Edge Trip Report - March 1-8 Western Caribbean, Inside cabin

[dopey1200]

Hello,

Quick background - my husband and I are in our mid 50's. We've cruised about a half dozen times on various cruise lines - RC, Carnival, Princess and Celebrity. Up until this Edge cruise, the Celebrity Summit was our favorite. We almost always do inside cabins - we just don't spend enough time in our cabin to warrant paying extra for a window or balcony. We took advantage of the Veteran's Day deal & got all 4 perks for a low price. 

 

Embarkation: Download the app and do the Expedited check-in!! You scan your passport and add your own pic to the app ahead of time & choose your approximate time of arrival. Aside from being stopped to answer a few questions about any possible exposure to the corona virus, we literally walked right onto the ship. I'm not sure how long the other line was because we were too busy heading onboard that we didn't bother to stop & look. We were able to go to our cabin, get our sea passes and leave our carry-ons there. Our steward said our room wasn't quite ready yet, but I think she only had to stock the mini-fridge & finish up a few things. Not that it mattered, we weren't staying there yet anyway. We had a whole ship to explore!

 

The App: It's awesome. Do yourself a favor & download it & use it. It's so easy to see what's to eat, drink, see & do. You can make reservations for dinner, you can add things to your calendar & then you'll get reminder notifications of upcoming events so you don't miss anything that you wanted to do. It also has deck maps for the whole ship. You can connect to the ship's WiFi for free to use the app. I've included a few screen shots from the app. 

 

Corona virus: There was not a lot of fear yet about it for our sailing. We never once considered canceling. We were the 2nd last cruise before all were cancelled. There was no hand-shaking going on and everybody, for the most part, was good about hand washing and using sanitizer. It's been over 14 days since we returned, so I think we're in the clear. 

 

Cabin: We were in 9102 (see pic for location). It was actually a Deluxe inside cabin, so it was 200 sq. ft. instead of 180. Part of the 4 perks deal was that you were not able to choose your cabin, but luckily we were happy with ours. It might have been better to be more in the middle of the ship instead of all the way to the front, but we also did not have a lot of traffic walking past our door, so that was a plus. The room was laid out nicely and had a ton of storage. We didn't even begin to use it all. The bathroom was awesome! So much storage and we loved the shower! Between the size of the shower and the strong water pressure, we couldn't have asked for anything better. The only thing missing was the retractable clothesline for hanging bathing suits. I followed advise from others on CC and made my own with two strong magnetic hooks and a portable clothesline (see pic). There still wasn't enough room to hang up everything, but at least it took a few things off of the few hooks in the bathroom & shower. We did have one small problem with the bathroom door. It has a magnetic closure, so when it's close to being closed it snaps shut with a loud bang. No matter how hard you try to not let it slam, it does anyway. This is a problem at night when one of us is sleeping and the other has to use the bathroom. (Remember, we are in our 50's, so we both get up at least once if not more during the night 😁). So my husband came up with the idea to hold a washcloth or hand towel in between the door and the frame while shutting it to lessen the bang. Worked like a charm. 

 

To be continued....

[dopey1200]

Ship in general: We loved the Edge! Very beautiful and well laid out. Not too big but yet not too small. The Magic Carpet seems to be a waste. We were sitting on it on Deck 14 as we were getting ready to sail away from Key West. We had great seats on a comfy couch looking directly outward. Then we were told we had to leave. I guess they were getting ready to move it down to Deck 5. And I thought it was supposed to be used for better tendering, but it was not used for that purpose when we tendered in Grand Cayman. The Rooftop Garden is a great space but needs some shade during the day. Eden is very unique. I loved the whole garden feel and all of the different levels and nooks and crannies. The drink menu there is very weird and pricey (see pic). We were not ever at Eden to catch the Revelation show, but the acoustic acts were good. The Grand Plaza is very nice with plenty of seating in and around it. The martini bar does not have much seating at all – only about 10 seats and some room for standing at it. The martini menu is extensive – something for everyone. But do be sure to catch the flair bartenders when they put on their show. It was so much fun to watch them because they have so much fun doing it. There are not enough seats in the shade around the upper decks & pool areas. I burn easily & have had some skin damage from the sun, so it’s important for me to be in the shade. I guess we always did manage to find seats, but on some days it took a lot of walking around. Loungers in the solarium pool area were my favorite, but sometimes it got too hot in the heat of the afternoon. The shops are all ridiculously expensive and I can’t believe that enough people buy from them to make them profitable. The casino was nice. We had a bunch of OBC to use so we gambled a little every night. The first few nights we weren’t winning much at all, but things got better later in the cruise.

 

Food/Restaurants: Everything we had was anywhere from very good to excellent, except the buffet. I would say it’s pretty darn good for a buffet with a really good variety, but I’m sorry, a buffet will always be a buffet. It was arranged in such a way that it was never obnoxiously crowded. We had breakfast at the buffet every day & we sat at the same table every day. It was a high-top bar-like table facing the windows, so you could always have a nice view over the people sitting at the regular tables. The treats at Café al Bacio were always quite tasty and they have a good variety of drinks that varied from day to evening. I love the idea of the 4 different main dining rooms. We were Select Dining & we never made reservations, but there was almost never a wait. We ate at 3 of the 4 restaurants but ended up at Cosmopolitan the most for no real reason. Even though we were select dining they managed to seat us in the same section every night so we had the same wait staff. The wait staff always greeted us by name. The BBQ short rib starter in the Cosmopolitan restaurant was to die for. We never ate at any of the specialty restaurants.  

 

The Crew: I have to say this ship has the friendliest crew I’ve ever come across. We were greeted by every single crew member with a “hello, good morning (afternoon or evening)” We actually joked about how we wished they would stop because it almost overkill! As I said above, the wait staff always greeted us by name.

 

To be continued...

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by dopey1200

[dopey1200]

Behind the scenes tour: This was very interesting. We got to see the kitchen, the engine control room, the provisions area on Deck 1 (or maybe Deck zero?), the laundry room, one of the areas where the crew gets to chill, and the bridge. As soon as our group entered the bridge, Captain Kate saw us and quickly came over to greet us. She is so nice & personable and of course she had her cat with her, so we were greeted by Bug Naked with a friendly meow, LOL. We also went to Capt. Kate’s Q&A later in the week and I highly recommend it. She is smart, funny, personable, and has some great stories to tell. Her daily announcements, complete with a word puzzle of the day and a quote of the day, are also worth a listen to.

 

Miscellaneous: We did attend some of the activities, such as trivia and game shows, which were all fun. The comedian Dan Grueter was extremely funny. I think he was a special guest (we picked him up in Cozumel). We only saw one of the production shows – they just aren’t really our thing. It was good and the singers are very talented. We did see the acrobatic show that happens in the Club every night and it was enjoyable.

 

Key West: We did the conch train tour which was nice. It’s hop on and hop off, so you can do your own thing. We of course had to get our picture taken at the Southernmost Point. There was a short line, it took less than 10 minutes. We had lunch at Two Friends, visited the Hemingway Distillery, had a beer at the Southernmost brewery (First Flight), and walked around town.

 

Costa Maya: We were not able to dock here due to bad weather. We’d had booked YaYa Beach & got a refund from them.

 

Cozumel: We actually docked here at 7pm the night before our expected arrival due to not being able to dock at Costa Maya. We had hoped to walk around San Miguel, but we weren’t at the right pier to be able to just walk there – we would’ve had to take a taxi. We just didn’t feel like doing that. We did get off the ship and the few restaurants in the area were open along with a few of the shops, but a lot of things were closed. It was a good opportunity to see the Edge from the pier while it was lit up at night (see pics). The next day we’d had a reservation at Chankanaab (booked on our own, not a ship excursion). Taxi was $12 each way. We did the buffet lunch & snorkel package (I think it was only $37 a person, and I’m pretty sure the snorkel alone was $25). I won’t go into a lot of detail, but if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try to answer. Snorkeling & lunch were both pretty good.

 

Grand Cayman: We did the Dolphin Encounter & Seven Mile Beach Break (booked thru the ship with OBC). It was a cool experience. We got to kiss and be kissed by the dolphin, dance with it, pet it, etc. They took pics for you but man the photo packages were pricey. We had done a sea lion encounter at Coral World before & their photos were much better & a lot cheaper. There is a little restaurant on site (not included) and the pork tacos & fried fish we had were both really good. We did not have a lot of time at Seven Mile Beach (we were at the Coral Beach Club), but it was nice & they did have food/drink available for purchase there.

 

In Summary: We loved the Edge & definitely hope to cruise on it again. I’m sure I’ve forgotten many things that I wanted to say, but I will add any as I think of them. I hope all of you that had your cruises cancelled get to reschedule soon. I will be happy to try to answer any questions.

[dopey1200]

Pictures from first post didn't show up right...trying again....

[mafig]

Thank you for your review.  I enjoyed reading it.

 

Very nice pictures, too.😱😃

[dopey1200]

On 3/24/2020 at 6:36 PM, mafig said:

Thank you for your review.  I enjoyed reading it.

 

Very nice pictures, too.😱😃

Thank you. I'm glad somebody appreciated it! I thought a review would be a welcome change from all of the corona virus and cancellation posts, but apparently not. 🥺

[bunnyette]

At last a complete review!  Thank you.   

[Luckiestmanonearth]

Nice review and pics

[Reel Love]

Thank you for the review and pics!!   Much appreciated  😊

[davekathy]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise. 

[dopey1200]

Thank you all for your kind comments 🤗

[Luckynana]

Great pictures.  She looks like a beautiful ship! Thank you for sharing.

[Germancruiser]

Thanks great pictures- Capt. Kate and her Bug naked  are an attraction in their own way. Hope to cruise with her on the helm one day!

[vettegal99]

We were on this same March 1 sailing.  Only our 2nd Celebrity cruise.  We loved this class of ship and your review was great.  Have to agree the friendliest Captain and crew.  We will definitely sail Edge class ships when it becomes safe again.