Edge Review - Exceptional - Hits - Misses - Failures - Edenists

[Host Anne]

2 hours ago, Silkroad said:

Host Anne, thank you very much for your excellent review. I’m very disappointed that they’re still blasting the music. IMO, while cranking up the volume is fine for a dance party, if we must shout over the music during the cocktail hour, it’s way too loud. If there’s no venue having music that is appropriate for relaxing pre-dinner cocktails, we will certainly think twice about sailing Edge class ships in the future. There have been reports that it’s difficult to obtain drinks in the Martini Bar, due to the lack of enough bartenders. Was that your experience? BTW, I agree with you about drinking water from metal containers. I don’t like the metallic taste either. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences and assessments with us. 

 

Silkroad ~ I really hope the start to turn the music down a bit.  I love music and my daughter accuses me of playing it too loud in my car!  But when you can't understand what a performer is saying or signing because it's too loud or (as you've noted) you can't talk having pre-dinner cocktails because of the music volume, it's just too loud.  

 

There's not question the Martini Bar was hoping, especially pre-dinner (7:00 - 8:15 ish) but there were plenty of bar servers and I didn't think the wait was too bad for drinks.  I think there was one evening my husband ran up to the Casino Bar (one level up) for drinks because it was quicker but overall it wasn't bad.  In fact, I thought the bar service/servers overall were pretty good and delivered drinks in a reasonable amount of time.

[cgolf1]

Host Anne thank you for the balanced review it has helped me to set my expectations for our upcoming Edge cruise. Coming from DCL and RCCL, we knew to expect less activities after researching other Celebrity ships, but are surprised to find the Edge that is supposed to be geared towards a younger cruiser seems to have less. 

 

We booked really early so got a great deal, but had no clue what we were getting ourselves into;) As always though we expect to have a great trip, because any day on a cruise ship beats a day working:)

[cruisefam38]

9 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

 

 

There is no way to unlock the veranda doors (at least in the sky suite) from the outside.  You can only open and close and lock it from the inside. 🙂

 

I cannot fathom this design decision.

We favor Sky Suites on =X=, and thoroughly enjoy the verandas, especially on the aft corner SSs.  We go out to read, to exercise, to relax and take naps, to enjoy the ocean.  The veranda is a absolute must for our cruise experience.  We would not for any reason choose to purchase a cabin that would not allow us control our cabin environment in such a simple manner. 

I thought I had read this previously, that at least one cruiser had noted it during a preview cruise, but the info had been misplaced, so thanks again, Host Anne.

[floridacruisers]

 There are two things, well, three that would keep me off the Edge.

 The first is price. IMHO the Edge is a poor value compared to S class ships which we love. Maybe the price will adjust down so who knows. 

 Second is LOUD MUSIC. I don't need to pay good money to go deaf. I hate it. I love a good hard sound, but not practically everywhere on the ship.

 Third is the IV. No way is that a real veranda like you find on the s class ships. 

 

If Celebrity decides to move things like loud music to the "revolutionized" ships everywhere, well we are gone. We are Elite+ and halfway to Zenith. Hate to loose the bennies, but we will look elsewhere. Surprisingly that includes HAL. We love the B.B. King's blues club and the new Rolling Stone Rock Club. They are anything but old fart. And we can get away from the loud music whenever we want. Would miss a lot about Celebrity, but my ears are more important. Hope Miami comes to its senses, but I am not holding my breath for that.

 Phil............floridacruisers 

[hcat]

When they started with Miami DJs  on Reflection,  and very loud pool music many of us asked for it to be turned down..at least early in the day.  We were  dismissively told that Miami wants it loud and it would not be changed.  So many cruisers abandoned the area seeking out a quieter vibe . Fewer drinks sold, fewer tips etc.  They also had a  boring endless loop of techno music all over the ship..  By the end of the cruise, restaurants & bars  were making the music and tapes lower.

 

Things have improved recently on X ships with a nice variety of live music, appropriate to each venue.  So now we are back to the loud music all over.  Good music  of any kind does not need volume or extra bass!

 

Thanks to Vt cruiser, Oville, Kearney  Moderator Anne and others  we will seek out  some  of the more mellow places on board..

[Host Anne]

2 hours ago, cruisefam38 said:

 

I cannot fathom this design decision.

We favor Sky Suites on =X=, and thoroughly enjoy the verandas, especially on the aft corner SSs.  We go out to read, to exercise, to relax and take naps, to enjoy the ocean.  The veranda is a absolute must for our cruise experience.  We would not for any reason choose to purchase a cabin that would not allow us control our cabin environment in such a simple manner. 

I thought I had read this previously, that at least one cruiser had noted it during a preview cruise, but the info had been misplaced, so thanks again, Host Anne.

 

The veranda door on the Sky Suite is a slider.  Although it's heavy, I'm guessing  you could slide it closed (but can't lock it) from the outside.  I would probably struggle to slide it back open on my own, though.   My guess is the design is specifically to control the use of the A/C so it's not on when the door is open. But that's just a guess.

[Host Anne]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

When they started with Miami DJs  on Reflection,  and very loud pool music many of us asked for it to be turned down..at least early in the day.  We were  dismissively told that Miami wants it loud and it would not be changed.  So many cruisers abandoned the area seeking out a quieter vibe . Fewer drinks sold, fewer tips etc.  They also had a  boring endless loop of techno music all over the ship..  By the end of the cruise, restaurants & bars  were making the music and tapes lower.

 

Things have improved recently on X ships with a nice variety of live music, appropriate to each venue.  So now we are back to the loud music all over.  Good music  of any kind does not need volume or extra bass!

 

Thanks to Vt cruiser, Oville, Kearney  Moderator Anne and others  we will seek out  some  of the more mellow places on board..

 

hcat ~ this is just me but I think there is a sense that loud, techno music makes a place "hip!"  I'm sure it does for some but I doubt that the majority of the folks still sailing Celebrity want that constantly.  There is music everywhere all day.  Some was good (Oceanview, Normandie); some spa type (mild thump-thump-thump (retreat and retreat lounge); live music (mostly good; often too loud); and the theater and sometimes the pool (way beyond reasonable sound).

 

You will find a variety of mellow places....the outdoor deck by Eden; Eden during the day; the Rooftop Garden when no TV or live music is playing; Cafe al Bacio during the day.

 

We brought games along and spent a few quiet afternoon in the aft area of Oceanview.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise.  

 

Tried to embed a video of the loud music we heard in our cabin early one morning but couldn't get it to play.  I'll have to ask the kids what I'm doing wrong  🙂

 

 

[Host Anne]

2 hours ago, floridacruisers said:

 There are two things, well, three that would keep me off the Edge.

 The first is price. IMHO the Edge is a poor value compared to S class ships which we love. Maybe the price will adjust down so who knows. 

 Second is LOUD MUSIC. I don't need to pay good money to go deaf. I hate it. I love a good hard sound, but not practically everywhere on the ship.

 Third is the IV. No way is that a real veranda like you find on the s class ships. 

 

If Celebrity decides to move things like loud music to the "revolutionized" ships everywhere, well we are gone. We are Elite+ and halfway to Zenith. Hate to loose the bennies, but we will look elsewhere. Surprisingly that includes HAL. We love the B.B. King's blues club and the new Rolling Stone Rock Club. They are anything but old fart. And we can get away from the loud music whenever we want. Would miss a lot about Celebrity, but my ears are more important. Hope Miami comes to its senses, but I am not holding my breath for that.

 Phil............floridacruisers 

 

Couldn't agree more, Phil.  We'll see what happens.  We have loved Celebrity for many years but when the product is no longer something we enjoy, we'll spend money elsewhere.  The sad thing is that I believe they could deliver what all age groups want.  It's not that hard.  Let's hope they figure it out.

[hcat]

Thanks for the ideas and encouragement.  We also have faith that X will balance things out at some point. 

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Thanks to Vt cruiser, Oville, Kearney  Moderator Anne and others  we will seek out  some  of the more mellow places on board..

When are you on Board the Edge? I'm sailing on her again on April 14th. Would LOVE to meet you and chat in person!

[cruisefam38]

1 hour ago, Host Anne said:

 

The veranda door on the Sky Suite is a slider.  Although it's heavy, I'm guessing  you could slide it closed (but can't lock it) from the outside.  I would probably struggle to slide it back open on my own, though.   My guess is the design is specifically to control the use of the A/C so it's not on when the door is open. But that's just a guess.

 

Your guess looks plausible, Host Anne.  And I understand that there are people who enter the stateroom upon embarkation, turn the AC to the coldest setting and have their veranda door slid open until disembarkation.  I am also aware that there are people that like to open the veranda door door and prop their stateroom door open to create the desired breezeway, and in the process suck the AC out of that section of the ship.  We don't do either of those things.  Nor do we find the whistling sound from an unsecured balcony door to be musical.  So sadly, Celebrity's approach to behavior modification has successfully modified my behavior, away from their Edge and if it is built on the exact same plan, the Apex.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

When are you on Board the Edge? I'm sailing on her again on April 14th. Would LOVE to meet you and chat in person!

Sorry we cruise sooner than that....maybe some other time!

[Summertimescallingme]

For the infinite veranda, the window must be closed for the AC to work.  The folding/sliding glass doors between the room and the veranda have no effect on the AC.  You  can close the folding glass doors and sit on the veranda but the window shade is on the veranda window so if the person on the veranda wants the shade open, there is no option but to have light in the entire room.  

 

 An interesting tip for the air-conditioning, we noticed the first couple of nights it seemed to get stuffy, with no fan running, in the middle of the night even though we had the AC on the lowest setting (66).   I played around with the electronic contol keypad near the door and realized that when you go to bed (or leave the room) if you use the electronic control  to turn off the lights, it not only turns off the lights but within 10 minutes it powers down the air conditioning fan to a sleep setting. It didn’t literally change the temperature showing on the pad, but the fan did not run, and over a few hours is became stuffy and somewhat warmer. We remedied that issue by leaving the electronic control lights on, and rather turned off each light switch individually so the air-conditioning contol pad did not think we were asleep/out of the room. I hope this all makes sense!   Also, if you use the contol pad, the bedside lights give you 30-60 seconds as they dim before they turn off completely.

[Pennstateman]

I prefer to see for myself and Then form an opinion

 

sailing in feb IV $3700 per cabin free tips $425obc.  Not cheap but not bad

[chamima]

46 minutes ago, Summertimescallingme said:

For the infinite veranda, the window must be closed for the AC to work.  The folding/sliding glass doors between the room and the veranda have no effect on the AC.  You  can close the folding glass doors and sit on the veranda but the window shade is on the veranda window so if the person on the veranda wants the shade open, there is no option but to have light in the entire room.  

 

 An interesting tip for the air-conditioning, we noticed the first couple of nights it seemed to get stuffy, with no fan running, in the middle of the night even though we had the AC on the lowest setting (66).   I played around with the electronic contol keypad near the door and realized that when you go to bed (or leave the room) if you use the electronic control  to turn off the lights, it not only turns off the lights but within 10 minutes it powers down the air conditioning fan to a sleep setting. It didn’t literally change the temperature showing on the pad, but the fan did not run, and over a few hours is became stuffy and somewhat warmer. We remedied that issue by leaving the electronic control lights on, and rather turned off each light switch individually so the air-conditioning contol pad did not think we were asleep/out of the room. I hope this all makes sense!   Also, if you use the contol pad, the bedside lights give you 30-60 seconds as they dim before they turn off completely.

 

 

Great tip!

Thank you!

But how did you ever figure that out?

[kearney]

2 hours ago, Pennstateman said:

I prefer to see for myself and Then form an opinion

 

sailing in feb IV $3700 per cabin free tips $425obc.  Not cheap but not bad

What cabin did you get... obstructed?

[MisterBill99]

3 hours ago, Pennstateman said:

I prefer to see for myself and Then form an opinion

 

sailing in feb IV $3700 per cabin free tips $425obc.  Not cheap but not bad

 

Presumably you booked that a while ago and not recently?

[vtcruising]

3 hours ago, Summertimescallingme said:

For the infinite veranda, the window must be closed for the AC to work.  The folding/sliding glass doors between the room and the veranda have no effect on the AC.  You  can close the folding glass doors and sit on the veranda but the window shade is on the veranda window so if the person on the veranda wants the shade open, there is no option but to have light in the entire room.  

 

 An interesting tip for the air-conditioning, we noticed the first couple of nights it seemed to get stuffy, with no fan running, in the middle of the night even though we had the AC on the lowest setting (66).   I played around with the electronic contol keypad near the door and realized that when you go to bed (or leave the room) if you use the electronic control  to turn off the lights, it not only turns off the lights but within 10 minutes it powers down the air conditioning fan to a sleep setting. It didn’t literally change the temperature showing on the pad, but the fan did not run, and over a few hours is became stuffy and somewhat warmer. We remedied that issue by leaving the electronic control lights on, and rather turned off each light switch individually so the air-conditioning contol pad did not think we were asleep/out of the room. I hope this all makes sense!   Also, if you use the contol pad, the bedside lights give you 30-60 seconds as they dim before they turn off completely.

If you turn off the green feature you may be able to override that - when we left the room at 70 degrees, we would come back and it would be warmer though it still was set at 70 degrees (actual temp was 72). I found out in a Q&A that there is a green feature that turns your thermostat up 2 degrees when you are out. My DH found a  button under settings button that said "Go Green" and turned it off. The temperature stayed the same thereafter.

 

Also, someone said that they couldn't have their shade part way up. If you touch the shade button on the control panel (see bottom middle below), you can stop the shade at any time - it is only the control by the window that is all or nothing.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2019 by vtcruising

[Pennstateman]

41 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Presumably you booked that a while ago and not recently?

About a year ago 

[Pennstateman]

1 hour ago, kearney said:

What cabin did you get... obstructed?

Nope deck 8 forward 

[MisterBill99]

4 minutes ago, Pennstateman said:

About a year ago 

 

Right, before the prices went totally crazy. You can't book it for that price now. However, they are offering all 4 perks (only on Edge) as an alternative to lowering the price to a more reasonable level.

[kearney]

13 minutes ago, Pennstateman said:

Nope deck 8 forward 

I was thinking you just booked it.... well that is a good price...  We ended up booking a post revolution for Sept '19, 11 day cruise on Equinox 1A for  $3500 all in with one perk and $200OBC... could get it now.. without perk for $3200 (old fart discount).. vs $4200 all in for our last Dec Edge trip... E3 vs 1A (side of hump big veranda cabin). Roughly 20% less overall and 60% longer cruise. Or $290/day vs $600 day... no brainer for me. I liked Edge ... I liked IV... but just not twice as much as S class.

[ecslady]

46 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

If you turn off the green feature you may be able to override that - when we left the room at 70 degrees, we would come back and it would be warmer though it still was set at 70 degrees (actual temp was 72). I found out in a Q&A that there is a green feature that turns your thermostat up 2 degrees when you are out. My DH found a  button under settings button that said "Go Green" and turned it off. The temperature stayed the same thereafter.

 

Also, someone said that they couldn't have their shade part way up. If you touch the shade button on the control panel (see bottom middle below), you can stop the shade at any time - it is only the control by the window that is all or nothing.

 

I think you have that the other way around.  If you use the control on the wall by the door, the shade either goes up or down all the way, no in between.  However, if you use the button by the window/shade on the infinite veranda, you can stop the shade at any level you want.  At least, that is how it worked for us.

[MisterBill99]

22 minutes ago, kearney said:

I was thinking you just booked it.... well that is a good price...  We ended up booking a post revolution for Sept '19, 11 day cruise on Equinox 1A for  $3500 all in with one perk and $200OBC... could get it now.. without perk for $3200 (old fart discount).. vs $4200 all in for our last Dec Edge trip... E3 vs 1A (side of hump big veranda cabin). Roughly 20% less overall and 60% longer cruise. Or $290/day vs $600 day... no brainer for me. I liked Edge ... I liked IV... but just not twice as much as S class.

 

Yeah, that was what I thought as well. BTW, the Edge pricing currently includes all 4 perks, including the Premium Beverage Package. So while it's high, it is sort of an all-inclusive experience (not excursions, of course). It's still probably not worth it.

[vtcruising]

23 minutes ago, ecslady said:

 

I think you have that the other way around.  If you use the control on the wall by the door, the shade either goes up or down all the way, no in between.  However, if you use the button by the window/shade on the infinite veranda, you can stop the shade at any level you want.  At least, that is how it worked for us.

Funny, I could swear it was the opposite for us, but I won't since it was such a whirlwind 2 days! Either way, the option is there for those who think it is all or nothing. 🙂

Edited January 18, 2019 by vtcruising