Silkroad

Great review. Thanks!

I don’t think we had the same problem because I’m sure we would have seen & heard engineers fixing the structure around our cabin. According to several other passengers with whom I commiserated in the corridor next morning, we weren’t the only ones affected. Ship engineers checked several cabins clustered near the midship elevators, including ours, and found nothing amiss.

Did you have rough seas during your cruise? Those of us who have experienced the unusually loud noises have noted that they occurred only when skirting a storm. By the way, we kept the IV doors open. This was not rattling doors, furniture or shade. It was loud banging and knocking in the ceiling of the cabin. It occurred one night of 15. The other 14 nights were quiet.

The design of the Edge class differs from the other two classes. My guess is that they flex differently than the other ships. Being a light sleeper, I travel with earplugs, but I rarely need them on cruises. I’ve experienced fairly high seas on two TAs, one on Reflection in a midship veranda cabin, and the aforementioned one on Edge in a midship IV. Despite more creaking than usual, I slept like a happy baby (no earplugs) on Reflection. There was no extremely loud knocking and banging on Reflection. I board Apex for the first time next week. I’ll be in an SV. Should we encounter rough seas, I look forward to comparing the SV to my previous experiences in an IV & SS on Edge. I find the Edge class very appealing, so I won’t let a rare sleepless night prevent me from booking them.

I had a slightly different issue with the app for a few days this week. Perhaps my workaround will work for you. When I looked at my upcoming cruises, only one was displayed. Unfortunately, it was the last one I’d accessed, not the upcoming one. My workaround was to go to “Browse our ships”, select the ship, and select the date of my next cruise. I was then able to see my booking for that cruise on the app, but only that cruise. Yesterday, all my cruises mysteriously reappeared on the app. I imagine IT has been performing updates again.

We’ve considered booking cruise only, but we’ve not done so since our earliest cruises. We’ve calculated that we barely break even on the Premium package. Sans espresso and water, we’d lose money on either package. My DH would probably do fine with Manhattans during the Elite happy hour. He’d simply pay for his coffees and beers during the day. My favorite cocktails and wines are not offered during the Elite happy hour, but I could acquire some waters there. We do enjoy trying cocktails that are new to us, and we’d certainly feel less adventurous without a package. We’ve encountered F&B supply chain issues on our last two cruises, so we’ll do another cost/benefit analysis during our upcoming b2b. We would pay gratuities regardless. At minimum, we need an internet package for one of us, while the other uses Elite minutes. Once we reach Elite+ we may find those minutes adequate.

That photo says it all! I’m sorry you had such a trying start to your cruise. I hope the rest of your holiday is wonderful. Thanks for the heads up about potential challenges at the port. We’re driving to the port next week (three day drive) because we’ve had too many airline issues since last autumn. We drive whenever possible these days. We had envisioned cruising into the port and the Palm garage like we did earlier this year. Guess we’d better have a backup plan.

Happy anniversary! We experienced similar noises - knocking, creaking and banging- all night during rough seas. We were aboard Edge on a transatlantic cruise. We were in a midship IV on deck 12 starboard. We had heard random creaking on other nights, but this was so loud that I couldn’t sleep, even with earplugs. I am a fairly light sleeper. DH was able to sleep through it if I remained quiet😂 When I contacted guest relations, they told me several other people in our area had already called. In the end, there wasn’t anything loose or broken. I was told that this is simply a “feature” with this ship class. We experienced this for only one night of fifteen, so we didn’t bother trying to change cabins on our fully booked cruise. We also experienced some loud creaking and knocking on a recent cruise aboard Edge, but I was able to get to sleep using earplugs. We were in a midship Sky Suite on deck 10, port side. Again, it was only for one night during rough seas. I had assumed this wouldn’t be an issue on lower decks, but your deck 6 experience disproves my theory. I hope you have calm seas for the rest of your cruise!

Chocolates? I’ve never seen them, but DH does have a suspicious pile of foil wrappers on his night table😂

I prefer port side (opposite Magic Carpet) closer to midship elevators. I would choose deck 10. As Jelayne says, itinerary makes a difference.

I am so relieved that your home wasn’t destroyed, and neither you nor your brother were injured. I hope you have a wonderful cruise! Many of the lovely people we’ve met on our cruises live in southwestern Florida so I’ve been watching cruise critic for posts. Many thanks to all of you who post status. You give hope to those who’ve not yet heard from friends and family.

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Wishing you and your DW an uneventful trip home.

The three points were from a Mexico quiz worth 1 point (7/6) and a Shore Excursion survey worth 2 points (7/21).

Wishing you a wonderful journey!

Same here. I’ll stick with the classics. Cheers🍸

Sounds absolutely revolting. I prefer my gin in a glass and my cheeses on a plate. Next big thing will probably be a gin-kale smoothie🤢🤣

You don’t understand how Covid vaccines work. There was never a promise that they would prevent illness for 100% of us. Rather, they would prevent illness for a high percentage of us (against the original strain) and prevent hospitalization or death for most of us. I think the mRNA vaccines and boosters have done a pretty good job despite Covid mutation. Did you ever consider that your husband’s booster may have prevented him from becoming quite sick?

Gorgeous photos! We were meant to visit Messina and Taormina in 2020 so these are a real treat for me. Thank you😊

I think it’s a charming way to reference your wife. In fact, I’ve considered stealing your idea for myself. I do wonder if people will think I’ve been at the grog when I refer to my beloved WeeDram😉

Beautiful breakfast! There’s nothing better than breakfast on one’s veranda while at sea. Ah Scylla and Charybdis. I see them on distant shores each time I gently steer our retirement savings to maintain course⛵ Here’s to avoiding the rocks🍹

I look forward to another of your splendid live reviews, and I wish you and your Gastrognome a wonderful cruise. Cheers🍸

As Jim said, the Elite benefit is one bag per person. Though they’ll give you a second bag, we’ve simply used the same bag twice (unless it’s paper lol). Since our cruise vacations include land segments, our strategy is to stagger our laundry. For example, we may stuff our laundry in the bag on day 3 (using my name) and send off the bag again on day 9 (using DH’s name).

I too use Nord VPN onboard. @pisces223 I use VPN while traveling because it gives me extra security for financial and business transactions.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I’m really looking forward to your assessment of Beyond, as well as your experiences in the ports. BTW we had a similar experience to yours when boarding Edge last autumn. We kept our eMed test results in hand during the boarding process, but each person told us they’d be scrutinized “later”🤷‍♀️ We had a different boarding experience on Equinox this spring. Everyone wanted to see our test results😂

Thanks very much to both you and your parents for confirming what I suspected. We have a b2b Norway/Iceland & Ireland booked next year and I won’t trust Celebrity’s small group tours. We prefer to arrange private tours or explore on our own, but I have considered Celebrity tours if no other options were allowed.