Host Anne

I have been fortunate to sail on all the E-class and S-class ships and have been in the Retreat on Edge and Beyond. There is no comparison to the Retreat on these ships with the Retreat on the S-class ships. The Retreat on the E-class ships was "purpose-built." It's kind of a ship within a ship. You couldn't do that with the already existing S-class ships. Don't get me wrong, I actually prefer the S-class ships. I was on two of them in the last six months (Equinox and Reflection) and they are in decent shape. The Retreat Lounge was previously Michael's Club and is nice but it's much smaller and not connected to any other Retreat amenities as it's on Deck 5 among another lounge and specialty restaurants. One of my favorite cruises in the past 18 months has actually been on Summit (an M-class ship and among the oldest in the fleet). We did upgrade to the Retreat but like the S-class ships, it can't compare to the Retreat on Beyond. I prefer smaller ships and everything on Summit was terrific. Don't go into sailing on another ship comparing it to Beyond. Just think of it as experiencing a different ship and have fun.

cb747 ~ roll calls are on separate boards. There is a roll call for your cruise already active and you'll find it by clicking here: You'll get lots of help with questions on the roll call! ENJOY!

You can read member reviews of past Celebrity cruises here: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/celebrity-cruises/cl/

I disagree with this comment. The cruise line should not put passengers in the position of having to discretely say some to the waiter or Maitre 'd. The cruise line is supposed to have rules and regulations and this would be a total disruption to the other passengers in the dining room. The passengers are NOT always right and the cruise lines need to start dealing with rude guests who are disrupting others onboard or those of us who have loved cruising for many years will be turning elsewhere for vacation.

These are the best that I got of the aft area.....

Watched Constellation sail from St. Thomas on Thursday....she's beautiful!

The cost cutting has been happening for awhile. Continuing to raise prices for cruises and lowering quality is not going to work for cruise lines very long....

1A (I don't even think they call them that any more) are standard cabins with larger balconies because they are on the hump. The Sky Suite on Beyond (like all Edge class suites) are larger rooms with nice balconies but the real benefit is access to the Retreat. Dollar for dollar, the 1As are probably a better deal unless you get a really good rate on a Sky Suite (I think those days are gone as they are selling quickly). I don't think there was any difference in service related to the cabin itself. The Retreat certainly offers more benefit (the Retreat Lounge, the Retreat pool and outdoor bar were the highlights for us). We did not consider (sadly) Luminae to be a plus. We actually had far better meals in the main dining room and Blu. I hope that somewhat answers your questions.

Equinox - July 22 - 1A Reflection - Oct 22 - 1A Beyond - Nov 22 - S2

I've been cruising since the early 1990s on a wide variety of cruise lines. Celebrity had become our favorite and we were among the first to support them when they made their announcement of returning to sail when the pandemic began to subside for cruising back in the summer of 2021. We have been on three Celebrity cruises since that first cruise back. The first of the three back in January of 2022 was OK. We were with a group of family and friends and just being together after a couple of years made the less than stellar cruise experience tolerable. Everyone was a bit more understanding and willing to let things slide as the cruise lines were just getting back to starting to fill ships more than 2021. Fast forward to the second half of 2022. We have sailed Equinox, Reflection and Beyond. I've written reviews on all of them but have been very hesitant to post them. I always try to include the positives and the less than positives but as I've re-read my reviews and reflect back on the three cruises, there is no question in my mind that the Celebrity we knew and loved is likely gone forever and I don't feel like starting back and forth discussions here on the boards. Many of the things that have been discussed here on the Celebrity boards are some of the reasons, but there are many more. The bottom line for us is when the prices continue to escalate while the quality of the product and services continue to decline (and that is definitely the case in the past six months for us on our cruises), we simply choose to spend our money elsewhere. For the first time in many, many years, we do not have a Celebrity cruise booked. It makes me sad. There are many crew members that have provided wonderful service over the years (and we still had some good service on the cruises in 2022) but there has also been far too much less than stellar service recently, including in Luminae on Beyond recently (and we spoke with others on our cruise that noticed the same thing). We're thinking long and hard about how we want to continue to spend the money we have worked so hard to earn. To the OP, I don't know if it's an ambush but I'm definitely feeling that they definitely no longer care about customers, And the really sad thing is that this is permeating through so many other service industries now, too. Time will tell if things turn around....

Have you looked at our cruise booking confirmation that you should have received when you booked the Indulge package? It will be listed there. I always bring a copy of that confirmation with me as Celebrity's app and website don't necessarily include these details for some reason. Did you book through Celebrity or a TA? If a TA, you can call them and ask them for your booking confirmation that gives these details if you don't already have one. I've never booked directly with Celebrity (or any cruise line for that matter) so if I have any issues, I've always gone back to my TA.

Reflection had a two-week dry dock in mid-October (were on the cruise before she went into dry dock). My understanding was the dry dock was mostly soft goods replacements and other minor updates. I seriously doubt that she'd be going into another dry dock this winter.

The cabins that have real balconies are the "sunset verandas" at the back of the ship. There are various categories of sunset verandas with varying pricing and these cabins tend to sell very quickly. The other option, as many have indicated, are to get a suite as they have normal outdoor verandas. The infinite verandas that make up a greater majority of the cabins are definitely different from Summit and Equinox. I believe that calling them "verandas" has created a lot of confusion. For those who are used to cruising with a traditional veranda, the switch to the infinite's on the Edge class just aren't the same.

I respectfully disagree about CocoCay not being suited for Celebrity's demographic. We were there last year on a Royal cruise and we found plenty of areas to be away from the crowds and kids. Chill Island and the Coco Beach Club are both great spots where you could relax in a quiet place if you wanted to. I'd love to see a Celebrity ship that stopped there. CocoCay is limited to the number of ships that could stop there in any given day and I don't think they'd ever give up stops for Royal ships over Celebrity but I bet they could certainly fit a Celebrity ship in here and there.

4-2-N-8 ~ I always try to write honest reviews that provide positives and areas for improvement. We just disembarked Beyond this morning and I'm working on a review. There's lots of good but also some critiques. We sailed with friends who haven't cruised in more than 20 years. They loved everything. But for those of us who have been sailing Celebrity for the past 30 years, some things are slipping. When I read reviews, I want honesty, not just glowing reports nor total complaints. I hope you will keep an open mind and enjoy your cruise.

Celebrity has had different color cards for some time. The change I noticed is that the cards are now vertical instead of horizontal. I've never paid any attention to the color of cards. We typically sail in a standard veranda room and crew has never treated us any differently because of the color of our card....at least I've never noticed anythig.

Just off Beyond and all main dining rooms are "anytime." For those who prefer eating early, I believe doors open at 5:30 every evening and while there were a few people waiting for the doors to open, there was never a wait to get a table early. Lines tended to form later, closer to 7:00 PM so I don't think you'll have a problem at all.

The upside of Beyond this week is that we have met MANY wonderful crew doing a fantastic job. I'm sure that is the case on every cruise.

George ~ we've had the exact same experience this week as you. I'll write more when I'm home tomorrow.

By the way, GREAT photo IslaSarah!!!

There is definitely a difference in the size of the balconies of the angled cabins. 7219, the cabin closest to the "hump" cabins (those are the ten flat-appearing balcony cabins that are in front of hte elevators) has the largest balcony. Likewise, the first cabin with the angled balconies on all sides of the hump (7241, 7264, 7286) have the largest balconies. Each angled cabin going away from the hump is slightly smaller, although still larger than a standard balcony. These cabins are always in high demand. One thing I recommend, though, it consider a higher deck (8 or 9) as some of the angled balconies on deck 7 that are smaller ones are somewhat overlooking the lifeboats on deck 6. There's no lifeboat obstruction if you are on deck 8 or 9 with any of the angled balconies. The angled balcony cabins are definitely better than the standard cabin balconies in my opinion. Hope this helps.

Come join our roll call....

You are too funny! THANKS for taking us along on your journey. Counting the hours.....

We board as you disembark....leave her in good shape for us 😉 Have a wonderful cruise!

Here's a link to the level reciprocity between Royal and Celebrity. Since you are Platinum on Royal, you'll be Select on Celebrity. https://www.celebritycruises.com/mx/captains-club/exclusive-offers/loyalty-reciprocity-program