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This was our first Celebrity cruise. I wanted to try an Edge class ship. I found a good deal for a cruise during Christmas to see the Christmas decorations. Or, what I thought was a good deal; someone else on the cruise that we were talking to mentioned the better deal that they got for an oceanview or veranda room when we had an inside. Maybe it was a last minute deal; I did not ask. I was not quick enough to get to sail with Captain Kate but did get to experience the beautiful ship.
Celebrity was overall a more elevated experience. The crew was wonderful. I enjoyed cruising with the other passengers. We meshed well (we are in our late-40s). Everyone was pleasant. I did not see any overt entitled people that I have heard one mention of before about Celebrity cruisers. It was not stuffy, just elevated.
Embarkation
Transportation into the Port of Miami is rough, too busy; there were seven ships in on our day. I heard that this was not the most that have been in at a time. When we could not get on the Coral Way trolley, it was too full to take anyone additional from our stop, including the large group with tons of luggage ahead of us, we decided to walk -- after imagining the traffic and considering Uber surge charges. Before the cruise, we had been moved from terminal E to terminal C, so it was a longer walk and hot and uphill. However, we were catching up to and passing some cars.
At the terminal, check-in was quick. We carried our luggage on since our check-in time was 12:30-1pm (that we arrived right on time for), close to normal room available time, and it was communicated that we could drop the bags in the room upon boarding. We first went through security, including easy security for the soda that we were allowed to bring on. Then we checked in with our boarding passes and passports. Though this upset me, they retook our pictures. I had done multiple pictures on the app at home trying to get a decent picture with hair fixed and makeup. They took one of me sweaty after the hot walk to the port, flattering. We were allowed to board right after. We needed the boarding pass again because the keycards were at our room. I did miss the Princess Medallion unlocking the door right before we walked up.
Our muster station was very close to the entrance, so we did this first.
We also enjoyed sailaway in the gym with great front and side views. We sailed right by the new NCL Aqua.
Embarkation was quick and painless (except for the new security photo).
Cabin
We went to the cabin quickly after boarding to drop off our luggage; we were surprised that it was already ready. We had 11175, an inside on deck 11 just a little ahead of mid-ship. The cabin was beautiful. On more elevated, it came with an umbrella, port beach towels, a beach bag, four bath towel (so I did not have to request an extra/third hair towel), and lotion (this is very helpful; with airport liquid limits, it is hard to bring enough). We had twice a day service and got chocolates at turn down. No towel animals, but these two normally bygone cruise specialnesses are still on Celebrity. Our room steward was great...until the last day, see below.
The room and bathroom had tons of storage. I loved the shower -- hot, roomy, hooks inside, and products: bodywash, shampoo, and separate condition. I did not use too many of the products, but I tested out and liked the smell of the bodywash. However, a downfall of this good shower was that there was no good place in the bathroom or bedroom to dry clothes. With wet swimsuits and Travis's gym clothes, this was a challenge. I also brought our suction cup clothesline, but it did not stay up well in the bathroom either. One strange thing is that we had bar soap at the sink and liquid soap in the shower. I like bar soap in the shower (since we do not pack our poofs to make the body wash effective) and liquid soap at the sink. Bar soap gets soggy at the sink and is harder to spread it on your hands. We brought some bar soap from home, and I also took the sink bar soap in the shower some. But, I did not reach into the closed shower for body wash for hand soap, so the bar soap had to make a back and forth trip and be remembered.
The fridge had minibar items. We did not request them be removed, but just put our sodas in a few at a time. We enjoyed our sodas at lunch in the buffet. The slide-in desk and sofa were nice. My nightstand was a little tough because it was oriented short side to the wall. I have a lot of bedtime stuff and kept push stuff off. Travis's was long side to the wall, which looked easier to use.
Once we learned it, the thermostat buttons to turn off and on all lights at once was nice. We did not need to go around the room turning off light to leave. Someone also showed us that you could turn the lights on/off and adjust the thermostat from the app elsewhere on the ship. We did not find much use for that, but it was cool.
Though someone did wake us up at 12:30 am saying that we called to have the TV fixed. I had earplugs in. Travis said that he was going to ignore the knocking at first, but when it did not stopped, he went to the door in underwear. He said that they were preparing their argument that we did indeed call to have our TV fixed but then decided against it. I woke up to the light of the hallway coming in.
Ship
The ship is beautiful, with art everywhere, and they had Christmas decorations out. It also had cool hangout spots around the ship. The layout is good; we liked our location on deck 11 to get to the buffet. We were surprise that there were no aft stairwell or elevators. Though they had some stairs between decks 3-5. The ship, though it holds a good number of passengers, did not feel too big.
There seemed to be a lot of smoking areas on the ship, but maybe because it was a big ship. Some of the cool hangout spots were smoking areas though. There was a limited promenade walking area and limited doors to get back in sometimes. They also seemed to close off the cooler, shady side of promenade more than the sunny side (the sides did not connect outside the ship, so you had to go through the ship). When open, one side had table seating, including seating outside of Eden, and the other had a nice lounge chair area. So, it was nice area to get a close up view of the water. You had to go to Eden for the closest view of the wake. We walked the top deck walking/jogging path the most. It was nice at night when it was dark and with all the cool pool and deck changing color lighting. In the day, it was warmer. It was further from the water. The Rooftop area was very nice with the live plants. We did not find a seat but stopped mid-walks around the path to watch the Texas A&M game. They should add extra chairs in the middle when they are showing games. I also wondered why they did not use the area for a movies under the stars event. Maybe because the paid restaurant was right next to it and that would be distracting to the diners.
I loved the Eden venue for sitting and reading. I did not like that the Eden shows were all late 10:30 or 10:45 pm with early ports the next day or lose an hour for a time change nights. There is not much seating for the show, so they were trying to keep attendance down. But, they are awesome acrobatic shows that I'm really disappointed that we could not go see. I did get to see a small preview at the Welcome event while Travis was at the gym.
Two of three ports changed before the cruise. The ship needed to travel slower for an azipod fix break-in -- and the ship is only 3 years old. Our original itinerary was Nassau, Tortola, and Antigua and became Tortola, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic. I was fine losing Nassau, but Antigua would have been a new country for us so that was disappointing -- it did not look that much further away.
Buffet
Very good with so much selection. There were six stations in the middle with additional rows on each side. Very few dishes were repeated -- maybe one or two vs. other cruise lines where a whole side may be repeated (on Princess). We did not have much trouble finding seats. The bad part -- eating too much food. I would come back with four meat dishes -- eek!
The ice cream station, with hard and soft-serve ice cream, was in the buffet and very good. The pizza station was behind the buffet with nice outdoor setting behind it. We also found a self-serve soft-serve machine in the hamburger and hotdog place on the other side of the pool. I did not try this spot for hamburger/hotdog until toward the end of the cruise. I was not impressed. The hotdog on Princess was much better. I did not find the mustard until getting to the buffet. They were going to American cheese on my hotdog and did not have grated cheddar. The bun was hard. The burger may have been good, but I never tried it. There was too much food to chose from anyway.
Tea time was too late for Travis's caffeine and sleeping schedule. They opened at 3:30pm, putting out good looking tea snacks behind saran wrap. People each day would ask for something, and they would say that it opens at 3:30.
They published the lunch and dinner themes in the daily program the day before. This was helpful for planning.
We had breakfast, lunch, and tea here; we went to the MDR every night, so never tried it for dinner.
Another included restaurant was the Eden Cafe. We enjoyed it very much for breakfast. We never made it there for lunch. Being stuffed one day, we walked through and saw that there lunch desserts looked better than the buffet's. We went back the next sea day when it was open for lunch and got cookies and a slice a chocolate cake, yum! There were also good included breakfast pastries and later in the day desserts at Cafe Al Bacio.
Main Dining Room (MDR)
We originally could only get late dining, 8:30 pm. Soon after getting boarding, we tried to move to early dining, 6:00pm. They told us that we had anytime dining now. Nice! I did not even see this option online. They recommended not showing between 6-7pm because it was most busy then. They opened at 5:15pm or 5:30pm depending on the day, and we normally went about 5:30pm and had no issue getting in. I also did not understand how the four different dining rooms worked before we got onboard. With anytime, we could go to any of the four, so we tried all four. Cyprus and Normandie were our favorites. They all had the same menu that changed daily + exclusives to that restaurant that did not change. To see what we ate, our ratings, and menus see my blog post. You were allowed to request an exclusive from another restaurant than you were eating at. I assumed that those with fixed dining always ate at the same restaurant. We were never asked to table share; however, the tables were close enough to talk to your neighbors, which we enjoyed doing.
The first night and one other night, we were approach by a crew member with a tablet and asked if we had a reservation. I was asking if we should, and she said yes, that that would be better. The same crew member asked us again later in the cruise. After the first night, I checked again and the reservation link was still grayed out in the app, so I asked at the host station outside if dining hours. He thought it was crazy that that had happened -- that anytime is anytime. So, I stopped worrying about it.
Food was sometimes too fancy for me and my picky eating. I did not always find an exciting appetizer option for me. The three spreads served each night with the bread far exceeded my experience on any other cruise line. Though overall, everything was delicious, served at a good temperature, and the meal pace was good -- not too fast or too slow. The option to eat in any of four MDRs with different themes and vibes was very nice.
For design notes, it is sad that none of the restaurants had any aft windows. From what I can tell on the deck plans, this was the galley; hopefully, they got windows at least for a good view.
Entertainment
We went to shows the first two nights, and then did not make it back after the ports started. The comedian was good. The production show: Stage Door was very good with a very cool Moulin Rouge dress scene. I did think it was crazy that the theater doors were not open until about 15 minutes before showtime for the production shows. Lines formed outside waiting for the doors to open.
The True/False gameshow was fun. We enjoyed trivia most days -- making it to more 4pm trivias and some 10am trivias. I enjoyed the Officers Q&A -- they were more genuine and less question dodgy than other cruise lines's Q&A that I have attended. They also received very good and thoughtful questions. So, I guess with fewer complaints to need to respond to; they did not have much to dodge. The cabin TV included complimentary on-demand movies and live TV. We went to one of the Champagne hot tubs one night. We did not go to the solarium pool, but it looked very nice, with cushions, pillows, and towels on the loungers.
Disembarkation
They seemed very eager to get us off the ship; on day 3 of the cruise, we got a paper to complete the disembarkation plan in the app. I did it. We later got a couple more papers about completing it, and our room steward specifically asked us again after I had completed it.
Our room steward also knocked on our door at 6:35am when it was published to get out of the cabin by 8am. We had planned to get up at 6:30am but were wake and got up earlier, but I was not dressed in my daytime clothes so was just peeking my head out of the door. Travis did not hear the knock since he was getting ready in the bathroom. That is the first time that we ran into that in 22 cruises. Maybe he just needs some coaching. Other than that he did a great job.
We went to the MDR for breakfast, exiting the cabin before 8am. We had not been to the MDR for breakfast and thought it would be nice and relaxing since were not in a big hurry. We also never tried the MDR for lunch (open only on sea days); I checked menu a couple of the days in the app and did not seeing anything that excited me -- with very limited appetizers options, 2 each day, I think. I do want to try the MDR for lunch on a future Celebrity cruise.
We did self disembarkation, taking our own luggage. When we arrived at the MDR, there was other luggage parked outside, so we parked next to it and had a nice breakfast. While we were eating, they announced self disembarkation could start. Disembarkation was quick off of the ship and in the terminal. In the terminal, they had the take your picture to link to your passport and then approval to enter the US.
I'm still waiting for my Captain Club's points (20 days now). Travis got his a week ago. The site says that it may take until up to 30 days after you get off to get the points, so I have not contacted anyone yet. But, I have never seen a cruise line take so long. We have two Celebrity longer cruises booked, so I want to get my points to start accumulating them.
Great cruise; I cannot wait for our next one!