Beyond LIVE Med Review 10/20-10/30: Tales from our Suite Roman Holiday

[depplep]

Hi Charla, I just found this review as I am considering Beyond in June and we've never been on Celebrity. How was the bar service on the ship? Was it attentive and easy to get a drink? Love your review. Long time Royal cruisers and our recent NCL was good, but no WOW factor. Want something more elevated. Thanks in advance.

[zitsky]

9 hours ago, depplep said:

Hi Charla, I just found this review as I am considering Beyond in June and we've never been on Celebrity. How was the bar service on the ship? Was it attentive and easy to get a drink? Love your review. Long time Royal cruisers and our recent NCL was good, but no WOW factor. Want something more elevated. Thanks in advance.

I upgraded to a Sky Suite (accessible) on the Beyond and ate in Luminae.  I was quite happy with it.  I consider that elevated.  We usually cruise in Aqua class.

Edited November 15, 2023 by zitsky

[DaKahuna]

16 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I upgraded to a Sky Suite (accessible) on the Beyond and ate in Luminae.  I was quite happy with it.  I consider that elevated.  We usually cruise in Aqua class.

 

 How was your Butler service in your Sky Suite? 

 

[zitsky]

36 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 How was your Butler service in your Sky Suite? 

 

Fantastic really.  Rudy (Beyond) was always taking care of us even when we offered to call someone else.  Concierge staff in the Retreat also great.  And Luminae staff were great except for the maitre’d.

 

The best part about the Butler Team is that if one Rudy is good then five must be even better!!!

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by zitsky

[MzShae]

I just found this review today. I love your writing style and always enjoy your reviews. But wow, the pictures and especially the food pictures are fantastic! It was definitely a bucket list trip. I hope to do a trip/cruise like this one day. I really enjoyed this. 

[wineoclock]

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

Fantastic really.  Rudy (Beyond) was always taking care of us even when we offered to call someone else.  Concierge staff in the Retreat also great.  And Luminae staff were great except for the maitre’d.

 

The best part about the Butler Team is that if one Rudy is good then five must be even better!!!

 

You were lucky. Ours (same sailing as Charla) was retreat host and was most definitely not a butler. 

[zitsky]

9 hours ago, wineoclock said:

You were lucky. Ours (same sailing as Charla) was retreat host and was most definitely not a butler. 

My reference is to a May 2023 cruise.  I believe that was before the butler team was introduced?

[RichYak]

14 hours ago, zitsky said:

The best part about the Butler Team is that if one Rudy is good then five must be even better!!!

 

Sorry, five of what?

[zitsky]

7 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Sorry, five of what?

Five butlers.  It’s a team now.  5 > 1

[RichYak]

5 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Five butlers.  It’s a team now.  5 > 1

That's not my understanding of how it works now. The "team" are all the same people you had before except the butler you now share 1 with every other Sky Suite instead of just 8 or 10 other Sky Suites.

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, RichYak said:

That's not my understanding of how it works now. The "team" are all the same people you had before except the butler you now share 1 with every other Sky Suite instead of just 8 or 10 other Sky Suites.

Trying to parse your sentence.  How many Sky Suites on the Millie?  You’re saying there is only one butler for how many Sky Suites?

[RichYak]

8 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Trying to parse your sentence.  How many Sky Suites on the Millie?  You’re saying there is only one butler for how many Sky Suites?

There are about 32 Sky Suites (including Aqua Sky Suites) on Millennium all now sharing one butler. The ratio is worse on S- and E- class ships. Beyond has over 150 Sky Suites, again all sharing one butler.

 

Just about all of the previous butler duties are now shared by the stateroom attendants, the Retreat Concierges, Room Service, and mostly the passengers themselves. That's the "team".

[DaKahuna]

17 hours ago, zitsky said:

Fantastic really.  Rudy (Beyond) was always taking care of us even when we offered to call someone else.  Concierge staff in the Retreat also great.  And Luminae staff were great except for the maitre’d.

 

The best part about the Butler Team is that if one Rudy is good then five must be even better!!!

 

 

3 hours ago, zitsky said:

My reference is to a May 2023 cruise.  I believe that was before the butler team was introduced?

 

Ah that definitely explains the glowing review.  I had taken your earlier comments to mean you had sailed on Beyond more recently. 

 

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Charla, How much was Eden pp? Recent posts say it has gone up. Based on previous versus recent, was it still worth the $?

[MACruisers]

At the end of September, I booked Eden for my February sailing on Ascent for $54.99 per person. 

[Lena11033]

Eden has gone up, I bought it some weeks back for $80 Canadian and now it's showing as $110 Canadian 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

More power to 'em if they can get those prices.  They'll not be getting them from me.  Nor will I pay three times as much for a suite as I did last year.  I wonder how long these prices will last.

[MACruisers]

Today, the “Black Friday” sale price for  Eden is $77.99 USD. 8% off of the $85.00 per person price.  
Absolutely ridiculous!  I realize Celebrity is a business and is carrying a lot of debt, but you can’t get to profitability by lowering services and gouging your customers with price increases.  Those actions very quickly drive customers away.  

[TheHawk1]

3 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

Eden has gone up, I bought it some weeks back for $80 Canadian and now it's showing as $110 Canadian 

I bought it on sale for $73 CAD, including gratuity, back in September for a winter Apex cruise.  Now the Black Friday price is $107 plus gratuity.  It's a nice restaurant, but there's no way I would pay that!

[Lena11033]

1 hour ago, TheHawk1 said:

I bought it on sale for $73 CAD, including gratuity, back in September for a winter Apex cruise.  Now the Black Friday price is $107 plus gratuity.  It's a nice restaurant, but there's no way I would pay that!

 

My bad you are right I just looked at my receipts, originally I booked it for higher but cancelled and rebooked.

 

Either way the price jump is way too high and that price over $100 is without tips added 

[swigso]

Hi Charla

hope you are well have you had a chance to finish your fantastic review

[GenerationX]

Hello all!  I hope everyone out there has had a wonderful holiday season.

 

Jeremy, Gen Z and I so enjoyed adding our newest ship and travel ornaments from this year to our tree and talking about the memories behind each one.  It was a light of joy for us in what has been a somewhat tough holiday season due to a loss in the family.

 

Better late than never, I’m taking advantage of the brief lag in craziness before the first full week of business in the office of the new year to finally finish up this review.

 

It’s actually a fairly opportune time, because typically this would be right around the time when I’d start booking our cruise schedule for the year.  But for reasons to be discussed below, I find myself at a bit of a cruising crossroads.

 

Since that’s the case, let’s get the negative stuff out of the way first:

 

As I think kind of came peppered through my review, with the exception of a very few major flops (like that pathetic room service breakfast) over all Jeremy and I were satisfied with the new Retreat experience given the price we paid.  The key part of that sentence though is “given the price we paid”.  Remember we got this sky suite as a nearly minimum move up bid (at 50% discount on minimum bid) from aqua class and did not come anywhere close to paying the $12-15K that Celebrity wanted for a sky suite outright for our cruise.

 

As my personal shopper at Saks or anyone working in the onboard vintage accessory shop will tell you, I have no problem spending my hard earned top dollar in exchange for top quality luxury. 

 

What I’m not up for is paying 80-100% more to get less than what my “luxury” experience was previously.  The loss of a personal butler didn’t hugely impact us on this cruise, but it was a port intensive trip where we were there more for the land experiences than the ship.  I think we would miss the personalized service much more in the Caribbean where we cruise more for the ship and relaxing time onboard and have more that our butler would usually do for us.

 

This cruise was the first time I saw long lines at the concierge stand in the Retreat lounge and I suspect it was because with sky suites no longer having assigned butlers, it was the only way to get personalized assistance without going to general guest services.  Of course there’s still the “butler team”, but personally, again, when playing top dollar for the highest room class on the ship, I don’t want to call a hotline. 

 

The latest news of the removal of OBC and gratuities from the retreat inclusive package followed by the massive downgrade in the wines included in the premium package is kind of the sky suite icing on the cake for us.  

 

I’m not going to pay 10K or more a week to be on a “luxury” cruise and then have to sign for a $3 charge every time I want a glass of a mass produced wine that I can get for $20 at Target.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m no wine snob. I enjoy quite a bit of $20 Target wine when I’m at home on my couch in yoga pants watching Netflix.  I don’t even mind drinking the better ones on vacation as part of an all-inclusive package.  But to pay an upcharge for it in “first class” accommodations I’ve already spent 5 figures on definitely feels more like a scam than luxury.

 

Especially when I can spend 10-15% more (or less) on another line and have my own butler, included gratuities, free shore excursions and private transfers and everything but top shelf wine included.

 

I think where we’ve landed for now is that going forward with Celebrity in the new Retreat world, we’ll either: (a) stick to booking Aqua on S and M class or a SV on E class so we can have a real veranda, and if the opportunity presents, try to bid up to sky suite (at a price we’re actually willing to pay for the downgraded experience); or (b) where pricing and budget allows, price compare booking an upper level Retreat suite vs. going with a smaller, higher end cruise line.

 

I have a TA on the lookout for good spring and summer low solo supplements on Seabourn, Azamara, Scenic Ocean and Ritz Carlton.  My plan is to try and check out the next level up solo at a little lower cost and see how we might like it (sidebar: don’t get me started on my thoughts on Celebrity’s current solo pricing).  Jeremy’s concern (which I think is valid) is that we might not be satisfied with the level of nightlife and entertainment, but we’ll never know unless I try it out and see!   It’s also much slimmer pickings for itineraries shorter than 10 days, but as of this year Jeremy has more vacation time and I can work from anywhere with good wifi.

 

For now, we’ve decided that for this year we won’t be booking our cruises (other than my luxury trial solo cruise) until close to/after final payment because, honestly, with Celebrity right now it seems like every few weeks there’s some new change (announced with varying levels of transparency) and I just don’t have much confidence that the product I book and pay for in January will be anything like what I get when I sail in April.

 

I’m still working on convincing Jeremy to give my mistress, MSC a try. But for my solo exploits and cruises with Gen Z, I’ve been happy enough with my 2 yacht club cruises that when I want to book a guaranteed suite experience at the outset without breaking the bank, I’ll be looking at MSC as well.  Their pricing has also jumped up, but not as dramatically as Celebrity and as far as I’ve seen with less cutbacks in what I get for the spend.

 

All that doom and gloom out of the way, at the end of the day this cruise was one of our most amazing travel experiences ever!  It was going to be tough to top our Alaska honeymoon cruise, but I think this one did it.  We had some incredible meals, saw some great shows and the excursion quality was really impressive.  We made so many memories that we’ll treasure for the rest of our lives.

 

The crew members in the Retreat and all around the ship took very good care of us. If there’s one part of the Celebrity experience that I think is always 100% worth the ever increasing cruise fare, it’s the crew and the constant hard work they put in with seemingly boundless energy, bright smiles and warm, positive attitudes. 

 

Nothing will ever top having some of the first words I hear in the morning be “Good morning Ms. Charla! How are you today?” In fact sometimes when I’m in cruise withdrawals I make Jeremy say it at home.😂

 

We were so sad to have to leave Beyond after 10 days and I think she still stands as my favorite ship I’ve ever cruised on.  I can’t wait to have the opportunity to do more longer cruises because I really think I could get used to this whole 2 weeks straight of vacation thing.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who came along with us!  It’s started snowing here in Missouri, I’m doing Dry January and my next few weeks at work are going to be real bummers…so if anyone is going to be sailing the Caribbean in the next week or 2 and feels like writing a nice food, cocktails, blue skies and ocean photo heavy live review for me to read to keep my spirits up, I’d be much in your debt! 
 

Hopefully it won’t be too too long before we’re back at sea on somebody’s ship!

 

 

 

 

[CruiseCrew123]

@GenerationX have you looked at Explora Journeys ? New suite only ships owned by MSC ?

Edited January 6 by CruiseCrew123

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, GenerationX said:

…so if anyone is going to be sailing the Caribbean in the next week or 2 and feels like writing a nice food, cocktails, blue skies and ocean photo heavy live review for me to read to keep my spirits up, I’d be much in your debt! 

 

Loved following along on your adventures.  Looking forward to your next sailing. 

 

 Your review of MSC, combined with the actions that Celebrity has taken since our last cruise with regard to Sky Suite Service and the DPB, has inspired us to take our first non-Celebrity/Royal Caribbean cruise since 2009.   We are sailing on MSC Divina February 11 and I am sure I'll be making comments and posting some pictures as usual. 

 

 

[Stem to Stern]

47 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

We were so sad to have to leave Beyond after 10 days and I think she still stands as my favorite ship I’ve ever cruised on. 

Hi Charla,  Happy Snowy Saturday!  It is so nice to see you come back for the wrap up.  I am sure with all of the changes happening at Celebrity a long pause for reflection was needed.  As for the negative portion of your post, I really do appreciate how you always call it like you see it with exquisite eloquence and a little bit of humor sprinkled in there.  Hopefully Celebrity is getting the many messages like these from all of their loyal clientele.

 

I am very happy to read about your preference of Celebrity Beyond.  DH and I will be taking up residence in a Sunset Verandah on board her in about eight-months for our inaugural Edge-class sailing.  We are very excited.

 

Our recent trial in MSC Yacht Club was not perfect, but as you said for the money it was darn near close and there was an army of butlers.  Seascape's Yacht Club enclave is spacious, service was good, and food was okay.  It is great to have options.  MSC Yacht Club will remain on our shopping list.  Our recent Sky Suite experience on Celebrity Summit really can't be faulted in any way.  The food and service were on point.  We do not require constant looking after, so even without a large team The Retreat delivered for us.

 

Why not also explore Crystal Cruises for your next solo sojourn?  We have not sailed them since 2017, but the experience was most memorable.  I have read good reports about New Crystal and I understand the ships are not sailing anywhere near full passenger capacity.  So if you are looking to book a little closer to sailing, maybe there are or will be deals on Crystal to be had.

 

Thanks again for all of the wonderful reporting you do on Cruise Critic.  Had it not been for one of your live reports, I might never have given MSC Cruises a glance.  Please accept my deepest condolences on your family's loss.  Best wishes for a better 2024.