Has anybody ? and Beyond Review

[Cruisegirl6]

We just got off yesterday the Celebrity Beyond, 8 night cruise to the ABC islands.  We had an excellent over all cruise.  We have reservations to go to Aruba for 11 nights in August (2024) and wondering if anybody ever taken a cruise and got off at a port to stay?  We already have our hotel stay there for August and our return airfare (Aruba to Florida) and I realize the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 allows us to take the cruise out of the US and disembark in a foreign territory with no issues.  I also contacted Aruba Customs who verified we are allowed to get off the ship and stay in Aruba and fly out from there providing we complete our customs ED card to return back to the states and now to figure out how to get the ship to pre approve providing us with a cruise immigration form to be completed by them to allow us to do this.  Has anybody gotten off the ship and stayed at a port?  

 

Review of the Beyond

We cruised this ship before and many of the workers remembered us plus in October we were on the Equinox and workers from that ship moved over to the Beyond, we pretty much knew everybody on that ship.

Cabin steward was the best in all my 105 cruises, every time we went back and fourth to our cabin, we always saw him, he was always there day and night and was excellent.

Oceanview Cafe, amazing, with so many choices, we even had dinner twice here and all the food was excellent.  I just wished it wasn't I wouldn't of eaten as much hahaha.

Cabin was always cool, its the only cruise line that we get cool temperatures in our cabin and the pillows were great and bedding.  We booked this last minute so had a guarantee oceanview which they gave us a deluxe oceanview very forward on deck 8.  Disadvantage is that when we docked each time in port an hour before we heard noises that woke us up, we believe it was the lines/etc. for docking.  I would not get this forward cabin again but the room was much larger and a huge huge window in it too.

MDR food very good.

We do not go to the shows but heard they were excellent.

We also only saw one child on board during our entire cruise and the ship was full and it did not feel like it either.

Casino treated me very nicely, won a 10+k jackpot.

 

 

Negatives:

Oceanview Cafe did not provide all the drink/bar servers like the Equinox did, therefore, most of the time we had to get our drinks ourselves. (liquor)

MDR service by the waiters were excellent, but most of the nights there (we tried three different dining rooms) we were not able to get a drink with dinner.  They really need to improve this issue.

We received a comp cruise with many offers using the bar codes, but it was given to us during our last evening and was placed in our cabin after we showered/dress for dinner which we left our room at 8:15pm and when we returned to our cabin we saw the certificate and noticed if we booked future cruise we would of been upgraded to Sky Suite but the Future Cruise Desk was closed at night.  I called Celebrity about this while on our drive home only for them to say we lost our upgrade to Sky Suite.  I explained it was given to us during our last evening and late they can not honor the upgrade.  They really need to give these certificates at least the night before the last evening. 

 

Overall we loved this ship so much that we rather not fly to Aruba in August and spend a few days on the ship, to have the luxury of doing a few days cruise plus our yearly two week vacation land stay in Aruba.  

[Georgia_Peaches]

We are booked in a DO stateroom on deck 8 in November.  I'm glad to know the rooms were cool.

 

Congratulations on your nice win!  and thank you for the review!

[Qwksilver]

Leaving a ship early is called "down lining" or "early disembarkation". It was allowed previously however post Covid changed many things. It might still be possible you should contact Celebrity and ask for a supervisor. I know there are maritime laws (PVSA) involved and you will have to go through Aruba's customs as well.

 

Good luck.

[Lefty_Pete]

Hello!  So glad you enjoyed your cruise on Beyond.  We are getting ready to take the same ABC island cruise in a few weeks.   I see you said you did not go to the shows, but do you remember the times for the early / late shows in the theatre?  We have some 7:30 MDR times reserved some nights and don't know if we will have enough time to eat and still catch the late show if it begins at 9:00pm instead of 9:30.   Thanks so much!

[horseymike]

Thanks for your concise and upbeat review.