Beyond Awesome! Live from ABC islands September 7, 2024

[SGCruiser2013]

Hello cruisers! We are really excited about our Beyond sailing! I know there have been tons of Live From’s on Beyond … shout out to those amazing reviewers … will try to stay picture heavy on this cruise and hopefully you find something to enjoy!! Also happy to take questions. 

As reminder from my previous short thread, we are a family party of 6. Three brothers and spouses. Celebrating one of us turning the Big6™️. We are fortunate to be staying in Sky Suites within the Retreat and will mostly be dining specialty and Luminae. 
 

Quick public service announcement, we bought a Cameo from Captain Kate to wish my brother a happy birthday. If you haven’t used it before it was not that expensive and Captain Kate (and Bug) did a great job. Strongly recommend! 
 

https://www.cameo.com/captainkatemccue
 

 

Edited September 7 by SGCruiser2013

[lola2013]

My friends Paul and Tim are sailing with you.  I watched sail away and hope you all have a great cruise!  I was lucky enough to sail with Captain Kate and Bug a few years ago on Edge.

Bon Voyage 😎

Susan 

[peanut head]

Thank you for taking us along!  Have a wonderful time!

[SGCruiser2013]

Dinner at Luminae. I had the crabcake, guinea hen and vanilla ice cream with caramel. Was awesome. Pics to follow when I figure out how to fix my iPhone upload issue. 

 

 

Edited September 7 by SGCruiser2013

[Stem to Stern]

6 hours ago, lola2013 said:

My friends Paul and Tim are sailing with you.  I watched sail away and hope you all have a great cruise!  I was lucky enough to sail with Captain Kate and Bug a few years ago on Edge.

Bon Voyage 😎

Susan 

Susan,

Thanks for all the insta-love and sharing our anticipation of our first Edge-class sailing.

We also sailed with Captain Kate previously to the ABCs in 2018 on Celebrity Equinox.

I’m not sure I knew Lady Bug Naked even existed back then.

Now the little puss is a social media sensation.  

Tim and I are excited to be sailing with them again (even if we are residing in the Gen Pop this time.)😂

We had a fun first day on board (once the captain remembered which purse she left the keys to the ship in.)😂

We enjoyed a wonderful reunion with @Ellesor826 and her DH today as well as meeting a gaggle of new friends at the various “hydration stations.”

@SGCruiser ~ Thanks for taking the time to report on your/our cruise.  I could not think of a better way to celebrate a birthday than to go Beyond!😎

We are celebrating our anniversary, but celebration or not we consider every day at sea a privilege and a blessing.🙏

 

 

Edited September 8 by Stem to Stern

[depplep]

We just got off that same cruise in July and loved Beyond, we missed Capt.Kate as she got on while we were getting off. I didn't know she did special occassion videos, that's cool. Looking forward to your review, have a great time.

[SGCruiser2013]

Luminae menu and a killer crab cake!

 

 

 

 

[styles27]

Have a wonderful time! 

We’ll be on Beyond January 24,2025 and hope we’ll have Captain Kate. 

I know her current contract ends October 27th and she does 3 months on and 3 months off which should put her back on board for January 27th. 
 

My question is would they switch captains 3

days into our cruise or will she be back for the start of it? 
Just love watching her daily Captain Logs on Instagram and would love to meet her. 

[SGCruiser2013]

Great lunch at Le Grand Bistro, menu posted below. I had the escargot and baby chicken. Super tasty. 
 

 

Also took some pics around the ship. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SGCruiser2013]

Awesome dinner last night at Le Voyage. We are a party of six and when we originally booked way in advance, we could only book reservations for 2 or 4. Indeed, in the restaurant, there aren’t really “tables of six” per se. There is one or two places where there are two tops (chair across from bench) in a straight line that they might be able to push a little closer together. So, we ended up booking a table for 4 and then table for 2. The reservations were 15 mins apart. 
 

At beginning of cruise, we asked the Retreat concierge if they could try to seat us near each other or perhaps in a line. They combined our times and said they would do their best. For dinner when we arrived, they actually sat us in a little semi private room around the corner from main room. It was absolutely perfect. Suspect only one opportunity for this per night but wanted to mention in case others have party of six (8 would have been tight) and celebrating a special occasion perhaps you can request ahead of time and get lucky like us. 
 

Pics below of menu, we had 5 course tasting menu. I’d rate 8/10, great but maybe slightly below very high expectations. 

 

 

Smoked salmon caviar amuse, 10/10

 

 

Lobster risotto star of the night 10/10

 

 

 

Tasting menu had fixed desserts but they let us choose our own. Raspberry meringue 10/10

 

 

Edited September 9 by SGCruiser2013

[mnocket]

I just made a separate post asking about how crowded the pool deck is on sea days.  You are in a perfect position to check it out for me.  If it's not too much of a bother, maybe you could wander down on a sea day and take a look at how crowded the main pool deck is.  Maybe even take a picture?  I'd appreciate it, but certainly understand if you take a pass. 🙂

[SGCruiser2013]

Met Captain Kate at Cafe Bacio this morning! Have an awesome selfie for posterity. She was so gracious with her time / gotta be exhausting being a ‘Celebrity’

[SGCruiser2013]

44 minutes ago, mnocket said:

I just made a separate post asking about how crowded the pool deck is on sea days.  You are in a perfect position to check it out for me.  If it's not too much of a bother, maybe you could wander down on a sea day and take a look at how crowded the main pool deck is.  Maybe even take a picture?  I'd appreciate it, but certainly understand if you take a pass. 🙂

Today the weather is perfect and the main sun deck/pool has great music and vibes! Before upgrading to Retreat, we booked a full cabana on Black Friday (30% discount or 350). I contemplated giving it up when we upgraded but decided to keep and try it out. I can say it’s not a “deal” if you have drink package and Retreat, however, it’s a super nice “convenience” if you like hanging near all the business in a private, set back setting. For that, and the quick service on drinks etc, I’m glad I kept it. 
 

Here are pics of cabana and view:

 

 

 

Additionally as requested here are some pics of main deck and solarium place. I’m not super tall so excuse the shortness! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies to anyone captured on cam who didn’t want to be! Let me know and I’m happy to take down the pic. It’s definitely crowded on main deck but really fun / lots of activities, different types of live and DJ music, etc. It’s quite warm in the sun and so I’m glad on the cabana but realize it’s $$$. 

 

 

[mnocket]

16 minutes ago, SGCruiser2013 said:

Today the weather is perfect and the main sun deck/pool has great music and vibes! Before upgrading to Retreat, we booked a full cabana on Black Friday (30% discount or 350). I contemplated giving it up when we upgraded but decided to keep and try it out. I can say it’s not a “deal” if you have drink package and Retreat, however, it’s a super nice “convenience” if you like hanging near all the business in a private, set back setting. For that, and the quick service on drinks etc, I’m glad I kept it. 
 

Here are pics of cabana and view:

 

 

 

Additionally as requested here are some pics of main deck and solarium place. I’m not super tall so excuse the shortness! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies to anyone captured on cam who didn’t want to be! Let me know and I’m happy to take down the pic. It’s definitely crowded on main deck but really fun / lots of activities, different types of live and DJ music, etc. It’s quite warm in the sun and so I’m glad on the cabana but realize it’s $$$. 

 

 

Wow!  The chair hogging situation is far worse than I had imagined.  It looks like only about 15% of the lounges are occupied, but 100% are "reserved" with towels. 

[thebutlerdidit]

39 minutes ago, mnocket said:

Wow!  The chair hogging situation is far worse than I had imagined.  It looks like only about 15% of the lounges are occupied, but 100% are "reserved" with towels. 

To me it looks like a lot of lazy people left without putting their used towels in a bin.

[DennysDad]

3 hours ago, SGCruiser2013 said:

Today the weather is perfect and the main sun deck/pool has great music and vibes! Before upgrading to Retreat, we booked a full cabana on Black Friday (30% discount or 350). I contemplated giving it up when we upgraded but decided to keep and try it out. I can say it’s not a “deal” if you have drink package and Retreat, however, it’s a super nice “convenience” if you like hanging near all the business in a private, set back setting. For that, and the quick service on drinks etc, I’m glad I kept it. 
 

Here are pics of cabana and view:

 

 

 

Additionally as requested here are some pics of main deck and solarium place. I’m not super tall so excuse the shortness! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies to anyone captured on cam who didn’t want to be! Let me know and I’m happy to take down the pic. It’s definitely crowded on main deck but really fun / lots of activities, different types of live and DJ music, etc. It’s quite warm in the sun and so I’m glad on the cabana but realize it’s $$$. 

 

 

"Crowded" LOL. Try a week on Icon. This looks like heaven. Thanks for the pics. Really love the pictures!

[mac_tlc]

5 hours ago, mnocket said:

Wow!  The chair hogging situation is far worse than I had imagined.  It looks like only about 15% of the lounges are occupied, but 100% are "reserved" with towels. 

We did the Beyond AC island cruise in February and the chair hogging was as bad as I have ever seen it on X.

 

Here is a picture taken at 7:27am.

 

 

 

But this one is the winner: Taken at 8am, and it was like this every single sea day, usually by 7:30am.

 

 

 

Even the Solarium has over 50% of the chairs with towels on them by 7:30, and I am not talking about the meaty folded ones that X puts on every chair.

 

 

mac_tlc

Edited September 9 by mac_tlc

[PTC DAWG]

I’ll just ease to the plunge pools and relax

[DennysDad]

3 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

We did the Beyond AC island cruise in February and the chair hogging was as bad as I have ever seen it on X.

 

Here is a picture taken at 7:27am.

 

 

 

But this one is the winner: Taken at 8am, and it was like this every single sea day, usually by 7:30am.

 

 

 

Even the Solarium has over 50% of the chairs with towels on them by 7:30, and I am not talking about the meaty folded ones that X puts on every chair.

 

 

mac_tlc

Oh hell no. 

Time for some redecorating. LOL.

Sorry, I ask to have some removed and/or do it myself. 

When we go out at 7am we take turns saving our chairs. Unfortunately it means we never eat breakfast together on sea days. But one of the 2 of us is always using the chair. Only time we are not sitting in a pool chair is when we are actually taking a dip in the pool. Kinda what a "pool" chair is for. By noon when the chair hogs show up, our chairs have been well used. Not just towel racks. 

[zackarykeef]

6 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

We did the Beyond AC island cruise in February and the chair hogging was as bad as I have ever seen it on X.

 

Here is a picture taken at 7:27am.

 

 

 

But this one is the winner: Taken at 8am, and it was like this every single sea day, usually by 7:30am.

 

 

 

Even the Solarium has over 50% of the chairs with towels on them by 7:30, and I am not talking about the meaty folded ones that X puts on every chair.

 

 

mac_tlc

Wait, wait, wait…I’ve never seen this on Celebrity, so is it safe to assume that’s someone’s personal towel that says “reserved?” I’m mortified. I would be too embarrassed to ever do something like that. Thank god I’m not on that sailing…how tacky.

[KLM3164]

On 9/7/2024 at 2:14 PM, SGCruiser2013 said:

Also happy to take questions. 

We will be on the next Beyond sailing to the ABC islands and first time dining in Luminae. I’m wondering if they have French onion soup on the menu each night? If not, would you mind asking if it’s possible to get it nightly by request? We loved it on the Ascent in the 4 regular dining rooms. This will only be our 2nd X cruise so we are still learning how they operate.

 

Enjoy your cruise and thank you for your photos and information!

[hcat]

15 hours ago, SGCruiser2013 said:

Awesome dinner last night at Le Voyage. We are a party of six and when we originally booked way in advance, we could only book reservations for 2 or 4. Indeed, in the restaurant, there aren’t really “tables of six” per se. There is one or two places where there are two tops (chair across from bench) in a straight line that they might be able to push a little closer together. So, we ended up booking a table for 4 and then table for 2. The reservations were 15 mins apart. 
 

At beginning of cruise, we asked the Retreat concierge if they could try to seat us near each other or perhaps in a line. They combined our times and said they would do their best. For dinner when we arrived, they actually sat us in a little semi private room around the corner from main room. It was absolutely perfect. Suspect only one opportunity for this per night but wanted to mention in case others have party of six (8 would have been tight) and celebrating a special occasion perhaps you can request ahead of time and get lucky like us. 
 

Pics below of menu, we had 5 course tasting menu. I’d rate 8/10, great but maybe slightly below very high expectations. 

 

 

Smoked salmon caviar amuse, 10/10

 

 

Lobster risotto star of the night 10/10

 

 

 

Tasting menu had fixed desserts but they let us choose our own. Raspberry meringue 10/10

 

 

great pics.   We have not tried LeV and  food seems a bit too "fancy" for us.

Hope you have a great Cruise!

[chemmo]

3 hours ago, zackarykeef said:

Wait, wait, wait…I’ve never seen this on Celebrity, so is it safe to assume that’s someone’s personal towel that says “reserved?” I’m mortified. I would be too embarrassed to ever do something like that. Thank god I’m not on that sailing…how tacky.

Couldn’t agree more…I almost want to see the group so I can avoid them around the ship…

 

Worst bit of chair hogging I have ever seen was on the Retreat Deck on Silhouette…I often had a walk around early morning and was shocked to a couple taking both ‘big beds’, moving two chairs next to them and then adding their towels and clips before heading off…The irony was it was a British Isles cruise and we were about to dock in Liverpool…The sky was grey and threatening to rain…

[Texed]

5 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

We will be on the next Beyond sailing to the ABC islands and first time dining in Luminae. I’m wondering if they have French onion soup on the menu each night?

Yes, you can get the onion soup every night if you wish.

[SGCruiser2013]

15 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

We will be on the next Beyond sailing to the ABC islands and first time dining in Luminae. I’m wondering if they have French onion soup on the menu each night? If not, would you mind asking if it’s possible to get it nightly by request? We loved it on the Ascent in the 4 regular dining rooms. This will only be our 2nd X cruise so we are still learning how they operate.

 

Enjoy your cruise and thank you for your photos and information!

Can also confirm French Onion soup is available every evening in Luminae.