Celebrity Edge, the all-new Celebrity Cruises cruise ship, worth billions of dollars

Behold the Edge, the all-new baby of Celebrity Cruises, endowed with a billion dollars, yes, it's what it costs today to build a cruise ship, often even more.

Thirty million people are expected to participate in cruises in 2019, an increase of more than 12 million over a decade ago, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.

"We're just scratching the surface," said Richard Fain, chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity's parent company. He knows a growing industry when he sees one. "In the United States, for example, only about 3% of Americans are cruising in a given year, and if you go to Europe, it's less than half that level." If you go to Asia, it's a fraction of the same this level."

"We currently have 18 new ships on order," he said.

The Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas is currently the largest cruise ship in the world. Capacity: more than 6,600 passengers, 2,200 crew members. It's five times the size of the Titanic.

Together, the three major groups – Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian – carry nearly 80% of cruise ship passengers worldwide.

The competition between them was like an arms race, in which size matters.

"In the '70s, the concept was:" Let's design a ship that basically looks like a yacht, "said Fain." In the 1980s, we said: "Let's design something that looks much more like a hotel, with nicer rooms, nicer places to visit, more activities to do. "And today we are talking about:" This should look more like a city. " "

"So, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, why?" asked correspondent Martha Teichner.

"The biggest ship also gives us an economy of scale," he replied. "We could just profit from it, but we would not give them anything new."

And new is the name of the game. Thus, Royal Caribbean says it spends about half of what it earns from these economies of scale to innovation.

In "The Cave", Edge's designers used video game technology to test their ideas virtually. "That's right to the point where a person noticed that olives in martinis were too small!" laughed John-Paul Lamb, responsible for all hotel operations aboard the Edge.

But innovations, such as multicolored chandeliers, are not just a taste for passengers.

The bridge, the domain of Captain Dimitrios Kefetzis, is more modern than space. "It's the state of the art," he told Teichner. "It can not be better as we speak."

Unique in the world of cruise ships: a super sophisticated touch screen.

And under the passenger bridges is a "highway" that the crew calls "I-95". "It goes from the back of the boat to the back of the boat, right up to the end," said Lamb.

It's over a thousand feet long and behind every door, something unbelievable. How about a room filled with red wine?

And in a refrigerated room, there are pallets of aluminum water bottles. "When we launched Edge, we committed to eliminating all embedded single-use plastics," Lamb said.

In an industry not known for environmental responsibility, Edge has its own recycling business. There is also a sewage treatment plant on board.

But what attracts passengers, that's the next big thing. On board the edge is a magic carpet, a 90-ton platform that levitates up and down the ship.

You are on the edge.

Lamb said, "You can go up to bridge 16, bridge 5 or deck 1. You always look at the ocean, which is what makes ship special.

Not a bad place to watch the sunset.

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Story produced by Sari Aviv.