With its new Edge class of cruise ships Celebrity is poised to position itself a step above other premium cruise lines like Princess, Cunard and Holland America.
Our seven day Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale aboard the line’s newest ship, Celebrity Beyond, left us in awe of its startling architecture and many innovations.
Celebrity Beyond, at 140,000 gross tons, was built in France and entered service in April of 2022. Holding about 3300 passengers, its distinctive physical features make it stand out in any port. It’s easy to spot the unusual parabolic bow (designed for better water flow) and the unique Magic Carpet, a wide orange platform that juts out from the starboard side of the ship, moves up and down over 13 stories, and serves as a bar, restaurant and tender platform.
Innovations continue inside the ship. Boarding usually happens in the three-story central Grand Plaza. A massive chandelier of color changing LED lights rises over the main feature, the huge Martini Bar where waiters entertain regularly with their cocktail juggling skills. Many large cruise ships have glass enclosed elevators in this central area in addition to fore and aft elevator banks but Beyond has only two sets of stairs and lifts located near the front and back of the ship. It means a bit more walking and occasional congestion. But strolling from bow to stern is a great way to appreciate the imaginative art work, the distinctive public rooms and passageways plus the creative use of light and color. It takes several days to explore the whole ship.
At the stern of Celebrity Beyond, where most ships of this size have the main dining room, the designers placed Eden, a huge area with three full stories of glass providing remarkable water views from the bar, the lounge, an entertainment area and the excellent specialty restaurant.
Deck 14 includes an open air 25 yard lap pool, one of the largest at sea. On the same deck, just before the Spa is the adult-only Solarium, a dome covered area with a pool, hot tubs and comfortable loungers. One deck up is the splendid and well cared for Rooftop Garden with its own bar and grill, a giant screen for movies and the ship’s unique meandering jogging track that includes a gentle incline to Deck 16. Five laps to a mile.
- The Rooftop Garden and its committed caretaker.
- The relaxing, adults-only Solarium.
The hallways, rooms and suites on Beyond are all tastefully decorated in muted shades of gray and maroon. Most ocean facing rooms boast another Celebrity innovation, the Infinite Balcony. Instead of a door leading to a standard balcony, that popular feature is part of the enhanced room size. At the touch of a button, the top half of the full frame window drops down providing sea air and an unobstructed view. The “balcony” area has chairs and more buttons to lower shades or draw a curtain to provide privacy. Most reviews we’ve seen love the feature but several people miss the standard balcony.
The ship wasn’t full and we enjoyed an upgrade to a Sky Suite, the entry level suite with a standard balcony and about 300 square feet of space. It had a king size bed, a sofa, plenty of storage space and a bathroom with a full tub and shower plus a wide sink suitable for two. The room included plush bathrobes but slippers in only one size. Too big for Sandra; too small for John. We missed having bedside reading lights, perhaps related to the fact that Celebrity Beyond has no library or even a common “take one; leave one” book corner. The large TV had the usual news channels (MSNBC, Fox and BBC) but no CNN. Also, unlike other ships we’ve been on, there were no music channels.
Cuisine has always been a strong point on Celebrity cruises and the innovations continued on Beyond. Instead of a main dining room, the designers created four separate complimentary dining areas – Cyprus, Normandie, Tuscan and Cosmopolitan. Each has a distinctive international theme plus dishes standard to all four restaurants. Up on Deck 14 the popular buffet, Oceanview Café, was laid out in a dozen or more food islands, each with its own specialty. Much superior to the buffets on most cruise ships, we never experienced overcrowding and the food choices at breakfast and lunch were excellent.
Most new cruise ships have expanded the number of extra-cost specialty restaurants and Celebrity has joined this trend. We tried three of them, Eden, Fine Cut Steakhouse and Le Voyage by Daniel Boulud. Along with outstanding service we enjoyed some of our best ever lamb shank, crab cakes, lobster casserole, prime rib and filet mignon. Surprisingly, our only disappointing meal was at Luminae, the high end restaurant exclusively for suite guests where the fish was less than prime. We were told that sometimes there was a seafood supply problem.
Beyond is an appropriate description of the main theatre on this ship. The dazzling technology is state-of-the-art with a 20 foot tall, $5 million LED backscreen containing 17 million pixels and curving 110 feet around the thrust stage. It’s put to good use with imaginative shows often featuring a live band with a dozen or more singers, dancers and acrobats.
The main theatre was where guests were first introduced to Captain Kate McCue, the first American born female captain of a mega cruise ship. Full of personality as well as having fine nautical skills, she always travels with her cat, a hairless, Elf Ear Sphynx named Bug Naked. Later in the cruise she and Bug Naked took to the stage at The Club, another entertainment venue, to lead a trivia quiz about hairless cats and to answer questions.
Entertainment seemed almost non-stop on Celebrity Beyond with music (from classical to rock) and games (like Trivia and “Yes or No”) in The Club, Eden, the Rooftop Garden and the Grand Plaza. We were disappointed that the ship offered no enrichment lectures with specialists on Caribbean history, current events and the like. Also, there were no live port talks in advance of our various stops. Instead, there was tour information on our TVs.
Technology now plays a key role in entertainment and guest experience. Most guests seemed to have smart phones and they’re quickly becoming a necessity to access restaurant menus, up-to-date information on events and tour details. Leisure travel on cruise ships is changing fast. Overall, though, we were very impressed with Celebrity Beyond, especially its service staff, cuisine and imaginative architecture.
Photo Credits
Photos by John and Sandra Nowlan – All Rights Reserved
Wow, what an amazing ship! My husband and I travelled on Princess in the Carribean. It was lovely. I felt like a queen onboard. It’s a great way to make a living traveling around the world. Good for you both! Thank you for the information about Celebrity. I always thought it was a party ship?