GenerationX

9 hours ago, thebutlerdidit said:

I’ll be on board this cruise too, Charla. If I see you I’ll come say hello and introduce myself.  I’m traveling with 7 new-to-Celebrity cruisers on a budget (well, me too!) so I’m also trying out a basic veranda cabin after spending my past 3 cruises in Sky Suites. 

Looking forward to sailing with you!  Yes please do come say hello!  I’ll be interested to hear what your Celebrity newbie friends are thinking of the experience!

Hi CC!  

 

Well, it’s been a little under 4 months since my husband Jeremy and I wrapped up our incredible 2 week Mediterranean adventure on Beyond, but with everything we’ve gone through in life since then, it feels more like 4 years.

 

After surviving a hectic end of year for both of us at work and a tragic loss in our family over the holidays, we found ourselves in a deep funk that we’ve been struggling to shake.  We decided what maybe what we need to reset is to get away asap for a week of sun and sea!

 

Quick Intro:  I’m Charla and the tyrant who changed the password on our Amazon prime account to try and stop me from buying any new cruise outfits (well played sir) is my husband Jeremy.

 

We’re in our early 40’s and live on a hobby farm an hour outside of St. Louis, Missouri. 

 

We have an 11-year old daughter who I’m pretty sure is even more addicted to cruising than I am (and is in the throes of indecision between Celebrity and MSC as we start to make plans for our summer mommy-daughter cruise) but she will be spending our week away on land getting spoiled rotten by her Nana.  My mother has already let me know that as we’re preparing to board Reflection, they’ll be celebrating National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (I ask you, is that even really a thing????)

 

Since this is a somewhat last minute vacay and we already had a land spring break resort trip booked in March, we didn’t want to break the bank.  For our budget and dates, the choice came down to either a basic veranda on this Reflection sailing (Aqua and concierge were already sold out) or a Yacht Club suite on MSC Divina.  

 

We also got a very good quote from a TA for an Ascent sailing, but I did quite a bit of cruising on E-class last year and decided that if we were going Celebrity, I really wanted to get some S-class time in. I’ve been experiencing symptoms of Murano lobster withdrawal.

 

For the MSC vs Celebrity decision, I much prefer the overall ship experience on Reflection over Divina and Jeremy wasn’t excited about spending most of the week only in suite areas.  Plus the itinerary for Reflection was much more appealing.

 

For about a week, we did have some moveup bids in for the handful of suites left available on Reflection when we booked, but we ended up cancelling them. We decided that with all the Retreat and Aqua cruising we’ve done the past few years, this is a good time to go back to our roots so to speak and see if we still enjoy the simple onboard life that first made us Celebrity loyalists without concierges, private dining rooms, butlers, etc. and save some cash for bigger, badder cruising goals this fall (and ok probably a little more onboard spending by me).

 

We’ll be flying into Miami a day early and staying in Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise. 

 

In the next day or so I’ll do a post sharing our plans on the ship and in port. For now it’s time to start my last day of the fiscal year, last day of observing Dry January AND last day in the office pre-cruise!  

 

In my mind, I’m already 2 cosmos deep listening to live music in the Ensemble Lounge…

 

 

2 hours ago, Cruiscs said:

OP here.  
Anyone who would like to share their experiences on Mediterranian cruises during the shoulder season? Guess it is different departing from Athens and Rome vs Fort Lauderdale where there are lots of retirement homes…. 
 

As I mentioned we are 30s something couple looking for a cruise on Celebrity in September/October in the Med. We have been on E class during school holidays and loved it but we want a longer cruise with less children. That doesnt mean we hate kids…

We dont mind older people either-We actually prefer a more mature crowd, but if the majority are 70-80s we will prob reconsider…

Sorry I’m a bit late to the thread, but my husband and I are in our early 40’s and we did a 10 night Med sailing on Beyond this past October (last sailing before the ship did its TA to Fort Lauderdale).  I would say a little over half the ship was probably in the 50-65 age range. The remainder split between much older folks and people our age and younger.  
 

Overall we found the vibe of the ship to be pretty energetic. Music and theater events were well attended and dance floors drew decent crowds.
 

I don’t know if you guys are much of night owls, but it seemed like by about 10pm, the age demographic still out and about around the ship skewed much more towards 50’s and under.  The bars tended to stay lively most nights until about 11/11:30, but not much later.  As Jim mentioned the Med is port intensive and people often had to be up early the next day for excursions.  There were definitely a couple of nights we shut down the martini bar at 1am and were in good company doing so though.

It seemed like a lot of the under retirement age crowd were from Europe and Australia/New Zealand.  As Americans we really enjoyed getting to know more people from other countries than we usually do sailing Celebrity in the Caribbean.
 

We ended up making good friends with a couple of honeymoon couples in their 20’s and 30’s and I ended more than 1 night on the dance floor in the club with women in their late 50’s and early 60’s who knew the words to the Cardi B songs better than I did. 🤷🏽‍♀️

 

As others have mentioned, school was in session so I only recall seeing a handful or 2 of kids and most of them were infants or toddlers.

 

We ended up having an amazing time and didn’t feel like we were in a floating retirement home by any means.

 

If there’s any questions I can help with just let me know!

On 1/27/2024 at 5:48 PM, CruiseCrew123 said:

Wouldn’t expect anything less .!  Is it a solo cruise ? 

Not this time, my husband Jeremy is coming on this one so you’ll get to meet him as well!  
 

I actually haven’t booked a solo cruise yet for this year.  We’re looking at spending a week in Italy this fall and then trying our first TA on Ascent to get home and it’s looking like it will really eat into my travel budget.  I’m crossing my fingers for a generous end of year bonus next month.

5 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Question for the Celebrity folks out there.

 

My first cruise they offered a glass of sparkling wine upon embarkation. Since then that was eliminated because apparently that's how Covid spreads 🙄.

 

I seem to recall if you knew where to find it, they still offered you just had to know where to look.

 

Am I imagining that or is that a thing?

 

If so where might I find such a treat? My elite happy hour drinks won't apply on the first day and Celebrity's policy is now only one bottle of carry on allowed per person instead of 2 per cabin so I need all the freebies I can find to keep costs down on this first night.

Hopefully this isn’t a case of cruising mandela effect (and hasn’t been the subject of a stealth cutback) because I recall this as well.

 

If memory serves it was the martini bar that would give out the free welcome bubbly.  
 

Safe travels!

On 1/26/2024 at 9:42 AM, CruiseCrew123 said:

Me too ! Hope to see you on board - Martini Bar ?

Looking forward to meeting you! Yes, martini bar is my first order of business after embarkation day lunch.  I’ll be the one in the map dress singing Peaches & Herb’s “Reunited” to myself while I sip. 

18 hours ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

Are you on the ABC Feb 3rd ?

Yes! Only 7 days left to wait! 🙌🏾

Following!  We’ll be getting on Reflection as you’re getting off!  
 

My TA actually called me last week when a concierge cabin popped open on your sailing (looks like it’s pretty much a sold out ship) and asked me if I wanted to make a last minute B2B.  
 

Unfortunately my better half was not game for the scheduling and budget challenges that an extra impulse buy week at sea would bring.

 

These things are so much easier when sailing solo…😂

 

Looking forward to virtually sailing with you!

4 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

Well, the sailing date in the title is January 21st. You could have waited until that date to hop onboard. 
 

Anyway, good to have you here and the ship review will start about 11am tomorrow. 
 

 

mac_tlc

Thank you again for a great thread!

 

To each their own of course, but personally I really like it when live reviewers share about what they’re doing pre and post cruise.  
 

Like many on the boards I don’t live in a port city and fly in early for my cruises to mitigate risk of missing the ship due to flight issues.  I’m always looking for ideas of things to do during that day or 2 pre cruise.

 

I’m eyeballing a cruise later this year that sails out of Port Canaveral and if I book it, your posts have me considering coming in a little earlier and spending some time at Epcot pre-cruise…food & wine festival sounds like my kind of party!

17 hours ago, barbels said:

Generation X Are you by any chance on the Jan 29 Silly cruise?  i’ve followed your live from posts with great pleasure. If we’re on the same ship Barry and I would love to meet you for drinks. 

Barbara

Thank you so much for your kind words and invitation!  Unfortunately we will miss each other by a ship and a couple of days.  We are sailing on the Feb 3 Reflection cruise.  
 

Have a wonderful time on Silhouette!  I think precisely this time last year I was on a fantastic cruise on her.

 

I would love to take you up on a drink invitation if our cruising plans meet in the future!

MAC!!!! My HERO!!! 🏆 

I will definitely be reading along. This live from is much needed right now as we sit in STL in -7 degree weather.

 

Can’t wait to see what you think of Ascent.

 

Bon Voyage!

 

I still consider myself very much a Celebrity fan!  

As others have said, certain cabin classes and amenities are a harder sell for me right now due to reductions in inclusions while increasing price (really, either one I could’ve gone along with by itself, but charging much more AND providing much less was a bridge too far for me), but when I’m in the market for a cruise vacation I don’t think I’ll ever NOT include Celebrity when comparing options.  
 

I’m also already hearing rumblings through the social media rumor mill that some of those reductions are currently or will be in the near future restored to prior state.  So I’m cautiously hopeful for the future.

 

My better half and I recently decided to impulse book a cruise for next month and were looking at last minute trip price point options on MSC and Celebrity.
 

I think it says something that we decided to pass on yacht club on MSC (priced $1800 less than a sky suite on Celebrity) and instead step down in price and book a basic veranda on an older Celebrity ship.  I’ve been very happy with the MSC cruises that I’ve tried, but at the end of the day, for now, as far as overall cruising experience Celebrity is still our favorite line.  Hopefully our onboard experience in a couple of weeks confirms that we made a good choice!

Following as I have a move up bid placed in for signature for an upcoming cruise.  
 

The website is still showing specialty dining, mini fridge, bottles of spirits, etc. as included perks for me as in post #3.  But as you pointed out, for the past few months changes to suite perks have been frequent and not always clearly disclosed.
 

Another interesting wrinkle:

 

When I was originally calculating what I wanted to bid, my CC research suggested that as an upper suite, premium wifi and premium beverage are included as “room perks” for signature just like they are for royal suites and above (so they do come included when you win the move up unlike with lower suites) and priced my bid accordingly (we would be moving up from a non-retreat stateroom class where we’d otherwise pay for those upgrades).

 

However, when I got to the last screen before confirming my bid, I got the legal copy below which doesn’t list signature as one of the suites that gets premium wifi and beverages, so I repriced my bid considering that these weren’t included. I wonder if this might be a sign that signature suites are being downgraded? 

 

 I know there are only like 4 or 5 of these suites in the whole fleet so the odds are low, but I wonder if by any chance is there anyone who has been in a signature suite very recently who can weigh in on whether they were still given upper suite treatment.

 

If signatures are no longer considered upper suites at all, I’ll definitely be reducing my bid!

 

On 1/6/2024 at 7:14 PM, ILgirl said:

Hi Charla!!!  As you know, ANY reason is a good reason to cruise… even spite!😀. I think I might take the Hawaii cruise and treat it as my “swan song” to Celebrity!  This is crazy, but I was thinking about you this morning.  I am on the Ascent on 1/28, booked a year ago when life for solo travelers on Celebrity was still good.  I thought, maybe, just maybe 🤞 Charla will be aboard to check out the new Ascent.  I just found your wrap up post on the Beyond so I know that won’t be the case.  Hoping that when you do select your next adventure that you let all of us know where we can follow along.

 

I’m sorry for your loss.  Good luck in getting through a busy January at work AND dry January as well.  You are a stronger woman than me!😀. I will toast you on 1/28…maybe more than once!!

Thank you so much! Unfortunately we are going to be cruise missing each other by a matter of days again!

 

Jeremy and I actually just booked a basic veranda (the last non-retreat room available on the whole ship) on the 2/3 Reflection southern Caribbean sailing!

 

The holiday season was really hard on us and it’s been a tough recovery. We figured a cruise may be just what we need to relax and get our heads right again. Plus I can’t think of a better way to celebrate being done with dry January than to spend a week with the martini bar!

 

Enjoy Ascent! I can’t wait to hear what you think of her!

On 1/4/2024 at 3:04 PM, ILgirl said:

I booked a solo IV ( which I have sailed in several times and enjoy very much) on the Edge 13 night Hawaii sailing in September.  I booked it well over a year ago at a price of $3,100 with AI. The booking also includes $550 OBC.  The two days in Maui have been scratched and replaced with sea days.  Pre cruise and post cruise stays in Vancouver and Honolulu are also pricey so I was considering cancelling.  For the heck of it I looked up the current pricing for the solo IV.  It is $10,100! Now I think I might go because I don’t want to give Celebrity the opportunity to resell my cabin and make $7,000 more, ha ha!

I didn’t think there was any way cruising could be made any more mentally or emotionally fulfilling…but then here comes @ILgirl with cruising for SPITE! 🙌🏾👏🏾

 

Yasss, Queen! You get on the Edge sail to Hawaii and make Celebrity eat that 7K for all of us! 😂

1 hour ago, Stem to Stern said:

Hi Charla,  Happy Snowy Saturday!  It is so nice to see you come back for the wrap up.  I am sure with all of the changes happening at Celebrity a long pause for reflection was needed.  As for the negative portion of your post, I really do appreciate how you always call it like you see it with exquisite eloquence and a little bit of humor sprinkled in there.  Hopefully Celebrity is getting the many messages like these from all of their loyal clientele.

 

I am very happy to read about your preference of Celebrity Beyond.  DH and I will be taking up residence in a Sunset Verandah on board her in about eight-months for our inaugural Edge-class sailing.  We are very excited.

 

Our recent trial in MSC Yacht Club was not perfect, but as you said for the money it was darn near close and there was an army of butlers.  Seascape's Yacht Club enclave is spacious, service was good, and food was okay.  It is great to have options.  MSC Yacht Club will remain on our shopping list.  Our recent Sky Suite experience on Celebrity Summit really can't be faulted in any way.  The food and service were on point.  We do not require constant looking after, so even without a large team The Retreat delivered for us.

 

Why not also explore Crystal Cruises for your next solo sojourn?  We have not sailed them since 2017, but the experience was most memorable.  I have read good reports about New Crystal and I understand the ships are not sailing anywhere near full passenger capacity.  So if you are looking to book a little closer to sailing, maybe there are or will be deals on Crystal to be had.

 

Thanks again for all of the wonderful reporting you do on Cruise Critic.  Had it not been for one of your live reports, I might never have given MSC Cruises a glance.  Please accept my deepest condolences on your family's loss.  Best wishes for a better 2024.

Thank you so much! I will definitely take a look at Crystal as well.

 

Oh and thank you so much for the fantastic side by side review of Summit and Seascape!  I am way late to the party and just started catching up on it the past couple of days, but found myself nodding along with a lot of your comments.

 

I know you guys have your cruise buddies already, but if you don’t mind Jeremy and I crashing, let us know which Beyond sailing you’ll be on.  You guys seem like you’d be a blast to sail with!
 

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

Never heard of Scenic Ocean. Time to do some research.

 

I hadn’t heard of them either until earlier this year. There was a chef I was really into on Top Chef All-stars who mentioned in one of his interviews that he was the head of culinary for a luxury cruise line.  Once I heard my favorite words I google stalked down which line he worked for and turned out it was Scenic.  
 

Of course now that I’ve googled and been on their website, the ever present big brother of the Metaverse has their ads and promos popping up in all my social media feeds.
 

From what I’ve researched they sound like a higher end Viking where shore experience is as big of a focus as the ship.  They had me interested at kayaks, submersibles and a chopper available for certain sailings.  There aren’t a lot of reviews and their CC board is VERY quiet, I presume because they’re so small.

 

If you dig up any good intel please share!

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

 

Loved following along on your adventures.  Looking forward to your next sailing. 

 

 Your review of MSC, combined with the actions that Celebrity has taken since our last cruise with regard to Sky Suite Service and the DPB, has inspired us to take our first non-Celebrity/Royal Caribbean cruise since 2009.   We are sailing on MSC Divina February 11 and I am sure I'll be making comments and posting some pictures as usual. 

 

 

Bon voyage!  I’ll be looking for your posts on the MSC board and very interested to see what you think of Divina.  
 

I think the food and service in YC on Divina was a bit better than what we had on the much larger Seascape.  
 

Im sure he’s on a new contract by now, but if by some miracle you happen to see my fabulous butler Kevin, please tell him hello for me and that I still think of him every time my husband’s response to me running behind getting ready for a dinner reservation isn’t to bring me a cosmo to sip while I’m finishing my hair.

1 hour ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

@GenerationX have you looked at Explora Journeys ? New suite only ships owned by MSC ?

I have heard about Explora and I’m very interested! I think though with both Explora and Ritz I’ll probably wait another year or so to try to sail unless I see a really good price.  The early reviews from both seem a little mixed and I think they may be working through some start up pains as both are still so new.

Hello all!  I hope everyone out there has had a wonderful holiday season.

 

Jeremy, Gen Z and I so enjoyed adding our newest ship and travel ornaments from this year to our tree and talking about the memories behind each one.  It was a light of joy for us in what has been a somewhat tough holiday season due to a loss in the family.

 

Better late than never, I’m taking advantage of the brief lag in craziness before the first full week of business in the office of the new year to finally finish up this review.

 

It’s actually a fairly opportune time, because typically this would be right around the time when I’d start booking our cruise schedule for the year.  But for reasons to be discussed below, I find myself at a bit of a cruising crossroads.

 

Since that’s the case, let’s get the negative stuff out of the way first:

 

As I think kind of came peppered through my review, with the exception of a very few major flops (like that pathetic room service breakfast) over all Jeremy and I were satisfied with the new Retreat experience given the price we paid.  The key part of that sentence though is “given the price we paid”.  Remember we got this sky suite as a nearly minimum move up bid (at 50% discount on minimum bid) from aqua class and did not come anywhere close to paying the $12-15K that Celebrity wanted for a sky suite outright for our cruise.

 

As my personal shopper at Saks or anyone working in the onboard vintage accessory shop will tell you, I have no problem spending my hard earned top dollar in exchange for top quality luxury. 

 

What I’m not up for is paying 80-100% more to get less than what my “luxury” experience was previously.  The loss of a personal butler didn’t hugely impact us on this cruise, but it was a port intensive trip where we were there more for the land experiences than the ship.  I think we would miss the personalized service much more in the Caribbean where we cruise more for the ship and relaxing time onboard and have more that our butler would usually do for us.

 

This cruise was the first time I saw long lines at the concierge stand in the Retreat lounge and I suspect it was because with sky suites no longer having assigned butlers, it was the only way to get personalized assistance without going to general guest services.  Of course there’s still the “butler team”, but personally, again, when playing top dollar for the highest room class on the ship, I don’t want to call a hotline. 

 

The latest news of the removal of OBC and gratuities from the retreat inclusive package followed by the massive downgrade in the wines included in the premium package is kind of the sky suite icing on the cake for us.  

 

I’m not going to pay 10K or more a week to be on a “luxury” cruise and then have to sign for a $3 charge every time I want a glass of a mass produced wine that I can get for $20 at Target.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m no wine snob. I enjoy quite a bit of $20 Target wine when I’m at home on my couch in yoga pants watching Netflix.  I don’t even mind drinking the better ones on vacation as part of an all-inclusive package.  But to pay an upcharge for it in “first class” accommodations I’ve already spent 5 figures on definitely feels more like a scam than luxury.

 

Especially when I can spend 10-15% more (or less) on another line and have my own butler, included gratuities, free shore excursions and private transfers and everything but top shelf wine included.

 

I think where we’ve landed for now is that going forward with Celebrity in the new Retreat world, we’ll either: (a) stick to booking Aqua on S and M class or a SV on E class so we can have a real veranda, and if the opportunity presents, try to bid up to sky suite (at a price we’re actually willing to pay for the downgraded experience); or (b) where pricing and budget allows, price compare booking an upper level Retreat suite vs. going with a smaller, higher end cruise line.

 

I have a TA on the lookout for good spring and summer low solo supplements on Seabourn, Azamara, Scenic Ocean and Ritz Carlton.  My plan is to try and check out the next level up solo at a little lower cost and see how we might like it (sidebar: don’t get me started on my thoughts on Celebrity’s current solo pricing).  Jeremy’s concern (which I think is valid) is that we might not be satisfied with the level of nightlife and entertainment, but we’ll never know unless I try it out and see!   It’s also much slimmer pickings for itineraries shorter than 10 days, but as of this year Jeremy has more vacation time and I can work from anywhere with good wifi.

 

For now, we’ve decided that for this year we won’t be booking our cruises (other than my luxury trial solo cruise) until close to/after final payment because, honestly, with Celebrity right now it seems like every few weeks there’s some new change (announced with varying levels of transparency) and I just don’t have much confidence that the product I book and pay for in January will be anything like what I get when I sail in April.

 

I’m still working on convincing Jeremy to give my mistress, MSC a try. But for my solo exploits and cruises with Gen Z, I’ve been happy enough with my 2 yacht club cruises that when I want to book a guaranteed suite experience at the outset without breaking the bank, I’ll be looking at MSC as well.  Their pricing has also jumped up, but not as dramatically as Celebrity and as far as I’ve seen with less cutbacks in what I get for the spend.

 

All that doom and gloom out of the way, at the end of the day this cruise was one of our most amazing travel experiences ever!  It was going to be tough to top our Alaska honeymoon cruise, but I think this one did it.  We had some incredible meals, saw some great shows and the excursion quality was really impressive.  We made so many memories that we’ll treasure for the rest of our lives.

 

The crew members in the Retreat and all around the ship took very good care of us. If there’s one part of the Celebrity experience that I think is always 100% worth the ever increasing cruise fare, it’s the crew and the constant hard work they put in with seemingly boundless energy, bright smiles and warm, positive attitudes. 

 

Nothing will ever top having some of the first words I hear in the morning be “Good morning Ms. Charla! How are you today?” In fact sometimes when I’m in cruise withdrawals I make Jeremy say it at home.😂

 

We were so sad to have to leave Beyond after 10 days and I think she still stands as my favorite ship I’ve ever cruised on.  I can’t wait to have the opportunity to do more longer cruises because I really think I could get used to this whole 2 weeks straight of vacation thing.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who came along with us!  It’s started snowing here in Missouri, I’m doing Dry January and my next few weeks at work are going to be real bummers…so if anyone is going to be sailing the Caribbean in the next week or 2 and feels like writing a nice food, cocktails, blue skies and ocean photo heavy live review for me to read to keep my spirits up, I’d be much in your debt! 
 

Hopefully it won’t be too too long before we’re back at sea on somebody’s ship!

 

 

 

 

I apologize for the long delay between posts! I’m working on finishing up this review in my bits of free time now that work and life are back in full swing.  But finish it I am determined to do (as much for selfish reasons because I want to be able to go back and read about every detail of this trip of a lifetime in the months and years to come)!

 

Next up, let’s talk about our dinner at Le Voyage.  I want to start by giving some context to my feelings. Overall, it was definitely still a very good meal and the atmosphere and experience of the restaurant was just as wonderful as in my 2 other visits.

 

Honestly, if this had been my first time going to Le Voyage, I probably wouldn’t have had anything negative to say at all (and I still think it along with Eden are the 2 specialties I’ll never miss when sailing on Beyond).

 

That said, this was one of the places outside of the Retreat where I totally noticed slips (albeit perhaps nitpicking ones) from when I sailed on Beyond previously.

 

From a service perspective, the maitre d and our waiters were all excellent as before. We were welcomed warmly with the complimentary glasses of veuve and a nice table.

 

On the flip side, my last 2 visits to Le Voyage, the sommeliers in the restaurant were some of the best on the ship. This time the experience wasn’t as impressive.  

 

I knew I wanted a bottle of the Au Bon Climat Pinot that Celebrity only has on the wine list in Le Voyage.  When the somm went to get it, she came back after some time and said it wasn’t available.  

 

In my experience, when this happens, the best Celebrity somms will come back and already be prepared suggest to me 1 or 2 other wines with a similar profile and price point that they think I would like instead (and the very best will also throw out a suggestion of somewhat nicer/more expensive bottle but offer an additional small discount on the price for the inconvenience of not having the wine I wanted in stock).

 

This time, the somm simply said (very politely) “Can I bring you something else? We have 2 other Pinot noirs. One from California and one from France .”

 

I then tried to softly pry an affirmative suggestion out by telling her what we planned to order for dinner and that we were open to other varietals that may be a better fit too (or at least get her thoughts on whether our food would go better with an old world or new world Pinot).  But she simply said that either one of the other Pinots “should be fine if you’d like one of those”.

 

In the past when I’ve ordered my meal at Le Voyage and been torn between multiple appetizers/entrees/desserts, my server never had an issue with accommodating an additional appetizer and/or smaller portion of a second entree.  This time our waiter was firm that the cover charge for the restaurant only covered one selection per person for each course, and if we wanted any more than that we would have to purchase the tasting experience (which includes most of the dishes on the menu, but our waiter said takes at least 4 hours and comes with an additional $135 per person up charge + gratuity).  No thank you. We’d never survive.

 

As far as the food, almost all of the dishes we ordered were favorites of mine from previous visits. We started with the Tuna Crudo and the Tamarind Prawns (which this time were more shrimp sized but still very tasty). Then we had the lamb chops and the lobster risotto and finished up with the Raspberry and Lime Paviova and Cafe Cardamom.

 

Flavor-wise everything tasted just as good as I remembered.  But I could tell protein sizes/portions had been reduced a little and the presentation, while still nice, wasn’t quite as “wow” as before.  Just to confirm my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me, I went back and found the photos I took of some of the same dishes when I had them last November and in March and compared them.  

 

Still, we didn’t leave any leftovers on our plates and those little warm madeleines that come out with the dessert course were still heavenly!  

 

As evidenced by my end of meal photo of Jeremy, even though the experience wasn’t QUITE as top notch as it had been for me in the past, we still had a beautiful evening and were satisfied with the meal.

 

Pics and comparison pics from prior Le Voyage dinners below for reference.

 

More to come so please hang in there!
 

LE VOYAGE OCTOBER 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LE VOYAGE NOVEMBER 2022 AND MARCH 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello CC!

 

Jeremy and I are finally all settled in back at home and it gives me great pleasure to start going back in my mind to Italy and Beyond to finish up my live review.

 

Let’s start with our wonderful last day of cruise.  

 

Our last port was Livorno.  The docking point for excursions to Florence and Pisa.  This is one of those ports where you can’t just hop off the ship and walk up the pier in search of adventure in town.  In fact, there were announcements in the morning (as my eyes were rolling back in my head as I ate my peach cobbler French toast) that passengers would not be allowed to walk on the pier at all and would have to take a free shuttle, 20 minutes each way, to get into Livorno.  

 

This didn’t cause us any worry though because on the advice of a few well traveled friends that the leaning tower of Pisa is “overrated”, I booked us a small group pasta experience through Celebrity that would take us back out into the Tuscan countrysides that I fell hard for on our pre-cruise day trip (catch up report on that coming too, stay tuned!).

 

This was one of the lower cost excursions we booked (I think it was about $90 per person during excursion sale) and at the start I was a little worried I’d stumbled into a “get what you pay for” situation.  

 

It  was one of those times where the term “small group” was used somewhat loosely as we were a group of about 24.  The tour description said we would go to a small town and take a tour of a family owned pasta factory, then go to visit a family farm and winery were we would be served lunch and have a “tasting” of the farm’s olive oils, truffles and wines.

 

When we boarded the bus to drive to the factory, our guide (who was super sweet and did an amazing job for us throughout the day) informed us that because we were in port on Sunday, the pasta factory was closed and there would be no tour.  Instead we would just have 20 minutes to walk around the village and visit the handful of shops and gelato bars open on Sunday morning.  

 

I called this one a facepalm on my part for not even thinking to check on it and shrugged it off. But I heard several groans of frustration from around me.  When we got  off the bus to walk around and started chatting with fellow cruisers, I found out that those groans were because even if I’d done my proper due diligence, it may not have done any good.  One lady said she called Celebrity a few weeks before the cruise because she was interested in the excursion but was wondering about the closed factory and she was told by a representative that the factory would be opening just for our excursion and that there would still be a tour and presentation.  Pasta just wouldn’t be actively being manufactured.  

 

Another couple booked at the shore excursion desk onboard and asked about it and were told “yes that small family factory will be closed but there is another pasta factory nearby that is open on Sunday that you’ll be going to instead”.

 

Jeremy and I had no stomach room for gelato right after such a big breakfast, so we amused ourselves by walking to the top of a fort in the middle of town.  It was pretty cool to be up there looking at the countryside as all the church bells of the little towns around were ringing and you could even smell the Sunday ragu simmering in some of the apartments nearby.

 

When we reboarded the bus, we had a 20 minute drive to the family farm where we were greeted by one of my favorite sights: horses!  Two of the family had 2-horse hitch wagons waiting at the farm gate to take us on a carriage ride through the orchards up to the main house.  Jeremy and I were seated near our driver (who was the granddaughter of the farm founder) and as she drove and pointed out where different crops are grown we got to pepper her a little bit with our small farmer agriculture nerd questions.  

 

As we rode along, our carriage was escorted on the ground by one of my other favorite sights: farm dogs!  On asking our driver we were informed these goodest pups were an Italian breed called Lagotto Romagnolo. They are specially bred and trained for truffle hunting.  A bit of googling informed me that the puppies from the best truffle hunter bloodlines sell for as much as $5K.  Much later in the day, when I was full of wine, truffle products and grappa, I pitched the idea to Jeremy that we start truffle hunting on our property.  Of course this would require us investing wisely in a Lagotto Romagnolo puppy, which I would take a solo trip to Tuscany to pick up and bring home and as long as I’m going to Italy I may as well stay a week or so in a nice B&B and sample some local wines to make the flight worth it…my grappa glass was promptly removed from my hand.

 

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  When we arrived at the farmhouse, there were tables set out on the terrace for us with full carafes of red and white wine and bottles of water.  Once we were seated the farm staff encouraged us to help ourselves to as much wine as we like and out came platters of local cheese drizzled in honey, salami and prosciutto.  Then came the bread baskets along with the farm’s signature black truffle spread.  After the appetizer course came family sized platters of 2 different pastas. One was a bolognese and the other was a marinara made with tomatoes and herbs grown on the farm.  Our table emptied platters and were about to lean back and put our napkins on the table when the server came out and replaced our empty platters with two more full ones!

 

The wine carafes had a similar fate. When they’d get nearly empty they were promptly replaced by full ones.  That is until the main course was done and the current owner of the farm came out and put smaller glasses in front of us all and started pouring his family recipe grappa and passing out biscotti made by the family matriarch.

 

We spent about an hour and a half sitting out in the beautiful weather eating, drinking and laughing with our fellow cruisers with the gorgeous scenery all around us and the whole time I felt like I was living an episode of a travel food show.

 

Sorry, I didn’t get pics of the food because I was too busy, well, enjoying the food and company.

 

After all the food and wine, our bus was VERY quiet during the 50 minute drive back to the ship as we all napped off our lunch.

 

When we got back to the ship we were right behind a couple in their late 50’s we made friends with on our excursion (who were basically living in the retreat for fall since they had been on the cruise before ours and were staying on for the crossing as well) as they got back onboard.  Jeremy saw their seapass cards and said “oh BLACK sea passes? What room class is that for? The penthouse suite?”
 I explained that it’s the zenith level seapass and Jeremy said “oh, well you gotta be close to zenith with all the cruising you’ve done the past 2 years, right?”  I’m pretty sure the security officer who scanned me onto the ship thought I was hysterical because I was laughing so hard.

 

It was then my duty to inform Jeremy that to get to zenith we would need to spend at least one month sailing in an Edge villa…for the next 4 years. 😂

 

When we got back to the ship we did some packing and put our luggage out then headed to our last dinner in Luminae.

 

The last 2 days of the cruise Luminae was very busy at both breakfast and dinner and you could tell it was putting more of a strain on the crew.  They were doing their best to keep up but the kitchen even at breakfast was much more like European dining speed.  Eko our server apologized multiple times but we kept telling him he had nothing to apologize for.  He can’t control how many suites there and when people decide to eat.  Besides it didn’t really bother us as this was our last couple of days of getting to not rush through our meals to get back to the obligations of real life.

 

The dinner menu the last night was one of the best of the cruise. Jeremy is STILL talking about the beef tartare and the octopus. We tend to be wary of octopus made in volume because it tends to end up overcooked and chewy.  Eko assured us though that it was excellent that night and he was right!  For dinner, in addition to the delicious short ribs we split the chef’s off menu special of the night: Indian butter chicken with house made warm garlic naan. If it’s offered on your cruise and you’re an Indian food fan, it’s definitely worth a try!  After splitting a piece of raspberry cheesecake for dessert we decided to make the last night a chill one, so we stopped by the Martini Bar for one last show and to say goodbye to Maelyn then headed back to the room to enjoy what will probably be our last sky suite for a good long while (spoiler for final thoughts of cruise post, sorry).  

 

Possible TMI WARNING:  BTW, we discovered that night that if you are both 5’8 or shorter, 2 people can TOTALLY fit in the E Class sky suite tub together.  Just be sure to account for the displacement when filling. 

 

Catch up posts to come:

 

-All about our pre-cruise Tuscany Day Trip

 

-A report on dinner at Le Voyage

 

-Final Thoughts on the Cruise and the New Sky Suite “Experience” and Future Cruise plans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well friends, I write to you today from dry land. Worse, not only am I on dry land, I’m not even on Italian soil anymore!  Actually technically I guess we’re in dry air.  We’re currently flying above the Atlantic for the second leg of our 3 flights home.

 

One World status was a real plus as it allowed us to use the priority check in lane for Iberia at FCO and avoid what looked like a solid hour long economy check in line.  Instead we got through with enough time to enjoy one last Italian espresso and prosciutto and cheese focaccia.

 

For our Iberia flight business class was sold out when we got rebooked so we booked their XL economy seats instead.  When we got on the plain we both said we’d hate to see how small the normal seats are if those are the XL’s.  We very much got the feeling we were on a Spanish version of Spirit.  It was only a 2 hour flight to Madrid and we slept the whole way, so we managed.  But I will be making note of the experience for when we eventually do a cruise out of Barcelona and it’s time to book flights.

 

FYI for non-Schengen passport holders, if  you’re flying through a connection at Madrid airport, be sure to pick an itinerary that has plenty of time between your flights.  Madrid airport is huge and getting to our gate for our next flight took almost a half hour even using the terminal tram.  Before we could even start that journey, we had to go through immigration and have our passports stamped, which was another 20 minutes of lines.  Others waiting next to us said that line time at connecting flight passport control can be much worse.

 

We had 2 hours between our flights and our Iberia flight landed right on time, but we only got to our gate with 10 minutes before boarding.  We used those 10 minutes to spend the last of our euros buying some fancy European potato chip flavors we don’t get at home.

 

Instead of spending this whole flight looking down at the ocean and wondering where Beyond is right this minute, I’m working on some back in time posts!

 

Day before yesterday we ended our time on Beyond with a couple of rounds of the rye sangria signature retreat cocktail and rum punch on the retreat deck and then headed to oceanview cafe for once last onboard lunch before we left the ship.  

 

I have to say, while extend your stay is such a nice perk to not be rushed off the ship, the down side is you get up close and personal with all the lucky people just starting their cruise and it stirs a next level amount of jealousy.  Not to mention, we were regularly mistaken for newly boarded or back to back guests.  Each warm smile and  “welcome onboard!” or “so glad you’re staying with us!” was like a dagger to the heart.

 

Disembarking was a little interesting because we had to leave down the same gangway that was filled with guests lined up going the other way trying to embark the ship.  We weren’t given any kind of escort to make the way for us so we just had to slowly work our way with lots of “excuse us” through the opposite direction traffic.  We got quite a few looks and even a few comments wondering what the heck we were doing going the wrong way.  I started replying with “we came all this way and got up there and they told us there’s no wine onboard for this cruise, so I’m out!” 😂

 

Our transfer driver was waiting right on time and took us to our post-cruise hotel the Hilton Rome Eur La Lama.

 

It’s a large relatively new convention hotel on the outskirts of Rome.  I think there are 2 hotels a bit closer to the airport, but the reviews on them were extremely mixed.  We didn’t need anything fancy to just get a chill dinner, sleep one night and shower, but mentions of room cleanliness and bed bug issues in some of the reviews (albeit a minority) made me nervous.

 

This hotel is still fairly close to the airport (about a 15 minute drive) and had much more consistent good reviews so I decided it was worth a few thousand more Hilton points.  I noticed that even though it’s a pretty new hotel, they use the Italian 3 prong outlets rather than the 2 prong.  I purchased both the 2 prong and 3 prong adapters since I knew we were renting an older Italian apartment pre-cruise and was glad I did.

 

Our room service meat and cheese, Caesar salad and carbonara dinner was nowhere near the top of the list of meal quality we had in Italy, but they were some of the better convention hotel room service meals I’ve had.

 

I think it will probably be our hotel of choice for future pre-early airport morning stays in Rome.

 

Next up: taking you all back in time to our last couple of days on Beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You see that girl? The one sitting in the retreat lounge sipping a mimosa with a look of utter discontent and resentment on her face?

 

Yep, ‘tis I and the cause of my lamentations is the fact that as I sip, my AirTags show that our suitcases are making their way from the belly of Beyond to be evicted onto the pier.

 

You may be saying to yourself: “wait, how are Charla and Jeremy still sulking about in the Retreat when it’s nearly time for the next lucky cruisers to board?”

 

Well, Jeremy and I are staying a night post-cruise in Rome to take an early morning flight home tomorrow, but I booked the room with points so purchasing guaranteed early check in wasn’t available.  

 

Instead, we are taking advantage of the Extend Your Stay program that Celebrity offers in Europe.  For an additional charge, we are allowed to stay on the ship until 2:30pm.  For the retreat extend your stay, we still have our premium beverage package (as evidenced by said depression mimosa which shall not be my last of the morning) and access to all retreat areas with the exception of sit down lunch in Luminae.  We also get premium wifi use until we disembark.

 

Last night a letter was left in our staterooms with wristbands for us to wear on the ship today and instructions for this morning.

 

After breakfast we went to an excursion desk in the club where we had to turn in our seapass cards and passports to ship security.  Then we were given new temporary retreat seapass cards to use while onboard.

 

Our passports will be returned as we disembark.

 

Especially for retreat guests it seems like a nice option that I wish was offered in Port Everglades.  I’ll take sipping mimosas by the retreat pool and snacking on canapés and a lunch of brick oven pizza from oceanview over subpar margaritas and chicken strips at the airport TGIFridays any day (and I think it costs about the same).

 

It’s also fascinating watching the crew go about the process of turning the ship over for a new round of guests.

 

More catch up reports to come soon as we enjoy our last few hours on Beyond.

 

 

 

Good afternoon from Livorno!

 

I’ve never been happier to have had a late port arrival time today because yesterday was a FULL day for us.  If you’re coming along, please settle in for a long read and photo overload.

 

Yesterday started with another super early, 7:15am excursion assembly time that meant another al Bacio breakfast of coffee and a pastry.

 

Our tour was the small group Taste of Sorento and Pompeii through Celebrity.  It was listed as a strenuous 9.5 hour excursion and the description was on point.

 

We started with about an hour drive up into the hills of Sorento to tour a family olive farm and have a tasting of their olive oils, meats, cheeses and preserves.  Again, it was barely 9:30 in the morning, but at each they gave us full bottles of locally made white wine to wash it all down.  Jeremy and I decided not to offend the locals by leaving good wine to waste and besides wine is grapes and grapes are breakfast food.

 

After the tour and tasting, they did a cheese making demonstration, then I was promptly separated from 50 more euros of my money getting some of the farm’s red pepper infused olive oil, artichoke spread and chocolate limoncello.  There are going to be some big fat Italian dinner parties at my house this winter!

 

After we left the farm we had a 40 minute, winding road ride down to historic Sorento where our guide gave us a short walking tour then we had an hour and a half on our own for shopping and/or lunch.

 

I had planned to do some research in advance on the good restaurants in town for this day, but alas in all the other pre-cruise prep I ran out of time.

 

Instead we just wandered through the side streets (our food tour guide in Rome told us this was the way to find the better restaurants in touristy parts of Italy) and came upon a small fresh fish market with swordfish and squid on display.  We saw a man paying and leaving with a hand cart stacked with a couple of coolers of fish. We decided to follow the fresh seafood guy at a respectful distance and see where he led and it took us to a restaurant called La Bascilica.

 

The kitchen wasn’t opening for another half hour but the manager saw us as he was finishing setting up the patio and told us we were welcome to come sit and have some wine and bread and olive oil until we could place a lunch order.  

 

We asked about the fresh fish di giorno we presumed we’d seen the supplies for entering the restaurant.  Unfortunately it needed time to be cleaned and marinated and couldn’t be ready in time for us to really enjoy it before we had to be back to meet our guide.

 

Instead we split a bottle of Chianti and then Jeremy had a prosciutto and mozzarella platter (the man is meat and cheesing his way all through Italy) served with some incredible roasted eggplant strips cured in olive oil and sea salt and I settled for some locally made pasta with cherry tomatoes and Basil. Actually, it’s entirely unfair to call that pasta settling.  Around my 4th fork full (and 3rd glass of Chianti) the bells of the church next door started to ring and the food, wine and ambiance made me absolutely devastated at being forced to return to my provincial American existence on Tuesday.

 

After our wonderful lunch, we met back up with our guide and headed to tour Pompeii.  This is where I realized the “strenuous” rating for the tour came from.  Pompeii is massive.  We spent 2.5 hours on our guided tour and there was only one break to sit down (near the start in the auditorium).   We only got through 3 sections.  Our guide told us to see the entire excavation and all the side exhibits you’d need a minimum of 8 hours.

 

Most of the pathways are uneven cobblestone (leave your heels and wedges at home, ladies) and there’s lots of stairs and steps up and down without hand rails.  There was one couple in our group where the wife had her leg in a knee brace and was walking with a cane and I felt so bad for her as it was clear she was struggling to keep up.

 

History nerds that we are, I was also so glad again that we did Pompeii as a guided tour and with a reputable guide.  Apparently guide and ticket scams are common. Also, not all guides are created equal.  

 

As our group was being walked around, I overheard another guide telling a small group that a statue was an original excavated from the ruble  and restored.  I recognized it from a sculpture coffee table book at Jeremy’s mom’s house…it was made in like 1995. 🤦🏾‍♀️

 

There were so many little details we probably wouldn’t have noticed or known what their significance was if we hadn’t had our guides pointing them out.

 

One other cool feature included in our tour was 360 virtual reality glasses that our guides had us put on in different areas of the ruins and they let us see what artists beloved those ruins looked like in their full glory just before the eruption.

 

I heard some others who saw us ask their guides about the glasses and be told that an unguided audio tour just with the glasses costs $40-$50.

 

After our afternoon at the ruins we headed back to the ship and took a quick nap before dinner in Luminae.

 

We ate a little earlier than usual getting to the restaurant about 7:45 and it was extremely busy.  We didn’t have to wait for a table, but our service team warned us the kitchen was backed up and things would be slow.  Eko and the restaurant manager came by repeatedly to apologize and check on us.

 

Thanks to our long day, we were just happy to be in chairs and consuming calories so the delays didn’t bother us too much.  We’d also worked up a real appetite and had extra courses which lengthened our dining time.

 

We ordered all of the appetizers as well as the always available off menu Caesar salad then we each got a filet mignon and split an order of the bucatini entree.  For dessert we split the almond cake.

 

That filet mignon was so good Jeremy not only ate all of his but also finished mine when I got full.

 

We didn’t finish our dinner until almost 9:45, then we dropped down to the martini bar where Maelyn made Jeremy and I special espresso martinis before we headed to the late show in Eden.  Ive already talked about how much we enjoy the production shows on E-class but definitely don’t miss the way more intimate shows in Eden and the Club either.  It’s also definitely worth getting there at least a half hour early to get one of the best seats. You get to appreciate the performers in a whole different level of detail. You can see the acrobats’ and dancers’ muscles shaking and just how much strength it takes to do what they do, and with perfect smiles on their faces the whole time!  

 

After the show, the cast hung out outside Eden to take photos with guests and Jeremy and I got to thank them for all the great entertainment they provided over the cruise.

 

We decided to have a couple of more rounds of Eden mezcal cocktails and then ended up shutting down the night club at 1:30am.  When we got back to the room my husband decided he was hungry again so we did a late night room service order of a cheeseburger and fries to split.  

 

The burger was good (does a burger ever not taste good at 2:30 in the morning after a night of dancing?) but the fries were lukewarm and the tray came delivered without salt packets (which the fries needed) or silverware/napkin roll (which led to us having to use a washcloth to wipe our hands while eating).

 

We finally collapsed at 3am, which became 2am right after due to the ship time change.

 

We’re currently on our veranda sipping wine and sulking after our excursion today and trying to avoid starting to pack.  I know I have catch up writing galore to do, which will give me a chance to focus on happier memories tonight after dinner. More to come!