Beyond LIVE Suite Review w/ Kid 7/21-7/27/24: A Gen X and Gen Z Birthday Sailaway

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Have a safe trip home! Best regards.

[GenerationX]

A slightly tipsy and slightly older birthday girl Gen X here reporting live from my veranda on the slow sail back to Port Everglades.

 

Regular followers of my reviews know just how much I love ending my cruise nights on my veranda with one last glass of something from the premium beverage package listening to the sea and looking at the stars.  Tonight, until her post-silent disco exhaustion got the better of her about 20 minutes ago, I had Gen Z with me for company and learned that my Mini Me has an even better eye for constellations than I do.  We also got to see the lights of a Space X launch!

 

I know chronologically I still have a sea day to catch up on, but today has just been so wonderful, I really wanna tell you guys about it first if that’s ok.

 

This morning when we got to breakfast at Luminae, Victor asked if I’d like a mimosa to start and I said since it was my birthday I’d better start the day right with one.  After hearing it was my birthday, Victor brought me TWO mimosas to double fist.

 

Gen Z had the same breakfast she’s had every morning (that peach cobbler French toast that Gen Z says is worth the cost of sailing Retreat class alone, not that she helps pay these vacation bills).  I went with a favorite of mine, the savory potato waffle.

 

While we were eating we realized we’d added a dinner in Eden tonight to celebrate my birthday, and Victor is ending his contract and heading home tomorrow, so we wouldn’t see him at breakfast tomorrow.

 

Mini Me and I decided there was only 1 thing to do…we’d have one last light appetizer course in Luminae early at dinnertime with Victor to say goodbye (and give him his VERY well earned extra thank you tip) before our later dinner at Eden.

 

After breakfast, Gen Z wanted to do a robot obstacle course activity in Camp at Sea and I had some day job fires to put out (yep sometimes I have to work on vacay on my birthday, but what choice do I have?  I have a Flora Galapagos cruise to save for) so she went to camp for the morning while I had coffee and worked at Al Bacio.

 

We were docked in Bimini today, but even without the work emergency I didn’t plan for us to go into port.  From the reports my girlfriends gave from being there during our Reflection cruise last month, it’s a “meh” port with not much to do other than the resort (and I’m already on a floating resort that doesn’t cost extra).

 

I’d also checked the port schedule and realized that while Bimini only had 1 cruise ship today, the Bahamas speed ferry from Fort Lauderdale would also be docking with us this morning and dropping an extra congestion of weekend trippers onto the small island and resort. No, thank you.

 

Once I finished work, I had just enough time to have a kir royale at sunset bar before picking Gen Z up from camp for lunch time.

 

Our butler Rudy got us a lunch reservation at Raw on 5 to celebrate my birthday.  Gen Z loved our shrimp tempura roll, crispy shrimp appetizer and kakiage and I had to beg to get a bite of her ribeye for review purposes.

 

While we were eating and chatting, Gen Z was in the middle of making a (shockingly cogent and persuasive) oral argument on why she’s not too young to be permitted to go see Moulin Rouge the musical when she suddenly stopped mid sentence and shouted “OMG there’s a shark swimming by the ship!”

 

Sure enough when I looked down in the water from our lunch table, I saw the fine fellow making his way past us.  How many people can say they had their birthday lunch with shark views?

 

I also got what may be the best birthday gift ever from Celebrity Cruises at this lunch.  Regular followers will recall my strong affection for the pork ramen at Sushi on 5 on S and M class ships.  For YEARS now, on every E class post cruise survey, after singing praises to the crew members who went above and beyond for me, I would drop a line suggesting that the pork ramen be added to the Raw on 5 menu.  

 

You guys, Celebrity FINALLY HEARD ME!!! I got to have my FAVORITE pork ramen for lunch on Beyond today!!!

 

After lunch, Gen Z and I changed into swimsuits and went up to the rooftop garden big screen to watch my birthday water parade-I mean the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics.  

 

The next time I need to throw a big party, I’m totally hiring Paris to plan it, but with run of show time cut at least in half. Also minus the blue body paint, fruit platter guy singing “I am naked” over and over in French.  At least I think that’s what he was saying.  Most of my conversational French skills come from my first  solo cruise where I ended up being semi-adopted by a super fun group of French Canadians.  So I may be ignorant on this point.

 

Once the Olympic flame/perfect day at coco cay balloon was lit, we made our way to the Retreat pool deck for a swim to cool off, then came back to the room to get ready for our double dinner.

 

At Luminae, Mini Me had a shrimp cocktail and a small portion of the short rib entree.

 

I just had a bowl of (not bad, but not exciting) duck consume.

 

Victor knew we had second dinner plans and made sure the kitchen got things to us quickly.  

 

As I was scolding Gen Z not to lick the plate where her short rib had once lived,  Victor and Janice the head waiter came out from the back singing happy birthday to me and presenting me with a yummy dessert!

 

I restrained myself on the portion and after another hug and thank you to Victor, we headed to Eden.

 

Usually I get seated at a table by the wake window at Eden, but this time we got what actually turned out to be a much cooler table siting front and center for the prep kitchen and plating process.

 

We mostly had repeat dishes so I won’t repost pics, but I add the bazaar bowl appetizer and had the grouper with curry sauce (another favorite of mine) for my entree.

 

After dinner we hit the silent disco, where I learned that Mini Me’s dance skills are also developing exponentially along with her height.  As soon as I get home, I’m gonna start researching all girls boarding schools in the English countryside that I can ship her off to as soon as puberty fully hits.

 

When we got back to our room, we had one last piece of “mail” outside.  It was a little box of extra chocolates and snacks from Eden with a note thanking us for dining there.  I’ve eaten at Eden several times on every E class ship and this extra bedtime treat was a first for me.

 

I’m almost finished consuming said snacks, so I think I’d better wrap up and pull myself away from the sea to get some sleep.  We have an early flight home tomorrow so we’ll be walking off the ship with our luggage after early breakfast.
 

Stay tuned for more tomorrow as Gen Z and I enter our salty about eviction phase of the cruise after the best. day.ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hcat]

So much joy reading this..

 

I think Gen Z may soon be ready for her own mini me  cruise blog!  She could also be a great tween model!  Pay for that Galapagos cruise..!

[Texed]

Victor is a great waiter.  Ask him for a Jacquie Caesar Salad and see what happens.  😊

Edited July 27 by Texed

[asnaleah]

Smiled all the way through your excellent review! Enjoy many more happy birthdays and cruises!

[Naeva]

Thank you so much for all of the work you've done putting together these lives. I've just discovered these boards and have been going crazy reading all the content.

 

I want to thank you @GenerationX personally, because of you I managed to upgrade to a suite on the reflection for my birthday cruise in October! You made it look so good I started playing with the numbers - all in all it cost only 160 bucks to upgrade! That's a no brainer! 

 

Keep it up, love your content!

[#55worktoplay]

Great review thanks for sharing. Your matching outfits were all beautiful but I just loved the green dresses. 
 

Mimi Me is adorable and she is one lucky girl. Woohoo to Galapagos!  Can’t wait for that review. 
 

Thanks

Safe travels home. 

[DaKahuna]

Charla,  Thank you very much for another wonderful live review.  Anxiously waiting for the next one. 

 

[JR_Janet]

Charla, I enjoyed every post. Thanks for all the hard work.  

[SGCruiser2013]

Awesome review, two beautiful souls. Than you for sharing.