During a recent two-night preview cruise of the 3,248-passenger Celebrity Xcel from Fort Lauderdale, just before the ship officially launched in November, I found myself in an extravagant three-deck aft space called The Bazaar, talking to a chocolate producer from the Dominican Republic.
Jennifer Tejada is among the artists and producers who will come on board Xcel during port calls throughout the Caribbean to sell their wares to Celebrity Cruises passengers—in her case, tasty treats and cocoa-based beauty products from her woman-owned chocolate business, Del Oro, located in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic. Tejada takes home all the profits. “It’s great, Tejada smiles, ringing up a sale. “It’s a good boost for business.”
But shopping is one aspect of the new Bazaar experience. Even though I entered skeptically, I found myself totally enthralled during a Carnival-style festival, inspired by celebrations in St. Maarten and the Cayman Islands. A band with drums and steel pans played Caribbean tunes while dancers in extravagant costumes—created by a Caribbean designer, with beads and feathers and bird-like headdresses—danced energetically. Standing and watching, I whooped when shirtless stilt walkers suddenly appeared. I felt the celebration vibrating from my toes on up. It was no sedentary experience.
Celebrity Cruises, aware that today’s travelers are seeking deeper cultural experiences, is introducing something new on its latest ship, the Celebrity Xcel—bringing more local culture on board.
In creating The Bazaar, Celebrity listened to its passengers, says Jeannette Coto Dou, the line’s vice president of product development. “The idea is bringing port experiences on board even as the ship sets sail.”
On both port and sea days, guests on Xcel can get a literal taste, sound, and feel of local culture with food, music, dance, and crafts. The winter focus, reflective of the ship’s current routes, is on the eastern and western Caribbean. In spring, when the ship moves across the Atlantic, the space will be entirely tricked out to reflect the Mediterranean.
The space will showcase a lineup of three festivals in addition to Carnival, including Aqua focused on the Caribbean Sea and St. Thomas; Flora, highlighting the Dominican Republic; and Viva, inspired by Cozumel. Three of the four festivals will take place on each seven-night cruise.
Celebrity Xcel‘s new onboard cultural concept includes the high-end restaurant Mosaic, with a globally-influenced menu.
Photo by Michel Verdure/Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises
A dedicated space for cultural connections
The cruise line’s investment in prime real estate for this localized experience (it’s where the Eden dining and entertainment venue on Xcel’s four sister ships is located) is as impressive as the high-tech features that enhance The Bazaar experience and at the same time make it, well, “cruisy”—appealing to people who come on a large cruise ship to be wowed.
You enter The Bazaar through a dark, arch-filled tunnel with digital screens featuring the day’s theme. On Aqua day, I walked past screens showcasing underwater scenes and colorful fish swimming past bright corals. The space was scented to smell like the sea. Scents, part of the multisensory experience, change with the festival theme (and officials said the fragrances may eventually be available for purchase).
Emerging from the tunnel, you enter the light and bright Market at The Bazaar, where shelves are stocked with a revolving selection of dozens (if not hundreds) of wares for sale, procured from local vendors in the Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico.
Passengers can find regional cuisine in a more casual setting at Spice.
Photo by Michel Verdure/Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises
On Aqua day, these included blue Bahamas pottery, coffee, and rum from the Cayman Islands, hand-painted boxes from the Dominican Republic, and other temptations, including jewelry, apparel, and beauty products.
Past the marketplace, a space with soaring ceilings offers sweeping views of the sea through a wall of glass—that is, if you can take your eyes off colorful digital screens, graphic designs, and striking props, all of which change with each festival and, for the Aqua festival, included a giant sea creature hanging from the ceiling.
Back-lit cases showcase artworks and artifacts, all purchased locally, that impressively change by theme. A casual eatery, Spice serves regional cuisine such as black bean soup and dulce de leche cake, buffet style. A deck below (via a staircase), a fancy sit-down restaurant, Mosaic (with an added charge of $95 per person) cooks dishes from around the world, including Haitian joumou (pumpkin) soup, and is home to Celebrity’s first destination-inspired cooking school, where, during our cruise, the class was based around empanada-making.
The Bazaar concept on Celebrity Xcel is brought to life through live performances that reflect the music traditions of the region the ship is sailing in.
Photo by Evan Zimmerman/Courtesy of Celebrity Cruises
Live performances and immersive cultural events
In The Bazaar the goal is activations every half-hour from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., including culinary pop-ups, craft activities, a steel-pan player walking the room, a singer performing Bob Marley’s “I Wanna Love You,” crafts you can make, such as paint-your-own mini maracas ($10), and a full-on festival extravaganza that takes place twice a day, pre- and post-dinnertime, at 4:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Celebrity has staffed the space with crew members from across the Caribbean and Mexico, some recruited from other departments, some new hires.
During a Dominican-themed Flora festival daytime activation, between hitting pop-ups doling out tostones (fried green plantain slices) and tastings enticing guests to buy a rum Calypso, the $22 drink of the day, I chatted with Lady Gonzales from the Dominican Republic, who was hired for the program. She wore a colorful floral bathing suit topped with white lace shorts and a faux flower in her hair and sported a big smile.
Having worked at hotels in her home country, she was brought on as a cultural ambassador for the six months, during which Xcel sails in the Caribbean, and she plans to tell guests about her country, especially about the music and food.
She may even demonstrate some merengue and bachata dance moves. Says Gonzales, “I am looking forward to sharing my culture.”
A 7-night round-trip sailing on Celebrity Xcel from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, Mexico, and Grand Cayman, starts at $963 per person.
