Feeling the heat on the Beyond: Review of 10 day Italy, Greece and Croatia Cruise 7th- 17th July

[weacat]

Thank you so much for your review.  We just came back from our 12 night Baltic Cruise on Apex and your review from last year really helped us plan for this year - especially with DD age 9.  We are about to book this same cruise you are reviewing for next year but it will be on the Ascent.

 

So since we seem to be following you a year behind - what's planned for next year?  🙂 

[PurpleTraveller]

I'm sorry that you didn't particularly enjoy your day in Dubrovnik. If you ever go there again I would recommend that you walk the walls. We walked to the Pile Gate and it took us an hour because we kept stopping to admire the view and take photos and it took about 40 minutes to walk back to the ship. We got to the Pile Gate at 9.15am and took two hours to walk a full lap of the walls and enjoyed the wonderful views over the city and water. Because we were early the walls were not very busy and we beat the worst of the heat. We then spent a few hours exploring the old city within the walls. Dubrovnik was one of our favourite ports.

 

Thanks for your wonderful review.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by PurpleTraveller

[Scottishclover]

14 hours ago, wineoclock said:

Thank you - trying to persuade dh to go on Beyond in October. He spoilsport wants to go to my parents house in Cyprus. I get it - only have to pay for flights. But it’s our chance to try Beyond. Even more wanting to try it after your review!

The Beyond is really an amazing ship. It just feels so luxurious. Next summer the Beyond will be in America so this might be your only chance.  We do a lot of trips in houses/Airbnbs but it’s not quite the same. It’s so nice to be spoiled once in a while and we found the level of service from the crew to be exceptional. 

[Scottishclover]

12 hours ago, Provence55always said:

We were in Dubrovnik about 15 years ago and it was dirt cheap. Gorgeous seafood dinners with wine less than 20 Euro for two. But now everyone I know who goes there talks about how expensive it have become. Like you said it is drop-dead gorgeous, I remember the Croatia people were very kind. Your photos brought back many happy memories. 

I have heard that since the currency changed from the Kuna to the Euro prices are much higher. I suppose 15 years ago Croatia was still up and coming and prices were reasonable. I think for prices like that Albania might be a good shout. I noticed the ferry going there from Corfu was very busy!

[Scottishclover]

11 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

I'm sorry that you didn't particularly enjoy your day in Dubrovnik. If you ever go there again I would recommend that you walk the walls. We walked to the Pile Gate and it took us an hour because we kept stopping to admire the view and take photos and it took about 40 minutes to walk back to the ship. We got to the Pile Gate at 9.15am and took two hours to walk a full lap of the walls and enjoyed the wonderful views over the city and water. Because we were early the walls were not very busy and we beat the worst of the heat. We then spent a few hours exploring the old city within the walls. Dubrovnik was one of our favourite ports.

 

Thanks for your wonderful review.

 

Yes, I agree maybe we should have just bit the bullet and walked the walls. DH would have taken a bit of persuasion to shell out that kind of money for an hour of so. The issue we have is that we are always paying for four and invariably an activity for 4 for one hour almost always comes in well over €100. It soon mounts up. I think that’s why we enjoy hiking so much - the mountains cost nothing.

 

You are quite right about walking the walls early though. As we got the shuttle back to port the narrow steps on the walls looked quite congested compared to earlier in the day.

[wineoclock]

32 minutes ago, Scottishclover said:

The Beyond is really an amazing ship. It just feels so luxurious. Next summer the Beyond will be in America so this might be your only chance.  We do a lot of trips in houses/Airbnbs but it’s not quite the same. It’s so nice to be spoiled once in a while and we found the level of service from the crew to be exceptional. 

We have it on hold for 24 hours 🤞🤞

now to persuade him! 

[PurpleTraveller]

8 minutes ago, Scottishclover said:

Yes, I agree maybe we should have just bit the bullet and walked the walls. DH would have taken a bit of persuasion to shell out that kind of money for an hour of so. The issue we have is that we are always paying for four and invariably an activity for 4 for one hour almost always comes in well over €100. It soon mounts up. I think that’s why we enjoy hiking so much - the mountains cost nothing.

 

You are quite right about walking the walls early though. As we got the shuttle back to port the narrow steps on the walls looked quite congested compared to earlier in the day.

 

I do agree that costs can start to add up and especially for you with four. We rarely do excursions unless we have OBC and much prefer to DIY where possible. We much prefer to walk everywhere if it's not a ridiculous distance. 

 

I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your cruise. 

[Scottishclover]

11 hours ago, weacat said:

Thank you so much for your review.  We just came back from our 12 night Baltic Cruise on Apex and your review from last year really helped us plan for this year - especially with DD age 9.  We are about to book this same cruise you are reviewing for next year but it will be on the Ascent.

 

So since we seem to be following you a year behind - what's planned for next year?  🙂 

Glad you enjoyed your Baltic Cruise. I think Scandinavia is probably my favourite part of the world. We’ll set up for families too.
 

As for next year 😂 Well we actually have a cruise booked to Japan at Easter, but are in a bit of a quandary. We booked it ages ago and got a great deal. For once we even booked 2 rooms. However, it turns out neither of our girls can come. DD1 will be in Germany on an internship as a foreign language assistant in a school and just gets 1 week off at Easter.  DD2 starts her degree at St Andrews University in September and they have unusual semesters compared to the rest of the Scottish Universities and actually gets no time off. Her exams start shortly afterwards too. Now DH and I could still go on our own but we have left it so long to decide that the flight prices are a bit out of reach. We haven’t made a final decision yet.

 

We are looking at Norway and Arctic Circle next summer as an alternative. We’ve done Norway before with Disney in 2016 and loved it. The Celebrity Apex cruise has different ports and we can hike in them all, which is our activity of choice( you will find that out when I post the Montenegro section of the review). Also the girls would be happy to come with us too. Only drawback is it sails from Southampton which is a bit of a hassle to get to for us. Amsterdam or Copenhagen is so much easier.

[wineoclock]

We did Norway fjords on Silhouette in May. Spectacular. Have the Best of Scandinavia booked on apex for June. Didn’t love Apex but the destinations look fab. 

[Scottishclover]

In an attempt to help @wineoclock to persuade her DH to go on the Beyond, here’s my thoughts on the food.

 

First know that we are not foodies and have food preferences/ restrictions. I don’t eat meat, DH is has coeliac disease so needs gluten free and both daughters are vegan. I’m pretty sure the servers hearts must sink when they see us coming😂. 
 

Oceanview Cafe

We ate here for breakfast everyday and lunch most days. Fantastic selection. If you can’t find something you like, there’s something wrong with you. I thought the quality of what we ate was excellent. Typically this was: dishes from the Vegan corner ( 2 daily), Indian food, Salad Bar, hummus/meze station. Can’t comment on meat etc. On occasion, I had grilled mackerel and salmon with salad, which was nicely cooked. I also appreciated the Make your own Greek Salad station.

 

At breakfast and lunch there is a dedicated gluten free bread and dessert section. DH thought choice had improved  since our last cruise. The girls felt there were lots of vegan choices at lunch. Breakfast was slightly trickier but they coped. I think some vegan pastries would have made their day. 

A few criticisms:

1) Labelling needs to better. There’s actually a lot of vegan food throughout the buffet but not labelled as such. Cakes labelled as gf and vegan in the buffet were then just labelled as vegan at Cafe al Bacio🤷‍♀️ Bottom line be proactive and ask if you have food allergies.

2) DH was royally fed up with the gf bread by the end of the cruise. Even in Eden his bread offering was 2 slices of toast. Surely Celebrity could source some decent gf rolls?

 

MDRs

Chic night in Normandie. 
 

Overall I think the food in the MDRs was slightly better than on the Apex. I do like the 4 room concept. I had booked times in advance on the cruise planner but there was really no need. We normally ate between 6:30 and 7pm and there was never a queue. We preferred Cosmopolitan and Normandie but I think there are just certain servers you hit it off with. In our case the very sweet Dewi and sommelier Randy, who enjoyed a good joke with DH on his girly drink choices. 
 

The girls got a vegan menu each night

( last year the chef just veganised the veggie menu) . There was only a choice of one main course though for them. On 2 nights they didn’t like it but no biggie, they just went up to Oceanview to get something. DH didn’t order the night before like last year. We did look ahead ourselves on the app and if anything needed modifying he just requested it. Standouts for me were the Toasted Israeli Couscous cake and the speciality cod dish from cosmopolitan. I do think the menus are too meat heavy and the vegetarian option relies too much on goats  cheese and mushrooms. If you don’t eat a lot of meat ask for the vegetarian menu for more choice.

 

Eden

As we had a lot of OBC I managed to wear down DH into agreeing to go to Eden. You should book well in advance as it’s popular and with good reason. We both loved everything about Eden; the food, service and atmosphere. We were seated at the window directly at the wake, which just added to the experience. For once, I did take some food photos. 

Amuse Bouche - no cracker for DH.

DH had mulligatawny soup for starter.  I sometimes make this at home. Eden’s was better. I had the crab cake (delicious but filling) and we shared Bouquet of Garden Greens.

 

I had Corvina cooked in olive oil for main course.

 

DH had Filet Mignon ( gf minus the wellington) 

 

I had the Meyer lemon Tart for pudding

 ( and yes I could taste a hint of Lavender)

 

Petits Fours. Sorry started eating before I took the photo.  I think I got enough for 2! You can see DH had a separate plate in the background. He also had butterscotch crème brûlée for dessert. 
 

Even DH admitted it was an amazing  meal. There was also lovely acoustic guitar coming down from the Eden lounge area. We also had more of a chance to chat with our servers, which was nice.

My only criticism and this is really in general with the food. I don’t think there is enough sourced locally. For example in a specialty restaurant like Eden all fish should be locally caught. I was told my fish was from Panama 🤷‍♀️ There was a lot of salmon on board. On a Baltic, British Isles, Alaskan, Norwegian cruise I would expect this but not on warm weather cruises. 

 

Raw on 5

So the girls like to eat out a lot at Ramen places at home, so we said they could use some of our OBC to go to Raw on 5. There’s not a lot of vegan choice on the menu but the chef happily modified. They ended up having vegetable ramen no egg, mango and avocado ‘sushi’, edamame and yuzu sorbet. They also indulged in a cocktail - I think a gingertini and a tea leaf. They both enjoyed the whole specialty restaurant experience and complained the next night about having to dine with the ‘plebes’ again😂

 

The chef didn’t skimp on presentation for the vegan sushi.

 

The restaurant was sold out that night, so it pays to book in advance.

 

Thank you so much for all the lovely replies so far. Next up… our favourite cruise day in Montenegro.

 

 

[Scottishclover]

1 hour ago, wineoclock said:

We did Norway fjords on Silhouette in May. Spectacular. Have the Best of Scandinavia booked on apex for June. Didn’t love Apex but the destinations look fab. 

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on  the Silhouette. Another possibility for us for next summer is Baltics again ( some different ports from last time). Just not sure about Silhouette after being on Apex and Beyond. 

[weacat]

Sorry to read about your cruise to Japan.  I'm sure that would be an amazing experience.

 

We also looked at a Norwegian cruise for next summer but after the "cool" weather this past cruise, we want something warmer for next summer.  We are thinking of a B2B so we can see both eastern and western Mediterranean.  It will be an intense 14 days but we will be able to see a lot. 

[wineoclock]

1 hour ago, Scottishclover said:

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on  the Silhouette. Another possibility for us for next summer is Baltics again ( some different ports from last time). Just not sure about Silhouette after being on Apex and Beyond. 

I absolutely loved Silhouette. It had a homely feel though. Loved the Sky Lounge. We were in Aqua & both preferred Blu to Luminae. Dh was a bit meh - he prefers Apex.

 

I’m not keen on Apex but sailing on her again next year. I do like the retreat though.

 

I wouldn’t do Aqua on E class as I’m not keen on the IV. Spend so much time on my balcony.
 

Silhouette I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Blu. 

[wineoclock]

@Scottishclover

 

Thank you very comprehensive! Loved Eden on Apex but will have to see what we can get reservation wise this time. 
 

Can I ask if gf options in Raw on 5? I’m also gf as it affects my rheumatoid arthritis. I agree about the bread 😁

Silhouette had a dedicated gf section with delicious deserts in OV as well. 
 

We scored a good deal for a suite guarantee so will be in Luminae with a few specialities if available. But on Apex we managed to get reservations on board we just had to be a bit flexible. 

[Scottishclover]

KOTOR

 

What did we do?

Hiked the Ladder of Kotor first thing and then had a wander around the old town

What did others do?

Some people did boat trips in the bay and visited Lady of the Rocks Church at Perast. Judging by how busy Kotor was after our hike, I think lots just went to the old town.

Need to Know

Kotor is a tender port. Tickets for tender were available at Craft Social. Journey around 15/20 mins. Old town was about 5 mins walk from tender dock. 
 

DH and I got out on deck for around 6 for a very serene sail in to Kotor. A friend at my Zumba class and father in law had both suggested this.

The morning light was very pretty.

 

After a quick breakfast we donned our hiking gear and caught one of the first tenders around 7:30. We were so early, tickets weren’t required at that stage we just walked straight on.

 

Kotor Bay from the tender dock.

 

There’s  information booths just at the entrance to the old town and we got some maps and directions. We had to go old skool as our roaming data did not include Montenegro. It took us a little while to find the start of the hike and it’s not really well signposted. It’s left of the old town over a bridge then head for the path up by the Pekara Bakery. We were on the right path but it’s not obvious. 
 

When we finally started the hike it was 8:30am and already hot🥵 We each had our own filled water bottles with us plus a Celebrity water bottle too. We didn’t consider the hike to be too strenuous as it’s a series of switchbacks which cut out the steep incline. You can go even further up than us but after about a 2 and a half hour climb amongst stunning views, we decided to turn back. It’s best to do this hike as early as possible as parts of the path are shaded in the morning. If you are fit at all I would really recommend doing this hike. You don’t even have to go too far, as far as the fort would give you the views. The view from every corner was just wow. I just hope the my pictures do it justice. I’ll let the photos talk for themselves….

 

Early on we had an exchange with this man and his donkey who told us he was “ a proud Croat”. 

A tall ship sailed into the bay as we were walking.

The fort, about a third of the way up. You can access it via steps from the old town.

Can you spot the Beyond?

 

The path was not well defined in parts. Hiking boots would be ideal but we just had our trainers.

 

The sweat on my back is evidence of how hot it was!!

 

You can see the switchbacks here.

 

There were a lot of mountain goats around.

There were a few people hiking but we mostly had the path to ourselves.

 

We just kept going higher….

 

….Until we got to this point on a kind of plateau and decided to turn around. 

Just checking The Beyond is still there on our way back down!

 

By this time it was getting so hot. So hot in fact that the snakes were out sunbathing. Yes, I got a bit of a fright when a black snake slithered across the path in front of me. I’ve googled - it might have been a Whip snake. Needless to say I did not stop to take a photo and increased my speed to get off that damn mountain! I’m not going to lie, it was harder going down. The monotony of the switchbacks was beginning to get to me and DD1 a bit and we were trailing the others. To make things worse, our water was now getting to a premium. 

Nearly down….. but still pretty.

 

In total we had been hiking pretty much nonstop for 4 hours out and back. The Ladder of Kotor hike does go a bit further but I don’t think the scenery gets any better. Once off the mountain, we headed in to town for a much needed drink and look around.

The old town is set against a beautiful backdrop.

 

Kotor was a bit like a mini Dubrovnik but more authentic.It’s pretty but tiny and still has a bit of an undiscovered feeling about it. I will say it felt a bit swamped by all the cruise guests. I couldn’t imagine spending more than an hour or two here. Doing the hike was a great idea for us. Just so you know there are a lot of stray cats lurking about in Kotor. I am not a cat lover and found this a bit off putting but I know lots of people find this cute. After a potter about, we decided to head back to the ship. We did have about a 20 minute wait to get the tender and the cold towels and water came in very handy while we were hanging around. 
 

Kotor Verdict

I think you can probably guess what I’m going to say here. It was our favourite port but that was probably due to the hike. We are not good at just looking around and shopping, we need to be doing something active. I think you would be hard pushed to beat Kotor for scenery anywhere in Europe. It’s like Norway but with decent weather. By the way, the deck was still busy at 7pm for the sail out. Plan on eating your dinner later that night.

 

[Scottishclover]

1 hour ago, wineoclock said:

@Scottishclover

 

Thank you very comprehensive! Loved Eden on Apex but will have to see what we can get reservation wise this time. 
 

Can I ask if gf options in Raw on 5? I’m also gf as it affects my rheumatoid arthritis. I agree about the bread 😁

Silhouette had a dedicated gf section with delicious deserts in OV as well. 
 

We scored a good deal for a suite guarantee so will be in Luminae with a few specialities if available. But on Apex we managed to get reservations on board we just had to be a bit flexible. 

DH didn’t eat in Raw on 5. Japanese food is not his thing. The big issue I see with eating there gluten free is soy sauce. I use gf soy sauce at home when I’m cooking but not sure if they could accommodate at Raw on 5. Maybe others will have some experience of this? Sorry.

[Scottishclover]

3 hours ago, weacat said:

Sorry to read about your cruise to Japan.  I'm sure that would be an amazing experience.

 

We also looked at a Norwegian cruise for next summer but after the "cool" weather this past cruise, we want something warmer for next summer.  We are thinking of a B2B so we can see both eastern and western Mediterranean.  It will be an intense 14 days but we will be able to see a lot. 

I know, summer in Northern Europe can be unpredictable. We had very mixed weather the last time we were in Norway. Personally, I found we just about got away with the heat on this cruise. It would have been a lot more comfortable if it had been 10 degrees cooler. Mid 20s is my sweet spot😎 I did enjoy waking up though and not worrying about the weather. We are not used to that here😂

[wineoclock]

I agree Kotor backdrop is stunning - breakfast on our balcony was a highlight. 
 

Thank you re Raw on 5 I’ve always avoided & lots of other choices! 

[Stockjock]

Thanks for the nice write-up and photos.  Booked Ascent for next year.  I've wanted to try an Edge-class ship, so it will scratch that itch.  The food looks well-prepared too.

[Ellan Vannin]

6 hours ago, Scottishclover said:

KOTOR

 

What did we do?

Hiked the Ladder of Kotor first thing and then had a wander around the old town

What did others do?

Some people did boat trips in the bay and visited Lady of the Rocks Church at Perast. Judging by how busy Kotor was after our hike, I think lots just went to the old town.

Need to Know

Kotor is a tender port. Tickets for tender were available at Craft Social. Journey around 15/20 mins. Old town was about 5 mins walk from tender dock. 
 

DH and I got out on deck for around 6 for a very serene sail in to Kotor. A friend at my Zumba class and father in law had both suggested this.

The morning light was very pretty.

 

After a quick breakfast we donned our hiking gear and caught one of the first tenders around 7:30. We were so early, tickets weren’t required at that stage we just walked straight on.

 

Kotor Bay from the tender dock.

 

There’s  information booths just at the entrance to the old town and we got some maps and directions. We had to go old skool as our roaming data did not include Montenegro. It took us a little while to find the start of the hike and it’s not really well signposted. It’s left of the old town over a bridge then head for the path up by the Pekara Bakery. We were on the right path but it’s not obvious. 
 

When we finally started the hike it was 8:30am and already hot🥵 We each had our own filled water bottles with us plus a Celebrity water bottle too. We didn’t consider the hike to be too strenuous as it’s a series of switchbacks which cut out the steep incline. You can go even further up than us but after about a 2 and a half hour climb amongst stunning views, we decided to turn back. It’s best to do this hike as early as possible as parts of the path are shaded in the morning. If you are fit at all I would really recommend doing this hike. You don’t even have to go too far, as far as the fort would give you the views. The view from every corner was just wow. I just hope the my pictures do it justice. I’ll let the photos talk for themselves….

 

Early on we had an exchange with this man and his donkey who told us he was “ a proud Croat”. 

A tall ship sailed into the bay as we were walking.

The fort, about a third of the way up. You can access it via steps from the old town.

Can you spot the Beyond?

 

The path was not well defined in parts. Hiking boots would be ideal but we just had our trainers.

 

The sweat on my back is evidence of how hot it was!!

 

You can see the switchbacks here.

 

There were a lot of mountain goats around.

There were a few people hiking but we mostly had the path to ourselves.

 

We just kept going higher….

 

….Until we got to this point on a kind of plateau and decided to turn around. 

Just checking The Beyond is still there on our way back down!

 

By this time it was getting so hot. So hot in fact that the snakes were out sunbathing. Yes, I got a bit of a fright when a black snake slithered across the path in front of me. I’ve googled - it might have been a Whip snake. Needless to say I did not stop to take a photo and increased my speed to get off that damn mountain! I’m not going to lie, it was harder going down. The monotony of the switchbacks was beginning to get to me and DD1 a bit and we were trailing the others. To make things worse, our water was now getting to a premium. 

Nearly down….. but still pretty.

 

In total we had been hiking pretty much nonstop for 4 hours out and back. The Ladder of Kotor hike does go a bit further but I don’t think the scenery gets any better. Once off the mountain, we headed in to town for a much needed drink and look around.

The old town is set against a beautiful backdrop.

 

Kotor was a bit like a mini Dubrovnik but more authentic.It’s pretty but tiny and still has a bit of an undiscovered feeling about it. I will say it felt a bit swamped by all the cruise guests. I couldn’t imagine spending more than an hour or two here. Doing the hike was a great idea for us. Just so you know there are a lot of stray cats lurking about in Kotor. I am not a cat lover and found this a bit off putting but I know lots of people find this cute. After a potter about, we decided to head back to the ship. We did have about a 20 minute wait to get the tender and the cold towels and water came in very handy while we were hanging around. 
 

Kotor Verdict

I think you can probably guess what I’m going to say here. It was our favourite port but that was probably due to the hike. We are not good at just looking around and shopping, we need to be doing something active. I think you would be hard pushed to beat Kotor for scenery anywhere in Europe. It’s like Norway but with decent weather. By the way, the deck was still busy at 7pm for the sail out. Plan on eating your dinner later that night.

 

I think we met  and spoke to you when you were on the way back down. It was certainly hot that day as you got towards the top. Much easier last time we were there in the rain.

We had intended to hike through the forest more this time but the thought of ice cold beer in town won the day

[wineoclock]

On 7/29/2023 at 4:49 PM, Scottishclover said:

 

😂😂😂 I understand but here’s the thing, the price differential between an inside and veranda allowed us to have a cheeky wee trip to Porto and Lisbon instead. We did move-up last year to a IV on Apex and considered it for this trip but DD1 is studying in Germany this year so we thought the money could be better used for flights to visit her there. And honestly we only used the balcony section last year to air our gym clothes. We are more out and about on the ship people.

 

I find the storage for 4 to be adequate in an inside but you do have to be on top of keeping things organised. I did do a bit of nagging on that front but was entirely vindicated as our stateroom attendant told me she had all her colleagues come and see her “showroom” . Nobody could believe there were 4 adults in there🤩

 

Another bonus is that our daughters are teeny weeny which helps. 4 in a room can be done and we wouldn’t think twice about doing it again to save some money. I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to spend the money for a suite but I know others feel differently. Remember we are canny Scots…..

Can I ask if you took magnetic hooks? Or were there coat hooks already? Thinking of taking them for coats etc. It was great on Silhouette as they had hooks so coats etc didn’t need to take up wardrobe space. Far more useful than I ever thought necessary! 

[Scottishclover]

4 hours ago, wineoclock said:

Can I ask if you took magnetic hooks? Or were there coat hooks already? Thinking of taking them for coats etc. It was great on Silhouette as they had hooks so coats etc didn’t need to take up wardrobe space. Far more useful than I ever thought necessary! 

There are hooks on the back of the bathroom door and in the shower. I suppose magnetic hooks might be useful, especially on a cool weather cruise when you might have coats/jackets. When we cruised on Disney I used to take a wall tidy thing with lots of pockets but I think the storage on Edge class is really good so it’s not needed. We still had plenty storage left had we needed it. It would depend how much luggage you have with you. We’re not fashionistas so tend to pack light. For reference, between us we had 1 23kg case and a rolling duffle holding about 20 kg. Also a small day rucksack each. That was it. I love how you can get your empty luggage under the bed and out the road. 

[Scottishclover]

11 hours ago, Ellan Vannin said:

I think we met  and spoke to you when you were on the way back down. It was certainly hot that day as you got towards the top. Much easier last time we were there in the rain.

We had intended to hike through the forest more this time but the thought of ice cold beer in town won the day

I remember! What a small world. I would have stopped to chat more but we were all out of water by then and couldn’t wait to get back down for a drink. We have hiked in quite a few places all over the world and I would say The Ladder of Kotor  is up there as one of my favourite half-day hikes. 

[Scottishclover]

11 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Thanks for the nice write-up and photos.  Booked Ascent for next year.  I've wanted to try an Edge-class ship, so it will scratch that itch.  The food looks well-prepared too.

We would also like to try the Ascent. I wonder if there will be any small improvements from the Beyond? We do like longer cruises though and next summer in my school holiday window, the Ascent is only doing 7 day cruises. 

[wineoclock]

We did an October Mediterranean cruise last year. First thing you needed sweatshirts/jackets as was cold. Warmed up by around 11. Olympia a fair few hadn’t expected it. And it was 🥶 I’m English Cypriot so I was well prepared!