Celebrity Edge sails EUROPE in 2019!

Host Jazzbeau · March 12, 2018

I’m about to make probably a Big mistake and disagree a bit, respectfully of course, with our Host.

We booked the Edge Eastern Med cruise for mid-Aug for three reasons:

1. the Edge

2. It goes to Valletta Malta

3. It has 2 new (for us) Greek ports in the Peloponnesus.

We took a private tour in Malta that went to the Hypogymn, a prehistoric cave complex that predates Stonehenge. Only 10 visitors per hr so its restricted to smaller groups. Unbelievable. And sailing into the Valletta harbor with all the white limestone castles and forts is a true sight.

And looking forward to seeing what those other Greek ports hold.

I do agree that the Med has many other ports of call that need to be explored and I do wish Celebrity would add more overnights.

But that Eastern Med Cruise has some differences for us.

Den

Not a Big mistake, not even a little one [or given the time of year, a venial sin!] – just an honest difference of opinion. And BTW I am not the host in this forum – here I'm just another Celebrity fan, and one with maybe less experience than many others. My point is that the major cruise lines [and also Viking Ocean] tend to schedule the same itinerary over and over, maybe with slight variations but always visiting only big ports that can take big ships. We prefer the itineraries of a small-ship line like Azamara that (a) visits smaller ports and (b) rarely repeats an itinerary so you can string together b2b2b into your own mini-world cruise. But we recognize that Celebrity has better entertainment, more onboard activities, and newer ships with the 'Wow' factor. It's just that, even with only 3 Mediterranean cruises under our belts, we have already been to all the 'big' ports [including Malta] and enough Greek islands that they are starting to look the same -- now we want to visit less-scheduled places like Sicily [intensive, circumnavigation] and Corsica. I doubt that Edge will ever do that.

Denny01 · March 14, 2018

Jazz - agree with your opinion of same-same ports. With a few more ships, maybe Celebrity will expand their itinerary.

It is getting where not only is Celebrity making the same routes, the other Lines, even with smaller ships that could go into more off the beaten path, are doing the same.

The websites showing what ships are in port with your ship,is getting very depressing especially w the huge ships w 5000+.

We are currently on a land tour of Ireland and enjoying it. But it does remind us how good of a deal cruising is - not cheap and not just the tours themselves. But seeing Western Ireland that we miss on cruises.

One thing you forget on these land tours-every day is a full tour day: no relaxing ‘at sea’ days in between and no chance to just sit and not take the tour. But well worth it to see areas not visited via a cruise.

With overnight stays, it might work better - going to give Azamara a look at since that Line seems to do that more. Thanks for that reminder.

Den

kikki21 · March 19, 2018

It seems that the Edge will be doing a 3 night Cruise from Southampton but it’s not on general sale yet. I’m just waiting for confirmation whether it will be just a TA cruise etc or whether it will go for general sale at a later date.