We have stayed in a concierge cabin, a Royal Suite, and now an Aqua Sky Suite on Celebrity Cruises. Honestly, except for having a bathtub/shower combo, I'm not sure there's much difference physically between a concierge cabin and a Sky Suite. A single open area with beds on one half of the room and a couch on the other half. No door or curtain to close off the space between the two zones. The major difference then lies within the extra perks you get with any suite cabin within the newly branded Retreat system. Our front door did have a doorbell attached (as did our Royal Suite) which becomes less of a cute novelty when used repeatedly by our steward Vanida and our butler Mary. Granted, as the cruise went on with circumstances requiring more assistance and time in our cabin, such frequent drop ins became more helpful. Such a difference from the Royal Suite butler who after the first day really only interacted with us when we ran into each other in the lounge. The few issues we had like our laundry bags being forgotten or the balcony door sticking were solved with a call and dispatch of our steward by the butler to come to our cabin.
While this is not a handicapped cabin by any means, I was impressed at how well a cinched up wheelchair fit through the front door. Once inside, the main cabin door is the same as any other cabin with the muster information, a deadbolt turn lock, and Celebrity's version of a Do Not Disturb door magnet. Both sides of the magnet say "Deep Sleep" versus most other cruise lines that have magnets or hangers that say "Do Not Disturb" on one side and "Please Make Up Room" on the other. We had a couple frustrations during the first couple days because the only way to visibly show the steward that it's okay to come in is to have that magnet completely off the front of your door. We'd have it on the outside during the night, take it off to go to breakfast, come back to the room mid morning and put up the magnet again so we could have privacy while getting ready for the next activity. Vanida wasn't getting to our room until later and then leaving because we had the sign back up. This gave her the impression that we'd been in the cabin since the night before. The same was happening when we'd head out to dinner because she was expecting us to be out of the cabin well into the evening. We had a talk together after that and the timing improved once she learned of our preferences. I was impressed that, unsolicited by us, her supervisor checked in twice to confirm that we were still happy with the change in housekeeping services.
One downside of this entryway is that there's 3-4 major areas in this one picture that would need to be accessed while getting ready each day. There's the main door, the door to the bathroom directly to the left, the full length mirror on the left wall just after the bathroom door, and the bank of closet doors on the right side. It reminded me of watching Chopped on the Food Network because we'd verbally yell out "Behind!" to keep the other from throwing open the bathroom door when we were getting something out of the closet.
The first closet next to the main door had plenty of both regular and skirt/pant hangers. The rod shown in the middle of this picture could be pulled down to make two rows of hanging clothes or kept flush with the back wall so you can hang tall things. This first hanging space was as wide as the two closet doors. We had two plush robes and two sets of large men's white slippers. Dad asked Vanida about getting larger robes and she had him try on a robe to prove that they were already fairly roomy. While we did take the time to chat and take a tour with one of the Persian Garden crew members who encouraged using these robes while in the thermal spa, we were not able to return and use this perk for the rest of the cruise. Propped up behind the robes was two large umbrellas for use while onshore. Shown briefly in the bottom of this closet is two long slender bags that held yoga mats. When you're in any AquaClass cabin, you're supposed to get a form emailed to you pre-cruise asking for you to pick from their list of fitness or health based items to use in your cabin. I received one a couple weeks before this cruise with the dates of my December cruise but I don't recall getting one referencing this cruise. I probably would have chosen the yoga mats anyway and never did get to use these. I did get an email from the suite concierge asking for my cabin preferences. It wasn't until around day 3 though that I noticed the bottle of wine left on our table was non alcoholic as I had indicated on the form that we didn't want any of their wines listed.
Around day 3, our butler Mary stopped in to properly meet with us and get our preferences for snacks, drinks, and treats to enjoy in the cabin. She took great effort to offer and provide non alcoholic options referencing back to the notes she'd received from our form. Dad has a habit of requesting the one beer brand to drink while cruising that no one seems to readily stock. Mary took the effort of asking her management to order some extra even though only Dad and one other of her guests requested it. Several of the days, she arranged for unique snacks to be delivered in the afternoon such as nachos and a whole pizza. Mary also was kind enough to bring us snacks from her home country of The Philippines to try. She also would take over our room service orders and delivered them herself. She did offer to let us order in from the suite restaurant, Luminae, but it would only be during restaurant hours. Normally this is a perk reserved for the highest Penthouse suites (we were told no during our Royal Suite stay) but she offered to facilitate it for us when getting back and forth around the ship wasn't as easy. Unfortunately, the hours never lined up to do that. We did take advantage of both the regular room service menu (delivery charge waived for suites but we always tip) and the one with a few extra options for suites.
The second closet had more hanging space on the left side. On the right side was shelving with wire guards on the top shelves and wire baskets on the bottom shelves below the safe. On the shelf above the safe, we had a provided laundry bag/shoeshine bag, hairdryer, binoculars (for use while onboard), and Celebrity branded tote bag. I think every cabin gets the tote bag but only suites get the umbrellas and binoculars. The safe is code enabled and is ready to be set with a new code by each occupant.
The bathroom is surprisingly narrow for a suite cabin. Our cabin slept four with the use of two people on the pull out sofa bed but I'm not sure you could even have four people standing next to each other in this bathroom unless two of them were in the bathtub/shower. There is a step up to go into the bathroom and the light switch is on the outside by the full length mirror. There were four drawers to the right of the sink that were fairly shallow. I only kept a small ziploc bag of hygiene products I use post showering in those drawers and kept my full toiletry case out on the desk. The shelves under the sink held backups of kleenex and toilet paper. The handle on the left of the sink is a fold out trash can. The countertop space was filled with little containers and product bottles. We had the "upgraded" Bigelow brand products for being in a suite cabin. We had body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion as well as things like cotton swabs. We did have a small bar of soap provided that we used for hand washing. I brought along a travel sized bar of soap that I used in the shower. I usually am not particular about products but this shampoo often tangled up my hair. I advise bringing an alternate choice if you have longer hair. I don't use conditioner but I was tempted to do so just to counter the shampoo's effects.
A good photo representation of how narrow the bathroom was. I noticed from day one that our toilet didn't always flush with the first push of the button or two or three sometimes. Guess that's the cruise ship version of telling someone to jiggle the handle. It always flushed after those few pushes and flushed completely so I didn't mention anything to our steward at first. A couple days later we were returning to our cabin when we had to maneuver around two crew members in the hallway outside our cabin flushing out the water line into a large trash can. We noticed that once they were finished, our toilet flushed once again on the first try. Several days into the cruise, we went to use the bathroom before leaving for an activity and discovered that it would now not flush at all. We called our steward Vanida to report the issue. She assured us that they were aware of the problem. It was affecting several cabins in the area and was in the process of being fixed. We stopped off on the way to our activity to use a public restroom instead and thankfully by the time we returned to the cabin a couple hours later, we had a working toilet again.
Our only choice for bathing was this bathtub/shower combo. The tub height was fairly high and we both felt unsteady having to climb in and out, especially afterwards when surfaces were wet. There was some sort of thin covering on the bottom of the tub but we felt much safer using the rubber bathmat we bring everytime we expect to be using a bathtub. You can find them fairly cheap and we always leave them behind when the trip is over. I always put the bathmat hanging up off the floor of the tub when I finish showering so both can dry and it's not in the steward's way. We also always used the provided hand sized towel to step out onto in front of the tub. I've heard from other cruisers that they will actually take one of the small towels and layer it in the tub while they shower to keep traction. I prefer the idea of the rubber bathmat since it has suction cups to stay in place.
The shower half of this setup was a small bit of plexiglass that came out maybe 15 inches from the wall. The rest of the opening was made up of the shower curtain with some of the hooks skipped. It was routinely a challenge while moving around to keep the shower curtain matched up with the plexiglass. Between these last two photos is the only assistive grab bars provided. One down at the bathtub level meant for pulling yourself up from lying in the tub and one to hold onto above the soap dish next to the shower controls. Thankfully, my showers often coincided with when the ship was docked but I still made a point of keeping my body holding some part of the shower for support. This particular bathtub/shower had three options for water dispensing. The bottom knob shown here with my loofah controlled temperature. Our only options were ice cold, moderately cold, or tolerably cold. Couldn't understand why we couldn't get anything warmer in the shower but the sink water could get hot.
The second knob moving up was to control the bathtub faucet both on versus off and to how much water. The middle knob controlled the handheld wand. The top knob controlled the rainshower showerhead mounted to the ceiling. I'm 5'7" and I barely had any head clearance between me and the ceiling. Given the placement of the rainshower showerhead and the colder temperature, I would lean down in spurts letting the water run over my head alternating between holding my breath and gasping for air from the coldness.
The opposite end of the bathtub/shower combo is where the two towel racks were hung. We had two larger towels and two hand towels - a continuation of the small tree logo you'll also find on Luminae dishware. Nice thickness and better than the typical non plus size length typical of public accomodations. I used the big towels pictured here in combination with the larger pool towels.
An interesting note that I believe was different from last time is that when we asked about getting pool towels for an excursion, our butler Mary said that they have a list of when the suite passengers are scheduled for a water based excursion and will automatically deliver a set of towels to your room the night before. We also did not have towels meant for onboard pool use left in our cabin. Celebrity routinely puts out folded towels on chairs and replenishes stacks sitting out for passengers to grab as needed. Dad grabbed a couple of the gray towels from the pool deck to keep in our cabin and our steward Vanida told us that she swapped them for the yellowish brown towels. According to her, the yellowish brown towels are the only ones allowed to leave the ship so she swapped out the nicer gray ones on the assumption we were planning to use them for an excursion. In the end, we simply used the yellowish brown ones as extra towels when showering so neither towel option ever left the ship.
Now moving out of the bathroom, you next encounter the closet with the safe leading into the desk/vanity space on your left. The beds will be directly to your right just after the bathroom. There was a column right as you turned sideways to go between the bathroom wall and that first bed so it made for some interesting shimmy dance moves getting in and out of that corner. If I had an HR department, that post would probably be reporting me for harassment.
Despite being referred to for the bulk of this cruise as Mr. and Mrs., I was pleasantly surprised to find our beds made up as separate twins from the start. It was a little odd though to find that while we had our own bedding, the physical beds started out pushed up next to each other versus having a nightstand moved over in between. We had planned to ask Vanida about moving them but then after trying this arrangement for a night, Dad decided he liked the fact that it limited him to only having one way to get up when he needed to in the middle of the night. After a few days passed, we came back to the cabin to find the beds slightly angled creating a small gap in between. Took me another day or so to realize they had been moved because our suitcases were no longer tucked away in the far corner. They were now forcibly shoved under each of the beds. Thankfully the dents popped back out once removed from the confines of the bed. A minor annoyance for me since I had left some things in my suitcase I wouldn't need until later in the cruise. Dad still pushed the beds back against each other each night.
There were no power outlets or USB charging visible by the beds. There was two toggle switches under those light sconces that worked the bedside lamps and the main cabin lights. An old school dial thermostat is on the wall by the right bed. We often had to flip between the hot and cold sides to try and regulate the room temperature at any given moment. A few times we'd finally get to where it felt better in the room only to come back from an activity and find that the dial's setting had been moved. Not sure if it was our steward trying to be helpful or a faulty thermostat. The phone is on the nightstand by the right side of the bed. When we moved this past year, we opted to get rid of a landline phone. We often joke to each other about how instinctual it is to return home and want to check the answering machine. This phone in the cabin would blink a red light on the side if we'd gotten a message in our absence. We routinely did as the suite concierge Janelle liked to call all the suite cabins with a recording about suite perks as they fit the schedule such as the priority tender process or escorting suite guests to reserved theater seating on chic nights.
Our one bank of plugs besides the shaver style one in the bathroom. Two US plugs, the toggle switch for the vanity lights, one European style socket, and the spot where the doorbell chime is plugged in.
The cabin really felt more open as you moved into the living area with the sofa bed and a coffee table. The coffee table could be moved if needed (Here's looking at you Carnival with your coffee tables mounted to the floor) and had a lever for raising and lowering the top. The couch wasn't the most comfortable but it was great to have a place to sit up and read. Our balcony had a large floor to ceiling oval window next to the couch in addition to the full size sliding doors.
The little white tray pictured at the end of the desk held large bottles of water and an ice bucket. Mary stayed on top of keeping us stocked with both as we found this water much better than the metal bottles they give out at bars.
Continuing on past the desk is our large TV that took up 75% of the table top. There were a few live TV channels covering sports, news, and children's programing. We caught a few reruns of popular primetime TV shows on a channel called Prime. There was of course, channels dedicated to watching the morning show and looped information about the ports and shopping options onboard. I loved being back on a ship that had my favorite TV channel - the where are we in the voyage map! Yes I'm a geography nerd who likes to follow along on the map. One thing that bothered Dad about the TV was when he tried to watch an on demand movie choice. It came up with a message that asked him to confirm the charges so he turned it off. That's a plus for Princess who has had included on demand movie and shows on cabin TVs for years. And no, not just The Love Boat episodes. Though there is something nostalgic about watching at least one of those curled up in bed late at night in your cabin.
One of the above cabinets was empty and the other held extra glassware. One thing I've found missing in several suites (not sure I've seen it in any besides Princess' Sky Suite) is having extra plates and silverware stocked for cabin use. Many times over the years I've had moments where I realize I needed a spoon versus a fork or wished I had silverware at all when getting room service or bringing a snack back to the cabin. The TV was on a swivel mount so you could pivot it to face the beds more but it was so large you could probably view it from the neighbor's balcony. Note to future cruisers on the subject of balconies - yes it's your private balcony but it's not an enclosed private space. You don't need to yell across to each other or take phone calls/watch videos that sound like you're trying to have the other person on shore hear you without the need of a phone connection.
That first cabinet under the TV is where the mini fridge is hidden. Don't think your cabin came with a mini fridge? Check every little cubby and cabinet. Most of the time it's in a bottom cabinet but I've seen ones at eye level in the closets as well. Normally, cruise lines will say that if they provide anything in your cabin mini bar, then it is not free. Even if you have the drink package. The technical rule for Celebrity suites is that your mini bar isn't free unless you're in a Royal Suite or above. However, as was the case when we asked our butler, the butler may agree to fill it with whatever water, soda, and beer you want since the included Retreat drink package means you could go out and get whatever you want to bring back and store in your cabin fridge. If your butler refuses, then go to a bar and bring back a few extra cans/bottles each time you head back to the cabin. While the first Celebrity Equinox experience had a bartender turn me down when I tried to get two drinks with just my card, this sailing had no issues. Which turned out to be much appreciated when I was having to do the leg work for both of us for most of the trip.
We did store a single dose of medication that should be chilled in our cabin fridge. If your medication requires a specific temperature or extreme chilling, I would seek out the help of a medical fridge. I found that the drinks we had inside this fridge were some of the least cold drinks we've had from a cabin fridge. Don't know whether it was due to the fridge being so full of the beer drinks our butler was bringing Dad or something wasn't cooling right. I've heard the tip that if you crack open the cabinet the fridge is in, it keeps the air circulating and triggers the fridge to get colder. That bottom shelf of the door is our stash of bedtime pillow chocolates. Dad used to snatch both of ours each night and save them to bring home. This time he started nibbling from the stash spending so much time in the cabin. What made it home barely lasted a day or two unless it was dark chocolate flavored. Apparently, I've been deemed worthy of having the one flavor he doesn't like. That small narrow cabinet to the right was where the spare soda cans and water bottles were kept.
And on to my favorite part of any cruise cabin - the balcony! Our cabin was only about 5 cabins down from the elevator lobby that was next to the main pool deck. The location also meant that our balcony was in this little alcove area tucked underneath the deck extension that holds outdoor buffet seating. The location made it easy to run upstairs routinely and bring back buffet snacks. Just know if you have the cabin lights on and the blackout curtain open, anyone on the balcony can see into your cabin. And yes, you will hear occasional noises of chairs scraping, people talking, carts rolling, and dishes clanking. No, the cabin isn't haunted. It's just "Sounds of the Buffet" due out on my new album next year.
The view of our balcony to the left as you walk out. The shimmery front half of that partition can be opened if you are sailing with someone next door and want to connect your balconies. Instead of a full length lounge chair, we had this one chair with a separate sloped foot rest that you could move aside or pull back against the chair like so. There is a small table next to it for drinks or in my case, to prop up the phone trying to use Celebrity internet to watch their own Power Up Points Webinar. You can see how far the overhang went out past our balcony. We still had the view of the water straight out and down below. We could see the sunrises and sunsets if you looked out at an angle. The best benefit was being out in the fresh air watching the water without having to roast in the sun or get pelted by the elements. Some cruisers say it's not worth getting a nicer cabin because you are only in it to sleep and shower. For me, moments of downtime is needed at random times and it was so peaceful and calming to be able to step out on this balcony and zone out.
The view immediately to your right. The same partition and same overhang but this side had a full size dining table and two dining chairs. It was great being able to take room service outside to dine al fresco. We did take the time to bring each item back inside before leaving our balcony. We wanted to prevent anything blowing overboard unattended and make things a bit easier for the steward.
Despite the overhang, there was plenty of fresh air flow and a nice amount of light. There didn't seem to be a light on the balcony itself but the one bank of lights in front of the curtains gave plenty of light for nighttime balcony sitting.
A couple cabins ahead of us toward the front of the ship had angular balconies until reaching the cabins whose balconies jutted out to the point that they were in line with the overhang above.
Looking back toward the aft:
This column about midway in front of our balcony didn't feel obtrusive at all.
Would I stay in this cabin again? Probably not because of that bathroom setup. Would I stay in a cabin with that kind of balcony setup again? Absolutely!
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