Celebrity Apex

On 4 December 2014, Celebrity's parent company, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., announced that they had finalized an order with STX France for two new ships that would compose a new class of vessels for the Celebrity Cruises fleet.[9] The two ships were known under Project EDGE and were planned to be at 117,000 GT each, with a guest capacity of 2,900 passengers.[9] Deliveries were originally planned for Fall 2018 and early 2020 for the two vessels, respectively.[9] Each ship was reported to come at a cost of US$1 billion.[10]

On 21 November 2016, the day of Celebrity Edge's steel-cutting ceremony, Celebrity also announced the name of the second ship in the Edge class as Celebrity Beyond.[11] On 23 July 2018, Celebrity marked the beginning of construction for the ship with a steel-cutting ceremony at the shipyard[8] and also announced a name change for the second Edge-class ship from Celebrity Beyond to Celebrity Apex.[12] A ceremony marking the laying of the keel was celebrated on 31 October 2018, performed in conjunction with the delivery of Celebrity Edge.[13] She was floated out from the shipyard on 17 May 2019.[3]

The commencement for the ship's sea trials were hampered twice.[14] The first set was initially set for 15 January 2020, but were cancelled due to bad weather.[14] The new date of 17 January 2020 faced a second setback, a tugboat and port sailors' strike.[14] The ship ultimately left for her first set of sea trials in the Bay of Biscay on 4 February 2020[15] and completed them on 8 February 2020.[16]

Construction on the vessel was completed in early March 2020.[17]

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the ship's delivery process and christening timeline. In what was believed to be the first virtual delivery of a cruise ship due to the travel restrictions that were in place, Celebrity took virtual delivery of Celebrity Apex on 27 March 2020 via a video conference between officials from Celebrity and Chantiers de l'Atlantique.[18][19][20] The ship was initially scheduled to be delivered a week prior, on 20 March, at the shipyard.[15][21]

On 16 January 2020, Celebrity originally announced that Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, would christen the vessel at the inaugural ceremony in Southampton on 30 March 2020, but it was announced on 5 March 2020 that all naming festivities would be postponed until the ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in late 2020.[22][4]

The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted the ship's inaugural season. Celebrity Apex was originally scheduled to set sail from Saint-Nazaire towards Southampton on 21 March 2020, following her delivery ceremony.[23][24] Her pre-inaugural voyage was scheduled for 1 April 2020, a four-night sailing out of Southampton, calling in Bruges and Amsterdam.[25] Her maiden voyage was set for 5 April 2020, traveling along the coasts of Spain and Portugal.[26] She was scheduled to homeport in Southampton through the spring, before re-positioning to the Mediterranean for the summer.[27] Celebrity's suspension of operations due to the pandemic resulted in the postponement of her maiden voyage[5] and the cancellation of all Southampton sailings[18] as well as the second tentative debut date, which had been set for 20 May from Barcelona.[18][28]

Celebrity Apex was scheduled to re-position to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale in fall 2020 to sail week-long, round-trip Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries.[29]

On 26 March 2020, the Regional Health Agency of the French region Pays de la Loire reported that seven crew members aboard Celebrity Apex had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.[32] At the time, Celebrity Apex had just been constructed at Chantiers de l'Atlantique and was waiting to be delivered to Celebrity.[33] There were 1407 crew members already on board at the time.[32]

Before the first positive cases were reported, reports showed practices aboard the ship did not reflect the seriousness of the progression of the pandemic at the time.[33] For example, a large party was held on 21 March 2020, even when France had been under a national lockdown beginning on 17 March 2020.[33][34] However, once the first seven crew members tested positive, the whole crew was placed in isolation and forbidden from leaving the ship.[32]

The next day, on 27 March 2020, 29 people had tested positive for the virus, and one person had been brought to a hospital with breathing issues.[35] By 31 March 2020, 157 people had tested positive and two had been hospitalized;[36] by the next week, on 7 April 2020, 217 people had tested positive, with four hospitalized and two in intensive care;[37][38] and by the following week, on 15 April 2020, 224 people had tested positive, out of a total of 1444 people tested.[lower-alpha 1][40]

Citing Celebrity's mistreatment of the ship's crew during the pandemic, a crew member of Celebrity Apex, who tested positive for the virus on 30 March 2020, filed a class action lawsuit against the cruise line on 14 April 2020 "on behalf of all ... similarly situated crewmembers working aboard [Celebrity Cruises's] vessels".[41][42][39] The lawsuit alleged that Celebrity failed to provide proper personal protective equipment (PPE), allowed independent contractors to freely enter and exit the ship, failed to test people boarding the ship for symptoms of coronavirus, failed to enact appropriate lockdown measures, and failed to provide "prompt, proper, and adequate medical care" to its employees, amongst other claims.[39]