sptrout

Thank you. A picture from our front yard. It is a battle to keep a BoP alive all winter here in Houston most winters, but we have been successful for the last four years. The plant is huge now, almost too big to protect from winter freezes.

The non-E-Class ships do not have AC outlets near the bed and the others have posted their solutions. In my case, I just lived with the ugly extension cord taped to the floor. Not a big deal to me or my DW. My purpose for this response is that you mentioned a battery for overnight use. CPAP machines can take a considerable sized battery especially if the humidifier is turned on. You may have run into this problem if you have battery backup at home (AC power primary). Without the humidifier you may find a battery large enough to travel with can get through the night. I have a battery installed at home that is connected between the APAP's power brick and the ResMed APAP machine. In this configuration the APAP has nearly instant switchover power if there is a power outage at night. This battery is rather small and designed for those users that need CPAP therapy for long overnight airplane trips. I have not tested it to find out if it will last 8 hours either with, or without, the humidifier turned on. No long power failures since I bought this battery solution. If interested I can find the model and purchasing information. Although I do not know for sure that it will last 8 hours, or that it can be recharged totally during one day.

We dined at both Eden and Le Voyage during our January cruise (all other meals were in Luminae). Was not impressed with Eden, but many here on CC will disagree. Maybe just us that night. Le Voyage was the best dinner that we had all week. The food was excellent and the service was over the top. I have already made reservations for two nights on our 11 night cruise this coming January. Whatever you decide book early, both fill-up especially Le Voyage since it is very small.

Could be, but I think that I would have remembered that. Also possible that she did not say what ship he was on; short discussion on this subject. Remember more of what Captain Kate said about herself and her background in how she became a Captain on Celebrity's ships. She has a lot of experience; very impressive person and we got a chance to talk to her while she was near Le Voyage (we were headed there, she was not). Very nice lady!

I don't think so. She told us the name of the ship, but I do not remember it.

During a Q&A meeting that Captain Kate hosted during our 1/8 Beyond cruise, she was asked a similar question. Her response was that she is the Captain of Beyond for as long as she wants it and it sounded like that will be for a very long time. She even added that during her "off" time she may stay on the ship as a regular passenger. Her husband is an Engineer Officer on another Celebrity ship and when timing allows they do take vacations together otherwise she may stay on the ship. She never mentioned if her and her husband have an actual home somewhere on land. Anyway, that was my take away from her responses. I know that it has been reported here on CC that folks have seen her on the ship when she was not the Captain. If I remember correctly, she did confirm that she does stay onboard from time to time. An unusual life that few of us would want, but she certainly is dedicated to Celebrity Beyond, her husband, and her cat (not necessarily in that order LOL).

Celebrity did sail out of Galveston a few years ago for 12 day Panama cruises that stopped in Colon. They used the Galaxy for these trips and only for couple years. Great savings for us since we live on the north side of Houston. No airfare and pre-cruise hotel costs meant that we got to book a Sky Suite for the first time. The C-class ship's had huge verandas almost has big as the cabin, the table outside could easily seat four maybe six people. Great experience, but spoiled us forever, only small suites since that cruise back in 2005 This experience is probably why Celebrity will never return to Galveston IMO. Only real option with all the competition, is going to the places that are 10-14 day cruises.

BTW - - May not make any difference, but I made our reservations on Celebrity's website not via the App. Odd that our later cruise is open for dining reservations, but earlier sailings are not.

Update: I just booked two nights in Le Voyage a few minutes ago, so reservations for the restaurants that you want should be available to reserve now.

I cannot give you answer, but I would try to reserve as soon as you decide which restaurant(s) you want to go to and which nights. We were on the Beyond for its 1/8/22 sailing and we were in the Retreat so we were already eating well. For something different we went to Eden & Le Voyage. For us Eden was just okay, mainly just for the view; food nothing special. Le Voyage on the other hand was outstanding both in food and over the top service. Just by accident we came across Captain Kate just a few feet from the entrance to Le Voyage (she was not going to Le Voyage). We talked to her for several minutes; what a nice lady. Really got the night off to a special start. Anyway, we are booked on an 11 night Beyond sailing this coming January (maybe right after yours??), and we plan on reserving two nights in Le Voyage. No interest in any others since once again we will be in the Retreat. I need to start checking Le Voyage availability for our trip soon as it does sellout early. Small restaurant with very limited seating so not surprising that it sells out.

Thanks for the correction. I guess I assumed it was a TSA Rule, nobody said anything different. Being at an airport more than 3 hours prior to checkin is unusual for us and likely is one of the reasons (maybe the only reason) that we had never had this problem before. Fort Lauderdale's airport is rather small for the huge bumps in traffic on certains days and times. Being unable to checkin and at least get rid of all our luggage made for a long and uncomfortable morning and early afternoon. At minimum, any airport that has this rule should warn travelers ahead of time not to show up early.

I am showing my age too LOL. We started with Celebrity 01/95 for our Honeymoon. I do not remember the dessert cart, but there are a lot of things that I do not remember about that cruise.....ah never mind. But, we did get invited to the Captains Table one evening. No idea why, we were the poor folks at the table. I am shy, my wife is not, we both wish we were elsewhere......ah never mind.

We do dine at Speciality resturants from time to time, but since all our more recent cruises have been in Sky Suites, and previouly in Aqua Class, we have had no need to go elsewhere, other than try something different. Since the OP specifically mentioned Beyond, I will limit the remainder of my comments to our recent Beyond cruise (week of 01/08/23). Our Beyond cruise was just 7 nights, but we decided to try both Eden an Le Voyage for one night each. I assumed both would be a great experience based on past comments here on CC. The other five nights and nearly all other meals were in Luminae. To be honest Eden was disappointing. The food was fine but nothing better than Luminae. It was a nice change, but will likely not go back. The view was nice, but since sunset is around 6PM, that special viewing is time restrained and on our evening it was pouring rain so no setset, but a nice waterfalls (water running down our window). Le Voyage was a "knock your socks off" evening/meal. The food was outstanding and the severice was the best that we have ever experienced on any of our cruises. We will be going back this upcoming January during our 11 night cruise at least once maybe twice. If deired reserve well before your cruise, they do sell out. I really do not understand the comments about people wanting, or not, to spend their money on Specialty Dining (SD). SD is no diffentent than the many other options available the moment you step on a cruise ship. A cruiser can spend their money on a great many things; casinos, SDs, stuff at the over priced shops, art, pictures, bingo, and the list goes on and on. Personally, I find most of the items on this list to be a waste of money, but I could care less if others want to buy whatever. Ships are floating resorts and should be treated as such when it comes to spending ones own money fron embarkation to disembarkation.

Nothing to do with Sky Lounges. According to TSA Rules (as we have been made to understand it - the hard way), airlines are not allowed to check-in passengers, and/or luggage, until a maximum of 3 hours prior to their scheduled flight time. A year ago we were made aware of this rule and not allowed to check-in until afternoon even though we arrived around 8:30AM. Therefore, we and many others, were stuck in the area between the main doors and the check-in counters. There is no seating or access to anything except restrooms down on the luggage retrival floor. We had to either sit on our suitcases or on the floor for hours. The above happen last January (2022) so this time (two weeks ago) since our flight time was at 4:30 we took a ship sponsored) Fort Lauderdale tour to eat up some of the time. We still arrived more than 3 hours, but just bareley. The agent still checked out flight time, but allowed us to check-in a couple minutes early. It was obivious by the masses of people sitting on the floor or luggage that they were caught in this trap. I have never seen this rule mentioned, but it has casued us a lot of problems.

Packaged or not this is a great resturant. Sells out long before a cruise so make reservations early! We were on the Beyond the week of 1/8 and the meal there far exceeded any other place we ate all week incliding Eden and Luminae. Do not miss this rare oportunity!. Have menu pictures ever been posted? If not, I have the original copies of the Tasting and Dinner Menus (no dessert menu). Let me know if pictures would be useful.

I thought that I remembered that Chilean Sea Bass was being overfished and that it was no longer acceptable to fish for it. However, I still see it on menus, land or sea based resturants, so am I remembering wrong?

Funny how a name change can make a big difference in taste or acceptance. Escargo or Mahi Mahi anyone?

Baked Alaska for afters ( melted inside) The baked Alaska was the only dessert that I had in Luminae that I thought was up to the previous Luminae standards (but, without the flames). The other Luminae desserts were always available either later that night or the next day in the buffet. I had one type of chocolate cake at least three or four times at different outlets including the forementioned and Cafe Del Banco (SP?). Le Voyage won the the dessert contest running away, not even in the same race.

My wife had it somewhere last week; Eden maybe?

Agreed, but the Boulud feature never looked good to us so reading CC had no effect on our non-choice.

We have not tried the Boulud Chicken mainly based on many negative comments on CC. However, we did go to Le Vogage last week and it was outstanding, The food was great and the service was over the top. We lost track how many servers and others stopped at our table to make sure that evergthing was great. Funny thing though at Le Voyage they excepted our request to use wines from our Premium Package, no arugment, At Eden they were very insistant that we buy wine from their wine list (by the bottle with 20% discount). They may have relented, but we got tired of aruging and just bought ta low cost bottle on their wine list. We drink wine on osscasion, but cannot tell the difference detween a $25 bottle and a $100 bottle. Bottomeline, it costs condsierable less to dine at Le Voyage than it did at Eden. No comparsion between the food and service; Le Voyage won handsdown. We will be in Le Voyage during our next Beyoud cruise.

On the Beyond last week I saw it served, but it was never on the menu. Same for Escargot, not on the menu but was available when my DW asked for it and then another night it was served in addition to what she ordered. We had an excellent waitress.

I think that the rack of lamb was either on the last "chic" night or the last night (#7) I do not remeber if they were on the App or not, I usually did not look at the menus on the App so I would be surprised,

For our 1/29 Beyond sailing, rack of lamb shows on Day 6. Loin on day 3. With all the apparent changes going on, I’m not sure the app is accurate, we will soon see. mac_tlc Last week on the Beyond we had both types of lamb mentioned.

I had beef nearly every evening. Beef, and lamb, are usually safe items. One thing missing though (maybe always missing) the size is seldom not mentioned. This could be just my bad memory.