RK-NC

We've made it to North Carolina - should be home sweet home around 5pm! We stopped for lunch in Florence, SC at 1720 Burger Bar and highly recommend it 🍔🍔 I never had a burger on the cruise so I was craving one. DH had the Luminae signature burger for lunch one day - he said it was good but needed more onion jam and sauce. Look who was hanging out in the back at the restrooms! 😎

OH WOW, this is interesting! We just left Beyond yesterday morning in 9168 sky suite. It was a snap, crackle, popping, creaking, bowling ball rolling and jumping under the bed experience. We had it 5 out of 10 nights when we were in moderate seas (2-3 meters). The smooth sailing days, there was no noise. We had a great cruise (I'm still working on a live thread) but we will not sail Beyond again nor Ascent or Xcel.

On the road again, just can't wait to get...on the road again! Well, we've had another change of plan. After that delicious dinner and gorgeous sunset in St. Simons last night, we just decided we wanted to get home so we got up, packed up and hit the road about 8am. First stop - Chic-fil-A - our go-to fast food when traveling. We have rarely had a bad CFA experience but today we had an AMAZING service experience with the kindest, sweetest lady named Olga at the Brunswick, GA (Golden Isles Parkway) store. Remember how I said "people connection" on post #71? I'm going to get better at it - it's something we've forgotten how to do, I think. (the pandemic didn't help ☹️)

Oh my goodness, Y'ALL St Simons, Georgia! (pronounced Gawgia 😉) Had an all crabmeat cake and DH had wild Georgia shrimp at Barbara Jean's Easy Southern Dining. The weather is perfect and it's a full moon tonight! The gnats were out so we had to keep moving while waiting for sunset. Somehow we managed to get 3.3 miles today even with 6 hours in the car. I'll get back to the cruise wrap-up but had to share! Ship is Glorious Ace, a vehicle carrier - it looked like it was going to run over the pier! It's heading down to Jacksonville according to vessel finder.

We saw a wide variety of dress on all nights - sports coats, suits, long dresses, sparkles along with smart casual (and some very casual). We dressed as we would for a nice dinner out at home. DH ultimately didn't take a sports coat though we considered it. He wore short sleeved button downs and pants. We found the public areas of the ship to be WARM. I would have liked it chilly because I was always having to remove my sweater or wrap. We kept our stateroom on 66!! We like it cold!

Several reasons but probably mainly the menu. Luminae menu is more limited and French (Daniel Boulud dishes) However, we spent weeks studying the different dining options and decided that we wanted to try as many as possible (no specialty though) We started with Luminae on the first 2 days then tried Cyprus, then Cosmopolitan. We had an immediate connection with Wiwid our waiter (and his team) and loved our meals that night so we just kept coming back! So we didn't get to try Tuscan, Normandie or Blu as planned but this is when I started realizing the "people connection" part of cruising. And that is what my special story will be about! Hope that helps!

I don't know - we meant to ask him about his contract on our last night at Cosmopolitan but didn't get a chance to talk with him long because they did a fun waiter parade through the dining room at 7pm then we rushed out to get to the theater for the 7:30pm show.

Good afternoon! We made it to (change of plan) St.Simons Island, GA - a quick and easy trip up I-95. Disembarkation was also quick and easy. We are so glad we packed light so that we could do self-assist. DH went to the garage for the car while I waited with the luggage. We were on the road at 7:30am! OVC opened at 6am for breakfast so we got a quick bite, came back to brush our teeth, grab the luggage and say goodbye to our stateroom. It was another quiet night with no snap, crackle, pop - it was smooth sailing for the last 3 nights of the cruise. We chatted with Butler Thad in the hallway after breakfast and he asked for a hug which was so sweet. We didn't have much contact with him other than hallway greetings. He brought coffee one morning when we requested it He brought us the delicious plate of truffles on day 4. I asked him how many rooms he had - 20. Prior to the butler debacle, he said it was 10. I hope we lightened his load by just being our usual do-it-yourselfers. DH named this guy Chief "Wanna-Sail" 😄 When we came out of the elevator on deck 9, we would say, "go left at Wanna-Sail" to get to the stateroom. Navigating a ship is sometimes fun but sometimes frustrating! I'll catch up on what we did on day 10 (sea day) next and then tell my special story. We're going out in a bit to explore St Simon - it's beautiful and the weather is perfection for the next 2 days!

Good evening! We're packed and ready to self assist off the ship at 7:15am. The production show tonight "Arte" was unbelievable. The entertainment has been out of this world - we never expected Vegas quality entertainment. We have a 12 hour drive and will be home either Wednesday or Thursday - first stop is Jekyll Island, GA I have ALOT more I want to add to this thread so hang in there with me! It's been an incredible cruise and something very, very special happened today that I want to share but I need time to process it.

We have arrived 20-30 minutes early to every entertainment or activity we've done. We believe our cruise was sold out. It's never felt overcrowded except today when we went to the OVC for the lunch Extravaganza Buffet. It was mobbed but we found seats and had an enjoyable lunch, chatting with a couple from Pennsylvania!

If's 3am on day 10...I can't sleep but there is NO cabin noise! We're having a smooth ride tonight. I'm just wound up thinking about how wonderful the crew of Beyond have been! Shout out to Constance in the theater ladies room, all the hard working baristas in Cafe Al Bacio, everyone we passed cleaning and maintaining this beautiful ship, Wiwid our waiter (and team) in Cosmopolitan. I could go on and on... We had a great afternoon and evening yesterday! Relaxed for a while in the swinging chairs in Eden then went to The Club for Musical Murder Mystery Trivia. This was a BLAST! Don't miss it if it is on your cruise. Our last dinner with Wiwid in Cosmopolitan - lobster and beef Wellington were delicious. We enjoyed chatting with the British couple beside us and got some great tips for our upcoming British Isles cruise. Off to the 730 show - Chris Lash "Love Songs" - relaxing and fun! Shout out to the Beyond house band! Our daughters were "band geeks" in high school and college - love the horn players! Chis Lash ended his show saying "be kind to each other" which reminded me of the chair hog situation. We haven't seen it on our cruise. This has been front and center everyday on "the newspaper" as we call it. Perhaps the reminders are helping.

@chrismch Please read through the entire thread for answers about Cyprus and Cosmopolitan, the 2 MDRs that we have visited. Tonight was lobster night and it was delicious!

@39august Yes, Eden is your best bet for a quiet spot. And we are just about to head that way for lunch! A good day to all. It's Chic night tonight! And we are doing some afternoon activities. It's going to be hard to tear ourselves away from the balcony. The sound of the sea is so relaxing and the temperature/humidity today is perfection.

Thank you @miched I was just reviewing this thread and had forgotten about the cookies at Eden Cafe!! We are going there for lunch today and will look for them 🍪🍪 There is SO MUCH choice on the e-class ships...sometimes it's almost overwhelming but my goodness, it's keeps things interesting! We're thinking about a future cruise on Apex (which I don't believe has the creaking and banging problem) and it's because of 1. the quality entertainment 2. variety of dining 3. crew/service.

Good morning! It's a sea day and we are basking on the balcony because we really haven't had time to do that much. This was our wake up view - we watched the clouds roll by for a while then went to Luminae for breakfast. I had the peach french toast and was a little disappointed that the peaches were not fresh (seemed like canned peaches to me). We've planned out the rest of our meals and I don't think we will be back at Luminae. Service has been very good but other than the cherry yogurt parfait, I can't think of anything that really wowed us. We went to Caleb Crawford's Beyond the Podium presentation on deadly sea creatures and enjoyed it while having our Al Bacio hit for the day ☕☕ I met him on the beach on St Kitts yesterday - he was excited to have seen octopi/octopuses (his favorite animal!) I called Sheldon, our room attendant this morning and told him to take the day off for our stateroom. We have had everything we needed and he has been excellent. The only thing we requested from him was firmer pillows on day 2 and he brought them right away. On future cruises, I've decided to do this more often...it decreases their workload and we don't have to worry about being out of the stateroom. Departure/Disembarkation instructions were on the bed with the daily schedule last night. It was a little depressing....the clock is ticking away fast now

There is a wide variety of music - varies with each cruise. We have enjoyed all the music on our cruise! We enjoyed everything we had at Cyprus! Yes, pyramid tea bags at Al Bacio. We have not done the Steakhouse or any of the other specialty restaurants.

It is very random - there are several threads here on CC discussing locations/stateroom numbers. We are midship on deck 9. Last night was another quiet night for us but we had 3 or 4 nights where it was quite noisy. Come prepared with "sleep aids" if you are not a heavy sleeper. We will wave to you on Monday! Have a great cruise!

Good evening (a late one for us "early birds" 🐦🐦 I promise to answer the questions posted ASAP but sleep is calling 💤 We took a 6 hour tour of St Kitts with Mr. Thenford Grey of Grey's Island Tours today that was absolutely amazing. First, St Kitts is gorgeous. We've been to 4 Hawaiian Islands and I believe St Kitts is just as beautiful. Second, Mr Grey is a true gentleman, a native of St Kitts who loves his country and is extremely knowledgeable. Highly, highly recommend this tour. We became fast friends with a couple from Atlanta this morning at breakfast and invited them to join us at Cosmopolitan for dinner. We had a wonderful evening together! Rebel performed again and it was even better than their first show! Big news........Retreat Soiree at 5:30pm....we met and got a photo with Captain Kate! 🚢

Current situation - waiting for sunrise from bed after a SOLID 7 HOURS of sleep with no creaking or banging noises!! Chocolate truffle "appetizer" 😋 Luminae for breakfast at 7:30am then we really and truly are doing an excursion tour of St Kitts!

We couldn't even walk a straight line over to the Martini Bar! 🤣 Hope you're having a great cruise @Mariastreby Time slipped up on us on embarkation day and we didn't make it to the meet and greet. Maybe we'll run into you before Monday. The days are flying by so fast now ☹️

Well, I'm amending this. We are enjoying everything about Beyond so much (except for the noise) so we might sail Apex. I think I read that it will switch to Port Canaveral in 2025 or 2026? Would be a closer drive for us. We have absolutely NO CREAKING tonight! We're going much slower on our way to St. Kitts so I think that's one reason. Fingers crossed for a quiet night.

Dinner at Cosmopolitan again with Wiwid. The maitre'd sighed and said "everyone wants Wiwid!" He sort of sings the menu to you! Brought us an extra appetizer that he wanted us to try plus an extra vegetarian main (I think since I had mentioned last night about trying to get enough veggies in. How do they remember all this?!) We went by guest relations after dinner to pick up envelopes for "bonus" gratuities. Isn't this Strawberry Cake so pretty? Show tonight was piano man Chris Lash - soooooo glad we went! We considered skipping it but he was very entertaining - lots of favorite tunes! Last photo is cruise director Alexa - we are enjoying her - great energy. Not sure, but I think she's going to be on Beyond for a while (just started with our cruise I believe)

Well.....excursion snafu. We were planning to do a food tour with eatnlime food tours. We didn't book it ahead of time, assuming that we would find them in the cruise terminal but did not. Sent them an email and found out they only work on prior booking. SO GLAD though! We are having the most relaxing, fun day on the ship and it's been raining off and on anyway. Our vacation motto - never be too rigid with plans. DH did golf chipping on the resort deck and we are just enjoying the vibe there. I may have done some chair dancing during the reggae set 🌴

On Beyond now. Almost everywhere is too hot for us. Other than creaking and banging in our sky suite, it's pretty much our only complaint. HOT today in Antigua, even hotter yesterday in Barbados. I want to be cool while eating dinner after being outside most of the day.

Welcome to Antigua! We had a quick bite of breakfast at Eden Cafe after picking up Al Bacio coffee. Back to our stateroom just in time to catch this view of the pilot boat pulling away. Look at what Butler Thad left us last night!!!! We were chatting with him yesterday about chocolate and he asked if we would like some truffles 😲 Yes please! We just had one for breakfast dessert - yum! We're going ashore today - stay tuned! We're actually going to do an excursion!