Goodbye Eden, Hello Bazaar: New Space on Celebrity Xcel Brings Destinations onto Ship

The Bazaar, an all-new concept — and a first for Celebrity Cruises — will be an immersive and ever-transforming space set to debut aboard the line’s newest ship, Celebrity Xcel in November 2025. It replaces Eden.

Travel Market Report (TMR) was on board Celebrity Apex for a sailing in the Caribbean last month, when the announcement was first made (under embargo) to representatives from several media outlets. TMR also attended an event in New York City shortly afterwards, hosted by Laura Hodges Bethge, president of Celebrity Cruises and Michael Scheiner, chief marketing and product officer for the line, where more information was revealed about The Bazaar.

Erasing the Line between Ship and Shore

“It takes many years and many ideas to build a cruise ship,” Scheiner said in New York. “For a couple of years now, we’ve been dreaming and trying to come up with what’s the new thing we’re going to add to our ship. For this ship in particular, we have seven new spaces that we’ve created.”

The Bazaar, the first one to be announced, is a “multi-sensory experience inspired by the destinations.”

“When we think about and come up with what should we do from an experience standpoint, the guest is always at the center of all of our thinking. And the number one reason our guests like to cruise and travel is to get immersed into the destinations,” he said. “What we’re trying to create with this space is to completely erase the line between ship and the shore.”

Bethge added,”Any time that we’re creating a ship, we think about it in thirds. There’s going to be a third that’s traditional, a third that’s evolutionary, and a third that’s revolutionary.”

The Bazaar, she said, is revolutionary and will “transform the way guests experience destinations.”

Guests will have four unique destination-inspired festivals on every Caribbean sailing, featuring regional foods and beverages, cooking classes, crafting experiences, retail activations with artisan products, dance classes, musical performances by local musicians and more.

Tastes of The Bazaar

During the Caribbean sailing on Celebrity Apex, media guests sampled some of the new festival-inspired (and not yet named) cocktails that will be offered at The Bazaar and at Mosaic and Spice, which will replace the current two dining venues in Eden: Eden Restaurant and Eden Café.

Mosaic will feature an open kitchen concept and elevated cuisine influenced by the destination. The restaurant will also offer a multi-course chef’s tasting experience (paired with wines) where Celebrity’s chefs, representing every continent from around the world, will prepare their favorite childhood dishes.

At Spice, the new casual venue, guests can sample rotating bites and specialty items inspired by the ports on the itinerary while enjoying ocean and destination views from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Media guests also attended a cooking demo to sample one of the new dessert offerings in the Caribbean, a decadent Jamaican rum cake made with rum-soaked fruit, port wine, chocolate mousse, Caribbean spices and caramelized bananas.

Guests on Celebrity Xcel will be able to book cooking classes where they’ll learn to prepare regional specialties (such as the boozy cake) at the Chef’s Studio at Mosaic, the line’s first destination-inspired culinary program. Classes will change throughout the sailing based on the festival themes.

While in the Caribbean, TMR also visited places that offered inspiration for the new onboard experiences at The Bazaar, including a rum tasting at Fairview Great House & Botanical Gardens in St. Kitts and a quick lesson in batik making at Caribelle Batik, also in St. Kitts. In the Dominican Republic, we ventured far into the mountains to visit a small cacao grower to learn about his farming practices and growing agritourism business.

With The Bazaar, guests will be able to continue these destination experiences once they’re back on board the ship — or even experience them for the first time at the Market at The Bazaar.

Sea Days on Xcel – The Market at The Bazaar

As the themes change between the four festivals throughout the week, guests will have more immersive offerings during sea days, with local artisans sharing their crafts (and teaching guests how to make some of the items), chocolate and rum pairings, hot sauce tastings and basket weaving demos at the Market at The Bazaar. If you missed picking up a few souvenirs while ashore, you’ll have the chance to shop on board for traditional Mexican leather hats, authentic Caribbean masks and other unusual and locally made items.

When Celebrity Xcel repositions to Europe in 2026,The Bazaar will feature Mediterranean-inspired festivals, markets and culinary offerings.

“Dream Makers” & The Bazaar

Celebrity’s new program, Dream Makers, is a community of global travelers who will sample and vote on new experiences that will ultimately launch on Celebrity Xcelin November 2025. The program offers cruisers the unique opportunity to curate the festivals at The Bazaar, including the entertainment and activities in the Market. They’ll also be asked to select menu items for Mosaic.

“The reason that we do that is because we want our customers to recognize the things that they love and that they’re connected to,” Bethge explained. “And then we have to give them things that they didn’t know they wanted, but then once they try them, they can’t live without them.”

The introduction of The Bazaar is one of several major recent announcements by the cruise line, which also includes the “Dream Makers” program and entry into the European river cruise market in 2027.