Live (sort of) from the Beyond. Our last minute trip

[CHEZMARYLOU]

6 minutes ago, abbydancer2003 said:

After dinner it was back to the room, and I noticed that our points for the Presidents cruise have posted.  Now we’re under 600 points to Zenith.  Whoo hoo.

Thanks for the review, we sail Beyond in December. We're under 500 points to Zenith but not sure we will make it.

[StartrainDD]

On 7/5/2024 at 2:27 PM, abbydancer2003 said:

Beyond Day 9 Sea Day 4 Jul 1

 

Today is our second pre port sea day, so we decided to sleep late and just go to the Elite Breakfast in the Grand Bistro.  It was a little odd, in that the brought around a pastry tray, and they had the menu.  Or original plan was to order the pastry plate and the fruit plate.  They also had regular coffee.  We got pastries, coffee and juice, and then nothing.  Eventually a server took our order, so we just got fruit, and I got a bagel with cream cheese.  No refills on coffee, so this is probably our first and last time there.

 

Yikes!  We are planning on the Elite breakfast in August on Beyond.  We had the best server at the breakfast on Constellation in January!

 

On 7/6/2024 at 5:55 PM, abbydancer2003 said:

Beyond Day 10. Aruba

 

Today is Aruba our first stop.  We woke up a little late for breakfast, so we called Godfrey for coffee.  While we were enjoying our coffee, Andrew called and said they couldn’t go until about 12:30, so we agreed to cancel going together.  

 

After coffee we got dressed, and decided to head out.  It was of course, even just before 10:am hot.  It was about a 15-20 minute walk at my current pace.  There was a line when we got there, and it took about 20 minutes to get seated.  Glen ordered the Dutch special savory pancake, with ham, cheese and a couple other things.  I had the Shawn’s sweet special - walnuts, bananas, honey and powered sugar.  It was very sweet, so I probably won’t order it again, but I did like it.

Next time - try the Poffertjes!  They are the BEST!

[StartrainDD]

14 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Day 11 Curacao July 3

 

I went as far as Del Sol in the fort shopping center.  I bought a few things, and while I was there, I thought maybe Arie and Cheryl would enjoy some as well, so I texted to ask if they’d like me to get them some.  They did, so after finishing at Del Sol, I got more cheese and headed back to the ship.  I got there around 11, so I went to the pool and did my thing.  

 

THANK YOU for the Gouda! 🙂

[chrismch]

1 hour ago, 39august said:

We were on Beyond a month ago, and yes, there was the "Seafood" extravaganza. Mostly what I saw were mounds of boiled shrimp. 

Mounds of shrimp does not make a "seafood" buffet - even though I love shrimp and usually keep a couple of pounds in my freezer.

[abbydancer2003]

3 hours ago, StartrainDD said:

Yikes!  We are planning on the Elite breakfast in August on Beyond.  We had the best server at the breakfast on Constellation in January!

 

 

When Beth and I were there in February, the service was fine.  Hopefully this was an off day.

[Harrisonkid]

Thanks for the Beyond review. We loved our time on The Beyond and its fun to re-live it thru you!!

[kabmab]

18 hours ago, chrismch said:

Mounds of shrimp does not make a "seafood" buffet - even though I love shrimp and usually keep a couple of pounds in my freezer.

When we were on Apex in January there was huge shrimp every lunch in OVC.  On Ascent TA in April, only shrimp on last day in OVC for seafood extravaganza which included mussels and crawfish (which I tried for first time and thought they tasted like swamp -- JIMHO).

[depplep]

I will check it out and report what I find. I'm not wasting my time on a shrimp buffet The video posted on another live review recently in the Med on Ascent was every seafood imaginable including paella.

[abbydancer2003]

Day 13 Sea Day 5 July 5 2024

 

After our 3 ports, it was now our last two sea days, and last two days on the Beyond.

 

We decided to have breakfast today, so were up in time.  I had my new go to, a small cheese omelette.  Before we left the room, I had an email from a friend who is on the Beyond in August.  They’re going with friends, and they ended up with different dining times.  He asked if I could help from being on the ship.

 

When we arrived at the dining room, and Aricka was there, so I asked her who I would ask for my friends.  She gave me a name and told me which room.  However, while we were at breakfast, she came by and got the names, booking numbers and sail date for my friends and said she’d email the hostess in charge. 

 

Today was not the nicest of days.  It was raining heavily all through breakfast.

 

From the table at Luminae

 

I decided that the best way for me to get my pool exercises done would be to use the Solarium pool early.  So I went right after breakfast and I was the only person there.  I did skip the hot tub since those were busy.  

 

A little later we went to the lounge.  It was the most crowded I’d seen it in the morning, but I’m guessing it’s because no one was on the sundeck or in the pool.  

 

Eventually, after doing not much, we went to lunch.  I started with a simple salad, since they only appetizer that would have appealed was the lemongrass soup, and last time I tried it, it was too spicy..  Glen said it wouldn’t be if you leave off the red peppers so maybe next time I will.  We both had lamb chops for lunch.  Midway through I remembered that tonight is evening chic, and they’ll have the rack of lamb on the menu, which is one of their best.  Oh well, lamb and lamb it is.

 

We skipped dessert, and then went over to the buffet for soft serve.  They had strawberry and chocolate, so we both had strawberry.

 

After ice cream we eventually ended up at Al Baccio.  For some reason, on this cruise we spent a lot of time there.  Possibly because it’s so big we could always find a seat, even on a sea day, so we took advantage of that.  

 

Before dinner, we watched the Mandolorian (season 2) through our Roku, I also did my exercises before dressing up for our last evening Chic night.  

 

We took advantage of our suite reserved seating.  I guess if you want reserved seating every night, and want to sit upstairs just right of the center section, you can buy that Premium access thing.  In any case we got seats that we wanted.  The show was Arte, and it was great.

 

 

This was from the first number.  This illustrates why the Edge Class shows are so good.  In addition to the bigger stage, the screens in back can be used to great effect.

 

The swans are also a piece of art on the pool deck.  Presumably not the same ones.

 

 

It’s not really raining.

 

 

And since the show is called Arte, it wouldn’t be complete without Starry Night.  Note they did not use the Don McLean song.

 

After the show, we had to get to dinner on 16.  The front elevators being very crowded, we went to the back elevators, and took the jogging track up to 16, coming in across from the Hostess stand.  When we arrived Aricka told me that our friends dining was all set.  She is awesome.

 

For dinner tonight I tried the yellow beet risotto.  I didn’t eat the red ones, but it was pretty good, although somewhat al dente.  (We were warned about that).  Glen thought he’d ordered the kale soup.  Turns out Jesus just brought both to both of us.  I didn’t particularly like it, but now I know.  

 

For our mains we both had the rack of lamb with extra salsa verde.  It was great as always.  For dessert, since I wasn’t particularly interested or hungry I just had some sorbet, which was a perfect ending.

 

After dinner, I did my only casino.  Our apps have been completely messed up about our OBC amount, so earlier I’d asked the concierges how much we had.  It agreed with what I thought.  I figured it was better to go today, when I could still fix things, rather than tomorrow night, when it would probably be too late.

 

 I decided to go dump all but 2.00 (rounding down to the nearest 5).  I pretty quickly was up about 13.00 so I quit and cashed out.  

 

I then went to the lounge to see if their tip envelopes were still out.  They weren’t so I left.  I ran into our butler, Pratip, who was our last butler before butler gate, at the elevator bank and we had a nice talk.  

 

That was it for the day.  Tomorrow, our last full day.

 

 

 

 

 

[chrismch]

Thanks for sharing the pics of the show. Definitely something I want to see.

[DingoMom]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this report! It is almost as if we are sailing with you! ❤️

[Qwksilver]

We board Beyond July13th, Saturday morning. It is so close I can feel it.

 

Thanks to the OP for this live report!!!! this

[StartrainDD]

18 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Day 13 Sea Day 5 July 5 2024

 

After ice cream we eventually ended up at Al Baccio.  For some reason, on this cruise we spent a lot of time there.  Possibly because it’s so big we could always find a seat, even on a sea day, so we took advantage of that.  

Good to know!  Al Baccio is our favorite and looking forward to it in August!

[DaKahuna]

@abbydancer2003  Just a heads up -- the Roll Call for the April 9 2025 TP is up to 72 pages.  Lits of us being chatty over there 🙂 

 

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

@abbydancer2003  Just a heads up -- the Roll Call for the April 9 2025 TP is up to 72 pages.  Lits of us being chatty over there 🙂 

 

We were on the 2024 TP.   In 2025 doing a GBR followed by New Zealand. 

[abbydancer2003]

Day 14 Sea Day 6 July 6 2024

 

Last full day.  

 

We made it in time for breakfast this morning, our penultimate (I love that word) breakfast.  We started with coffee from Godfrey and arranged for him to bring lattes from Al Baccio tomorrow.  

 

After breakfast I went to the pool for my last exercises and hot tub.  I think when I get home I should probably try to get a new key for our complex pools.  One reason to go early is that I have to pack my bathing suit tonight and I want it dry.

 

I headed up to the lounge after that.  Glen stayed in the room.  When I got there, the future cruise person was there, and offered to talk now, but since no Glen I said we’d wait.

 

Just before our 11:30 appointment, Glen arrived.  I thought we were just going to book two refundable cruises in 2026 as placeholders, but Glen decided he wanted to go to Europe, either western Med or the Balkans.  One to the Balkins on the Ascent in October looked good, but the timing might not work, so instead, we decided on a Morroco and Caneries in December on the Infinity.  We debated between Aqua no perks and a sky suite, but picked the sky suite due to location.  (By December 25 we should be Zenith, so we can consider no perks).

 

Next stop was our last lunch.  It was the usual first day lunch.  I started with the “borscht”, in quotes because it’s more a stew, and NY steak, which is what I usually have on the first day.  

 

After we finished lunch we spent some time taking care of things, including creating tip envelopes for the restaurant and room staff.  When we finished, we decided to take a walk around the ship.

 

We started with the upper decks and stopped at the Magic Carpet.  It was open, with only a few people there, and the wind wasn’t bad, so we decided to have a drink.

 

Glen had a vanilla Mojito.

 

 

I had a small strawberry margarita.

 

 

And our view.

 

 

While we were there, we noticed some of the production staff (singer and dancers) at the next table.  I told them we loved their shows and the singer said he liked my “sparkly” Discovery Princess tee shirt.  

 

Eventually we headed back to the room to do the dreaded packing.  We got everything packed, except what we were wearing for the evening, and things we need tomorrow.  

 

We still had some time before dinner, so we went to the lounge.for a last drink.  

 

At abut 8:15 we headed to the restaurant.  Our reservation was at 8:30, but the were able to seat us right away.  They did give us a window table.  It was across from the entrance, so there was a certain amount of noise, but not too bad.

 

We both started with salads (Wedge and Caesar).  Glen had the NY steak, and said it was good, but the outside edge was more done than the middle.  I had prime rib, which was a bit thicker than I’m used to, but pretty good.  The sides were good, although the asparagus spears were really tiny.  The only picture I got was of the bread, so here it is.

 

 

For dessert, we split the Cobbler.

 

Overall we enjoyed it, but not sure it was good enough to repeat soon.

 

After dinner we went up and put out the suitcases.  They went out at about 10:01, and were still there at 11.  I called guest services, and they said that they were still collecting them. 

 

Tomorrow is early so we didn’t stay up much later.

 

 

*

[DaKahuna]

5 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

We were on the 2024 TP.   In 2025 doing a GBR followed by New Zealand. 

 

 Interesting, I was looking at who posted messages on that thread and you are shown as having made one post.  

 

[chrismch]

Abbydancer... I've enjoyed reading your posts on the cruise. Gave me some good insights on our Beyond cruise in 3 wks. Chuckled when you mentioned the word penultimate as it's one of my husband's favorite words. Wished you had mentioned more of the seafood choices as that's what my tastes go to and my husband likes the beef. Get back to using the community pool. We use ours dailly for pool walking exercise with styrofoam weights and it makes a big difference!

[abbydancer2003]

14 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Interesting, I was looking at who posted messages on that thread and you are shown as having made one post.  

 

 

Odd.  I wonder if I had a reason?

 

12 hours ago, chrismch said:

Abbydancer... I've enjoyed reading your posts on the cruise. Gave me some good insights on our Beyond cruise in 3 wks. Chuckled when you mentioned the word penultimate as it's one of my husband's favorite words. Wished you had mentioned more of the seafood choices as that's what my tastes go to and my husband likes the beef. Get back to using the community pool. We use ours dailly for pool walking exercise with styrofoam weights and it makes a big difference!

Thanks.  The reason I guess I never mentioned seafood is that I don't eat it at all, so I don't pay any attention to it.  That said, when I do my thread on Apex next month, if you ask questions about it I'll do my best to answer.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Thanks for this report!! I'm on the Beyond 2 weeks from tomorrow!! Whee!!! This helped me be more excited!!

 

I'm like you in that I only rarely eat seafood (and if I do it's scallops...or maybe shrimp) so I never mention that. Adding that to my "disclaimers" I'll put in my Live report. HAHA!

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Odd.  I wonder if I had a reason?

 

 I figured it out.  You may a post back in May about only getting points for a 16 vice 17 night cruise.   

 

John

 

[Stem to Stern]

59 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Live report.

Looking forward to it.  

Have yet to sail on an Edge-class, but have one coming up.

Thanks Abby for all of your reports.

[mac_tlc]

Abby,

 

It has been fun following you these past two weeks. So far, Beyond is our favorite X ship and we look forward to being on her this Thanksgiving. Look forward to your Apex adventure. Our trip to Norway last year is our most memorable yet !!!

 

 

mac_tlc

[abbydancer2003]

Sorry for the delay on this. Our internet in New York has been, uh, challenging.  Anyway, here's the report from disembarkation.

Day 15 Bye Bye. July 7

 

This day always comes and nobody likes it.  It’s finally disembarkation for us.

 

We were up around 6:50, as Godfrey brought our final coffee.  He brought lattes from Al Bacco today.  We thanked him and gave him his tip.  

 

We packed up our electronics and toiletries.  We had a bit of time before breakfast closed, so I found Frank and said good bye to him.  He was an excellent room steward.

 

We took our stuff to breakfast, dropped it in the vestibule to the sundeck and were seated.  It was very busy there, so when Agus brought us our water, I told him there was absolutely no rush.  We’re being picked up at 9:30, so we have a lot of time.  I finished with my new go to - a small cheese omelette.  I noticed that Alan, our sommelier wasn’t there.  Jesus told me that he wasn’t coming until lunch, so I gave his tip envelope to Jesus.  

 

After breakfast we headed to the lounge.  At about 9:15 they announced all luggage tags were called.  We were escorted to the gangway by Aveno and Janelle.  The gangway was pretty empty and there was a short line at CBP.  I got a call from our friends, and we quickly found them and loaded their car.  They drove us to our hotel, where our room was ready.  We dropped our bags and had a lovely day.

 

With that I think I’ll call it a wrap.  We started in Florida with friends picking us up at the airport, and we ended with friends picking us up at the port.  The Presidents cruise was fun, and I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but we did get a couple of entertainment upgrades.  We also enjoyed the calmness of the second cruise.  It was great seeing crew we knew, reminding me that’s one of the things I love about Celebrity.

 

I’ll be back in August for our not B2B2 cruises (not sure what it’s called when you do two cruises on the same ship but skip a 4 day in the middle - besides a break that’s too long to get the b2b discount.  I’ll try to do better on food pictures.

 

Thanks all for reading.

 

 

[DaKahuna]

 As always, we loved your review and look forward to your ones in August.  Have an enjoyable stay in New York and safe journey back across country to home.