Cruise Critic will be on Celebrity Beyond - what do you want to know?

[VitaminSea53]

What cabins are used for Covid positive quarantine for passengers?

[TeeRick]

4 hours ago, hcat said:

 Hopefully, being active  can stave off "pre-senility", even if we have some Sr moments now and then.  For us it means more time for the gym, hiking, swimming, gardening, dh golf, enjoying our vacation home, many other interests,  ability to spend more time enjoying life and our grands..they def keep us feeling young!

 

We will add cruising back in slowly as we start to feel safe with it.  First one is BEYOND in Nov. Loved all the photis in this report!

Didn't you say here a while back that you were done with Celebrity?  Or am I thinking of somebody else?

[hcat]

16 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Didn't you say here a while back that you were done with Celebrity?  Or am I thinking of somebody else?

Not so.. ..completely.  We have 1 booked short cruise on BEYOND  to use up our big  fcc, and then plan to reassess booking any future cruises.

 

.  We  were not  thrilled with  the  way cancellations and refunds were handled by Celebrity,  and  are now monitoing the Covid isolation policies. Also not a big fan of the  new direction  under LLP...but the  staff, ships, music, and dining were still tops , based on last 2 cruises on EDGE!

Edited May 1, 2022 by hcat

[dateacher]

Is there an outdoor area to eat near the Oceaview Cafe?  We always go outside to eat our meals from there.

[jagoffee]

On 4/25/2022 at 7:17 AM, asnaleah said:

So far, I’m sticking with Silhouette and her fabulous balconies with useable furniture, unless it’s a port intensive cruise. The Sunset Bar looks lovely. Not sure how I feel about the fee for small bites though. Would hate to go back to feeling nickel-and-dimed. Thanks so much for your informative posts Chris!

 

On 4/25/2022 at 9:58 AM, Tyler414 said:

Agree on the fee for small bits...being nickel and dimed is why I no longer cruise NCL.

I do not think that is a fair criticism.  As far as I can recall Celebrity has not previously offered interesting small bites at the Sunset Bar at any price.  This is clearly an enhancement for a fee.  It is not like Celebrity is charging for something that was previously included at no charge.  I much prefer this approach to increasing  fares to cover features that only interest a few people.  There are plenty of places to find food without a fee all over the ship.  
 

 

Chris, thank you for the wonderful report.  

Edited May 1, 2022 by jagoffee

[macaroni]

There is a small area if it is the same as the Edge…actually disappointing.

[TeeRick]

On 5/1/2022 at 10:57 AM, hcat said:

Not so.. ..completely.  We have 1 booked short cruise on BEYOND  to use up our big  fcc, and then plan to reassess booking any future cruises.

 

.  We  were not  thrilled with  the  way cancellations and refunds were handled by Celebrity,  and  are now monitoing the Covid isolation policies. Also not a big fan of the  new direction  under LLP...but the  staff, ships, music, and dining were still tops , based on last 2 cruises on EDGE!

hcat we would hate to lose you from the Celebrity board!

[dani negreanu]

27 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

hcat we would hate to lose you from the Celebrity board!

 

@hcat

 

same here + 1 👍

[HMR74]

On 5/1/2022 at 9:57 AM, hcat said:

Not so.. ..completely.  We have 1 booked short cruise on BEYOND  to use up our big  fcc, and then plan to reassess booking any future cruises.

 

.  We  were not  thrilled with  the  way cancellations and refunds were handled by Celebrity,  and  are now monitoing the Covid isolation policies. Also not a big fan of the  new direction  under LLP...but the  staff, ships, music, and dining were still tops , based on last 2 cruises on EDGE!

I have said before, Celebrity has 2 different worlds.
The best world is the actual cruises.

The not so best world is the front end  of dealing with Celebrity administration and systems and policies.

Some  of this latter issue was before Covid. But I beleive 2 years of covid has dilapitated the front offices of all the cruise lines, X too.

Calling either Celebrity or your agents has not been fun the past 2 years, but then again neither has calling airlines. I had a 9 hour wait for an airline  call back which occurred in the middle of the  night.

Its, the disappointments,  also partially because expectations of Celebrity are high. LLP should work on these tougher issues.

 

We simply enjoy Celebrity, and the planning does  not bother my wife since I deal with the convoluted arrangements and planning 🙂 . She packs, flies to port on the  flights I arranged, stay at a hotel that I arranged for the  night before, and then the ride to port and the cruise. The upside is I pick the itineraries and pre  and post cruise stays. Worth it. 

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by HMR74

[IRGolfer]

We are going on a Beyond Christmas cruise 2022. Never been on a holiday cruise before. What can we expect?

[Cruise a holic]

On 5/2/2022 at 11:36 AM, HMR74 said:

I have said before, Celebrity has 2 different worlds.
The best world is the actual cruises.

The not so best world is the front end  of dealing with Celebrity administration and systems and policies.

Some  of this latter issue was before Covid. But I beleive 2 years of covid has dilapitated the front offices of all the cruise lines, X too.

Calling either Celebrity or your agents has not been fun the past 2 years, but then again neither has calling airlines. I had a 9 hour wait for an airline  call back which occurred in the middle of the  night.

Its, the disappointments,  also partially because expectations of Celebrity are high. LLP should work on these tougher issues.

 

We simply enjoy Celebrity, and the planning does  not bother my wife since I deal with the convoluted arrangements and planning 🙂 . She packs, flies to port on the  flights I arranged, stay at a hotel that I arranged for the  night before, and then the ride to port and the cruise. The upside is I pick the itineraries and pre  and post cruise stays. Worth it. 

 

Calling Celebrities sister brand Royal is also horrible.  Perhaps due to the times now.  Employees often do not help you.  They aren't knowledgeable- not trained in dealing with the customers.  In addition, many times they call other people to help and you wait again on the phone for 20 minutes.  If they cannot answer your call within 5 minutes, they should offer a call back option.  Works well with Delta.  Cannot speak about other cruise lines as I really only sail on Celebrity and Royal.

[HMR74]

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

Calling Celebrities sister brand Royal is also horrible.  Perhaps due to the times now.  Employees often do not help you.  They aren't knowledgeable- not trained in dealing with the customers.  In addition, many times they call other people to help and you wait again on the phone for 20 minutes.  If they cannot answer your call within 5 minutes, they should offer a call back option.  Works well with Delta.  Cannot speak about other cruise lines as I really only sail on Celebrity and Royal.

I have a hunch that the call centers, wherever the people are, handle both RCCL and X. They just switch platforms. And most of the policies are the same.

Edited May 11, 2022 by HMR74

[librarylady19]

On 4/28/2022 at 2:56 PM, Cruise Critic Chris said:

Hi all - 

 

Here's my story and impressions from the sailings. Hope this helps. 

 

https://*****/3vNj6yl

 

Chris 

Fantastic post and article  Chris; thanks so much for sharing your expert opinion and photos of this much anticipated new ship! I loved Apex (booked our 1st TA for next November) and Beyond definitely seems to live up to its name going above and beyond that ship even. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks again. 

[Lastdance]

I am looking forwad to my cruises on Beyond.  Very first one is in a SV with a SS for the TA part of b2b on deck 11... WooHoo!  

 

Many thanks for all the information and photos, as it is always crazy on the first few cruises.

[hcat]

On 5/2/2022 at 11:33 AM, dani negreanu said:

 

@hcat

 

same here + 1 👍

Thanks

I never say never.. but Covid realities + the experience will be our guide. Hope our 5 days on Beyond rekindles the spark! I will plan to do a live review.

[RWilbourn]

Celebrity proudly offers Peleton bikes.  However, my experience is that of these bikes, about half aren't connected to the Peleton website at any given time.  Please see if the Beyond has fixed this problem.  Thank you.

[RWilbourn]

Do newer cruise ships like the Beyond have a lower Covid infection rate than older ships?

[TeeRick]

19 hours ago, RWilbourn said:

Do newer cruise ships like the Beyond have a lower Covid infection rate than older ships?

Celebrity BEYOND has not done any routine itineraries yet.  Just a few inaugural cruises.  As to the other newer ships (APEX and EDGE) they don't seem to be any better or worse than the others in the fleet in terms of virus infections.  Why do you think they would be lower?

[RWilbourn]

1.  The ventilation system on brand new ships is usually better and always cleaner.  2.  Years of cleaning solution build-up adds respiratory irritants into the air passengers breathe.  3.  There are nooks and crannies that are hard to clean.  Think of all the ships that have had outbreaks of influenza/flu/Legionnaires, been cleaned, and had another major outbreak on the very next cruise.  They had to be taken out of service again and cleaned more thoroughly.  

[yaya]

any info on solo balcony cabins

[TeeRick]

23 hours ago, RWilbourn said:

1.  The ventilation system on brand new ships is usually better and always cleaner.  2.  Years of cleaning solution build-up adds respiratory irritants into the air passengers breathe.  3.  There are nooks and crannies that are hard to clean.  Think of all the ships that have had outbreaks of influenza/flu/Legionnaires, been cleaned, and had another major outbreak on the very next cruise.  They had to be taken out of service again and cleaned more thoroughly.  

I was under the impression that there were across-the-fleet HVAC system upgrades and changes for Celebrity and RCCL ships during the pandemic shutdown period.  There was quite a bit of reporting on this.  Both old and new systems use fresh outside air from one side of the ship and exhaust on the other side.  There was a standard for cabins (12 changes/Hr) and other indoor areas (15 changes/Hr) that was put in place for all of the RCG ships.

[HMR74]

11 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

I was under the impression that there were across-the-fleet HVAC system upgrades and changes for Celebrity and RCCL ships during the pandemic shutdown period.  There was quite a bit of reporting on this.  Both old and new systems use fresh outside air from one side of the ship and exhaust on the other side.  There was a standard for cabins (12 changes/Hr) and other indoor areas (15 changes/Hr) that was put in place for all of the RCG ships.

its hybrid-important upgrade but not a totally new system. Probably even on new ships like beyond, the design was in place a couple of years ago and completely changing it would have been difficult, and costly. So they do the fans and filters and clean out the ductwork and increase the frequncy of cleaning the system. Same for ascent- whic is the same as Beyond. Although they do have time for a more significant change but thats limited due to everything else we do not see is designed already.

 

whats different on Beyond is more outside venues, not just a grass area on S thats hardy used. Eden and the club are big space cubic foot wise, as is the Martini Bar main area.

 

with the number of big areas spread out, it spread out the guests too. Nothing is perfect .

the next design iteration ? make it like an aircraft carrier. Massive top deck and overhangs. Who wants sun on their balcony anyway? especially on a TA in March April northerly route.

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, HMR74 said:

its hybrid-important upgrade but not a totally new system. Probably even on new ships like beyond, the design was in place a couple of years ago and completely changing it would have been difficult, and costly. So they do the fans and filters and clean out the ductwork and increase the frequncy of cleaning the system. Same for ascent- whic is the same as Beyond. Although they do have time for a more significant change but thats limited due to everything else we do not see is designed already.

 

whats different on Beyond is more outside venues, not just a grass area on S thats hardy used. Eden and the club are big space cubic foot wise, as is the Martini Bar main area.

 

with the number of big areas spread out, it spread out the guests too. Nothing is perfect .

the next design iteration ? make it like an aircraft carrier. Massive top deck and overhangs. Who wants sun on their balcony anyway? especially on a TA in March April northerly route.

Thanks.  I was trying to address the question from @RWilbourn if BEYOND and E-Class newer ships have any significant differences in (a fewer) number of Covid+ cases vs the M- and S-Class older ships, presumably due to HVAC design/age.  I personally do not see any data suggesting significant differences right now but it is all circumstantial anyway.  But even in a retrospective analysis maybe done a few years from now there might be data to answer this-  if you could rule out a multitude of other criteria.

[HMR74]

7 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Thanks.  I was trying to address the question from @RWilbourn if BEYOND and E-Class newer ships have any significant differences in (a fewer) number of Covid+ cases vs the M- and S-Class older ships, presumably due to HVAC design/age.  I personally do not see any data suggesting significant differences right now but it is all circumstantial anyway.  But even in a retrospective analysis maybe done a few years from now there might be data to answer this-  if you could rule out a multitude of other criteria.

understood, I was merely putting out a general response.

 

Too many variables in drawing conclusions. Many times studies goal seek. Create test parameters to get the desired answer. In Corp finance these studies result in hockey stick projections.

 

I bet one reason X changed the 2 days to cancel option is to solve that problem of people cancelling at last minute. Leaving the ship understaffed, so unlike airlines which statistically overbook flights cruise lines cannot practically overbook cruises, although, thinking aloud,  it would be interesting to be waitlisted where  the day before they know who has canceled and then the first ones on waitlist get a crack at a cheap booking.

 

[ladylemondrop]

Having just come off Reflection this ship looks very modernistic, which is great for the restaurants and shows etc, not so sure about the comfort of pool chairs, or balcony furniture compared to our loungers on Reflection (but guess that will get changed too soon) I consider myself youngish for a cruiser at 50, and would still prefer to be in the lovely velvet chairs in Cafe al Bacio than a solid looking bench type seat. Great photos though and thank you for sharing this!