Stealthdog

St Maarten. We love stopping in St Maarten and have done private tours and cab rides on both the French and Dutch sides of the island. A total of 4 ships were in port our day. We booked our excursion through Cruise Excursions Group - Half Day Cat Sail and Snorkel. Local vendor running the tour was called The Happy Sailing Tours. Finding the meet up location was easy from the ship, and about a 15 minute walk. There were only 5 passengers on the catamaran, so it was almost a completely private boat. Two others were on the Beyond, and the last was a passenger from Princess. Happy Sailing Tours took us to two sites - a shipwreck site and Maho Beach. The shipwreck site was decent snorkeling, but nothing spectacular. There is an old helicopter in the ocean and a large variety of fish you can see. For Maho Beach, the Catamaran stays in the water off and you can swim to the beach to get views of the runways. The current was really strong so be careful if you want to swim to shore. Because you are only there for a short time, it may not be the best place to watch for planes. We saw one plane take off while we were at the beach. After snorkeling, you will get your typical rum punch and snacks while the catamaran takes you back to the pier. The shoreline has some great views to enjoy. Because of the ease of getting to the company from the ship, if you are looking for something easy and relaxing to do, this tour is a good option. You will find better snorkeling on other islands, but if you are looking for something different to do in St Maarten, this one is easy to do.

Wifi is so horribly bad on my Amtrak Train. Tomorrow, I'll give you the detailed process of what I went through and some recommendations for you in preparation for your cruise next year. Even with a late departure off the first sailing, we still had 1 hour+ of waiting until the terminals even opened for the second sailing.

I was hoping to use this opportunity to complete the review, but the Amtrak wifi is as bad as old school cruise wifi and its taking me 30 seconds just to upload a page. Will have to complete it tomorrow when I get home. Debarking the ship this morning was a snap. Everything was on time, and we started the process of getting off the ship around 750AM. Picking up luggage was a mess at this terminal (which isn't a reflection on Celebrity) - Entering and exiting the luggage claim area was the same spot so there was major congestion of people going in to get their luggage and people already with their luggage trying to leave. There should really be a separate exit for people leaving with their luggage. This is my 3rd cruise ship departure that I did not need passports. You will not need them and can keep them secure in your bags, purses, etc. After you collect your luggage, you will only need to pass through a facial recognition scan to leave the terminal building and go outside. Not sure how I feel about facial recognition being used like this, but that is a different topic. We ubered to our friend's house, picked up our car and were already on the road to Orlando by 845AM. We stopped by family to pick up the rest of our belongings and arrived at the Sanford Amtrak Autotrain terminal at 1:30PM. Train left for Lorton, Virginia at about 5PM. If anyone has any questions on how the AutoTrain works, ask away. If not, I'll just post the rest of the pictures and complete the reviews of the cruise. Overall, the Beyond is fantastic....our favorite ship we have been on. We do like the Oasis Class ship design better than the Edge Class ship design, but we haven't been on a ship like the Beyond. We would recommend everyone to check out the Beyond.

Day 6 we went to the 930PM showing of the Production Stage Door. It was very good and was themed for the biggest Broadway and Westend musicals. Everything made sense and all the scenes were well done. The production used the stage walls to show video of their full symphony orchestra and show some scenes of others performing. The visuals were nice, but I'm not sure showing other performances in the background with the Celebrity production happening on stage may not be the best choice because people will naturally compare the two. Some of the sets included Rent, Chicago, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Moulin Rouge, and a few others. After seeing two of the three productions, the dancers were fantastic, and the vocalists were good. The female vocalists definitely outshine the male vocalists. I would recommend anyone going on the Beyond to see the production shows - they are worth the time.

Day 7 Daily. Last day on Ship and the seas are much quieter heading back to Fort Lauderdale. Posting the departure information too for people that may want to use as a planner for transportation time off the ship.

Day 6 Daily We are in Puerto Plata today. Doing a waterfall and atv tour thru Celebrity (thought it was easier doing it through the cruise line than trying to figure out private tours while on a ship). Items still to be reviewed: The three port stops and three tours (2 private, 1 with Celebrity) A few production shows in the theater and one Eden Show Overall Food and Service review (Blue, the MDRs, Spa Cafe, Cafe al Baccio, and Oceanview Cafe) Eden Dinner Thoughts on the Gym I'll take more photos of areas around the ship to post. If I don't get everything posted by debarkation, we have a long, overnight autotrain ride back to Northern Virginia and I'll try to get them all done on the train. I'll go through the thread to make sure I didn't miss any questions. If anyone has any final questions, send them away - will have all day tomorrow At Sea (which also happens to be my Birthday 🙂 ) to check into things. Next week I will follow up with a comparison between Royal's Quantum Class and Celebrity's Edge Class ships.

I have failed you with Senior Officer bios. I asked for them at guest services and they told me they were available on the TV in the stateroom. I don't see any menu option on the TV to get bios.

Going thru photos and haven't posted the loyalty events. These events are on a separate sheet you will receive in your stateroom, and I haven't seen them in the daily activity papers. This is for Select. Other levels probably have more events. For those looking for the Captain's Club representative, she is very hard to find. If you are facing away from the Theater on Deck 5, there is a room to the right side of the elevators where you can find her. She is really helpful and pleasant (and probably bored because she is in a room by herself, and no one knows where she is).

My updated estimate after 5 days is the average age is probably mid-late 50s. I have seen 2 infants and about 10-15 children on board. There are so many activities nightly (productions, headliners, gameshows, silent discos, lounge performers, and others) that you won't be bored and should find a number of things that are fun for you. Worst case scenario, there is red bull and espresso on board to jumpstart some adrenaline. 😉

They must have escaped from within the wall! Between the banging people keep hearing and the elevator buttons mysteriously getting unpressed, someone should bring a psychic or medium on board to investigate.

I haven't heard anything specific about Deck 9. Deck 8 and Deck 12 were the two I heard about. But, based on others posting in this thread, it has spanned other decks.

It does not feel airconditioned. Every time I have walked through the Solarium, it feels warm and humid, like an indoor pool feeling.

Here is the fitness schedule for this sailing. The morning and evening stretch sessions are complimentary for everyone. The spa attendant who gave me the schedule said Cycle and Yoga classes are included with AquaClass (3 classes), but the F45 is not included. Reservations for classes can be made at the spa front desk. We might try one of the classes on Day 7 to check it out - don't have an answer to your last question yet, but the spa attendant didn't say I had to bring anything.

Its scheduled for 45 minutes - they keep a timer and let you know occasionally how much time is remaining. We started a little late, so in total was about 60 minutes.

Day 5 Daily. In St Thomas today. We are docked next to an Oasis Class Royal ship. I /think/ we are docked in Crown Bay Pier based on google maps, which is annoying because besides our two ships it doesn't look like there are any other ships showing on cruisemapper in St Thomas and we will have to take a taxi to get to Havensight Pier. I guess we will find out when we leave the ship. Edit - looks like Norwegian Dawn is in port too - at Havensight Pier. With three straight port days (St Maarten, St Thomas, and Puerto Plata) I will be a little behind on giving port and tour reviews. I plan to post all port specific photos and reviews on the last sea day. I have a few other things to catch up with when we get on board later today.

We are 15 minutes past departure and the lines are still connected. Must be waiting for guests. In prime pier runner location at sunset bar!

I'll ask.

Some pictures of the Rooftop Garden. Its a very well maintained space with a ton of seating and a giant projection screen. NFL games were played there on Sunday and World Cup games yesterday and today. The Rooftop Garden Grill is connected - it looks classy but we are not going to try it this cruise. The Rooftop Garden is a really pleasant place to spend some time. Also, around the garden they grow a number of herbs. I wonder if they use these in their restaurants (I would hope so). Beyond the Rooftop Garden is the Sunset Bar, which is another large outdoor space with a lot of well-spaced seating. I'll grab some pics of the Sunset Bar later.

You spoke too soon. They put up a monster size Christmas tree in the Grand Plaza today. 🤣

I'll head there tonight or tomorrow to get a good estimate on seating and get some pictures for you. Its much less seating capacity than the theater. There is dance floor level seating, seating on the upper level, then seating on the ramp incline that connects the two floors. A rough estimate is probably 100-150 range, but I'll get a better number for you.

The Premium wifi is ridiculously impressive. I don't know how good the basic wifi is. This B2B on Odyssey and Beyond is the fastest internet service I have ever seen on a cruise ship. There are slight differences between the two lines and I will get into those later. On the Beyond, I am experiencing almost zero interruptions in service, can stream and download anything I want. The speed is really good - about as much speed as I get at home. I'm able to use my laptop to log into a server on a massive multiplayer online game and experience almost no latency issues. I tested it last night for about 15-20 minutes. I had about 30 seconds of latency lag, but no connection issues the rest of the time. That is really impressive. For the internet packages, I called Celebrity direct so I could get my Captains Club discount (25% off for me, more for elite and elite plus, less for classic). Its a personal decision for people to make and depends on what you want to use it for. With the loyalty discount, I find more value on a premium wifi capability on a Celebrity (as long as it is working properly) than an alcohol package.

No reservations required for the Escape Room. Just head to the The Club 10-15 minutes before the event. If you don't have a large group, the entertainment team will probably combine you with other players to form a team close to 10. We were a group of 9 (from three different Cruise Critic families) and an individual person showed up and was assigned to our team.

I will have it for you. There is a sheet they give out at the spa for classes. Ill get that for you and details of classes. I believe aqua gets 3 classes complimentary.

Day 4 Daily. I'm also going to withhold food topics until the end of the sailing. I'm collecting some samples of menus, taking pictures along the way, and we are going to Eden on Day 7.

On Day 3 we decided to go to the Magic show in the theater - Jessica Jane. We went to the late show again (9:30PM) and skipped the show on Day 3 in Eden. Going to both shows 9:30PM (theater) and 10:45PM (eden) was a big time commitment on Day 2 and we wanted some casino time instead. If we could rewind, we would skip the Magic show and go to Eden instead. Jessica was very personable and fun with the audience. Her magic acts took a long time to complete and many in the audience did seem a little bored - looking around I saw a handful of people were asleep. There were also some long monologues and videos during the act that were just too long. Jessica even had a running joke about a guest in the first row who feel asleep at some point during her show. She did some standard card tricks and a couple of other fun tricks. This is show that I would recommend people just skip, especially if there are other activities you are interested in. If you have nothing else going on, go check it out.