Our experience on Beyond May 5th - 12th

[Gilliganluvsmaryann]

 

As promised in a previous post here is a synopsis of our current sailing. A little background. My wife and I are not 68 years old. This was our fifth cruise. 3 day RCL 2003, 7 day NCL 2018, 5 day Celebrity Constellation 2022, 5 day Caribbean Princess 2023, and this 7 Beyond 2024. I am not going to make any comparisons to other cruises or cruise lines as our sample size is too small. This is going to be our subjective experience of this cruise. I understand what you experienced will be your subjective opinion. Please don’t beat me up if I say something negative but by all means please state you own experience whether it be positive or negative. If you have questions I will do my best to answer them for you.

 Embarkation rated A+, we arrived at the port around 10:15 am proceeded into the terminal. They did not check embarkation times. Sat people in sections by order if arrival. We were at our stateroom door by 11:15 picking up our sea pass cards.

Disembarkation rated F. We walked off with our luggage and were told to meet in Eden by 7:30 am. We arrive in Eden at 6:45 am and they lined up our luggage as we arrive in Eden. I should note we enbarked terminal 25 and disembarked terminal 18 more on that later. It was approximately 7:15 when the line started moving to leave the ship. They had buses lined up to take us to the Palm parking garage at terminal 25. We were on the third bus. The bus driver then proceeded to the Palm parking garage. He stopped behind another bus and waited for that bus to unload. He then pulled up about 10 feet and we got off our bus. We were in our vehicle at 8:15am. A full hour from when the line started walikibg off the ship. This is unacceptable and hence the F rating. There was no other ship arriving or departing Port Everglades using terminal 25 on our arrival day May 12th. I am not placing blame for this on any entity in particular. But just stating our experience.

 

Stateroom 10149 delux inside rating A. I am a very light sleeper so I prefer the darkness of an inside cabin. Also I would rather spend my money on other amenities as really only in the cabin to sleep, change clothes, and the three sss’s.

Storage was adequate albeit a little clunky. The nightstands were doll house size, between the phone and lamp not much room for eyeglasses, drinking glass etc. The closet was right next to the bed so only one person at a time. Also it would have been nice to have a light in the closet. There was only room for one person to walk between the bed and the wall opposite. None of these things are deal breakers. But if you are building a billion dollars ship maybe the architect could design a better layout. The bathroom was excellent nice shower with a bowed out shower door. Plenty of room and storage.
Our stateroom attendant Selveen did an outstanding job. He was so very busy we didn’t have much chance to converse. I rate him an A+.

 

Shows we saw.

Ralph Harris comedian rating A+. Very funny, humble nice gentleman. He also did an adult show which was more pg-13 which was indicative of his character.

Elements A+ Outstanding visuals, music, singing, acrobatics.

Stage Door I would rate a C my wife rated it higher. We sat center stage approximately 12 rows back fro the stage. It seemed to me that they were screeching the songs rather than singing. 
Magician Matt Henson or Hanson(I apologize for forgetting) Rating him a B. Only so much magic you can do in an hour.

Sean O’Shea singer, comedian, impressionist I would rate him a B. I think he needs to tighten up his act and concentrate on the talent he does best.

Celebrity enrichment lecturer Dr. Sperro Lappas rated A++ our favorite thing of the entire cruise. His 5 part lecture was entitled The CSI effect(tv show) our real life forensics. If you are interested in forensics or criminal justice do not miss his lectures.

 

Food. Probably the most subjective thing of all so I am not going into detail. Buffet rating a B. Plenty of options food was tasty but cold. I also thought the layout was quirky. Only had two dinners in MDR one in the Normandie rated A+ food was excellent.  Our waiter Made and assistant waiter Mohammed were excellent rate them both A+. Mohammed had such a great simile and he we thankful and happy to be doing his job.

Other MDR was Cyprus I would also rate A+ void was excellent and our waiter Miguel, and assistant waiter Dennis were good rated them A-. Our first night we had dinner at the Rooftop Garden Grill. There aren’t enough adjectives in the English language for me to tell you how good it was. I will just say you need to eat dinner here. You won’t regret it. Finally Le Petit Chef I w would rate a B+ food was good but I was particularly impressed with the menu. The show was cute, no reason to do it again though. Desserts throughout the ship looked better than they tasted. Desserts were lacking in sweetness. Apparently no buttercream used by the pastry chef. Cakes were very dry. Best desserts were the macaroons and cookies in Cafe Al Baccio.

 

Plenty of areas to sit and relax away from the hustle and commotion of the main pool. As far as pools go I would recommend the plunge pools on deck 15 and the spa pool.

Eden what an amazing space. It truly was “Eden” both in decor and tranquillity.

Port of call Nassau stayed on ship.

 

 

Port of call St Thomas: we went to Magen beach, it was nice. Water was calm, with pure sand bottom. We were supposed to do the sky ride but it was cancelled due to a thunderstorm knocking out power.

Port of call St Thomas we did not have an excursion planned but we did get off the ship to explore the port area. My opinion don’t bother!

 

Maybe this was too long, I apologize. I still may have missed something. I will answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability. I will monitor this pst for a couple of days then I am signing off from cruise critic. No need to ask why because I won’t say anything. Hope you all have safe, happy, and fun cruises in your future.

 

 

 

[doghog]

23 minutes ago, Gilliganluvsmaryann said:

Stateroom 10149 delux inside rating A. I am a very light sleeper so I prefer the darkness of an inside cabin. Also I would rather spend my money on other amenities as really only in the cabin to sleep, change clothes, and the three sss’s.

Storage was adequate albeit a little clunky. The nightstands were doll house size, between the phone and lamp not much room for eyeglasses, drinking glass etc. The closet was right next to the bed so only one person at a time. Also it would have been nice to have a light in the closet. There was only room for one person to walk between the bed and the wall opposite. None of these things are deal breakers. But if you are building a billion dollars ship maybe the architect could design a better layout. The bathroom was excellent nice shower with a bowed out shower door. Plenty of room and storage.

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise. Some previous Beyond cruisers have said the staterooms are noisey (creaking and banging types of noise). Did you experience any of that in your stateroom? 

[horseymike]

Thanks for sharing your experience, my wife and I are booked on the Beyond in September and your observations and opinions will be very helpful to us.

[lv2cruisgrl]

We have sailed Beyond and will again in November.  We had no issues with our cabin. We enjoyed it and agree with the buffet, food always cold.  We look forward to our next cruise on her.  Just did Ascent and loved it.  Happy cruising.

Edited May 12 by lv2cruisgrl

[Marie51]

Thanks for the review, looking forward to our Beyond cruise in Sept.

About St Thomas…you said you went to Megan’s Bay and then you said don’t bother…I’m confused. Did you not enjoy the beach?

[IDL]

1 hour ago, Gilliganluvsmaryann said:

 

As promised in a previous post here is a synopsis of our current sailing. A little background. My wife and I are not 68 years old. This was our fifth cruise. 3 day RCL 2003, 7 day NCL 2018, 5 day Celebrity Constellation 2022, 5 day Caribbean Princess 2023, and this 7 Beyond 2024. I am not going to make any comparisons to other cruises or cruise lines as our sample size is too small. This is going to be our subjective experience of this cruise. I understand what you experienced will be your subjective opinion. Please don’t beat me up if I say something negative but by all means please state you own experience whether it be positive or negative. If you have questions I will do my best to answer them for you.

 Embarkation rated A+, we arrived at the port around 10:15 am proceeded into the terminal. They did not check embarkation times. Sat people in sections by order if arrival. We were at our stateroom door by 11:15 picking up our sea pass cards.

Disembarkation rated F. We walked off with our luggage and were told to meet in Eden by 7:30 am. We arrive in Eden at 6:45 am and they lined up our luggage as we arrive in Eden. I should note we enbarked terminal 25 and disembarked terminal 18 more on that later. It was approximately 7:15 when the line started moving to leave the ship. They had buses lined up to take us to the Palm parking garage at terminal 25. We were on the third bus. The bus driver then proceeded to the Palm parking garage. He stopped behind another bus and waited for that bus to unload. He then pulled up about 10 feet and we got off our bus. We were in our vehicle at 8:15am. A full hour from when the line started walikibg off the ship. This is unacceptable and hence the F rating. There was no other ship arriving or departing Port Everglades using terminal 25 on our arrival day May 12th. I am not placing blame for this on any entity in particular. But just stating our experience.

 

Stateroom 10149 delux inside rating A. I am a very light sleeper so I prefer the darkness of an inside cabin. Also I would rather spend my money on other amenities as really only in the cabin to sleep, change clothes, and the three sss’s.

Storage was adequate albeit a little clunky. The nightstands were doll house size, between the phone and lamp not much room for eyeglasses, drinking glass etc. The closet was right next to the bed so only one person at a time. Also it would have been nice to have a light in the closet. There was only room for one person to walk between the bed and the wall opposite. None of these things are deal breakers. But if you are building a billion dollars ship maybe the architect could design a better layout. The bathroom was excellent nice shower with a bowed out shower door. Plenty of room and storage.
Our stateroom attendant Selveen did an outstanding job. He was so very busy we didn’t have much chance to converse. I rate him an A+.

 

Shows we saw.

Ralph Harris comedian rating A+. Very funny, humble nice gentleman. He also did an adult show which was more pg-13 which was indicative of his character.

Elements A+ Outstanding visuals, music, singing, acrobatics.

Stage Door I would rate a C my wife rated it higher. We sat center stage approximately 12 rows back fro the stage. It seemed to me that they were screeching the songs rather than singing. 
Magician Matt Henson or Hanson(I apologize for forgetting) Rating him a B. Only so much magic you can do in an hour.

Sean O’Shea singer, comedian, impressionist I would rate him a B. I think he needs to tighten up his act and concentrate on the talent he does best.

Celebrity enrichment lecturer Dr. Sperro Lappas rated A++ our favorite thing of the entire cruise. His 5 part lecture was entitled The CSI effect(tv show) our real life forensics. If you are interested in forensics or criminal justice do not miss his lectures.

 

Food. Probably the most subjective thing of all so I am not going into detail. Buffet rating a B. Plenty of options food was tasty but cold. I also thought the layout was quirky. Only had two dinners in MDR one in the Normandie rated A+ food was excellent.  Our waiter Made and assistant waiter Mohammed were excellent rate them both A+. Mohammed had such a great simile and he we thankful and happy to be doing his job.

Other MDR was Cyprus I would also rate A+ void was excellent and our waiter Miguel, and assistant waiter Dennis were good rated them A-. Our first night we had dinner at the Rooftop Garden Grill. There aren’t enough adjectives in the English language for me to tell you how good it was. I will just say you need to eat dinner here. You won’t regret it. Finally Le Petit Chef I w would rate a B+ food was good but I was particularly impressed with the menu. The show was cute, no reason to do it again though. Desserts throughout the ship looked better than they tasted. Desserts were lacking in sweetness. Apparently no buttercream used by the pastry chef. Cakes were very dry. Best desserts were the macaroons and cookies in Cafe Al Baccio.

 

Plenty of areas to sit and relax away from the hustle and commotion of the main pool. As far as pools go I would recommend the plunge pools on deck 15 and the spa pool.

Eden what an amazing space. It truly was “Eden” both in decor and tranquillity.

Port of call Nassau stayed on ship.

 

 

Port of call St Thomas: we went to Magen beach, it was nice. Water was calm, with pure sand bottom. We were supposed to do the sky ride but it was cancelled due to a thunderstorm knocking out power.

Port of call St Thomas we did not have an excursion planned but we did get off the ship to explore the port area. My opinion don’t bother!

 

Maybe this was too long, I apologize. I still may have missed something. I will answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability. I will monitor this pst for a couple of days then I am signing off from cruise critic. No need to ask why because I won’t say anything. Hope you all have safe, happy, and fun cruises in your future.

 

 

 

You state you are not 68; did you mean to state you are 68 or some other age?

[Gilliganluvsmaryann]

Meant to say we are 68

[Gilliganluvsmaryann]

1 hour ago, doghog said:

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise. Some previous Beyond cruisers have said the staterooms are noisey (creaking and banging types of noise). Did you experience any of that in your stateroom? 

We did not experience any noises. Also stateroom a/c worked just fine.

[Gilliganluvsmaryann]

32 minutes ago, Marie51 said:

Thanks for the review, looking forward to our Beyond cruise in Sept.

About St Thomas…you said you went to Megan’s Bay and then you said don’t bother…I’m confused. Did you not enjoy the beach?

We did enjoy Magen beach. My apologies the next line should have said Antiqua. Don’t bother getting off just to walk around the port.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Thank you for your thoughts on the Beyond.  The debarkation sounds dreadful.  I'm surprised Celebrity used a different pier when there were not other ships there to take the slot.  Did they offer up an explanation?  And was everyone to disembark through Eden?  Sounds like a real PITA.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Thanks for your review.  We are booked in December. Also confused why they used 2 different piers if there was only one Edge class in port.  

[AbbyCruiser45]

5 hours ago, Gilliganluvsmaryann said:

There was no other ship arriving or departing Port Everglades using terminal 25 on our arrival day May 12th.

I’m sailing the Beyond this Saturday and we’re leaving from terminal 18 and there is not other Celebrity ship in port that day. The Reflection is using it the day prior. Seems strange that they’re not using it when it’s open. 

[hcat]

3 hours ago, Gilliganluvsmaryann said:

We did enjoy Magen beach. My apologies the next line should have said Antiqua. Don’t bother getting off just to walk around the port.

When we were at the  Antigua port area,  there were some nice shops walkable nearby,  and craft vendors  at the pier area.  Has it changed?

[Spyder2up]

Thanks for sharing such important insight, can you tell me which nights were chic night and what night was lobster night?

[KKB]

On 5/12/2024 at 12:48 PM, Gilliganluvsmaryann said:

 

As promised in a previous post here is a synopsis of our current sailing. A little background. My wife and I are not 68 years old. This was our fifth cruise. 3 day RCL 2003, 7 day NCL 2018, 5 day Celebrity Constellation 2022, 5 day Caribbean Princess 2023, and this 7 Beyond 2024. I am not going to make any comparisons to other cruises or cruise lines as our sample size is too small. This is going to be our subjective experience of this cruise. I understand what you experienced will be your subjective opinion. Please don’t beat me up if I say something negative but by all means please state you own experience whether it be positive or negative. If you have questions I will do my best to answer them for you.

 Embarkation rated A+, we arrived at the port around 10:15 am proceeded into the terminal. They did not check embarkation times. Sat people in sections by order if arrival. We were at our stateroom door by 11:15 picking up our sea pass cards.

Disembarkation rated F. We walked off with our luggage and were told to meet in Eden by 7:30 am. We arrive in Eden at 6:45 am and they lined up our luggage as we arrive in Eden. I should note we enbarked terminal 25 and disembarked terminal 18 more on that later. It was approximately 7:15 when the line started moving to leave the ship. They had buses lined up to take us to the Palm parking garage at terminal 25. We were on the third bus. The bus driver then proceeded to the Palm parking garage. He stopped behind another bus and waited for that bus to unload. He then pulled up about 10 feet and we got off our bus. We were in our vehicle at 8:15am. A full hour from when the line started walikibg off the ship. This is unacceptable and hence the F rating. There was no other ship arriving or departing Port Everglades using terminal 25 on our arrival day May 12th. I am not placing blame for this on any entity in particular. But just stating our experience.

 

Stateroom 10149 delux inside rating A. I am a very light sleeper so I prefer the darkness of an inside cabin. Also I would rather spend my money on other amenities as really only in the cabin to sleep, change clothes, and the three sss’s.

Storage was adequate albeit a little clunky. The nightstands were doll house size, between the phone and lamp not much room for eyeglasses, drinking glass etc. The closet was right next to the bed so only one person at a time. Also it would have been nice to have a light in the closet. There was only room for one person to walk between the bed and the wall opposite. None of these things are deal breakers. But if you are building a billion dollars ship maybe the architect could design a better layout. The bathroom was excellent nice shower with a bowed out shower door. Plenty of room and storage.
Our stateroom attendant Selveen did an outstanding job. He was so very busy we didn’t have much chance to converse. I rate him an A+.

 

Shows we saw.

Ralph Harris comedian rating A+. Very funny, humble nice gentleman. He also did an adult show which was more pg-13 which was indicative of his character.

Elements A+ Outstanding visuals, music, singing, acrobatics.

Stage Door I would rate a C my wife rated it higher. We sat center stage approximately 12 rows back fro the stage. It seemed to me that they were screeching the songs rather than singing. 
Magician Matt Henson or Hanson(I apologize for forgetting) Rating him a B. Only so much magic you can do in an hour.

Sean O’Shea singer, comedian, impressionist I would rate him a B. I think he needs to tighten up his act and concentrate on the talent he does best.

Celebrity enrichment lecturer Dr. Sperro Lappas rated A++ our favorite thing of the entire cruise. His 5 part lecture was entitled The CSI effect(tv show) our real life forensics. If you are interested in forensics or criminal justice do not miss his lectures.

 

Food. Probably the most subjective thing of all so I am not going into detail. Buffet rating a B. Plenty of options food was tasty but cold. I also thought the layout was quirky. Only had two dinners in MDR one in the Normandie rated A+ food was excellent.  Our waiter Made and assistant waiter Mohammed were excellent rate them both A+. Mohammed had such a great simile and he we thankful and happy to be doing his job.

Other MDR was Cyprus I would also rate A+ void was excellent and our waiter Miguel, and assistant waiter Dennis were good rated them A-. Our first night we had dinner at the Rooftop Garden Grill. There aren’t enough adjectives in the English language for me to tell you how good it was. I will just say you need to eat dinner here. You won’t regret it. Finally Le Petit Chef I w would rate a B+ food was good but I was particularly impressed with the menu. The show was cute, no reason to do it again though. Desserts throughout the ship looked better than they tasted. Desserts were lacking in sweetness. Apparently no buttercream used by the pastry chef. Cakes were very dry. Best desserts were the macaroons and cookies in Cafe Al Baccio.

 

Plenty of areas to sit and relax away from the hustle and commotion of the main pool. As far as pools go I would recommend the plunge pools on deck 15 and the spa pool.

Eden what an amazing space. It truly was “Eden” both in decor and tranquillity.

Port of call Nassau stayed on ship.

 

 

Port of call St Thomas: we went to Magen beach, it was nice. Water was calm, with pure sand bottom. We were supposed to do the sky ride but it was cancelled due to a thunderstorm knocking out power.

Port of call St Thomas we did not have an excursion planned but we did get off the ship to explore the port area. My opinion don’t bother!

 

Maybe this was too long, I apologize. I still may have missed something. I will answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability. I will monitor this pst for a couple of days then I am signing off from cruise critic. No need to ask why because I won’t say anything. Hope you all have safe, happy, and fun cruises in your future.

 

Thanks for the review...generally I agree with your ratings.

Eclass ships are our favorite at sea--we have sailed Apex. Edge 2x, Beyond 2x & will be sailing Ascent in December. Can't wait!

 

Your comment regarding Celebrity desserts is exactly what I have been saying for years...they look better than they taste! Luckily we aren't big dessert people!

[Cruise till you drop]

On 5/12/2024 at 1:48 PM, Gilliganluvsmaryann said:

My wife and I are not 68 years old.

If you’re not 68, how old are you ? 😂 

 

Thanks for posting as we’ll be on Beyond in Jan 2025.  We’ve done Edge twice so familiar with the layout of Edge class ships but excited to see how Beyond has been transformed