OysterD

Your comparisons are getting more ludicrous by the day lol. 1. 90s speeds were 0.014mbs 2. If the equivalent price of one beer per day is going to break the bank, maybe cruising and being in the middle of the ocean away from mobile phone towers isn't right for you. 3. Use your phone when the ship is at port or close to land and use your roaming if abroad. If you don't want to pay for roaming, why not, presumably because its more than $8/day. Have you moaned at your network provider the same way you've moaned about Celebrity? I can tell you it costs more for Celebrity to provide Internet on a ship than it costs your mobile network provider to have you roaming abroad. 4. You're on a ship at sea, sharing one satellite internet connection with up to 4000 other people. Seriously what do you expect?

Could it be (and I've a vague recollection of seeing, hearing or reading this somewhere once) that the "specialty dining" which is not checked off for signature suites on that list is where you can order whatever you want from any specialty restaurant and have it delivered to your suite? That would make sense that it's only available for royal, Penthouse and Reflection suites as they are the ones which have a full dining table in the cabin. Signature suites don't have a dining table. However, "specialty restaurants" is checked off for a signature suite and I assume that means dining in the restaurants themselves versus having it delivered to your suite?

Day 6 - Katakolon (Olympia) We aren't really ones for booking ship excursions. Partly because we can normally do the same thing for a fraction of the cost and partly because we prefer doing things on our own schedule and not sitting on a crowded bus for hours on end. After leisurely tea and pastries for breakfast we wandered off the ship and walked the couple hundred yards from the port to a car rental place. Katakolon isn't very big. At all. Within 20 mins we had booked a teeny tiny Fiat, had the keys and were on our way to Olympia. I think it was either €45 or €50 for the day and we stuck €15 of petrol in the tank just before we brought it back. Much cheaper than any of the bus excursions to Olympia! There were only a couple of turns to make from the port to Olympia which the car rental place had pointed out and circled on a handy dandy map they gave us. Driving was easy although the speed limits made no sense. Generally when driving abroad I tend to go at the speed of the locals, but there were parts where we were sure the limit was 60kmh, I was doing maybe slightly above that, ahem, yet still being overtaken constantly! We made it to Olympia after maybe 45 mins, parked up and headed over to the main entrance of the ruins. Now I'll preface this by saying not everyone in our party is particularly enthralled by 'ruins', comments over the years have led to such historical artefacts being described as 'a pile of rubble'. When we saw the queue for tickets we decided to take the advice of the car rental lady and walk around the outskirts of the site one what started off as a very good road/path. We managed to get a reasonable view of some of the site plus the original running track with some brave souls down there attempting to run it (scorching sunshine and about 35c!). it was when we turned off the main road onto a dirt track that things went a little south. Now I pride myself on being pretty good at map reading and with Google maps satellite view open and the path around seemingly obvious, it should have been an easy leisurely walk. Until I thought we could take a short cut, through an olive tree grove, which didn't actually lead back to the path but ended at a rather steep precipice with a river at the bottom. Back we went. Then it turned out the path didn't have a bridge over the river as we expected, but went through the river. Still, all good fun and we certainly got our 10k steps in for the day. We'd asked at the car rental place for any recommendations for somewhere to get some good gyros for lunch, so once we got back to civilisation at Olympia we hunted the restaurant down and sat down for a much needed refreshment break! After a bit of souvenir shopping we headed back to the car, which had gotten up to gas mark 6 inside by this time, ran the ac for 5 mins before getting in and then drove back towards the port. Just 5 mins outside the port we had been told was a decent beach, so we took a detour there, had a swim in the sea and a couple of drinks at the beachside bar. Dropped the car off and crossed the road back to the ship...yes, the port really is that small! Dinner tonight was at Le Voyage, I guess I would say it was the Beyond equivalent of Murano, but we preferred this. Felt a bit less stuffy, bit less dark and gloomy and personally I'm not all that enamoured with the table side service in Murano, it's not the 70s. Food was great and the service was excellent. After dinner the silent disco was in full swing in the main foyer, we joined in for a bit then headed to the theatre to watch the Liars Club. Wasn't sure what to expect but it was actually pretty hilarious. Alejandro has a great sense of humour and kept everyone in stitches throughout. It was nice to see, at 11pm and not even for a production show, that the theatre was pretty much full. The entertainment throughout the whole cruise was great and the theatre was full every time we went. This was a stark contrast to last year on Reflection where most nights the theatre was less than half full, although admittedly we were sailing at just over 2/3 capacity then.

@Mark_UK So sorry to hear about what happened but I'm glad it seems to be sorted for now and they have another cruise booked, hope it goes well for them. I've no idea what a UK passport stolen in Greece might end up being used for, but my passport was stolen in the UK many years ago. My identity was stolen shortly after that with fraudulent loans taken out in my name. It might be worth having your parents monitor their credit reports for the next few years to make sure no surprising debt collection letters start turning up years from now.

Apologies, forgot to respond to this one... https://www.kotorboat-tours.com/index.php/en/speedboat-tours/tour-kotor-mamula-blue-cave-zanjice-beach-or-dobrec-army-base-our-lady-of-the-rock-perast-kotor They depart from the pier literally just a few mins walk from where the tender boats docked.

Day 5 - Corfu We booked our own excursion today - my friends had wanted to go scuba diving at some point on the cruise and having been to Corfu a couple of times before I thought the island must have some decent diving spots/diving schools. I've never dived before whereas my friends have but not for a while, so we booked a beginners 2 dive session for the day. We were picked up from the port in the morning and driven over to the dive school on the other side of the island. After kitting up and going through a briefing with an instructor (1 instructor for the 3 of us) we made or way across the beach and into the water. I'd been a little apprehensive beforehand but it was much better than I imagined. I had thought maybe our first dive would be 15 mins or so followed by a break of a couple hours but nope, almost an hour later we surfaced again. After a 20 min break the instructor asked if we were ready to go back out, which 2 of us declined as we were pretty tired after that first, longer than anticipated dive. For my first go ever, that was enough for me! We lay on the beach while my other friend went back down. A bit of beach time was much appreciated. Beyond docked next to her long lost cousin (Marella Explorer used to be Celebrity Galaxy many moons and paint jobs ago). Back to Blu for dinner tonight, shout out to our waiter, Willy, for his excellent service and wry sense of humour. After a couple of drinks we headed to The Club for the 80s night, which was more entertaining and interactive than we thought it would be. Mixture of trivia and music followed by a choreographed dance by the Club/Eden production cast morphing into a big ole disco. Very fun night!

Day 4 - Theatre & Le Petit Chef We love a bit of magic (who doesn't?!) so made our way to the theatre tonight to get front row seats for the evenings entertainment - Matt Johnson. I remembered seeing him on Britain's Got Talent a few years ago and believe the following year he appeared on the US version. Turns out front row seats (much like pausing the TV when watching magicians perform!) didn't really help figure out any of the tricks! Only explanation is it just has to be magic! Matt has a great stage presence, is charming and witty and the 45 min show left us wanting more. Which was handy because he was due to perform a slightly different show later in the week in the Club. After the show we walked over to Le Petit Chef to make use of night #2 of our 4 night dining package. Food was delicious and the light show was entertaining enough for a first time. Would we eat there again, maybe because the food was good, although obviously the visuals might get repetitive after a few times.

Thank you! It's been like a bad cold for me plus its sapped all the energy from me, which isn't ideal when you've got 2 weeks of work to catch up on. Hope you're feeling better now and enjoy your time on board, which I'm sure you will....she's a beautiful ship with a great crew!

Hope you managed to enjoy your cruise though! I think you're sadly right, it is just a risk of cruising these days and not much can be done about it, especially with ships sailing at or close to capacity.

Hope you're feeling better or at least on road to recovery by now! Absolutely loved the cruise and if we had to come down with covid, at least it was the day we got home and not the day we stepped foot onboard! We all noticed there was a lot more coughing and sneezing the last few nights actually... I remember we were waiting for the lift one evening and it arrived, doors opened, the sole person inside let out an almighty sneeze and got off, we stepped inside and jokingly tried to hold our breath until our floor! Maybe we should have waited for the next one hahah

Really?! We just got off Beyond last week, ate in Blu 6 nights and every night we ordered an extra starter and an extra main course for the table, we weren't charged anything. One night I asked for fries with my main course, it wasn't on the menu but they still brought me some out (I'd seen another table have some and thought good idea). Also the food quality was excellent each and every night, no different to how it was in Blu a year earlier on Reflection.

And I'm back. Apologies for the rather large pause between posts, unfortunately the 3 of us all came home from the cruise last Thurs with the unwanted gift of covid. Spent most of my time since then either in bed or on the sofa under a blanket, just starting to feel more human again now! So where were we... Day 4 - Dubrovnik Steps and more steps. So I've been to Dubrovnik a few times before, my friends haven't. We didn't organise any official tours or excursions, just planned to walk around the old town area, the walls and then catch the cable car and have lunch in the restaurant up there. We got off the ship and there were 2 options to get us to the old town area, a shuttle bus which was I think €14 or 15 each person or a cab for a flat fee of €18. We took the cab, which dropped us off right outside one of the main entrances through the walls. We found the main entrance to the walls and paid the roughly €34 (Somewhere around that amount anyway) entrance fee, which seemed a bit steep (excuse the pun) but we figured it must take a fair bit to maintain the walls and city so didn't mind it so much. Might not make the cover of 'Plumbers Monthly' (for the right reasons) but I guess if it works it works. Can't get enough of the red tiled roofs, such a beautiful contrast between the city and the (normally) blue skies and sea. The weather actually was just right for exploring the city. Partly cloudy with a brief shower and temps around 24c. If it had been scorching sun and in the 30s we wouldn't have walked nearly as far! After we finished walking the walls we had a wander through the city trying to find a bar built into the cliff side which we'd seen from up top. Sat down and had a much needed break (and beer) at Buza Bar while admiring the views out. Aside from the iconic red tiled roofs, if one photo could summarise the old town it would be this one. Steps. Literally thousands of them everywhere. After ascending a few hundred steps and heading out of the old town and heading to the cable car entrance we discovered it was closed because of high winds and they had no idea when/if it would open again that day. So we went back down a few hundred steps and found a little restaurant for some much needed lunch. After lunch we checked again and the cable car still wasn't running, by this time our legs were about to go on strike so we opted to catch a taxi back to the port. View from cabin while leaving port a few hours later. This bridge was one of my first memories of Dubrovnik when I drove into the city for the first time some 15yrs or so ago.

Day 3 Dinner in Blu, delicious as usual, followed by a few drinks and then into the Club for the karaoke with the band....no, I didn't sing. I wouldn't even normally sing in karaoke but I was surprised that most of the people who got up were actually really good, so there was no way I was going to try and follow them! A wander around the top decks before bed, the ship does look great all lit up at night.

Day 3 - Kotor So we had booked a 4hr speedboat tour taking in most of the sites and giving us an hour on a beach somewhere half way through the trip. We got off the tender and went straight to the tour boat which was only a few mins walk (Kotor isn't that big!). We explained and she told us she already knew as she had other guests from Beyond booked on our tour. She would start the tour half an hour early and finish it early so we would make the last tender back in plenty of time. Great! We went and had a wander around, got some drinks and headed back to the tour boat where we all got on and set off. You can justtt about see Beyond in the distance, this was a couple hundred metres out of the port. The scenery around here is stunning. A natural small island with a church, they must have had a dedicated congregation to attend services there! This island, just a stones throw from the other, is entirely man made, something to do with someone once seeing an image of Mary I think in a rock under the surface so the locals piled more and more rocks until they had made a small island, where another church was built! After 15 mins on the island we set off again and were taken to an old WW2 sub base which had been built into the side of the cliffs. Tour boat took us right inside! Next stop was a blue cave but it was partly cloudy by this time so not as blue as normal! We stopped here for a bit and had the chance to jump off and have a swim. Not the warmest, but after a min or two you soon got used to it! Next was the beach stop, I forgot to take any pics, was too busy having a beer and some food! Back to the port in plenty of time and back on the tender. One advantage of the smaller Ponant ships is they can get into much smaller ports! Overall, a great day out and I would definitely recommend taking a boat tour around the area, it's truly stunning!

Day 3 - Kotor, Montenegro So the ships departure today (its a tender port) had always shown as 7pm. But then a throw away comment made by Alejandro (cruise director) in the theatre the night before made us sit up in our seats. "Don't forget, the last tender back will be 5pm". Ermm, surely he's made a mistake we thought, we have a private tour booked from 1-5pm! We went and checked with guest services, and nope, it was correct, the port had changed the times at the last minute which meant the ship had to depart earlier. While understandable it was out of their control, it was annoying because a. If we hadn't been in the theatre and heard Alejandro we probably wouldn't have found out that the last tender was now earlier until we got off the ship in Kotor and saw the signs. Communicate please Celebrity! b. It was especially annoying because the next port after Kotor was Dubrovnik, which is about 30 miles away!! Not like the ship needs 14 hours to travel the 30 odd miles to the next port, but ah well. The frustration from the earlier day was somewhat relieved when I woke up and opened the blind to be greeted by this view... Tenders (3 X ones from the ship but helped out by some local boats) were already running so we headed down, got tickets and waited. And waited some more. Finally just after 11am we were called down. This is another win for Beyond (and all E class ships I imagine). Destination Gateway, the magic carpet and the massive ship tenders make for a much more seamless tendering process. And the gateway is large, bright and airy so you're not left standing in random corridors here there and everywhere like you are on S class ships. Although the boarding process was swift, there had been quite a wait as for some reason Beyond had moored a very long way from the dock at Kotor. The tender rides were probably 20-30 mins long.

It was yummy! Appetisers we had the bazaar bowl, tandoori beef and I think either the risotto or gnocchi and then we got the shrimp and the crab cake for the middle of the table. For mains it was the salmon, lobster casserole and I had the filet and short rib Wellington and we got the roasted chicken for the middle to share. All were delicious but I'm glad I ordered what I did!

I'm afraid I can't answer that one yet as it was cancelled the night we wanted to see it. They said they'd try and reschedule for later in the cruise and it looks like it should be on tomorrow night now, hopefully we'll get there and find out for you!

Yep I'm afraid so. Just checked menu on the app too, turns out one of them (lobster roll) is actually $14!

Day 2 - Sea Day Let me try and get a bit of catching up done... Work was stupidly busy for me in the weeks leading up to the cruise, I didn't manage to get my hair cut before we left so on day 1 I went to the spa and booked myself a mens hair cut for 930am on day 2. I'd checked online before hand and saw a price of I think £34 listed. A bit more than the £15 I normally pay back home for a cut that normally takes a half hour, but ah well, I thought it would be a wash and cut and take a while. Nope. 15 mins later I was done and somehow the bill came to $62. Just like last year when I had a spa treatment and the bill was way more than anticipated, I vowed never to use the spa again and went on my way! Sorry but $62 for a 15 min long, dry mens hair cut is ridiculous. Met up with friends in The Club for the escape room event. It was nice to see quite a few people turned up for it and we were split off into teams of 10, I think 5 or 6 teams total. Basically each team received a box, a series of clues to get in the box and once in the box, had to solve a number of other clues to ultimately race to open the main big box on stage. We didn't win but it was good fun anyway! Off to Eden for a cocktail and a bit of hanging around in the swingy egg chairs looking out at the wake. Followed up by lunch at Eden Cafe, salad and sandwiches. Most sandwiches at Eden are free (and delicious), but there were 2 or 3 'premium' ones with a $9 charge which seemed a bit penny pinching tbh. There may or may not have been an afternoon nap, but that's what holidays are for, right?! Somehow it got to half seven and we headed to the theatre for an intro from cap'n Kate plus the evenings production show - Stage Door. The theatre is impressive in itself and then you add in the talented production cast and you have a great show. It was also really nice to see the theatre pretty much full. Granted the ship is sailing at pretty much capacity I believe, but last year on Reflection which was at around 60% capacity, the theatre always seemed less than half full which was a shame. That massive screen is seriously impressive. Also loved the lack of pillars so you had a great view from pretty much anywhere. Dinner in Blu after the show, forgot to take pics and can't remember what we had tbh! It was good, and service was OK. We caught the end of the silent disco and were going to go watch the jazz joint in the Club but due to tech issues they had to cancel it. Couple of drinks and then bed!

Slight interruption to the normal (slow) programming for some live views from the ship... We're currently sailing north past Stromboli, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Italy. Apparently its always in a state of eruption but not always as visible as it is tonight. It was also lightning in the background but I couldn't manage to capture that at the same time! Certainly added to the already surreal view!

Day 1 - Evening and Eden Booked into Eden for 8pm and I'd been quite looking forward to eating here. It didn't disappoint. Food and service were excellent. Love the open kitchen and seeing the chefs prepare the food. Watching them use fine tweezers to delicately arrange food on the plates somewhat puts my cooking skills of slapping the food from pan to plate with a big spoon to shame! We had originally asked for a table by the windows but realised that was somewhat pointless at the time we were eating as it was pitch black outside, so asked to switch to a table by the kitchen. Much better! Dinner was great, service was excellent. Followed up by a few cocktails and then grabbed some seats on the upper deck of Eden to watch the 'Decadence' show. Production cast did a great job and put on a good show, very enjoyable! Off to bed to discover they are still leaving mini chocs on the pillows!

Day 1 - Finding our way around So I previously mentioned the ship is beautiful. It is. Everything is new, the design and artwork is all stunning, a lot of thought has gone into making the ship look and feel very upscale. However, after looking past how amazing it looks, on the first day (actually probably couple of days) our thoughts turned to whether or not they had a ruler available when designing it...we frequently ran into dead ends, got lost, had no idea how to get from A to B or just couldn't understand why something was where it was! I will say, after a week onboard, it's become a lot easier. But I guess the ship design and layout doesn't quite flow as well as Reflection does. We all miss the glass elevators and atrium which runs from deck 3 to the top of the ship. The grand atrium on Beyond, while fantastic, doesn't feel as big. So we had paid for a 4 night dining package when it was on sale, after having a brief wander around the ship we headed to Eden to make a few bookings. We managed to get Eden for that first night and Le Voyage for night 6 and figured we'd decide the rest as we go. We also asked about the magic carpet dinner. I was pretty sure it wasn't includes in the dining package but the guy we spoke to outside Oceanview said yes we could use it however it was booked up but he would put us on the waitlist. Pleasantly surprised we were even more surprised to find later that day that the booking had appeared in the app for us all but said payment was due at the venue. Long story short, we spoke with several more staff and got different answers from everyone! Guest services finally got the Maitre D to come and talk to us and he confirmed that we were not booked on it (even though it was showing on our apps as booked) and it was not included in the dining packages. As way of an apology for the confusion and miscommunication he gave us a free lunch at Le Grand Bistro, so we were happy with that 🙂 After a few drinks at various bars we retired to our rooms to unpack and get ready for the evening. This might take a little longer to catch up, turns out this sea day was a bit busier than just sitting around doing nothing all day!

Day 1 - Embarkation We stayed the Sunday night in Rome, just a couple of blocks from the main Termini rail station. Originally booked tickets in advance for the train to Civitavecchia but for whatever reason we could only get tickets on the local train which stops at every station and takes much longer. We checked on the Sunday night and were able to get tickets on the express intercity train instead so did that. Turned up at Termini to be greeted with a board full of delayed trains but luckily ours was only running 10 mins late. Arrived at Civitavecchia just before 11am and hailed a cab to take us to the port. Boarding process was quick and easy and we were onboard and on the way to our cabins on deck 9 within 15 mins. First impressions of the ship as we made our way up deck 9 were wow, she's a beauty! "Still smells new" was a comment from my friends and it does indeed look and smell like new still. Cabin is fantastic and a definite step up from the slightly dated ones we had on Reflection. The infinite veranda/window is fine for me, I love that the room feels so much bigger, lighter and with a clearer view out. With the window down it feels to me at least much like a regular balcony. However, I will say my friends in the cabin next door don't like it quite as much - one is an early riser while the other likes to sleep in longer. She realised early on that it was impossible to sit on the veranda, close the bifold doors and raise the blind without waking her partner up, and he can be a bit crabby first thing! The only other downside is the inability to open up the partitions between balconies which we did on Reflection. It was nice last year for one of us to go grab teas and coffees in the morning and sit on our enlarged balconies for a bit first thing. However, we also had hump balconies last year which made it even better, not sure we would have spent as long on them if they had been regular size. Also last year we were much closer to the nearest place to grab a coffee (right by elevators, 2 decks away from the spa cafe), this year we're quite a trek down the corridor, not sure we'd be taking drinks and pastries back to our rooms even if we could sit on our balconies together. Bathroom is stunning and a decent size. The heated mirror (which our cabin attendant told us was only a feature in AQ cabins) really works a treat. Overall, I don't think having a real balcony vs the IV ones on E class ships would sway our decision for future cruises. There are pros and cons and we don't think it's that much of an issue to really factor into future plans. For me, the Beyond IV cabin takes a win over the Reflection cabins as they currently are. Maybe once they're updated one day, some day, it will be a closer competition. My friends are undecided. Our first thing in the morning tea and coffee sessions are now downstairs outside Eden, whenever we are all awake and conscious!

Morning all, so I'm a bit late to the party here but figured with today being a sea day (it's day 7 already) I'd have a bit of time to put a few thoughts and pics together of the cruise so far. Also upgraded my Internet package yesterday so I can send photos and it's not quite as painfully slow! One of my favourite things on here is reading trip reviews and live from threads, so only fair that I contribute something, even if I'm a little behind. I'm traveling solo with two friends staying in the cabin next door. This is the second cruise we've done together after spending 11 nights on Reflection last year. As this is our first time on an E class ship, I'll be throwing a few comparisons to Reflection and pros and cons of both that we've encountered. We're staying in Aquaclass and have been/will be eating in Blu and specialty restaurants so won't be able to comment on any food in any of the MDR's. Just as a heads up, the food in Blu is just as good as it was last year, we've noticed no changes in menus or food quality. Itinerary: Day 1 - Civitavecchia, Italy Day 2 - Sea Day Day 3 - Kotor, Montenegro Day 4 - Dubrovnik, Croatia Day 5 - Corfu, Greece Day 6 - Katakolon, Greece Day 7 - Sea Day Day 8 - Messina, Sicily, Italy Day 9 - Naples, Italy Day 10 - Livorno, Italy Day 11 - Civitavecchia, Italy Ill try and update more through the day, if anyone has any questions about anything onboard feel free to chime in and I'll do my best to answer! A

Currently on Beyond, not sure what menus you had but out of 2 nights so far there has been 1 pasta dish, the duck ravioli which was delicious. Same number of items offered each night as a year ago on Reflection. Service has been good so far and its not noisy, no more than any other restaurant.