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OMG! I confused Cabo with another port... goodness, I must be cruising a lot if I blanked on the tender back to the ship! LOL. I guess it wasn't all that bad, though I now remember being utterly bewildered by Princess's tender tickets which I had never heard of before and didn't get ours quick enough.

We were on the Beyond out of FLL on December 11th. Our room, just a regular IV, #6287 on the port side was creaking and groaning like crazy. But the ocean had these crazy long swells. Not choppy. Not the kind of the thing that the stabilizers could stabilize against. The Captain apologized repeatedly. The last night when the sea had settled and looked like glass it was blissfully quiet. For us, hubby identified the window as the problem. But since we're hearing it happening to rooms with real balconies, it must have to do with the fact that the majority of the ship is built clear to the outer edge with no external support structure to brace it. Or not enough. It's still a beautiful ship, but if you're sensitive to sound, bring ear plugs or a sound machine.

We were on the Beyond in December and really enjoyed the Martini Bar there. But, truthfully? Eden was our go-to. We just loved it there. The vibe was perfect for us. And during the day the Sunset bar had a ton of seating with shade. We spent a lot of time there as well. I'm sure you'll have an amazing time.

Thanks, I'll have to see if I can find out before hand. Before I book an excursion anyway. We didn't overnight on the Princess cruise, but it was a really weird day. We were only in port for like 3 hours due to a medical evacuation that forced us to turn around and backtrack for a few hours.

Sorry to go a bit off topic, but does Celebrity always tender in Cabo? We did the Mexican Riviera on Princess late October last year and were docked in Cabo. For our cruise on April 15th I had just assumed we'd be docked as well, but it sounds like you're on the Solstice and were tendered in. So I'm a bit confused. But it does change things as far as shore excursion scheduling and the like. Of course we don't arrive until after noon which is also different than your experience.

We loved every show in Eden. Spent so much of our evenings there. But the main theater had great entertainment too. And we really enjoyed the way the theater was designed. With the circular stage and the giant screens behind. It was very innovative and made the stage seem far larger than it actually was. I can't answer about dining in Blu, but we enjoyed the 4 main dining room concept. And, honestly? Loved everything about the ship, except for the IV where we were so-so on it. Enjoy your cruise, I'm sure it will be wonderful!

We sailed on the Beyond December 11th and loved the ship. But, having said that the IV was so-so. I wouldn't pay a premium for it, but I did enjoy the extra space and the large window. Unfortunately, I'm the early riser and my usual routine is to go to Cafe al Bacio, get a coffee and a pastry and come back to the room to sit on the balcony and enjoy the early morning peace as the sun rises. Can't really do that with an IV if your spouse is still asleep because the frosted glass doors don't keep the AC in nor do they block the light like curtains. We never had the windows locked (that we knew of) on our cruise, but we did have the creakiest cabin I've ever experienced! There were large swells on the whole voyage (except for the last night when the ocean was like glass) and the ship couldn't "stabilize" for them because they were so large. I get that and I'm not complaining, but the IV's window was the reason there was so much creaking. My husband's an engineer and he had to figure out what was going on. We talked to some other passengers who experienced the same thing. I like the privacy of the IV. I like that I can have the window open almost 24x7 for ocean views and I really loved the rest of the room, so for us, it's not a deal breaker, but if I can save enough money, I'll try to get hubby to consider an OV or even an Inside. He's so spoiled he's never had anything but a balcony.

Great review and wonderful photos! We sailed on the Beyond, Apex's sister ship, and loved every minute. We had large swells for almost the entire voyage so found that the window creaked a lot. That was the only downside of the Infinite Veranda, imho.

For those who did receive the most recent offer in the Mexican Riviera, the one that says you must book online, there's a snafu with IT and it's not registering. I phoned the BCC and the CSR took care of it for me. He's the one that explained that there's a problem on the website. By calling I also saved the $1/day/person "online booking fee", so hey, $14 more dollars to spend.

Prior to our December BCC cruise, we barely set foot in the casino, but when we did, we put our card in the slot machine and made sure our account was credited for what play we did. You also have to make sure your account is signed up to received "marketing" emails from Celebrity. Other than that? No idea why or how we were "chosen". I do think they know that having us on board is far more profitable than leaving the room empty.

And you even get the Captain's Club points for the cruise, just as though you'd paid market price. I was surprised to learn that.

We both received the BCC club for Mexican Riviera cruises through April 15th, but when I clicked on them to book, it was not free! I called to ask even though it said that the offer was available only if booked online and the CSR that helped me explained that there is an issue with the system. If you got the offer and want to take advantage of it, you have to call. We did one on the Beyond in December and it was amazing, but definitely not free! LOL.

Oh! That's a good idea! Thank you for that!

Thank you. That's been my big worry and the entire reason I wanted to upgrade: to remove the limit on non-alcoholic drinks because between coffees and waters, we'd hit close each day. It's just aggravating to equate an espresso to a martini, imho. They're not remotely in the same ballpark as regards to cost. I just don't like the whole idea that I'm going to have to "count" my non-alcoholic drinks since I've never even thought about that on a cruise ever before. I guess time will tell.

So I'm new to HAL. Our August Alaska cruise will be our first. It came with "Have it All", which included a signature bev package. There didn't seem to be an option to buy a higher package at the time. And now it seems I cannot upgrade? It's not for the higher price limit, but for the non-alcoholic drink quantity. My husband and I both drink a lot of waters and coffees in a day and to be limited to 15 total? I mean, it might be fine. I've never counted before on a cruise (and I hate the idea that I'll have to), but it seems pretty chintzy to include non-alcoholic beverages in the total, especially if there's no way for me to pay a bit more and get past that hurdle.

Yeah, the aluminum bottles we keep on hand in the room, but I drink the sparkling and the other still water.

Thank you so much for doing this! I wouldn't have imagined that the bedside would have double the amperage, especially on Beyond which is a new ship!

This just seems to be more inconsistency from Celebrity. Our March 2024 Beyond cruise has had dining open to book for awhile now. I want to say at least a month? Maybe longer? I've booked Eden, Fine Cut, and RTG to make sure we get them (and I want to go to Eden on my birthday). I am hoping that they do hold back some spots for booking once on board since I couldn't get anything on our December Beyond cruise, but it was very last minute. Still, if we have to eat in the MDRs I won't be disappointed as we almost always find something that's delicious.

Thank you for putting all this work into this! The bottled water really pushes it over the edge for me.

We leave Saturday for a cruise on the Beyond and I bought the Premium Package because hubby basically drinks nothing but WCB drinks. And I do love my sparkling water. But I also appreciate good wine with dinner, so I hope that the supply issues for the Premium wine aren't as bad as I've heard on here.

I shouldn't be surprised by this, but Royal hasn't fixed this issue yet? I bought the card for our Med cruise back in April 2017. Found out once on board that it was a punch per shot instead of per drink. When hubby drinks a quad soy latte, the card goes quickly. When I returned from that cruise I emailed Royal about it. I printed out the verbiage from the website and and pointed out that they were not selling us a coffee drink with the card, but shots of espresso with everything else being irrelevant. Which, may I add, is idiotic. The espresso shot is the cheapest part of the latte! The soy or milk is way more expensive. I can't make the math make sense. Anyway, I complained, they gave me $50 OBC to use on a future cruise and I never bought the card again. I think OP should complain as well. Everyone should. If we all do and get $50 for a $31 coffee card, surely they'll eventually make "policy" agree with what the website is selling? Okay. I know that's not going to happen, but it's a nice thought.

Oh no! Why waste paper? Were they getting complaints that the bartenders weren't charging them right? That's the only reason that makes any sense. But that doesn't even make sense if you have a drink package. I will hope that they discontinue this before we go next August.

I watched a video of folks dining on Beyond in a couple of the MDRs and the unique items for each style of restaurant were very interesting to me, plus the different ambience. I suspect we wouldn't be able to get those unique items in Blu, which makes sense, and that's why I was asking the original question. I'd like to try Blu, maybe in place of our Cosmopolitan night as well as the others. It's a new ship and I'd like to try as much of it as possible without shelling out a ton on specialty dining. With the single MDR having the same wait staff is a benefit. Hard to do on Beyond and really not what we want. I'll have to report back what I think.

Thank you for that. I just wasn't sure if we could get the specialties that are unique to each MDR on Beyond in Blu. If so, then we can give it a try and see what we think. We enjoy the MDR on Celebrity but I usually make reservations as soon as they open and sit in the same table every night, which means we get great service and the waitstaff know us. That's obviously hard to do with 4 different MDRs, so Blu might be a better option.

After reading through all of the replies here, I want to make sure I understood. If we upgrade to AQ on our upcoming Beyond cruise we can eat in Blu, but we do not have to. And Blu serves breakfast daily which would save us dealing with the buffet. This will be our first cruise on an e-class and I really love the 4 MDR format with the specialized items in each MDR, but I'd love to treat hubby to the Thermal Suite. I just didn't want to limit our dinner options to Blu if that's allowed.