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Secrets of the Edge


vtcruising
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Ok not really a positive secret thing but a kind of annoying thing to me.  The port shopping concierge on board was on one of the ship TV channels night and day actually doing an infomercial for a mattress!  Like the thing you see at 2AM  at home.  I have never seen this before on a ship.  Yup just change the channel.  But why do this at all??

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1 minute ago, TeeRick said:

Ok not really a positive secret thing but a kind of annoying thing to me.  The port shopping concierge on board was on one of the ship TV channels night and day actually doing an infomercial for a mattress!  Like the thing you see at 2AM  at home.  I have never seen this before on a ship.  Yup just change the channel.  But why do this at all??

I never watched any TV on the Edge, but saw something about it in the dailies (a sales gathering to give us an opportunity to purchase a cashmere mattress). I thought it was a  bit cheesy and not worthy of X, IMO. I can see that they are exploring every money-making avenue, but maybe like hotels do (one hotel chain we've booked sells their quirky bathrobes, throws, pillows, etc.), just leaving a brochure in the cabins would be more tasteful.

 

If they raise enough money to give us better balcony furniture and lower the prices, then I am all for it! 😉

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4 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Ok not really a positive secret thing but a kind of annoying thing to me.  The port shopping concierge on board was on one of the ship TV channels night and day actually doing an infomercial for a mattress!  Like the thing you see at 2AM  at home.  I have never seen this before on a ship.  Yup just change the channel.  But why do this at all??

 

Yeah, they really push the Cariloha stuff (Del Sol as well, they are the same company). There is always a shopping guide channel on the ships. They also showed a video from Diamonds International about how they had helped the Caribbean countries recover from the hurricane (the shopping guide showed some of it at the shopping talk, which I will admit to having attended). I guess it's nice that DI paid their employees and had them helping to rebuild houses during the time that their stores were closed, but ultimately it's an ad. My going to the talks did work out well. I got a free bottle of vanilla the first week (which I needed to buy for my son) and a bamboo t-shirt the second (which my wife wanted).

 

In any event, the shopping channel is easy enough to avoid. 

 

BTW here is the Linkedin page for Rachel Gualtieri, the Edge shopping guide. Interesting that she worked for Diamonds International for 5 years and was also a shipboard art auctioneer! The second link is for the book, more to read her bio than for the book.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgualtieri/?originalSubdomain=ca

 

https://www.amazon.com/Aboard-Cruise-Ship-Untold-Stories-ebook/dp/B007ROL2WW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549999231&sr=8-2&keywords=Rachel+Gualtieri

 

Edited by MisterBill99
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6 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Ok not really a positive secret thing but a kind of annoying thing to me.  The port shopping concierge on board was on one of the ship TV channels night and day actually doing an infomercial for a mattress!  Like the thing you see at 2AM  at home.  I have never seen this before on a ship.  Yup just change the channel.  But why do this at all??

Very cheesy and yet on the 1/27 cruise she was too busy to give me the EDGE charm...Maybe she was filming!

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3 hours ago, hcat said:

Very cheesy and yet on the 1/27 cruise she was too busy to give me the EDGE charm...Maybe she was filming!

 

No worse than the others I've seen. And during her talk she made a point of saying that she would make a sweep of their "recommended" stores at the end of the day and pick up stuff that people had purchased and needed to have sized or whatever which I thought was a nice thing. Of course much of what she talks about is just BS but I guess it's her job. 

 

We forgot to go down for the Edge charm. My wife did give her our email for a copy of the book but I haven't received it.

 

I did want to ask whether her book talked about how the shopping guides got kickbacks from the stores but thought better of it.

Edited by MisterBill99
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Here's another tip -- the front row of the balcony of the theater (deck 5) has tremendous leg room. You don't even need to stand up for people to get around you. And there's none of the metal (or poles!) that blocked your view on the other ships, just clear glass. Because the stage is in the round, even sitting on the side upstairs gives you an excellent view. Sadly, on Chic Nights they reserved both the center and one side section for suites.

 

Also, the second show was EXTREMELY busy every night on our second week (not so much on the first week, or at least I didn't remember it being that bad, there might have been more passengers on the 2nd cruise). So if you can make it to the early show you can get there close to showtime and get a decent seat. The problem is that the theater is too small for the number of guests. I believe they said the capacity is 890, vs 2950 passengers. This is apparently much less in percentage of total capacity than other Celebrity ships (I believe they said that Solstice class theater capacity was around 1200). I'm not sure what's going to happen once they start sailing full.

Edited by MisterBill99
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7 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

Here's another tip -- the front row of the balcony of the theater (deck 5) has tremendous leg room. You don't even need to stand up for people to get around you. And there's none of the metal (or poles!) that blocked your view on the other ships, just clear glass. Because the stage is in the round, even sitting on the side upstairs gives you an excellent view. Sadly, on Chic Nights they reserved both the center and one side section for suites.

 

Also, the second show was EXTREMELY busy every night on our second week (not so much on the first week, or at least I didn't remember it being that bad, there might have been more passengers on the 2nd cruise). So if you can make it to the early show you can get there close to showtime and get a decent seat. The problem is that the theater is too small for the number of guests. I believe they said the capacity is 890, vs 2950 passengers. This is apparently much less in percentage of total capacity than other Celebrity ships (I believe they said that Solstice class theater capacity was around 1200). I'm not sure what's going to happen once they start sailing full.

Great tip! I will try that area next time, if I get there early.  I always tended to get there a little late and gravitated to the tables and chairs up front to the right of the stage (left also available). When the theater was introduced, I thought those would be the suite seats. Instead, at least on our cruises, they were the last to go. You do get a side view, but with the comedians and the Navigation talk and Captain's Q&A it was fine and even was a pretty good view with the musical events. It's roomy and you have a table for drinks.

 

image.thumb.png.4f4b91ebb0321f68b0b2641370d2fbc2.png

 

I agree that the theater is smaller. I don't understand their reasoning. It is a gorgeous theater though - we really enjoyed watching shows there.

Edited by vtcruising
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46 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Great tip! I will try that area next time, if I get there early.  I always tended to get there a little late and gravitated to the tables and chairs up front to the right of the stage (left also available). When the theater was introduced, I thought those would be the suite seats. Instead, at least on our cruises, they were the last to go. You do get a side view, but with the comedians and the Navigation talk and Captain's Q&A it was fine and even was a pretty good view with the musical events. It's roomy and you have a table for drinks.

 

I agree that the theater is smaller. I don't understand their reasoning. It is a gorgeous theater though - we really enjoyed watching shows there.

 

We never sat in those front cabaret style seats and yes they were often the last to be filled. I also liked the upstairs seats because they were good for a quick escape if the show was bad. Tough to do that if you're sitting up front without being obvious.

 

The technology in the theater is amazing. They even have a system that can make it rain on the stage!

Edited by MisterBill99
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I used my app a lot on my cruises. I didn't trust the schedule as much as the printed copy, but it was nice to see an expanded description of shows and activities that was not in the daily. I also used it to check my folio. Sometimes it was more convenient to do it on that, while I was thinking of it. I did use the map quite a bit, especially for finding the restrooms. They were hard to find sometimes.

 

My tip is to do screen shots of menus, descriptions of shows, musicians, activities, maps, etc that you want to refer to later. When I got home the cruise disappeared off from my app and I had planned to refer to some of those things in my review. Next time I will take some screen shots of things I want to remember.

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On 2/1/2019 at 10:30 AM, vermonter16 said:

Thanks.  Since, I'll be sailing one in a few weeks.  Sheesh.

Well our secret surprise was that our AQ class IV cabin was quite liveable for a week..  we did fine..

 

Bathroom was very nice, good storage...but be careful with very shallow lip on shelving..items could slip off.

 

We arranged  our IV chairs facing inward with a  small Hoppen pillow on  each chair..treated the room like a Fla sunroom...not a balcony!

 

.Did not use the bifolds, We opened the window to take pics and look out....takes awhile for the warm humid air to come in.. and no birds flew in no issue fof us.  Window was not closed by mgmt as much as we expected!

 

Had to lower shade for privacy to get  dressed when docked a across from another ship..not terrible..manageable

 

Griege color was not as bad as expected. We had the faux coral and the Hoppen vase marked "No Water" removed asap,  and filled spaces with nice flowers to add organic elements and colors

 

Managed with the closet..plenty of drawers and cubbies.

 

Bed by balc worked well..dh had to step partly  into IV to exit bed..but no real issues.

 

Overall we  did not think the IV was a  negative as we had expected It made the room seem larger.

 

 

Edited by hcat
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For my full  AQ IV photos, you can check out my AQ EDGE review.

 

 

Btw Heated mirror feature kept mirror  clear but kept the bathroom very warm! The new shower panel was great but they had no instructions!

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VT... what is the name of your thread providing an overview of all the different cabin types... can't seem to find it. I want to use it as a link to those on facebook asking questions.

 

One more question. On S class there were plenty of spaces in the back row for handicapped. Where do people with wheel chairs go on Edge? our muster station was the second level (deck 5 as I recall) and there seemed to be one location on the side near the front. We often get there a bit late.. so it was nice to find spots at the back... last trip we arrived late and all we could see on deck 4 were the back of peoples heads... not clear where we were to go..

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2 hours ago, kearney said:

VT... what is the name of your thread providing an overview of all the different cabin types... can't seem to find it. I want to use it as a link to those on facebook asking questions.

 

One more question. On S class there were plenty of spaces in the back row for handicapped. Where do people with wheel chairs go on Edge? our muster station was the second level (deck 5 as I recall) and there seemed to be one location on the side near the front. We often get there a bit late.. so it was nice to find spots at the back... last trip we arrived late and all we could see on deck 4 were the back of peoples heads... not clear where we were to go..

Here is the cabin  thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2633148-edge-cabin-category-overview-non-suite/?tab=comments#comment-56755854

 

I have a couple of pictures of the theater wheel chair/scooter  spots:

image.thumb.png.4ffa33ec61b5edd81333f13bf5bf350d.png

 

This looks like a wheelchair spot (not sure if it is the same one as above) - I saw one on the opposite end of this row as well (you can see a chair there in this picture). I think I saw a couple of other spots somewhere, but can't remember for sure where.

image.thumb.png.f88b46e4eaa6d0eebd6f4cafd2b46dd3.png

 

image.thumb.png.446dcbfa4af81e85af5aaf33e09921c6.png

 

I went there in January to check out wheelchair and scooter spots for you. I looked for someone to ask, but didn't find anyone - just took a couple of pictures. Sorry, I never made it back during the day to ask them.

 

Here are a few pictures of the Eden elevator, in case people need a visual, since it sounds like there are some issues with maneuverability.

 

 

1805034891_edenelevator8.thumb.jpg.408abd2ad0ea1ea2ec91047e012c4572.jpg

 

631191513_edenelevator3.thumb.jpg.a73508dd80db1d3a8ab5f8871e91e222.jpg

 

1547440177_edenelevator4.thumb.jpg.618d1e5a0ee0408135cba107599dfb10.jpg

 

This woman put her husband on and went down separately (assume she couldn't fit too?):

 

929932403_edenelevator2cover.thumb.jpg.357d247dd5be8e7d7c001bbdc5c614aa.jpg

 

1107735502_edenelevator1cover.thumb.jpg.167725d95ea5241219dacc979fda6ca2.jpg

 

Hope you are well, kearney! Are you planning an another Edge cruise? 🙂

 

Edited by vtcruising
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Do you know if he was able to make the turn on 4? I ask because DH's problem might have been that his scooter was 3-4 inches longer than the more common smaller one... but with both of us in there..not sure that size would have worked any better.... I have heard people with walkers had no issue but have not found out if it worked for those with either a wheelchair or scooter. I don't want to mislead people if it happened not to work for one type of scooter... thanks for the link

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37 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

 

I have a couple of pictures of the theater wheel chair/scooter  spots:

 

This looks like a wheelchair spot (not sure if it is the same one as above) - I saw one on the opposite end of this row as well (you can see a chair there in this picture). I think I saw a couple of other spots somewhere, but can't remember for sure where.

image.thumb.png.f88b46e4eaa6d0eebd6f4cafd2b46dd3.png

 

Here are a few pictures of the Eden elevator, in case people need a visual, since it sounds like there are some issues with maneuverability.

 

 

We spoke to the couple in the accessible Sky Suite next to our cabin our first week on the ship. They invited us in to show us all of the things that were done wrong in there and told us about problems elsewhere on the ship ADA-wise. One thing they complained about was how the wheelchair companion seats in the theater were not marked.

 

I actually used the Eden elevator one time even though I am mobile. I was sitting upstairs during the performance and wanted to leave. I realized that the only way out by foot (unless there is some secret exit I missed) was to walk down the stairs next to the bar, which was where the performers were. Rather than make myself part of the show, I decided to take the elevator down so I could make a less conspicuous exit.  I did get some strange looks when I got out of the elevator, but nothing like I would have walking into the show.

 

Edited by MisterBill99
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15 minutes ago, kearney said:

Do you know if he was able to make the turn on 4? I ask because DH's problem might have been that his scooter was 3-4 inches longer than the more common smaller one... but with both of us in there..not sure that size would have worked any better.... I have heard people with walkers had no issue but have not found out if it worked for those with either a wheelchair or scooter. I don't want to mislead people if it happened not to work for one type of scooter... thanks for the link

I'm not sure since I didn't go see what floor he came out on. They didn't come back up so he was able to exit somewhere. Maybe they realized from a previous trip that he could make the turn better without her in the elevator?

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10 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

One thing they complained about was how the wheelchair spots in the theater were not marked.

I wondered about that when I was searching for the spots. I had to make an educated guess. I also thought the seat next to the wheelchair spot should have a sign so that if someone was with them, they would also have a seat.

 

Let's hope they do better with Apex and correct what they can on the Edge. I'm sure they have received a lot of feedback about accessibility issues.

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9 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Let's hope they do better with Apex and correct what they can on the Edge. I'm sure they have received a lot of feedback about accessibility issues.

 

I was told that corporate was going to have people on the ship within a week or two investigating the issues and coming up with fixes.

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11 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

 

 

We spoke to the couple in the accessible Sky Suite next to our cabin our first week on the ship. They invited us in to show us all of the things that were done wrong in there and told us about problems elsewhere on the ship ADA-wise. One thing they complained about was how the wheelchair companion seats in the theater were not marked.

 

I actually used the Eden elevator one time even though I am mobile. I was sitting upstairs during the performance and wanted to leave. I realized that the only way out by foot (unless there is some secret exit I missed) was to walk down the stairs next to the bar, which was where the performers were. Rather than make myself part of the show, I decided to take the elevator down so I could make a less conspicuous exit.  I did get some strange looks when I got out of the elevator, but nothing like I would have walking into the show.

 

m - I would think by joining the show it would have made it more interesting, for sure..

 

LOL and bon voyage

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