DragonOfTheSeas

It is Raw on 5. Yes, it is open from noon to 1:30.

Eden is a unique location. It takes up some space on decks 4, 5, and 6. The ship holds shows/experiences in here at night and they have dinner seating. It is also the location of various important events. We wanted to book Eden for dinner, but it was sold out long before the cruise. It is a beautiful venue.

This is my favorite place [art installation] on the whole ship. It is a hallway on deck 5 that leads from the aft elevator to Eden. The amount of light in the hall cycles from almost dark to a little light. It bounces off the blobs on the ceiling and floor and the mirrored walls. I waited to take this picture until there was the most light. It is very other worldly. You walk around the objects to get to the other side.

This morning there was a "Coffee with the Captain" at Cafe al Bacio. [also senior officers] It was well attended. He answered questions and took pictures with passengers. I got one, too.

The Captain just gave his daily update from the bridge. He is so funny. He only gives the position and tempersture and a couple of jokes. He is finished in about two minutes. Today's jokes were about Curacao. One comment was that it is a very small island and he hoped he could find it by Monday. He said that the seas are as smooth as they can get. If it were any smoother it would be illegal to sail. I know they are corny jokes--but, he is so serious when he says them. Ha Ha Ha! 🤣

We decided to head up to the rooftop garden while the weather was good. By the time we got there our friend the sun had left. However, there was a nice breeze and lots of seating. They even had a tai chi class.

The forecast today in the Celebrity Bulletin calls for 81 degrees and rain. So, we were pleasantly surprised to see this stranger at breakfast. The seas are calm and we have a smooth ride.

Yes, we were glad to see our suitcases easily fit under the bed.

Yes, our Mardi Gras cruise was on the Equinox. What a fun cruise! We have not had too much trouble getting into dinner, either. We shared a table to get into Cyprus around 6 the first night. We got into cosmopolitan with only a 10-minute wait on night two. Tonight, we had a pager and a 15-minute wait at Tuscan around 6:54. However, we finished around 8:15 and half the tables were empty. It seems to be working. The crew manning the desk says to come early to get a table. However, it seems there is more availability later in the evening. YMMV

They have been 7 and 9 for the last couple of days.

I got this in my cabin on the day we boarded. There was no explanation. I was lucky that I had read about these on another thread. Effy gives out a free mini charm that fits inside the glass circle. I went there before dinner and they gave me this list below and my first charm. I missed the one for embarkation day. I will try to get the rest. There were a couple of other women that got the list with the necklace. The jewelry stores onboard are always pricey--but, these are crazy pricey!

The other main area to visit is St Georges. This is a colonial town on the north end of the island. Besides visiting the historical building this part of the island is great for snorkeling.

Bermuda has an excellent transportation system of buses and ferries. You can purchase individual tickets or day passes. We always got multi-day passes and traveled all over the island. Bermuda is friendly, clean and safe [unless you are on a motor scooter]. This is Hamilton, the capital. My favorite way to get there is by ferry. There are many hotels and restaurants along the main street. But, we headed to Fort Hamiliton.

We have been to Bermuda several times. . . and 3 of those were multi day visits. The following pictures are from a previous visit. But, I thought you might like to see some of the places you can visit. This is Horseshoe Bay. There is a path along the upper shore that leads from one beach to the other. It can get crowded as you can see.

We are here! We arrived in Bermuda around 8 am. Our original departure was 5PM. Our cruise documents which we got about 2 months ago list the departure as 4 PM. Today the Captain announced we will leave at 3PM and all aboard is 2:30PM. All of the Celebrity shuttles to Horseshoe Bay beach were sold out months ago. [book early] This is our favorite beach in Bermuda, and it sounds like it is everyone else's, too. 😊 The weather looks iffy. It was clearing as we got here, but the clouds are rolling back in. DH and I decided with the short port time and his slow walking we would just stay onboard. We both enjoy an empty ship when everyone is ashore.

We are Diamond Plus on Royal Caribbean. Celebrity "matches" our status as Elite. This 2-side list of benefits was in our room when we boarded. I have to learn to be faster in making reservations. I called this morning to rsvp for some of these. However, the Eden Sneek Peek and the Theatre Event were already full. I was lucky enough to get a slot in the wine tasting. The Senior Officer Event and the Celebration event do not require reservations. . . .so my advice is to leave a voice mail message on embarkation day.

One unique thing about this ship is the amount of creaking it does. We are not in rough seas and the wind is not unusually strong. However, the creaking is very pronounced. I found it a little creepy yesterday, but I am used to it now.

I spoke with the person manning the desk at one of the restaurants. I went there just before 5:30 [opens at 5:30] to see if I could sign up for an open time later. There was no one in line. She told me no--I would need to come back when I wanted to eat. If there is no availability, they give out pagers. I asked why people could sign up for fixed dining if that was not available on the ship. She said they have just one computer dining reservation system for Celebrity, and it doesn't differentiate between the various classes of the ships. She was dismissive of the reservation system shoreside. On a positive note, we got seated quickly at 6pm and the food was excellent. We decided to try for earlier seating than our usual preference since there seemed to be a number of things going on in the early evening and we hoped passengers would be busy.

We sailed the Baltic on the Voyager July 31 to August 1. We only had 1300 guests. The ship holds 3600. So, there was no staff shortage for us. There were almost too few passengers. There were usually only 2-3 couples in any bar at one time. It was quiet. Service was excellent. Since a Baltic cruise is so ort intensive, we did not do lots of activities. I agree the ship needs a refurb.

We are enjoying a sunny and relaxing morning in the solarium. The solarium is quite large and has lots of loungers and even some art work.

The Captain just gave a briefing. He is so funny. The temp is 69 now and will be 75 later. It should be a beautiful day. We arrive in Bermuda by 8 am. We are halfway there at this point. Luigi gave an update on all of the activities. [I grabbed this image from the TV--so, not the best]

sorry double post

Thanks, I would not like sitting at a long table of 2s either. We are hoping to try each one.

It's time for a comparison of Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. So far, the food on this ship is better than what we have had recently on royal. We have taken 2 cruises since cruising resumed. [Enchantment in March and Voyager in August] I only have one night in a restaurant to go by--but, everything the four of us ordered was delicious. DH commented on how much better his Prime Rib was. There are way more choices in the buffet and there are many more seats. I do not like hunting for a table. I feel like a vulture trying to see who is ready to get up so I can swoop in and take their place.🤣 One particular stand out for me is dessert. On Royal I feel their desserts are very attractive and presented well. However, they taste bland. It is like they used too little of the flavoring. The desserts on Celebrity on this cruise and others we have taken in the past are beautiful and delicious. I will try to post some food porn later.

I had some trouble loading pictures last night. I think everyone was on the internet at the same time. I will try some text entries today on various topics. This is not intended as a rant. It is merely FYI. The biggest topics among several people I talked to yesterday was dinner reservations or lack of reservations. Those who have sailed on Edge before please chime in to add any bits of wisdom. [or correct any mistakes] I have only been on the ship one day. The Beyond does not have a typical main dining room. There are four smaller dining rooms [on decks 3 & 4] that each have a different theme/cuisine. Tuscan, Normandie, Cyprus, Cosmopolitan. The menu has the theme inspired dishes on the left side [they rotate nightly] and dishes that are common to all four dining rooms on the right side. Some of those rotate and some are available each night. Guests can choose early or late seating or select dining, which is like anytime dining on Royal Caribbean. For select dining you can make a reservation for a time or just show up. I usually make reservations because I do not like to wait in a line, On Royal Caribbean if you don't have a reservation, it usually takes from 5-15 minutes. If you have a reservation for the same time each night, they will assign you the same table and wait staff each night. I like that. For DH and me early dining is too early [usually 5:30] and late dining is too late [ usually 8:30]. We booked this cruise about 10 months ago and about 3 months ago I went into the Celebrity app and tried to make dinner reservations. My mistake! The only times open were 9 and 9:30. That is waaaay too late for me to eat. I kept trying almost every day--thinking they would open more seating. . . . but that never happened. I was not alone in that problem. It became a big topic on the roll call. Several members said that the ship reserves some availability until passengers are actually on the ship. They suggested going to one of the restaurants when you board to make reservations. There was enough discussion [read angst] about this that one of the roll call members said he/she booked this cruise well more than a year ago and made reservations as soon as they could. They didn't feel guilty about reserving all the slots and if people booked late that was not their problem. Ha ha ha. Of course, they did not post it exactly in those words. 🙄 That toned the discussion down a little. OK, fast forward to us boarding the ship and going to the Cosmopolitan restaurant. It was the only one of the four that had someone available. We had 12 or so people in front of us and twice that many behind us. We waited about 30 minutes in line and only 2 people finished making reservations in that time. As I stood in line, I tried the app again. I was able to make a reservation for 5:45 on night 5 in Normandie and 8pm on night 6 in Cyprus. All other time were taken on every day in all four restaurants. Neither was my first choice. So, we decided to just try to show up on the other days. If we had to, we could eat in the buffet on any night. So last night around 6pm we went to the Craft Social bar to have a drink. I told DH let me go to the restaurants and see if I could put our name on a list. The Cyprus had a much shorter line than the others, so I joined it. The six parties in front of me all had reservations and we seated within 5 minutes. When I asked about availability for last night, they told me if we were willing to share a table with another couple, they could seat us now. Woohoo! So,, we had a delicious meal with a couple from NJ. [They had not made any reservations either] When we left the restaurant the line was at least 20 couples long and the restaurant looked almost full to me. So, the moral of this story is book a few reservations as soon as you can on the app [you can always cancel] and if you decide to just show up, go early.