NBliving

We rented a car because we wanted flexibility of what we saw on the way to/from Grand Case. I think the contact at Rainbow Cafe said it would be around $40 for a taxi there. It would be very easy to get a return taxi from Rainbow Cafe. It was a wonderful establishment! You'll have a great time on the Edge!!

The last time we were on the Summit was November 2018 and we had a great waiter who played the guitar and serenaded us! I can't remember his name but I'm pretty sure it started with an M. If anyone knows who I'm talking about I'd love to get his name and see if he is still on a Celebrity ship.

You are correct. Anyone who wants to see the show should ask when it is as it is only offered maybe 3 times during a 7 night cruise.

I had one of the Celebrity beach bags. When we were on the beach, I just left it near a rock or tree. A lot of people were doing that. Definitely wear water shoes/sandals. You are walking along rocks and sandy trails. You will have a blast!

It was loud, but they provided ear plugs - just the foam kind.

Our flight from FLL was at 3 and we arrived at the airport around noon. It worked out perfectly for us!

I did not see anything like that in there. They performed on the wooden floor as far as I remember.

Thanks! I think you'll really enjoy it! We enjoyed the extra entertainment options like the Eden show and then there was a trapeze show in the Club several nights - we never went, but it was nice to have options for the evenings.

If there were more regular balconies on the Edge for the same price, I would have chosen a real balcony. But since that wasn't an option, we were fine with the IV. There's just the extra step of pushing the button to roll down the upper part of the window. Once that was down, it was very similar to a traditional balcony. It was nice having the extra space in the room especially since we had some gloomy weather. We could sit in the "balcony" chairs with the window up and still get the view of a balcony without the wind or rain outside. We had an ocean view years ago on a Carnival ship and this was definitely better than that.

The Cruise Director was Giuseppe. First contract on the Edge. He came from the Reflection I think. He was great! One of our favorites.

Yes, the second show in the theater is 9:30. We thought the Edge handled the high waves beautifully. My husband can get a little motion sickness from time to time, but he wore the seabands and was fine.

Day 8 – Fort Lauderdale Our meeting place was in the Club at 8:15. We ate breakfast in the Cosmopolitan MDR and then went to check in. We were called around 8:30 and debarkation was a breeze. Our luggage was waiting for us so we grabbed it and headed for the exit! With the facial recognition we just walked up and they verified it was us and we walked out of the terminal because we didn’t have anything to declare. We were escorted to our tour bus where the driver separated our luggage by airport and left shortly thereafter. Our tour guide, Bonnie, was wonderful. She gave us lots of history of the area while we were driving. We went to Sawgrass Recrational Park for our airboar ride. In addition we saw some gators who had been rescued and also another area with rescued animals such as panthers, snakes, a porcupine, etc. We heard from guides in both areas. Next, we boarded our airboats – much bigger than we expected. They fit around 40 people each. The captain was hoping to find us an alligator to see. We didn’t realize this was the goal of the trip lol. We lived in Houston for 30 years and have seen a few gators just walking in our neighborhood! We were lucky and saw 2 of them while we were out. The trip before us didn’t find any. After the airboat ride, we were driven to our final stop. I can't remember the name of it, we think it was something with Long Key in the name. There was a museum which showed what happened when they drained the swamps to the Native Americans and wildlife. There was also a nature trail you could walk to see some beautiful old oak trees and other local plants. We were driven to FLL and had enough time to grab lunch at the airport before we caught our flight home. It was a great week on the Edge. Beautiful ship, top notch staff from the Captain on down. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer.

Day 7 – At Sea The Cruise Director was giving a presentation today at 10 about his hometown of Sicily. That is one of the port stops on the cruise we booked on board so we went to hear his take on it. His presentation was great! After that we stayed for Captain Kate’s Q & A. It was packed! The day was a bit rainy and overcast so that might have accounted for the crowd, but she is really personable and I think everyone just likes to hear what she has to say. She brought her hairless cat, Bug, out at the end for everyone to see. Pictures below, sorry for the poor quality... We spent the rest of the day playing cards or reading in Eden, the Solarium and our cabin. Ate dinner in Tuscan. Eri brought me a crème brulee J He brought my husband 2 helpings of seared scallops he had seen on another MDR menu. After diner we went to the late night show of Doug Funk. He was hilarious once again. We decided to call it a night after that. We had an early debarkation to go on a shore excursion – air boat ride through the Everglades.

Day 6 – At Sea Luckily the seas weren’t as rough now and our trip back to Ft. Lauderdale was fairly smooth and uneventful. Today we did our usual relaxing but also my DH attended a Beyond the Podium presentation by Dan Benedict. He has had presentations each day about Astronomy and space travel. Today was the only one DH attended. He said it was very interesting. After that, I joined him for a presentation by our excellent Cruise Director Giuseppe about ship life. It was interesting to hear how the crew live. We were surprised to hear they worked 10 hour days. We knew they worked 7 days a week but that is a long day even if it’s broken up! We very much respect these individuals who work in the cruise industry. Even with months off at a time, that’s a lot of working! This night we had reservations for dinner at Fine Cut Steakhouse, our own specialty restaurant dinner. I had tried to make some reservations before we boarded, but the only times available were 9:00 or later. We made this one right when we boarded the first day. Our reservation was for 6:15. It was very good food and service. We’ve eaten in Murano and Tuscan Grille. Our only complaint was the restaurant is open concept and so you can hear the music from the grand Foyer as well as any guests noises coming from that area. We didn’t think it had the intimate feel of the other steak house restaurants on other ships. We caught the end of the show in the theater that night – Uptown. It was a high energy, Motown music show. After the show we went to the Club for the ABBA mania sing and dance along party. It was so much fun!! For me 😂 Luckily my DH is a great sport! After the Club we went to the Grand Foyer and listened to Bryan James again. I've posted some random photos from around the ship. It was a great day!

Day 5 St. Martin – This was our 3rdtime to visit St. Martin on a cruise. It is our favorite island. We decided to rent a car as we did our first time and head to a new area – Grand Case. We first went to check out Marigot. We had been there on our first cruise in 2016 before the hurricane in 2017. It had been our favorite spot. Unfortunately, while it has come back a bit it is still really devastated. The shopping stalls are there selling t-shirts and other souvenirs, but we only saw 2 or 3 restaurants along the main road. Nothing else was open there but there is a shopping mall that I think is new. I've posted a picture looking out at the marina there. Lots of beautiful boats. After our walk through Marigot we drove up to Grand Case. We had a reservation for 2 beach chairs and umbrella at Rainbow Café. We didn’t know what to expect since that area had also been hard hit by the hurricane. There is still a lot of damage, but several beach side restaurants are open. We found a spot on the street a few blocks away to park and walked in to the restaurant. Our chairs and umbrella were waiting for us. The water was gorgeous! The sand was very, very nice. Service was excellent. I’m sharing the drink menu. We ate lunch in the restaurant part. We had cod fritters and split a Caribbean Salad. Everything was spectacular. Very fresh. We stayed there until about 2:30. The people at Hertz had warned us to leave enough time in case of traffic. We drove back through the other side of the island and didn’t hit any traffic. We were back at the port by 3:30. The car return is right at the port where you check in to get your car. Very easy. Went back on board, headed to the pool and enjoyed the rest of our afternoon. Beautiful sunset tonight. The entertainment tonight was another comedian, Doug Funk. We went to his 7:30 show and thoroughly enjoyed it. He does mostly improv with guests participating. It was hilarious! After dinner we went back to Tuscan for dinner. Stopped at the casino for a little while begore heading to Eden to listen to Bryan James who was doing a Simon and Garfunkle playlist. We had heard Bryan elsewhere on the ship and really like his voice. We stayed for his whole performance then called it a night.