between the tunnel to the Bazaar and the Grand Plaza sits Celebrity Flagship, part museum, part retail store, though the store only opens on sea days. One exhibit area holds memorabilia, photos of old ships, deck plans and marine chronometers, plus a large cut-away model of the ship where guests are challenged to find Waldo.

Another area has an interactive touchscreen with a video wall display allowing folks to learn about the history of the fleet, though we did not try it out on this sailing. The Flagship store sells a mix of branded apparel, accessories, drinkware, small souvenirs, customizable gifts, and ship-themed memorabilia. Nothing is particularly inexpensive, but I did buy a pair of Celebrity Xcel hats for $40.

Up on deck 15, the Rooftop Garden and Bora (reserved for brunch the next day) sit near two new plunge pools right at the ship’s edge. Down on 14, the Oceanview Cafe buffet looked fresh and well-stocked even on day one.

The pool deck has its own monkey sculptures (each Edge-class ship gets different ones). The pool seems big enough for the ship, with plenty of sun loungers everywhere plus some in-pool loungers in shallow water along one side of the pool. Celebrity offers the “poolest day ever” on the last sea day for the sailing, with games and snacks and drinks during the day, and then at night is the “Shine the Night” party, a high-energy, after-dark pool-deck party featuring dazzling lights, live performances, and guests dressed in their shiniest outfits for a big outdoor celebration.

The adult-only Solarium is up near the bow and was as warm and quiet as we remembered from our Celebrity Solstice days. This is the adult-only indoor pool area with a high glass atrium roof and plenty of cushioned loungers. It can get pretty active on sea days. As noted earlier, the Spa Cafe is not present in the Solarium on Xcel, though many of the beverages are available in Spice.

Mid-ship, the Magic Carpet — the cantilevered orange platform that serves as bar, lounge, or tender platform depending on the day — was finally fully open for us to explore, after it had been under repair for most of our Apex sailing.

There was more to see, but by then we were hungry for lunch. Hours for every venue are in the section at the end of this post. We had reserved the Premium Access: Wi-Fi & More Perks shortly after booking this cruise, and at the time this included the Concierge lunch. Was the package worth it? Follow the series to find out. In the meantime, we made our way down to the aft of the ship on deck 4 for lunch at Tuscan Grille, one of four main included-in-your-fare dining rooms aboard the Xcel. 

Celebrity Xcel Main Dining: Tuscan Grille Lunch & Cyprus Dinner

The four main dining rooms sit in the aft of the ship and share a “classic” dinner menu, but each one also offers dishes that are exclusive to the restaurant as well as a distinct theme and decor. Tuscan is Southern-Italian. Cosmopolitan, also on deck 4, is modern American. One deck below sits Cyprus, which is Mediterranean / Greek, and Normandie, which is Contemporary French. Luminae is also open for retreat guests as is Blu for Aqua class.

We were seated at a large table at Tuscan with six other guests, all of whom were extremely friendly. Rona is far more gregarious than I am, but the conversation was easy, at one point turning to our visit to Portugal from the Apex as one of the other guests’ entire family was from there.

The Concierge lunch menu is small, with a choice of three appetizers: Harira Soup, a lentils and vegetable concoction with Moroccan spices, Pate de Campagne, and a Spinach and Roquefort salad. Rona went with the salad and I had the soup, which was tasty and had a bit of a kick. 

Choice of entrees included Basque Style Branzino, Joue De Boeuf (beef cheeks) and Rigatoni Alla Norma (eggplant, ricotta and red sauce). We both ordered the Branzino, the fish was flaky and mild, and the peppers and chorizo plus broth added a great deal of flavor. Another guest at the table had the braised beef cheeks and said it was also delicious. 

Dessert was either Portokalopita, a Greek cake made from shredded phyllo dough and soaked in orange caramel sauce, or Baba au Rum, a small French yeast-raised cake with whipped cream and passion fruit gel. Rona was full but I had a go at the chewy and sweet Portokalopita.  Overall, this was a nice meal with pleasant company.

With full bellies, we checked out The Club, a two-level, multi-purpose venue midship on decks 4 and 5 that transitions from a daytime gathering spot for games and activities to a more vibrant nighttime entertainment hub featuring live music, shows, and a mysterious photo booth near the bar… #IYKYK. The space on deck 5 is called the Attic, and unlike on the prior Edge class ships, it has retro arcade games and lounge games such as pool, darts, and foosball. It’s also got some snack vending machines in case you are craving a little something-something. Additionally, there is some seating up here for the shows that take place downstairs.

The bar was open, but it was getting close to sail-away, so instead we headed up the elevators to deck 15 near Rooftop Garden. Being one deck up from the Pool Club made sail-away from Port Everglades a less boisterous affair, which was right up our alley. The views were serene.

The new Disney Destiny ship docked nearby, ready to set out on its maiden voyage the following day. Passengers on other ships as well as folks on land came out to wave at the Xcel as we smoothly set out toward the Atlantic.

Much of the afternoon before an early dinner involved unpacking and recording the cabin tour for YouTube. Though we prefer not to eat at “old people o’clock”, the plan was to catch both the early show (7:30 PM) in the theater and a new show at The Club (10:30 PM), with some time at the Martini Bar in between.

Dinner was at Cyprus.

For starters, Rona had the Caesar Salad while I had Shrimp Cocktail, both off the classic menu available to all dining rooms. We also shared the Grilled Octopus off the Cyprus Exclusives menu. The octopus was phenomenal. The salad was the typical variety, fine though nothing special. You get four medium-sized shrimp in the shrimp cocktail, so if you’re hungry, order more than one or another appetizer. Ask your server what the record is for most shrimp cocktails ordered by one passenger at one meal. It’s kind of funny.

For entrees, Rona ordered the broiled salmon off the classic menu, while I ordered the Kordelia Pasta with Bottarga from the Cyprus Exclusives menu. Rona asked for the salmon without mashed potatoes, but with extra vegetables and they obliged. She was pretty full from the appetizers so didn’t eat much of it, though I had a few bites of the salmon and it was delicious. This was a good thing because I didn’t love the pasta, which was thick and creamy and not what I turned out to be in the mood for. Who knows what I was thinking when I ordered it.

For dessert, Rona managed a couple of bites of the Galaktoboureko (gah-lahk-toh-BOO-reh-koh) with yogurt ice cream, a Cyprus special, and I ate about half a chocolate lava cake. To be honest, Rona just ate the yogurt ice cream, which tasted like actual yogurt. I had a bite or two of the super sweet layers of custard, buttered phyllo dough, and syrup. It was delicious, but it’s hard to beat a chocolate lava cake for my tastebud dollar.

After dinner we hurried over to the theater in the front of the ship to see the first ever production of the new show, Between Takes. We needn’t have rushed, because our Premium Access pass got us into the small reserved theater seating with no problem. Like on the other Edge class ships, the main theater on the Xcel has a massive wraparound LED screen, a towering, high-definition digital backdrop that transforms the ship’s theater with immersive visuals and cinematic environments during shows. Between Takes is a high-energy, 1920s Hollywood–themed theatre show that puts you in the middle of the chaotic and spectacular action happening between “cut” and “action” on a movie set. It was fabulous.

After the show we stopped by the Martini Bar for drinks and live music from 5 Octaves and a bit of a show put on by the talented bartenders.

Rona loves the Prickly Pear and Orange Blossom Condesa Gin that Celebrity carries, and as a bonus they also have diet tonic everywhere to make a lower sugar Gin & Tonic. I went with the Martinez.

Nightlife & Shows: Between Takes & Saddle Up Saloon

Around 10 PM we headed to The Club, and were able to get seats upstairs in the attic for another new show, Saddle up Saloon. This is a lively, country-themed party where some guests threw on cowboy hats and danced while a live band jammed out to a bunch of country / pop-country music. This was a ton of fun and highly recommended.

When the show was over, we felt a wee bit peckish so headed up to the Oceanview Cafe for some late night protein charcuterie and meatball snacking. Maybe a small slice of pizza accidentally fell into my mouth, but it’s hard to say what really happened versus a fever dream before returning to our cabin for the night.

Celebrity Xcel Dining Hours at a Glance

Planning your own sailing? Here are the included dining options that were open for each meal and day type on our November 2025 sailing.

Breakfast

Breakfast is not available on embarkation day.

Lunch

** On our November 2025 sailing, Premium Access guests received this perk. Check Celebrity’s current terms before booking.

Dinner

Up next: our day at sea on the way to Cozumel, with brunch at Bora, a secret speakeasy, and a second run-in with a cruise YouTuber.

This post is part of our Celebrity Xcel 2025 preview cruise review series.