First cruise on Celebrity was ‘Beyond’ our expectations.

[CTCruiser76]

A little background – my wife and I went on our first cruise on Royal back in 2001. We have been on a number of cruises all on Royal, enough to become Diamond. I know that’s not a lot, but enough to form an opinion and an affinity for cruising. We both make decisions all day/every day for work, so when we go on a vacation, we like that ‘everything’ is pretty much decided for us already, no need to figure out directions for driving or what restaurant we are going to go to for breakfast/lunch/dinner, with a cruise, this is pretty much already decided.

 

After strictly sailing on Royal, we decided that Royal was no longer living up to our expectations for what we consider ‘normal’ cruise standards……the biggest being food standards. The second to last cruise on Royal, which was on The Mariner, the food in the main dining room, was far from what we had been experiencing from past cruises, so much so that the food in the Windjammer for dinner was much better.  Our last cruise on Royal, The Adventure, the food in the main dining room was much better, but the Windjammer food was, shall I say, not very good.

So, with our tastes and preferences changing, we decided that it was time to branch out of our norm and try something else. So, we decided that it may be time to ‘grow up’ and move to Celebrity and wow, let me tell you, we are SOOOO glad we did – The Beyond cruise to the ABC islands was a game changer.

 

Firstly, we need to call out the Service. Service was phenomenal on this cruise, hands down, the BEST service we have ever experienced throughout the entire cruise ship.   We have stayed in Suites on Royal, and the service has been great, but this was everyone, everywhere. Now I am not 100% sure if this is the ‘norm’ for Celebrity OR if this was because the very next cruise on the Beyond was the Presidential Cruise, so everyone was on their best behavior, but if not ….’this’ is what cruising used to be like. The service from every single person we interact with was awesome.

 

Second, the Food. The Food in every venue we tried, was fantastic. From the 4 individual main dining rooms to the Oceanview Café – every meal we had, the food met or exceeded our expectations, this was exactly what we were hoping for.

 

Third, the Ship itself. This was our first Edge Class ship and the layout and design, we thought was fantastic. The ship was super clean, looked new, the live trees, the venues. We often commented that the ship contained many areas where we could sit and have private conversations with our friend and not have to shout over music or be so close to others that everyone could hear or be part of the conversations we had. The designers did a great job with the layout of this ship to allow for all these private nooks and crannies. Now, not all the furniture was the most comfortable, for example, the furniture in Eden was awkward and not very comfortable, but we were able to get away and sit with our friends and have nice long conversations without bothering anyone with our jibber jabber.

 

The controversial – The Infinite Veranda Stateroom – Let us start and say – We didn’t hate it. Now, we didn’t love it either. These should NOT be labeled a veranda stateroom whatsoever – these are 100% an oceanVIEW stateroom with a large window, nothing about these rooms gives you ANY similarities to a balcony stateroom. This is 100% a marketing scheme and should NOT be marketed as a balcony whatsoever.  These rooms may be great for colder climate cruises, but they are NOT suitable for the Caribbean. As soon as you open the ‘window’, again, I state ‘Window’ - your room immediately gets hot and humid a very poor decision and design for the Caribbean. Now again, we didn’t hate it, but rather appreciated the ‘extra’ living space to read or hangout, BUT the furniture is NOT very comfortable at all. The chairs are very small/short and not very comfortable. I cannot see too many of the ‘Celebrity’ targeted clientele spending very much time in these chairs…..at least not comfortably.

 

The Ugly – This had nothing to do with Celebrity, but rather American Airlines, they lost our luggage on a direct flight from CLT to FLL. Yes, you read that right – lost our luggage on a direct flight. The Celebrity tie into this is that ‘luckily’ we booked a Concierge stateroom, so we went right to the Concierge desk upon embarkation and told them our plight. The two Concierge host, Rahul & Niall called AA twice a day tracking down our luggage, which we were finally able to obtain on day 4 in Aruba, those two gentlemen went above and beyond our expectations dealing with the incompetence of American Airline employees that consistently gave us/them conflicting information on how/where/when our luggage would show up. The team went so far as to paying the delivery fee out of their own pocket for us to get our luggage. Yes, you read that right, after America Airlines lost our luggage, they then charged US a delivery fee for us to get our luggage. After telling the Concierge staff that they could charge our Credit Card on file to pick up the luggage, when it arrived, they switched to ‘Cash only’, luckily Rahul & Niall had cash in their pocket to pay this for us. We gladly reimbursed them plus some for their generosity and for saving our cruise.

 

Overall, because of everything that we liked/loved/enjoyed on this cruise, we went to the Next Cruise desk and happily booked/secured 2 additional cruises on Celebrity Cruises. We will 100% be sailing again on Celebrity, they met or exceeded our expectations for every part of our sailing. Now, the crazy thing here is I have read so many people here on Cruise Critic say how much has changed on Celebrity for the worse and they are the changing/trying new cruise lines, so if that truly is the case, then wow, the service & food provided before, must have been out of this world on Celebrity cruises.  For us, this is exactly what we have been looking for from a cruise line and are more than happy with the product they provided. Our next two cruises, already booked before this cruise, will be on The Disney Wish, this year, and then next year on Oceania, so after those two cruises, we will have a very good understanding/feeling of other cruise lines other than the RCCL family of cruises. After these, we will gladly be booking two new cruises on Celebrity.

[Stem to Stern]

So glad you had a great time on Beyond.  We are giving it a go this year.  Could you please tell me where are the quiet conversation spots with comfy furniture around the ship?  Thanks.

[Lastdance]

That is quite a variety of ships for comparison.  I hope you find what you are looking for, as I am also trying Oceania, on a new ship, with an itinerary of interest.  Celebrity E-class is wonderful in Europe, but I am prejudice to this venue, demographics, history, culture and variety of beautiful ports.

 

Thanks for your observations!

Edited Sunday at 04:23 PM by Lastdance

[horseymike]

1 hour ago, CTCruiser76 said:

A little background – my wife and I went on our first cruise on Royal back in 2001. We have been on a number of cruises all on Royal, enough to become Diamond. I know that’s not a lot, but enough to form an opinion and an affinity for cruising. We both make decisions all day/every day for work, so when we go on a vacation, we like that ‘everything’ is pretty much decided for us already, no need to figure out directions for driving or what restaurant we are going to go to for breakfast/lunch/dinner, with a cruise, this is pretty much already decided.

 

After strictly sailing on Royal, we decided that Royal was no longer living up to our expectations for what we consider ‘normal’ cruise standards……the biggest being food standards. The second to last cruise on Royal, which was on The Mariner, the food in the main dining room, was far from what we had been experiencing from past cruises, so much so that the food in the Windjammer for dinner was much better.  Our last cruise on Royal, The Adventure, the food in the main dining room was much better, but the Windjammer food was, shall I say, not very good.

So, with our tastes and preferences changing, we decided that it was time to branch out of our norm and try something else. So, we decided that it may be time to ‘grow up’ and move to Celebrity and wow, let me tell you, we are SOOOO glad we did – The Beyond cruise to the ABC islands was a game changer.

 

Firstly, we need to call out the Service. Service was phenomenal on this cruise, hands down, the BEST service we have ever experienced throughout the entire cruise ship.   We have stayed in Suites on Royal, and the service has been great, but this was everyone, everywhere. Now I am not 100% sure if this is the ‘norm’ for Celebrity OR if this was because the very next cruise on the Beyond was the Presidential Cruise, so everyone was on their best behavior, but if not ….’this’ is what cruising used to be like. The service from every single person we interact with was awesome.

 

Second, the Food. The Food in every venue we tried, was fantastic. From the 4 individual main dining rooms to the Oceanview Café – every meal we had, the food met or exceeded our expectations, this was exactly what we were hoping for.

 

Third, the Ship itself. This was our first Edge Class ship and the layout and design, we thought was fantastic. The ship was super clean, looked new, the live trees, the venues. We often commented that the ship contained many areas where we could sit and have private conversations with our friend and not have to shout over music or be so close to others that everyone could hear or be part of the conversations we had. The designers did a great job with the layout of this ship to allow for all these private nooks and crannies. Now, not all the furniture was the most comfortable, for example, the furniture in Eden was awkward and not very comfortable, but we were able to get away and sit with our friends and have nice long conversations without bothering anyone with our jibber jabber.

 

The controversial – The Infinite Veranda Stateroom – Let us start and say – We didn’t hate it. Now, we didn’t love it either. These should NOT be labeled a veranda stateroom whatsoever – these are 100% an oceanVIEW stateroom with a large window, nothing about these rooms gives you ANY similarities to a balcony stateroom. This is 100% a marketing scheme and should NOT be marketed as a balcony whatsoever.  These rooms may be great for colder climate cruises, but they are NOT suitable for the Caribbean. As soon as you open the ‘window’, again, I state ‘Window’ - your room immediately gets hot and humid a very poor decision and design for the Caribbean. Now again, we didn’t hate it, but rather appreciated the ‘extra’ living space to read or hangout, BUT the furniture is NOT very comfortable at all. The chairs are very small/short and not very comfortable. I cannot see too many of the ‘Celebrity’ targeted clientele spending very much time in these chairs…..at least not comfortably.

 

The Ugly – This had nothing to do with Celebrity, but rather American Airlines, they lost our luggage on a direct flight from CLT to FLL. Yes, you read that right – lost our luggage on a direct flight. The Celebrity tie into this is that ‘luckily’ we booked a Concierge stateroom, so we went right to the Concierge desk upon embarkation and told them our plight. The two Concierge host, Rahul & Niall called AA twice a day tracking down our luggage, which we were finally able to obtain on day 4 in Aruba, those two gentlemen went above and beyond our expectations dealing with the incompetence of American Airline employees that consistently gave us/them conflicting information on how/where/when our luggage would show up. The team went so far as to paying the delivery fee out of their own pocket for us to get our luggage. Yes, you read that right, after America Airlines lost our luggage, they then charged US a delivery fee for us to get our luggage. After telling the Concierge staff that they could charge our Credit Card on file to pick up the luggage, when it arrived, they switched to ‘Cash only’, luckily Rahul & Niall had cash in their pocket to pay this for us. We gladly reimbursed them plus some for their generosity and for saving our cruise.

 

Overall, because of everything that we liked/loved/enjoyed on this cruise, we went to the Next Cruise desk and happily booked/secured 2 additional cruises on Celebrity Cruises. We will 100% be sailing again on Celebrity, they met or exceeded our expectations for every part of our sailing. Now, the crazy thing here is I have read so many people here on Cruise Critic say how much has changed on Celebrity for the worse and they are the changing/trying new cruise lines, so if that truly is the case, then wow, the service & food provided before, must have been out of this world on Celebrity cruises.  For us, this is exactly what we have been looking for from a cruise line and are more than happy with the product they provided. Our next two cruises, already booked before this cruise, will be on The Disney Wish, this year, and then next year on Oceania, so after those two cruises, we will have a very good understanding/feeling of other cruise lines other than the RCCL family of cruises. After these, we will gladly be booking two new cruises on Celebrity.

So glad you enjoyed your cruise despite AA losing your luggage.

[CTCruiser76]

38 minutes ago, Stem to Stern said:

So glad you had a great time on Beyond.  We are giving it a go this year.  Could you please tell me where are the quiet conversation spots with comfy furniture around the ship?  Thanks.

Certainly.... One place that jumps out was the 3rd floor of Eden, when you go up and over the Bar, there is this nice spot with a large couch and number of chairs where nobody ever went on our cruise, it was a great place to have conversations, plus being close to a bar for easy access to drinks if partaking. 

Cafe Al Bacia had great chairs and seating - perfect spot for their Tea service....it was quite relaxing and very nice. 

The rooftop garden was/is fantastic, until it gets hot and humid....same with the Sunset Bar. 

[KKB]

53 minutes ago, CTCruiser76 said:

Certainly.... One place that jumps out was the 3rd floor of Eden, when you go up and over the Bar, there is this nice spot with a large couch and number of chairs where nobody ever went on our cruise, it was a great place to have conversations, plus being close to a bar for easy access to drinks if partaking. 

Cafe Al Bacia had great chairs and seating - perfect spot for their Tea service....it was quite relaxing and very nice. 

The rooftop garden was/is fantastic, until it gets hot and humid....same with the Sunset Bar. 

Yes, but rooftop & Sunset are lovely later in the evening!

[KKB]

2 hours ago, CTCruiser76 said:

A little background – my wife and I went on our first cruise on Royal back in 2001. We have been on a number of cruises all on Royal, enough to become Diamond. I know that’s not a lot, but enough to form an opinion and an affinity for cruising. We both make decisions all day/every day for work, so when we go on a vacation, we like that ‘everything’ is pretty much decided for us already, no need to figure out directions for driving or what restaurant we are going to go to for breakfast/lunch/dinner, with a cruise, this is pretty much already decided.

 

After strictly sailing on Royal, we decided that Royal was no longer living up to our expectations for what we consider ‘normal’ cruise standards……the biggest being food standards. The second to last cruise on Royal, which was on The Mariner, the food in the main dining room, was far from what we had been experiencing from past cruises, so much so that the food in the Windjammer for dinner was much better.  Our last cruise on Royal, The Adventure, the food in the main dining room was much better, but the Windjammer food was, shall I say, not very good.

So, with our tastes and preferences changing, we decided that it was time to branch out of our norm and try something else. So, we decided that it may be time to ‘grow up’ and move to Celebrity and wow, let me tell you, we are SOOOO glad we did – The Beyond cruise to the ABC islands was a game changer.

 

Firstly, we need to call out the Service. Service was phenomenal on this cruise, hands down, the BEST service we have ever experienced throughout the entire cruise ship.   We have stayed in Suites on Royal, and the service has been great, but this was everyone, everywhere. Now I am not 100% sure if this is the ‘norm’ for Celebrity OR if this was because the very next cruise on the Beyond was the Presidential Cruise, so everyone was on their best behavior, but if not ….’this’ is what cruising used to be like. The service from every single person we interact with was awesome.

 

Second, the Food. The Food in every venue we tried, was fantastic. From the 4 individual main dining rooms to the Oceanview Café – every meal we had, the food met or exceeded our expectations, this was exactly what we were hoping for.

 

Third, the Ship itself. This was our first Edge Class ship and the layout and design, we thought was fantastic. The ship was super clean, looked new, the live trees, the venues. We often commented that the ship contained many areas where we could sit and have private conversations with our friend and not have to shout over music or be so close to others that everyone could hear or be part of the conversations we had. The designers did a great job with the layout of this ship to allow for all these private nooks and crannies. Now, not all the furniture was the most comfortable, for example, the furniture in Eden was awkward and not very comfortable, but we were able to get away and sit with our friends and have nice long conversations without bothering anyone with our jibber jabber.

 

The controversial – The Infinite Veranda Stateroom – Let us start and say – We didn’t hate it. Now, we didn’t love it either. These should NOT be labeled a veranda stateroom whatsoever – these are 100% an oceanVIEW stateroom with a large window, nothing about these rooms gives you ANY similarities to a balcony stateroom. This is 100% a marketing scheme and should NOT be marketed as a balcony whatsoever.  These rooms may be great for colder climate cruises, but they are NOT suitable for the Caribbean. As soon as you open the ‘window’, again, I state ‘Window’ - your room immediately gets hot and humid a very poor decision and design for the Caribbean. Now again, we didn’t hate it, but rather appreciated the ‘extra’ living space to read or hangout, BUT the furniture is NOT very comfortable at all. The chairs are very small/short and not very comfortable. I cannot see too many of the ‘Celebrity’ targeted clientele spending very much time in these chairs…..at least not comfortably.

 

The Ugly – This had nothing to do with Celebrity, but rather American Airlines, they lost our luggage on a direct flight from CLT to FLL. Yes, you read that right – lost our luggage on a direct flight. The Celebrity tie into this is that ‘luckily’ we booked a Concierge stateroom, so we went right to the Concierge desk upon embarkation and told them our plight. The two Concierge host, Rahul & Niall called AA twice a day tracking down our luggage, which we were finally able to obtain on day 4 in Aruba, those two gentlemen went above and beyond our expectations dealing with the incompetence of American Airline employees that consistently gave us/them conflicting information on how/where/when our luggage would show up. The team went so far as to paying the delivery fee out of their own pocket for us to get our luggage. Yes, you read that right, after America Airlines lost our luggage, they then charged US a delivery fee for us to get our luggage. After telling the Concierge staff that they could charge our Credit Card on file to pick up the luggage, when it arrived, they switched to ‘Cash only’, luckily Rahul & Niall had cash in their pocket to pay this for us. We gladly reimbursed them plus some for their generosity and for saving our cruise.

 

Overall, because of everything that we liked/loved/enjoyed on this cruise, we went to the Next Cruise desk and happily booked/secured 2 additional cruises on Celebrity Cruises. We will 100% be sailing again on Celebrity, they met or exceeded our expectations for every part of our sailing. Now, the crazy thing here is I have read so many people here on Cruise Critic say how much has changed on Celebrity for the worse and they are the changing/trying new cruise lines, so if that truly is the case, then wow, the service & food provided before, must have been out of this world on Celebrity cruises.  For us, this is exactly what we have been looking for from a cruise line and are more than happy with the product they provided. Our next two cruises, already booked before this cruise, will be on The Disney Wish, this year, and then next year on Oceania, so after those two cruises, we will have a very good understanding/feeling of other cruise lines other than the RCCL family of cruises. After these, we will gladly be booking two new cruises on Celebrity.

I would reach out to AA via social media & message them to complain about the charging to get your bags to you! (oh and a post ABOUT the situation on social media often has good results...)

 

We sailed DCL (1), Princess & RCCL 2004-2012. Then we tried Celebrity in 2014 & we felt the same--food & service were a tick above! And Eclass is my FAV.

I will say our Regal Princess cruise this last April gave Celebrity a run for their money--service & food were fantastic. Hope it continues fleetwide.

 

I think people's perception of what cruising "used to be" might not actually be reality (we tend to remember things better than they were...).

Perception vs reality seems to be a theme for many things these days...

 

Glad you enjoyed it--we have Ascent booked this Dec & Beyond next.

Celebrity price point is my only sticking point these days...I just have to work a bit harder to find the right price!

Edited Sunday at 05:58 PM by KKB

[lv2cruisgrl]

Good review and we agree.  We started with RC years ago and then switched to Celebrity! Food was one of the main reasons .  Plus just too many kids on RC for us.  Glad you had a good time.

Edited Sunday at 06:15 PM by lv2cruisgrl

[fenton04]

Gotta love cruising on Celebrity.

[CTCruiser76]

Ok....update....reached out to our TA and he had fantastic prices on fall 2025 cruises....needless to say Celebrity APEX is now booked !!  🙂 

[Mike981]

Glad you had a great cruise.

 

Our family of four flew non-stop from Minneapolis to Orlando and the airline (Suncountry) lost two of our four bags, one for my wife and one for my daughter and were not very helpful when I talked to the agent in Orlando (I have not flown with them since). It took three days to get the bags on the ship, so my wife and daughter purchased a lot of clothes and other items they needed and then our insurance refunded the cost.

[NCTribeFan]

I'll be on Beyond in November.  I've only sailed X once before (5 nights on Summit in April 2022) and really enjoyed it.  I've probably sailed 50 times total (Carnival, NCL, RCI, MSC, HAL, Virgin).

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed the food.  And it's really good to read that there are places on the ship that one can find that are relatively quiet.  I complain after EVERY cruise that there's no need for blaring piped-in music in every venue 24/7.  And for what should be acoustic musicians to have the sound cranked up as though they're The Beatles playing Shea Stadium.  Yes, I'm that old. 😁

 

I'm looking forward to this cruise.  I'll get off the ship, spend 2 nights in Ft Lauderdale, then board HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam for a week.  I like that class ship.  Beyond is a bit large for my tastes, but she looks lovely in the photos I've seen.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.