SpicyCherry

I just read a shore excursion recommendation article by @Matt about Pearl Island. Has anyone tried it out recently? Looks amazing and it would be something different to do in Nassau, being that we've been there too many times to count. Is it offered through RCCL as a Shore Excursion or booked independently? 

4 hours ago, teddy said:

As much as I really liked sub $75 Beach Club passes, people must be paying these prices. 

I remember my wife and I agreeing that we would pay as much as $100 pp for the Beach Club if we were there with two full ships (and thinking we were nuts to do so). 

Right before I read your comment I said to myself: "Are people paying these prices?"....Apparently they are!! That's the only way RCCL is getting away charging these prices. However, I don't judge the the people who feel it's worth it or simply feel: "I can afford it, so...." I booked a Hillside Cabana on Labadee at a price I never thought I would pay(not $3000 BTW) but did so because it will be our 1st time to Labadee and my 35th anniversary....so I splurged!!

4 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I'm glad I got to do the beach club at $79 to then know I'd never do it for more than that.

We got the Beach Club at $88 for our Nov 2023 Wonder sailing, which is less than what we paid in 2022. So we're happy. $300 might be a little too rich for my blood....

We quickly bonded with the waiter we had at lunch on Embarkation day so requested to be seated in his section for each meal, including breakfast, lunch & dinner. Therefore, we tipped him at the end of our stay. In fact, being on a B2B, we had him for a 2nd week and handled the tip the same way as the 1st week.

On 4/5/2023 at 1:27 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

We purchased the Beach Club for our May 26 Mariner cruise at $89PP.  I wouldn’t pay more than that.

We also got it for $89p/p for Wonder in Nov 2023. The 1st time we tried it, in May 2022, it was about $119p/p. Right now, it is holding steady at $160p/p for our sailing. But I totally agree with @JohnK6404 that it's really up to the individual whether it's worth it. I like the exclusivity and am generally willing to pay for it but not at any price. I probably wouldn't do the Cabanas in the Club unless with another couple or 2, at the most. Really don't want to be jammed up in a Cabana with 8 people. Mind as well be on the crowded beach....for free!! The Cabanas on Chill Island are really nice as well and are a bit more affordable for 2. Having said that, though, the Chill Island Cabanas on my upcoming sailing on Symphony 2024 is up to $1200....Only paid $399 in May 2022!! The Beach Cabana in the Club is up to $2000 and the Overwater is $3500. That's a bit too rich for my blood!!

Am I hearing you guys right? There's no wifi access on Labadee? Never been there before but will be going for the 1st time next May. I assumed they had wifi like CocoCay.

23 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

If it looks like a wine bottle, they will not even remotely consider it anything other than wine.

That's my hope....My DH likes Cabernet S in the evenings but I prefer Port.

Sooooo...Is Port Wine allowed to be brought onboard? Not sure if they will consider it as just another bottle of wine and not 'liquor'. The last time I brought wine, it was for a B2B sailing and they barely looked and let me board with all 4 bottles instead of holding 2 back for the 2nd leg. So I was thinking about bringing Port this time. Any advice for me??

On 3/11/2023 at 4:12 PM, barjpoe said:

Has any one done the Sushi and Sake? 

We did the Sushi & Sake on Symphony last year. We rather enjoyed it. Didn't understand everything the host was saying but everything tasted wonderful. We thought it was worth the $$. We recommend it....and ask one of servers to try Hot Sake. It wasn't on the menu but we asked and received. We asked again when we did the Hibachi Dinner and they accommodated us again.

On 3/11/2023 at 5:16 PM, barjpoe said:

Thanks, we've got it booked on our Radiance cruise 4/21.  I know that there's one thing I'm going to like - the cocktail 'She's a Geisha'

'She's a Geisha' was our absolute favorite....so refreshing. You will enjoy it!!

15 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I like to pop in and say, you can always go back, some people never do but for others, it's just a room. 

You're right....I will say it's harder to go back. However, having said that, I'm planning a European itinerary on Celebrity next year and am definitely not going to go with a suite because with such a port intensive itinerary, as you say, it really is just a room. We won't be able to enjoy all the amenities of The Retreat and room in this case, so it won't be worth it to me. I guess we'll have to suffer through Italy on a mere balcony

On 3/21/2023 at 8:40 AM, CJS2766 said:

Hello all,

After may cruises staying in a interior room, our last cruise was a balcony room. After having that room for a week, I don't think I can ever go back to an interior room again  Well? now I've booked a Suite. Granted it's only a Junior Suite, but I'm hoping it's worth it vs a standard balcony room. If it is, I feel that I may going on a dangerous road wanted to keep stepping up 

 

My question is?? What perks (if any) can I expect with having a Junior Suite? I think I've heard that all suite guests regardless of what type have priority boarding? Is this true? Also, do suite guests have access to a different dining room? Just want to know what perks come with this room so that I don't miss out on anything. We will be on the Harmony this October.

Thank you all!

The Suite Life is definitely a 'slippery slope'....once you start down it, there's a-no-stopping it!! We started with the JS, then GS, and now Crown Lofts, all the while saying "We can go back to balconies anytime we want!!"....Coastal Kitchen is a nice perk in that it's a quiet place to dine, for breakfast, lunch or dinner and not have to fight in the WJ. I agree the menu isn't always that great but it depends on what's more important to you. Bumping up to a GS is worth it to us because we really enjoy all-day access to the Suite Lounge and early access to the Suite Concierge, who can take care of all your reservations prior to boarding.

The bottom line is....you will never go back. And soon you'll be trying to come up with reasons why not to book a suite, unsuccessfully I might add. Trust & Believe!!!

7 hours ago, Bestcee said:

I was thinking of tucking the cord into the CPAP machine, and the hub into carry-on. 

Out of curiosity, if they confiscate and say you can't take it, can you take it back to your car at the port? Or is it thrown away? What happens to confiscated cords? 

I’m not sure if you can take it back to your car at that point but don’t see why not. But in either case, they don’t throw away the things confiscated…..they tag it, give you a receipt and as someone on the boards said, keep it in the ‘naughty room’. After the cruise you can pick it up.

1 hour ago, Sea Squirrel said:

We did an OTW at both Nellie’s Beach and Barefoot Beach. We preferred Nellie’s for the view over Barefoot.  Sounds like you are in a suite so even if you choose Nellie’s, you can still go into Barefoot for lunch. This was our view from Nellie’s OTW. 

Looks amazing....Nellie's Beach looks like it's right next Barefoot Beach so that's an option. Did Barefoot seem crowded at all, though?

17 hours ago, Ryan79 said:

The hilltop cabanas are the best (in my opinion) because the views are amazing and you will be up on a hilltop where you will not have people constantly walking in front of you. The trade off is that you won’t be technically on the beach itself. But that can be a positive because if the beach is packed, you are a little removed from all of that craziness. 

See, that's what I was thinking. Not being on the beach is not necessarily a bad thing for me but it's close enough. I really like the Standard ones but feel like, I don't know, they're too close to where folks have to walk. We did a Chill Island Cabana on CocoCay and it was situated nicely, even though it wasn't in a private beach area. We're gonna go for it!!!!

27 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

If you wish to dine at Le Voyage, reserve as soon as possible.   They sell out very quickly.  It's a small venue with only 2 seatings per night.   Takes about 2 hrs.

Yes, I think that we'll try it. Our sailing is not until December 2024 so the Specialty Dining is not yet available to book but I will keep a 'weather eye'!! Thanks for the head's up.

23 hours ago, cruisellama said:

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 review....We will be on Beyond next year. We were on Edge in December and loved it. Glad we have something even better to look forward to. The addition of Blu access is exciting. On Edge, we didn't eat as much as we should have at Luminae and regretted that because we found the food amazing. We also did the Chef's Table and it was a nice experience. While on Infinity, we ate at Blu and enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing!!!

I am going to be visiting Labadee for the 1st time in all my years of cruising. Looking forward to Barefoot Beach and booking a Hilltop Cabana. Has anyone out there booked one and did they find the Barefoot Beach area crowded? The pictures and YouTube videos I watched looked like it was a little tight.

On 3/4/2023 at 2:35 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

Ok…so let me be the one to extinguish this false alarm fire since I’m the one that started it.

I heard back from the OA Concierge and she acknowledged that there IS still an open bar from 11-11 and that you can still get beer, wine, soda and water there during those hours.  Also, still a Continental breakfast….so I will turn off the alarm that I pulled…

In my defense, however, I will re-direct your attention back  to the extremely poorly worded letter that I got yesterday which said NONE of this.  One day I will learn to verify these kinds of rumors before acting.  Nah…I never will !

Sorry everybody !

That's great news....PHEW!! We're on a B2B on Wonder this year and planned on just going with a combo of our Diamond vouchers, Suite Happy Hour and 11-11 service for wine, beer, soda and water instead of getting the DBP or even the Refreshment package. Thanks for the update!!

8 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

What a clown show.  

I said the same thing....running around like the Keystone Cops!!

I sail Celebrity quite a bit and have booked this kind of package with them. The Premier Pass was $279 per person for a 7N sailing and this was pre-pandemic. So when I heard they were offering it on Royal for much cheaper, I was skeptical at best. But I hope everyone is sufficiently compensated for this "glitch".

15 hours ago, Krys_the_new_cruiser said:

Hello!

I'm so excited about my first cruise on November 5th. I'm trying to get as much information as I can about cruising.  I'll be selling with family. We're not celebrating anything just enjoying each other's company.  I live in South Florida but driving to Port Canaveral a day before. 

Welcome to the boards!! We’ll be sailing with family and friends. We’ve been on many cruises but this will be only the 2nd cruise for my brother and sister-in-law. I know they’re gonna love Wonder, their first Oasis Class ship in a Suite…..and I’m sure you and your family will enjoy it too. 

20 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I'd be curious how many don't check in ahead of time

Maaaaan!!! I check in at 12:01am on the day check-in is allowed.....I don't take ANY chances!!!

30 minutes ago, Carlos A. said:

the "naughty" table

That’s a good one!! 

On 2/15/2023 at 10:55 PM, Bowen said:

Alright, I'm going to sign up for this for my Mom and I. She can get a little crazy when she drinks, so hopefully she'll reign it in.

You and Mom will enjoy it....Mom may end up being the life of the party!! But not enough room for Mom to dance on the table...too many wine glasses about!!!!

For our May 2022 cruise on Symphony, we got a Chill Island Cabana for $399….I believe those prices are never to be seen again!!

I’m not sure what is involved with PVSA or anything but all I know is while on Symphony last year I was all excited about doing a B2B on Ovation, first leg to Alaska the on to Hawaii….had my eye on the same cabin and everything. Went to Next Cruises to book and she promptly told me NO, that it violated some law. I was very disappointed. Don’t know if things have changed in any way but @Bob Burd, I would check, double-check and triple-check, then check a couple more times before booking. If it can be done, go for it because it seems like it would be an amazing B2B!! 

18 minutes ago, JohnK6404 said:

It was great. When we all first sat down the room of course was a little quiet. When the waiter/sommelier first greeted us, he said we’ll all be good friends after the first couple of courses and glasses of wine. He wasn’t wrong, LOL!   

This is so true…we all met in a bar outside of the venue, Fine Cut(on Celebrity Edge) for drinks and appetizers. We all fell into such easy conversation at that point….it was like we all knew one another already. In fact the Host asked us if we were a group. We told him we had all just met. It’s a nice experience. @JillEnjoy it if you decide to go for it!!