Live Review, Celebrity Beyond, December 11-18

[ETHTrader]

5 hours ago, Irene225 said:

Do you mind if I ask what deck you’re on? We are on next week. Deck 2 cabin in the 200s

 

I am on deck 8

[Stealthdog]

7 hours ago, Irene225 said:

This looked fun! How long was it?  Thanks and enjoy your day! 

 

Its scheduled for 45 minutes - they keep a timer and let you know occasionally how much time is remaining.  We started a little late, so in total was about 60 minutes.

[Stealthdog]

On 12/14/2022 at 8:01 AM, YensidCA said:

@Stealthdog I was wondering if you could find out (don't go out of your way) about the fitness classes that are included with AquaClass. I am most interested in F45 (it is normally at 9:30am), is this included? Aside from signing up are there things needed?

 

Cheers.

 

Here is the fitness schedule for this sailing.  The morning and evening stretch sessions are complimentary for everyone.  The spa attendant who gave me the schedule said Cycle and Yoga classes are included with AquaClass (3 classes), but the F45 is not included.  Reservations for classes can be made at the spa front desk.  We might try one of the classes on Day 7 to check it out - don't have an answer to your last question yet, but the spa attendant didn't say I had to bring anything.

[Stealthdog]

7 hours ago, momofmab said:

It was mentioned on the Apex review thread that the Solarium on that ship is airconditioned.  Is it the same on Beyond?  Thx!

 

It does not feel airconditioned.  Every time I have walked through the Solarium, it feels warm and humid, like an indoor pool feeling.  

[Stealthdog]

8 hours ago, SF said:

Have you heard any complaints about noisy cabins on Deck 9? Just got off Wonder of the Seas and several cabins on there had the same problem...very noisy cabins. It makes it hard to get any sleep as just as you're dozing off the banging started again.

 

I haven't heard anything specific about Deck 9.  Deck 8 and Deck 12 were the two I heard about.  But, based on others posting in this thread, it has spanned other decks.

[Stealthdog]

14 hours ago, alexkrn46 said:

Great review, we are also on the 10 floor neat forward elevator, no banging tonight, past nights very loud  sounded like someone was trapped in the wall trying to get out

 

They must have escaped from within the wall!  Between the banging people keep hearing and the elevator buttons mysteriously getting unpressed, someone should bring a psychic or medium on board to investigate.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Stealthdog

[Stealthdog]

On 12/11/2022 at 12:34 AM, FireEMT978 said:

Curious, as to what your "Observation" is, as to the average age? I'm going to be 52 on NYE! On, the NYE sailing. I'm really stressing, needing some "Fun" times. Not ready for retirement! NEED adrenaline!

 

 

My updated estimate after 5 days is the average age is probably mid-late 50s.  I have seen 2 infants and about 10-15 children on board.  There are so many activities nightly (productions, headliners, gameshows, silent discos, lounge performers, and others) that you won't be bored and should find a number of things that are fun for you. 

 

Worst case scenario, there is red bull and espresso on board to jumpstart some adrenaline.  😉

[Stealthdog]

Going thru photos and haven't posted the loyalty events.  These events are on a separate sheet you will receive in your stateroom, and I haven't seen them in the daily activity papers.  This is for Select.  Other levels probably have more events.

 

For those looking for the Captain's Club representative, she is very hard to find.  If you are facing away from the Theater on Deck 5, there is a room to the right side of the elevators where you can find her.  She is really helpful and pleasant (and probably bored because she is in a room by herself, and no one knows where she is).

[Stealthdog]

On 12/12/2022 at 3:37 PM, Tinkbelle87 said:

Can you let us know who the cruise director is for your sailing? I see on the daily it is someone named Alexa but someone else mentioned it was Luigi.

 

I have failed you with Senior Officer bios.  I asked for them at guest services and they told me they were available on the TV in the stateroom.  I don't see any menu option on the TV to get bios.  

[ETHTrader]

9 hours ago, momofmab said:

Also, where are the rooms that they are giving you to sleep in?  Do you have keys to both rooms so you can leave stuff in the 2nd room?  Is your suite noisy during the day? 

 

They offered us an infinite veranda room few doors down from our suite. You get extra keys for the other room so you can leave stuff and use it however you would want. Suite creaks during the day but not as noisy during the day. But I am mostly out and about around the ship during the day

[Tinkbelle87]

3 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

 

I have failed you with Senior Officer bios.  I asked for them at guest services and they told me they were available on the TV in the stateroom.  I don't see any menu option on the TV to get bios.  

No worries! Thanks for trying! 

[horseymike]

Thanks for all the info and pics.

[Stealthdog]

Day 6 Daily

 

We are in Puerto Plata today.  Doing a waterfall and atv tour thru Celebrity (thought it was easier doing it through the cruise line than trying to figure out private tours while on a ship).  

 

Items still to be reviewed:

The three port stops and three tours (2 private, 1 with Celebrity)

A few production shows in the theater and one Eden Show

Overall Food and Service review (Blue, the MDRs, Spa Cafe, Cafe al Baccio, and Oceanview Cafe)

Eden Dinner

Thoughts on the Gym

 

I'll take more photos of areas around the ship to post.  If I don't get everything posted by debarkation, we have a long, overnight autotrain ride back to Northern Virginia and I'll try to get them all done on the train.

 

I'll go through the thread to make sure I didn't miss any questions.  If anyone has any final questions, send them away - will have all day tomorrow At Sea (which also happens to be my Birthday 🙂 ) to check into things.  

 

Next week I will follow up with a comparison between Royal's Quantum Class and Celebrity's Edge Class ships.

[behtyas]

On 12/15/2022 at 1:28 PM, Stealthdog said:

 

They must have escaped from within the wall!  Between the banging people keep hearing and the elevator buttons mysteriously getting unpressed, someone should bring a psychic or medium on board to investigate.

 

We found (albeit by accident, and then to our advantage later on) that Beyond's elevators actually let you UN-select a floor!

 

It's awesome if you hit the wrong floor and want to quickly change it, but here's the catch. If you're heading down and hit floor 5, and someone else gets on and hits 5.. guess what - neither of you are going to floor 5! This is especially amusing (or annoying) given there's buttons on both sides of the elevator. Compound that with there being a slight (1-2 second) delay in registering the touch for a floor AND a delay in un-selecting a floor and it leads to interesting elevator rides.

[Stealthdog]

Day 7 Daily.  Last day on Ship and the seas are much quieter heading back to Fort Lauderdale.  Posting the departure information too for people that may want to use as a planner for transportation time off the ship.

[Stealthdog]

Day 6 we went to the 930PM showing of the Production Stage Door.  It was very good and was themed for the biggest Broadway and Westend musicals.  Everything made sense and all the scenes were well done.  The production used the stage walls to show video of their full symphony orchestra and show some scenes of others performing.  The visuals were nice, but I'm not sure showing other performances in the background with the Celebrity production happening on stage may not be the best choice because people will naturally compare the two.  Some of the sets included Rent, Chicago, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Moulin Rouge, and a few others.

 

After seeing two of the three productions, the dancers were fantastic, and the vocalists were good.  The female vocalists definitely outshine the male vocalists.  I would recommend anyone going on the Beyond to see the production shows - they are worth the time.

[abbydancer2003]

Thanks for doing this, and it sounds like the cruise was great.  I'm on the Beyond in 2024, so enjoying reading this.

 

 

[Cap_D]

Looking forward to the comparison with Oasis Class.  Safe travels.

[Daisydoggie]

Thank you Stealthdog for all of your posts and Happy Birthday!  Looking forward to your final thoughts, especially what you did at each port as we are on Beyond with same itinerary January 8! 

[LPut714]

On 12/9/2022 at 7:06 PM, Stealthdog said:

We are continuing the second leg of a B2B (or side to side) and board the Celebrity Beyond this Sunday in Fort Lauderdale.  We are currently finishing our first leg on the Royal Odyssey of the Seas.

 

This will be our 4th Celebrity sailing, and have also sailed Royal, Norwegian, and Disney.  I plan this review to be mostly live, but I might have some portions that will be done post cruise.

 

Some information in case people have specific questions about cabin, dining, status perks, etc:

- We booked a Concierge Class balcony but upgraded to Aqua Class in the bid-up process.  We are excited for that because we have only sailed Aqua Class on Celebrity.

- We will spend most of our time in the Blu restaurant but will try a few of the new MDRs and may go to one Specialty Restaurant.  If we do, it will probably be Eden.

- We bought the non-alcohol package and are bringing 3 bottles of wine on board with us (our TA has a fourth bottle waiting for us on board).

- We have Select status. 

- We purchased an internet package.

 

Itinerary for the sailing:

Dec 11 - Fort Lauderdale

Dec 12 - At Sea

Dec 13 - At Sea

Dec 14 - St Maarten

Dec 15 - St Thomas

Dec 16 - Who knows....keeps changing....looks like we are back to Puerto Plata

Dec 17 - At Sea

Dec 18 - Fort Lauderdale

 

We have been to St Maarten and St Thomas a couple times each, and Puerto Plata for both resort stays, and cruise stops.  We booked all of our excursions for this sailing thru a private vendor (Shore Excursions Group).  We don't know yet what we will do in Puerto Plata yet because the itinerary just changed again 2 days ago.

 

I'll plan to post menus, the daily, and the entertainment schedule.  Ask any question and I'll try to get the answer, post the picture, or provide whatever you want.

 

When this review is done, I'd like to do a follow-up comparison of the Royal Odyssey and Celebrity Beyond since they are both new ships in those fleets, similar sizes, and alot of people seem to have questions about differences between Royal and Celebrity.

 

Below is a link to the current live review of the Odyssey if anyone has interest reading about it.

 

Live Review, Odyssey of the Seas, Dec 3-11 - Page 5 - Royal Caribbean International - Cruise Critic Community

 

We are doing the same side to side next March/April-How did you get from one terminal to the next. Some have said to check at guest services regarding transfer. Thanks

[Stealthdog]

I was hoping to use this opportunity to complete the review, but the Amtrak wifi is as bad as old school cruise wifi and its taking me 30 seconds just to upload a page.  Will have to complete it tomorrow when I get home.

 

Debarking the ship this morning was a snap.  Everything was on time, and we started the process of getting off the ship around 750AM.  Picking up luggage was a mess at this terminal (which isn't a reflection on Celebrity) - Entering and exiting the luggage claim area was the same spot so there was major congestion of people going in to get their luggage and people already with their luggage trying to leave.  There should really be a separate exit for people leaving with their luggage.

 

This is my 3rd cruise ship departure that I did not need passports.  You will not need them and can keep them secure in your bags, purses, etc.  After you collect your luggage, you will only need to pass through a facial recognition scan to leave the terminal building and go outside.  Not sure how I feel about facial recognition being used like this, but that is a different topic.

 

We ubered to our friend's house, picked up our car and were already on the road to Orlando by 845AM.   We stopped by family to pick up the rest of our belongings and arrived at the Sanford Amtrak Autotrain terminal at 1:30PM.  Train left for Lorton, Virginia at about 5PM.

 

If anyone has any questions on how the AutoTrain works, ask away.  If not, I'll just post the rest of the pictures and complete the reviews of the cruise.  

 

Overall, the Beyond is fantastic....our favorite ship we have been on.  We do like the Oasis Class ship design better than the Edge Class ship design, but we haven't been on a ship like the Beyond.  We would recommend everyone to check out the Beyond.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Stealthdog

[Stealthdog]

10 minutes ago, LPut714 said:

We are doing the same side to side next March/April-How did you get from one terminal to the next. Some have said to check at guest services regarding transfer. Thanks

 

Wifi is so horribly bad on my Amtrak Train.  Tomorrow, I'll give you the detailed process of what I went through and some recommendations for you in preparation for your cruise next year.  Even with a late departure off the first sailing, we still had 1 hour+ of waiting until the terminals even opened for the second sailing.

[podsnel]

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this review! We board on Jan 3, looking forward to sailing with my husband- this will be my 4th edge class sailing, but his first- and I am sure he will love it as much as I do. Have a safe trip home, and Happy Birthday!

[chucknmarilyn]

On 12/15/2022 at 12:17 AM, alexkrn46 said:

Great review, we are also on the 10 floor neat forward elevator, no banging tonight, past nights very loud  sounded like someone was trapped in the wall trying to get out

Yikes. We will be on Deck 10 starboard just a bit behind the forward elevators. Hope this gets resolved.

[MamaChach]

Love your review!  Thank you for taking the time to do and look forward to the rest of the story...:)