Want to burn off those cruise calories? Book an Edge Villa cabin with its own built in Stairmaster!

A first for us this cruise was that we upgraded to an Edge Villa, a cabin that has its own staircase completely within the cabin. Normally, we wouldn't have booked such a cabin because the main bed does not split into two twin beds. While the bed frame looks like it should, the fixed bedside "tables" can not be moved to sit in between the two beds like they would in any other cabin. There's some popular YouTube travel agent video walkthroughs that will insist that the beds can separate but that was not the case for these six Edge Villa cabins on Celebrity Beyond. Our intent when we booked was to have me use the pullout couch on the lower level as my bed but once we spent some time in the cabin, Dad felt it would be better for him to sleep downstairs rather than have to use the staircase anymore than necessary.

Our suite was not handicap accessible, however, the way these cabins are designed, you can use the forward elevator bank to go up to deck 16, walk outside briefly under cover where the Edge Villa porches are across from Luminae, and use your keycard to open the door to the upper level of your cabin. Doable if you're really intent on avoiding the stairs but not practical when you often would be using both levels before being ready to be seen in public. 

On the Edge class of Celebrity's ships, they planned out a ship within a ship concept by intentionally putting all suite only (and now once again Zenith loyalty level) areas of the ship together in the bow of the ship. When we were exiting our cabin on its main level of deck 15, it was a short walk to visit the Retreat lounge where there was a bartender, coolers of included canned/bottled drinks, snacks at breakfast and early evening, and afternoon tea. There was also dedicated concierges for certain hours in this lounge to help answer questions or arrange things like spa appointments and dinner reservations. On deck 16, it was simply a walk out our porch door and across a covered corridor to reach Luminae, the suites only dining room. Walking out of the corridor into the open air put us directly on the lower level of the two story Retreat Sundeck with suite passengers only lounge chairs and small tables. One deck up accessible by stairs or the forward elevators is the portion of the Retreat Sundeck that has its own bar, pool, and outdoor dining open briefly during the day with a small menu including the famous Luminae burger you can enjoy each afternoon at lunch inside Luminae as well. It does get very windy eating on that deck as we found out trying to keep our potato chips from turning into identified flying objects.

One of the unique features about our Edge Villa and the three other cabins on the starboard side is that you can access the Retreat Lounge two different ways on deck 15. One is by heading out of your cabin hallway back into the elevator bank and using your keycard to open the main lounge doors. The other is what your butler (and yes Celebrity gives you a steward and a butler for these higher level suites) will jokingly call the secret door which is a door at the end of your cabin hallway that is marked "Crew Only." We were encouraged by our butler to freely use that door to enter the Retreat Lounge and save ourselves the extra step of going to the main door that requires keycard access. There is also keycard access to enter Luminae from the main elevator lobby and for entering the Retreat Sundeck. With all of this special keycard access to ensure that only those who paid for the perk are using it, I personally found it odd the way access to our cabin hallway was designed. 

To reach our cabin's main door on deck 15 from the front elevator lobby, you first head away from the direction of the Retreat Lounge's main doors. There are signs by each side that list which of the six suites are on each side of the ship. Then you step into a little open passageway that leads to an always open glass door. This door does not require any keycard access nor do the elevators that come up to these areas that only suite guests would need to access. 

Having something that you can scan your card that takes you in the elevator directly to your deck as a suite perk would be so nice, especially on embark and debark days! Once through that open glass door, you can easily access the hallway (but not anyone's cabin if you're not staying in one) and if you knew the secret (and past passengers have been sharing this tip to future suite guests for years so it's not like I'm sharing breaking news), you could walk through that Crew Only marked door right into the Retreat Lounge. Granted, the Retreat Lounge crew got to know the suite guests quickly so they'd probably notice if a non suite passenger walked in. 

Thank you to our Retreat Concierges Rosanna, Venita, Pau, & Simi as well as our Butler Suraj, our Retreat Host (room steward) Marvin, and the bartender and drink server whose names I wish I had gotten who remembered our favorite drinks. This bartender not only made Dad his Brandy Alexander but she got him to try a Grasshopper! Mr. Picky Eater finally tried something mint chocolate and loved it! Guess my Turkey Hill mint chocolate chip ice cream is no longer safe. Your teamwork made our onboard suite experience almost seamless. Thank you to Retreat Manager Briton who took the time out to talk through an issue and work it out for us. Thank you for the great service, food recommendations, and conversation with Luminae waiter I Kadek (congrats on the new baby) and Eden waitress Edna (just like Eden but it's an A instead of an E). Lastly, thank you to the Eden Maitre'd Viaden (whose name I'm probably spelling wrong) for not only making things right when we stopped him as the first uniformed crew member we saw passing by on the pool deck to ask about the lack of Mast Grill drink service but for making a point of checking in to be sure we wanted for nothing whenever he'd see us out on deck. 

This is taken as I stood with our cabin door to my left. That is the unlocked glass door a couple feet to the right. At the end of the hall is the "Crew Only" door. This angle makes the hallway look long but in reality it was only about a 30 second walk from our door to the end of the hallway. 

Our cabin was 15102. That door sign is also lit up and has a cubby space to the right where they would tuck in little reservation reminder cards and notes if we had our Do Not Disturb sign out. 

The button on the right is our cabin doorbell. Dad would keep forgetting we had a doorbell and look around wondering where the noise was coming from whenever our butler would drop by. Our butler, Suraj, stopped by to check on us so often that when we'd hear the doorbell ring we'd just yell out "Come in Suraj!" That little X above the door handle is the sensor for your key card. 

It took some trial and error over the course of our 11 day sailing when it came to going anywhere requiring keycard access. It turns out that if you want to enter your cabin, you need to swipe the card past the sensor quickly. I tried it a few times to see if it would read the card still in my crossbody purse and it would light up but not unlock. However, if you want to use your card on any of the Retreat areas, you need to hold your card flat against the sensor for a few seconds or it won't be long enough contact for the sensor to read your card. Only rationale I can think of is that the door sensors are smaller? It was like passing on the secret code among fellow suite passengers whenever we saw someone trying to quick swipe at the lounge door. 

Typical inside of cabin door with a peephole, muster station information, and deadbolt turn lock (hidden in this picture under the door hanger). Despite a relatively new ship, the only way we had to signal to our room steward not to disturb was to slip this "Deep Sleep" door hanger on the outside door handle. It says the same thing on both sides except that one side has a blue background so that it matches Celebrity's blue and white coloring. One morning we had come back to the cabin and put the sign on the door to get changed for the pool. Moments later, our butler knocks on the door to see if we need anything yet today. We chat briefly and then explain our plans to get ready for the pool. He says "Oh good, would you like me to put your do not disturb tag on the door?" I stifled a chuckle as I replied "That's ok, it already is on the door." Glad he still waited for us to let him in at least!

Each level of our cabin had a separately controlled digital thermostat. Pretty easy to switch as needed by tapping the up and down arrows in the top right corner. I'd often find that I wanted a cooler temp when I'd been out in the sun but then feel too cold later. The bottom of the thermostat did have similar technology to Virgin Voyages where you could choose a word describing the time of day like morning or evening and pressing that single button would change the lighting and shades/curtains accordingly. You could also choose between no lights, dim lights, or bright lights by those icons in the middle. I personally found that one option on the bottom half of the screen that says "Close Blinds" humorous because underneath it says "Caution Furniture." All I could picture was going around and warning all the chairs that I'd be closing the blinds now.

I'm a very detail orientated visual person so I notice random things like how this one of the many light switches in our cabin that controlled individual sets of lights had its switch plate installed upside down. This button was right below the thermostat by the main door to the cabin. It would make me smile as we switched off the lights to leave the cabin.

The view of the lower level of our cabin with my back to the main door. This hexagonal tile pattern ran the length of the bathroom door, entryway and wet bar space. Each time the floor composite changed, it was framed by a thin silver metal border. Caught myself a few times sitting on the floor to tie shoes scraping my legs or knees against the metal border as I swung around to stand back up. The main communal layout of our cabin featured a full size dining table with a bench seat along the wall and two freely moving chairs. The table itself did not move so it was a bit of a fluffy squeeze to slide onto the bench seat. Along that same wall is a sofa (that converts to a bed) with a chaise lounge and an end table. In front of that couch is a coffee table, two very low chairs, and a flat screen TV. Those are the only doors out to the balcony beyond the couch. Since Dad chose to sleep on the sofa bed instead once we arrived, I missed my usual pattern of stepping out for quiet time on the balcony while he slept. 

Our minibar area had the standard allotment probably any other adult would use frequently. We had our own coffeemaker with pods, an electric kettle, various sized cups, and sweeteners. 

We had a bottle of champagne left chilling in a bucket on embarkation day and two bottles of liquor that was our choosing from a provided list. You could also choose from a list of wines as well as the hard liquor.

The last time we had a Celebrity suite that granted us in cabin liquor bottles, we found a couple who was driving back home and gifted the bottles to them on the last day. This time we ended up donating the champagne and two bottles of liquor to the Celebrity Cruise Activity Host team to enjoy. Thank you Shawna, Bethany, Sabina (no she's not a teenage witch), Gil (pronounced like Jill), Ely, and Mark for putting up with our goofiness at trivia and game shows! Hope we didn't drive you to drink too much!

The cabinet on the upper left held a touchpad safe, glassware, salt and pepper shakers, and some small dishes and silverware. 

That small white box is our ice bucket. Note the small pile of pillow chocolates we had accumulated by the end of the cruise. The only reason they still existed was because they were dark chocolate and Dad doesn't like dark chocolate. I had to surrender any milk chocolate ones we received. The dark chocolate ones end up getting brought home and sits in the fridge until I'm desperate enough for chocolate to snack on a couple. That and finding random laundry tags still in the clothes is a great way to remind you of the cruise. We also were provided large glass bottles of Evian water with drinking glasses. When we were contacted pre-cruise asking for our cabin preferences, I specifically asked for lots of plastic water bottles versus the metal ones. I tried the metal bottles and it gave an off taste to the water. 

We had the typical cabin mini fridge with the solid black door and this wine style fridge with a glass door. Yes, Celebrity offers Coke products though I always find it interesting how it's not always a Coke brand when it comes to root beer. Dad loves getting sparkling water when he's on a cruise and he was surprised to see they had plenty of Michelob Ultra to offer. Granted only about one of those got drunk the whole cruise. We were able to get all diet or zero sugar versions of our soda choices and after the second day they were able to find my Vitamin Water Zero orange flavor. I really appreciated how even in the Retreat Lounge for quick breakfast bites when we weren't super hungry, I'd ask for orange juice for simplicity sake and they'd remember instead and bring me the Vitamin Water Zero. 

The regular fridge is enclosed in the next cabinet over to the right. They also stocked this fridge with a few extra soda cans. 

Suraj would often ask what we liked to have in the cabin to snack on. Make sure whatever you answer is something you love having all the time because they would often repeat our preferences unless told otherwise. Dad asked for some sort of nuts and we'd find random bowls of everything from cashews to hazelnuts left for us. He also was the one to request cookies so we'd often get a variety plate of cookie flavors. I was impressed with the first couple plates tasting fresh and soft but the quality went down as the cruise went on. No waste as Dad happily ate whatever I didn't want. Fruit was always a good choice and Suraj made a point of finding us some more of the elusive bananas that seem to run out the fastest on every cruise. We'd also usually get some sort of "fancy" treat that they gave to all suites like chocolate covered strawberries or little petit fours. While we never had the occasion to try room service or get a specialty restaurant meal delivered, this table would have made a great place to eat comfortably. 

Our sectional sofa bed was made into a bed as pictured below and made up again as a sofa each morning. We were asked on day one if we preferred that or leaving it as a bed. Dad asked the shoreside concierge pre-cruise about getting a body pillow. That is the long white pillow you see stacked on top of the sofa above and lying along the back of the bed below. 

Note the stack of yellow towels - we were told by our steward on Equinox that the grey towels we'd picked up from the pool deck were not allowed to be used off the ship. She assured us that all the stewards were given a list of when their passengers had excursions and would leave them the yellow towels in the cabin the night before. I guess since we had the jacuzzi in this cabin, we always had a stack of yellow towels in our cabin.

There are some drawers underneath the TV for extra storage. The jacuzzi is right behind the window behind the TV. Screens come down to cover that window and the one along the stairwell. Works great whether you want privacy outside or want to block the glare while watching TV inside.

Side note: The cabin TV has two on demand features. One is to set up your streaming service by using your own device's browser to put in the code provided on the cabin TV. Then the instructions on the TV asked that I launch the browser for my Google Chromecast. I don't have a Google Chromecast so I didn't pursue anything further. The other older on demand feature is the option to bring up shows and movies to watch whenever you want. There were some newer releases like Oppenheimer but when I started to load the movie, I noticed a message that said "All rentals have 24 hours to watch before expiration." A bit of a turn off asking to pay for in cabin on demand programming when Princess provides it for free. However, Dad started a different movie he's sure also had that message and the charge for it never showed up on our account. Funny enough was the amount of random $0.00 charges that did show up on our account throughout the cruise to places onboard (mostly bars) we didn't visit that day. My first thought was simply a matter of where the bar waiter chose to run our card or retrieve the drink ordered versus where we were sitting when ordering but some of them were from times where the ones we did order were also listed as the place we were sitting. We didn't bother to question it with anyone onboard since it always said $0.00 but in case someone out there was suddenly getting some free drinks when they shouldn't have been, you're welcome!

The top buttons are to control the shades around the jacuzzi. The left middle switch turns the lights on and off on the balcony. The right middle switch turns on the soft lights next to each step. The large bottom switch is to control the lights in the living room space.

Dad got a kick out of how the middle step on the lower stairs is made to match the same material as the countertop while the rest of the stairs look the same.

Standing with my back to the dining table - the full bottom level bathroom is behind that door on the right. The lightswitch is outside like most cruise bathrooms. The stairwell up to the point that it connects with the bathroom wall has a glass panel fitted under the railing. We had several rough sea mornings and evenings and there were moments where I hesitated before starting up or down these stairs. It was also less than ideal to have to climb back up the stairs in my wet bathing suit and flip flops after taking a turn in the Jacuzzi. 

Underneath the stairs is a desk. You probably could sit for a few hours to work if needed but when the ocean is rocking, it feels like that chair is too. This was mostly where all of the paperwork they leave for you in the cabin on the first day was found like lists of suite and loyalty benefits, planned suite only events, room service menus, and business cards with all of the Retreat staff's names and extensions. Now you know I brought home that nice Celebrity Cruises branded pen for my collection!

It took us a little bit to realize that the phone in the cabin showed a red light at the bottom simply because it was plugged in and "charging." The red light at the top of the phone was what lit up when you had a message. We did also realize that only once did the phone ever actually ring. I'm guessing it's set not to if the call is coming before or after a certain time. There are days when we were sitting nearby all along when we notice the red light and listen to a message that said the call came 5 minutes before. Most of the time it was the concierge staff calling every suite to remind them about reserved seating on chic night or the Retreat tender process for the upcoming port day.

Both the desk downstairs and the vanity table upstairs had these hidden charging boxes. Dad would routinely put his iphone USB charging cable as pictured here so he could always put the phone back on to charge when we returned to the cabin. The Celebrity app is great for a lot of things except for keeping your phone battery full.

Between the main door and the bathroom door is a wardrobe closet. I found that any of the wardrobe cabinets that opened as two doors had automatic lights inside that would come on when opened. Here you will also find a tote bag, umbrellas, and a set of binoculars. The latter two are only for use on board or in port. We found that the binoculars seemed broken somehow like the lenses weren't lined up right when we tried to use them to identify another cruise ship in the distance. This is also where you find laundry bags and slips to use when sending your laundry in for the ship to wash. We clarified a few times over with Suraj when he said we had unlimited laundry. The suite perks on Celebrity's website for this cabin says "complimentary laundry twice per cruise" and our loyalty level earns us one complimentary bag per cruise so we were expecting to only be able to put in four bags total. We were never charged for laundry so we put in a bag every few days. We also learned that the ship does the laundry pressing only in the evenings when Dad asked why our first laundry bag hadn't been returned by the next evening. Suraj went and retrieved our bag by the time we were back from dinner and made a point of having them get future bags and pressings back to us by the next morning. 

One of the other perks I'd heard about for those in the upper suites is complimentary use of the thermal suite onboard. If you look up the FAQ section about spa use on Celebrity's website, it says "Do any of the suites receive complimentary access to the SEA Thermal Suite or Persian Garden? No, only AquaClass guests receive complimentary access." Suraj assured us that we had full thermal suite access. It took several days before the spa wasn't mobbed with people showing up for a giveaway for us to verify Suraj's claim. The one spa crew member on duty at the time told us that she can't give us a tour while there are passengers using the thermal suite but we were welcome to head in and tour on our own. It was great to see all the options and I could see how this would be a great perk for someone who likes spa time. Dad's favorite part though was going into the relaxation room that has comfy chaise lounges looking out floor to ceiling windows and watching the cargo shipyard workers load cargo with the crane while we were docked in Cartagena. That corner space also affords a great peek down at the balconies that are part of the largest Iconic Suites onboard. Future tip for anyone staying in one of those - you are not in private on your balcony!

Whereas the Royal Suite (at least on Equinox) only has a half bath outside of the main bedroom, the Edge Villa has a full bath with toilet, sink, and shower stall.

Counter space however is much more limited in this bathroom. The drawer that pulls out from under the sink has extra tissues, toilet paper, and sanitary product disposal bags. The shelf underneath holds the towels, a trash can, and a hairdryer. Both bathrooms had a hairdryer and Dad says it dried his hair fairly well. 

The shower stall has a small lip to step over to enter. A small shelf in the corner for storage and a shelf holding three pump bottles - body/shower wash/gel, shampoo, and conditioner of the Santal 33 brand. I liked that these were completely removable bottles versus a wall mounted caddy that the solutions get poured into for refilling. It was nice to have the option of either pushing the pump to dispense onto my loofah or picking up the bottle to dispense faster into my hand for shampooing. Other items in the bathrooms were from the typical Bigelow brand that Celebrity uses in most every suite. There is one grab bar for safety by the showerhead and two hanging hooks on the far left wall inside the shower stall. One thing we noticed was that no bathroom had the typical clothesline for hanging things to dry in the shower.

Both showers had this nice combination showerhead system. The bottom knob controlled the temperature while the smaller knob above it switched between the rainshower showerhead in the ceiling and the wand sprayer that you could pull down to wash all your bits and pieces as desired. 

One of the perks Celebrity does now for upper suites that wasn't a thing when we stayed in the Royal Suite is to offer their guests a gift of monogrammed pajamas. Most of the time the shoreside concierge will ask for your sizes and monogram choice pre-cruise but no mention was made of it until Suraj asked once on board. While we had our usual discussion about finding the right size of any clothing onboard with him, he mistakenly combined on the form our asking for a 2x size with Dad's monogram choice of his initials AL. What got delivered to our cabin the next day was a lovely folded pajama set tied with a ribbon, and monogrammed with the letters XAL. All three of us had a good laugh about it. Suraj took the pair back and had the embroiders make a new pair with the correct monogram. 

At first 2x was the largest size Suraj thought he could get so I asked that he not monogram anything on mine. A couple days later, Suraj lets me know that he was able to find a 3x pair (which I also opted not to monogram) and he delivered that pair to our cabin as well. Before I could even ask, he assured me that I could keep both sets. A couple days later he asks about the pajamas (which I hadn't gotten to try on yet) and whether I would be keeping the smaller pair. I did confirm my decision to keep both (Christmas gifts anyone?) and he quickly backtracked assuring me that the decision was fine. I would have happily tried them both and given one back but the fact that he volunteered outright that I could keep both only to ask later if I was planning to give one back was a bit odd.

Take a break, stretch those legs, and grab a snack. Come back for what the cabin looks like upstairs and on the balcony in my next post!