Beyond - Live Post Aug 8-18 Greek Isles and Italy

[Lena11033]

Thanks everyone. Yesterday seemed a lot 
I was up early thanks to my watch not syncing with my phone for the new time. So took the chance to do a few laps around the decks to get steps in. 10am I had behind the scenes tour and then straight to lunch I did go to ocean view but after watching people today the next sea day I’ll go elsewhere, just made me a little uncomfortable watching people walk past hand washing stations. 
 

After lunch I had a massage then trivia on bugnaked (i never realized people knew so much on this cat). After that it was get ready for evening chic I had a booking at e
but today it’s packed. Apparently we have a few short of 2900 people so that explains why there was no where to sit today. 

yesterday I had dinner at Tuscan, most of the food was excellent but wasn’t a fan of the desert (biscuit croustilliant). Starter I had was eggplant caponata and then prime rib for main.

The waitors were very good but the sommelier never once came to my table and the dining room wasn’t full so must be just short on staff. 
after dinner I headed to the club for the pub trivia I was quite tired so headed back to my room after to call my husband and furbabies
 

[Lena11033]

Yesterday was a sea day and I was up early thanks to my watch not syncing with my phone for the new time. So took the chance to do a few laps around the decks to get steps in. 10am I had behind the scenes tour and then straight to lunch I did go to ocean view but after watching people today the next sea day I’ll go elsewhere next time, just made me a little uncomfortable watching people walk past hand washing stations. They do have people with hand sanitizers but if someone is trying g to eat without even washing hands I don’t know what else they are doing. I want to sit outside for a bit before my next thing but it was packed and all the seats were taken (either by people or things left there for their spot) and I can’t go in the pool right now so left me with walking around the ship for a bit. 
 

At 2pm I had a massage (note for the ladies if they are trying to sell you on a treatment for cellulite and bloating a good way to get out of it is tell them it’s your time of the month they tell you to come back after it’s done and leave it alone) then trivia on bugnaked (i never realized people knew so much on this cat). After that it was get ready for evening chic I had a booking at Eden which was amazing for starters I had a cervice, got the main lamb and then Azteca chocolate tart. After which I went for a walk to digest and watch the sunset then headed to the casino for a bit (won back about half of what I spent) then to the club again. I wasn’t feeling the silent disco last night I kinda wanted a quieter night as I knew I’d be up early today and the clocks change again, poor husband is having trouble of keeping track of the time zones lol. 
 

Today we are docking in Athens I need to figure out dinner because my shore excursion time changed and wasn’t notified. I noticed on the ticket I received in my room so my MDR time I had to cancel and can’t rebook as not slots available 

[jimbri]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.  Glad your back has improved.

[Cathymichael16]

Thank you for all the great information! For the MDR dining, how do you “choose” where you are going? Do you have to make reservations every day or are the restaurants picked for us?

[Lena11033]

6 hours ago, jimbri said:

Looking forward to the rest of your review.  Glad your back has improved.

Thanks me too it was a worry with all the walking and carrying camera stuff so I just haven’t done anything outside of that to be safe. 

[Lena11033]

5 hours ago, Cathymichael16 said:

Thank you for all the great information! For the MDR dining, how do you “choose” where you are going? Do you have to make reservations every day or are the restaurants picked for us?

i think if you have a set time you have to speak to the Maître d’ about trying the other restaurants. If you have anytime dining you can or room different ones on the website in advance which is what I did. I selected different times and restaurants 

[Oceansaway17]

wow that is neat that Captain Kate has a trivia about her cat and even brings it to the lounge.  so cool as they are both famous.

[hawkesbaynz]

My Labrador Winnie wanted to be the Silhouette’s dog and tried to swim out to her in May. She heard that Jim was on her! Unfortunately although a labraotter it was too fast!

 

Regarding the 4 MDRs can you just wander up to them of an evening and ask to be seated. I cannot see us booking anything in advance. It is like herding cats to arrange anything for our September Beyond cruise. Luckily it is my birthday and I have booked/paid for a couple of speciality restaurants, so no arguments for those nights. Am still not aware of what anyone is doing in any port. 

 

[hcat]

When  sailing full, advance res will come in handy at the 4 mdrs..not all have open spots every night. If you don't care which one then it's easier to find something.

 

On EDGE  with the 4  mdr plan we pre booked..on line for the restaurants and times we wanted.

[Lena11033]

Didn’t get a chance to post yesterday as I was exhausted. 
 

day 3 is Athens they had to hanged the order of the port a couple of months back so instead of having almost 12 hours we had seven and my excursion left at 1:45 so it wasn’t a lot of time. 
 

i started early doing some laps around the ship and hitting the buffet for breakfast, find as soon as it opens it’s nice and quiet. After that just relaxed with some coffee and watched the ship come into port. My excursion was the acropolis and lunch (was not lunch). Because the tour was leaving at 2 I had light lunch on the ship. Once the ship was docked I let the first waves of people off because I didn’t need to be off straight away when I did get off for the tour that’s when the mess began.
 

First of all we left the port with everyone but one. Drive for five mins and she turns up so we had to go back for her, as soon as she was on the lay down and went to sleep (so either hungover or still drink from the night before). Once at the acropolis a few people hadn’t realized they were going to be climbing to the top of the hill 😅

One elderly woman made it but one gentleman didn’t. He told his family member he’d wait at the entrance  but never told the guide, he figured that out close to the top. on the way down instead of going to eat we now had to backtrack to the entrance for the older man, he wasn’t there so now the guide is taking us around the lower grounds looking for the guy, eventually found him but it’s over 100f and we had no water so bit annoyed at this point. Made it to the restaurant and our late to the bus friend hadn’t read it was going to be kebabs and is a vegetarian so the restaurant scrambles to find something for her. Time we were back to the ship I hit the martini bar for a couple of drinks and call it a night, so the ‘lunch’ was actually dinner. I think next time I would risk doing the port alone, 7 hours is not a lot of time and I missed almost 2 hours because the tour was later and it wasn’t supposed to be 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by Lena11033

[hawkesbaynz]

Sorry that the tour was a fiasco. ‘Herding Cats’ comes to mind😧. Reason we usually do small private tours. Actually we did the Acropolis by a taxi on the last afternoon after a weeks yacht charter out of Athens. No need for a tour guide.  
 

Enjoying your cruise😀

 

[Scottishclover]

Thanks for taking the time to do a live report. Loving your photos. We are doing a similar cruise next summer on the Beyond. Did you find the temperatures to be really prohibiting? 

[dreamer321]

Thanks for the live report. Do you recall if they offered a multi-course tasting menu in Eden in addition to the à la carte menu? 

 

Thank you for posting photo's of the daily planner.  The Celebrity app doesn't provide the detail available in the printed copies.

 

[dani negreanu]

On 8/12/2022 at 10:39 AM, Scottishclover said:

Did you find the temperatures to be really prohibiting? 

 

I live in Israel, and we're used to hot temperatures and high humidity....

 

We were on Acropolis [Beyond] June 20th. Negotiated a 25 Euro flat rate taxi to Acropolis right on the pier. We were there early [9 AM] and had "skip the line tickets".

 

It was OPPRESSIVE hot. We're both fit, and as I mentioned, used to heat, but we struggled. All the walk is done in plain sunshine, climbing and "fighting the crowds".

 

[bunnyette]

On 8/11/2022 at 11:35 PM, Lena11033 said:

Didn’t get a chance to post yesterday as I was exhausted. 
 

day 3 is Athens they had to hanged the order of the port a couple of months back so instead of having almost 12 hours we had seven and my excursion left at 1:45 so it wasn’t a lot of time. 
 

i started early doing some laps around the ship and hitting the buffet for breakfast, find as soon as it opens it’s nice and quiet. After that just relaxed with some coffee and watched the ship come into port. My excursion was the acropolis and lunch (was not lunch). Because the tour was leaving at 2 I had light lunch on the ship. Once the ship was docked I let the first waves of people off because I didn’t need to be off straight away when I did get off for the tour that’s when the mess began.
 

First of all we left the port with everyone but one. Drive for five mins and she turns up so we had to go back for her, as soon as she was on the lay down and went to sleep (so either hungover or still drink from the night before). Once at the acropolis a few people hadn’t realized they were going to be climbing to the top of the hill 😅

One elderly woman made it but one gentleman didn’t. He told his family member he’d wait at the entrance  but never told the guide, he figured that out close to the top. on the way down instead of going to eat we now had to backtrack to the entrance for the older man, he wasn’t there so now the guide is taking us around the lower grounds looking for the guy, eventually found him but it’s over 100f and we had no water so bit annoyed at this point. Made it to the restaurant and our late to the bus friend hadn’t read it was going to be kebabs and is a vegetarian so the restaurant scrambles to find something for her. Time we were back to the ship I hit the martini bar for a couple of drinks and call it a night, so the ‘lunch’ was actually dinner. I think next time I would risk doing the port alone, 7 hours is not a lot of time and I missed almost 2 hours because the tour was later and it wasn’t supposed to be 

 

 

Athens is an easy port to do on your own.  You can grab a taxi to the acropolis or hire one for the day.  We did that…we went to the acropolis then a lovely lunch in a nice suburb by the sea and cape sounion.   There are lots of recommendations on the port boards.  I agree they shouldn’t have waited for the latecomer.

[Lena11033]

On 8/13/2022 at 6:53 AM, dreamer321 said:

Thanks for the live report. Do you recall if they offered a multi-course tasting menu in Eden in addition to the à la carte menu? 

 

Thank you for posting photo's of the daily planner.  The Celebrity app doesn't provide the detail available in the printed copies.

 

I believe so. I agree it’s not shown and the menu handed was that one but the family across from me the other night had a tasting meal so maybe it’s a case of just ask for it when getting there 

[Corgidawgga]

can you tell us who the cruise director is on the ship?

[mauimary]

4 hours ago, Corgidawgga said:

can you tell us who the cruise director is on the ship?

We just got off of the Beyond a couple of weeks ago.  A few days before we disembarked it switched over from Luigi to Tim. I don’t recall his last name but he’s a lot of fun. 

[Lena11033]

8 hours ago, mauimary said:

We just got off of the Beyond a couple of weeks ago.  A few days before we disembarked it switched over from Luigi to Tim. I don’t recall his last name but he’s a lot of fun. 

Yep English bloke, he’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been enjoying his pub quizzes in the evening

[Mimimalone]

Are you in a solo veranda cabin? My husband is a homebody as well so I have booked the Solo cabin for cruise our of Rome beginning of October. if it's oppressively small I might increase my MoveUp bid to a more aggressive amount!    Any other tips for solo travelers?

Edited August 17, 2022 by Mimimalone

[garyl62]

I've read other social media posts from people saying there are a high number of teens or young adults on board and the pool has been very crowded and people have been partaking in disruptive activities there during the day. Additional comments were posted about how things were getting out of hand in the lounges or bars in the evenings. Are you seeing anything like that or is it just a few people complaining and blowing things out of proportion? Thanks for your reply. 

[Hypo]

Hi!  If you have the time and are near the forward elevators, would you please check and see if they go all the way to deck 17 in The Retreat?  My DW and I are both mobility impaired and I hope there is a way to get her wheel chair up there.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Hypo

[dreamer321]

26 minutes ago, Hypo said:

Hi!  If you have the time and are near the forward elevators, would you please check and see if they go all the way to deck 17 in The Retreat?  My DW and I are both mobility impaired and I hope there is a way to get her wheel chair up there.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Hypo

I'm not onboard yet but the deck plan shows that the forward elevator bank goes to deck 17.

[riddle]

I am on the TA on 10/14/22.  Also on the 10/3/22 cruise so btb.  I have enjoyed your review.  I will be solo when I land in Rome but meeting up with friends before we sail.  What was your Rome hotel?

 

Looking forward to the Beyond.  I have probably been on eight Celebrity cruises.  Used to do NCL exclusively (to the tune of 55+cruises) but find their ships too rowdy as I have aged.  I love Celebrity.  

 

Off topic, but my husband will also be home with our dogs, one of which has Epilepsy.  How old is your dog and how long has he/she had seizures.  Interested in as much info as I can get. 

 

Thanks..

[peanut head]

So happy for your trip.  I would love to try an Edge Class ship in the future.