Inside the Strange and Lonely Test Run of a New Cruise Ship

The Celebrity Pool Club is one of seven new spaces designed for the Xcel, the cruise line's newest ship.

As a country-western band plucked out a twangy cover of a Beyoncé hit, I grapevined and box-stepped alongside fellow passengers aboard the Celebrity Xcel, the premium cruise line’s newest vessel.

Such a scene might not seem unusual for a Friday night on a cruise ship, but this wasn’t a typical sailing. And neither I nor my fellow line dancers were your standard cruise passengers.

We were on the Xcel for its “shakedown cruise,” a final test run new ships often go through before making their public debuts. Aside from me, everyone onboard was an employee from Celebrity Cruises parent, Royal Caribbean Group, or their guest.

Days before the Champagne bottle was broken over the bow for its maiden voyage last week, I boarded the ship to watch the final preparations. Every detail was scrutinized, from the comfort of each chair to the texture of napkins. Changes were ordered on the fly in response to feedback. The paint color on one restaurant facade was too muted. The dance moves at the Saddle Up Saloon were too hard. And who thought that would be enough feathers for the Carnival costumes?

“It’s miraculous to see how it all comes together,” said Royal Caribbean Group Chief Executive and Chairman Jason Liberty.

The Journal was onboard the Celebrity Xcel as the crew undertook final preparations ahead of welcoming the ship's first guests.

In the week leading up to the first public sailings, construction was still underway on parts of the ship.

Another miracle: How empty the ship felt for most of my time on board.

Take the pool deck. On a normal cruise out of Florida, finding a free chair with a view of the ocean can be a fool’s errand, unless you’re willing to get up at daybreak. But I found the upper decks of the ship nearly always vacant.

Then there was the time, following a 90-minute massage, when I had the spa’s sauna and steam rooms all to myself. It was the height of relaxation—until I was broken from my trance by a test of the ship’s fire-alarm system. The week was punctuated by tests, all of which the ship passed with flying colors.

Meals, thankfully, were never a lonely affair—aside from one breakfast where I was the sole diner. That’s by design: From the moment the Xcel left the shipyard until it welcomed its first shakedown guests, every venue was put through rigorous stress tests.

One day, around 100 crew members were asked to dine at a grab-and-go eatery. Workers discovered blending açaí bowls to order would take too long. Customers also didn’t queue in the way they expected. Cue a debate over whether to rope off lines.

Crew members and other workers were encouraged to dine together at any restaurant onboard while the ship was in startup mode. “They can order three steaks if they want,” said Keith Lane, Celebrity’s senior vice president of hotel operations.

Some pretended to be difficult customers to allow the waitstaff to rehearse for future nitpicking. One person described showing up an hour early for a dining reservation to see how his colleagues would react.

Every meal ended with a waiter placing a QR code on the table to provide feedback.

Responses were often quick. Bora, a Mediterranean restaurant, got a new coat of paint after the ship docked in the Bahamas. The restaurant’s facade is now a weathered blue, reminiscent of a Greek fishing village.

“By the time the first guests are on they’ll never know it was brown,” said Michael Scheiner, Celebrity’s chief marketing and product officer.

As the ship crossed the Atlantic, Scheiner determined more feathers were needed for costumes used in a Carnival-inspired performance.

“I actually asked, ‘Is it humanly possible to get a helicopter on here?’” he joked. Instead, Scheiner added it to a list of additional supplies the ship needed and waited until they reached Fort Lauderdale days later.

Shawna Hachey, one of the ship’s two cruise directors, rechoreographed all the line dances she leads during the Saddle Up Saloon party after crew members said they couldn’t follow the original moves. “They’ll get the box steps if we slow it down,” she said.

The new choreography made its debut during the shakedown, which serves as the ultimate stress test. As Celebrity President Laura Hodges Bethge put it: “You want hundreds of people flushing toilets at the same time.” Moments later, the executive—herself a shakedown passenger—dipped a napkin into a glass of spring water and cleaned a scuff mark off a menu.

Some cruise lines open their shakedowns to members of the press or even the public. Royal Caribbean Group reserves the sailings for employees and their guests.

When they arrived, the ship at last came fully to life. Bars and restaurants were packed. Housekeeping left chocolates on the pillows after turning down beds. Getting a prime chair on the pool deck was, once again, challenging.

Royal Caribbean Group employees were among the first guests on the Xcel as part of its shakedown sailing.

During the shakedown, once-empty parts of the ship suddenly came to life.

One thing that didn’t change: the feedback.

As Michelle Yanda dined on sushi and watched performances, the Celebrity employee paid close attention to the service at each venue. She flagged that the lock to her stateroom’s bathroom wasn’t working properly.

Laurie Bohn-Isaure, an employee of sister cruise line Silversea, noticed that the way employees handed dishes to guests at one restaurant could cause spills.

“At the end of the day, we’re here to make sure that they are ready for the paying guests,” she said. “As much as it’s joyful, it’s also a very serious opportunity.”