GenerationX

Yikes! I insisted that the bartender “extinguish” my shot before I took it because I don’t have super quick reflexes and I rather like having eyebrows. 😂 For that tower drink the couple who ordered it did drink it while it was still flaming with long straws the bartender gave them. I was so scared the man’s hat was going to catch fire! I was also surprised that a flame like that was allowed. But the bartenders had several of those cooking torches behind the bar like it was something that happens on the regular and is stocked for, and there were at least 2 ship security guards in the club at the time who didn’t seem at all concerned. Maybe they’re hiding a bunch of fire extinguishers behind the bar or something.

Yes that is a very good point. The prices for everything at the turtle center were in US dollars, but it can definitely vary around the island. I know some of the bars and restaurants around 7 mile beach do prices in Cayman dollars so if the menu or price tag doesn’t specify it’s definitely a good idea to ask and confirm.

It’s funny, it was just yesterday morning that I was thinking back on this cruise and congratulating myself for my considerable late night partying restraint. I spoke entirely too soon. Ship time jumping forward an hour this morning has also helped matters precisely not at all. Fortunately my Retreat team has really set me up for recovery success. When I finally crawled out of my room after 9am this morning both Elaine and Randall my stateroom attendant like popped out of a wall or something immediately to wish me good morning and ask if there was anything I needed. I asked Elaine to try and switch my lunch reservation today from Le grand bistro to Raw on 5 (because miso soup and kakiage sounds like a better recovery meal than French cuisine) and Randal got to work on cleaning my room right away so that I can come back and lay down in a freshly made bed before said lunch if I need to. (I will probably need to.) In the meantime I’m rehydrating and taking in fresh air on the retreat deck with Ashok and Christine keeping me in nonstop ice cold bottled waters. In case you were wondering how I came to this sorry state, if you ask me the blame lies entirely with the Jazz Club speakeasy show, cruise director Luigi’s Latin dance party and the late night DJ and bartenders in the Club. Full report on the earlier part of my late night to come, but sharing some pics from the hours between 11pm and 3am when the most damage was done. They must have amped up the fire suppression systems on Beyond because this is the first time I’ve seen fire bartending at sea. We called these the bravo bravo bravo shots. Today’s Beyond pro-tip: don’t miss that Jazz show in The Club and get there early to get a seat near the front. It’s a very cool immersive show/party hybrid experience and the Eden cast really puts on a performance. In my case it was especially immersive as I was delivered a rose by a simply gorgeous pair of acrobats who dropped from the ceiling on bunge cords. More to come once my Tylenol kicks in.

Hello from happy hour on my veranda as we sail away from Grand Cayman! I mentioned to Elaine this morning that I’d be starting to enjoy my wine brought onboard from home to night and she brought me a proper Reidel glass for it as well as a nice snack. I had such a lovely day today in Grand Cayman! My excursion was the Turtle Conservation Center tour booked through Celebrity. After our tour tendered together to port, it was a bit of chaos in the port area figuring out which excursions were assembling where. They didn’t have the tall signs with the excursion names that Celebrity usually has to tell you where to go. I saw people stand in long lines to get wrist bands for one tour only to find out the person was doing wrist bands for a completely different one. I managed to spot someone with a polo on that had the conservation center logo on it and figured that was my best bet on where to head and I was right. After about 10 minutes waiting we were loaded onto a van for about a 15 minute drive. There is sooo much development going on on Grand Cayman these days. Other than the shuttered margaritaville resort building, you wouldn’t know there was a travel recession at all. Everywhere you look there’s hotels and condos being built. At the sanctuary we were introduced to our guide Benny who showed us around the various turtle tanks and told us about the center’s work with breeding and releasing Green Sea Turtles into the ocean. He said that since the center’s opening they’ve released over 35,000 turtles into the ocean and turtles hatched at the conservation center have been tracked to as far away as Venezuela. He also conveyed the ho so important message of the effect that plastic waste is having on the wild turtle population, as these turtles will often eat the plastic trash that ends up in the sea thinking it’s a jelly fish and get fatally ill as a result. The center seems to take the plastic message very seriously as no plastic products are used anywhere in the gift shop or restaurant. The conservation center also has a pool, playground, water slide, snorkeling area with fish and turtles, aviary and a sit-down bar and restaurant. After our tour ended, we had about 2.5 hours to use any of those facilities free of charge (except for the food and drink at the restaurant) which was extra charge with a 15% gratuity included. I took a quick dip in the pool then air dried while checking out the aviary and then went to check out lunch at the restaurant. I decided to go local with my order and had some conch fritters and a Caribbean mahi-mahi plate. The beans and rice that came with my fish were kind of bland, but other than that everything was good. I love a nice sweet heat sauce on fish. They also had a kids menu with chicken tenders, burgers, plain buttered noodles, etc. Total cost for my 2 course meal including a can of spring water (remember no plastic) and frozen margarita (in a compostable cup) was $54. I paid that for 2 hot dogs, a soda and a can of Michelob ultra at Universal Studios. After lunch I went to the gift shop to get something for Gen Z and finished shopping with about 20 minutes to kill till our bus pick up time. I decided to sit outside and look at the ocean but then bumped into one of the other tour guides for the center. He told me I was welcome to go just across the street to the dolphin encounter center and that with our admission to the turtle center there was no charge to just go in and look at the dolphins. There was a small bar there where I grabbed one more beer and watched the dolphins train for a bit before I headed back to meet the bus. I don’t recall seeing it in the tour description but on our way back to the ship we also made a 20 minute stop at Grand Cayman’s famous Hell. Really, 20 minutes is all anyone every needs there. You could probably do it in 10. Tourist trap level: Zenith. I didn’t mind the stop as I’ve always thought the place sounded amusing (but not amusing enough to make a dedicated trip out of the way there). I got my obligatory selfie with the rock formation, stamped my passport (so that one day health and budget willing I can prove I really have traveled everywhere, hell included) made a few jokes about how “exit through the gift shop” is still a thing once you go to Hell (even the Prince of Darkness wants your tourist money!), then promptly purchased Jeremy and my retired Marine stepdad (the two biggest “h bomb” droppers in casual conversation that I know) overpriced t-shirts and shot glasses that I know they’ll get a kick out of. We got back to the port around 4pm and I cooled off on the retreat deck with a glass of bubbly to relax and enjoy anchor raise. Or tried to relax. Pro tip from Beyond: if you’re on the Retreat pool deck right as sail away is scheduled to start, be prepared to cover your ears quickly. Being at the very front of the ship and just below the ship’s horn, when Captain D announces his departure, the noise is loud and sudden. I almost ended up with a Chandon shower. My fight or flight probably wont fully settle back till dinner time. Speaking of which, I suppose I should finish my glass of wine and start getting ready for this evening’s show and second chic night dinner. TTYL friends!

They are crispy like bacon! was expecting the jerky texture but actually ended up loving the crunch!

Sigh, another day, another Luminae breakfast on the sail into a tropical island… This morning I sent Jeremy a text that said: “I understand FLL airport is closed due to flooding. I may not be able to make it home on Sunday. Please send funds for an additional week on Beyond.” The response I received was: “You don’t fly home for 2 more days and you told me you fly out of Miami not FLL. We have Rome flights and a new washer to pay for. I’ll see you at baggage claim in St. Louis THIS. SUNDAY. Love you!” Hey, it was worth a try. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Captain D hadn’t even dropped his anchor yet and there were already 3 local tender boats making their way towards Beyond to get our tourism spending going today as soon as possible. It’s about 9:20 and I just heard an announcement that for non-retreat guests, tender tickets are now being passed out in the World Class bar. My excursion doesn’t rendezvous to tender in until 11am so I’m relaxing on the retreat pool deck. While I’m hanging out, a back in time report on Costa Maya evening. Before dinner I went to the Elements production show. I thought it was every bit as entertaining as Arte. It’s themed on the powers and elements of earth (fire, wind, water, lightening, volcanoes, etc.) Once again the pics don’t really do justice to the beauty of it and I highly recommend checking it out if you’ll be on Beyond. After a standing ovation for the cast I made my way to dinner at Le Voyage. This is the priciest specialty restaurant on Beyond but to me it’s well worth the cost. When Jeremy and I looked at going to Chef Boulud’s Le Pavillion restaurant in New York pre-Bermuda cruise, it was going to be over $400 for a set tasting menu, not including wine or tips. Le Voyage is a steal compared to that and based on the photos I’ve seen online, the food is every bit as beautifully presented and every detail meticulously thought out. Right down to the French sea salted butter served slightly softened with the bread. As you can see from my pics, every dish I ordered was like art on a plate and almost too pretty to eat. Emphasis on ALMOST. I definitely ate 100% of everything. When I arrived at the restaurant I was poured a complimentary welcome glass of veuve, which the sommelier gladly refilled for me while I was waiting for my wine bottle order to come from the cellar. The wine list at Le Voyage is more like a wine Bible with almost 20 pages of options for every budget, and I mean every budget…peep the price on that Petrus. Do people who can afford to pay that for one bottle of wine seriously sail on Celebrity? As much as I love Celebrity, if I’m ever blessed enough to have “drink a Retreat Alaska cruise for 2 over dinner tonight” wine money, I plan to be sailing on a private yacht. But maybe that’d just be my new money (unabashedly) showing. 😂 I went for a bottle a bit more “we have car payments and a mortgage” friendly, but still very nice. I really enjoy Au Bon Climat and have rarely seen it on Celebrity wine lists. The 20% discount from the premium beverage package made it about the same as what it goes for in restaurants in STL. For dinner I started with the prawns then was torn between the lamb chops and loupe de mer. My server offered to bring a smaller portion of the fish as a second course and then follow it with the lamb course which I took him up on. Both dishes were perfectly cooked and fabulous. When eating them, be sure to take the time to make that “perfect bite” on your fork that picks up bits of all the garnishes, sauce and accompaniment along with the protein. Especially with the lamb. The combination of the earthy meat, crunch of pistachios, tzatziki, red pepper pesto and carmelized eggplant strips in my mouth all at the same time made me mad I didn’t think to book 2 nights in Le voyage. For dessert, I had the lime & berry pavlova which I noticed was smaller than it was in November and was garnished with silver flakes this time instead of gold flakes (will these Celebrity cutbacks never cease????) The smaller size was a perk though because it left me with a little stomach room to enjoy a few of the warm orange Madeleines that are delivered complimentary as the final course. This time served with a couple of little courvosier and salted caramel chocolates. Did I mention yet how mad I am that this restaurant was sold out for the rest of the cruise? After dinner I stopped by the world class bar for a very well made rye old fashioned before my early bed time to prep for my 8am Cozumel excursion. Later today: a report on said excursion before I have one more mimosa and head out do some shopping and see some sea turtles! Good morning from Grand Cayman!

Quick Update from Beyond: Full report to come, but my excursion today was excellent. Perhaps too excellent. I believe the final score is Mexico: 1 Charla: 0 There’s a private silent disco party for the Retreat guests tonight but it doesn’t start until 9:30…and I just almost dozed off at 8:15 while sipping a glass of Pinot and laying across a couch star gazing outside the Sunset Bar. It’s a good thing my dinner tonight was at Rooftop Grill, where having on sunglasses at the table didn’t look out of place and everyone looks slightly wind blown anyway. The service and food were both very good (especially those lamb chops and that cookie dessert!) and really hit the post-beach day spot. I think I may start planning to book this restaurant regularly on E class for dinner after a planned rigorous/hot excursion day. I promise I won’t forget to catch up on reports, but for now, I’m putting myself to bed early so that I can reenergize for my day in Grand Cayman tomorrow. I have a Celebrity excursion booked so our tender process will be different, but sharing the info that was on my bed tonight about Retreat priority tendering. Sweet dreams from a delightfully exhausted woman on the Beyond.

Good morning from Cozumel! Looks like another beautiful weather day! I have an early meeting time for my excursion so Elaine brought breakfast that I ordered on the hang tag the night before. She also dropped off extra bottled water and beach towels for my day in port. I swear I put on the tag that 1 person was dining for breakfast, but the kitchen gave me enough bagels (warm and toasted per my write in request), fruit and breakfast meat to feed at least 3 people. Posting will be slow today as I’ll be in port till early afternoon for my Mexican cooking and salsa dance class excursion followed by some beach time. When I get back to writing I’ll share all about my best life night last night. I hope you all have as good a day as I think I’m going to!

Good afternoon from the Magic Carpet! I was on my way back to the Retreat lounge to relax in the afternoon sea air when I realized I’m falling into the trap of spending my whole retreat cruise hiding out in suite areas. Today is the warmest weather we’ve had yet on the cruise and the sun has been pretty intense at times. On my walk around decks 14 and 15 I’ve seen a couple of people stumbling back to their cabins showing signs of being overheated. If you’re sailing the Caribbean soon and are, like me, coming from an area where summer weather hasn’t hit yet, remember that your body isn’t used to this yet and be sure to hydrate and seek shade and a/c regularly. I was actually feeling a little bit overheated around lunch time too so I decided to hold on the cocktails and wine today and slam ice waters instead, then spend early afternoon in my cabin with the A/C blasting. I’m feeling much better now and ready for a big night! This morning on the Retreat deck I had a nice shady lounger for the morning until Captain Dimitrios flipped the ship around to dock and threw me right into the sun. The nerve of this guy. The deck did clear out quickly with people heading into port though, so I was able to relocate back to shade without much trouble. For some reason I thought that my lunch reservation today was at 12:30, but when I climbed out of the retreat pool soaking wet at 11:55 and looked at my phone, there was a push notification from the Celebrity app reminding me I had lunch plans at noon! It was a super fast rush down to my room to change out of my wet swimsuit and head to lunch. I’ll report on said lunch (and my prior day lunch at Raw on 5) shortly. But first, about last night: Cindy wasn’t able to get me an earlier reservation at Fine Cut but suggested I just go to the restaurant around 8:40 and they would probably be able to take me early. She was right! I was still a bit drowsy from my veuve afternoon, so before dinner I made my first martini bar trip of the cruise for a pick me up espresso martini. The martini bar on Beyond is another improvement upon her older sister E class ships. It’s positioned in the center of the grand foyer rather than against the back wall, so there’s much more seating at the bar. On the flip side, as an avid espresso martini drinker, I don’t really like that on E class, the espresso martinis are poured “on tap” from a kettle one martini machine rather than made and shaken for you from scratch like on S and M class. The machine martinis come out just a little sweeter than I like. But back to positives! When I sat down at the bar I saw something that made my heart very happy. I’ll preface this by saying that I do believe Celebrity when they say that they are committed to crew diversity and advancement opportunities for women. That said, I’ve noticed over my many cruises that there are some positions onboard where, despite being a significant percentage of the crew work force, I have rarely, if ever, seen a woman and/or person from an African country in the role. Last night I was so excited to see a woman behind the martini bar for the first time! If you’ll be on Beyond soon, be sure to go see Maelyn for a cocktail! I think she may be one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met and her service was quick and attentive. Her smile is also downright infectious. You can tell she’s new to her position and still training but she’s clearly working very hard at it and I get the sense she’s a natural. Every time she had a couple of minutes between serving customers she was practicing her flare skills. I have to think that martini bartending is one of the most lucrative non-officer/management positions on the ship considering the additional tipping levels at that bar. I really hope that she sticks with the role and is still here when I sail again. I can’t wait to see what tricks she’s pulling off by fall. As for dinner at Fine Cut, I didn’t do this restaurant last time I was on Beyond but Red did and her assessment was that she wasn’t impressed with it. I wasn’t going to this cruise, but then after we had such a great dinner at Fine Cut on Apex I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, while the service was every bit as great as it was on Apex, the food was not as impressive. I had the gnocchi starter which was really good, I daresay it could’ve been amazing if it had been served hot, but it came to the table barely warm. For my main I had the ribeye with truffle butter, Parmesan fries and sautéed spinach. My steak had good flavor especially with that awesome truffle butter, but it was nowhere near as tender as on Apex. The fries are big thick wedge style, and some of them hadn’t fully cooked through all the way. The spinach on the flip side was vastly improved from the inedible spinach on Apex though. For dessert I tried the apple walnut crumble with vanilla ice cream instead of cinnamon. The dish had real potential if it’d actually been served warm, but my crumble was room temperature and a little dry and as a result kind of tasted like a buffet breakfast apple muffin with ice cream on top. I’ve certainly eaten worse meals and Im glad I gave it a try, but I’m thinking going forward when it comes to upcharge dining on Beyond, I’ll focus my investments elsewhere. I think my plan for the rest of the afternoon will be to head back to the cabin for Elaine’s afternoon canapé delivery and perhaps enjoy it in a pre-dinner bubble bath. Then I’ll dress and head to the 7:30 production show followed by dinner at Le Voyage. For late night diversion I’m so torn!!!! There are soooo many options on the schedule: -A disco party in the grand foyer -Pool deck dance party -Rock Violinist in the Club -Accoustic Duo in Eden -And I still need to get to the awesome World Class bar I have an 8:15 excursion meeting time in Cozumel tomorrow so I’ll really only have time to hit one thing before I need to head to bed. We’ll see which vibe hits me right after all the French food. Soon to come: a report on my specialty lunches thus far. IMG_3954.MOV

It’s another beautiful morning on the sail into Costa Maya (aka my bonus sea day). I think Luminae’s design and location on this ship is another place where after 2 ships in the class Celebrity finally hit the nail right on the head. Having this beautiful floor to ceiling view of the ocean out of the front of the ship makes the coffee and warm pistachio danish taste even better. The seas last night were calm and the wall groaning and bangs from the night before were gone, so I slept like a baby. Just when I thought making snack chips out of meat was the most delightfully extra thing that the Retreat culinary team could possibly do, my server Adash sits a plate of peach cobbler French toast in front of me this morning. I think I’m going to need to swim some laps or something to work an appetite back up for my lunch reservation at Le Grand Bistro today. Tonight is also my much anticipated dinner reservation at Le Voyage. I’m a little sad to be missing the Luminae dinner menu tonight because it’s one of my favorites, but Le Voyage is completely booked up for the entire cruise so there’s no moving my reservation and I’m definitely not missing that restaurant. After breakfast I’m going to waddle down to Al Bacio for some green tea and to work for an hour or 2, then will hit the pool until lunch time. While I’m chilling poolside I’ll fill everyone in on last night. BTW, with regard to wifi, much as it was in November the premium wifi has worked great thus far. I’ve had no problems using my vpn or remoting into my office computer and have been able to use Teams/Zoom and stream Netflix without any freezing. I wonder what magic our accountant could work so that I could just establish Beyond as my home office and make cruising a tax write off? 🤔 😂

No judgment here. I’m already running numbers in my head about how hardcore of a move up bid I’m willing to make to move up from aqua to suite for our October cruise just so I can have this snack.

Please pardon the interruption for a critical update from Beyond. It has just come to my attention during happy hour snack time in the Retreat lounge that some brilliant soul has managed to improve upon the potato chip by making a snacking chip out of perfectly cured prosciutto. I hereby officially christen this the Spanx and A-line dresses cruise.

Wow, this service on the Retreat deck this afternoon has been something else…. I took maybe 10 steps out of the sliding glass doors onto the retreat pool deck holding my bottle of veuve from my cabana in my hand before Ashok appeared from nowhere, took it from me, and escorted me to a shady chair that had just opened up. He wouldn’t even let me put a towel on said chair myself. It took him like all of 5 minutes to disappear and come back with fresh flute and a bucket of ice for my champagne and in that short time, Herbert had already swooped in and handed me a half flute of rose’ from the tray he was passing out on deck because “you’ll need something to sip while your champagne chills”. In that same time Roen, Faith and Fortune all also stopped by to ask if I needed anything and to make sure that someone was on top of bringing me an ice bucket and a flute for my champagne. Hey Celebrity, can you please start pricing the Retreat on Beyond competitive with Yacht Club on MSC on a more regular basis? Pretty pretty please???? I soooo want this for the rest of my life but I also still have a kid to put through college and a retirement to save for and I can’t afford to ignore the numbers! 😭

I’ve just finished a poolside cabana lunch of shrimp cocktail and a Luminae burger (which I think I earned after surviving cruise director Luigi’s poolside dance fitness class) and am washing it down with a bottle of Veuve. I think it’s safe to say that my life doesn’t suck today. While I’m sipping and savoring, taking y’all way back to last night… Before the start of the production show, Captain Dimitrios came on stage and introduced himself and his executive staff. I’m not sure who’s more entertaining, him or his brother Captain Tasos. Actually, since the man currently holds my safety and liberty in his capable hands, I feel like the only smart answer to that is Captain Dimitrios all day. The show last night was called Arte and I think it may be the most entertaining show I’ve ever seen on Celebrity. The premise is that the singers, dancers and acrobats are taking the audience into famous artworks if they came to life. It really shows off the capabilities of the screen technology in the theatre and the cast have incredible voices. If it’s still on the ship when Jeremy and I sail in October, I’m 100% seeing it again. For those with vertigo, epilepsy or vision issues please note that the show includes liberal use of strobe lights and the screen animations, while incredible, often move in ways that could easily trigger a dizziness episode. Fortunately with the weather getting rocky and the memory of my rough sail back to LA on Solstice fresh in my memory, I’d already preemptively taken some motion meds and was fine. Also if you’re attending with kids, I think some of the animations during the Dali portion of the performance could be kinda creepy for them…unless your kid is like mine and somehow gets and relates to Dali’s art a whole lot more than I do. Gen Z would’ve loved this whole show. Pics don’t even do it justice. You’ve gotta experience the whole thing live. After dinner I headed to dinner in Luminae. To report on the saga of the duck, when I mentioned to my server that I was thinking of ordering it, I read his nonverbal and took a hard pass. He didn’t say anything negative about it but my lawyer’s ability to read a body position change and poker face told me that I may as well have said that I was thinking of eating the aloe plant in the corner for dinner. Instead, I started with a very good Caesar salad from the classics menu, then had his recommended poached lobster starter and lamb loin entree. I’m not sure whether the it was the poached lobster or the lamb that was the star of the meal (I think maybe the lobster had a slight edge but the sauce on that lamb!), but I cleaned my plate on both courses. For dessert I had the marcapone cheesecake balls that were served with an even better apricot sorbet. The app foretold of a silent disco party and 11pm show in Eden, but by that time, the rocking ship + full stomach + motion meds lethargy + tawny port with dessert effect was hitting me hard, so I tucked myself into bed with my retreat chic night fancy pillow chocolates. My dinner at Fine Cut tonight isn’t until 9pm but I’m thinking I may take the rest of my bottle of bubbly and move up to the retreat deck and then stop in the lounge and see if the concierge can get me an any earlier. Especually since the main pool has just been since shut down because some delightful fellow passenger got sick in it. 🤦🏾‍♀️ If I can’t get in earlier, oh well, I’m sure tea time in the lounge and Elaine’s canapé plate will ensure that I don’t starve to death by then and I’ll just have to stay up late dancing to let my steak digest so I don’t get heart burn. These are my first world problems today. Cheers from off the coast of Cuba!

Thank you! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the review. This was taken with an iPhone 13 in portrait mode in the studio setting.

It’s a beautiful morning on the open ocean! I am pleased to report that I followed through with my promise to myself to get up for a pre-breakfast workout and did about 3 miles on the jogging track. We sailed through some serious weather late last night and into early morning and it made the decks and running track extremely slippery. As I was stretching out post workout I saw a man slip and go down while playing ping pong on the starboard side of deck 14. There were pool crew members left and right trying to mop but it seemed to be just moving water around more than drying it up. I originally planned to run a couple of the miles but didn’t want to risk a trip to medical 2 days into the cruise, so I just power walked instead. Also about that weather last night, it really got Beyond rocking. I could here the wind blowing from bed and when I got up to investigate I could see the spray from the ocean flying almost as high as my veranda on deck 10. With the ship moving that much, I finally experienced the infamous sounds of the Beyond. From somewhere inside the wall between my bed and the bathroom and the one between my room and the stateroom just forward of mine, there arose loud groans and bangs each time the ship rolled from port to starboard. Fortunately I have my noise cancelling airpods with me, so I put them in and played my sleep sounds in the Calm app and it drowned it out pretty well. Once I convinced myself that Captain Dimitrios is way too good at his job (and has far too much Greek pride) to ever let the ship go full Poseidon Adventure on me, I managed to get back to sleep. I woke a few hours later to sunshine, calm seas, and a once again quiet cabin. I’m so excited for sun and warmth today. I finally get to wear my new pool cover up that I bought when Jeremy and I were in Tortola on Apex! I love wearing outfits/jewelry/bags on a cruise that I got on a previous cruise. It brings back the memories of a happy time DURING a happy time and it’s like hitting a double endorphins jackpot. This morning I had my first breakfast in Luminae and I’m pretty sure between the almond croissants and the savory potato waffle on the new menu, I put back on every calorie I burned on the track this morning and probably a few more. As much as I’ll miss my usual Luminae go to huevos rancheros this week, that potato waffle makes up for it pretty well. Tomorrow if I stick to getting morning exercise, I’ll treat myself to trying the peach cobbler French toast! After breakfast I killed a little time (not lucratively) in the casino till the shops opened then bought myself a little souvenir from what I’m pretty sure has become my new favorite Celebrity ship. And when I say “from the ship” I mean literally. This necklace is beautiful anyway, but the extra cool memory and conversation value about it is that it’s also made from the first cut of steel for Beyond’s hull!❤️ I’ve just settled in for my cabana reservation and my attendant Rona just brought me a good stiff pina colada to cool me off in the hot sun. I’ll do a full post on the cabanas later, but one perk of them that I like is that, in addition to the champagne/vodka/wine bottle and beer included with the cabana booking, if you have the beverage package, the attendants will also give you in seat drink service of anything you like from the pool bar complimentary. Today that dedicated drink service is a big perk given that both the retreat and main pool decks are jammed packed with only so many drink servers to tackle it all (and right now there’s a line 8 people deep to order drinks at the main pool bar). While I’m relaxing poolside I’ll also fill you in on the rest of chic night.

Cheers from evening chic night! Don’t you just love an evening dress with pockets? I just arrived at the theatre for tonight’s production show. Elaine was there to escort me to a great seat in the reserved Retreat area in the balcony and bring me a glass of champagne. More to come later tonight!

Quick Real Time Update from Beyond: I just returned to the room after some reading in the solarium to find that my butler Elaine had delivered my pressed evening chic dress and afternoon charcuterie…I think I’m going to need to make a more concerted effort to exercise daily on this cruise…

Thank you very much for that info. Pre-cooked duck from a bag does not sound appetizing at all!

I’m so glad you’re enjoying the review! So yes, in my opinion Beyond is Edge version 4.0 with many of the things I didn’t particularly care for on Edge vastly improved. I think now that I’ve sailed on all the current E class ships, if I’m sailing E class, I’m going with Beyond. Especially if I’m planning to sail in a suite. I do think it’s a brilliant move by Celebrity to send Edge to Alaska next year. The issues with shade, wind and crowds in the outdoor spaces won’t be such a big deal in a grey, cool environment where passengers aren’t spending as much time outside anyway and the IV staterooms seem like they’d actually be a benefit for great whale and glacier views without going out in the cold or rain. I can totally picture Gen Z and I taking shelter from drizzle with hot chocolates on the covered magic carpet while looking out at a breaching Orca pod…but there I go with spoilers for my end of cruise future cruise plans post! Oh also, the fit on my dresses can vary when ordering from Amazon. I’ve been everything from a Medium/8-10 to a XXL/16 depending on the vendor. I make a point of reading a lot of the user reviews and pics for each dress and seeing what other women of my weight/height/shape reported ordering and how it fit to make my call. Since I have Amazon prime, if I’m torn between sizes I’ll usually order both and try them on and then return the one that doesn’t fit as well. With prime free returns all I have to do is drop the package back off at the UPS store and I get a credit back within the week.

Dear readers please forgive me as I flip the script momentarily and ask a question of the audience. In true best life style as I’m eating and drinking my lunch, I’m perusing the Luminae menu in the app to decide what I want to eat and drink for dinner. Has anyone tried the Daniel Boulud signature duck leg confit entree? It sounds intriguing but I’m a bit nervous on it. A few cruises back I tried the Boulud signature chicken tangine and it was, how can I put this nicely? Nah, forget it, there’s no way to put it nicely, it was one of the biggest Luminae let downs I’ve ever experienced. I may have just caught the kitchen on a tough night, but I’m so scared to have Chef Boulud break my heart again. If anyone has first hand experience they can share it would be much appreciated!

About First Night Dinner in Eden: I had a wonderful server named Michelle from the Philippines who was so good I made a point of asking the maitre d if I can be placed in her section when I come back to the restaurant on night 7. For food I started with one of my Eden favorites, the Bazaar Bowl (served with warm, fresh baked naan brushed with olive oil and sea salt. Heaven.) but otherwise decided to try some new things and happily stumbled upon real hits. First of all, let’s talk about the goat cheese Gnocchi appetizer. For my fellow cheese and bacon enthusiasts, this dish will not disappoint. The gnocchi are so light and fluffy and cheesy and the bacon and pancetta cream sauce adds so much depth of flavor and texture. It took a lot of will power for me to pass on my favorite Canadian lobster casserole, but there was a Thai-style fresh grouper dish on the menu that I hadn’t seen in the app (more on Celebrity app menus for Eden in a sec) and sounded interesting. Trying it was also an excellent call. The fish was perfectly cooked, juicy, flaky and and well seasoned on its own with a slightly spicy chili powder blend. But then when I swirled it in the edamame purée and curry lime peanut sauce underneath it was a whole other level of delicious. After dinner I got to speak with the head chef for the restaurant and he told me that the Celebrity app menus for Eden are sometimes different from what’s on the physical menu on any given night because of the commitment to only use the highest quality, freshest ingredients for each dish. It’s not uncommon for dishes to be added or removed from the menu on only a few hours notice if the provisioner is able to source something special (as was the case with the fresh caught grouper) or the chef inspects a container of fish/meat/produce for the evening and doesn’t think it’s up to standard. And we all know how good Celebrity’s IT systems are with keeping up with such last minute changes. To spend a little OBC, the sommelier Adrian brought me a bottle of one of my favorite Napa red blends. He also gave me a sneak peak of the plan for the wines and cheese pairings for the premium wine tasting on the last sea day and got me signed up. It’s about 11:30 and the Retreat pool deck seems pretty busy but there are still a few shaded chairs available here and there. It looks like the crew is also actively monitoring for chair hogs. If you’re having trouble finding a spot on the retreat deck look for Faith and/or Fortune, two beautiful ladies from Zimbabwe on the retreat deck crew and they’ll not only find you a great seat but set your towels up just right and send a drink server over ASAP. I’m currently sipping some bubbly watching MSC Meraviglia come in to port next door and what looks like a nasty rain cloud rolling this way. It’s a busy day in Nassau with 5 fairly large ships in port (including carnival Mardi Gras and our sister Reflection!) After I finish this cocktail I’ll head down for some A/C time and my lunch at Raw on 5.

Good morning from The Bahamas! I had a contract to revise this morning before I got to indulge in cruise fun time, so I worked through Luminae breakfast and decided to grab something light from the morning bites buffet in the Retreat lounge. I didn’t need to know about these little raspberry danish things. It’s a good thing I have a spa appointment in 10 minutes so I don’t have time to go get another one. Before I could even finish making my breakfast plate I had a smiling server offering me beverage service. These are the kinds of problems I need more of in my life. About halfway through my flight to Fort Lauderdale I remembered that I hadn’t gotten a pre-cruise pedicure and my toes need some serious attention, so in a few minutes after I finish my mimosa (made with fresh squeezed oj!) I’ll head down a deck for some Elemis Sole Delight action. I’m continuing my usual practice of taking Nassau as a “bonus sea day” and staying onboard to enjoy a quieter ship. It’s seeming like a good call as the weather report for this afternoon is looking a little dicey. After my pedi, I’ll head up to the retreat pool deck to let my toes finish drying in the Caribbean sun (I swear that makes the polish last longer) then I asked Elaine to make me a lunch reservation at Raw on 5, where I’ll continue my quest to find something on that menu (other than the awesome but pricey seafood tower, and the kakiage, which is only available on Beyond) that gets me really excited. While my feet are getting some TLC I’ll start writing up last night’s Eden dinner. Thus far not a shabby start to my first full day on Beyond.

We had very smooth seas last night but I didn’t notice any noise. I didn’t experience any in my aqua class IV when I was on the ship in November either. I’m not sure if it matters but both cabins are on mid level decks mid ship. I’ll report back if I hear of others experiencing issues or I notice noise when the ship is really rocking. I did actually notice quite a bit of creaking in our Celebrity Suite on Solstice last month. When the seas got rough it sounded like the cabin was going to fall apart. I’m a heavy sleeper though so it didn’t bother me too much.

I think so. I did see the ravioli on a menu on Solstice last month but that was the first time. I’d never seen the herb crusted chicken or panna cotta before either.