Beyond LIVE Med Review 10/20-10/30: Tales from our Suite Roman Holiday

[miched]

Was your bid $1300 pp?    Did your AQ include the AI?   If so it should carry over.   
 

It isn’t clear to me what suite you actually got.  What category and cabin?  
 

Thanks to you we are testing the waters in a short MSC Yacht Club cabin as a side by side with a Celebrity cruise. It may become our favorite cruise line even thought we are a few cruises away for being Zenith.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[boxkite]

Looking forward to following another great GenerationX cruise, this time with DH.

 

Happy milestone birthday to Jeremy! Have a super cruise to the Med!

 

Especially interested in your continued thoughts about Beyond as we will be this ship for a Caribbean cruise next April.

[MACruisers]

Love your reviews and looking forward to following along.  Especially interested in your Sky Suite experience comparison.  I did a B2B on Beyond and have a B2B on Ascent book for Feb/March.  Both were in a Sky Suite.    

[GenerationX]

19 hours ago, Wirral Girlie said:

We are on the same cruise too!!

I love reading your reviews, you put so much time and effort into sharing your experiences with everyone.

We sailed on the Beyond last September and loved it so much we had to do it again.

I'll look out for you onboard 😍

Ciao! Looking forward to sailing with you! Yes please do find us onboard, we’d love to meet you! 

[GenerationX]

15 hours ago, hcat said:

Hi Charla

WELCOME BACK!

I will be looking forward to your posts!

 

We were with you on BEYOND..Gatsby Party  and all.  We enjoyed our Suite experience but are headed back to AQ Class on ASCENT in Jan...

 

Hope you and Jeremy have a great time!

Oh yes! I FONDLY remember our amazing Gatsby party on Beyond! I’ll be looking forward to hearing what you think of Ascent in January.  If we get exceptionally lucky in the casino this cruise, we may try to join you! 😁

[GenerationX]

14 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

You bet I’m interested in following along! I still think fondly of our sailing on Beyond in April.

Remember?

 

mac_tlc

 

 

Oh I remember this group of peaches and bourbon party animals quite well! If only all sailaways were this much fun!

[Stem to Stern]

I was just thinking to myself the other day that it should almost be Charlatime.  Welcome back!  Happy 40th Birthday to DH Jeremy!  Congrats on your successful move up bid.  You are gonna need those baths after tromping around in port all day.  Bon voyage!
P.S. only eight more weeks until my inaugural sailing in the yacht club.  Thanks for all you do @GenerationX !!!🚢😉

[GenerationX]

4 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Charla - Following along on your adventures once again and looking forward to reading all your wonderful comments.  I think you will find, as many do, the cruise will lead to another cruise in the Mediterranean and or future land based vacation, especially in Italy or Greece.  

 

Aloha! Looking forward to having you along with us! I thought of you during the wildfires  in Hawaii. I hope that you and all of your friends and family are doing ok.

[GenerationX]

1 hour ago, miched said:

Was your bid $1300 pp?    Did your AQ include the AI?   If so it should carry over.   
 

It isn’t clear to me what suite you actually got.  What category and cabin?  
 

Thanks to you we are testing the waters in a short MSC Yacht Club cabin as a side by side with a Celebrity cruise. It may become our favorite cruise line even thought we are a few cruises away for being Zenith.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Actuallu our bid was $1300 total ($650 per person).   We ended up getting an S1 sky suite so not bad I think to jump from AI aqua at that price. It does appear that all of our AI aqua perks carried over.

 

I did pay to upgrade us from classic to premium beverage package.  It was a little over $400 even with my Elite Plus discount, which at first seemed a little steep to me, but then I looked at what Celebrity is charging a la carte these days for a premium beverage package on a 10 night sailing. 🤯

 

Looking forward to hearing what you think of your yacht club experience.  What ship will you be on?

[GenerationX]

Me:  Oh by the way honey I’ll be home from work a little late. I have to pick up my dry cleaning and then run to the mall to finish my cruise shopping.

 

Jeremy:  What do you mean “finish” your shopping?  The Amazon and UPS trucks have been delivering packages every day for a week! You can’t possibly need anymore stuff for this trip!

 

Me: Oh you’re absolutely right. I’m pretty much set, I’m just getting a couple more small things…

 

Behold my couple of small things! 

[miched]

22 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

Actuallu our bid was $1300 total ($650 per person).   We ended up getting an S1 sky suite so not bad I think to jump from AI aqua at that price. It does appear that all of our AI aqua perks carried over.

 

I did pay to upgrade us from classic to premium beverage package.  It was a little over $400 even with my Elite Plus discount, which at first seemed a little steep to me, but then I looked at what Celebrity is charging a la carte these days for a premium beverage package on a 10 night sailing. 🤯

 

Looking forward to hearing what you think of your yacht club experience.  What ship will you be on?

Nice upgrade compared to what the difference would have cost.   The cost for suites are getting outrageous.   We booked a New England cruise in AQ it was $3700 pp,   a SS was going to be $9000 pp.   Totally not worth that amount extra 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[parrothead33]

Hi Charla,

Very excited to be following your latest adventure.  Can’t wait to live vicariously through your review.  Safe travels and happy birthday to Jeremy!

[Lena11033]

8 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Me:  Oh by the way honey I’ll be home from work a little late. I have to pick up my dry cleaning and then run to the mall to finish my cruise shopping.

 

Jeremy:  What do you mean “finish” your shopping?  The Amazon and UPS trucks have been delivering packages every day for a week! You can’t possibly need anymore stuff for this trip!

 

Me: Oh you’re absolutely right. I’m pretty much set, I’m just getting a couple more small things…

 

Behold my couple of small things! 

 

LOL with prime sales this week I ordered a bunch of things for my cruise...........in Feb. Since then every time my husband opens a package he's like 'what's this' .....just cruise stuff.

 

I haven't even started with clothes yet.

[mac_tlc]

9 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Oh yes! I FONDLY remember our amazing Gatsby party on Beyond! I’ll be looking forward to hearing what you think of Ascent in January.  If we get exceptionally lucky in the casino this cruise, we may try to join you! 😁

Ascent 

January 21

 

just sayin’

 

 

mac_tlc

[Texed]

27 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Ascent 

January 21

just sayin’

mac_tlc

 

So are we.  😊

[TPCRUISER2]

Charla, So glad to see your review has started. Looking forward to your Europe trip! Happy Birthday to your husband! Have an Awesome cruise!

[Norwaylady]

So ready to follow your adventure! 

I will pack my suitcase and follow you along before I head out on the ocean🙌🥰

 

Bon Voyage

[mac_tlc]

2 hours ago, Texed said:

 

So are we.  😊

Hope to see you on board !

 

 

mac_tlc

[theopup]

Love the pre-cruise shopping picture and story!

[hcat]

3 hours ago, Texed said:

 

So are we.  😊

We are booked on ASCENT for Jan 28th in AQ Class... another Hcat birthday bash!     Maybe some from the Jan 21st will stay on..

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by hcat

[Jim_Iain]

 

Charla,

So good to see Jeremy and your smiling faces back on board.    Always enjoy following along on your adventures.  

 

Really interested to see if they have started using the new Menus in Lumina and any comments.   I've looked at some of them and they look almost the same as the last ones.

 

I'm sure you will have a wonderful time and will keep us all entertained.

 

Jim

[GenerationX]

Good morning from my pre-cruise spa day!

 

How bad is it that I spend enough time here that when I pull up to the valet stand, the attendants open my door and immediately say “Welcome to the Four Seasons Ms. Claypool.  Headed to the spa again today?”

 

Jeremy, son of two accountants, says he’d love to get an afternoon perusing my solo checking account (not a chance, buddy) to see how much of my market share this spa, Celebrity Cruises, Total Wine & More and Amazon are splitting on an annual basis. 😂

 

In any event, while I’m starting my day the right way, a little about our plans for our 2 weeks overseas!

 

Let’s start with a disclaimer.  As you can probably tell from this shot, this review is not likely to be one you’ll want to read on an empty stomach.  Food and wine pictures will abound.

 

During our pre-cruise time in Rome I’ve made us reservations at several restaurants I’ve been dreaming of trying ever since seeing them on my favorite travel shows (thank you Tony Bourdain and Stanley Tucci!). We also have some excursions planned that I booked through Viator, including a night time food tour of the Trastevere area where we’ll be staying (neighborhood suggested by a sorority sister who grew up in Rome).

 

I made a rookie mistake when it came to planning accommodations for this cruise.  I didn’t get around to looking into hotels until early summer.  By then, every hotel for our dates that was centrally located was either completely booked up, cost over 600 Euros a night, or had TripAdvisor reviews that are still giving me nightmares.  

 

Luckily I quickly found a solution via VRBO.  We’ve rented a charming traditional Roman apartment in Trastevere that’s just steps from lots of great restaurants and night spots!  Our host Antonella has been super responsive and helpful and has even arranged a taxi to meet us at the airport.  

 

A quick caution if you’re thinking about VRBO for a Rome stay: be sure to not only look at the reviews and ratings, but also at the dates they were posted.  There was an apartment we were in love with that seemed to have great reviews, then I looked closer and realized that they were all reviews from pre-pandemic.  I of course understand there was a good long gap there where Italy was in total lock down and no one could go to even write a review.  But we all know how much an accommodations experience can have changed since the pandemic.  We didn’t want to take the risk on a bucket list trip.

 

I’ve been told that Rome is extremely English speaker friendly, but for me part of the fun of international travel is learning the local language, so I’ve been learning Italian for about 6 months using Babble, watching Italian language movies/documentaries on Netflix with subtitles and a bi-weekly “speak Italian only” wine and canapé date with my mother in law (Jeremy is particularly nervous about which words I’ve learned from that last one).  I also found an Apple Music podcast that teaches Italian for travel that I listen to on my drive to and from the office every day.

 

The ports for our cruise will be Olympia, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Sicily, Naples and Florence.  Between our onboard booking offer and cashing in points from our Celebrity credit card, we had quite a bit of onboard credit, so we ended up booking quite a few excursions through Celebrity.

 

Our interests trend towards food, wine and historical sites so our adventures will feature those heavily.  

 

We’ve also booked specialty dinners at Eden, Le Voyage and Raw on 5 (not my favorite specialty, but this man still owes me a seafood tower that I never got on Apex, and I didn’t get where I am in life by not collecting on debts).  We also had a butchers cut reservation just because Jeremy liked it so much on Apex.  But I cancelled it after we got our move up because on Beyond at least, the Luminae food beat my butchers cut experience by a mile.  So now I have more OBC for sea day massages for my sore legs and wine events!

 

I’ve been lurking weather reports and it looks like at least the first part of our trip is going to be relatively warm for fall (temps in high 70’s Fahrenheit) but grey and very rainy.  

 

Luckily I have made solid investments in several very cute but lots of walking comfortable waterproof fall shoe options and an adorable Burberry rain coat I got for almost 80% off via rewards redemptions and final sale discounts at Neiman Marcus! 

 

My wardrobe for this trip is heavy on layering options.  Lots of dresses that will be comfortable in warm temps but can still work for cooler weather when paired with boots and/or leggings and a cute sweater or jacket.  The fun part will be hitting the maximum 50lb per checked bag weight limit for Iberia airlines (which we have to fly as a codeshare on the way back from Rome) with room to spare for the additional shopping I plan to do abroad.

 

We are flying home on Halloween and I tried my best to convince Jeremy that we should dress as Waldo (of Where’s Waldo?) and Carmen San Diego for the journey, but I was sadly overruled.

 

Well I’m off for my body scrub, facial and pedicure!  As always please feel free to jump in on the review with any questions/comments/suggestions.

 

Less than 48 hours till wheels up for Rome!

 

[mac_tlc]

For our only stay in Rome -- many many years ago --- we stayed in Trastevere. Loved all the narrow streets leading to fantastic piazzas. My daughter still talks about Piazza de Santa Maria. 

 

 

mac_tlc

[Lena11033]

I did last year a walking food tour in Rome, it definitely was a highlight. I like wine, food and historical so it was a good tour.

[hcat]

very thorough planning!

my fortune cookie says  "luck favors the prepared"

 

looking forward to  following your posts..glad you are back.on X!