Jump to content

VTcruising Is Living On The Edge Again: The LIVE Saga Continues (1/20/19)


vtcruising
 Share

Recommended Posts

A  quick review of Part 1 of our journey:

 

My Edge journey started a couple of years ago - I've been an avid Edge watcher and have followed the build from the first cut of steel until she arrived in FLL. A great core group of people followed her build on the Edge Forum for about 2 years and it became my hobby to learn everything about the ship and discuss it in great detail on Cruise Critic on a daily basis.

 

I had originally booked B2B Jan 2019 cruises in March 2017, but when the November Preview Cruises in were announced, I knew I had to go, so booked the first two. They canceled those last April and I booked two more for December. When the United Way was given 250 cabins to sell for the Nov 27-29 cruise, we booked one of those. I was then invited on the Nov 25-27 cruise because of my strong interest in the ship (I have no affiliation with Celebrity or the travel industry – I was just a guest).  Because of work commitments, I canceled one of the Preview cruises and ended up with 7 nights (broken into 3 short cruises) on the Edge Nov 25-Dec 4 (with a 2 - night break between 2 of them). We stayed in an Infinite Veranda (12136) for the 1st cruise and enjoyed the experience, a midship S1 Sky Suite (10147) with the bed facing the balcony and loved that suite set up and then on the 3-night preview cruise, we were in an S1 aft (11268), which had a gorgeous huge balcony with amazing aft views and the bed against a side wall.

 

We had an amazing time, with some ups and downs (literally, as I had an accident while boarding the second cruise and needed 8 stitches in Medical before starting my cruise). We loved many things about the ship, were disappointed in others and had some remaining question marks about some things. Knowing these early cruises were going to have glitches and that the workings of the ship would be a work in progress as they figured what worked and what didn’t, we were forgiving. It’s part of the adventure of cruising early on a ship – for us the excitement of exploring, sampling and discovering new things was worth experiencing a few glitches. If you are not a "go with the flow" type person, you probably should avoid these first cruises. The crew were absolutely top notch! We both were sad to leave and have been looking forward to getting back onboard!

Here is a link to the live review of the first Edge journey, if you have some time to kill…

 

 

I have been planning this cruise for close to 2 years and the excitement has been building. Having 93 on our roll call, it has been fun to discuss the ship and plan the cruise. If you do the math (most of the 93 are sailing with at least one person and several in bigger groups), we represent almost 7% of the guests on this cruise (depending upon occupancy). We will meet after Muster (hopefully will be nice and will meet in the RTG) and have an interesting design for our huge cabin crawl on the 22nd (more on that later!). We have some cruise buddies from other cruises sailing with us and are looking forward to again seeing Katie and her DH from our Nov 27 cruise and meeting our new CC roll call friends.

 

We were originally booked as a B2B, with Jan27, but after adding on the 3 early cruises, we had to make some choices and ended up regretfully canceling the Jan 27 cruise.  We had originally booked an aft S1 and then after our experience with both S1 set ups in Nov-Dec, we decided to change to the same port side S1 (10147) that we had on the Nov 27 cruise. We loved the bed facing the ocean (surprisingly, since I thought it was just an advertising gimmick), the mirror/window in the bathroom (again, I was surprised how much I liked that feature), the closet location (in the entrance, instead of near the bed and bath) and its location closer to the Retreat. It was difficult to give up the huge aft balcony and wake view, but we will make do. 😉

 

12136 (C1 IV cabin):

image.thumb.png.9e47a1e54f6125b7faabdaf1da142051.png

 

10147 (S1 port)

image.thumb.png.0897546f153f143077eccfbeba1a1cef.png

 

S1 aft:

image.thumb.png.7eb36c90ee5bf52e3ccfb484954bfbfa.png

 

image.png.6673fdf1339539e3a53a3d61ab15c00c.png

 

On this cruise we have more time to relax and enjoy the ship. We are looking forward to seeing and doing the things we loved and to seeing what they have changed in response to feedback. We plan to enjoy the cruise no matter what - depending upon how much we enjoy the cruise will help us determine which ships to book onboard for the future. For us, we love the beauty of the ship in general, the cabins are gorgeous and well-laid out for the most part (the IV feature could use some tweaking and the balcony furniture in all but the upper suites is sub-par, IMO), the food was superb, the staff the best, but the deal breaker would likely be the music venues and whether we will be able to enjoy music and cocktails in a comfortable venue in the late afternoon and evening. That is something we really place high on our priority list and can forgive a lot of things, but that is a must. According to my app, it appears that there will be a lot of good music (some of the same talented people who were on the other cruises) in a variety of venues, so we are hopeful. Not having an Ensemble-lounge venue may be difficult to deal with, but this ship is a new concept and we will go with open minds and will hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

 

You should know up front that I won't be trashing the ship.  I am a positive person and don't sweat the small stuff, so I won't complain about every little thing that goes wrong or the minor things missing as compared to other X ships, though I will be forthright and call things as I see them. Please ask questions!  I have an interesting list of questions already, but first on the list is to check out the speaker under Presto's cabin so that I can make sure that they will have an excellent 25th anniversary cruise (my DH offered to bring wire cutters along to take care of the problem, if the speaker is still blaring - I said no, there are too many security cameras and I don't want to end up in the brig! 😉).

 

Okay, let the adventures begin.....


 

Edited by vtcruising
  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Enjoy!  But I can't believe you had to go via Chicago and Houston to get to Florida. Is that your usual flight route, or using points?  

 

I may have missed this with all the EDGE threads, what cabin or type of cabin are you in on this cruise?

 

I felt the lack of the Ensemble type lounge a lot, too, so I'm quite interested in your feedback on how you manage your pre dinner cocktails.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We almost always book our flights 2 days ahead of a cruise, but the cost of the flights were significantly higher on Friday (maybe because it is MLK weekend), so we booked for Saturday. Early this week, Tom the smiley local weatherman, started worrying about a potentially massive storm moving in for the weekend so I watched the weather closely for days. On Wednesday I preemptively called United and asked if they were offering free changes for Saturday flights and she said yes. I rebooked for Friday and about 2 hours later, United sent out warnings to everyone about thinking about changing weekend flights. I'm glad I called earlier so that we got seats together. The flights I got were not ideal (2 stops), but very reasonable times and layovers. Instead of flying from VT to Dulles and then to FLL and being there at 11:15 AM, we flew from Vt to Chicago, then to Houston and then finally to Fort Lauderdale.

 

 

All in all, it was as pleasant a day as could be expected. We flew Economy Plus the first two legs and had plenty of space (though the only kids on the planes were in back of us 😉) and then had a lovely last leg in 1st Class. With not having to pay for our checked luggage, we got first class for about $40 - worth every penny! United had very friendly staff and we even hated to get off the last flight since we were having so much fun with the flight attendant. 😉

 

 

image.thumb.png.6f32513e77b7a16c3a267369c84a0836.png

 

We enjoyed the free cocktails on the last flight and got off in a fine mood. Our luggage arrived and we were off to search for a cab. We walked out to the curb looking for the taxi station and this car pulled up. A guy jumped out and asked where we were going so my DH started dragging luggage over to him and telling him where we were going. I was suspicious since there were no markings on the car, no meter or anything that looked like a cab. The guy started throwing our luggage in the trunk and he said to get in the car - sometimes he gets into trouble staying there. Well, I got suspicious and asked if he was Uber or was with a taxi company. He said no, I'm independent. I didn't want to get into that car - I had visions of being taken to some seedy area and being robbed and murdered, but probably due to the cocktails and my personality of of wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, I got in. I then asked if he was going to murder us, which brought on hoots of laughter and we ended up having a fun ride to the hotel. He turned out to be a great guy who came from Haiti many years ago and was so grateful that he was raising his family here. A fun way to start our stay in Fort Lauderdale!!

 

 

We are staying at the Oceanside Inn on Seabreeze Blvd. It is an older, funky hotel, but we are enjoying it so far. We have a balcony room. The view isn't like our view from the Hilton Marina, but still a lovely balcony.

 

 

2054598031_hotbeds.thumb.jpg.c695d3c27acb3ee34916bcc6a2ac604b.jpg

 

1129684014_balconyhot.thumb.jpg.291a3b362ec6fba9b60d40967c9a0b40.jpg

 

 

I was exhausted last night so laid down to take a nap while my DH, who snored loudly on the flights, went to the bar. I went to find him at 8:30 and he was having a wonderful time with a group of roofers headed out on a Princess ship today. Their boss was paying for their cruise (and $500 OBC!). Anyway, we decided to have dinner there, though didn't expect much. Actually, my fish tacos were some of the best I'd ever had (with blackened mahi mahi). I listened to roofing tales during dinner and learned more about the roofing business than I really needed to know. 😉

 

 

597159132_hottacos.thumb.jpg.de9a935e78167ba0470b9fdc5438133c.jpg

 

I went to bed fairly early and got a good night's sleep. Friends will be driving down to visit with us while we are here today. The sun is out and it feels warm. We can walk down to the ocean in back of the hotel,  so plan to walk on the beach and just be thankful that we got out before the 24 inches of snow arrived in VT!! 🙂 

 

 

More later....

 

Edited by vtcruising
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have a great cruise! I do a lot more lurking than posting. We are booked on her in September. As of last night, it looks as if our ship is nearly full. I've been reading the reviews and other edge postings. For us, the good outweigh the bad and being our cruise is port intensive, we won't be on the ship long enough to experience some of the things others have complained about. I look forward to more pictures! Can't get enough of the pictures! 

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have a fantastic cruise.  Do you know if the connecting cabins on the Edge, connect outside the room like the Eclipse or do they connect with a door inside the cabin?  Just curious because we sail on the Edge in February in a connecting room.

Thanks.

Laura

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Ugaaucruisers said:

Have a fantastic cruise.  Do you know if the connecting cabins on the Edge, connect outside the room like the Eclipse or do they connect with a door inside the cabin?  Just curious because we sail on the Edge in February in a connecting room.

Thanks.

Laura

There are some of each. If you give me the cabin number I can try to find out. 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ecslady said:

Enjoy!  But I can't believe you had to go via Chicago and Houston to get to Florida. Is that your usual flight route, or using points?  

 

I may have missed this with all the EDGE threads, what cabin or type of cabin are you in on this cruise?

 

I felt the lack of the Ensemble type lounge a lot, too, so I'm quite interested in your feedback on how you manage your pre dinner cocktails.

You probably read the explanation for the flights above. No, not the usual! 

 

We will be in an S1 mid-ship.

 

Yes, we will have fun trying out the best ways to have pre-dinner cocktails!! For research purposes only, of course! 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You really were smart to change ypur travel plans.  Weather Channel says  Chicago airport has cancellations and delays.. so you got out of there in time. The extra money and  travel time was a good move!

 

Hope you get your rocking chair and enjoy the cruise.  We will miss meeting you on the 27th....pls let is know about that outdoor speaker!

Edited by hcat
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, hcat said:

You really were smart to change ypur travel plans.  Weather Channel says  Chicago airport has cancellations and delays.. so you got out of there in time. The extra money and  travel time was a good move!

 

Hope you get your rocking chair and enjoy the cruise.  We will miss meeting you on the 27th....pls let is know about that outdoor speaker!

Good to know - I hope others on our roll call are able to make it!

 

The speaker check is a priority! 🙂

Edited by vtcruising
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ugaaucruisers said:

Have a fantastic cruise.  Do you know if the connecting cabins on the Edge, connect outside the room like the Eclipse or do they connect with a door inside the cabin?  Just curious because we sail on the Edge in February in a connecting room.

Thanks.

Laura

We were Deck 8 midship Category E1 (8192) and our connecting doors were inside the cabin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Ugaaucruisers said:

Thanks.  We will be in 11215.  Dont go to,too much trouble.  Enjoy the cruise, first and foremost!!

My guess is that it has a connecting door just past the entryway (inside the cabin). Our cabin crawl goes up to that neck of the woods so I will try to check it out. 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking forward to another trip review from you. We’re on the Edge next summer, and I’m trying to decide which specialty dining package to purchase. We will have access to Luminae, but want to try some of the other venues onboard.

  Glad you were able to get out before the storm!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have a great trip! Ours is close enough we are finally getting super excited and thinking about packing, the snow and 14 degree temps outside with lots of wind are helping too;)

 

Already picked up a lot of stuff to do and see from your first trip report:)

Edited by cgolf1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

I'm always amazed when threads like this end up getting hijacked by people who have random questions to ask.

No worries - I’m happy to answer questions. People have been great answering mine. 😀

 

Mr B, I’m laying in the gorgeous sun by the pool and loving it!!! Taking a walk to the beach next! This is the life!! 😎

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like someone else said, I've been lurking on all your threads about the Edge as I am on the March 24th cruise.

You have been amazingly helpful and it has been so much fun reading your posts and pictures.  I have told friends coming with us that we really have to watch our step as we go to board the ship.  That accident you had was awful and so easily could have been worse.  I loved your attitude and laughed out loud when you told paramedics you were not going to go to the Broward County hospital.

I believe Oceanside Inn is the Best Western hotel and I have looked at it many times but never booked it.  Nice to hear your comments about it.

Looking forward to reading your posts and hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Please ask questions!  I have an interesting list of questions already, but first on the list is to check out the speaker under Presto's cabin so that I can make sure that they will have an excellent 25th anniversary cruise (my DH offered to bring wire cutters along to take care of the problem, if the speaker is still blaring - I said no, there are too many security cameras and I don't want to end up in the brig! 😉).

 

Okay, let the adventures begin.....


 

 

This made us smile from ear to ear ;-) THANKYOU SO MUCH - we are genuinely touched that you are thinking of us as you go back on to Edge. Love the idea of wire cutters if the worst comes to the worst -- ha ha

 

Seriously, many thanks and have a very safe embarkation and wonderful time. Say hi to Mr Edge too !!!!!!

 

2 very grateful Prestos x

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Marilyn!

So glad you escaped the storm, only to find yourself captured by first class on United for part of your flight...that is the way to start a cruise!

As you can see, I am eagerly following along, but will not be in your aft S1 until the TA; however, since you alluded to the fact of the bed and closet being very close, I decided to go on a little diet just to be sure the “squeeze” will be easier...actually, then I can eat more too!

I am sending you positive thoughts, along with an inner GPS that automatically keeps you from harm...kinda like bubble wrap that is invisible.  So stay strong and savor everything Edge once again!  Have a wonderful trip, and do something about all that snoring by your DH; my DH does the same!

—Suzy

Edited by Lastdance
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, vtcruising said:

 

 

The sun is out and it feels warm. We can walk down to the ocean in back of the hotel,  so plan to walk on the beach and just be thankful that we got out before the 24 inches of snow arrived in VT!! 🙂 

 

 

More later....

 

 

Welcome to Ft Lauderdale. Fabulous weather today. Our kids are skiing in Stowe at this moment. They said it was really cold and miserable.  They have a place at Topnotch, which has a nice heated pool and bar for apres ski.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, cruisingxpert said:

Like someone else said, I've been lurking on all your threads about the Edge as I am on the March 24th cruise.

You have been amazingly helpful and it has been so much fun reading your posts and pictures.  I have told friends coming with us that we really have to watch our step as we go to board the ship.  That accident you had was awful and so easily could have been worse.  I loved your attitude and laughed out loud when you told paramedics you were not going to go to the Broward County hospital.

I believe Oceanside Inn is the Best Western hotel and I have looked at it many times but never booked it.  Nice to hear your comments about it.

Looking forward to reading your posts and hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

Thanks! I have been watching every step! I will make it on the Edge on two feet this time!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Freestyle Cruiser said:

 

Welcome to Ft Lauderdale. Fabulous weather today. Our kids are skiing in Stowe at this moment. They said it was really cold and miserable.  They have a place at Topnotch, which has a nice heated pool and bar for apres ski.

The Topnnotch is nice, but being here is so much better! What a gorgeous day at 78 degrees and it is -1 in VT. 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Lastdance said:

Hi Marilyn!

So glad you escaped the storm, only to find yourself captured by first class on United for part of your flight...that is the way to start a cruise!

As you can see, I am eagerly following along, but will not be in your aft S1 until the TA; however, since you alluded to the fact of the bed and closet being very close, I decided to go on a little diet just to be sure the “squeeze” will be easier...actually, then I can eat more too!

I am sending you positive thoughts, along with an inner GPS that automatically keeps you from harm...kinda like bubble wrap that is invisible.  So stay strong and savor everything Edge once again!  Have a wonderful trip, and do something about all that snoring by your DH; my DH does the same!

—Suzy

Thanks for the good thoughts! Yes, losing a few lbs may help do the dance around each other in that area (why is it that we always need to be in the same place at the same time?). 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

This made us smile from ear to ear 😉 THANKYOU SO MUCH - we are genuinely touched that you are thinking of us as you go back on to Edge. Love the idea of wire cutters if the worst comes to the worst -- ha ha

 

Seriously, many thanks and have a very safe embarkation and wonderful time. Say hi to Mr Edge too !!!!!!

 

2 very grateful Prestos x

I will give Mr Edge a pat for you and will certainly figure out the speaker issue. No, the DH did not bring the wire cutters (at least I hope he didn't). 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...