Thrifty Couple Celebrity Edge Review Jan 27th to Feb 3

[cgolf1]

Well tonight we ended up trying Revelation at Eden on Deck 6 instead hoping that the scent would not be noticeable there. Unfortunately, it got to my wife, but I decided to stay and watch the show. I figured the show would be under an hour, because another night the show started at 10 and Sinful at Eden started at 11. This show reminded me of when I went to the Nutcracker. The performers were very talented at what they do, but I had no clue what was happening. The only thing I can figure is the girl in white started with a guy, midway through they appeared to not get along, and by what I thought was the end they were getting along again. I thought the end was when they all stood on the small main stage together, about 55 minutes in, but the countdown that they have going continued and some of the performers kept performing. So did I see the end or not? They really need a playbill so we know what is going on. I will say the lady sitting 2 feet from me got packed in with pillows by one of the performers;), I was so happy it was not me lol. I am glad I went and saw it, but wasn’t interested in seeing it again, unless I guess someone told me what was happening.

[phabric]

Do you know if you buy the Rhum any place near the dock?

[cgolf1]

15 minutes ago, phabric said:

Do you know if you buy the Rhum any place near the dock?

 

The Stores might have it, but I didn’t see that they had a small shop setup like the guavaberry rum did, also good rum. We paid 20 for a 1 liter there. Total Wine has the 750 for 16.99, unfortunately not tax free;)

[cgolf1]

Day 6 at Sea (Finally relaxed a bit)

After breakfast we went swimming in the resort pool It is a very nice pool. The only weird thing is all of the heaters appear to be in the aft end of the pool and in the morning there is a big temperature difference front to back in the pool. After swimming we found some loungers to read and relax, I finished ‘Into the Storm’ which is a great read on a ship in the Caribbean lol.

 

We went to the club for a bit and watched the archery challenge. It was actually pretty cool. The used rubber tipped darts shooting at targets in an inflatable structure. Watching the people, the nock (had to look this up on Wikipedia) was too narrow and people were having trouble getting the string in the nock. Other than that it is something we would try in the future. We then went up and listened to the tree performer which happened to be Michael Reddon and finally caught a full set:) 

 

After another fantastic lunch in Oceanview, we went down to Eden and listened to the Reckless Charms. We did this by sitting in the area outside of Eden on Deck 5 and they have the music playing through speakers out there. After they finished we just found different places to relax around the ship, played some ping pong, and generally hoped that time would crawl along. Just before supper we did catch Michael Reddon performing in a tree and got to see another full set.  When we returned to our room to change for supper we had a voice message inviting us on a galley tour the next day at 10.

 

Before I talk about supper and our nights activities, I want to comment on a couple of things. The sewer smell being talked about first. Someone asked us about it on the ship, new cruiser I suspect, and we said that we definitely noticed it randomly, but that we have on every ship we sailed. Was it there, yes, but it wasn’t any worse than any other ship we have sailed. To us, it just appears to be a quirk of cruise ships, no idea why.

 

The Magic Carpet being closed during bad weather. Yes it was closed at times due to the weather, but to be honest when it was closed due to either rain or wind, we wouldn’t have wanted to be out on it anyways. Being a thrifty cruiser I can’t speak to the infinite verandas, but I am guessing with the weather we had they may have been closed more often than normal.

 

The cabanas were rented only a handful of times during the whole week. Either our cruise was the exception, or these spaces could be repurposed on the Apex. Last week it just looked like it was wasted space. Also in our opinion the location and layout didn’t seem very desirable, I would have preferred them with easier access to the pool and a path for everyone to the magic carpet that wouldn’t interfere with the cabana guests.

 

We had supper in Cyprus, and while our servers were excellent, for some reason my gluten free dish took forever. Once we got our food it was terrific. After supper we went and watched Friendly Feud end in controversy lol. One team was up 3 to 1 and the last game was supposed to be for 2 points. Well the team with 1 point won the round and they were declared to finish in second with 2 points?????? The crowd and the team tried to lobby that it was a tie and they should have played another round, but they ended up with the second place prizes and it was over. It was just kind of strange.

 

We watched comedian Rondell Sheridan in the theater and he was hilarious and put on a very good show. After the show we went to the club to listen to Madison, one of the theater cast to sing with the band. She was amazing and we stuck around till about 11 and then headed up for bed.

[cgolf1]

Tomorrow will be Day 7 and a bunch of pictures from around the ship that didn’t fit in with the other posts:)

[hcat]

The St Maarten  Rhum excursion looked  very interesting..something we have not done in this port.  Was it through Celeb or a tour you  picked up at the port? We like rum from St Kitts, Jamaica and Puerto Rico but were not aware of St Maarten for rhum.( love the spelling)

 

In this port..St Maarten,  we took the Celeb Beach Rendezvous excursion..Previously we took  it with the same  tour company to an  Orient Beach Club...lunch included...Now everything out there is kind of destroyed.  This time we went to Kim Sha Beach,  one of my favs...dh sat under the umbrella  with his Sudoku whiIe I  enjoyed the water It was, very clean and  had some nice gentle waves. Lunch was at the Greenhouse II...great meal with drinks..free wi fi...  It's next door to Bucaneer Beach Club so folks could go back and forth...but  we think the Greenhouse  was a bit nicer! Very nice outing!

 

We did some shopping  at the pier area, Seem the bigger companies took the best spots but we did find some smaller shops...We did not go into Philipsburg...maybe next time,

 

I went through my cruise folder but could not locate notes about the Special Needs Dept... Sorry...it was probably among the items I purged  before we left the ship.. Hope you are able to alert them about the incense sensitivity,  As it is, we came home with  head colds! 

 

BtW..our Inf Veranda was not closed off very much..only during window washing in ports and a few times for rain showers. It was new and unique.  Next time on EDGE, we are booked in a Sunset Veranda with a balcony...

[phabric]

4 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

 

The Stores might have it, but I didn’t see that they had a small shop setup like the guavaberry rum did, also good rum. We paid 20 for a 1 liter there. Total Wine has the 750 for 16.99, unfortunately not tax free;)

 

This sounds like something to bring back to Canada.

 

Is the name - Toppers Rhum?

[cgolf1]

21 minutes ago, phabric said:

 

This sounds like something to bring back to Canada.

 

Is the name - Toppers Rhum?

 

Yup Toppers Rhum, very good stuff and reasonable. 

[Covepointcruiser]

Surprised to hear that Celebrity uses Cashmere mattresses, that doesn’t seem practical.   They would need a very heavy mattress pad to protect it.   I wouldn’t mind that kind of mattress as long as it was clean.   I would consider bringing a sleep sack if you are irritated by the sheets.   As for the aroma in Eden, how do you deal with perfumes and aftershave not to mention the aroma emanating from the clothing of smokers.   Cruise ships are certainly not the place for folks with respiratory allegies.

[twodjs]

The scent sounds like it is coming from the hazer or fog machine used to put a haze in the air for the lighting effects used in the evening. Don't know why they haven't used an unscented product. It is readily available.

[cgolf1]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

The St Maarten  Rhum excursion looked  very interesting..something we have not done in this port.  Was it through Celeb or a tour you  picked up at the port? We like rum from St Kitts, Jamaica and Puerto Rico but were not aware of St Maarten for rhum.( love the spelling)

 

In this port..St Maarten,  we took the Celeb Beach Rendezvous excursion..Previously we took  it with the same  tour company to an  Orient Beach Club...lunch included...Now everything out there is kind of destroyed.  This time we went to Kim Sha Beach,  one of my favs...dh sat under the umbrella  with his Sudoku whiIe I  enjoyed the water It was, very clean and  had some nice gentle waves. Lunch was at the Greenhouse II...great meal with drinks..free wi fi...  It's next door to Bucaneer Beach Club so folks could go back and forth...but  we think the Greenhouse  was a bit nicer! Very nice outing!

 

We did some shopping  at the pier area, Seem the bigger companies took the best spots but we did find some smaller shops...We did not go into Philipsburg...maybe next time,

 

I went through my cruise folder but could not locate notes about the Special Needs Dept... Sorry...it was probably among the items I purged  before we left the ship.. Hope you are able to alert them about the incense sensitivity,  As it is, we came home with  head colds! 

 

BtW..our Inf Veranda was not closed off very much..only during window washing in ports and a few times for rain showers. It was new and unique.  Next time on EDGE, we are booked in a Sunset Veranda with a balcony...

 

We did the Celebrity tour. For better or worse we always do the cruise ship tours in case one runs late. 

 

The tour ranked 2nd in our 3 rum distillery tours. Cruzen on St. Croix was incredible because we got a full tour, the rums were good, but not to toppers level. My least favorite was Bacardi, we just toured the museum and got only two tastings. 

 

The guavaberry rum on the island, has also been a favorite of ours for years too:)

 

Glad you had a great time on St. Maarten too. 

[hcat]

11 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

 

We did the Celebrity tour. For better or worse we always do the cruise ship tours in case one runs late. 

 

The tour ranked 2nd in our 3 rum distillery tours. Cruzen on St. Croix was incredible because we got a full tour, the rums were good, but not to toppers level. My least favorite was Bacardi, we just toured the museum and got only two tastings. 

 

The guavaberry rum on the island, has also been a favorite of ours for years too:)

 

Glad you had a great time on St. Maarten too. 

We agree about cruise ship tours.

Last time on St Maarten,  we were abandoned by our Celeb excursion driver at Bucaneer Beach Club at Kim Sha Beach.....about 10 of us,  We  contacted the port agent, who contacted X excursion dept..which sent a new driver and car,,Ship would not have sailed without us!  Peace of Mind!

 

On the Tortola tour, there was an option to walk  a bit to a rum distillery near Cane Garden Beach..folks enjoyed it!  Passed it on the way back...might check it out next time if we don't go over to the Soggy Dollar.

[cgolf1]

Day 7 

Got up at our normal 7 and grabbed breakfast. After breakfast we swam for a little bit between the rain drops and then got ready for the galley tour. We got down to the galley tour and we were one of the first in line. As we got going, somehow we got shuffled to being last in line and it got to the point that we couldn’t hear the person taking us around. Thankfully we have been on galley tours so we knew what a lot of the areas were, or we would have had to work our way back up front. We just rolled with it, but it was a bit disappointing. The galley itself was really nice and they took us up a level to the bakery area. All in all it was a fun surprise, just wish we could have heard what was being described.

[cgolf1]

With the weather being dicey, we chilled out before lunch and planned for a relaxing day. We went to Oceanview for our last lunch on ship. After lunch we went and sat in the area outside of Eden and listened to the Reckless Charms. I ended up playing in a ping pong tourney and got smoked even though I didn’t hit it too bad. Supper was in Tuscan and our serving team was excellent again and got us out for the 7 PM show. I have to say the food in the MDRs has been the best we have had on any ship we have been on.

[cgolf1]

The show was ‘A Hot Summer Night’s Dream’. This show was very good, but we didn’t understand the point of the working crew, other then getting them a spot to sing a song or two. The really didn’t have a role in the show. After the first show we caught a bit of the game show 60 Seconds or less in the club. We decided to catch the second showing of ‘A Hot Summer Night’s Dream’. I grabbed a camera that could do videos and I got a couple of videos during the second showing.

 

 

[cgolf1]

We didn’t need to worry about getting our luggage out since we were walking off right away in the morning to catch our 10:30 flight out of Ft. Lauderdale. We decided to go to Rondell Sheridan’s late show. It was really good and we stuck around for almost all of it and finally decided to head up to bed because we had an early breakfast and needed to get off the ship as early as possible.

 

Last day

Debarkation went fine, although we ended up in the wrong line and had to go to the end of a longer line. While it seemed like a big deal at the time, it was fine and once they released the ship it took less than 10 minutes to debark. We got to the taxi stand and we ended up getting through TSA by 8:30.

[cgolf1]

On 2/5/2019 at 12:06 PM, Jesseslola said:

Thanks again for your great review..looking forward for more.

 

It was mentioned in one of the flyers that there is an Asian stir fry station that had been added, but I have not seen any review that mentioned it. Have you seen one yet? We loved the Stir Fry station of all the Oasis class, especially the Harmony and looking forward to Symphony next year. We are crossing our fingers it would be the same as we had last year in Symphony.

 

 

 

Apparently I should talk to my wife. She said that she noticed this a few times, could have been there everyday. She said that they had pre made fried rice and such and a place you could order it custom. 

[cgolf1]

Attached are some random ship pictures. 

[cgolf1]

Some artwork pictures 

 

 

[cgolf1]

The gluten free cakes from the last day, gluten free pizza which was incredible and had a great crust, and a cheese appetizer that amazing and was gluten free without the bread. I just used my gluten free bread with it. 

[cgolf1]

The Rooftop Garden at night and Michael Reddon performing in a tree. 

 

 

[cgolf1]

Our favorite view off the back of the boat, random pilot boat picture, a beautiful pic of the Magic Carpet late afternoon, and the elevator controls. 

 

 

[vtcruising]

Beautiful pictures!

[cgolf1]

Overall

This cruise like others had its hits and misses. When we factored in the ship, entertainment, and food this trip managed to land in our top 3 cruises. We liked it so much that we decided to book an oceanview on the Apex to see what changes they make to it. The 2 perks make an oceanview worth it for us because we can each have a drink or two a day and we will break even, compared to booking an inside room. 

[cgolf1]

Hits, misses, and so sos

While the misses list might be longer they aren’t deal breakers, and we always have misses on every ship we sail. We could also tell that this is a new ship, as the crew is still getting used to it, especially the 4 main dining rooms. I think in 6 months to a year from now they will have it finely tuned.