That giant ‘X’ is one of the most recognisable features of a Celebrity Cruises ship. But it doesn’t actually stand for the letter X.
You’ll spot it on the funnels, in the Celebrity Cruises logo and even worked into the design of ships such as Celebrity Edge.
There’s a clever reason it’s been part of Celebrity’s identity for decades, yet plenty of cruisers have no idea what it really represents.
And once you know the answer, that famous ‘X’ suddenly makes perfect sense.
It’s Greek…
Technically, the Celebrity Cruises logo is not actually an X, but it is the Greek letter chi, which looks like an X. This is a call-back to the history of the cruise line when it was first formed by the Chandris Group, a company based in Greece.
The X formed a part of the original logo for the cruise line and it has been retained even when Celebrity Cruises was bought by the Royal Caribbean Group in 1997. It was originally included to tie the cruise line back to the main group.
Read more: Who Owns Celebrity Cruises?
Celebrity Cruises was a distinct brand originally set up to offer premium cruising so that the Chandris Group could secure lucrative contracts to sail around Bermuda. The Bermuda government had indicated that Chandris Fantasy Cruises could not be awarded the contracts as they were not premium enough.
As such, Celebrity Cruises was created, with the X added to the logo so that the brand could remain distinctive and yet still call back to the Chandris owners.
Because of the styling of the logo, some people believe that the cruise line’s name is Celebrity X Cruises. However, it has always been known as simply Celebrity Cruises – the placement of the X in the centre of the wording is simply a design choice.
The X has also found its way into Celebrity’s ship names over the years. The latest example is Celebrity Xcel, which joined the fleet in 2025, showing that the cruise line certainly isn’t moving away from its famous symbol.
You’ll still see the X prominently displayed across the Celebrity Cruises fleet, particularly on the ships’ funnels. It’s such a distinctive part of the branding that spotting that huge X is often enough to identify a Celebrity ship from a distance.
Celebrity Cruises has also given the X a more modern meaning over the years, using it as a symbol of the premium experience and contemporary style that distinguish the brand.
But its origins are much simpler. It’s the Greek letter Chi, chosen as a link to the Chandris family who founded Celebrity Cruises.
Final Word
The story behind Celebrity Cruises’ famous X goes all the way back to the cruise line’s Greek roots.
What started as a reference to the Chandris family has become one of the most recognisable cruise line logos in the world. And despite Celebrity changing owners, launching new generations of ships and evolving considerably since 1988, that X is still very much part of its identity.
So next time you spot that giant X on a Celebrity ship, you’ll know that it’s not actually an X at all.
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Chandris Line was actually formed in 1960. In 1988 Chandris Line founded a subsidiary called ‘Celebrity Cruises’, refer to Wikipedia, under Chandris line.