Odds and ends as we bring this trips' story to a close

 

We didn't get to experience the Thermal Suite much that was part of our Edge Villa cabin perks. Here is the price list for spa services as of December 2023.

Retreat Lounge, Sundeck, and Concierge operational hours. Also listed is the days when as a Retreat passenger, you can get an escort to reserved theater seating on Evening Chic (aka Formal Nights) for production shows. There was also two Retreat passenger only events during this sailing. The Retreat Soiree was held in the Retreat Lounge. Drinks and snacks were passed around while crew department heads and officers mingled to chat with passengers and answer questions. 

The Complimentary Jewelry Tracker schedule. Each cabin, regardless of stateroom category, will receive a complimentary locket at the beginning of the cruise. This promotion in conjunction with the EFFY store onboard, has select two hours windows each day of the cruise where you can visit the store and pick up a free tiny charm to put in your locket. The two hour block gives you ample time to stop in between activities and it's never during the hours while the ship is in port so no worry of missing out if you're off on an excursion. Just make sure to catch that some of the days have a morning and an evening time frame with different charms. I did observe one passenger who asked the EFFY store employee about getting past charms since they'd only found out about the promotion several days into the cruise. They were assured that the charms start to repeat during the second half of the cruise. That may not be the case if you're on a seven day or less cruise however.

The finished product with all 14 charms inside. The chain is a decent length falling just below my collarbone when wearing. I highly suggest finding a space to stow all the little plastic baggies the charms come in so you can pack them and the locket to bring home before adding them all to the locket. It can take a little jiggling finesse to make all the charms lay down in order to clasp the locket closed. A lot easier to keep track of the gems sitting at your kitchen table than trying to find them on the floor or within your bedsheets in the cabin. 

In addition to cabin category perks, each Celebrity cruiser becomes a member of their loyalty program called the Captain's Club. Thanks to the Power Up Points program Celebrity started to keep cruisers engaged during COVID, we were able to complete several online tasks like watching webinars and taking surveys/quizzes to get points added to our loyalty status. By the time our cruise on Celebrity Beyond rolled around, we were both Elite loyalty level. This level got us invited to exclusive events on board such as the Senior Officers Party and the Backstage tour of the theater. These events are held at certain days and times during the cruise so make sure to plan accordingly if you want to attend.

Our backstage tour of the theater was led by a representative from the tech crew/theater manager, Vocalist Anna Watson, and Hand Balancer/Aeralist Klaudia Ciupak. The small group experience was really interesting given how advanced the theater is on Celebrity Beyond. 

What looks like a giant movie screen surrounding the stage is actually millions of LCD panels so they can project a big image such as pictured below or smaller images by singling out the panels. There is also panels that can completely move out of the way to reveal performers on platforms. The center of the stage does allow for rising up as well as moving items on stage around via a track system. The mechanical system in the ceiling has a catwalk around it so props and performers can be dropped and raised from above. 

Check out my Instagram for photos from the performances we attended in this theater.

The Senior Officers Party hosted by our Cruise Director Shawna

The back side of this Elite loyalty events schedule is the list of perks an Elite member gets for use while on board such as discounts on spa services, photos, or excursions.

A special thank you to Celebrity Cruises and the bridge officers of the Celebrity Beyond for offering us the opportunity to visit the bridge on this sailing. I was delighted to see all of the female officer representation among the crew and only lament that our visit coincided with Captain Kate's well deserved time off. Maybe next time...

Thank you for taking the time to read about our father/daughter adventures on the Celebrity Beyond. Would I sail in The Retreat again? Absolutely! Would I sail on Celebrity Cruises again? Most likely! Would I sail on Celebrity Beyond again? Beyond a doubt I would love to! 

Stay tuned to find out where this traveling pair ends up next as we revisit an old experience in a new place! As always I'll be sharing live updates on social media. Feel free to reach out with any comments or questions!

Designed For You - Each daily schedule from our 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise

 

Day 1 - Embarkation Day - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 2 - At Sea - Chic (formal night) evening attire

Day 3 - George Town, Grand Cayman - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 4 - At Sea - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 5 - Cartagena, Colombia - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 6 - Oranjestad, Aruba - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 7 - Oranjestad, Aruba continued - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 8 - Willemstad, Curacao - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 9 - At Sea - Chic evening attire

Day 10 - Falmouth, Jamaica - Smart Casual evening attire

Day 11 - At Sea - Smart Casual evening attire

Disembark Information

Don't like sushi? Don't let that deter you from trying Raw on 5!

When you hear about a restaurant called Raw on 5, it's natural to think that it's going to be all sushi. Don't be fooled by the name of this specialty restaurant found onboard Celebrity Edge, Celebrity Beyond, Celebrity Apex, and Celebrity Ascent. While the menu heavily features seafood based dishes, there are options for those of you who prefer to pick your food choices from the land dwelling creatures of the world. We both dined here once for dinner and I returned once on my own for lunch. Dad was very satisfied by the meat options he tried and I enjoyed most everything I chose from the seafood dishes.

I confirmed with our server before we ordered at dinner that for those of us staying in the upper suites (Royal Suite, Edge Villa, Penthouse, and Iconic on Celebrity Beyond), everything on the menu including the pricey seafood towers was included. Unlike the other specialty restaurants where the price is based on a cover charge, this restaurant is priced a la carte. Each item on the menu has a cost and you will be charged for each of those items you order. Up to you how much you want to eat and want to spend. If you purchase a multi meal dining plan and choose to use it at an a la carte restaurant, it's usually a set amount to spend that's covered by your plan. Be sure to check with your server at the start of the meal.

Alaskan California Sushi Roll - Snow Crab, Avocado, Cucumber, and Roasted Sesame Seed. I joke that the California Sushi Roll is like the starter sushi roll. Nothing spicy and all flavors you might find in other dishes. I guess the Alaskan part refers to the use of snow crab versus imitation crab. Good mix of flavors and held together well while dipping into the provided soy sauce left on each table.

Shrimp Spring Rolls (listed only on this secondary menu from Celebrity's website) - Ginger-Lime Dipping Sauce, Marinated Rice Noodles, Basil, and Mint. This was probably my least favorite dish I tried. The taste was good but it was tough to dip and eat with the differing textures and the amount of stuffing inside the clear edible wrap. If you try this dish I suggest cutting it up into pieces before dipping.

Chicken Ginger Gyoza - Pan Seared Dumpling, Sesame, Yuzu, and Scallion. We both ended up ordering this dish between the two visits and it was great both times. This non seafood dish was right up Dad's alley and tasted similar to what you might get from local Chinese take out. This is a great option to share or to start with if you're traveling with someone who refuses to eat seafood.

Fried Calamari - Ponzu Aioli and Lemon. Now you know I can't see calamari on a menu and not try it. However, I wasn't expecting to be brought a plate that was fried calamari shish kabob style! The presentation made me think a golden colored tarantula had crawled onto my plate. It made the dish a bit awkward to eat with some pieces coming off the stick as large sections and others as chunks that would have disappeared in the dip bowl. The pieces were very lightly breaded and often slipped right out of the coating when released from the skewer. This, like the shrimp roll, was a dish I couldn't bring myself to finish.

Chicken Teriyaki - Marinated Chicken, Broccoli, and Toasted Sesame Seeds. This was Dad's choice for an entree. Reminded me more of the sesame chicken I enjoy from our local Chinese take out. Dad enjoyed the flavor and the tenderness of the meat but he wished there was more meat to it. Frankly, I think you could serve him the brontosaurus sized steak Fred Flintstone brought home and he'd still say he wished there was more meat. And of course he left that broccoli behind on the plate.

The Beyond Roll - Shrimp Tempura, Spicy Tuna, Cucumber, Eel Sauce, and Spicy Mayo. As they say, "When in Rome," so I had to try the Beyond Roll while we were sailing on the Celebrity Beyond. Normally I'm not a fan of a sushi roll that says spicy once, much less twice but this one had a good balance. A little bit of a kick in the taste buds at first but the rest of the ingredients mellow it out. 

Shrimp Tempura Roll - Avocado, Cucumber, Pickled Burdock, Tempura, Spicy Mayo, and Sweet Soy. Somewhat similar to the Beyond Roll but with more crunch than spice. Between the two, I liked the Beyond Roll better.

When it came to dessert, I went for what was described as a strawberry shortcake style mousse dish. The little cup was layered like a parfait with cut up strawberry and pieces of shortcake surrounding a creamy vanilla flavored mousse. The top is adorned with a sprinkle of green tea powder and a halved strawberry. While more for presentation factor than substance as this dish was barely half the size of my soda can, I found it surprisingly filling and a wonderful balance of creamy and light sweetness that was the perfect end to a meal of spicy and savory flavors. 

Time for a short trip to Le Voyage

If you said to us, "Hey, let's check out this French restaurant for dinner tonight!" you aren't likely to get an enthusiastic response. Coupled with the fact that our suite had the regular menu included plus how much we ended up liking Bistro Sur La Mer on the Enchanted Princess, we vowed to at least visit once. After all, a cruise ship is certainly a place where you won't go hungry if you decide you didn't like the first place you chose to eat. 

We were seated at a super small table near the entrance so we had quite a lot of traffic passing by throughout the meal. The server made a big deal out of the wine list and seemed really put off by our polite refusal. We also were visited a couple times by the restaurant sommelier and manager to question our lack of drinks. Visiting once could be seen as checking up to make sure we weren't overlooked or needing refills but with each repeated visit it seemed like the attitude went from pleasant to pissed off. Once they gave up on serving us alcohol, our table service also dropped off. While we tried several dishes, we felt limited by the choices and didn't find anything that made us want to return again. 

Beet based amuse bouche. Mr. Picky Eater heard the word "beet" and refused to try it.

Alaskan King Crab Salad Appetizer - Avocado, Radish, Mango, and a Ginger-Lime Vinaigrette. The crab was cold like a ceviche. The radish, mango, and whatever other tiny circular cut ingredients (cucumber?) on top were colorful but hard and barely edible. The top was covered in some sort of spicy seasoning that the cold crab did nothing to offset. Maybe that's why they expect to serve so much alcohol in this restaurant so you can drown the spiciness off your taste buds. Or drink so much you forget the food was spicy?

Prime Black Angus Filet Mignon Entree - Black Truffle Sauce, Salsify, Hazelnuts, Saint-Nectare Potatoes Mille-Feuille. I asked about the hazelnuts when ordering and was assured that they were only on the side and easily avoided. I had to look up the ingredient salsify and it turns out to be a plant whose roots can be prepared like a potato but tastes like an artichoke heart. The salsify pieces were what was placed under each hazelnut forming a border around the beef with small spinach leaves. I guess they were trying for a deconstructed spinach artichoke dip? The tiny square of potatoes was good and the beef was mostly cooked to my liking but was surprisingly more chewy than tender. 

None of the dessert choices really interested us so I picked the one we thought sounded the least of the worst and that was the Cafe-Cardamom. Ethiopian Coffee Ice Cream, Chocolate Financier, and Chocolate Foam. If you're a regular reader here, and if you are, have I mentioned you're my favorite?.. If you are a regular reader here, you're probably reading this and saying why would she pick a dessert that is coffee flavored when she doesn't like the taste of coffee? The answer: everything else had some sort of fruit or nut concoction and I was hoping the chocolate would balance out the coffee flavor. 

This dessert does come with an added presentation factor as the scoop of ice cream arrives at your table propped up by cut chocolate shards. The server then pours the chocolate sauce all over your dish in front of you. I tried each aspect of the dish giving it the old college try of taste tests but I'm sorry to say that unless you love the strong robust taste of dark roast coffee, this dessert will flunk out of school.

We ended the night on a more positive note with this view of wonderful guest entertainers - rock trio, Rebel from our floor seats followed by the late night adult comedy of Sam Fedele. 

And a little bit of laughter as we discovered on our way into the theater that even hand sanitizer stations are not immune to losing their balance when the seas are rough! Disclaimer - that's the pattern in the carpet, not shattered glass in the door. 

Time to raise the roof at the Rooftop Garden Grill

The Rooftop Garden Grill is an open air dining venue that requires a walk along the open deck to reach. While it can be an enjoyable ambience, it is only open weather permitting. High winds can making keeping one's napkin in place a real challenge. I'd also suggest choosing one's attire carefully so there's only one possible full moon visible on deck each night. It also butts up against where the big screen shows movies and in our case, NFL playoff games, which drew a large and rowdy crowd of those who wished to watch the game out under the stars. This restaurant has an upcharge of $45 per person plus gratuity. View the dinner menu here. This restaurant also serves lunch on sea days. Lunch is a reduced menu featuring an extra couple lighter casual options but also a reduced price of $25 per person.

The open air concept also involves an open kitchen which can be entertaining to watch. I watched one sous chef crank out tons of baked skillet cookies over and over. A little less so when you can see that your ordered dish is sitting out in the open for a long time waiting to be picked up.

We dined two different evenings here. Neither time seemed to be crowded so it was easy for anyone to switch to or pick a table that let you view the game through the bushes over your dinner. Since it was also garden themed inside the restaurant, Dad's seat on the first night was right up against a tree growing from inside the back of the booth bench. I may have been a little too giddy because this image made me go from "Hey there's a tree growing out of your head" to "You're a real life lemonhead!"

The first night started out fairly well in terms of service but then dropped off. I witnessed our assistant waiter routinely coming out of the kitchen and disappearing around the corner. I think it threw off our timing of the meal quite a bit because without him to help clear, our next courses were then delayed in delivery. Sometimes the food wasn't as hot or fresh as it could have been. Our Mason Jar water glasses started to become as parched as we were. Once we spoke up about it, the maitre'd and head waiter stepped in to get service back up to speed. We've had moments when a waiter gets called away and no one realizes their tables are no longer being covered (i.e. Cadillac Diner on NCL's Pride of America). I've since heard from fellow diners that first evening that they also lacked in service until management stepped in. The second night had moderately better service but some dishes seemed slightly less quality in taste and presentation that we repeated both nights.

From the Appetizer menu:

Pulled Pork Slider Trio - House Pickle, Tangy Carolina Style BBQ, and Crispy Onions. I'm not sure when Crispy Onions started being code for red cabbage coleslaw but the taste was good. The BBQ sauce was not spicy at all and easily passed the "I hate spice" picky eater test. I couldn't help but chuckle at the pickle spear intentionally cut into quartered slivers reminding me of green carrot stick garnish. Guess I missed reading about the great pickle spear shortage of 2023. 

Smoked Chicken Wings - Dry Rub or Spicy Buffalo. This was Dad's choice for appetizer so you know he picked the dry rub version. We each sampled the other's pick for appetizer. Dad was pleased with the flavor but we both agreed that there wasn't much meat to the wings.

From the Salads menu:

Caprese Salad - Tomatoes, Buffalo Mozzarella, Basil, and Balsamic Reduction. I've since seen pictures of this dish that showed it as full size tomato slices and just as large slices of mozzarella. Our chef apparently chose to go the artisan pretty presentation route by offering halved cherry tomatoes and what looked like diced up chunks of a couple slices of mozzarella. The classic flavors of a caprese salad were there but it took a little more effort to get all the flavors in one bite than if it was big pieces I could cut across. This style also meant that several pieces got too much of the balsamic reduction and some never saw any.

Caesar Salad - Romaine, Toasted Croutons, Aged Parmesan. Better than The Retreat Pool and Bar but not as good as Fine Cut Steakhouse.

From the Smoked menu:

Mesquite Baby Back Ribs - 1/2 Rack or Full, Dry or Wet. Served with cast iron jalapeno corn bread. Dad ordered the 1/2 Rack and dry. He enjoyed the tender meat and good flavor. When I asked about the jalapeno corn bread, he said he'd never have known there was jalapeno in it if I hadn't mentioned it. Looking back at this picture I can see how it would have easily been missed. The red cabbage cole slaw makes a return appearance as a side for this entree.

BBQ Grilled Half Chicken - Slow roasted with house BBQ sauce, Bacon Mac 'n Cheese. This was one of the few entrees to intentionally come with its own side. There is a regular mac 'n cheese on the sides menu. The chicken was cooked well with a lot of meat and BBQ flavor.

From the Grilled Favorites menu:

Rooftop Beef Burger - 8oz Grilled Beef Patty, Beer Battered Onion, Porter BBQ Sauce, Bacon, Cheddar, and Brioche. I asked our server which he recommended between the Rooftop Beef Burger and the WTF Burger. He emphatically told me to get the Rooftop Beef Burger. This burger was a lot to eat and I couldn't finish it all. I wasn't too concerned about trying to finish it though because it looked slightly undercooked inside. The flavors were good together otherwise and I was glad to see that the rest of my pickle spear joined us for dinner on this dish. The french fries pictured below in the basket was a request from the Sides menu. Otherwise you would not get fries and the few onion rings with this entree. 

From the Premium Cuts Menu:

Lamb Chops - Dad approves of this message and this dish. Though he ignored the dipping sauce cup. Was it some version of mint jelly? Was it some sort of aus jus? Did Jason Momoa really sing in that Superbowl commercial? Life's greatest mysteries.

From the Sides menu:

Creamed Corn on the first night we dined here. Dad ordered this to go with his ribs and said it was one of the best dishes of the night.

From the Dessert menu:

The two desserts right up our alley that we'd heard everyone rave about are the Mason Jar S'mores and the Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Gelato. We each ordered one and sampled from both. Dad enjoyed both options but I found that the Mason Jar S'mores was too sweet for my taste. You really need to be ruled by your sweet tooth for that option.

Mason Jar S'Mores - chocolate mousse in between graham cracker crumbs and a thick layer of marshmallow on top. I was impressed that the graham cracker was ground fine enough that it didn't throw off the soft texture of everything else. However, the marshmallow layer was so thick that all I could taste was gritty sugar crystals after a few bites.

Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Gelato