Wall Street Journal reporter Jacob Passy recently boarded the Celebrity Xcel for what the industry calls a shakedown cruise, a final stress test before a new ship opens its doors to paying customers. The Xcel’s trial was not a publicity stunt but a controlled, exhaustive rehearsal run populated mainly by company employees and their guests to root out every last operational problem before the public sailed.
On the shakedown, crews role‑played difficult passengers, tested everything from dining choreography to plumbing under peak loads, and even made on‑the‑spot cosmetic changes when something didn’t meet the company’s standards. That’s exactly how properly run private companies prepare — they find problems in quiet and fix them swiftly rather than waiting for angry customers or regulators to force corrections.
This is a reminder that private industry still knows how to deliver quality through hard work and accountability, not through hollow political theater. While the left likes to preach about consumer protection from some faceless bureaucracy, it’s companies like Celebrity and Royal Caribbean that actually sweat the details and pay the costs to keep Americans safe and satisfied on vacation.
The Xcel also cleared formal sea trials off Saint‑Nazaire in mid‑September, a necessary maritime test that proved the vessel seaworthy before it crosses the Atlantic to its Fort Lauderdale homeport and November debut. Those practical, maritime checks — maneuverability, propulsion, and system stress tests — are the nuts and bolts of keeping travel safe and reliable, and they sustain thousands of jobs in shipbuilding and tourism.
Royal Caribbean Group’s decision to keep the shakedown restricted to employees and their guests underscores corporate prudence: you don’t invite paying guests into a live fire drill. The aim was simple — create hundreds of realistic scenarios, find failures, and fix them, because once a ship carries real passengers there’s no second chance for many mistakes.
If anything, the Xcel story exposes the difference between competent private stewardship and the chaotic, top‑down fixes politicians love to foist on industries they barely understand. Conservatives should celebrate companies that take responsibility, test rigorously, and invest in service and safety rather than relying on more regulation and virtue‑signaling.
Hardworking Americans who build, crew, and serve on these ships deserve our support and gratitude. The shakedown may be a strange and lonely ritual, but it is a testament to the stubborn, practical excellence of private enterprise — the same commonsense grit that keeps our economy afloat and our vacations worry‑free.
