GenerationX

Hello from Sicily! I know I’m almost 2 full days behind in reporting, but we’ve been having the most incredible day and can’t wait to share! This morning I was awakened by the sound of my better half telling me I’d better get it together because I’d overslept and we only had half an hour until our excursion assembly time. Another thing I miss about butler service: having someone to bring me a latte and danish from Al Bacio on these types of mornings when I’m in a rush. Fortunately I still have Jeremy…who will not be receiving a tip for his services. (I know, I still a full report on our thoughts on the reduced Retreat/butler experience too.) The raspberry danish and vanilla latte hit the spot then we headed down for our excursion Taormina City on Your Own. This was booked through Celebrity and really just a transfer rather than an excursion. There’s no guided tour (although Celebrity offers those as well) just a bus ride for the hour trip each way to and from port. I also priced booking a private car for this trip and it was going to be about $250 US. Booked during an excursion sale, the Celebrity bus transfer was a little over $100 total. The ride to Taormina took about an hour then we had 3.5 hours to sight see, have lunch and then meet back for the bus. The drivers warned us to be on time because the taxi drivers waiting at Taormina know most of the fares they pick up there are cruise passengers who missed their bus back and are distressed purchasers and the drivers price the ride to port according (he said they can demand 300-400 euros or more). I did some research on Taormina in advance to find a good restaurant to treat Jeremy to lunch. Regular followers know my love of fine cured meats and cheeses. The only person I know who loves these things even more than I do is Jeremy. Looking online I found Circe Enofood & Lounge and made us an online reservation in advance. When we got there the restaurant wasn’t full, but because we’d reserved they gave us one of the best tables in shade on the patio. The menu is pretty much a Bible of cured meats and cheeses and they have several flights you can try of different selections from all over Italy. You should’ve seen Jeremy’s eyes light up when our literal tower of mortadella, salami, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, pecorino and aged parmesan (accompanied by local olives, cured artichokes, honey and lemon preserves arrived at the table). We also each got a focaccia sandwich that was so good Jeremy considered trying to smuggle the rest of his back on the ship. They were served warm and the locally made pesto on mine was unbelievable. Jeremy got a prickly pear tequila cocktail and I tried a wine flight of premium Sicilian wines. I fell in love with one that our waiter told us has won a number of international wine competitions. After my flight I couldn’t resist having a full glass of it. The restaurant has a small shop next door that I stopped in to buy a bottle of wine to take home as well as a couple of jars of the amazing pesto and lemon preserves. When I came back out, there’s the love of my life again holding a shopping bag out to me. He said “just a little thank you for arranging such an incredible trip and buying me an amazing lunch”. Sometimes the best bags don’t have to be designer! I know, I know, the mush. After lunch we walked around town a bit more and had gelato and listened to the street musicians. We almost got a little turned around wandering up side streets, but luckily Taormina has a Louis Vuitton and a Dior and I can navigate quite well via shopping landmarks. It was a very warm day but I made sure to bring a jacket anyway and was glad I did as many of the churches we wanted to look in required ladies to have their knees and shoulders covered. We went to the scenic overlook to check out (actively smoking today) Mt. Etna and bumped into a couple from London that we met on the ship. We all decided to grab an aperol spritz at a nearby piazza and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and laughing. At one point, the men’s spritzes kicked in and they decided to try and serenade us ladies with their own rendition of “That’s Amore”…that’s when we cut our husbands off for the afternoon. The great part is with all the Italian food and drink, Jeremey and I both managed to nap pretty hard on the bus ride back to the ship, so now we’re fresh as daisies! We’re going to go have some tea in the retreat lounge then maybe hit the pool for a bit. Tonight there’s a silent disco party just for retreat guests. We also just got a call from the retreat concierge saying that the maitre d has approved our request to invite some new Australian friends we met onboard yesterday who are on their honeymoon in a standard IV room to dine with us in Luminae tonight (with cover charge and gratuity of course). Ciao for now from the best day ever!

Omg so this is hilarious!!!! I was in the casino today after my wine event and I was desperately trying to change my horrible luck. My Marine stepdad had always told me that he wins at gambling when he drinks scotch so I decided to go to Craft Social and grab myself a sip of good Macallen. Half a glass in I SWORE I could here the faint sound of bagpipes playing Scotland the Brave somewhere on the ship…I took it as a sign I’d gotten too tipsy today and needed to ease off the drinking and switched to Evian for the remainder of the afternoon. 😂

Unfortunately I think it’s the same challenge on Beyond. We had to make a quick (but handrail using) damp trot back from the restaurant to cover when the rain started. The deck was already pretty slippery too so do be carful if you get caught in a shower!

It’s a beautiful day on the Mediterranean Sea! We’ve just finished another very nice breakfast in Luminae. Now THAT is what a proper charcuterie plate should look like! We’ve had the same Luminae service team each meal there and so far the service has been been excellent. We’ve hit that glorious sweet spot where when you have a really good team, they start to get to know your preferences and things have start to arrive without you even having to ask. I saw our bread service lady pop into the back and refill her tray before she came to our table to make sure she had pistachio danish to offer us. Our waiter Eko knows I like a little heat on my Asian dishes and when I order them he asks “shall I tell the chef make it a little spicy for you?” At lunch and dinner, after our main course is cleared, two double espressos automatically appear before us and Raymert the sommelier is already approaching with my glass of 20 year tawny port. I foresee a conversation with Jeremy regarding an expansion of our additional tipping budget for the Luminae team. After breakfast we stopped back by the room to get a bag of laundry ready to send in. Sharing the price list for anyone interested. We get 2 free bags for Elite Plus loyalty so we just fill out the number of each item in the bag for tracking purposes and then write “ELITE PLUS” in the total due box. I also take a photo with my phone of the completed form just in case the slip or its carbon copy should get misplaced. This laundry loyalty perk is one of the most valuable ones for me, especially on a longer cruise. I don’t trust anyone but myself and my long time cleaners at home with my nicer items, but it’s a plus to be able to clear all my low maintenance cotton/poly Kohls clearance rack finds out of the post-cruise dirty laundry pile. Our agenda for the day is fairly light as we prepare to kick off 3 straight days of ports tomorrow. I’m signed up for the premium wine tasting this afternoon (that I had to miss last cruise thanks to an overzealous evening in the Club the night before) and while I’m there, Jeremy is going to go on a Retreat guest tour of the engine room that we received an invite to on our bed yesterday evening. We plan to give room service a try again today for a light late lunch on our veranda weather permitting (Captain Kate says we have a chance of hitting some “liquid sunshine” later). Tonight we have evening chic night #2 with the Elements production show and the dinner reservation I’ve most been looking forward to: Le Voyage! We’ve just settled in with orange whips and a wake view at the sunset bar. Soon to come: a report on the rest of our bonus sea day yesterday.

It’s a cool grey start to our day floating (unanchored) off the coat of Montenegro. There are 2 other cruise ships floating nearby, including Beyond’s much older sister, the former Celebrity Galaxy! Captain Kate came on and said that one of the ships did make an attempt to go up the channel this morning but was quickly met by hurricane force winds and had to turn back. I heard a man on a veranda above us complaining that the weather “doesn’t seem anywhere near that bad from here” and armchair captaining that we could have made it into port just fine. I couldn’t help but let loudly slip out of my mouth “sounds like somebody up on deck 10 has some nerve! Wonder where this nautical expert went to maritime school.” Sorry, my pet peeve is when people without law degrees second guess me at my job, so I’m definitely not going to stand for anyone second guessing Captain Kate at hers! We took advantage of the lack of activities and slept in till about 9:30 today when we were awakened by the sound of the magic carpet moving down to disembark crew as a pilot boat approached. I threw on my robe and went to watch and was quickly joined by Jeremy who hadn’t bothered to put his on and was just in his pajama shorts. I told him to get back inside and cover up and quit showing Insta model gorgeous Captain Kate (who was looking back our way from the bridge with her officers to observe the pilot boat) all his charms! He slowly sauntered back inside mumbling “NOW who’s being jealous!” 😂 We’re starting our bonus sea day having an aperol spritz in craft social listening to a violinist until it’s time for Luminae lunch. While I’m sipping, a report on our evening last night: Rooftop Grill is one of my E-class specialty go to’s for when the ship is in port late into evening. It gets a lot trickier enjoying this restaurant when the ship is at sea because despite celebrity’s best efforts to design around it, a restaurant on the very top deck when a ship is moving full steam is going to be very windy. When we ordered our drinks, we were sad to learn that the restaurant has discontinued their specialty cocktails menu and now offers just the cocktails on the sunset bar menu. Such a pity. There was a strawberry margarita I loved and a bbq margarita Jeremy loved only available at rooftop grill that we were really looking forward to. For starters we had the dry rub chicken wings (a favorite of ours) then we each had a Caesar salad. For dinner, I had the lamb chops and Jeremy tried the brisket and we split a seafood skewer. The meats at Rooftop Grill are no joke. We no longer waste prime stomach real estate on the sides. The wings were crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and well seasoned. I still think the rooftop grill lamb chops are the best lamb you can get anywhere on any Celebrity ship. Jeremy tried his best to manipulate his way into getting a couple of my chops but I know my worth. I allowed him just one and he made the most of it! This was our first time trying the brisket and it was very well done. We often smoke our own brisket at home so we’re picky about it. This one was slightly sweet, salty and well caramelized and melted in the mouth. The seafood skewers were good, nothing to complain about there but we both agreed the lamb and brisket were much better. We finished up our protein fest by splitting one of the best desserts on the ship: the warm cookie topped with vanilla gelato. Our server warned us the dish would take 8-10 minutes to arrive as the cookie is baked fresh to order. It’s funny how quickly Jeremy and I adjusted to and have come to prefer the European pace of dinning. 10-15 minutes between mains and dessert to enjoy our espresso and chat is like bare minimum for us to not feel rushed now. Jumping from the service speed in Italy back to the very American timing on Beyond felt like we’re now doing fine dining at McDonald’s drive thru speeds. Anyway, the warm cookie with cold gelato was heavenly l and we finished it just as the predicted heavy rain started to set in. We finished our night enjoying some of our Italian wine from Rome on the veranda watching our nighttime sail away from Croatia. More to come from our bonus sea day!

Sigh, an unfortunate quick update from Beyond. As I was getting ready for dinner, we heard Captain Kate’s voice come blasting into the suite. I knew something big must be up, because non-urgent announcements aren’t usually pipped into staterooms themselves. It turns out that due to the weather forecast of thunderstorms and 50mph winds, it won’t be safe for Beyond to make the sail into the channel at Kotor tomorrow or to operate tenders to shore. The ship will be anchoring further out for a couple of hours in the morning to do a crew transfer (I presume using a vessel that can safely operate in those conditions), then we’re having a bonus sea day. All guests with Celebrity excursions are being refunded automatically to their stateroom account via OBC. This is a port where we’d booked an independent tour, but fortunately the cost should be covered by a trip interruption claim on our travel insurance policy. It’s disappointing for us as we’d been told by so many how beautiful Kotor is and what an incredible experience the sail in is and we were really looking forward to it. But I totally understand that weather is one of the few elements of my cruise experience Celebrity actually has zero control over. I’m also all good on risking my life or any of the crew’s being tossed around in a tender in the kind of swells that 50pmh wind is going to produce. Plus at the end of the day, we still have some incredible Italian ports ahead of us! Just for informational purposes as I know some folks following are planning to do this itinerary in the future, I’m sharing the info on the planned Retreat priority tender operations for Kotor that we received this morning. The menus for Blu and Luminae both weren’t exciting us much for tonight (I assume they saved the dulls for tonight since we’ll be in port until 10pm and many have dinner plans ashore) so we’ve made a last minute booking for the Rooftop Grill so we can drown our sorrows in some dry rub wings and lamb chops. Fingers crossed life is back to smoother sailing soon!

Another of those things I love about cruising on Beyond: When your husband goes to Croatia without you, you can console yourself by popping down to Deck 5 and taking yourself to France for lunch. I mean I ask you: does life get much better than lobster bisque, Tuesday lunch special coq au vin (with a requested side of the duck fat frites) and crème brûlée washed down with a couple of glasses of Bordeaux with views of Dubrovnik’s bay? Right around the time I was talking myself out of licking my crème brûlée ramekin clean, I got a text from Jeremy saying he was back from his excursion and starving. I asked my server Ahmed if he could pack up one of the sandwiches and some of the charcuterie and cheese in the deli case at the bistro for me to go and then I surprised Jeremy with it when we met at sunset bar. While Ahmed was wrapping the massive turkey and brie sandwich, the LGB chef was standing nearby and mentioned it’s one of his favorite foods onboard and that the pastry chefs baked the baguettes for it just this morning. I could tell just from the sound and smell when Jeremy bit into it that it was a very good sandwich on very good bread and my thoughts were confirmed when Jeremy consumed the entire thing and then sucked the remnants of its raspberry spread off of his fingers one by one. The prosciutto, salami and cheese were equally quickly demolished. Jeremy is going to send me pics from his walking tour so I can post, but he said it was incredible. I completely forgot he’s a big Game of Thrones fan (not I, I’m a Below Deck/Bridgerton/The Crown kind of girl) and a lot of the series was filmed here. He really got a kick out of seeing some familiar locations pointed out by the guide. He did say that he’s ready to hit the tub, as it was a strenuous hills and steps intensive 4 hour hike up and around the walls of old town. We’re going to wash down our lunch with a round of red sangria then hit the hot tub!

I nearly choked to death on my Chandon laughing when I saw this. In retrospect if the worst had happened, I suppose there are worse ways to go. 😂

Oh you’ve just inspired me! As a matter of fact Jeremy actually does have an eligible bachelor younger brother and Jeremy’s mom would very much like to see him settled down and making a generous contribution to the grandchildren effort given Jeremy and I’s lackluster performance in that area. 😂 Why didn’t I think of this before, we can find John a match on Cruise Critic and expand the family cruise addiction! If anyone following out there knows a single, marriage minded lady in her late 20’s or early 30’s in the Midwest (preferably with Elite Celebrity status or better 😂) who likes cats, modern art and classic rock music, please speak up so we can get this going!

Good morning friends! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of my favorite things about cruising is waking up to new wonders outside my window very day. Yesterday it was mountains of the Greek Isles. This morning, poof! Croatia! My day hasn’t gone as planned thus far sadly. I woke up to some work emails about issues that I had to deal with before the Eastern time zone comes online this afternoon, so I had to skip our booked walking tour of Dubrovnik. I guess there are pros and cons to embarking on our world travels pre-retirement. On the one hand, our travel insurance is dirt cheap and our knees are still in decent shape (although if Jeremy follows the genetics in his family he’s only got about a decade left in his). On the other, sometimes I miss a country to deal with an urgent contract review. I told the birthday boy to go ahead on the tour without me and spent my morning with my laptop and white chocolate mochas in Al Bacio. Now that work’s done, followers of my solo travels know that I’ll have no trouble making “me time” lemonade out of lemons on Beyond. I’ve just settled in at the rooftop garden to sip a mimosa and watch The Little Mermaid. Then I’m going to try and treat myself to a French lunch at Le Grand Bistro which the app says will be open for port day lunch. Speaking of food, let’s talk dinner at Raw on 5 last night… This is one of those restaurants that I’ve really struggled to find the stride in on previous E class cruises. Im pleased to report that night was a vastly improved experience though! Let’s start with the service. Remember my first cruise on Beyond with my girlfriend Red where in this restaurant I had to serve as my own sommelier, and the service was so slow we had to be “that woman” and complain to a manager? Well this time our waiter Dennis from the Philippines was excellent. Friendly and attentive and made great recommendations on the best dishes and rolls. If you go to Raw ask for him. Our sommelier Ryan magically appeared over my shoulder each time my glass was low and before I had time to get a “thank you” out it was already refilled. The only bummer was that Decoy wasn’t restocked this cruise (grrrr) so I had to settle for the Kendall Jackson Elegance Pinot. We had the Beyond Roll, miso soup, shrimp and lobster wontons, calamari and steak. The only thing that wasn’t fantastic was the calamari. It was a little over done and the batter was bland. Fortunately it had really good dipping sauces to save it. Sauces so good Jeremy asked to keep them at the table so he could dip his beyond roll in it (Dennis even offered to bring him sauce refills). Speaking of the beyond roll, when I had it last cruise it was a hot mess. Not rolled well, falling apart in my chopsticks and way too much Mayo garnish with chewy tuna on top. This time we finished it in 10 minutes. The wontons are the same wonderful ones served in Sushi on 5 on S and M class. I plan to continue my endless campaign to get the pork ramen and shrimp tempura ramen from Sushi on 5 also promoted to Raw. Be sure to ask for a side of rice to go with the steak and eat it with some of the wonderful veggies and sauce! My only complaint is that the veggie to steak ratio was way off this time. More meat please at $19 for the dish. The kakiage is one of my favorite Raw on 5 dishes and I think it’s only available on Beyond (someone please report on whether it made it to the Ascent menu). After dinner, we had a couple of drinks at the martini bar and listened to the house band, then headed back to the room for an earlier bed time. Well, I’m off to see a man about a bowl of lobster bisque. After lunch I’ll settle myself in at the retreat lounge to share more until Jeremy gets back from his explorations.

Taking a step back in time to report on our day in Olympia yesterday. As I think I mentioned, the morning started off a little rough. Because we had such an early excursion meeting time, we ordered room service breakfast on the hang card the night before. I was in the bathroom finishing brushing my teeth when I heard the order arrive. In the time it took me to rinse and spit I came out and Jeremy was once again alone in the room, with a room service tray stacked with still covered plates. Jeremy said it wasn’t our retreat host (stateroom attendant) who delivered it and the guy just came in, sat the tray down without even asking/checkin if everything we ordered was there and disappeared in a flash. Oh friends, gone now is my favorite way to start a sky suite day. My butler showing up at the door with a big smile. Setting the table and uncovering and setting up all our plates while asking about our plans for the day and what they can do for us today (laundry/pressing/in room snack requests for the afternoon). Pouring our first cup of coffee for us from the carafe and asking if everything we expected is there (and if not prepared to immediately run and get it). Now we get $2K basic veranda room service treatment at $20K sky suite prices. 😢 My toasted bagel was ice cold and tough. My milk came in a little carton but with no glass to pour it in (I guess I was supposed to modern luxuriously take it to the head like a 2nd grader having tray lunch at the school cafeteria 🤦🏾‍♀️). But it was kind of a moot point anyway because when I touched the carton it was also near room temp, and I wasn’t going to risk drinking it not knowing how long it’d been sitting unrefrigerated. We were supposed to have 2 charcuterie plates but only 1, with literally 3 pieces of salami on it, arrived. At first Jeremy couldn’t find any salt or pepper for his eggs, then we found one little paper packet of each stuffed in with the sugars packets for our coffee (those cute little real salt and pepper shakers the butler used to set up on the above mentioned table setting along with a pretty flower in a vase? No mas). Overall, a pretty disappointing start to the day, but luckily things got better once we were on our excursion. We did the tour of ancient Olympia and Folklore Dance excursion offered by Celebrity and it was incredible. Our tour guide was very friendly and really knew her Greek Mythology and ancient history. We were given earpieces for our tour around the ruins so we could hear her presentation even when we stepped off from the group a little bit to look at other things. Jeremy was still hurting from his night before and lackluster recovery breakfast so I couldn’t convince him to run the 100 meter against me in the ancient Olympic running stadium. Instead I made him photograph me as default victor at the finish line. After a very thorough, about an hour and a half walking tour of the ruins, we headed to a restaurant about a half hour away for the dance presentation. The excursion was advertised as including “a glass of wine and a Greek snack” while watching the performance. We arrived to a full plated lunch and multiple pitchers of wine at the tables which were refilled when emptied…I’m learning a new culture. The Greeks, they don’t play on the food or wine portions. I’m here for it. The traditional Greek dancers were great and we were so enthralled watching them we didn’t even notice that shots of Ouzo had been placed in front of our lunch plates at some point. Once shots were consumed with an Opa! The guests were invited to join the dancers on the floor to amp up the party. Regular readers know I’m not one to pass on an invitation to a dance floor, especially when I’ve been plied in advance with food and wine. What I wasn’t expecting was: 1) My wall flower husband to voluntarily take up the invite too (must’ve been the Ouzo); or 2) to end up being urged by the restaurant staff with a couple of other women to go dance right on top of the lunch tables, in a way I haven’t done since my days attending a very different type of “Greek” party at Northwestern University (definitely the Ouzo). After the lunch, the bus made a 20 minute stop in town for souvenir shopping opportunities then dropped us back at the ship. Holy cow look at the time! I better pull myself out of the bath and my husband out of bed and get us ready for our dinner! More to come after I fill myself with wine and seafood!

Yes, I would say that while there have been a few disappointing dishes, on the whole the food quality in Luminae and specialty has been very good. The people I’ve talked to who are in AQ class have had similar feedback about Blu. I’ve only had a chance to meet a few people thus far who are using the MDR’s but the feedback I’ve heard has been much more mixed both in terms of food quality and service. Definitely do check out the Jazz Joint show on your cruise! I think they only offer it one night of the cruise, but with 2 showings. It’s done after each of the main theater shows end so it doesn’t compete. Seating is limited so it’s definitely worth getting there a bit earl. It’s an immersive show with dancing, acrobats and singers. I think I shared some photos and posted some pics from it in my Beyond solo review from spring. Just let me know if you’d like me to try and find it and post a link!

Checking in from Marrakech Mule and Beyond Signature cocktail hour at the Sunset Bar on a beautiful day in Corfu! Our tour group didn’t have to assemble until 8:45 this morning, so we had time to have our first Luminae breakfast of the trip. I’d forgotten how good the pistachio danish are! We’re just settling back in on the ship after todays excursion. We did the Abelonas Winery and Old Town Walking Tour booked through Celebrity. Our first stop of the trip was a very brief stop at a random beach club where we had about 15 minutes to take pictures, put our toes in the ocean and look in a couple of small, very touristy shops. Then we had about a 30 minute ride up into the mountains to the winery. The winery grounds are beautiful and have gorgeous views. Our guide and the winery staff did a presentation on the history of the winery (which has been run by the same family since the 1600’s) and their organic, sustainable wine and olive oil making processes. After the presentation, they set out a spread of light Greek buffet made from local products. We were also welcomed to partake in multiple full glasses of the winery’s red, white and rose wines. All of the wines were on the dryer side, which I prefer. I know almost nothing about Greek wine, so I wasn’t really in a position to judge the quality. I had 3 glasses of the red though so I guess I thought it was pretty good. Jeremy and I found a cute little table for 2 under an olive tree and held hands while sipping and eating overlooking the vineyard. I know, you’re getting nauseous from the sappy romance. I’ll try to tone it down. The salad, feta, olive oil and cured meats were delicious! Have I mentioned that I now realize that America’s tomatoes and bread are pathetic? We were at the winery for a little over an hour then headed to old town Corfu. Traffic and crowds were hectic with 3 ships in port (Beyond, the massive NCL Prima and Viking Neptune). I can’t imagine what the crowds are like in peak season during the heat of summer. Our “walking tour” wasn’t much of a tour. I was expecting something like the fabulous walking tour we had in Montepulciano through Viator our last day pre-cruise (I know, I still owe details). This time, our guide spent about 10 minutes taking us past a church and pointing out a couple of historical buildings from a distance, then told us we were free to wander on our own and be back at the bus in an hour if we wanted to take it back to the ship. She also told us that because we purchased a celebrity excursion, if we wanted to stay in town longer, we could also show our ticket stubs and get on a paid shuttle service to/from the ship that Celebrity was running every 20 minute until all aboard. We didn’t really mind the approach to the city since Jeremy had shopping money burning a hole in his wallet, but I think some in our group were more disappointed in not getting a true guided tour. We did a little souvenir shopping for our parents and Gen Z then Jeremy took me to see something he’d spotted in a shop window while I was looking at olive oils that he thought I’d like. I have a thing for bees. Our mini farm at home is named The Bee Charmer Ranch and I have quite a bit of bee themed decor, accessories, etc (yes, I also own my fair share of the vintage Gucci bee logo collection). My wonderful husband treated me to an earrings and necklace jewelry set styled after the Minoan bee pendant in the museum of antiquities in Crete! I know, again with the mushy stuff. Sorry! The sun and crowds were getting to be a bit much for us (but again, as I understand, nothing compared to what it would’ve been like a couple of months earlier) so we decided to head back to the ship on our tour bus after an hour. We’re about to head down to the cabin for a nap then I plan to soak my sore feet in the tub with a glass of Brunello and do some catch up writing before dinner time. Tonight’s plan is dinner at Raw on 5 and the Dreams show in Eden.

Quick pro tip from Beyond: If you have the premium package and are struggling to find Evian onboard, I’ve had very good luck getting it in the late afternoon/evening at the martini bar and/or craft social and if you ask nicely, the bartenders have been willing to give an extra bottle or 2 to take to the room for later.

Hello from poolside on the Retreat deck in Olympia, Greece! Jeremy and I are treating our weary bodies with cocktails and a hot tub after an awesome morning excursion. But first let’s go back in time and talk about the rest of our day yesterday. One cool feature of Beyond: if your husband is back in the stateroom in danger of sleeping clear through lunch, you can use the app to turn on the stateroom lights and open the blinds on him without even leaving your barstool! Once Jeremy was up we went to lunch in Luminae. Once again there were some hits and some misses. My parsnip soup was bland and not very hot but Jeremy enjoyed his frisées salad starter. I had an excellent filet mignon cooked to my requested medium rare. Poor Jeremy, he was so excited to try the shrimp po boy and it ended up being just sad. It had literally 4 tiny shrimp half the size of my thumb on a massive chewy bun. I ended up giving him some of my steak. The dessert offerings of white chocolate mousse and butterscotch bread pudding sounded too good to pass up and we loved both. After lunch we again attempted to get the casino to cooperate. Jeremy managed to go up about $200 between a penny slot and craps. I’m still searching for a slot machine that likes me. I finally gave up and headed to make new friends in the martini bar and listen to Chloe, our acoustic guitar performer do her happy hour set. She really has an incredible voice and I’ll be looking for her sets on the schedule the rest of the cruise. Jeremy eventually smugly joined me for a martini then it was time to get ready for our first chic night. Jeremy has never had the pleasure of seeing me in my Gatsby dress so I decided it needed to make a come back for this cruise. He dressed to impress me too with a gorgeous silk tie he bought in Rome. We went to world class bar for a cocktail (the Rose Water tastes as good as it looks BTW) and headed to the production show Stage Door before dinner. It looks like all the shows on this cruise are the same ones as when I was on the ship in spring, so I won’t re-review them in detail. The show was just as good as it was last time and I still believe the shows on Beyond are one of her strongest points. As is customary, Captain Kate came out at the start of the show and introduced her senior officers. Of course, gone were the days of a butler escort to our seat, but it’s one cutback I didn’t miss too much. There was still a reserved seating area on the second level for retreat guests. After the show we went to Luminae for chic night dinner. The restaurant wasn’t busy at all at about 8:15 and this time we really enjoyed everything we had. We ended up getting all 4 appetizers. My faves were the poached lobster (albeit small, but hey it’s an appetizer) and artichoke soup. I managed to flirt Jeremy into sharing a bite of his ribeye and it was better than the one I paid to eat in Fine Cut last cruise. My lamb loin was perfectly done as well. We skipped dessert in favor of espressos then went down to the club to see the Jazz Joint show. It was also just as good as in spring and Jeremy proclaimed it his favorite Celebrity entertainment yet…no doubt thanks to the lady performers’ outfits and moves. After the show, the kir royales started flowing and by the time we remembered we were supposed to be turning in early for our 7:30 excursion time this morning, it was well after midnight. Needless to say we were dragging a bit this morning, but we’ve now learned our lesson, I promise. More to come later this afternoon!

So I’ve been intentionally holding off on this because I want to be as fair as possible and give it a few days living in it before fully deciding on my thoughts and reporting, but thus far, to quote Michael Kors judging Project Runway, “I’m underwhelmed.” I really do want to give it a little more time before sharing details behind my feelings because in fairness, my last Beyond cruise I had what I’m told was one of the best butlers in all Celebrity, Elaine. So it would be tough to meet the standard she set again even without the cutbacks. I’ll do a more detailed post in a couple of days once I’ve lived in it longer, and my position may well change by then, but my initial impression is that there’s NO WAY I’d pay the full 5 figure price being charged these days for a sky suite in E-class on Celebrity when I consider what I get and could get on other lines for the same or a bit more/less money. But I promise I’ll do a full “new world” sky suite life experience post once I have more data to go on. Sorry, I think the extensive analyzing/assessing is a lawyer thing. It drives Jeremy crazy too. lol

No need to apologize because you aren’t wrong at all. The siren song of MSC yacht club pricing is pretty hard to resist!

You are quite right! Don’t get me started though on how right now $6K doesn’t get you nearly as close to a week in the retreat on e-class in the Caribbean as it did last year…but here I go sounding like I need a shawl and a nap “in MY day…” 😂

Oh @zitsky you are a terrible influence and I think we all need to sail together (poor Jeremy 😂). So…how’s your calendar look for a March Caribbean sailing? P.S. To each their own but I for one am a firm believer in “if you love it, can afford it and can fit into it, rock it.” To me gender is a trivial matter when it comes to Chanel suits! 😂

QUICK UPDATE FROM BEYOND So the ladies in the handbag shop remembered me from my spring cruise (and the vintage Louis Vuitton wristlet I bought after too many peaches and bourbons and hitting a minor jackpot in the casino). They told me if I buy this decadent $6K Chanel bag, they’ll throw in the Hermes scarf it’s displayed with for free… I’m hiding out in Craft Social watching rugby and drinking a (delicious) Blush Up in order to avoid completely torpedoing both my savings account and my marriage.

Oh wow, this is a high complement because there are some really great writers on the boards! Thank you so much!

Good morning from our first sea day on the way to Greece! As evidenced by my current 10am attire and beverage selection, our first night on Beyond did NOT disappoint. It’s tough to know which was better about our first night dinner in Eden: the food or the service. I always try to get my Eden reservation around 8/8:30 because there’s usually a live acoustic set going on in the bar upstairs about that time that really adds to the dinner ambience. After a beef tartar palate cleanser, we decided to start with the bazaar bowl, shrimp and the risotto. Our waiter, Lhindon somehow read my mind that I also really wanted the crab cake and also brought one to the table. The only complaint we could come up with was Jeremy said he would’ve liked a little more chorizo in the shrimp. For entrees I was torn between my favorite the lobster casserole and the fresh caught grouper that I discovered in Eden on my last Beyond cruise (served in an outstanding sweet and spicy Thai curry sauce). I decided to go with the grouper and crossed my fingers that Jeremy would order the lobster so I could steal bites (this is the whole point of marriage, right?). Alas, this man had the nerve to get the lamb. Fortunately Lhindon was at it again and when our entrees came, a smaller portion of the lobster was also placed right between us! We had no intentions of leaving any of that lamb, lobster or grouper on our plates and as a result, we found ourselves far too full to order dessert. We did however partake of the customary little tower of treats served with our after dinner espressos. The strawberry brittle and coconut almond cake bites were highlights. I ignored my husband’s halfhearted plea that we’ve already gone over budget on Italian wine on this trip and jumped on it when the sommelier mentioned he had just a few bottles left of a nice Amarone that he didn’t think would be restocked until the ship crosses to Miami. (Jeremy knows by now that he has a better chance of growing wings and taking flight than stopping me from buying wine.) After dinner we tried our luck in the casino for a bit. Tried and failed. The slots were a lot stingier than they were on my spring Beyond cruise. A lady at a machine near me who was on B2B said they were similarly stingy the cruise before this. We gave up before we blew all our wine money and headed back to the martini bar for a live music set by the house band where we made friends with two nurses from Scotland and joined them for a few rounds. About 1:30 in the morning we realized (far too late) what a bad idea it was to try and keep up with Scots when drinking is involved. Jeremy is still completely down for the count, but I’m not going to survive without caffeine much longer so I think I’ll pull myself together and head to Al Bacio to sip and do some more writing. Then I think I’ll take advantage of being free of my shopping warden to check out the onboard vintage handbag offerings before lunch.

Happy to share! I’m having trouble getting the Viator site to load but here’s a screenshot of the booking from my app. I think you can search for the name on Viator and it should pop up.

No apology necessary! I have a family history of kidney disease and also take hydration very seriously. In my land life I keep a yeti tumbler of ice water with me all day. Of course, this has also led to my friends declaring me the connoisseur of good public restrooms in the St. Louis metropolitan area. 😂

Thank you, I thought it was very strange too. I looked all over for retreat signage but didn’t see any and asked multiple workers if we were in the right place/line for suites, just to be sure I could report back accurately. Jeremy was getting embarrassed and said I was starting to sound elitist 😂 I wonder if maybe we were just there too early/late for it?