Seth still had a bit of jet lag overnight but I slept pretty well and was up at 6 am. I headed to the fitness center which meant 8 flights of stairs to get up to deck 15 and then all the way to the forward of the ship. The Beyond is one of the longest (and largest) ships we’ve ever been on, over 1000 feet with a capacity of 3260 passengers, and 17 decks. During our entire cruise, we were definitely the biggest ship in port.
Our suite, 7327, was fabulous – so spacious and I love the veranda which not only has 2 chairs and a table but also 2 loungers. The only thing about our suite is that it’s on deck 7 in the aft which is about as far as you can get from the Retreat Lounge – the special lounge, bar, pool, and sun deck just for suite guests – on decks 15-17 forward. That’s a lot of stairs to climb after going almost the full length of the ship to get to the forward part.
A word about the bathroom. Gotta initially watch that step going into the bathroom. After taking a minute to figure out how to use the shower (why is it so different and tricky on just about every cruise line?? There’s a small skinny lever behind the bottom square faucet handle that you flip to the right and then use the top square handle to determine where the water comes out and the bottom square handle to adjust the temperature of the water) I have to say that I love the rainfall type shower head. The bathtub/shower combo is very roomy but I did feel a little sheepish for not initially finding the shampoo, conditioner, and soap. When the shower door is open, these items are behind that door and hard to see. I thought they forgot to provide us with these amenities and I hadn’t brought any along. These bottles just sit on a tray and I didn’t notice that the bottle order had been changed the next time I showered. 😂
The bath towels are nice – larger and not rough (I wouldn’t say “soft” - not the most luxurious bath towels we’ve ever had on a cruise, but definitely not the roughest). That’s a pet peeve of mine – how some luxury accommodations skimp on the towels hoping nobody notices. I love the vanity – it’s actually functional – has plenty of space on the vanity for makeup and additional shelves – there were so many shelves, I didn’t have to use my go-to over-the-door hanging pockets or even the drawers.
After showering, we went to Luminae for breakfast which was solid. I was happy to see a pastry being offered with raisins – that’s my favorite thing for breakfast – anything with raisins. I also really liked the hash browns which were well prepared – crispy and not too oily. The over-easy eggs were good and I enjoyed some hot tea. The service was great, our water, Alvin, reminded me a lot of a friend of mine at home.
Another note about the bathrooms on the ship – most public restrooms are opened by passing your hand in front of a sensor. Some restroom doors open and you step right into the stall with the toilet. One tricky thing that took a little time to figure out and was really awkward is that if you try to reach over and lock the door too soon, the door automatically opens right up again. And then you’re just awkwardly standing there waiting for the door to close so you can lock it. You have to step away from the door, wait until it fully shuts, then lock it.
I did a bit of work on the computer and was glad to see that my connection to our EHR worked as did my access to my business banking account and documents. I was able to sign charts, answer a few messages, and reconcile our deposits.
The streaming wifi via Starlink was quite good – a HUGE improvement from the days when you got zero internet connection (without a hefty price tag per minute) while at sea, and even when you paid for it, it was spotty and choppy. Something I tried to look up before leaving on our trip was exactly how the wifi worked for our suite. I was under the impression that we were only allowed one device but it turns out that we were each able to create our own login on the Starlink system. To use a device, you just log out (go to login.com on any browser) of your previous device and log in on another one. If you try to log in while still being logged in on another device, it prompts you to “switch” rather than pay for another device. Celebrity made it very easy to do this – when you try to log in with a different device using the same login and PIN code, it prompts you to switch the internet connection from another device to your current one.
We then met up with the group at the World Class bar and I started playing bingo. I had, just for fun, looked at all of the drink menus on the ship online and picked out the cocktails that I figured I would like and put them on a bingo card. My goal was to get a blackout. I started with an American Pie cocktail – really good.
We hung out that afternoon on the Retreat Sun Deck. It was so nice to just relax and enjoy each others’ company.
For dinner that evening, we had reservations at Eden so we met at the Eden Bar. This was the first time we really had something to drink that we didn’t enjoy. I had ordered a Fig (bourbon, fig syrup, lemon juice, and orange bitters). It tasted like fruit punch. We mentioned it to our waiter and he actually brought us some bourbon in a cup and added it to our drinks which made them much better. Additionally, almost all of the drinks at the Eden Bar are more than $17. Our premium liquor package included all drinks up to $17. Anything above that, we would be charged the difference. This was one bar we decided not to visit again.
We originally intended on doing the tasting menu but the waiter talked us out of it. All of the items on the tasting menu were on the regular menu. We were already paying an upcharge just to eat at Eden, but the wine pairing was an extra charge and everyone would have to have both the tasting menu and the wine pairing. That’s the first time we’ve ever been to a tasting where there was no choice. It wasn’t hard to talk us out of the tasting menu. What our waiter ended up doing was pretty much bringing us one of everything on the menu for us to try. The food was really good but we were booked at Eden twice (one to try the tasting menu and the other to try the regular menu) and will likely cancel the 2nd night.
One other thing about dining in specialty restaurants. As Captain’s Club Elite Plus members (this was our 10th Celebrity cruise), we get 15% off the upcharge in each of the specialty restaurants. Additionally, since we’re suite guests, we have the premium beverage package which also gets us 20% off the price of bottles of wine.
We went to the 7:30 pm show, Uptown, which was a high-energy Motown trio of singers who were also good dancers. The production was very good – the songs were fun and the singers were very entertaining.
