MIAMI — Celebrity Cruises has become the first cruise line to ever launch a fully immersive cruise ship in the metaverse.
The cruise line says the move into the metaverse – or in Celebrity’s case, the ‘Wonderverse’ – will revolutionize the way that cruise ships are marketed. Vacationers can now take advantage of an industry-first opportunity to ‘see before they sail’ as they hop onboard a hyper-realistic virtual version of Celebrity Beyond, recreated down to the last detail from furniture to fixtures.
The metaverse is getting a lot of buzz lately, as the virtual universe is seen as the next frontier for tech.
Visitors to Celebrity’s ‘Wonderverse’ can explore and book vacation itineraries within the virtual world; chat with ship designers and leaders including American interior designer Nate Berkus, Captain Kate McCue, and the line’s President and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo.
Celebrity Cruises’ Wonderverse
Built in partnership with virtual event platform architects Surreal Events, Celebrity’s Wonderverse is also complete with mini games and activities, entertainment, easter eggs revealing special offers and much more, all hosted on the web at celebritycruises.com/wonderverse.
The experience launches today, just in time for the holidays.
“Celebrity Beyond is the newest, most luxurious and most innovative ship in our fleet and I can’t think of a better ship to showcase its state-of-the-art design than in our state-of-the-art Wonderverse,” said Lutoff-Perlo. “Celebrity has always been at the forefront of consumer desires, literally creating resorts at sea with the design of our ships and the onboard experiences offered; and now we’re bringing this to life in new ways to inspire and connect with travellers.”
Resort deck on the virtual Celebrity Beyond
“We’ve revolutionized cruise ship design and now we’re revolutionizing where cruise ships are experienced,” said Celebrity Cruises’ Chief Marketing Officer Michael Scheiner. “The Wonderverse allows us to unlock and bring to life the richness and fullness of the Celebrity experience in really exciting ways we can’t do through traditional marketing and advertising vehicles. We believe this has opportunities to expand even further, creating experiences our consumers are looking for.”
Once logged in to the Wonderverse, consumers will move from space to space, checking out immersive, interactive content throughout, as they learn more about the ship and the destinations they can sail to on Celebrity Cruises.
The journey begins with a user-controlled tender game to the iconic Magic Carpet, where participants will have a chance to create their own personalized avatar. Participants will then be transported to the Resort Deck, where they will be greeted personally by Captain Kate, on hand to help answer questions and can explore the ship from there.
As part of the experience, Celebrity says guests will be able to access a portal for immediate bookings.
