Just back from Ascent. TL;DR: Amazing

[CruiseMrB]

Cruise Ship: Celebrity Ascent 

Dates & Itinerary: 7 Jan - 15 Jan 2024, Port Everglades-Nassau-sea day-Cozumel-sea day-Grand Cayman-sea day-Port Everglades
We were looking for lots of sea days and this delivered. We didn't get off ship in Nassau (so another "sea day"), Walked around the two other ports looking for birds. Not much luck there, actually. Nice enough walks, though.

Stateroom: 11232 - Infinite Veranda aft of aft elevators, Concierge level.
First time on Edge Class, so therefore first time IV. We loved it. I know that IV's can be controversial, and I can see why. IV's can be analogous to convertibles. For a large portion of the year, they can be a compromise. But then there is that 20% of the days where it's absolutely magical.

We hit that magical time and temperature. If we were in the room, day or night, the IV window was down. Beautiful views during the day, wonderful sounds of the ship on the sea at night. The only thing we were careful about was to shut the blinds when we left the room and in the mornings when we were docking at port in case there was another ship along side 10 meters away. We never bothered with the screen between the balcony area and the rest of the room.

The rest of the room was very good. The shower in particular was great. Thanks to the CruiseCritic posters who mentioned the problem with the sofa leg sticking out into the room just looking to break your toes! We looked for that, and it really is a problem. We wrapped a towel around the leg and showed it to our room attendant. He chuckled a bit, knew the problem, and left the towel there for the duration.

 

Dining
MDR Equivalent: Cosmopolitan Restaurant, all nights, fixed time, same table, same staff.

When we boarded, we found out that Ascent was only doing Anytime Dining, regardless of previous choice at booking. Again, thanks to posters here, I knew this was likely to happen. First day, I went to the Concierge concierge, and she set me up with Select Time dining again. We chose the restaurant.

Waitstaff was terrific. Also, you are in and out in under an hour as long as you are not choosing to linger over coffee.

Food was much better than previous Celebrity cruise. Everything tasted very good and correct for what it was. If I didn't like something, it was because I didn't like that thing, rather than being a bad version. This was across the board.

OceanView Cafe: Excellent. Best buffet ever on a cruise. Every daily Chef's Special lunch was worth investigating and trusting if you had any inclination towards trying it. Only limitation was the Indian food. Not great, biggest disappointment in any of the food choices. Given the Greek brothers who captain the ship, do Greek instead. It was much better.

Bakery and Pastries: Excellent. Best ever experienced on a cruise. From the dinner breadbasket, to the Sacher Torte, to everything in OVC. Just fantastic.

Mast Grill: Very good. This is a very low bar, but best included cheeseburgers at sea. Better than Guy's Burgers on Carnival to my taste and experience.

Pizza: Very good crust. Tasty. Very good to excellent included cruise Pizza.

Specialty Restaurants: No opinion, did not use.

 

Entertainment: The three big shows - "Bridges", "Awaken", and "Residencies" were all great. Go see all three. Same great cast. "Awaken" is my favorite by far. Went to both showings.

 

Ascent Itself:
Gorgeous. But here's the big thing. We were sailing at full double occupancy capacity, and that ship is designed to run incredibly well at that level. There was always a space to be or hide, there were always deck chairs, there were always towels. There was never a big crush in OVC at all until they announced the big seafood bar on the last sea day. I have never experienced a ship at capacity that felt this good.

 

Crew: This crew was assembled from top crew members of other ships in the fleet. It shows.

 

Summary: I'm hard pressed to want to sail on any ship not named Celebrity Ascent right now. This could change, but that's my first impression.

[lexmiller]

I'm definitely not one of the cool kids as I have no idea what "TL;DR:" means - neither the initials nor the use of the semicolon and colon - clueless!  But I do understand "Amazing" and so glad you enjoyed yourself! And indeed, the staff - the brothers as co-captains, Luigi the CD and Flori, Activities Staff Manager - all flawless!  The Edge Class ships are our favorites.  We sail on Ascent later this year.  I know the crew will be entirely different, but we also know that we will have an "amazing" time!  Thanks for your thorough report.

Edited January 14 by lexmiller

[gizmodog]

I don’t know what it means either

[Georgia_Peaches]

7 minutes ago, gizmodog said:

I don’t know what it means either

 

29 minutes ago, lexmiller said:

I have no idea what "TL;DR:" means

 

 Too Long, Didn't Read...I know this because one of my former college students in the Education program no less, wrote it at the top of his paper as an indication that he didn't read the assigned article...apparently, the one I assigned was TL and therefore, he DR...🙄

 

Thank goodness I've retired...

 

 

 

 

Edited January 14 by Georgia_Peaches

[lexmiller]

27 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

 

 

 Too Long, Didn't Read...I know this because one of my former college students in the Education program no less, wrote it at the top of his paper as an indication that he didn't read the assigned article...apparently, the one I assigned was TL and therefore, he DR...🙄

 

Thank goodness I've retired...

 

 

 

 

Ah, interesting!  It's weird though that the original poster would say that about what he himself wrote??  If he didn't read it (even though he wrote it), then why would he think that we would!  Though, I did!

[lv2cruisgrl]

1 hour ago, CruiseMrB said:

Cruise Ship: Celebrity Ascent 

Dates & Itinerary: 7 Jan - 15 Jan 2024, Port Everglades-Nassau-sea day-Cozumel-sea day-Grand Cayman-sea day-Port Everglades
We were looking for lots of sea days and this delivered. We didn't get off ship in Nassau (so another "sea day"), Walked around the two other ports looking for birds. Not much luck there, actually. Nice enough walks, though.

Stateroom: 11232 - Infinite Veranda aft of aft elevators, Concierge level.
First time on Edge Class, so therefore first time IV. We loved it. I know that IV's can be controversial, and I can see why. IV's can be analogous to convertibles. For a large portion of the year, they can be a compromise. But then there is that 20% of the days where it's absolutely magical.

We hit that magical time and temperature. If we were in the room, day or night, the IV window was down. Beautiful views during the day, wonderful sounds of the ship on the sea at night. The only thing we were careful about was to shut the blinds when we left the room and in the mornings when we were docking at port in case there was another ship along side 10 meters away. We never bothered with the screen between the balcony area and the rest of the room.

The rest of the room was very good. The shower in particular was great. Thanks to the CruiseCritic posters who mentioned the problem with the sofa leg sticking out into the room just looking to break your toes! We looked for that, and it really is a problem. We wrapped a towel around the leg and showed it to our room attendant. He chuckled a bit, knew the problem, and left the towel there for the duration.

 

Dining
MDR Equivalent: Cosmopolitan Restaurant, all nights, fixed time, same table, same staff.

When we boarded, we found out that Ascent was only doing Anytime Dining, regardless of previous choice at booking. Again, thanks to posters here, I knew this was likely to happen. First day, I went to the Concierge concierge, and she set me up with Select Time dining again. We chose the restaurant.

Waitstaff was terrific. Also, you are in and out in under an hour as long as you are not choosing to linger over coffee.

Food was much better than previous Celebrity cruise. Everything tasted very good and correct for what it was. If I didn't like something, it was because I didn't like that thing, rather than being a bad version. This was across the board.

OceanView Cafe: Excellent. Best buffet ever on a cruise. Every daily Chef's Special lunch was worth investigating and trusting if you had any inclination towards trying it. Only limitation was the Indian food. Not great, biggest disappointment in any of the food choices. Given the Greek brothers who captain the ship, do Greek instead. It was much better.

Bakery and Pastries: Excellent. Best ever experienced on a cruise. From the dinner breadbasket, to the Sacher Torte, to everything in OVC. Just fantastic.

Mast Grill: Very good. This is a very low bar, but best included cheeseburgers at sea. Better than Guy's Burgers on Carnival to my taste and experience.

Pizza: Very good crust. Tasty. Very good to excellent included cruise Pizza.

Specialty Restaurants: No opinion, did not use.

 

Entertainment: The three big shows - "Bridges", "Awaken", and "Residencies" were all great. Go see all three. Same great cast. "Awaken" is my favorite by far. Went to both showings.

 

Ascent Itself:
Gorgeous. But here's the big thing. We were sailing at full double occupancy capacity, and that ship is designed to run incredibly well at that level. There was always a space to be or hide, there were always deck chairs, there were always towels. There was never a big crush in OVC at all until they announced the big seafood bar on the last sea day. I have never experienced a ship at capacity that felt this good.

 

Crew: This crew was assembled from top crew members of other ships in the fleet. It shows.

 

Summary: I'm hard pressed to want to sail on any ship not named Celebrity Ascent right now. This could change, but that's my first impression.

Thanks for the review we sail her in April and looking forward to it.  We like Beyond and Apex so anxious to see what Ascent is like.

[keesar]

The OP must have a very low bar for pizza and burgers.  I thought those two areas were the weakest.  Other comments were spot on.  Outstanding food at the buffet and MDR.

[theopup]

Thanks for taking the time for your review, and highlighting your experience 

 

We will be sailing on The Ascent in September, on an IV, and are really looking forward to it.

[acrane]

35 minutes ago, lexmiller said:

Ah, interesting!  It's weird though that the original poster would say that about what he himself wrote??  If he didn't read it (even though he wrote it), then why would he think that we would!  Though, I did!

It's internet-speak for: "Here is the summary, in case you didn't want to read the post because you thought it was too long"

[RichYak]

37 minutes ago, lexmiller said:

Ah, interesting!  It's weird though that the original poster would say that about what he himself wrote??  If he didn't read it (even though he wrote it), then why would he think that we would!  Though, I did!

It’s not at all weird. A TL;DR is generally written by the original poster to provide a very brief summary for those that choose not to read the long detailed post. 
 

if someone else adds it in a comment, it probably means that OP should have added it themselves. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

42 minutes ago, lexmiller said:

Ah, interesting!  It's weird though that the original poster would say that about what he himself wrote??  If he didn't read it (even though he wrote it), then why would he think that we would!  Though, I did!

OP was just giving anyone who didn't want to read the whole thing an out by saying his cruise was amazing.  

[CruiseMrB]

24 minutes ago, keesar said:

The OP must have a very low bar for pizza and burgers.  I thought those two areas were the weakest.  Other comments were spot on.  Outstanding food at the buffet and MDR.

I actually do have fairly low bar for both. And yet I have been disappointed on most cruises. Especially burgers. Which are easy to do correctly. Weird.

[keesar]

1 minute ago, CruiseMrB said:

I actually do have fairly low bar for both. And yet I have been disappointed on most cruises. Especially burgers. Which are easy to do correctly. Weird.

I am able to improve any burger by adding grilled and fresh onions, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and lots of condiments.  Actually, I thought the hot dogs were actually pretty good at the Mast Grill. 

 

I am thankful for your thoughtful review.

[mahdnc]

Thanks for your review.  My wife and I will be booking our first E class sailing some day soon.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, acrane said:

It's internet-speak for: "Here is the summary, in case you didn't want to read the post because you thought it was too long"

Never heard  that term before..

 

Nice review..we are booked for Jan 28th..in AQ Class.. different ports.   Looking forward to it and the new shows!

[Georgia_Peaches]

15 minutes ago, hcat said:

Looking forward to it and the new shows!

Can't wait to read your take on the Awaken theater show!

[Georgia_Peaches]

@CruiseMrB thanks for the review!  It's really nice to see that others have enjoyed her as much as we did back in November.  I have to agree, Ascent is pretty magical!  Looking forward to cruising on her again in the future.

[Mrs_Tiki]

Thank you for this very positive review!looking forward to sailing Ascent next week!

[Koohiichan]

3 hours ago, keesar said:

The OP must have a very low bar for pizza and burgers.  I thought those two areas were the weakest.  Other comments were spot on.  Outstanding food at the buffet and MDR.

I would say that food is subjective so I can’t really argue with the original poster’s opinion. Personally, I thought the pizza better on Apex than Ascent. (Didn’t try the burger.) 

 

Now we can start arguing about what city or US region has the best pizza. I’m from the Chicago area so … just kidding! We do not need to start that. Haha!
 

 

[hcat]

2 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Can't wait to read your take on the Awaken theater show!

we have enjoyed all the E class shows plus whatever is done in the Club.. Wil def report back.. Going to focus a short review on our dining  in BLU, Fine Cut EDEN and Rooftop,  the shows  and music on board

[CruiseMrB]

I saw Awaken! twice.

The first time I was in the fourth row, dead center. From that close, it "read" very much like an intimate sensual ballet or Nocturne, in the best possible way. With lights and other stuff going on to add to the dreamscape.

The second time, an hour and fifteen minutes later, I was in the front row dead center of the 5th floor balcony. From there, it was a big mind-blowing almost hallucinatory-type experience, albeit with less intimacy.

Either way, this is the show to see. It works and the performances are great. 

 

Edited January 15 by CruiseMrB

[Georgia_Peaches]

28 minutes ago, CruiseMrB said:

big mind-blowing almost hallucinatory-type experience

Exactly our experience…almost trance-like. By far the best show I’ve seen at sea. We sat on the lower level on the  left side of aisle about 20 rows from stage.