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Secrets of the Edge


vtcruising
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5 hours ago, piper said:

I guess I missed the discussion on why the IV rooms are so bad. We are in Aqua Class with the IV - is that different?

 

There is lots of discussion about this elsewhere but since we were just in one last week I figure I will reply.

 

Many people think they're bad because they aren't a balcony in the traditional sense. They're really an extension of your cabin with a window.  I just spent two weeks in one and I can see they have their positives and negatives. The positive was that when we were in San Juan late I had the window open and was sitting on the bed (ours was close to the IV) with the TV on and on my computer and it was nice. The negatives are that you can't easily peek out the window in the morning to see where you are because the blinds open from the bottom (and are motorized). The one night I decided not to leave them closed all the way, I was woken at 7:30am by music blaring from a boombox placed on the pier by our pier neighbors, NCL (who were idiots to have it turned on facing our ship at that hour, but that's a discussion for another thread). Turns out the IV's are not sound proof and I suspect that a real balcony door would have kept more of the unwanted noise out (keeping the blinds fully closed would not have helped). If you're the sort of person who likes to go out onto the balcony in the morning while your spouse is still asleep, you're not doing that with an IV. And when you're sitting on your IV, it's really not the same as sitting on a rea balcony.

 

There are also issues with spacing (14", I was told) between the bed and IV doors if you close the doors if you have the bed near the IV, and between the bed and closet if you have the bed near that. But I'm sure those have been discussed in other threads and there's really no need to rehash them here.

 

Bottom line is I would not be inclined to book another IV room. There are some people who liked them but many more who did not, and given the extremely large proportion of them relative to regular balconies on the ship, I think they're going to have problems filling them down the line.

Edited by MisterBill99
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On 2/1/2019 at 2:56 PM, TeeRick said:

 A tip for dining in the restaurants off the Grand Plaza like Fine Cut - ask for an inside table to avoid a very loud dinner from the activities below.  In Fine Cut the bone-in Filet Mignon is superb- but also ask for the Maine half lobster for a really nice surf & turf- don't be shy!

 

I had a table along the railing in Fine Cut hoping to be able to hear the music being played below. Sadly, the acoustics were so terrible that it was almost impossible to hear the words. So I agree that an inside table would have been better.

 

In Fine Cut, the lobster portion is a half but our waiter said he was getting my wife a whole one. She didn't think about ordering it with steak, I guess that would have worked.

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Thank you for the explanation, MisterBill. I’m going with an open mind and am looking forward to the experience either way! Would love to hear from anyone that has been in an Aqua class - good/bad experiences?

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11 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

I don't see it mentioned here but there is a stairway in back of the Martini Bar that takes you down to Destination Gateway.

Thanks, MisterBill, I had it in my live report, but not here. I loved the secret stairs to the bar. 😉

This is the view from above, in back of Martini Bar:

image.thumb.png.e56217bf63180570e247a1f5c91e00e0.png

 

 

This is what it looks like from below, in Destination Gateway:

 

image.thumb.png.4a27356eb75e779d1f7bd94a89fbcdd5.png

 

This is the doorway from Destination Gateway - look for the statue:

image.png.f64792b8bd89be37f36fa6ac2667c1c3.png

 

 

The doors have "GP   Grand Plaza" on them.

image.thumb.png.1e6513c1236582e23d0e16ce44d03166.png

 

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1 hour ago, piper said:

Thank you for the explanation, MisterBill. I’m going with an open mind and am looking forward to the experience either way! Would love to hear from anyone that has been in an Aqua class - good/bad experiences?

I'm not sure if you have read this review or not - it is still in process, but hcat is reviewing the AQ experience on the Edge. She is doing a nice job of reviewing the AQ IV cabin and will soon have Blu and Spa reviews. 🙂

 

Edited by vtcruising
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TIP....

Don't always trust the TV time...it was not changed back at the appointed time on our way back to Fla   Thought something like that would be automatic on such a high tech ship..

 

It was corrected eventually but was confusing at breakfast time!

  Many pax noticed the oops...

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5 hours ago, hcat said:

TIP....

Don't always trust the TV time...it was not changed back at the appointed time on our way back to Fla   Thought something like that would be automatic on such a high tech ship..

 

Well the good news is that the phone system had the correct time, since my wake-up call was correct.

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11 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Thanks, MisterBill, I had it in my live report, but not here. I loved the secret stairs to the bar. 😉

 

 

I only figured it out at the end of our second week on the ship when I heard someone mention it!

 

I was surprised to see that it wasn't mentioned here.

Edited by MisterBill99
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12 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

I only figured it out at the end of our second week on the ship when I heard someone mention it!

 

I was surprised to see that it wasn't mentioned here.

I found the staircase on one of my early cruises, but didn't know where it went (thought it might be for crew). On the next cruise, when I noticed the birds on the wall and the writing on the door, I went down to check it out. A sweet surprise!

 

Thanks again for giving hcat her gift.  Hope you had a great 2nd leg of your cruise. 🙂

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On 2/7/2019 at 9:51 PM, vtcruising said:

Thanks again for giving hcat her gift.  Hope you had a great 2nd leg of your cruise. 🙂

 

 

No problem. Funny story related to that. I was carrying it with me to breakfast at the Elite lounge, figured I'd then bring it to the CC event. But we walked down the stairs at the back of the ship (where we generally did not do since we were near the Aft stairs) because the elevator hadn't come (we usually walked but my wife didn't want to) and found hcat and her husband waiting at the elevators a few floors down. So I gave it to her and didn't have to carry it with me tobreakfastk and CC event!

 

Also, they changed the Elite breakfast the 2nd week from buffet to menu, so that ended up being the only day we ate there. Took too long and I waste of food since I got more than I wanted.

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I guess this qualifies as a secret.   Just returned from AAA Travel Expo in Columbus, OH.  Had discussion at Celebrity booth with their representative.  Shared that we are sailing EDGE soon, and don’t believe every negative opinion we see online.   Told the rep we believe opinions are subjective and that we’re blessed to enjoy cruising and will be sailing with open minds.  Rep acknowledged X is acutely aware of some issues, have addressed some, and that more signicant changes are coming very soon.  

Told me associates were given no specific timeline or details about what areas of the ship or services may be affected.  Assured me that X is listening and committed to “ironing out the wrinkles”.  Rep sailed EDGE in December and encouraged us to be sure and try the incredible breakfast and lunch selections served at EDEN.  

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OK if we're getting into "future secrets", Captain Costas announced at the Q&A session last week that they were aware of problems with the design, and specifically mentioned lack of a library, so expect that to be remedied. He also mentioned lack of bars, but it wasn't clear if that will be fixed on Apex or will need to wait for the Beyond, which is a larger ship (I was not aware of that).

 

As for the entertainment, as I mentioned to several people on the ship, the entertainment and activities were designed for the customer base they were hoping to attract, not the customers who were actually on the ship (who were much older). No Celebrity employee who I mentioned this to disagreed with me (including senior people). I did B2B and in the second week, they had a dedicated Elite evening lounge (in The Club, with canapes) as opposed to being in Eden (shared and with no food). They switched the Elite breakfast to a menu instead of buffet (personally I preferred the buffet). They had also gone back to paper trivia. Damian is the new CD (rather than Lewis, who everyone was expecting) because they needed someone who could fix the problems in that area. Also, the shows are changing. They had a Four Seasons tribute band (December '63) last week which was perfect for the customers on board. They had a comedian the second week (Rondell Sheridan) who was great and also appropriate for the "older" crowd. The Marcus Terrell production show (formerly known as Hype) is clearly not age appropriate (as someone told me, they never expected to hear rap on a Celebrity cruise). I'm not sure what they're going to do about that. They're working on the "Jewelry Box" show. The first week it was relegated to the 10:30pm spot with another guest entertainer at 7 and 9. The second week it was renamed "Land of Khalida" and I believe there were some cuts (Damian told me this). The show is terrible and makes no sense but the technology in the show is amazing and worth seeing for that alone.

 

There are 3 design problems with the ship -- lack of planning for wind, rain and acoustics in the Grand Plaza. Wind is obviously a known problem on the Magic Carpet but it's also an issue at the Rooftop Garden Grill (rain, too). I'm told that the RGG is being enclosed shortly and I think they'll try to fix the Magic Carpet. Not sure what they will do about acoustics in the Grand Plaza. I know it's nothing like Silhouette, where you could hear music perfectly all the way up on deck 10 of the atrium. It was also raining into the pool deck on the side near the Spa Cafe the other day (the glass panels there are not sealed like the old windows on other ships were, oops). I have pictures of crew trying to mop the excess water into the small drainage holes. It also flooded in the Spa Cafe but it wasn't clear where that water came from.

 

I should probably put this in a separate thread :).

Edited by MisterBill99
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22 minutes ago, Hal from Ohio said:

I guess this qualifies as a secret.   Just returned from AAA Travel Expo in Columbus, OH.  Had discussion at Celebrity booth with their representative.  Shared that we are sailing EDGE soon, and don’t believe every negative opinion we see online.   Told the rep we believe opinions are subjective and that we’re blessed to enjoy cruising and will be sailing with open minds.  Rep acknowledged X is acutely aware of some issues, have addressed some, and that more signicant changes are coming very soon.  

Told me associates were given no specific timeline or details about what areas of the ship or services may be affected.  Assured me that X is listening and committed to “ironing out the wrinkles”.  Rep sailed EDGE in December and encouraged us to be sure and try the incredible breakfast and lunch selections served at EDEN.  

I second the Eden suggestion! Great place to eat and don't forget the outside seating there.

 

Interesting that they may make some significant changes - hope they take my suggestion to change the Eden show to twice/week and use that beautiful venue for other shows at night and just make the Eden restaurant into a regular restaurant with more choices. That place would be a winner then, IMO!

 

Will be waiting to see what they do with the IVs, if anything!

Edited by vtcruising
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Eden Cafe  is wonderful!  We went there for lunch twice...The food was  good to excellent It has  a unique layout,  and to us seemed like refreshingly modern, concept.

 

They could use more staff for another food line and def more tables.  The ones provided near the EDEN bar are the best height for eating but card players take up  some of the very limited tables.  Other  tables and chairs  in EDEN are VERY low to the ground..bad for food and knees!   There are spaces outside but it can be warm and sunny.... They could put more reg height tables right where you enter the Cafe,,,that area outlies EDEN and would be a good choice!

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7 minutes ago, Jimbo59 said:

What is the cost of internet service? Do they charge by the minute or by the data volume (GB)?

Here are prices (can't guarantee they are the most up-to-date):

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/16049912_CEL_Xcelerate_Trade_Flyer.pdf

 

There are also free minutes/discounts for certain Captain's Club levels.

Edited by vtcruising
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34 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Here are prices (can't guarantee they are the most up-to-date):

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/16049912_CEL_Xcelerate_Trade_Flyer.pdf

 

There are also free minutes/discounts for certain Captain's Club levels.

 

Wow! Very expensive! We paid $130 on Holland America for 10 days, and $90 for 7 days (4 devices) on MSC.

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59 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Interesting that they may make some significant changes - hope they take my suggestion to change the Eden show to twice/week and use that beautiful venue for other shows at night and just make the Eden restaurant into a regular restaurant with more choices. That place would be a winner then, IMO!

 

Will be waiting to see what they do with the IVs, if anything!

 

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with those suggestions! The downstairs Eden restaurant was the best meal we had on Edge. We ate there twice (second time was because they comped us a specialty meal when we booked a Galapagos cruise and I figured where better to go to) and the chef was happy to work around my dining restrictions and made me several special vegetarian dishes. He would have made non-veggie if I really wanted but what I had was excellent. Yes, the menu is unusual and the non-adventurous eater may be turned off by it. But the whole experience of the unique food and interacting with the Edenists was great.

 

Also, if they put other shows in there during the week instead of Eden, what would they do with all of the Edenist performers, since they are dedicated to that spot.

Edited by MisterBill99
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53 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with those suggestions! The downstairs Eden restaurant was the best meal we had on Edge. We ate there twice (second time was because they comped us a specialty meal when we booked a Galapagos cruise and I figured where better to go to) and the chef was happy to work around my dining restrictions and made me several special vegetarian dishes. He would have made non-veggie if I really wanted but what I had was excellent. Yes, the menu is unusual and the non-adventurous eater may be turned off by it. But the whole experience of the unique food and interacting with the Edenists was great.

 

Also, if they put other shows in there during the week instead of Eden, what would they do with all of the Edenist performers, since they are dedicated to that spot.

Yes, the food was excellent, but the menu limited in the number of choices. It would be such a nice little restaurant with a few more more choices (for us anyway). We had no idea that there was any flexibility so felt we had to order what was there (loved most of it, but would have liked another choice for a couple of courses).

 

Where we sat for dinner (and others were in the same boat), most of the show wasn't easily visible (and we supposedly paid for dinner with show) so we went to see some of it after dinner upstairs (but there were no seats). It just wasn't what I thought was advertised - having the show be visible during dinner was assumed. We did enjoy the interaction with the characters and some parts of the show that we were able to see (swinging on the half moon and parts that were on the stairway), but we certainly had no idea what it was all about since we couldn't see most of it.

 

If we were on a 7 night or B2B, we might go for the show once (I don't like seeing movies or other shows more than once either). I just think it will wind down at some point where there won't be a demand for it every single night. It is such a great music venue, we would love to see other entertainment there eventually on some nights (we probably won't be back until January so will see how things have evolved - if the show is in great demand, it will likely still be there and that would be totally understandable). 🙂

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2 hours ago, Jimbo59 said:

 

Wow! Very expensive! We paid $130 on Holland America for 10 days, and $90 for 7 days (4 devices) on MSC.

It is expensive - luckily the service is now excellent. On the last few cruises, I had great service in the cabin, never lost service and it was always fast, but we were on the Edge where there are routers in each cabin closet. Will be on Infinity in a few weeks - hope the service is decent there.

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On 2/9/2019 at 9:56 PM, vtcruising said:

Yes, the food was excellent, but the menu limited in the number of choices. It would be such a nice little restaurant with a few more more choices (for us anyway). We had no idea that there was any flexibility so felt we had to order what was there (loved most of it, but would have liked another choice for a couple of courses).

 

My situation was that there were courses where I could not eat anything (no pork, shellfish, beef), so I stopped by to ask if they could do something for me before making a reservation. This was on Sunday afternoon and they had me speak to the chef and he said it would not be a problem. I think he enjoyed the opportunity to make something that wasn't on the menu, and in fact gave me 2 different dishes the second time.

 

When we ate there (6pm both times) there wasn't much of a show going on upstairs, just the interactions with the characters. They do have some TV monitors that can be viewed if you're sitting at the tables near the windows.

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12 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

My situation was that there were courses where I could not eat anything (no pork, shellfish, beef), so I stopped by to ask if they could do something for me before making a reservation. This was on Sunday afternoon and they had me speak to the chef and he said it would not be a problem. I think he enjoyed the opportunity to make something that wasn't on the menu, and in fact gave me 2 different dishes the second time.

 

When we ate there (6pm both times) there wasn't much of a show going on upstairs, just the interactions with the characters. They do have some TV monitors that can be viewed if you're sitting at the tables near the windows.

The only thing they had available was 9:15. Sounds like going early was smart. 🙂

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