Ask me anything (AMA): edge villa on Celebrity Beyond

[LongStrangeTrip19]

Just returned from Oct 3rd sailing of Celebrity Beyond staying in an Edge Villa suite. Spent 3 nights in Rome before and 3 nights in Barcelona after. Ask me anything about the ship, service, ports, etc. Ate at most restaurants on the ship and tried to explore as much as possible. 

[OUBaylor1]

How was your stay in this suite?  Would you give a review of the Beyond Edge Villa suite?  Understanding that this is subjective, in your opinion, was the Edge Villa worth the cost?  

[NutsAboutGolf]

Did you try the Eden Cafe cookies and/or brownies? 🤤

[NutsAboutGolf]

On a more serious note, in the interest of a balanced review:

 

What were the top three highlights?

What were the top three lowlights?

[LongStrangeTrip19]

26 minutes ago, OUBaylor1 said:

How was your stay in this suite?  Would you give a review of the Beyond Edge Villa suite?  Understanding that this is subjective, in your opinion, was the Edge Villa worth the cost?  

The stay was great! We chose the Villa for extra space since there were 3 of us and it allowed us to have 2 floors with 2 bathrooms and came with essentially all of the perks you could ask for; however, we all agreed that next time we’d probably do the royal suite. I’m not sure the extra space was worth the cost in the long run and the Royal suite would’ve given us the same perks and the layout would’ve been fine. It was a great experience overall though and glad we did it at least once. 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

23 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Did you try the Eden Cafe cookies and/or brownies? 🤤

Hmm…Do you mean Cafe al Baccio, Sunset Cafe or Eden? We had many good cookies and treats but not sure if there was an actual Eden Cafe. We went to all of the shows at Eden and had dinner their twice. Eden was one of our favorite restaurants and we had dessert each time plus they always brought out a small tray of Petit Four treats after dinner. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 minutes ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

Hmm…Do you mean Cafe al Baccio, Sunset Cafe or Eden? We had many good cookies and treats but not sure if there was an actual Eden Cafe. We went to all of the shows at Eden and had dinner their twice. Eden was one of our favorite restaurants and we had dessert each time plus they always brought out a small tray of Petit Four treats after dinner. 

 

It's starboard; I'm not a huge fan of X's complimentary desserts but the Eden Cafe's cookies and brownies are the best cookies and brownies I've had at sea.  I've only been there on the Edge in 2021, no idea if it's now different but it was only open for breakfast and lunch on sea days and the desserts were only put out for lunch.

 

 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

24 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

On a more serious note, in the interest of a balanced review:

 

What were the top three highlights?

What were the top three lowlights?

I’ll write up a more detailed review but off the top of my head the highlights of the Villa  itself were:

 

Highlights:

1. All perks included and we felt we got great treatment. Generally if there was a line for something they would scoot us in front (boarding the ship, dinner reservations, disembarking). It also came with free internet, free laundry, spa access, etc. 

2. It was really nice having our own hot tub; we used it many nights and mornings. 

3. We had a lot of closet space for clothes, space to stretch out and relax, and privacy being on a floor with very few other guests. 

 

Lowlights

1. It wasn’t completely clear what the perks were until we asked several times. The spa ended up being included but we hadn’t read that anywhere and had to ask a few different people before they confirmed. 

2. When we first got to our room it was a little dirty; there was a random vitamin on the floor, a microfiber cleaning cloth and a lot of water marks on surfaces. 

3. We had a tough time with our butler at first. Service was inconsistent and we had to confirm and re-confirm all dinner reservations. About half the nights we had to clarify reservations; sometimes we were double-booked and other times it was the wrong restaurant or no one ever confirmed and they’d magically appear in the app right before dinner. 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

2 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

It's starboard; I'm not a huge fan of X's complimentary desserts but the Eden Cafe's cookies and brownies are the best cookies and brownies I've had at sea.  I've only been there on the Edge in 2021, no idea if it's now different but it was only open for breakfast and lunch on sea days and the desserts were only put out for lunch.

 

 

Oh wow! I’d didn’t even see that! Our cruise was 9 nights with only 1 day at sea. We all agreed that it would’ve been nice to have another 1-2 days at sea just to explore the ship. The ship is beautiful and such a different experience from other cruises I’ve been on. 

[OUBaylor1]

52 minutes ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

The stay was great! We chose the Villa for extra space since there were 3 of us and it allowed us to have 2 floors with 2 bathrooms and came with essentially all of the perks you could ask for; however, we all agreed that next time we’d probably do the royal suite. I’m not sure the extra space was worth the cost in the long run and the Royal suite would’ve given us the same perks and the layout would’ve been fine. It was a great experience overall though and glad we did it at least once. 

Thanks so much for responding!

[voyager1964]

How comfortable was the sleep downstairs? 

[tugboat]

How was the internet has starlink been completed on board yet?

[WonderMan3]

7 hours ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

I’ll write up a more detailed review but off the top of my head the highlights of the Villa  itself were:

 

Highlights:

1. All perks included and we felt we got great treatment. Generally if there was a line for something they would scoot us in front (boarding the ship, dinner reservations, disembarking). It also came with free internet, free laundry, spa access, etc. 

2. It was really nice having our own hot tub; we used it many nights and mornings. 

3. We had a lot of closet space for clothes, space to stretch out and relax, and privacy being on a floor with very few other guests. 

 

Lowlights

1. It wasn’t completely clear what the perks were until we asked several times. The spa ended up being included but we hadn’t read that anywhere and had to ask a few different people before they confirmed. 

2. When we first got to our room it was a little dirty; there was a random vitamin on the floor, a microfiber cleaning cloth and a lot of water marks on surfaces. 

3. We had a tough time with our butler at first. Service was inconsistent and we had to confirm and re-confirm all dinner reservations. About half the nights we had to clarify reservations; sometimes we were double-booked and other times it was the wrong restaurant or no one ever confirmed and they’d magically appear in the app right before dinner. 

 

I have never heard of spa access being included save for Aqua Class and that new Sky Suite category they created. What is included, access to the thermal suite? Is it any day at any time?

[LongStrangeTrip19]

5 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

I have never heard of spa access being included save for Aqua Class and that new Sky Suite category they created. What is included, access to the thermal suite? Is it any day at any time?

We didn’t see it listed anywhere but asked after doing a tour of the thermal suite and they confirmed we had access. It included access to the thermal suite at any time they were open. Our villa was also very close to the thermal suite so it was one of the best perks we had. 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

8 hours ago, tugboat said:

How was the internet has starlink been completed on board yet?

I was very surprised that starlink was stable the entire time and speeds were fast. I was able to work, video calls, stream music and videos, without any issue. We had a small window (1-2 hours) on our day at sea where it slowed down but other than that no issues. I work in tech and was worried about the speed so I did a few speed tests while on board. It was consistently 10mbps up/down and even got up to 100 mbps/download. Attached was the last speed test I did. 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

10 hours ago, voyager1964 said:

How comfortable was the sleep downstairs? 

I personally slept upstairs which was extremely comfortable. Our guest that slept downstairs thought it was comfortable but definitely not as nice upstairs. It’s a couch with a pullout bed that the cabin steward has to set up for you each night.

 

If I had to change one thing about the cabin, it would be to have a 2nd bedroom with a full-size bed. The current setup would be great for kids or even adult children but not ideal for an adult or 2nd couple. The bathroom downstairs was a good size but the bed, kitchenette and bathroom are all near each other. There is also no door separating upstairs and downstairs so noise travels up and down so not a ton of privacy. 

[mfs2k]

5 minutes ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

I was very surprised that starlink was stable the entire time and speeds were fast. I was able to work, video calls, stream music and videos, without any issue

This is good news since I need to do some work on board next week. Some have posted on Insta speed tests below 1Mbps which would be bad. 

[mfs2k]

2 minutes ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

I personally slept upstairs which was extremely comfortable. Our guest that slept downstairs thought it was

What are some reasons a couple might want to pay for an Edge Villa vs another large suite, if it’s just the two of them ?  Do you like the upstairs bedroom, downstairs living room or does it make the suite seem smaller ?

[LongStrangeTrip19]

6 hours ago, mfs2k said:

What are some reasons a couple might want to pay for an Edge Villa vs another large suite, if it’s just the two of them ?  Do you like the upstairs bedroom, downstairs living room or does it make the suite seem smaller ?

That's a great question. To be honest, I don't think there would be much advantage for 2 people other than a bit more space broken up across the 2 floors. Neither floor felt cramped and other than sleeping we spent most of the time in-suite either on the balcony or in the kitchenette area. You do have a 2 person hot tub and the top floor opens up to the Retreat deck, but not sure it was worth the extra cost in the long run. We did use the hot tub almost everyday but rarely used the door that opened up to the Retreat deck. Since we had 3 people, having a 2nd full bathroom in the downstairs was nice. 

 

For what it's worth, we've already decided that on the next cruise we would choose the Royal Suite. It was nice to do the Edge Villa once, but there is definitely a significant price difference. 

[rwf1]

Since the villa opens directly onto the retreat sundeck, do you hear noise from that area? People talking while walking by, etc? You had only one sea day, so perhaps that will be harder for you to answer.

[mtempelaar]

7 hours ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

We didn’t see it listed anywhere but asked after doing a tour of the thermal suite and they confirmed we had access. It included access to the thermal suite at any time they were open. Our villa was also very close to the thermal suite so it was one of the best perks we had. 

I am curious about this.  Why was the thermal suite one of the best perks?   We have struggled with whether or not we would even use it at all.  Was there something in particular that made this perk specifically more appealing?  Just the quiet of it?

[LongStrangeTrip19]

2 minutes ago, mtempelaar said:

I am curious about this.  Why was the thermal suite one of the best perks?   We have struggled with whether or not we would even use it at all.  Was there something in particular that made this perk specifically more appealing?  Just the quiet of it?

We enjoyed using the thermal suite mostly because it was quiet, relaxing and close to our room. There was also a deck you could access in front of the thermal suite that was always quiet and was the most forward deck you could access on the ship. There was almost never anyone in the thermal suite and it was open until 10pm so it was nice after a long day of walking to go use the steam room, sauna and heated chairs to unwind from the ports. 

 

I was surprised at how quiet the thermal suite was. It might've been due to the fact there were only about 2,200 passengers out of 3,200 or so on our sailing. I also found that a lot of guests got massages or other treatments but didn't really take advantage of the thermal suite. 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

7 hours ago, mfs2k said:

This is good news since I need to do some work on board next week. Some have posted on Insta speed tests below 1Mbps which would be bad. 

I used the internet almost every day and didn't have a problem. I did see some other posts that complained about the speed. I have no idea where the routers are located so maybe location matters on the ship but I did move around in the public areas as well as in the suite and had no issues. 

[LongStrangeTrip19]

9 minutes ago, rwf1 said:

Since the villa opens directly onto the retreat sundeck, do you hear noise from that area? People talking while walking by, etc? You had only one sea day, so perhaps that will be harder for you to answer.

I wish I had a picture of where it opens up to but there was absolutely no one near where the suite opens up to the retreat deck. The entrances are talked away in a little cover where no one would really need to go near unless you were staying in a Villa. All of the chairs, hot tubs, pool, and bar are far away or on the 2nd floor of the retreat deck.

 

I believe all of the Villas were full but we only actually ran into our neighbors once or twice by the elevators. Everything was very private and quiet. 

[danceswithphones]

I was wondering about the 'patio' outside the door on Deck 16. We will be in 15106 in three weeks. I'm hoping that is a low traffic area.