moneeman

We were on Beyond last year in a suite. While we did not "self disembark", suite guests were called VERY early in the process. We were some of the first off the boat.

If you are not already booked on a cruise, open the app and at the bottom select "Browse our ships". Select the ship you are interested in, then select any cruise. Once the app opens to that cruise, select dining, then the restaurant you wish to see. The menu option will be close to the top.

Interesting topic. Obviously, there is no right or wrong here. We have not stayed in Aqua, but we have stayed in a Sky Suite, and the Luminae experience is similar to Blu. We have also eaten in Blu as a suite guest. We love the smaller restaurants. Not as crazy. Not as loud. Better service. We are, in essence, assigned a head waiter (all of ours have been men so far) who quickly gets to know us, and provides great service at every meal. He only services a handful of tables at a time. Also, remember that Blu is open for breakfast as well as dinner, and has a great selection. If you opt to spend the money on specialty restaurants instead, which is also a good option, you will be doing the breakfast buffet (or MDR) in the morning. Blu also will have some menu options that are lighter than those offered in the MDR. Aqua has a few other less significant benefits, but Blu would be the primary one for us. Good luck with your move up, if you decide to go that way.

Sorry, I should have specified room type when quoting rates. The prices are for Sky Suites. The three specific Ascent cruises are: 7/13/24 - 7 nights - $4,367/7 = $623/night 7/20/24 - 7 nights - $4,239/7 = $605/night 7/27/24 - 7 nights - $4,367/7 = $623/night All of those cruises currently have a $650 OBC for suites, which is NOT factored in the per-night rates above. Edited to add this is a per-person rate. Double occupancy required to receive this price.

Thanks for the replies. Price, obviously, comes into play, and the prices vary as you would expect. The average price per night for the potential voyages we are considering are: Norway Apex - $620/night - 3 possible cruises Silhouette -$581/night - 1 possible cruise Greece Ascent - $617/night - 3 possible cruises Equinox - $510/night - 3 possible cruises Infinity - $508/night - 12 possible cruises In Norway, the price difference isn't huge, but as I said before, I much prefer the itinerary on Silhouette. In Greece, the price difference is much more significant. Of course, you get all the added benefits of the new ship for that price. Based on feedback, we will likely eliminate Infinity.

The best views on Alaska cruises are most always on the land side, except for the rare whale sighting. A lot of people book balconies because they were told Alaska is so beautiful, but are disappointed when their view for the great majority of the trip is wide open ocean.

We cruised in a suite for the first time in 2019 on Millenium, only a couple of months coming from their latest remodel. I think it was called "Revolutionized", or something like that. While Millenium is a small ship by today's standard, we thoroughly enjoyed the Retreat experience. When we decided to do a Med cruise last year, we were thrilled to be on one of the first Beyond cruises. Naturally, that was amazing. We are now looking at either a Greece or Norway cruise next year. A couple of new ships are possibilities, but we really like some of the itineraries better on older ships. One is on Equinox, which was renovated in 2019, so I'm guessing that was the same treatment as we saw on Millenium (with likely a larger sundeck area, which is no big deal either way for us). The other two ships with good itineraries are the Infinity (Greece) and Silhouette (Norway). It looks like Silhouette also received the Retreat upgrade in 2020, but Infinity was last updated in 2018 (pre-Retreat). I would love some information or opinions on how the Suite amenities currently on Infinity compare to what we had on Millenium in 2019. I also would like to hear what you like or do not like about the Retreat amenities on Silhouette and Equinox. That will help us narrow our choices.

We ventured to the buffet 3 or 4 times last week on Beyond. Staff serve vs. self serve varied greatly from one visit to the next. The lady with the hand sanitizer was ALWAYS there. My wife always brought a pack of anti-bacterial wet wipes, and we would wipe down our hands as well as the silverware and glasses where staff may have touched just to make sure. Yes, COVID can make its way on board, but it is comforting to know that every person on the ship tested negative just before the cruise. In other words, the great majority of the hordes of people are not infected. Anything is possible, but take a few precautions and you will likely be just fine.

The chat feature is still useless. The ding notification is VERY faint, and does not always work. We messed with it for a while, and quickly decided to stick with text messaging. The other features, as listed by Jim, are excellent. The app was VERY useful, but as snichols23 stated, you DO need to manually refresh to get the latest. Offerings and times do change.

After reading this, I looked at the Celebrity app for the cruise we just completed last week. Under "Room Service - Suite Guests", it states: When Suite guests are in the mood to relax and dine in the comfort of your stateroom, Celebrity offers 24-hour in-stateroom dining. Call us from your stateroom phone and we'll deliver gourmet-quality fare right to your door". No menu is shown, so obviously no prices. We ordered breakfast several days, and had an excellent choice of items. They give you a door hanger card to fill out. We never wanted or needed room service at other meals, so I have no idea what was or was not available and at what cost (if any).

I went to Raw on 5 on Beyond recently and just got a shrimp tempura/spicy tuna roll. The total cost including tip was just over $16. The taste was excellent and the size was good, but if you want to sample more than a couple of things, the price can add up. It works best if you go with a group and share, but I was the only one of our four that eats sushi.

Lobster night in all venues on Beyond was on Day 8 of our recent 9-night cruise. The best lobster I had was in Eden. It is a whole lobster, but completely shelled. Eden was a great dining experience all the way around.

We were on Beyond just over a week ago. The crowds seemed sparse, and we asked our waiter in Luminae. He said they were told around 1,500 (which is just less than 50%), but that the next (current) cruise would be full. Luminae was never crowded, and almost vacant during our normal 6:00 - 6:30 dinner time. I would say it was perhaps half full when we were finishing our dinner. The theatre was similar. Very small crowds (we were told) in the early show, and the late show was always about 1/2 full.

We recently cruised on Beyond with another couple, embarking in Barcelona. We chose a direct flight (driving 5 hours to get to it), while our friends flew a different airline via connecting flights. As fate would have it, the first flight was delayed and they missed their connection. They were diverted to another airline where they flew to New Jersey (from Florida) where they missed that flight because (unknown to them) they were only on standby for the international leg. When they finally made it to Barcelona the next day, predictably their luggage was nowhere to be found. After spending hours in the lost luggage line, they resorted to buying a couple of outfits at a local mall, expecting to get their luggage in a couple of days. Well, their luggage never came. I could write much more about what they did to get by, but the point of this post is what Celebrity did. Our friends were having zero luck even getting the airline to answer the phone after hours on hold. They mentioned this to the Retreat Concierge, who said "we would be happy to help!" It wasn't Celebrity's problem, but they jumped right in. While they ultimately were not able to get the luggage delivered, they WERE able to actually speak regularly with the airline and to get a few updates. The luggage eventually made it to Barcelona, but the Barcelona crew would not send it to the ship...go figure. Celebrity also provided amenity kits, several t-shirts, and free laundry all cruise long. They also finally got Barcelona to send the luggage back to Florida so our friends would at least get their belongings back. Finally, on the last day of the cruise Celebrity told our friends that they were giving them $795 FCC each for their inconvenience. I was floored by this because Celebrity had no role in the fiasco. Our friends did enjoy the cruise, and they plan to "burn these clothes" that they wore the entire cruise in the near future. Kudos to Celebrity for helping them have a great cruise, despite the circumstances!

We were on Beyond on the July 2 cruise. I checked daily, and found no reference to a laundry special. We were in a sky suite, so on day 5 (of 9) after not seeing it referenced yet again, I called our Personal Retreat Host. She sent over a bag and said to write "Laundry Challenge" on the slip. I don't know if anyone could do it at any time, but I just did what she said and was charged $49.95 less 10% for my Classic level discount. I never did see it advertised anywhere the entire cruise (and I read everything left in our room). Perhaps it was offered and our stateroom attendant missed placing it for us.