Final Notes and Thoughts (TL;DR)
1. The Celebrity Beyond was the most beautiful and largest ship we’ve ever been on. Everything about the ship is designed for VIPs and it felt, as Tim put it, so decadent. We’re very excited to try out the newest ship from Celebrity, the Ascent (also an Edge class ship), when it gets going next year. For now, we’re just booked on the Apex for the Norwegian Fjords in July 2024.
2. We’re such travel snobs now that we’ll never fly overseas in anything other than business class and will never take a cruise without being in a suite. There are so many perks to being in a suite – the excellent streaming wifi (1 account per guest), the priority tenders and disembarkation, our butler, Teo, who was wonderful to us, the premium beverage package (any drink on the menu that’s <$17 is included or 20% off bottles of wine), the Retreat lounge/bar/sun deck, the special dining options for us at Luminae and Blu.
3. We’re also Celebrity Captain’s Club members at the Elite Plus level (this was our 10th Celebrity cruise). It was super nice to have the 2 free bags of laundry. I still over-packed, though.
4. The Celebrity website and app don’t work well for making reservations at all. Being the consummate planner, I can’t stand not having reservations made ahead of time. In retrospect though, we really didn’t need reservations other than the Chef’s Table at Le Voyage. Teo and the Retreat Concierge were really good at changing our reservations for us and it didn’t seem like it was hard to do. When we ate at each of the specialty restaurants, it wasn’t super crowded until we were getting done eating. I guess we just eat early – usually around 6 or 6:30 pm.
5. This was hands down the best food we’ve ever had on a cruise. Seth and I both agreed that the buffet, although really well designed, was pretty bad. Luminae was our favorite for breakfast. We never got to try Blu for dinner but Tim and Wade were pretty disappointed with the dinner they had. We ate at Fine Cut and Le Voyage twice each. Raw on 5 three times for lunch. Had coffee at Cafe al Bacio at least 4 or 5 times. Our favorite bar was the Martini bar. For main dining, Normandie was pretty good but I was disappointed with Cyprus.
6. I was super disappointed with Kensington who booked all of our tours. They had done a brilliant job for us when we were in the UK but something didn’t quite click this time around and I found myself composing in my head a list of things that I was unhappy about. It saved me a TON of time not having to book each tour myself which is what I’ve always done for all of our cruises (we’ve never done the ship tours from our first Celebrity cruise we took 15 years ago), but the experience wasn’t what I was hoping for. Asking for and getting mobility accommodations anywhere in Europe is laughable. Their infrastructure just doesn’t make it feasible.
7. Shockingly, we had no issues with our flights or any major problems at all (with the exception of Tim losing his wallet somewhere in the London airport and the issues with gate checking a walker). In fact, most destinations on our itinerary we had early arrivals. On the way home, Wade’s flight – direct from Rome to Atlanta – was canceled. I read about a horrible Norovirus outbreak (over 150 sick) on another Celebrity cruise that was out at the same time we were.
8. We had been to most of the ports of call that were on this itinerary with the exception of Istanbul and Crete. If we had to do it again, we’ll be taking the boat transport in Santorini to the other port so we could avoid the whole donkey/cable car thing. Kensington had asked if we wanted to do this but it was going to cost an additional $100+ per person so we elected not to. That was a mistake. We really lucked out with the weather. It rained on our way back to the ship in Naples but by the time we got to the cruise terminal, it had stopped so we never got rained on for the whole 12 night experience. Some mornings were super cool and I had to bring along my light jacket. Most days, I had my sweater with me at all times as the ship interior gets cold.
9. The aft of the ship was great but we won’t book another Sunset Sky Suite on the aft for several reasons. Eden was just below us and got really loud some nights. When the ship engines really kick into high gear you can hear it and feel the vibrations. It was way too far from the Retreat. Our next cruise on the Apex in 2024 to Norway is in a Sky Suite located more mid-ship and our cabins are all in a row next to each other.
10. I had all of our airport and tour tips figured out ahead of time. Kensington had provided us with some guidance on how much to tip our tour guide and driver. I basically tipped the guide about 20 Euros per person and the driver about 10 Euros per person. At the airport, it was roughly 2 Euros per bag. Fortunately, tips on board the Beyond (cabin steward, waiters, butler, etc) were included in our cruise fare so we didn’t have to worry about that. In retrospect, I think it would have been just fine had we used US dollars instead of scrounging up the right change in Euros (and hunting for an ATM) but I do feel a little guilty doing that because it inconveniences the guide/driver. I did tip with USD in Turkey since we didn’t have enough Turkish Lira to tip with.
11. And just for grins and giggles, this is what my cocktail bingo card looked like after it was all said and done.
For more detailed daily information complete with pictures:
Day
0-1 – Saturday, Sunday 5/13-14/23 – OKC to Rome
Day 2 -
Monday, 5/15/23 – Rome to Civitavecchia
Day 3 - Tuesday,
5/16/23 - Sea Day
Day 4 - Wednesday, 5/17/23 - Katakolon
Day 5 - Thursday, 5/18/23 - Crete
Day 6 - Friday, 5/19/23 - Santorini
Day 7 - Saturday, 5/20/23 - Mykonos
Day 8 - Sunday, 5/21/23 - Istanbul
Day 9 - Monday, 5/22/23 -Istanbul
Day 10 - Tuesday, 5/23/23 - Kusadasi
Day 11 -Wednesday, 5/24/23 - Athens
Day 12 - Thursday, 5/25/23 - SeaDay
Day 13 - Friday, 5/26/23 - Naples
Day 14 - Saturday, 5/17/23 – Civitavecchia to Rome
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