Sorta live on Beyond January 29th

[Mcgeneseo]

I just met the lovely @David Kane and XZ at the Eden Bar. Thank you for the recommendation of the Clouds drink. So yummy! We had dinner at Rooftop Grill. Great food, good waiter, assistant waiter and "snack attendant" which is a position under assistant waiter. The wine steward was again running....to the Sunset Bar for drinks if the customer didn't want wine. Seems like there should be a better way to do this. It was windy, so put your hair up. There was a loud, drunk group in the hot tub, so if you are looking for a quiet, intimate location, this may not be the spot. We have passes to the thermal spa and I've been using it for the last three days. Very nice but we didn't get them for next week. A person I spoke with today said the ship was about 600 passengers from being full. I don't recall the max, so I can't do the math, sorry. There is sooo much to do on this ship and soooo many nooks and crannies to explore, I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface.  It has been wonderful.

[jelayne]

We felt the same way when we were on the Edge for the 1st time.  Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

[CTSandy]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:42 PM, Mcgeneseo said:

We went on the Best of Nassau tour and it was horrendous. I think everyone on the bus will be seek a refund of some sort. They dropped us off at Altantis for 40 minutes but we couldn't go to the casino. Only had VERY high end stores and we weren't supposed to go there in the first place. He gave us 10 minutes at the Queen's steps which wasn't enough to go up and down. And he told us we weren't going yo the fort, but stopping at a different there tee shirt vendors in the parking lot, selling cheap stuff. Last stop was the rum distillery which was the nicest stop but we could only stay for 25 minutes.

 
We did this same tour pre Covid and felt the same way about it - what a waste of time.  Our guide ended the tour with a pitch for bigger tips because cruisers didn’t realize how poor Bahamians were.

[Mcgeneseo]

9 hours ago, CTSandy said:

 
We did this same tour pre Covid and felt the same way about it - what a waste of time.  Our guide ended the tour with a pitch for bigger tips because cruisers didn’t realize how poor Bahamians were.

Same here. Kept talking about how well their economy was and then how much tips were needed. 

[Mar y Sol]

On 2/1/2023 at 1:12 PM, Mcgeneseo said:

We will be on next week's cruise as the 2nd of our back to back. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference.  DH wants to try Cosmopolitan so we'll see how that compares. I'm having lunch at Le Grand Bistro on this port day. It's empty. The onion soup wasn't super hot, which is nice. I'm trying the Brie & Turkey sandwich. Will let you know.

We’ll be sailing this Sunday as well, I’m very excited!

[Mcgeneseo]

We went to Cosmopolitan last night for dinner. It was the last evening chic and lobster night. The service was spot on and the meal was delicious. The staff was attentive and charming. Like every other cruise we have experienced on Celebrity. The back to back meeting was today and 116 passengers are on the next cruise. It has been very windy, gray skies and seas 15' to 20'. Since everyone is inside, it is crowded but there are places to hide. Walking is tough with the seas, but fine if you hold onto the railings! We got a reservation for Sushi on Five tonight. They had several times available which surprised me.

[Mcgeneseo]

We had dinner at Raw on 5. Delicious meal and attentive service. It was a fairly empty restaurant. I know not everyone likes sushi (including me) but there is enough to choose from if you don't. I wonder if the a la carte pricing is the issue. It was the last night of the cruise and the sommelier told us not all wines were available. She replaced the one my DH wanted with a pricer one without charging which was nice. I think any issues with availability are pure supply chain problems, not a grand scheme by Celebrity. This has been a fabulous cruise and yes there have been some service problems but it is a few people, not the entire cruise or company. They are hiring (assistant waiter in Cosmopolitan started a week ago) so training is ongoing. A couple I talked to raved about the sommelier in Luminae which was the same person we had to hunt down. They probably need more employees and that is a problem everywhere. We are now docked in Port Everglades and getting ready for our turn around for the back to back. I will continue to take the griping comments on this board with a grain of salt. Prices are rising everywhere, employees and supplies are hard to find. Celebrity is not immune to this. Still a fabulous way to vacation.

[Texed]

Thanks for your reports.  😊

[gotta cruise again]

So jealous y’all are staying aboard!! Enjoyed our chat this morning too. 
 

Here’s why we should have booked the second week…

[CruisinBanka]

Thanks for your positive report and looking forward to your second week, as we will be boarding when you disembark next week. It will be interesting to hear about your upcoming week with the ship being at full capacity. 

[SingBill]

19 hours ago, Mcgeneseo said:

We went to Cosmopolitan last night for dinner. It was the last evening chic and lobster night. The service was spot on and the meal was delicious. The staff was attentive and charming. Like every other cruise we have experienced on Celebrity. The back to back meeting was today and 116 passengers are on the next cruise. It has been very windy, gray skies and seas 15' to 20'. Since everyone is inside, it is crowded but there are places to hide. Walking is tough with the seas, but fine if you hold onto the railings! We got a reservation for Sushi on Five tonight. They had several times available which surprised me.

Thank you for your informative report. May I ask if you had any issues reserving space in the specialty restaurants once onboard?  We board in a week and both Eden and Le Voyage are showing as  “not available”

[Mcgeneseo]

2 hours ago, gotta cruise again said:

So jealous y’all are staying aboard!! Enjoyed our chat this morning too. 
 

Here’s why we should have booked the second week…

Yuck! And the Royal suite is truly breathtaking. I'll post photos. I kept walking around, saying OMG!

[Mcgeneseo]

1 hour ago, SingBill said:

Thank you for your informative report. May I ask if you had any issues reserving space in the specialty restaurants once onboard?  We board in a week and both Eden and Le Voyage are showing as  “not available”

I booked way before our cruise for Eden and Fine Cut. Raw on 5 was done the morning of, with lots of space. We get specialty restaurants as a perk of Royal, and the times are 8 pm or later. My tastes aren't in line with Le Voyage so I never checked. 

[CruisinBanka]

Curious if you are seeing any Apple product inventory in the I Lounge for sale? It seems past cruisers  over the last few months were finding little to no inventory available. Thanks in advance! 

[Mcgeneseo]

3 hours ago, CruisinBanka said:

Curious if you are seeing any Apple product inventory in the I Lounge for sale? It seems past cruisers  over the last few months were finding little to no inventory available. Thanks in advance! 

Sorry, I don't have anything Apple, so I haven't gone looking.

[CruisinBanka]

Does the ship feel more crowded to you this week? Think it is at full occupancy. 

[Mcgeneseo]

7 minutes ago, CruisinBanka said:

Does the ship feel more crowded to you this week? Think it is at full occupancy. 

Very, very different. We were at 2,200 last week and we are at 3,200 this week. One thousand people make a huge difference. There are large groups of either families or friends so they want to sit together everywhere. Like groups of 8+ people, not 4. And the courtesy level is gone. We are trying to avoid the main areas - like walking the hallway of deck 12 to get from forward to aft elevators to get around. We were lucky to score an upgrade to a Royal suite and we are taking advantage of the solutitude it provides.

[keesar]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:27 AM, CruisinBanka said:

Curious if you are seeing any Apple product inventory in the I Lounge for sale? It seems past cruisers  over the last few months were finding little to no inventory available. Thanks in advance! 

There have been items in the iLounge.  Be careful as they have some earlier models  and discontinued items.  Do your homework beforehand.  Items seen were discontinued routers and some slightly older iPads.

[CruisinBanka]

24 minutes ago, keesar said:

There have been items in the iLounge.  Be careful as they have some earlier models  and discontinued items.  Do your homework beforehand.  Items seen were discontinued routers and some slightly older iPads.

Thanks for the info!

[keesar]

4 minutes ago, CruisinBanka said:

Thanks for the info!

 

If you don't see what you are looking for, you should ask  the staff there as some items may be available in the storage closet.

[CruisinBanka]

1 hour ago, Mcgeneseo said:

Very, very different. We were at 2,200 last week and we are at 3,200 this week. One thousand people make a huge difference. There are large groups of either families or friends so they want to sit together everywhere. Like groups of 8+ people, not 4. And the courtesy level is gone. We are trying to avoid the main areas - like walking the hallway of deck 12 to get from forward to aft elevators to get around. We were lucky to score an upgrade to a Royal suite and we are taking advantage of the solutitude it provides.

Thanks for the reply! I’m expecting two out of 3 weeks we will be on to be at max and the third week around 2700 or so. Retreat is always full so hopefully staying mostly in that area it won’t matter as much. 

[3boyz2keep]

Enjoying your report! Thanks so much for sharing your vacation and can't wait to see your Royal Suite photos!