cruisellama

infinite verandas? 

We've greatly enjoyed Edge class.  As with any cruise line, enhancement and experiences can be expanded with a larger and more up to date ships.  It's the nature of upgrading a fleet.  When Millennium was the only class, we enjoyed that, and following Solstice improved the experience over Millennium class.  But with each class, so has the passenger capacity increased;  so as the ships get bigger, so do the crowds.   At this point, as we sail suite class, and do not favor going back in ship class (M,S).   The legacy ship class Retreat experience is far inferior to what Edge class offers (by design) when sailing in a suite.  So to us, that's the most notable change that makes Edge class our new preference.

Summary:  We sailed the week of 5 March 2023 with about 3200 fellow passengers.  Celebrity Beyond lives up to its name.  Its design and service goes beyond earlier Edge and Apex ships. Port visits included:  St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Puerto Plata DR.   At first glimpse, Beyond fixes some of the “nits” that Edge and Apex rolled out with.  For example, the Martini Bar is positioned into the center of the atrium, making it a focus while adding more seating, the Sunset bar is made over to give a Moroccan feel with various levels of seating on the aft starboard edge, and most noticeable for Retreat members, there’s an additional deck that holds a pool and two hot tubs.   The Retreat hits new levels now contained within 3 - decks with Luminae positioned between the Retreat lounge and upper pool deck (Decks 15-17 forward).
 
Embarkation: Port Everglades Celebrity  terminal is  updated and easy to negotiate on embarkation day.   The suite lounge is comfortable, but even at 10:30 (the early boarding time) we couldn’t find any seating.  Service was great, but had to stand for about 15 minutes and embarkation commenced.  We were onboard before 11am.
 
Ship Experiences
Food & Dining:  We stayed in a Sky Suite so had access to Luminae and Blu for main dining.  Except for 3 specialty restaurants, we dined in those venues all week for major meals.  Also dined in the Aqua cafe, Eden cafe, and Oceanview cafe.  All venues were well maintained, but it was obvious the menu quality & strength has been reduced (just as on the Royal parent).  Its not the Celebrity dining of 5 years ago.   
 
Le Voyage - Daniel Boulud’s intimate signature specialty restaurant on Beyond (and highest price).  Features assorted entrees a tasting menu and chef’s table.  We’re not fans of Daniel’s stye of French cuisine , but we needed to try the new venue.  Restaurant ambiance and service is first rate; however, the food is ordinary.  I would give a 10 to service and an ambiance, and rate the food between 7-8. The restaurant is a small space in the on deck 4 that has a rather hard to see front outer sliding door (think Star Trek).  It opens into a small space with the maitre’d and you then pass through a second sliding door into a very intimate dining area with about 14 small tables.  A small private dining room off to the side can accommodate a 6-8 person chefs table.  Its a 2 hour experience and service is old school cruise line style.  But the menu being the weakest part of the experience.  Not bad, not exquisite, just about equivalent to a Luminae offering at a premium price.
 
Luminae - Visited for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  If you’ve sailed Celebrity with Luminae in the past, you’ll notice a weaker menu.  (In fact our honest waiters confirmed our observation on several nights).   The Baja Eggs content/presentation was different from what I was used to on other ships.  When I attempted to explain to the waiter, he didn’t understand what I was trying to communicate (new guy with little English).  Second issue with a lunchtime Margarita Flatbread that had a blue food residue on the bottom.  Not knowing what this was (as it looked like mold), we informed the waiter resulting on a visit from the chef.  He apologized profusely, but admitted the blue material came from a placing the flatbread on a dirty tray  (that’s called cross contamination in a US restaurant kitchen).  We found out a few of the staff were on first contracts.  Which explained the low energy service and wait times.  Lunches could go 2 hours.
 
Retreat Lounge :  All good and exceeded expectations with service and food / drink offerings. Three deck areas:  Lounge, sun deck, and pool deck with pool and hot tubs with connectivity to the Luminae on deck 16.  (The arrangement is far more efficient arrangement than the new suite neighborhood on Wonder of the Seas configuration).  The total area seems large enough to accommodate everyone.   The availability of pool, hot tubs, and food within the private area allows guest to pretty much homestead in the Retreat.
 
Blu :   A lighter (maybe healthier) breakfast and dinner offering for AquaClass guests.   As suite guest, we also were given unlimited access and found the menu to be more attractive than Luminae on several occasions.   Service was also a little faster allowing you to not get too bogged down at a sit down dining venue.
 
Le Petit Chef:  French “like” cuisine with a clever animated table projection story about the creation of the dish.  The meal contained 4 courses and a projected petit chef walks you through the making of the particular dishes and his path to becoming a chef.   Kids would love it.   Its more about the show than the food.  Food was OK, but again, nothing you could not experience in the complimentary Normandy “French” restaurant.  In viewing the menu, it seems than many of the items are actually available as complimentary menu items in other venues.  Box checked.
 
Raw on 5:   As we enjoy shell fish, we really enjoyed Raw on 5.   We are raw oyster fans and had our fill.  They offer an Imperial Tower which is a seafood extravaganza of crab legs, oysters, lobster clams, shrimp, fish that will challenge 2 to finish.   Sushi is also offered with pricing well in line with what you would pay off the ship.
Oceanview Cafe:  Main buffet.   Nice offerings, but not as many as pre-Covid.   More of less on the serving tables.  Also noticed they would let stations go “empty” about 20 minutes prior to closing so you were out of luck if you got there too close to closing.
Onboard Activities
Entertainment:  Very ample.  Three theater productions, a couple of aft Eden productions and top liners.  Ship entertainment venues offer great screens for effects and the production teams know how to make best use of the “special effects” offered by the screen.
Service & Staff:  All good - no complaints.   They all worked to keep you happy.  They all seemed happy and enjoyed being with the guests.  Very attentive butler and room steward keep the room ship shape and ensured we had coffee first thing in the morning.
Ship Quality:   The newest and brightest in the Celebrity fleet.  Ship is fantastic and it seems they applied practical lessons learned from earlier Edge class ships.   Lots of space and filled with very nice art.  Edge deck plans exhibit a noticeable amount of asymmetry so you find there are not necessarily direct walking paths from bow to stern on certain decks forcing you to go up - go straight - go down to get from bow to stern,    Just takes some thought to select decks with straight paths between forward and aft section of the ship.  Elevator capacity seemed ample for the 3200 passengers if you avoid dinner rush.  Elevator capacity is being challenged on all ships pushing capacity.   We did notice the ship structure itself was obviously “noisy”.  When the sea state increased a bit, everything seemed to “creak” in the cabin.   In fact just walking the decks you could hear creaking and cracking everywhere you walked (like the rigging on a sailboat) .  We overheard one family saying maintenance showed up at their cabin and made adjustments to panels and doors that were apparently loose.  Appeared to be a feature on the ship.   I wondered if its still under warrantee.
Cabin/Stateroom: 10-215 port side Sky Suite with ample floor space and comfortable atmosphere.   Balcony was sufficient with lounge, chairs and small table.  Like the cabin, would stay there again.  Only nuisance was the creaking and cracking when seas were a little rough.  Room had plenty of light, and a very nice bath with a tub.
Summary:  The best in the Celebrity fleet at this time.  Outshines Edge and Apex.  Service was superb.  I don’t think the food is at the same level as experienced prior to Covid (menus are weaker).  But I believe that’s probably across lines and ships.  I would sail Beyond again and look forward to Ascent.  Footnote:  If you want a real balcony room on an Edge class ship, you have to book a suite.  All other outside rooms use what’s called an infinite veranda which encloses and integrates the balcony area into the room.  Instead of an open space, the window can be opened to the outside.  As someone who’s used to balconies, and after seeing family members IV cabins,  I would not book one myself.  (Would bite the bullet and move to a Sky Suite)

Nice rundown.  The streamlined embarkation and disembarkation with the Star luggage handling is a favorite perk along with the early access to the suite.

Nice rundown.  The streamlined embarkation and disembarkation with the Star luggage handling is a favorite perk along with the early access to the suite.

My wife and I recently went on a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on Harmony of the Seas out of Galveston and thought I would share my trip review.
This was our first Star Class experience and we didn't really know what to expect. For what its worth, my wife and I are, what  we believe to be, low maintenance.
We arrived at the terminal around 11 am and the parking lot was busy!!! It took us about 15 minutes to get from the entrance of the lot to the drop off spot for Star class #6. Once there, our luggage was taken by the Star Class Attendant and we were walked right in and the check in process was quick and painless.  We were in the suite waiting area less than a minute when our Genie Claudio met us and another one of his rooms and he took us right in to the ship.  We entered Deck 5 and I asked the Genie if we could get our visit to the muster station done as it was in the main dining hall on deck 5 ( visible from where we were standing). He said he would prefer to take us to our rooms and let us come back later on our own.  Once inside the cabin, a Star Loft, Claudio went over our itinerary.   -backstory
 
The Shore "Genie" Jerryme caused more work than if there would have been no communication before getting on the ship.  He reached out about 4 weeks before the cruise. We exchanged about 3 emails each.  After the first email I'm not sure he read any of the others.  We requested which restaurants we wanted to eat at, mentioned a few we didn't want to go to and he just added all the restaurants whether we wanted them or not.  I also mentioned that we were celebrating my wife's birthday on day 2 and that I was hoping for a cake and some room decorations.  I wasn't too worried because I kept reading that there were similar problems with other cruisers and that the ship's Genie would take care of everything.
Back to Day one of the cruise
 
Our Genie Claudio took care of everything.  Any reservation we wanted, and show any time, he got it done.  No worries.  Days 1-5 there was always some kind of treat waiting for us, Charcuterie boards, chocolate covered strawberries and cookies were the norm.  
 
Day 2 when we came back from lunch the room was decorated for my wife's birthday celebration.  It was a surprise to have this done for her.  It even had a gift from Claudio which was really unexpected and very nice!!  The cake was made from towels.  Not what I expected.  My wife asked me if I requested an edible cake.   I did not, guess that's on me.  Still very nice that they set this up.  We ate at Hibachi. The host sat us then explained to the table what each dining package covered.  Then he looked at my wife and I and said order anything you want it is all covered.  We ordered Sushi ( a full roll) the hibachi and I had a small carafe of warm saki (one of my only drinks).  We received 4 receipts, all totalled 0$.  The only food or drink item that we paid for on the ship was cotton candy on the boardwalk (3.98 each) and a nonalcohol pineapple drink on the promenade.  
 
For dinners Claudio would come in to the restaurant about 5 minutes after we were seated to make sure everything was as expected.  The shows our Genie would meet us outside the venue to escort us to reserved seats and get us drinks if we needed.  For shore excursions our Genie would meet us at the elevators to cut any lines and escort us to the disembarkation location.  
 
Our room steward and his apprentice were great.  Days 1-5 it seemed that any time we would leave the room when we came back the room was made  up like new.  
 
We aren't alcohol drinkers much so we had different sodas in the suite.  When we were low we texted our Genie and almost immediately they were restocked.  We never had to ask again as they were filled almost daily after that.  
 
Day 2 our Genie said there was a flowrider time set aside for star guests at 9am.   That was the only time any star class event was mentioned.
 
Days 6 and 7 were a little different.  I don't remember any snacks in the room.  We did use room service and our Genie said to text him or if we called room service our suite was on a priority list so the food was delivered super quick.  Also on day seven we had 2 tours, the galley tour and the navigation area.  
 
Also on day seven we requested the tip form to have the tips added to out on board account.  Tips are included as part of the Star Class amenities, except for the Genie and room stewards to my knowledge.  We tipped our Genie 750.00 room steward 150.00 and apprentice steward 75.00.  We also tipped anyone that dropped off room service 3-5 per trip.  
 
It was an amazing trip, we had so much fun.  I'm not sure if star class was worth the extra money.  My wife and I agreed that we weren't wowed, but it was a great experience.  
 
Hope this helps if you haven't tried star class yet.  For those that have, is there anything we could have done differently to experience more?
 

I'm a long time Celebrity loyalist pushing 80 Celebrity cruises since 2001. 10 more on other lines (Disney, Royal, NCL, MSC, Princess, Oceana).  I found myself in a cruising rut and thought a change-up was required. I chose, Virgin Voyages, that is noted for its owner, Richard Branson, and his traditions breaking approach to high seas cruising.
Yes, there were differences, most of which I considered good. At first glance, Virgin Voyages are pricey but when you unpack what you're getting as part of your cruise fare, costs are comparable. A recent post appeared up thread that said this: 
I’d like to try Celebrity but paying over $2,000 (Premium) for drinks on a $3,000 cruise fare seems crazy.
It IS crazy and it is reflective of unwelcome pricing and revenue stream approaches by Celebrity Corporate. I'm an Elite Plus Celebrity Cruiser with just over 2000 Loyalty points - I'm unlikely to reach Pinnacle status. I stopped purchasing "everything included" packages when they dropped gratuities from those packages around 18 months ago - maybe longer. I find the free 5-7pm happy hour Celebrity loyalty perk all I need. I simply cannot consume the alcohol required to make "the (drink) package" - Classic or Premium worth the cost. Not even close.
Virgin status matched. I obtained the Blue Level of Loyalty which got me a free bag of laundry and one specialty coffee per day. The perks are better after 4 cruises obtains the Deep Blue Loyalty level. That includes $100 of Sailor Loot and a free upgrade to already free WiFi to premium or streaming capable WiFi plus the Blue perks. If you book a suite (they are very expensive) you become a Rock Star on that voyage and get a whole range of premium services for that including a stocked hosted bar in your suite cabin. A bump up from Sailor status for non-suite guests.  
Virgin Voyages approaches the enjoyment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages very differently that Celebrity - in a good way. First, a full range of non-alcoholic beverages including fountain sodas and the usual selection of juices is part of your cruise fare. For alcoholic beverages you pre-purchase a "bar tab" in an amount that suits how much alcohol you think you will consume during your voyage. There are unsponsored web sites that have bar tab calculators to fine tune your estimated cost of drinks. There are incentives in the form of bonuses up to $100 depending on how much of a bar tab you purchase. I bought a $200 bar tab and got a $25 bonus. On a 5n cruise, that turned out to be just about right consuming one cocktail and 1-2 glasses of wine per day. How does that work? I got two cash perks of $100 each credited to my on-board account; one from my TA and one from Virgin. I had $225 of bar tab plus $200 of "Sailor Loot", as Virgin calls it's cash incentive perks. Once you've used your bar tab, you sailor loot will cover drinks too. It's a very good system and a major plus-up that influences which company, Virgin or Celebrity, I'll book with. 
Virgin Voyages uses a bracelet approach for your room key and for any onboard purchases including cocktails and wine. It's like Princess Cruises without the need to buy watch bands from them. Bar staff scans your bracelet after you've placed your order. Gift shops and Duty Free shops do the same if you buy anything on board.
There are 22 restaurants aboard the three Virgin Voyages ships sailing now with one on order. 5 of these are comparable to any of Celebrity's Specialty Restaurants. The difference is they are part of your cruise fare. We had time to pre-reserve a table and visited 4 of them - all excellent with high end service and food quality. The other five eateries are lower key but fun themed. One of those five is called the Galley. Unlike traditional cruise line buffets, Branson went for more of a food court style. There is a lot of different food choices available in these stands. There should be no problem finding something you like. Two unique offerings are a Bento Box with sushi in it or a "Grab and Go" offering if want something like a pre-made salad or sandwich quickly. You just grab it from the user accessable cooler shelf (like a grocery store cooler) in the Galley.  Ship made ice cream and various types of pastries, cakes and candies are also available in several places around the ship. No charge. Several coffee shops are spread around the ship. Specialty coffees on offer have to paid for using your bracelet. All of this was a very nice change to the usual cruise ship buffets, al Bacio and pay as you go gelato. In the end there are similar offerings, if not quite as diverse aboard Celebrity ships and, in the Ocean View Cafe. One of the bar areas at the aft of the ship serves small apps offerings late afternoon with a Greek take. It's a beautiful setting and tasty bites to eat are served there by wait staff.  
Branson shaped entertainment aboard his virgin fleet to be completely different from Celebrity's production and featured performers shows. More like a festival with smaller less ambitious shows - all of them very good entertainment and the shows are performed more than once per night so, you won't miss-out because a performance venue is filled up. And that does happen. About 6 months ago, Virgin stopped the requirement to pre-book these shows on the Virgin App. It's now first come first serve, except one, "The Ship Show" - a variety type show that comes with dinner. We booked that. It was free and it was fun. All three Virgin ships have different entertainment line-ups. A clever move to encourage future bookings when you know the entertainment won't be the same as the cruise you just sailed. We lined up 20-30 minutes before a show we wanted to see at the time we wanted to see it
I could go on. I hit what I perceive as some major and enticing features of a Virgin Cruise. I found the staff to be friendly, engaging and very good at what they do. Ship's company officers do not wear uniforms. They are hard to distinguish from other guests in shorts and tee-shirts. They do wear distinctive black ones though. They're not omni-present and visible like they are on Celebrity ships - an intentional Branson approach.
An important note for seniors. We are in our 70s so I was a bit apprehensive about the ship's vibe. We fit in just fine. Virgin isn't catering to the Carnival crowd that loudly parties and is drunk the entire cruise and routinely vomits in passageways. All-in-all this was a pretty staid group of cruisers a bit younger, but not by a lot, than the average Celebrity cruiser by age (47). The higher cruise fares helps to keep undesirables (you know who these are without sticking your nose up) on shore, not on Virgin's ships. This was a themed Halloween Cruise. We dressed as the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit, my wife has costuming experience. That said, out of nearly a hundred cruisers that competed, we won the "Best Dressed" category at the costume ball beating out the other finalists who were dressed as Bat Man and Cat Woman. That got us a free 7n cruise. Besides that huge plus, I really liked VIrgin's whimsical approach to cruising. I booked our free cruise - a R/T Barcelona-Barcelona - in June next year and added a B2B repositioning Barcelona to Rome cruise. I'm comparing similar Celebrity Eclipse and Virgin's Scarlet Lady translants in April 2026 that end in Amsterdam and Barcelona respectively. Not leaning either way yet. Pricing will feature in the decision. My TA is working on that. 
   

My grandson was in that situation on a closed loop out of Galveston last week.  We brought his birth certificate (BC) as a backup.  When we arrived we presented both the BC and the passport (which only had 3 months of life left).   The agent said, the passport was fine.   This was not an issue with the CBP at Galveston. (But we prepared for the worse case).
I believe the stated RCL policy mimics the DoS travel note  that many countries will not accept a passport with expiration of <6 months at time of travel completion.  It's a conservative position for a closed loop Caribbean cruise (where certain islands/countries do not require US passports), but at the same time, may push guests to ensure they retain more robust travel documentation.   With the new facial recognition tech tied to passports, it really makes embarkation/disembarkation process go fast. 

Unbelievable price... 
However, at least the cruise is on schedule. 
Area of Bahamas currently there's a system spinning. Covering Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba. Strong rain / wind. Hopefully return to Florida would be good. 

I was using a Chase travel CC in Europe this summer and noticed that I was being charged a foreign transaction fee. I immediately changed my card use to one that didn't charge that fee.

My grandson was in that situation on a closed loop out of Galveston last week.  We brought his birth certificate (BC) as a backup.  When we arrived we presented both the BC and the passport (which only had 3 months of life left).   The agent said, the passport was fine.   This was not an issue with the CBP at Galveston. (But we prepared for the worse case).
I believe the stated RCL policy mimics the DoS travel note  that many countries will not accept a passport with expiration of <6 months at time of travel completion.  It's a conservative position for a closed loop Caribbean cruise (where certain islands/countries do not require US passports), but at the same time, may push guests to ensure they retain more robust travel documentation.   With the new facial recognition tech tied to passports, it really makes embarkation/disembarkation process go fast. 

Vacation over -  fall break Harmony cruise complete, and our grandson's return to school the next day.  Think this kid is ready to go again? Insisted on wearing his lanyard and seapass.

@ScottD The Brightline is not convenient for you.  The Tri-Rail might work for you, but you will likely still need to Uber to the hotel and then back to the station.  Depending on your travel date, one of these three less expensive hotels that are all very close to Miami Metrorail stations might make the decision to flush the cheep FLL hotel a little easier: Springhill Suites Miami Downtown/Medical Center, Courtyard Miami Downtown/Brickell Area, Comfort Inn & Suites Downtown Brickell-Port of Miami.  https://www.miamidade.gov/transit/library/metrorail-map.pdf  https://www.tri-rail.com/pages/view/system-map 

Mariner is there.  Seems like a safe port to hang out until the storm moves on.

Milton is a "5"!  Hopefully enough cold water will be churned up from the bottom to the  surface to degrade the storm before it lands.  Stay safe everyone.

Milton is a "5"!  Hopefully enough cold water will be churned up from the bottom to the  surface to degrade the storm before it lands.  Stay safe everyone.

Add my prayers to those of @PPPJJ-GCVAB

We have been sitting here in Tallahassee watching all the storm chasers arrive. Publix and Walmart are closed but ABC Liquors is still open 😂

We drove straight through from North Louisiana to SW FL yesterday (17.5 brutal hours !) and really only encountered a couple of heavy rain bands and virtually -0- winds.  Today the winds are starting to pick up a bit but I really don't expect any substantive troubles for us here in Port St Lucie.   Glad we made that trip yesterday and not today.
The most interesting part of our journey was watching all of the emergency teams coming into FL.  We had power trucks, tree service trucks, National Guard convoys and many, many, many trucks with logistics support folks (truck after truck after truck hauling port-o-potties !!!) all the way from the beginning of our trek (Louisiana).  I'm sure they were coming in from other areas as well, but we only saw the ones coming from the west.  I was really impressed.  I guess this is what you get when you declare a state of emergency well in advance.  Let's hope none of them are needed !!

Mentally preparing for a possible itinerary change....

Did I hear correct strike over until January 2025.

It appears they're carving out cruise line support and shipment of military equipment from the strike. 

Cruise passengers also have nothing to worry about, according to ILA President Harold Daggett.
"ILA Longshore workers will continue to work Passenger Cruise vessels at all ILA ports, to not inconvenience the tens of thousands of Americans who have booked trips in advance," he said. "We understand that many families plan and pay for cruise vacations on passenger ships more than a year out, and we don’t want them to be disappointed or inconvenienced in any way.”
Daggett also noted that his union has suffered along with the cruise industry and wants to support it.
"For almost three years during the worst of the pandemic, the cruise ship industry was shut down, and our ILA rank-and-file members handling passenger cruise vessels lost a lot of manhours,” he explained.
 
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/what-a-longshoremen-strike-means-for-carnival-royal-caribbean-and-other-cruise-lines/ar-AA1rtA8Z

It occurs to me that Royal's new status match program could impact project discovery.  
The status match program could be a way to nudge Royal cruisers to sail Celebrity.  Celebrity has smaller ships.  
Royal Caribbean International has a purpose in corporate life.  It is mass market cruising.  That means mega ships carrying mega passengers.  The whole concept of project discovery flies in the face of the mass market cruise segment.
I've always been curious why a mass market mega cruise line would build a smaller ship.   Instead, why not leverage existing smaller ships in the family of cruise lines under the RCG umbrella?
Time will tell.  Maybe the status match is a test to see if Celebrity can fulfill the role of more interesting itineraries to a broader range of ports leaving RCI to be the mega mass market brand in the family.