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Celebrity Cruises' 3,260-guest Celebrity Beyond was voted Best Overall Cruise Ship in the 2024 Cruise Hive Awards. Third in the cruise line's popular Edge class, Celebrity Beyond, which entered service in 2022, received more votes than any other cruise ship!
Celebrity Beyond sails Caribbean voyages year-round, and is known for design distinctions that include an expanded sundeck in The Retreat area and the Magic Carpet dining and lounge space. The venue sits on a cantilevered, floating platform that reaches 13 stories above sea level.
The ship offers six stateroom and 13 suite categories, along with 32 dining and drink venues, including Le Voyage, created by Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud, Fine Cut Steakhouse, Le Grand Bistro, Rooftop Garden Grill, and Eden Restaurant, to name a few.
While Celebrity Beyond has pools and sports areas, and supervised programs for children, it caters largely to an adult crowd and lacks the thrill rides, race tracks, ice skating rinks and other kid-focused elements found on some other ships.
The 140,600-gross ton Celebrity Beyond sailed her maiden voyage in April 2022 and was christened in Fort Lauderdale by Olympic gymnast Simone Biles in November 2022.
The ship is based in Fort Lauderdale and sails 10- and 11-night Caribbean and Panama Canal cruises through May 2025, when her home port switches to Miami and she begins a series of 7-night Caribbean voyages.
At the helm of Celebrity Beyond is Captain Kate McCue, who in 2015 became the first American woman to serve as captain of a major cruise ship. At the time, she was assigned to Celebrity Summit, then transferred to Celebrity Beyond as the new ship's first captain.
The Cruise Hive Awards were first launched back in 2014 and have been ongoing ever since, with a couple of name changes.
Voting for this year opened in mid-October 2024, with seven award categories. All voting was by Cruise Hive readers and the final day of the awards was Sunday, December 22, 2024. In the Best Overall Cruise Ship category, readers were able to write in the name of their favorite ship.
Cruise Hive voters chose Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas as the second Best Overall Cruise Ship, and Holland America Line's Rotterdam as the third.
Notable for its size as the world's largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas is a 248,663-gross ton ship with a capacity for 7,600 guests. Sailing year-round from Miami, the ship features eight themed neighborhoods, Thrill Island, Surfside, Chill Island, The Hideaway, The Royal Promenade, Central Park, The Suite Neighborhood, and AquaDome.
The celebrated AquaDome is considered one of the most impressive spaces on the ship. Its glass dome, the largest ever created for a cruise ship, is a multi-use space for dining and entertainment. It is also home to the AquaTheater, where guests can see dive shows and other aquatics.
In the No. 3 spot, Holland America Line's Rotterdam is Pinnacle-class ship that launched in 2020. The ship is the newest in the fleet and accommodates 2,668 guests.
Rotterdam had a royal welcome at her christening, which was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands in May 2022, as Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands served as godmother.
The ship is based in Fort Lauderdale through mid-April 2025, sailing 7- to 21-day Caribbean and Panama Canal voyages. In April she repositions to Amsterdam and begins a series of British Isles, Iceland, Baltic, and Scandinavia cruises.
In 2023, Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas came out on top as the Best Overal Cruise Ship.
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Donna Tunney is a travel news/feature writer and editor with 20-plus years covering cruise news, luxury travel, and Europe and UK destinations. A former staffer at Travel Weekly and at the USAToday Network, she also was a luxury travel columnist at Travel Market Report, and a cruise columnist at Sherman's Travel.
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