Edge Semi Live Blog - December 8-15, 2019 - Moveable Feast - Edge Villa Experience

Cdresser · December 9, 2019

Hello All,

This is my first travel blogging effort and I have some big shoes to fill on this forum. This is dedicated to the memory of VTcruising who was excited when I said I had an edge villa and planned to blog about it. She encouraged and inspired me. In that spirit, I'll try my best and here goes...

A little about us, my husband and I are 50-somethings with no children. We have done a lot of traveling in the last 6 years and did our first cruise a year ago. We fell in love with cruising and this is now our 3rd cruise. We will be boarding Infinity on 12/16/19 for our 4th cruise so I guess we would call this a side-by-side. I love researching our travel and finding little known tips and locations. I also pride myself on my bargain finding super powers. The phrase I would use for us is "champagne travel on a sparkling wine budget". We enjoy having luxuries but we can't afford to pay full price for them.

We booked this cruise in September because I found a good price and we love doing "foodie" type things. We are Top Chef fans, so the opportunity to interact with Gail Simmons and Marcus Samuelsson really appealed to us. I got a great price and OBC from my TA for a sky suite and we were ready to go. We traveled previously in a Royal Suite on Infinity (tactical error for a first cruise because it set a *really* high bar. We went to Alaska in July on Millenium in Aqua Class and enjoyed it but missed the "extras" from having a suite. Anyway, when we got the moveup bid e-mail, I put in a bid that was very weak on the scale. If our bid was accepted, great, we could afford that price. If it was rejected, not a problem because we had a nice suite ready to go. To our surprise, our bid was accepted and here I am now.

I have pictures but I'm still figuring out how to load them onto this forum and the internet on the ship is pretty slow right now. Hopefully I'll have them posted in the next day or two.

Day One

Embarkation was a breeze. We stayed at the Hampton Inn North Cruise Port using Hilton Points and used Lyft to get to the port. Lyft was 9.17 plus tip, the hotel shuttle would have been $10/person for a shared shuttle - no brainer to use Lyft. Two weeks before our sail date, we received an email from our Shoreside Concierge asking our preferences for alcohol and soft drinks (the suite comes with 2 bottles of alcohol and full use of a minibar). We also made our dinner reservations at this time because specialty dining is included with the suite. We were not able to make lunch reservations, however, that has to be done on the ship (which was taken care of for us first thing in the retreat lounge). We were also sent a sign to print out and put on the dashboard of the car to identify us for "priority access" (an extra benefit for upper level suites). Once we got to the terminal, a few minutes to process us and our luggage and we were escorted upstairs to the suites waiting lounge. We arrived at 10am. We spent some time chatting with a couple we met at the "breakfast goodies" table and at about 10:30am we were escorted by Dana, one of the retreat lounge concierges, onto the ship.

Dana escorted us to our suite so we could drop our bags and get our seapass cards. We took a quick look at the suite, met our butler (Hilario) and our room attendant (Teadora), then got out of their way so they could finish prepping our room. From there, we went to the retreat lounge to hang out until Luminae opened for lunch. I had read other reviews that said the suite lounge in the terminal and the retreat lounge on the ship were extremely crowded at embarkation, but they were both fairly empty when we came through. I guess the advice I'd give from this experience is arrive early if you can.

We were not thrilled with the menu for Luminae lunch because it was all very "heavy" and we are trying to pace ourselves, but what we did order was good. I had the butternut squash farfelle and DH had the seared bronzino. Our favorite part was the cocktails we ordered - vanilla mojito for me and a lavender liquor and gin drink for DH. Since we arrived shortly after they opened for lunch at 11:30a, we snagged a window seat. Our other meal highlight was meeting and chatting with the couple at the table next to us. Fortunately, we like to be social and the close table spacing didn't bother us.

After lunch, we wandered the ship. I think everyone was in the Oceanview Cafe because it felt like we were the only ones onboard except staff. We wandered into Eden and I discovered another cocktail I love - the Planter. By this time, our room was ready and we went back to get the full orientation from our butler. I will write in more detail about the suite later, but until then I will say it is beautiful and decadent.

Between getting a manicure, muster drill, unofficial Cruise Critic meetup, and hosting the couple we met at embarkation for a pre-dinner drink, our afternoon was packed.

We like to eat early and our 6:30 reservation at Fine Cut was a good choice. We were extremely impressed with everything about the restaurant. DH and I shared the scallop starter as well as the arugula salad starter. The sommelier (whose name I did not catch) helped him find a red he really enjoyed that was within the premium beverage package parameters. He had the bone-in filet with au poivre sauce and I had the lamb chops. Our waiter suggested mint jelly for the lamb and when I agreed, he brought mint jelly and their mint sauce. I think I will find that mint sauce in my dreams for years to come, it was amazing! We were too full for dessert so we arranged to have our butler bring it to our suite so we could enjoy it later. (Still trying to find out if a first night discount was offered for Fine Cut).

We were a bit disappointed in the lack of dance opportunities following dinner. The band playing in the grand plaza would have been good for dancing but there really isn't any space for dancing there. We went to the Club and they were doing karaoke with a live band. I am not ashamed to say I serenaded DH with Moondance before we headed back to our suite to enjoy our dessert, champagne, and hot tub. It was an early night for us, but with all that waiting in the suite there wasn't much that could compete for our attention.

Tonight looks promising for dancing so I'll report back on that when I write about today in Key West.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Cdresser
addition

hcat · December 9, 2019

Great start.,.following.

Dedication to VtCruiser is heartwarming!

Enjoy!

nucroozer · December 9, 2019

Thank you! Can't wait to hear more.

VtCruiser, I'm sure, is smiling down on you. 😊

sprout76 · December 10, 2019

Excited to read your report! We have a Sky suite booked and I was thinking of trying to put in a bid for a villa if we get the option. Happy to hear it worked out well for you. Enjoy your cruise and can’t wait to hear all about it

cyntil8ing · December 10, 2019

Following. My family will be on this itinerary for Christmas in two weeks!

NCHPcruiser · December 10, 2019

Will continue to read your review! Looking forward to sailing on the Edge in a few weeks. I’m thinking VT cruiser would be happy to read this!

JFontaine · December 10, 2019

Vtcruising would’ve loved this.

I am in a Villa in February so reading this with great interest. Have a terrific time. Thanks for writing this.

taylortime05 · December 10, 2019

I will following your blog with great interest. We will be on the next sailing and it's our first time in a suite on Celebrity.

I really enjoyed your 1st post.

Thanks

Cdresser · December 12, 2019

Day Two

It has been a very busy cruise for me so I am a little behind schedule on this blog. I'll try to pick up the pace but I can't make any promises:).

Our first port stop was Key West. At my suggestion, DH and I booked the Key Lime Bike Tour. We had been to Key West in November 2018 and loved it, but we had not done a tour with a guide so we thought this would be a good way to get a taste of the whole island. Our tour guide, Lauren, was great. She was informative, witty, and patient. All in all, the tour gave us exactly what we wanted.

The only downside to the tour was entirely my own fault. It was only when we arrived at the bike shop to get our bikes that I realized I had not been on a bike in over 35 years! Yes, it really is just like riding a bike, but one can get rusty on those skills. I almost bailed on the tour about twenty feet into it. Then I almost bailed at the first hour. By the time we were at the very end of the long pier on the other side of the island I gave up any thoughts of leaving because we were past the halfway point so pushing on was the only option. Lauren checked in with me at every stop and based on my feedback she made some adjustments to the seat height on my bike and things went much better for me after that.

I didn't injure myself (or others), I only had one mishap with hitting a fence (no damage to me, the bike or the fence), and there was the reward of wonderful key lime pie at the end of the tour. DH and I returned to the ship a little sore, but with greater knowledge of Key West and an even greater sense of accomplishment.

After a bit to eat in Oceanview, DH took a nap while I sat in the deck 15 smoking area and wrote my first blog entry.

That night, we ate at Raw on 5. The food was fantastic and the service impeccable. There was a little more ambient noise from the Grand Plaza than we experienced at Fine Cut so I asked DH what he thought of the noise level. He agreed with my assessment that it still did not rise to the level of making conversation problematic.

Raw on 5 is normally priced a la carte but everything is free when you are in an upper level suite with specialty dining included. We ordered a number of dishes that we shared and I'll post pictures when I can. We ordered oysters, sashimi, and two sushi rolls. I mentioned to our server that I was interested in the seafood tower but we decided against it because we both preferred our crab legs warm rather than cold. She surprised us with a fantastic plate of warm alaskan king crab legs with cocktail sauce and aioli for dipping.

After dinner, we looked for places to dance. The band was playing in the Grand Plaza so we went there. This venue does not work well for dancing because there is only a small space of dancefloor in front of the band which can accommodate one or two couples. We danced one dance but left in case other people wanted to have a turn.

From there, we went to the club and that is where we found the best dance space. After a few dances, we headed to the theater for the show, Kalaidascope. We thought the music and cast were terrific. It was Evening Chic night so there were reserved seats for suite passengers and the butlers were on hand to escort everyone to our seats. We were excited to our butler from our first cruise, Arsim, and surprised that even a year later he remembered us. Since our butler had duties elsewhere, Arsim escorted us in and arranged for delivery of our drinks.

After the show, we were back at the Club for a little more dancing. Sadly, the morning bike tour had taken it's toll on my body. Fortunately, we had arranged to have our hot tub ready to go back on our balcony. We ended the evening with champagne under the stars in the hot tub.

One note about the Club before I leave this entry. If you are a scotch drinker, this is the place to find high end offerings. I noted they had Lagavulin 16 year old. I don't drink scotch but our housemate does and this bit of info may be enough to convince him to join us next time we cruise.

lola2013 · December 12, 2019

Good morning,

I left Edge (reluctantly) on the day you arrived...it was a great experience. I'm glad you're enjoying it also.

Was the Key Lime Bike Tour a Celebrity excursion? I will visit Key West for the first time on Equinox next September and need to make a plan for the day. How long was the tour?

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Edited December 12, 2019 by lola2013

Cdresser · December 12, 2019