Jan 13 Boarded the Edge Skeptical and Disembarked.......

[jelayne]

We booked a AQ cabin on the day bookings opened and for months were looking forward with excitement to our cruise.  Lo and behold the early reviews were not encouraging and the clamor of what was wrong grew.  We felt stuck as we were well beyond final payment so cancelling wasn't a option.  So off we went expecting to find that we had made a big mistake.

 

WRONG!!  We found so much to like about the Edge including:

- stunningly beautiful ship

- the best food we have experienced in our past 23 Celebrity cruises

- more dining options on sea day; 5 included breakfast options and for lunch 5 included options and 3 fee options

- large, covered seating area for the Mast Grill

- a excellent level of service unlike we have experienced on other X ships and we have always had great service.  Ex: the Martini bar had between 3-7 bartenders at peak times

--public walkways that were wider so no feeling of being crowded

- Destination Gateway (Deck 2 ) a nice area from which to disembark and return to the ship, no more stored equipment or feeling you when to the basement to exit

- no chair hogs, there were more than enough lounge chairs an pool butlers cleaning up towels, plates, glasses etc. left around the area

- a walking/jogging track that had elevations and you didn't go in endless circles

- embarkation from drop off of luggage to entering our cabin was less than 15 minutes

-- in 7 days never was asked to upgrade our beverage package or book a restaurant

-- no $10 sales with pushing and shoving crowds

- Eden is beautiful and the views are great.  Lots of seating games to amuse you if you choose to play

- the spa is simply amazing

- soft close doors on the closet and cabinet drawers

- new activities to try - Deal or No Deal (replaced Bingo?), Archery, Laser Maze, Drone Racing, Pool Olympics, Art sessions: Origami, Sketching, Coloring

 

Some things that we didn't care for:

- noise from the Grand Plaza can be heard in the FCS and Le Gran Bistro; music levels were way to loud at the beginning of the cruise in every venue. By the end of the cruise the      music had been reduced to a more pleasant level.

- Sunset bar has no covered area so sun beating down and the main entrance to the area takes you through the smoking area (ugh!)

- Cabana's have a public walking way going in front of them.  The walkway takes you to the Mast Grill so the walkway is heavily used.

- form versus function was evident - uncomfortable chairs, Rooftop Grill open to the elements,  decorative pillows - most made seating uncomfortable and they were hard as rocks

- using the Club as a venue to show movies but there are large pillars that block the view of the screen for a large part of the seating

- lack of seating at the Martini Bar, stools that are there in the daytime are removed in the evening so half the bar is for standing only.

 

The IV overall the cabin is very nice.   We  only closed the interior glass doors once when we first boarded and decided they were unnecessary. With the lack of a balcony I was concerned about how I could use the cabin when DH slept in on sea days.  I purchased a $10 blackout curtain and mounted it using magnetic hooks.  It blocked enough light that DH could sleep and

I could read, dress, etc.

I . 

 

 The bath is great but again form over function there are no towel racks and the shower offers the options of a rainfall, waterfall, low jets and a handheld shower head.   The handheld is mounted low and I could not get the shower head to reach my shoulder.  There is a definite lack of closet space for long hanging items.  As for the IV itself it was okay - we sat there with the window open and actually got a bit of sun burn.  Would it be our first choice of a cabin probably not but we would not pass on a cruise because of the IV.

 

So in a nutshell we left the ship glad we went and feel that with some minor adjustments the Edge is a winner.

[Lastdance]

Thanks, Jelyane, for your balanced and detail oriented review.  It is nice to know that Celebrity(Lisa P.)is listening.  I know that many will enjoy hearing and seeing your black curtain details, as it worked for you.  Furthermore, I am so happy that you did enjoy your cruise and all the food. 

 

Thanks for sharing...

 

[vermonter16]

Great review!  Did you eat at any of the specialty restaurants at all?  We've had a bit of the same pre-cruise thoughts, but at the same time, we have to see for ourselves and are looking forward to our sailing in February.

[jelayne]

We ate dinner at Fine Cut Steakhouse once and the Rooftop Grill twice.  We tried to go the FCS twice but were waitlisted for the second visit and never cleared the waitlist.  FCS and Eden seemed to be fully booked every night.  Rooftop & Le Petit Chef had opening on the last night and so we chose to go back to Rooftop.  Fine Cut was excellent, Rooftop also very good, more relaxed but windy when the ship is at sea.  There were no discounts or packages being offered once on the ship.

[Fogfog]

37 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We booked a AQ cabin on the day bookings opened and for months were looking forward with excitement to our cruise.  Lo and behold the early reviews were not encouraging and the clamor of what was wrong grew.  We felt stuck as we were well beyond final payment so cancelling wasn't a option.  So off we went expecting to find that we had made a big mistake.

 

WRONG!!  We found so much to like about the Edge including:

- stunningly beautiful ship

- the best food we have experienced in our past 23 Celebrity cruises

- more dining options on sea day; 5 included breakfast options and for lunch 5 included options and 3 fee options

- large, covered seating area for the Mast Grill

- a excellent level of service unlike we have experienced on other X ships and we have always had great service.  Ex: the Martini bar had between 3-7 bartenders at peak times

--public walkways that were wider so no feeling of being crowded

- Destination Gateway (Deck 2 ) a nice area from which to disembark and return to the ship, no more stored equipment or feeling you when to the basement to exit

- no chair hogs, there were more than enough lounge chairs an pool butlers cleaning up towels, plates, glasses etc. left around the area

- a walking/jogging track that had elevations and you didn't go in endless circles

- embarkation from drop off of luggage to entering our cabin was less than 15 minutes

-- in 7 days never was asked to upgrade our beverage package or book a restaurant

-- no $10 sales with pushing and shoving crowds

- Eden is beautiful and the views are great.  Lots of seating games to amuse you if you choose to play

- the spa is simply amazing

- soft close doors on the closet and cabinet drawers

- new activities to try - Deal or No Deal (replaced Bingo?), Archery, Laser Maze, Drone Racing, Pool Olympics, Art sessions: Origami, Sketching, Coloring

 

Some things that we didn't care for:

- noise from the Grand Plaza can be heard in the FCS and Le Gran Bistro; music levels were way to loud at the beginning of the cruise in every venue. By the end of the cruise the      music had been reduced to a more pleasant level.

- Sunset bar has no covered area so sun beating down and the main entrance to the area takes you through the smoking area (ugh!)

- Cabana's have a public walking way going in front of them.  The walkway takes you to the Mast Grill so the walkway is heavily used.

- form versus function was evident - uncomfortable chairs, Rooftop Grill open to the elements,  decorative pillows - most made seating uncomfortable and they were hard as rocks

- using the Club as a venue to show movies but there are large pillars that block the view of the screen for a large part of the seating

- lack of seating at the Martini Bar, stools that are there in the daytime are removed in the evening so half the bar is for standing only.

 

The IV overall the cabin is very nice.   We  only closed the interior glass doors once when we first boarded and decided they were unnecessary. With the lack of a balcony I was concerned about how I could use the cabin when DH slept in on sea days.  I purchased a $10 blackout curtain and mounted it using magnetic hooks.  It blocked enough light that DH could sleep and

I could read, dress, etc.

I . 

 

 The bath is great but again form over function there are no towel racks and the shower offers the options of a rainfall, waterfall, low jets and a handheld shower head.   The handheld is mounted low and I could not get the shower head to reach my shoulder.  There is a definite lack of closet space for long hanging items.  As for the IV itself it was okay - we sat there with the window open and actually got a bit of sun burn.  Would it be our first choice of a cabin probably not but we would not pass on a cruise because of the IV.

 

So in a nutshell we left the ship glad we went and feel that with some minor adjustments the Edge is a winner.

Did you use a shower curtain here? Where did you find suitable hooks?

[jelayne]

1 minute ago, Fogfog said:

Did you use a shower curtain here? Where did you find suitable hooks?

No it is a 63"x40" grey blackout curtain from Walmart.  I have had the hooks for quite awhile but you can get them on Amazon.

It only took 4 hooks, 3 at the top and 1  on the side to keep the curtain against the wall.  We folded it back during the day so no taking it down & putting it up.

[Silkroad]

Thanks very much for your review, Jelayne. Final payment for our Edge TA is due this week, and we're booked in an IV. It's very helpful to read both your positive comments, and your comments about things needing improvement. Celebrity could certainly put curtains on the bi-fold doors. In fact, given the major fail in the IV veranda size/design, that's the least they should do. I'm very happy that you enjoyed your cruise😊

[hcat]

Great review...hope you submit it to Cruise Critic.

You made some great observations and info that will be helpful when we cruise next week.

 

How can there not be towel racks,....where do the towels go?

 

Did you go to any shows in the theater, EDEN or the Club?

 

If music gets too loud in the evening.. we will do our workouts at night and use the Solarium or Thermal suite..Did you use any of these?

[Pennstateman]

thanks a million...

 

question if you don't mind.

 

The IV, if you kept the folding doors open and the window up, does the AC work well?

 

[jcpc]

I was also on the January 13th sailing and agree with what jelayne posted.  What irritated me the most was the fact that it was literally almost impossible to get a chair in the Martini Bar area evenings from 5 pm to 7 pm.  There is no dedicated lounge for the Captain's Club gathering so everyone seemed to get their "3 free drinks" at the Martini Bar.  I guess they all must have gotten there at 4:45 pm and camped out until 7 pm.  The Martini Bar itself only has seating for about 10 people. Many of the venues, while beautiful, have very uncomfortable seating. 

 

I was in a S1 cabin midship and the suite itself was beautiful.  We had the room attendant put the rocking chair out on the balcony (we were told they are removing all those rocking chairs because the majority of the guests don't want them --- they take up way too much room in the suite).  We must have had 6 or 8 huge throw pillows in the room (a waste and they took up so much room).  Storage space was sufficient, however, the bar to hang things in the closet was extremely high (being 5'2" I had to struggle to get my clothes hung on that bar!)  We were 3 women sharing this suite and the suite is DEFINITELY not made for 3 people (unless the 3rd person is a small child).  We did not complain and just figured we would "make it work", but we were very fortunate as the Suite Manager approached us in Luminae on the first evening and told us that 3 doors down from our suite was an empty concierge cabin.  She offered us use of that cabin for the entire week.  One of us "moved" to that cabin (but still retained all the suite benefits).  I would not recommend 3 adults ever book a S1 suite on that ship (or probably any cabin category on that ship!)

 

I thought the service on the ship was outstanding and I can see where Celebrity is trying to "correct" some of the errors that made with this ship.  I too boarded the ship thinking "this is going to be a disaster" but I was pleasantly surprised.  I will say that I feel sorry for the crew.  Those guys and girls were working their tails off --- maybe they can use more bartenders and servers on the ship.

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by jcpc

[jelayne]

46 minutes ago, hcat said:

Great review...hope you submit it to Cruise Critic.

You made some great observations and info that will be helpful when we cruise next week.

 

How can there not be towel racks,....where do the towels go?

 

Did you go to any shows in the theater, EDEN or the Club?

 

If music gets too loud in the evening.. we will do our workouts at night and use the Solarium or Thermal suite..Did you use any of these?

 

there is a spot along one wall that will hold the hand towels & 1 face cloth.  The only place for bath towels was the 2 hooks on the back of the door, which we normally use for the robes.  The closet was too small for our hanging clothes & robes so we used the hooks in the bath for robes & didn't reuse the bath towels. 

We did go to 1 show in Eden and it was contemporary dance and aerialist, we enjoyed it.  Nothing naughty.  We didn't make it to the late *(11:30 or midnight)show in Eden. 

Also went to the Club one night  -good music and dancing.  We didn't use the Solarium or Spa but both were beautiful.

[jelayne]

51 minutes ago, Pennstateman said:

thanks a million...

 

question if you don't mind.

 

The IV, if you kept the folding doors open and the window up, does the AC work well?

 

We did keep the folding doors open and the AC worked fine.  Having said that when the sun got to the angle that it was beating into the room we put the shade down part way to reduce the glare and the heat. 

[FireEMT978]

Because of the "New" features of this ship, vs. the Celebrity "Norm", this ship appeals to me more as a 48 year old Gen-X.

 

[chemmo]

So pleased you have enjoyed your cruise, great to read a review that clearly indicates the positives but also indicates areas for improvement.

 

Glad your improvised curtain worked well! 

[hcat]

We use the  bathroom hooks for robes too...usually swap out the really heavy ones for the waffle style that take up less room .  Can,t wait to see the Hoppen pillows....hope they do not trigger any allergies.

 

Was surprised to hear there is a late show in EDEN..OMG !  We heard it all ended at midnight with a big crescendo!

 

We are booked in an SV  deck 7 right  over EDEN.. for a future cruise which is fully booked

Could be noise issues esp from the  speaker outside  EDEN

 

Thanks so much for all the details!

[JoePDX]

Thank you for the upbeat review!   I was growing concerned with the lack of positivity (save for vtcruising)....we are on the transatlantic in April and have 15 days on board.....   I'm feeling better now!

 

Joe

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

We use the  bathroom hooks for robes too...usually swap out the really heavy ones for the waffle style that take up less room .  Can,t wait to see the Hoppen pillows....hope they do not trigger any allergies.

 

Was surprised to hear there is a late show in EDEN..OMG !  We heard it all ended at midnight with a big crescendo!

 

We are booked in an SV  deck 7 right  over EDEN.. for a future cruise which is fully booked

Could be noise issues esp from the  speaker outside  EDEN

 

Thanks so much for all the details!

 

I only kept 5 of the dailies but looking at them there was 1 show in Eden on each of the 5 nights, 2 nights at 9pm, 2 nights at 10:15 and 1 night at 11:30.  I didn't find the music to be very loud so hopefully you won't be disturbed by the music.

[Lastdance]

Joe...it was by far a great decision for us to wait, and allow Celebrity to make some much needed changes before our TA.  I read that a new ship has lots of issues, so this just reconfirmes that...I do thank all of those who are voicing their opinions!!!

suzy

[fleckle]

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

 

............. I purchased a $10 blackout curtain and mounted it using magnetic hooks.  It blocked enough light that DH could sleep and

I could read, dress, etc.

I . 

 

 

Serenade of the Seas Cabin 1102

(photo credit to cloudfront.net)

 

It puzzled us that on sister cruise line Royal Caribbean we could book a cabin that came with a curtain to separate the bed from the sitting area, but if we want one on Celebrity, we need to provide it ourselves.

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by fleckle

[CoconutOne]

Thanks for the review! I think Edge looks great in many ways, much of which you liked, but the IV is really a big turnoff. At the price they want for the ship, it's just not worth it at this point. I do think (like others have said) this would be a great ship to sail Alaska on.

[JoePDX]

1 hour ago, Lastdance said:

Joe...it was by far a great decision for us to wait, and allow Celebrity to make some much needed changes before our TA.  I read that a new ship has lots of issues, so this just reconfirmes that...I do thank all of those who are voicing their opinions!!!

suzy

Suzy -   Agreed!   It was just a bit concerning, with the initial reviews, considering what we are all paying!   I was super excited seeing the ship come to completion.....Glad to hear the kinks are being worked out!   We will surely benefit...   Now I can get back to being excited again....   But then I'm always a glass half full kind of person....  🙂

 

See you on board!

 

Joe

Edited January 23, 2019 by JoePDX

[RICCruisers]

I’ve been reading that Edge would be a good choice for Alaska due to the IV’s. That may be true for balcony use, but my concern is that there are NO areas that non Suite Pass can view forward. We used the forward outside deck area in the Fitness room when cruising on Solstice. 

[jelayne]

No but Eden & the area outside would be amazing from the aft.

[davekathy]

Thanks for posting about your Edge experience. 

[Shadow9612]

What a wonderful well-balanced review @jelayne.  Really helpful - thank you!