themillennialcruiser

I think that is everything. If I left anything out, please ask.
It was great meeting @WannaCruise and @recogneyes this week! I always love to meet others in this blog community. We should be sailing with @recogneyes again in March, so that is good, Hubby will have more company at the FlowRider! 
Next up for us if all goes well is the Icon inaugural! That one will just be Hubby and I. As for blogging, I sure those of us on it can do something joint 😉
Thank you all for following along with us this week and for the well wishes for my Dad. ❤️

Overall thoughts:
We had a great cruise this week on OY. It was great downtime and super relaxing, making the blog not too interesting, but much needed for our family. The kids were working like crazy with school stuff leading up to Christmas break, and Hubby and I have been dealing with a lot too over the month of December. It was nice to take some time to breathe and enjoy each other’s company this past week. 
OY is a beautiful ship! Modern, clean, friendly staff just about everywhere. It has the activities of QN class that my kids like, but also some nice upgrades to dining that are missing on QN class. It’s a “compromise” ship for our family between QN class and OA class. 
While not perfect, we would gladly sail this ship again. Like with all sailings, you just have to do your research, set your expectations accordingly, and you will have a great time. 

Praying for you and your family. May this be a restful time filled with peace that only god can bring. Happy New Year! 

Praying for you and your family. May this be a restful time filled with peace that only god can bring. Happy New Year! 

Praying for you and your family. May this be a restful time filled with peace that only god can bring. Happy New Year! 

One other thing i would add to this post is there are quite a few events hosted for Elite guests and above featuring entertainment & free alcohol/food. These are a few we have attended -
1) music & mixology- a loyalty event with live music and cocktail demonstrations with the cocktails passed for all who want to try (these were full sized drinks and 4 per person were available)
2) Helipad event - complete with cocktails
3) wine tasting class - complementary and a great event to attend
4) backstage tour - complementary with your elite status
5) wine blending event - this is unique to Celebrity Beyond as a complementary event as I understand it
6) Loyalty event similar to the top tier event with cocktails however they also pass appetizers, it’s typically in a venue such as eden
 
 
 

Barcelona to Paris weekend recap-
After a lovely last breakfast in Luminae we headed up to the retreat lounge to wait for disembarkation. We were one of the last groups for a flight shuttle as our flight was not international and after 12:00. One thing to note when you disembark in Barcelona is they have a baggage claim type belt where you have to pick up your bag vs having all of the bags lined up. You don’t clear customs in the cruise terminal when the entire trip takes place in the EU. The entire process took around 30 minutes. I noticed the port had a locker and luggage delivery option for those taking a Royal or Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona.


We arrived at terminal 2 and looked for our check in area for Transavia, the airline we would be flying from Barcelona to Paris. One thing to note about the lower cost carriers is that you cannot check your bag until 2 hours prior to your flight. We had to wait around about an hour but decided to wait in line so it would be quicker. These airlines are also very specific about luggage requirements so if you do decline to fly somewhere in the EU after your cruise I recommend reading the fine print on luggage and buying a small travel luggage scale you can bring with you. We booked the max fare which gave us guaranteed space for a roller bag & personal bag on the flight and 30 kg of checked luggage included. If you have priority pass check out the VIP lounges in terminals 1 & 2 in Barcelona airport. Our flight was a quick hour and a half flight over to Paris ORLY. 

Once we arrived in Paris we checked into our hotel for the weekend the Intercontinental Le Grand. This hotel is located right next to the opera and was a gorgeous place to call home for the weekend. One thing to mention about IHG is they have special offers for status from time to time. We ran into an offer last year where if you stayed 5 nights with IHG you would get platinum elite status for a year. We stayed with IHG in Israel last year for a week and were able to use our points/status for this trip. This got us a free upgrade, free daily breakfast, 2 free drinks at the bar, and late checkout. Be sure to look out for special offers like this.

 
We had an incredible weekend in Paris visiting - musee d'orsay, a dinner cruise on the seine, the dior gallery, and the Hemingway bar. Paris is an incredible city and a great place to tack on a few days if you are headed out or back from a European cruise. 
 
Let me know if you have any questions! We are headed out on our next cruise in exactly 1 month from today - a 7 night Pacific Coast Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. Looking forward to that while soaking in the memories from this fantastic vacation.

Barcelona to Paris weekend recap-
After a lovely last breakfast in Luminae we headed up to the retreat lounge to wait for disembarkation. We were one of the last groups for a flight shuttle as our flight was not international and after 12:00. One thing to note when you disembark in Barcelona is they have a baggage claim type belt where you have to pick up your bag vs having all of the bags lined up. You don’t clear customs in the cruise terminal when the entire trip takes place in the EU. The entire process took around 30 minutes. I noticed the port had a locker and luggage delivery option for those taking a Royal or Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona.


We arrived at terminal 2 and looked for our check in area for Transavia, the airline we would be flying from Barcelona to Paris. One thing to note about the lower cost carriers is that you cannot check your bag until 2 hours prior to your flight. We had to wait around about an hour but decided to wait in line so it would be quicker. These airlines are also very specific about luggage requirements so if you do decline to fly somewhere in the EU after your cruise I recommend reading the fine print on luggage and buying a small travel luggage scale you can bring with you. We booked the max fare which gave us guaranteed space for a roller bag & personal bag on the flight and 30 kg of checked luggage included. If you have priority pass check out the VIP lounges in terminals 1 & 2 in Barcelona airport. Our flight was a quick hour and a half flight over to Paris ORLY. 

Once we arrived in Paris we checked into our hotel for the weekend the Intercontinental Le Grand. This hotel is located right next to the opera and was a gorgeous place to call home for the weekend. One thing to mention about IHG is they have special offers for status from time to time. We ran into an offer last year where if you stayed 5 nights with IHG you would get platinum elite status for a year. We stayed with IHG in Israel last year for a week and were able to use our points/status for this trip. This got us a free upgrade, free daily breakfast, 2 free drinks at the bar, and late checkout. Be sure to look out for special offers like this.

 
We had an incredible weekend in Paris visiting - musee d'orsay, a dinner cruise on the seine, the dior gallery, and the Hemingway bar. Paris is an incredible city and a great place to tack on a few days if you are headed out or back from a European cruise. 
 
Let me know if you have any questions! We are headed out on our next cruise in exactly 1 month from today - a 7 night Pacific Coast Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. Looking forward to that while soaking in the memories from this fantastic vacation.

Attempting my first live blog! My husband and I are big fans of RCCL, currently Diamond+ & matched to Celebrity Elite status. Last year we sailed on Celebrity Beyond on a 9 night Italian Rivera sailing and it changed so much for us! We are both millennials without children and enjoyed the more upscale experience Celebrity can bring. We were VERY spoiled on our first sailing as we got a celebrity move up bid on the Edge Villa and let me tell you that was a WOW! We also sailed on Celebrity Summit earlier this year and now we are headed out on Celebrity Edge in 7 days. Safe to say we are enjoying it thus far! We also have another Celebrity sailing booked for later this year on Eclipse. I love the loyalty perks Celebrity has to offer and happy to go into that more if you have specific questions!
 
Sailing Details-
7 night Italy, France, and Spain sailing on August 26th
August 26th- Barcelona, Spain
August 27th - Cannes, France
August 28th - Portofino, Italy
August 29th - La Spezia, Italy
August 30th - Rome, Italy
August 31st - Ajaccio, Corsica
September 1st - at sea
September 2nd - Barcelona, Spain
 
Pre-cruise plans-
We are leaving EWR on August 25th for an overnight flight to Barcelona. I know this is very close to our sailing but with our work schedules this is what we had to work with! Luckily we are flying business so we will have a bed to sleep in overnight! We also booked through air2sea to ensure we would make it to our sailing in case of a delay. We have sailed out of Barcelona twice before so we are familiar with the airport and the city. We are doing an Embarkation Day shore excursion this go around to see the sagrada familia because we haven’t seen it yet!
 
Room Selection- 
We booked an Aqua Class room however 20 days before our sailing we were notified we got our move up bid to a Sky Suite! While it isn’t the villa we got last summer we absolutely loved the retreat experience on Beyond and can’t wait to experience it on Edge. 
 
Post Cruise plans-
We are flying from Barcelona to Paris to spend Labor Day weekend. The flight is a short 2 hour trip. 
 
Excited to take you along with us for another amazing celebrity cruise vacation! Feel free to follow along on my instagram too @themillennialcruiser!

Barcelona to Paris weekend recap-
After a lovely last breakfast in Luminae we headed up to the retreat lounge to wait for disembarkation. We were one of the last groups for a flight shuttle as our flight was not international and after 12:00. One thing to note when you disembark in Barcelona is they have a baggage claim type belt where you have to pick up your bag vs having all of the bags lined up. You don’t clear customs in the cruise terminal when the entire trip takes place in the EU. The entire process took around 30 minutes. I noticed the port had a locker and luggage delivery option for those taking a Royal or Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona.


We arrived at terminal 2 and looked for our check in area for Transavia, the airline we would be flying from Barcelona to Paris. One thing to note about the lower cost carriers is that you cannot check your bag until 2 hours prior to your flight. We had to wait around about an hour but decided to wait in line so it would be quicker. These airlines are also very specific about luggage requirements so if you do decline to fly somewhere in the EU after your cruise I recommend reading the fine print on luggage and buying a small travel luggage scale you can bring with you. We booked the max fare which gave us guaranteed space for a roller bag & personal bag on the flight and 30 kg of checked luggage included. If you have priority pass check out the VIP lounges in terminals 1 & 2 in Barcelona airport. Our flight was a quick hour and a half flight over to Paris ORLY. 

Once we arrived in Paris we checked into our hotel for the weekend the Intercontinental Le Grand. This hotel is located right next to the opera and was a gorgeous place to call home for the weekend. One thing to mention about IHG is they have special offers for status from time to time. We ran into an offer last year where if you stayed 5 nights with IHG you would get platinum elite status for a year. We stayed with IHG in Israel last year for a week and were able to use our points/status for this trip. This got us a free upgrade, free daily breakfast, 2 free drinks at the bar, and late checkout. Be sure to look out for special offers like this.

 
We had an incredible weekend in Paris visiting - musee d'orsay, a dinner cruise on the seine, the dior gallery, and the Hemingway bar. Paris is an incredible city and a great place to tack on a few days if you are headed out or back from a European cruise. 
 
Let me know if you have any questions! We are headed out on our next cruise in exactly 1 month from today - a 7 night Pacific Coast Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. Looking forward to that while soaking in the memories from this fantastic vacation.

Day 7 - sea day!
Writing this as we are at sea in the Mediterranean! We are headed back to Barcelona today and it is by far the warmest day this trip! We woke up around 8 and packed up a little bit. We like packing a little throughout the last day so it doesn’t feel like a total bummer the cruise is over. Once we packed up a checked bag we headed to Eden Cafe for breakfast. This is an often forgotten complementary venue on Edge class ships for breakfast & lunch. This venue reminded me a lot of the breakfast at 270 on the Quantum class ships.
While we were packing I managed to break a nail pretty badly which required a trip to the spa. I got a beautiful manicure and they even removed the gel i had on my nails prior. Once i was done with my manicure i met my husband at Tuscan for the captain’s club wine tasting event. This event is complementary to Elite and above members. The wine isn’t the best i have ever had however it is generally speaking wines you can only get by the bottle on the ship which would be similar to wine tastings I have done paid at Vintages on Royal Caribbean.

After wine tasting we headed to Luminae for lunch.

Once we wrapped up lunch i headed back to the spa for a blow out. I pre booked this in the cruise planner knowing my dyson airwrap would not be usable in Paris,  our next destination. My blow out was lovely. I did take notice the connection to the sea that the edge class spas have, it is stunning. I overheard one of the other hair dressers with a pretty aggressive upselling technique of starting at the highest level of upgrade which was over $100! and working his way down. I was grateful I wasn’t with him as I always have a hard time saying no to the upsell techniques!
At this point i was feeling so relaxed and was ready for coffee and a book so I went down to the cafe al bacio and enjoyed some time there. My husband was up at the retreat sundeck but met back up with me and then we went to the casino to press our luck once again. 

We luckily came out on top this cruise! From this point it was time for the Captains club celebration event happening in Eden. This was the first time we saw the captain in person which was a little disappointing after being on Beyond with Captain Kate being so visible and personable however, the event was beautiful. It was a busy event but no mention of # of elite members etc. They do an award for the most # of cruises and the couple who won was at #32! My husband and I looked at each other like we can do that too right?! One thing i did really like about our captain is he took time to recognize crew for their time with Celebrity celebrating crew with 5, 10, 15, and 20 year anniversaries with the company. 
Since we started cruising celebrity we have had more and more people comment on the correlation between our status and our age. Maybe it’s specific to the itinerary or ships we have picked. We are on the  younger side but cruising is our vacation of choice and will be for many many years to come. I am very grateful for the incredible loyalty program that Royal Caribbean Group has to offer. It keeps us wanting to come back time and time again.
After the captains club event we grabbed a martini at the martini bar followed by dinner, at you guessed it, Luminae. I reminded my husband this was our first sailing without any specialty dining. I think that might be a clear difference between royal and celebrity for us. With aqua or suite class we are satisfied enough with those dining rooms(blu or luminae) to not need other dining. On RCCL we exclusively book the UDP. The main dining room experience just isn’t for us. One thing to note at least on this sailing is tip envelopes were not delivered to our room at any point. Currently tips are included for the retreat so any additional is not expected. In a way I like this approach as additional tips dont feel forced but you can still recognize great service. I wonder if this will change with tips no longer being included in the retreat all included pricing starting in October. If you are interested in booking the retreat make sure you do it this month before that perk goes away!
After dinner there was a lot of entertainment scheduled for our one planned sea day. We caught the end of the Feel the Funk show. By the end of the show the cast had everyone on their feet clapping and dancing, i was impressed! After this we headed to see the magician in the club. We missed the show called the Magical Bones the other night so i was glad to finally catch it, it was a wonderful show. We ended the night with pizza & one last stop at the martini bar.
We booked an open booking over this sailing so we will definitely be sailing Celebrity again. We currently have an open booking for Royal and Celebrity so if you have ideas for 2024/2025 let me know!
We are headed to Paris tomorrow for the long weekend! I’ll post the highlights of traveling to Paris and our debark experience if anyone is interested! 

Ah! I am so jealous!! That's going to be beautiful too!

Barcelona to Paris weekend recap-
After a lovely last breakfast in Luminae we headed up to the retreat lounge to wait for disembarkation. We were one of the last groups for a flight shuttle as our flight was not international and after 12:00. One thing to note when you disembark in Barcelona is they have a baggage claim type belt where you have to pick up your bag vs having all of the bags lined up. You don’t clear customs in the cruise terminal when the entire trip takes place in the EU. The entire process took around 30 minutes. I noticed the port had a locker and luggage delivery option for those taking a Royal or Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona.


We arrived at terminal 2 and looked for our check in area for Transavia, the airline we would be flying from Barcelona to Paris. One thing to note about the lower cost carriers is that you cannot check your bag until 2 hours prior to your flight. We had to wait around about an hour but decided to wait in line so it would be quicker. These airlines are also very specific about luggage requirements so if you do decline to fly somewhere in the EU after your cruise I recommend reading the fine print on luggage and buying a small travel luggage scale you can bring with you. We booked the max fare which gave us guaranteed space for a roller bag & personal bag on the flight and 30 kg of checked luggage included. If you have priority pass check out the VIP lounges in terminals 1 & 2 in Barcelona airport. Our flight was a quick hour and a half flight over to Paris ORLY. 

Once we arrived in Paris we checked into our hotel for the weekend the Intercontinental Le Grand. This hotel is located right next to the opera and was a gorgeous place to call home for the weekend. One thing to mention about IHG is they have special offers for status from time to time. We ran into an offer last year where if you stayed 5 nights with IHG you would get platinum elite status for a year. We stayed with IHG in Israel last year for a week and were able to use our points/status for this trip. This got us a free upgrade, free daily breakfast, 2 free drinks at the bar, and late checkout. Be sure to look out for special offers like this.

 
We had an incredible weekend in Paris visiting - musee d'orsay, a dinner cruise on the seine, the dior gallery, and the Hemingway bar. Paris is an incredible city and a great place to tack on a few days if you are headed out or back from a European cruise. 
 
Let me know if you have any questions! We are headed out on our next cruise in exactly 1 month from today - a 7 night Pacific Coast Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. Looking forward to that while soaking in the memories from this fantastic vacation.

Barcelona to Paris weekend recap-
After a lovely last breakfast in Luminae we headed up to the retreat lounge to wait for disembarkation. We were one of the last groups for a flight shuttle as our flight was not international and after 12:00. One thing to note when you disembark in Barcelona is they have a baggage claim type belt where you have to pick up your bag vs having all of the bags lined up. You don’t clear customs in the cruise terminal when the entire trip takes place in the EU. The entire process took around 30 minutes. I noticed the port had a locker and luggage delivery option for those taking a Royal or Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona.


We arrived at terminal 2 and looked for our check in area for Transavia, the airline we would be flying from Barcelona to Paris. One thing to note about the lower cost carriers is that you cannot check your bag until 2 hours prior to your flight. We had to wait around about an hour but decided to wait in line so it would be quicker. These airlines are also very specific about luggage requirements so if you do decline to fly somewhere in the EU after your cruise I recommend reading the fine print on luggage and buying a small travel luggage scale you can bring with you. We booked the max fare which gave us guaranteed space for a roller bag & personal bag on the flight and 30 kg of checked luggage included. If you have priority pass check out the VIP lounges in terminals 1 & 2 in Barcelona airport. Our flight was a quick hour and a half flight over to Paris ORLY. 

Once we arrived in Paris we checked into our hotel for the weekend the Intercontinental Le Grand. This hotel is located right next to the opera and was a gorgeous place to call home for the weekend. One thing to mention about IHG is they have special offers for status from time to time. We ran into an offer last year where if you stayed 5 nights with IHG you would get platinum elite status for a year. We stayed with IHG in Israel last year for a week and were able to use our points/status for this trip. This got us a free upgrade, free daily breakfast, 2 free drinks at the bar, and late checkout. Be sure to look out for special offers like this.

 
We had an incredible weekend in Paris visiting - musee d'orsay, a dinner cruise on the seine, the dior gallery, and the Hemingway bar. Paris is an incredible city and a great place to tack on a few days if you are headed out or back from a European cruise. 
 
Let me know if you have any questions! We are headed out on our next cruise in exactly 1 month from today - a 7 night Pacific Coast Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. Looking forward to that while soaking in the memories from this fantastic vacation.

Barcelona to Paris weekend recap-
After a lovely last breakfast in Luminae we headed up to the retreat lounge to wait for disembarkation. We were one of the last groups for a flight shuttle as our flight was not international and after 12:00. One thing to note when you disembark in Barcelona is they have a baggage claim type belt where you have to pick up your bag vs having all of the bags lined up. You don’t clear customs in the cruise terminal when the entire trip takes place in the EU. The entire process took around 30 minutes. I noticed the port had a locker and luggage delivery option for those taking a Royal or Celebrity cruise out of Barcelona.


We arrived at terminal 2 and looked for our check in area for Transavia, the airline we would be flying from Barcelona to Paris. One thing to note about the lower cost carriers is that you cannot check your bag until 2 hours prior to your flight. We had to wait around about an hour but decided to wait in line so it would be quicker. These airlines are also very specific about luggage requirements so if you do decline to fly somewhere in the EU after your cruise I recommend reading the fine print on luggage and buying a small travel luggage scale you can bring with you. We booked the max fare which gave us guaranteed space for a roller bag & personal bag on the flight and 30 kg of checked luggage included. If you have priority pass check out the VIP lounges in terminals 1 & 2 in Barcelona airport. Our flight was a quick hour and a half flight over to Paris ORLY. 

Once we arrived in Paris we checked into our hotel for the weekend the Intercontinental Le Grand. This hotel is located right next to the opera and was a gorgeous place to call home for the weekend. One thing to mention about IHG is they have special offers for status from time to time. We ran into an offer last year where if you stayed 5 nights with IHG you would get platinum elite status for a year. We stayed with IHG in Israel last year for a week and were able to use our points/status for this trip. This got us a free upgrade, free daily breakfast, 2 free drinks at the bar, and late checkout. Be sure to look out for special offers like this.

 
We had an incredible weekend in Paris visiting - musee d'orsay, a dinner cruise on the seine, the dior gallery, and the Hemingway bar. Paris is an incredible city and a great place to tack on a few days if you are headed out or back from a European cruise. 
 
Let me know if you have any questions! We are headed out on our next cruise in exactly 1 month from today - a 7 night Pacific Coast Cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. Looking forward to that while soaking in the memories from this fantastic vacation.

We have all been there! Even though it wasn’t funny in the moment it leaves a good laugh as a memory!

Thanks. 😊
To be honest, the thing she hurt most was her pride. It was a very undignified slip and slither down the seaweedy ramp. She did laugh about it later, after we got her back to the ship and cleaned her up! 😂

So sorry a family member was hurt on your trip but hope one day you will make it back to enjoy the island. It really is beautiful. I loved how authentic the island felt to the culture and how beautiful the scenery was.

Attempting my first live blog! My husband and I are big fans of RCCL, currently Diamond+ & matched to Celebrity Elite status. Last year we sailed on Celebrity Beyond on a 9 night Italian Rivera sailing and it changed so much for us! We are both millennials without children and enjoyed the more upscale experience Celebrity can bring. We were VERY spoiled on our first sailing as we got a celebrity move up bid on the Edge Villa and let me tell you that was a WOW! We also sailed on Celebrity Summit earlier this year and now we are headed out on Celebrity Edge in 7 days. Safe to say we are enjoying it thus far! We also have another Celebrity sailing booked for later this year on Eclipse. I love the loyalty perks Celebrity has to offer and happy to go into that more if you have specific questions!
 
Sailing Details-
7 night Italy, France, and Spain sailing on August 26th
August 26th- Barcelona, Spain
August 27th - Cannes, France
August 28th - Portofino, Italy
August 29th - La Spezia, Italy
August 30th - Rome, Italy
August 31st - Ajaccio, Corsica
September 1st - at sea
September 2nd - Barcelona, Spain
 
Pre-cruise plans-
We are leaving EWR on August 25th for an overnight flight to Barcelona. I know this is very close to our sailing but with our work schedules this is what we had to work with! Luckily we are flying business so we will have a bed to sleep in overnight! We also booked through air2sea to ensure we would make it to our sailing in case of a delay. We have sailed out of Barcelona twice before so we are familiar with the airport and the city. We are doing an Embarkation Day shore excursion this go around to see the sagrada familia because we haven’t seen it yet!
 
Room Selection- 
We booked an Aqua Class room however 20 days before our sailing we were notified we got our move up bid to a Sky Suite! While it isn’t the villa we got last summer we absolutely loved the retreat experience on Beyond and can’t wait to experience it on Edge. 
 
Post Cruise plans-
We are flying from Barcelona to Paris to spend Labor Day weekend. The flight is a short 2 hour trip. 
 
Excited to take you along with us for another amazing celebrity cruise vacation! Feel free to follow along on my instagram too @themillennialcruiser!

That’s how I feel about coastal kitchen. With CK access, I am pretty happy. With no CK access, I am going to be thinking pretty hard about UDP. 

Thanks for blogging this one. I always love seeing your trip pics on IG but I have really loved reading about your experiences too. I am going to go home and while the kids are back at school, re-read this blog. Maybe make some notes for next year 😉
Can’t wait to hear about your Paris weekend! 

Day 7 - sea day!
Writing this as we are at sea in the Mediterranean! We are headed back to Barcelona today and it is by far the warmest day this trip! We woke up around 8 and packed up a little bit. We like packing a little throughout the last day so it doesn’t feel like a total bummer the cruise is over. Once we packed up a checked bag we headed to Eden Cafe for breakfast. This is an often forgotten complementary venue on Edge class ships for breakfast & lunch. This venue reminded me a lot of the breakfast at 270 on the Quantum class ships.
While we were packing I managed to break a nail pretty badly which required a trip to the spa. I got a beautiful manicure and they even removed the gel i had on my nails prior. Once i was done with my manicure i met my husband at Tuscan for the captain’s club wine tasting event. This event is complementary to Elite and above members. The wine isn’t the best i have ever had however it is generally speaking wines you can only get by the bottle on the ship which would be similar to wine tastings I have done paid at Vintages on Royal Caribbean.

After wine tasting we headed to Luminae for lunch.

Once we wrapped up lunch i headed back to the spa for a blow out. I pre booked this in the cruise planner knowing my dyson airwrap would not be usable in Paris,  our next destination. My blow out was lovely. I did take notice the connection to the sea that the edge class spas have, it is stunning. I overheard one of the other hair dressers with a pretty aggressive upselling technique of starting at the highest level of upgrade which was over $100! and working his way down. I was grateful I wasn’t with him as I always have a hard time saying no to the upsell techniques!
At this point i was feeling so relaxed and was ready for coffee and a book so I went down to the cafe al bacio and enjoyed some time there. My husband was up at the retreat sundeck but met back up with me and then we went to the casino to press our luck once again. 

We luckily came out on top this cruise! From this point it was time for the Captains club celebration event happening in Eden. This was the first time we saw the captain in person which was a little disappointing after being on Beyond with Captain Kate being so visible and personable however, the event was beautiful. It was a busy event but no mention of # of elite members etc. They do an award for the most # of cruises and the couple who won was at #32! My husband and I looked at each other like we can do that too right?! One thing i did really like about our captain is he took time to recognize crew for their time with Celebrity celebrating crew with 5, 10, 15, and 20 year anniversaries with the company. 
Since we started cruising celebrity we have had more and more people comment on the correlation between our status and our age. Maybe it’s specific to the itinerary or ships we have picked. We are on the  younger side but cruising is our vacation of choice and will be for many many years to come. I am very grateful for the incredible loyalty program that Royal Caribbean Group has to offer. It keeps us wanting to come back time and time again.
After the captains club event we grabbed a martini at the martini bar followed by dinner, at you guessed it, Luminae. I reminded my husband this was our first sailing without any specialty dining. I think that might be a clear difference between royal and celebrity for us. With aqua or suite class we are satisfied enough with those dining rooms(blu or luminae) to not need other dining. On RCCL we exclusively book the UDP. The main dining room experience just isn’t for us. One thing to note at least on this sailing is tip envelopes were not delivered to our room at any point. Currently tips are included for the retreat so any additional is not expected. In a way I like this approach as additional tips dont feel forced but you can still recognize great service. I wonder if this will change with tips no longer being included in the retreat all included pricing starting in October. If you are interested in booking the retreat make sure you do it this month before that perk goes away!
After dinner there was a lot of entertainment scheduled for our one planned sea day. We caught the end of the Feel the Funk show. By the end of the show the cast had everyone on their feet clapping and dancing, i was impressed! After this we headed to see the magician in the club. We missed the show called the Magical Bones the other night so i was glad to finally catch it, it was a wonderful show. We ended the night with pizza & one last stop at the martini bar.
We booked an open booking over this sailing so we will definitely be sailing Celebrity again. We currently have an open booking for Royal and Celebrity so if you have ideas for 2024/2025 let me know!
We are headed to Paris tomorrow for the long weekend! I’ll post the highlights of traveling to Paris and our debark experience if anyone is interested! 

Day 7 - sea day!
Writing this as we are at sea in the Mediterranean! We are headed back to Barcelona today and it is by far the warmest day this trip! We woke up around 8 and packed up a little bit. We like packing a little throughout the last day so it doesn’t feel like a total bummer the cruise is over. Once we packed up a checked bag we headed to Eden Cafe for breakfast. This is an often forgotten complementary venue on Edge class ships for breakfast & lunch. This venue reminded me a lot of the breakfast at 270 on the Quantum class ships.
While we were packing I managed to break a nail pretty badly which required a trip to the spa. I got a beautiful manicure and they even removed the gel i had on my nails prior. Once i was done with my manicure i met my husband at Tuscan for the captain’s club wine tasting event. This event is complementary to Elite and above members. The wine isn’t the best i have ever had however it is generally speaking wines you can only get by the bottle on the ship which would be similar to wine tastings I have done paid at Vintages on Royal Caribbean.

After wine tasting we headed to Luminae for lunch.

Once we wrapped up lunch i headed back to the spa for a blow out. I pre booked this in the cruise planner knowing my dyson airwrap would not be usable in Paris,  our next destination. My blow out was lovely. I did take notice the connection to the sea that the edge class spas have, it is stunning. I overheard one of the other hair dressers with a pretty aggressive upselling technique of starting at the highest level of upgrade which was over $100! and working his way down. I was grateful I wasn’t with him as I always have a hard time saying no to the upsell techniques!
At this point i was feeling so relaxed and was ready for coffee and a book so I went down to the cafe al bacio and enjoyed some time there. My husband was up at the retreat sundeck but met back up with me and then we went to the casino to press our luck once again. 

We luckily came out on top this cruise! From this point it was time for the Captains club celebration event happening in Eden. This was the first time we saw the captain in person which was a little disappointing after being on Beyond with Captain Kate being so visible and personable however, the event was beautiful. It was a busy event but no mention of # of elite members etc. They do an award for the most # of cruises and the couple who won was at #32! My husband and I looked at each other like we can do that too right?! One thing i did really like about our captain is he took time to recognize crew for their time with Celebrity celebrating crew with 5, 10, 15, and 20 year anniversaries with the company. 
Since we started cruising celebrity we have had more and more people comment on the correlation between our status and our age. Maybe it’s specific to the itinerary or ships we have picked. We are on the  younger side but cruising is our vacation of choice and will be for many many years to come. I am very grateful for the incredible loyalty program that Royal Caribbean Group has to offer. It keeps us wanting to come back time and time again.
After the captains club event we grabbed a martini at the martini bar followed by dinner, at you guessed it, Luminae. I reminded my husband this was our first sailing without any specialty dining. I think that might be a clear difference between royal and celebrity for us. With aqua or suite class we are satisfied enough with those dining rooms(blu or luminae) to not need other dining. On RCCL we exclusively book the UDP. The main dining room experience just isn’t for us. One thing to note at least on this sailing is tip envelopes were not delivered to our room at any point. Currently tips are included for the retreat so any additional is not expected. In a way I like this approach as additional tips dont feel forced but you can still recognize great service. I wonder if this will change with tips no longer being included in the retreat all included pricing starting in October. If you are interested in booking the retreat make sure you do it this month before that perk goes away!
After dinner there was a lot of entertainment scheduled for our one planned sea day. We caught the end of the Feel the Funk show. By the end of the show the cast had everyone on their feet clapping and dancing, i was impressed! After this we headed to see the magician in the club. We missed the show called the Magical Bones the other night so i was glad to finally catch it, it was a wonderful show. We ended the night with pizza & one last stop at the martini bar.
We booked an open booking over this sailing so we will definitely be sailing Celebrity again. We currently have an open booking for Royal and Celebrity so if you have ideas for 2024/2025 let me know!
We are headed to Paris tomorrow for the long weekend! I’ll post the highlights of traveling to Paris and our debark experience if anyone is interested! 

I would agree with you on the smaller ship 100% for the Med! It is nice to be on a ship and not have the FOMO feeling like you do on an oasis class ship at times. 
 
Also, if you can I would recommend a land trip to Maine to soak in all that the state has to offer! Southern Maine is our favorite particularly the Cliff House in Cape Neddick, Maine. They have rooms that overlook the cliffs and WOW! Its truly majestic and so so beautiful!

How this cruise went by so fast with another great blog.
You survived the WJ and MD like a champ.  Could you do it again?
Think since you "roughed" the week in the MD and WJ with no food coma or even Effy in port, it's only a fair trade for hubby to get another cruise booked even a quick getaway short sailing.  Seems his credit card is in a dry spell on this sailing and needs that swipe of love....