LIVE with Georgia Peaches on the Brand NEW Ascent...B2B November 22-29 Pre-Pre-Maiden Voyage!

[hcat]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Glad we passed on the day pass. 

hope it is operating better by the time we cruise..The thermal suite is included in AQ class fare..so we would want it to be  working well...We will see how its  going out as the kinks are worked out!

[hcat]

Question:

will you get your orig seapass cards back at some point?  We keep ours..quite a collection!

[skatelady]

14 minutes ago, hcat said:

Question:

will you get your orig seapass cards back at some point?  We keep ours..quite a collection!

I keep ours too.  On our b2b in the spring I asked about keeping them.  They had to take them but told me I could go to guest relations in a few days and they would give them back.  I did go and they did give them to me.

[bjahil47]

12 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

 

Anyway, I reached my limit on how much hard sell I was willing to endure. I told him he was too pushy, and turned to DH and said I was leaving. Got up, walked out, won’t return. I was fuming!  Never have I experienced that kind of pressure to buy something. 
 

I real

We have had same experience at Effy.  They were also very rude on two sailings .  I would never buy anything from them.  

[bjahil47]

10 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Agreed..that said, for the most part, you can trust Diamonds International. 

I would not trust Diamonds International.  I strayed from my usual store in St. Maarten and bought a ring at DI in Grand Cayman.  The next year the entire ring had yellowed and the tiny diamonds dull.  I took it to my jeweler in St. Maarten and he shook his head.  He actually took it as a trade in and gave me almost what I paid for it.  I have never strayed again and been going to same place over 20 years.  

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

 TBH, the Luminae menus for the upcoming leg are less than appealing to me…Blu looks good though!

Do you plan to ask if you can dine in Blu at any point on this next cruise? 

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

Do you plan to ask if you can dine in Blu at any point on this next cruise? 

Absolutely!  We have Butcher's Cut tomorrow. And we also have some obc to use up so there’s options. At this point I feel like I need to fast anyway 😳. 

[DaKahuna]

4 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Absolutely!  We have Butcher's Cut tomorrow. And we also have some obc to use up so there’s options. At this point I feel like I need to fast anyway 😳. 

 After seeing all that seafood, I can understand what you are saying.  
 

 We are in an Aqua Sky Suite on our next cruise and are going to try dining in Blu when the menu appeals to us more than Luminae’s. 

[dock]

@DaKahuna, do you know if AquaSS would have precedence over other suites for Blu, as it seems suites can only  get into Blu if available? 
 

Also , do we need to let Retreat Team know we would like to dine in Blu ? 
Thanks for any info. 
 

[TourDeCruise]

23 hours ago, hcat said:

i was looking for where in Coz?  near the pier or further into town ?

 

I thought about that later that is what you might have meant as I had the same question. I saw her reply. I will try to look for it the next time we are there. Cozumel isn't on any of our booked cruises though, so it will be a while. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by TourDeCruise

[kwokpot]

23 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Absolutely!  We have Butcher's Cut tomorrow. And we also have some obc to use up so there’s options. At this point I feel like I need to fast anyway 😳. 

Did you forget which ship you're on? Not MSC, lol. 😜

[TourDeCruise]

7 hours ago, ladyjade3 said:

My favorite feature of the ship is the jogging track. It goes in a figure 8 around the top of the ship with an incline up to deck 16 and then back to 15. 

 

I understand. An officer asked me what my favorite place was on Beyond, and I said the jogging track. He looked at me like I was crazy. He said what about the Grand Foyer. I replied it is beautiful, but I really like the track. lol.

[TourDeCruise]

6 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

We are in Aqua Class on Ascent on this first sailing so we have it included in our room, but I would not pay even $10 for access to it if we didn’t get it as part of our room. 
 

The sauna is cold, the other two crystal and salt rooms are cold, the hammam room was the only decently warm one, the steam room was meh. 

 

Does the salt room work? It worked on Apex, and you could see salt spray on the benches and "taste" it. On Beyond, it did nothing. Slightly warm but no salt spray on the benches or in the air.

[TourDeCruise]

3 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Yes, next on deck is a sky suite. We placed a move up bid but it expired. I’m guessing that means it wasn’t accepted though we never got a notification indicating such. TBH, the Luminae menus for the upcoming leg are less than appealing to me…Blu looks good though!
 

Will definitely keep everyone posted on the process tomorrow. As it looks right now, we are not going to have to leave the ship. 

 

Please let us know about Retreat Lounge and pictures if not too much trouble. Also, when you leave Retreat Lounge and go outside to the track I think just forward of Retreat Lounge but outdoors, what is the small outdoor area by the stairs? Is it a public area with lounge chairs or with tables and chairs? Or is it an extension of the Retreat Lounge to make an outdoor Retreat area?

Edited November 26, 2023 by TourDeCruise

[DaKahuna]

51 minutes ago, dock said:

@DaKahuna, do you know if AquaSS would have precedence over other suites for Blu, as it seems suites can only  get into Blu if available? 
 

Also , do we need to let Retreat Team know we would like to dine in Blu ? 
Thanks for any info. 
 

No, I do not know.  This will be our first time in an Aqua Suite. 
 

My plan, unless I find out to do otherwise, is to speak with the Luminae Maitr’d and see what I need to do.  There are a couple of ways it can go, our preference would be to order from the Blu menu in Luminae, but we were told we could not do that on our last sailing. 
 

Otherwise we will see about eating in Blu. 
 

[TourDeCruise]

You could talk to the Retreat team, but I am not sure if they will help you with reservations or arrangements. What we usually do is just go to Blu on a day when we particularly like the menu and talk to the maître d' or host/hostess to see if there is an available table. We usually book Aqua Class through as we prefer the lighter Aqua Class menu to the heavier Luminae menu, plus we get the Thermal Spa access.

[TourDeCruise]

Blu supposedly has an outdoor area for eating on Ascent. Does anyone know if the outdoor area is open for lunch on sea days or just breakfast and possibly dinner? If open for lunch, can anyone go there or just Aqua Class guests? Any cost associated with Blu lunch if available?

 

On the other ships, there is no outdoor Blu area and no lunch in Blu at all, except for special events.

[nimiq]

8 hours ago, ladyjade3 said:

We did Le Petit Chef night 2. Im giving it 2 stars. Not recommended. Takes 2 hours to get through. Food is good but its not better than in the restaurants. The animation show is cute but you have to wait for everyone in the whole seating to start and then move on to the next course. That's why it takes 2 hours. It would be good for kids but for that. It is a lot of sitting and waiting with nothing going on. 
 

My favorite feature of the ship is the jogging track. It goes in a figure 8 around the top of the ship with an incline up to deck 16 and then back to 15. 
 

I'm currently sitting in Eden watching the dancers rehearse for Shimmerbox. It's going to be an awesome show I can tell. Not to be missed! 

We did Le petit Chef on The beyond and also thought it was just ok. For us at the price other specialty restaurants are much more worth it. 
the show is cute the food ok and service unfortunately for us was inattentive and we did not even get asked if we wanted coffee at the end. It was a bye bye and that’s it. 

[Cruise Gopher]

7 hours ago, TourDeCruise said:

 

Does the salt room work? It worked on Apex, and you could see salt spray on the benches and "taste" it. On Beyond, it did nothing. Slightly warm but no salt spray on the benches or in the air.

Nope, slight warmth and nothing. I stood in there for a minute to see but no. No one ever was in it. 

[Cruise Gopher]

6 hours ago, TourDeCruise said:

Blu supposedly has an outdoor area for eating on Ascent. Does anyone know if the outdoor area is open for lunch on sea days or just breakfast and possibly dinner? If open for lunch, can anyone go there or just Aqua Class guests? Any cost associated with Blu lunch if available?

 

On the other ships, there is no outdoor Blu area and no lunch in Blu at all, except for special events.

It was never open. They had tables out there though. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

17 hours ago, hozelovr123 said:

Does anybody know if or how you can order the thermal suite ahead of time? If not did anybody order a pass? How much is it? Is it worth it in your opinion thank you ahead of time.

If you mean in the cruise planner, I’ve only ever seen spa treatments being available for advance reservation, not the thermal suite pass. 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

12 hours ago, jcpc said:

The last time I sailed on Celebrity (Summit, July 2023) they did indeed have the "seafood extravaganza buffet" on the last day.  In addition to all the seafood items that were mentioned in Georgia Peaches' post, they also had huge slabs of a beef (not sure what it was......a huge steak of some sort I'm guessing).  They really "did it up big" for the last day (and this was on a 7-night Bermuda cruise!).  The lunchtime buffet was packed.  

I remember that. I opted for a burger from the Mast Grill that day because I despise seafood.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Ahhh, turn around day. I love that we are sitting in al Bacio at the moment….watching people hustle about…knowing we don’t have to…at least not yet. 
 

Reflections from last night…

 

We dined in Tuscan, which was by far the busiest MDR of the three we experienced. The food was very good too…especially the chateaubriand. It was cooked perfectly and fork tender. DH surprised me when he ordered the steak tar tar for an app. Our server raised his eyes and reminded him it was raw. DH said he was being cosmopolitan 🙄, which is funny because he’s never so “cosmopolitan” at home. Anyway, kudos to him for trying it. Too bad it didn’t agree with him. The only thing being “cosmopolitan” got him was a rumbling tummy and a few urgent visits to the bathroom!  Poor guy…he’s much better now. 
 

After dinner we ventured to the theater for the premier of the Celebrity Ascent production show. Hmmm, how to describe it???  Well, as a child of the 70’s and 80’s I recall that psychedelic drugs were popular among some groups. Not that I partook, mind you but if I had, I imagine the experience might have been very much like last night’s show. Which isn’t to imply that it was bad… it wasn’t. It was vastly different from any Celebrity production show I’ve ever seen.
The music was loud, the lights were flashy with 3D effects and visuals on the giant screen that were truly phenomenal. The story line was confused… like being in a dream where you jump from one weird dimension to another. The dancing and acrobatics were truly amazing!  At times we were submerged in a 4-d experience with bubbles and balls of light that seemed to appear from out of nowhere. The laser lighting mimicked lightning and I swear at one point I was in a trance… my eyes were heavy, like sleep would overwhelm me but the loud music and flashing light kept me from the brink of slumber. I thought it was just me but DH said he felt it too. I also think that some sort of scent was filtered into the theater… it smelled like laundry.  The cast received a standing O for their performance and it was earned, no doubt, but I challenge anyone in that theater last night to explain what that show was about. I guarantee you’d get as many different interpretations as there were people in the audience. I promise I was mostly sober even though it sounds like I was anything but!  
 

Anyway, here’s a few pics:

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Georgia_Peaches

[SouKnoMe]

Thank you again for taking us on this whirlwind journey! Will you start a new thread for the second portion of the trip? Looking forward to seeing the new cabin!

[Corgidawgga]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

If you mean in the cruise planner, I’ve only ever seen spa treatments being available for advance reservation, not the thermal suite pass. 

 

You can order ahead on the app or website .   A little over $200.   Onboard I think you can purchase a day pass for $89

 

I would suggest waiting to tour it if you are not familiar.   I love it but find it second place to The Enclave on Princess.