Four ships at roughly two-thirds the size of the rest of the fleet — and that is not a compromise, it is the entire product. These are the Celebrity ships that reach the ports the big ones physically cannot.
Every other guide calls these ships “Celebrity’s oldest and smallest.” Both are true. Neither is the point.
Put the three classes side by side and the gap is not subtle. An Edge Series ship runs to 141,420 tons. A Solstice hull is around 122,000. A Millennium ship is roughly 91,000 — about two-thirds of a Solstice and not much beyond half an Edge.
That difference buys access. Ports have physical limits — berth length, channel depth, lock dimensions, tender capacity. A ship that clears them goes; a ship that doesn’t, doesn’t, regardless of how good the itinerary would have been. The Millennium ships clear a great many that the rest of the fleet cannot.
So these four end up doing the work the flagships can’t: Japan and Southeast Asia, the Panama Canal, South America, smaller Alaskan and Mediterranean calls, and long repositioning runs across the Pacific. Not because they were left over, but because they fit.
The trade is real and worth stating plainly: fewer venues, no Magic Carpet, no Lawn Club, no Infinite Veranda. What you get instead is a ship you can cross in a couple of minutes, crew who recognise you by the second day, and an itinerary list nobody else in the fleet can offer.
There is a detail almost nobody mentions, and it says a lot. These four were built at Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire — the same French yard that would later build every ship in the Edge Series. Celebrity went to France for Millennium, to Meyer Werft in Germany for the entire Solstice Series, then back to France for Edge. The line’s oldest ocean ships and its newest flagships came out of the same sheds, eighteen years apart.
There is a letter in front of their names that most people never ask about.
The formal name of the fourth ship is GTS Celebrity Constellation. GTS stands for Gas Turbine Ship, and it is not decoration — this class was among the first cruise ships ever built around gas turbines rather than conventional diesels.
The system is a turbo-electric COGAS plant: Combined Gas And Steam. Gas turbines generate power, and the waste heat they throw off — which on a diesel ship simply leaves through the funnel — is captured to raise steam and generate more. It was a genuinely forward-looking choice in 1999, and it is why these ships run noticeably smoother and quieter than their age suggests.
The other physical signature is the angular stern, squared off where most ships of the era curved. Once you have noticed it you can pick a Millennium hull out of a crowded port at a distance.
The rest of the numbers: 964 to 965 feet long, about 105 feet across, eleven or twelve passenger decks, and roughly 2,170 to 2,220 guests at double occupancy. For scale, that is around a thousand fewer people than a Solstice ship and well over a thousand fewer than an Edge one.
A small piece of history worth knowing if you read older reviews: these ships did not originally carry the Celebrity name. They sailed simply as Millennium, Infinity, Summit and Constellation, and the prefix was added later — Constellation was renamed in May 2007. If you find a review of “Constellation” from 2004, it is the same ship.
The most significant thing any Celebrity ship has done in the last decade was done by the oldest one in the fleet.
Cruising stopped in March 2020. It stayed stopped for fifteen months — no large ship carried paying passengers anywhere in North America for over a year.
It started again on 5 June 2021, when Celebrity Millennium sailed from Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Roughly five to six hundred guests, a fully vaccinated crew, and a seven-night run to Aruba, Barbados and Curaçao. It was the first time Celebrity had ever homeported a ship in St. Maarten, and the first big-ship departure in the hemisphere since the shutdown.
Celebrity’s then-president and CEO, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, marked it in four words: “Today, we sail, again!” Seven more ships followed over that summer — Apex from Athens, Edge from Fort Lauderdale, Silhouette from the UK, Flora and the expedition ships in the Galápagos.
There is a second first buried in that sailing, and it outlasted the moment. Those passengers were the first anywhere to sail on Celebrity’s “Always Included” fare — Wi-Fi, drinks and gratuities built into the price rather than sold alongside it. The pricing structure most people now take for granted on this line launched on a twenty-one-year-old ship in the Caribbean.
It is worth asking why the oldest ship in the fleet got that job rather than a flagship. Because she could go where the rules allowed. US departures were still blocked; St. Maarten was open. A 2,200-guest ship could fill at reduced capacity and work a small island port without overwhelming it. The same flexibility that gets this class into unusual ports is what made her the only sensible choice for the restart — which is the argument for these ships in a nutshell.
Built within two years of each other, and closer together than any other Celebrity class. Where they go is what separates them.
The original, and the one with the biggest story. She gave the class its name and, twenty-one years later, restarted big-ship cruising in North America. Her working map is the most far-flung in the fleet: Asia out of Singapore and Hong Kong, Alaska from Vancouver and Seward, and transpacific runs that call at Hawaii.
The southern hemisphere specialist. She has spent much of her career on South America and the Mediterranean — the itineraries that need a ship able to work smaller ports over long distances. Her maiden voyage set the tone: Fort Lauderdale to San Diego, through the Panama Canal.
The one regulars describe as a boutique hotel that floats. She went through her Revolution refit early, in March 2019, which made her one of the first ships outside the Edge Series to show the modern Celebrity look — redesigned cabins, refreshed suites, a modernised Retreat sundeck.
The last of the four, and the one with a nickname. Regulars call her “Connie.” Formally she is GTS Celebrity Constellation — the Gas Turbine Ship prefix this whole class earned. She carries the highest guest count of the four at around 2,218.
How close are they, really? Closer than the Solstice sisters and far closer than the Edge ones. Same hull, same yard, same two-year build window, same core layout. The differences that decide your booking are where each ship is working and how recently she has been refitted — both covered below.
On a class this age, this is the single most decision-relevant thing on the page.
All four have been through Celebrity Revolution — the $500 million, nine-ship modernisation programme that ran from 2018 and brought this line’s older hulls up to something close to the Edge Series look. Redesigned staterooms, rebuilt suite areas, updated dining rooms, new finishes throughout, and shipwide technology upgrades.
But they did not all go at the same time, and several have had further work since. That is where the useful detail lives.
Went through Revolution in 2019 — described at the time as one of the most transformative in the programme, effectively repositioning her for modern premium cruising. All staterooms redesigned, suite-class amenities introduced, dining and entertainment venues modernised. She has had further refresh work since, most recently in late 2024.
One of the earliest ships through the programme, in March 2019 — comprehensive cabin and bathroom modernisation, spa and fitness rebuilt, dining venues including the Martini Bar and Cellar Masters reworked. She had also gained cabins in a $16m 2012 refit and thirty more in 2019. A January 2025 dry dock at Freeport, Bahamas was routine maintenance — classification work, machinery overhaul, hull cleaning and repainting — rather than a further content refresh.
Her Celebrity Revolution refit landed in November 2020 — redesigned staterooms and suites, and Michael’s Club converted to the Retreat Lounge. A January 2026 dry dock at Marseille was routine maintenance rather than a content refresh: nine days of machinery overhaul, hull work and certification. She does not carry a Retreat Sundeck — confirm that specifically if it matters to your booking.
Her Revolution-style transformation was originally scheduled for 2020, but the comprehensive version actually landed in April 2024, at Chantier Naval de Marseille — new soft goods throughout, refreshed public spaces and dining, and upgraded AV/IT systems. She is currently the most recently and thoroughly refitted ship in this class.
Do not trust a class-level venue list on these four, including ours. Refits on this line add and remove restaurants and bars ship by ship, and published guides go stale quietly — we have already had to correct one on a sister class where a source listed a restaurant that had been replaced years earlier. If a specific venue is why you are booking, confirm it against the deck plan for your exact ship and sailing date. It takes two minutes and it is the single most common way people end up disappointed by a ship that was otherwise right for them.
The suite programme is the same one the big ships run. The scale around it is not.
We recommend these ships often, and to the wrong traveller they would be a genuine disappointment.
They are the oldest hulls Celebrity floats, and refits do not change a hull. Cabin bathrooms, corridor widths and the fundamental layout are of their era. The finishes are recent; the bones are not. If that will bother you, it will bother you on day one and every day after.
Far fewer venues. An Edge ship carries 32 places to eat and drink. These carry roughly a dozen dining venues and six or seven bars. On a long sailing some people find that cosy and some find it repetitive — and which one you are is not something you can talk yourself out of.
None of the signature hardware. No Magic Carpet, no Infinite Veranda, no Eden, no Lawn Club, no glass studio. Everything that makes the Edge and Solstice guides fun to write is absent here.
Long itineraries on a small ship are a specific taste. Fourteen nights across the Pacific on a 2,200-guest ship is wonderful if you like the ship and the sea, and very long indeed if you were counting on variety to fill the days.
No waterslides or water park. True across Celebrity. If that is the point of the trip, book a Royal Caribbean Icon-class ship. But the line that usually follows — that families should look elsewhere — is not one we will write: our own four children have sailed this line across three generations and loved it. The full account is in Is Celebrity Cruises Good for Families?
Four questions. We’ll name a ship — and tell you the catch.
They’re close enough that where they sail decides it. Let’s find yours.
The Millennium Series is Celebrity’s oldest and smallest ocean class, and both of those facts are the reason to book one rather than reasons not to. At roughly 91,000 tons they reach Japan, the Panama Canal, South America and a long list of smaller ports the flagships cannot enter — and they do it with the same service, the same suite programme and the same kitchens.
Book them if the itinerary is the point, if you would rather know the crew than have thirty restaurants, and if a ship you can cross in two minutes sounds like a feature. Book the Solstice Series instead for the Lawn Club and more to do at a still-sensible fare. Book the Edge Series if the ship itself is the destination.
And whichever of the four you choose, check her most recent refit date before you book — on a class this age it matters more than the launch year.
Four: Celebrity Millennium (2000), Infinity (2001), Summit (2001) and Constellation (2002), all built at Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France — the same yard that later built the entire Edge Series. They run around 91,000 gross tons and carry roughly 2,200 guests.
They were built first, between 1999 and 2002, before cruise ships grew. That size is now their main advantage: at roughly two-thirds the tonnage of a Solstice ship they can enter ports the larger vessels physically cannot, which is why they work Japan, Southeast Asia, the Panama Canal and South America.
Gas Turbine Ship. This class was among the first cruise ships built around gas turbines rather than conventional diesels, using a turbo-electric COGAS plant — Combined Gas And Steam — that captures waste heat to generate additional power. It's why they run quieter and smoother than their age suggests.
Yes, all four went through Celebrity Revolution, the $500 million nine-ship modernisation programme that began in 2018. Millennium had further refresh work in late 2024. Infinity’s real transformation was November 2020, with a January 2026 dry dock that was routine maintenance only. Summit’s January 2025 dry dock was also maintenance rather than a content refresh. Check the most recent dry dock for your specific ship.
Celebrity Millennium. She sailed from Philipsburg, St. Maarten on 5 June 2021 — the first big-ship cruise anywhere in North America after a fifteen-month industry shutdown, carrying around 500 to 600 guests on a seven-night run to Aruba, Barbados and Curaçao.
Solstice for the Lawn Club, more venues and a larger ship at a still-reasonable fare. Millennium for the itineraries — the ports the bigger ships can't reach — and for a compact ship where the crew learn your name. Both carry The Retreat and the same core dining.
These four are the ships to talk to an advisor about, because the itinerary does the deciding — and we’ll tell you which hull is working your route and when she was last refitted.
Tap a question or the button and an advisor will answer against current pricing before you book.
