Thrifty Couple Celebrity Edge Review Jan 27th to Feb 3

Now we went from great to well a huge miss. After the show we headed back to Eden to catch the Revelation at Eden. We hadn’t done much more than walk through Eden until this point. After 5 to 10 minutes we had to get up and leave because the incense smell thingy really bothered my wife to the point she couldn’t be in the space. She said it smelled like a combination of beef jerky and urine, yuck! I could have dealt with it but left with her. I have to say that Eden is a beautiful space, great views of the ocean and lots of great places to chill, but the smell eventually kept us out. On Day 6 we tried watching the show from the upper deck away from the bar and she had to step outside after 5-10 minutes because the smell got to her. I really wish they didn’t use the scent in the room it would make for a much nicer space.


Since Eden was a no go, we went to live at the club. This was a blast. Damian talked with Marcus Terell and one of the officers. They did a singing game with Marcus and then they had a game between Damian and the officer where they crack eggs on their heads hoping not to get the raw one. After the first question it was obvious Damian was going to lose, but it was still really funny. They also played a blooper reel of the officer trying to pre-tape an announcement. After the club we decided it was time to call it a night.

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I am enjoying reading your report. We will be on the Edge in a couple months with our 7-year old.

In general, how would you say people dress for dinner? We always wear khaki pants and nice tops/polos to dinner on Royal/Disney cruises, and we wore these on our Reflection cruise a couple years ago also. Some of the posts I’ve seen on Edge boards/groups, past cruisers are making it seem like dinners are more dressed up than that. Ladies in dresses. Men in dress slacks. Of course, these may be the same sorts of people who say you need a tuxedo for formal night on Royal (notsomuch!).
 
I am enjoying reading your report. We will be on the Edge in a couple months with our 7-year old.

In general, how would you say people dress for dinner? We always wear khaki pants and nice tops/polos to dinner on Royal/Disney cruises, and we wore these on our Reflection cruise a couple years ago also. Some of the posts I’ve seen on Edge boards/groups, past cruisers are making it seem like dinners are more dressed up than that. Ladies in dresses. Men in dress slacks. Of course, these may be the same sorts of people who say you need a tuxedo for formal night on Royal (notsomuch!).

Khaki pants and nice tops and polo shirts is what I wore every night and was fine. Some do get really dressed up, but that isn’t any different than other lines. My wife did wear dresses, but she wouldn’t have needed to if she didn’t want to.

You should have a great time:)
 
Khaki pants and nice tops and polo shirts is what I wore every night and was fine. Some do get really dressed up, but that isn’t any different than other lines. My wife did wear dresses, but she wouldn’t have needed to if she didn’t want to.

You should have a great time:)

Thank you! That’s good to know.
 


Day 5 St. Maarten Our Favorite

We woke up to St. Maarten, life doesn’t get much better than that:) Since our excursion wasn’t until 11:45 we ate breakfast and got off the ship to do a little shopping. After some bad luck on Tortola we had better luck here. The salespeople were super and it helps to be the first in the shops before all the other ships hit the shops. The shopping area by the dock looked as we remembered it from years past. The same shops seem to still be there.


After shopping we found some different spots around the ship to take in the island views. The water around St Maarten still has some of the prettiest colors we have seen on any island. On this morning we went up to Oceanview around 10:30 to have brunch after learning the Mast Grill doesn’t handle gluten free. After brunch we were ready to on our excursion and visit Toppers Rhum Distillery. We took a tour bus and we got a nice history of the island. We stayed on the Dutch side and overall it looked pretty good. There are still a lot of buildings that are damaged, like the post office, and it sounds as if some businesses didn’t reopen after the hurricane, it is still a beautiful island.


When we got to Toppers Rhum distillery and I think we all wondered what we were in for because it was in a warehouse district. We went in and our guide gave a really fun talk about rhum and allowed us to taste some of their specialty flavors like passion fruit, soursop, and I had a licorice flavored rhum and one with a bit of a kick. These specialty rums were amazing! Then we got to see how they bottle the rum and then essentially got unlimited samples of their 5 main flavors, Coconut, White Chocolate Raspberry, Banana Vanilla Cinnamon, White, and Spiced rhums. I have to say that these were the best rhums we have ever tasted. As I am writing this, my wife just finished a glass of the white chocolate raspberry rhum chilled in the fridge neat! The rhum is that good, it tastes incredible neat, not many rhums can be enjoyed that way. We also learned that we can source it locally at Total Wine Yeh! If you are wondering about the the spelling of rhum, they spell it with the h in it. Highly recommend the tour and the rhum. Apparently US customs treats Toppers rhum as a craft brew so it doesn’t count against your alcohol limit when coming back to the US.


After the tour they took us downtown and we could take the water taxi back when we were ready. For us that meant back to the ship. Again I only took the good pictures of St. Maarten. Is it as pretty as it was pre hurricane, of course not, but it is definitely on the mend and in our opinion the best island in the Caribbean. They need us passengers to keep visiting and spending money in port to help them recover.


when we were leaving port, there was quite the horn chatter between the Edge, Oasis, and the Summit, it was pretty cool.

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After we reboarded we were able to catch Michael Reddon performing in the rooftop garden. He did a mix of covers and his own music. The rooftop garden is a really nice place to catch some live music. We dined in Tuscan and both the food and service was incredible. Our dinner service went quick enough that we were able to catch the 7 pm show, December 63, a Frankie Valli tribute band.


I will say that the Celebrity theater performers and Marcus Terrell were at the performance to watch. We sat in our normal location, right of stage down by the tables, which wasn’t great for this show. December 63 mostly stood at the front of the stage, so we were mostly looking at backsides lol. The music was good, but IMO the singers were not as good as the Celebrity singers or Marcus. Yes, I actually knew all the songs and liked them, so it wasn’t the type of music that formed my opinion, it was truly their vocal tone. The crowd on the other hand went from the majority sitting still and not moving during the other performances to moving to the music and giving an emphatic standing ovation to the singers. We honestly felt bad for the Celebrity performers and Marcus that sang their butts of and didn’t even get a standing ovation to witness this. The one song I want to give these guys massive props for is the acapella song they did. They raised their game a lot on this song and it was incredible. We love Straight No Chaser so really appreciated this song.



I will jump ahead and say that people went out of their way to compliment these guys whenever they were around the ship. I get it, they played songs you know, but the other performers deserve some credit too. We did thank one of the Celebrity singers and gave complimented him on the incredible job they did. The thing that bothered me the most though was when we were sitting in the club. The December 63 group was sitting near Marcus and I believe one of the Celebrity singers. A lady came up and started off praising the December 63 group to one of the singers, ok. I have nothing but praise for how he handled it because he did everything he could to stop her at how good of job they did. Unfortunately she kept talking and said less then flattering things about the other performers with Marcus sitting right there! Sometimes I wish people would think and just compliment the people they like, there is no reason to comment on the other performers in a negative way. If it was just you were my favorites and left at that, that would be ok. Sorry about venting a bit, but this just didn’t sit well with us, especially since we enjoy all types of music.
 
Well tonight we ended up trying Revelation at Eden on Deck 6 instead hoping that the scent would not be noticeable there. Unfortunately, it got to my wife, but I decided to stay and watch the show. I figured the show would be under an hour, because another night the show started at 10 and Sinful at Eden started at 11. This show reminded me of when I went to the Nutcracker. The performers were very talented at what they do, but I had no clue what was happening. The only thing I can figure is the girl in white started with a guy, midway through they appeared to not get along, and by what I thought was the end they were getting along again. I thought the end was when they all stood on the small main stage together, about 55 minutes in, but the countdown that they have going continued and some of the performers kept performing. So did I see the end or not? They really need a playbill so we know what is going on. I will say the lady sitting 2 feet from me got packed in with pillows by one of the performers;), I was so happy it was not me lol. I am glad I went and saw it, but wasn’t interested in seeing it again, unless I guess someone told me what was happening.
 


Day 6 at Sea (Finally relaxed a bit)

After breakfast we went swimming in the resort pool It is a very nice pool. The only weird thing is all of the heaters appear to be in the aft end of the pool and in the morning there is a big temperature difference front to back in the pool. After swimming we found some loungers to read and relax, I finished ‘Into the Storm’ which is a great read on a ship in the Caribbean lol.


We went to the club for a bit and watched the archery challenge. It was actually pretty cool. The used rubber tipped darts shooting at targets in an inflatable structure. Watching the people, the nock (had to look this up on Wikipedia) was too narrow and people were having trouble getting the string in the nock. Other than that it is something we would try in the future. We then went up and listened to the tree performer which happened to be Michael Reddon and finally caught a full set:)


After another fantastic lunch in Oceanview, we went down to Eden and listened to the Reckless Charms. We did this by sitting in the area outside of Eden on Deck 5 and they have the music playing through speakers out there. After they finished we just found different places to relax around the ship, played some ping pong, and generally hoped that time would crawl along. Just before supper we did catch Michael Reddon performing in a tree and got to see another full set. When we returned to our room to change for supper we had a voice message inviting us on a galley tour the next day at 10.


Before I talk about supper and our nights activities, I want to comment on a couple of things. The sewer smell being talked about first. Someone asked us about it on the ship, new cruiser I suspect, and we said that we definitely noticed it randomly, but that we have on every ship we sailed. Was it there, yes, but it wasn’t any worse than any other ship we have sailed. To us, it just appears to be a quirk of cruise ships, no idea why.


The Magic Carpet being closed during bad weather. Yes it was closed at times due to the weather, but to be honest when it was closed due to either rain or wind, we wouldn’t have wanted to be out on it anyways. Being a thrifty cruiser I can’t speak to the infinite verandas, but I am guessing with the weather we had they may have been closed more often than normal.


The cabanas were rented only a handful of times during the whole week. Either our cruise was the exception, or these spaces could be repurposed on the Apex. Last week it just looked like it was wasted space. Also in our opinion the location and layout didn’t seem very desirable, I would have preferred them with easier access to the pool and a path for everyone to the magic carpet that wouldn’t interfere with the cabana guests.


We had supper in Cyprus, and while our servers were excellent, for some reason my gluten free dish took forever. Once we got our food it was terrific. After supper we went and watched Friendly Feud end in controversy lol. One team was up 3 to 1 and the last game was supposed to be for 2 points. Well the team with 1 point won the round and they were declared to finish in second with 2 points?????? The crowd and the team tried to lobby that it was a tie and they should have played another round, but they ended up with the second place prizes and it was over. It was just kind of strange.


We watched comedian Rondell Sheridan in the theater and he was hilarious and put on a very good show. After the show we went to the club to listen to Madison, one of the theater cast to sing with the band. She was amazing and we stuck around till about 11 and then headed up for bed.
 
Day 7

Got up at our normal 7 and grabbed breakfast. After breakfast we swam for a little bit between the rain drops and then got ready for the galley tour. We got down to the galley tour and we were one of the first in line. As we got going, somehow we got shuffled to being last in line and it got to the point that we couldn’t hear the person taking us around. Thankfully we have been on galley tours so we knew what a lot of the areas were, or we would have had to work our way back up front. We just rolled with it, but it was a bit disappointing. The galley itself was really nice and they took us up a level to the bakery area. All in all it was a fun surprise, just wish we could have heard what was being described.

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With the weather being dicey, we chilled out before lunch and planned for a relaxing day. We went to Oceanview for our last lunch on ship. After lunch we went and sat in the area outside of Eden and listened to the Reckless Charms. I ended up playing in a ping pong tourney and got smoked even though I didn’t hit it too bad. Supper was in Tuscan and our serving team was excellent again and got us out for the 7 PM show. I have to say the food in the MDRs has been the best we have had on any ship we have been on.
 
The show was ‘A Hot Summer Night’s Dream’. This show was very good, but we didn’t understand the point of the working crew, other then getting them a spot to sing a song or two. The really didn’t have a role in the show. After the first show we caught a bit of the game show 60 Seconds or less in the club. We decided to catch the second showing of ‘A Hot Summer Night’s Dream’. I grabbed a camera that could do videos and I got a couple of videos during the second showing.


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We didn’t need to worry about getting our luggage out since we were walking off right away in the morning to catch our 10:30 flight out of Ft. Lauderdale. We decided to go to Rondell Sheridan’s late show. It was really good and we stuck around for almost all of it and finally decided to head up to bed because we had an early breakfast and needed to get off the ship as early as possible.


Last day

Debarkation went fine, although we ended up in the wrong line and had to go to the end of a longer line. While it seemed like a big deal at the time, it was fine and once they released the ship it took less than 10 minutes to debark. We got to the taxi stand and we ended up getting through TSA by 8:30.
 
The gluten free cakes from the last day, gluten free pizza which was incredible and had a great crust, and a cheese appetizer that amazing and was gluten free without the bread. I just used my gluten free bread with it.

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Our favorite view off the back of the boat, random pilot boat picture, and the elevator controls.

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Overall

This cruise like others had its hits and misses. When we factored in the ship, entertainment, and food this trip managed to land in our top 3 cruises. We liked it so much that we decided to book an oceanview on the Apex to see what changes they make to it. The 2 perks make an oceanview worth it for us because we can each have a drink or two a day and we will break even, compared to booking an inside room.
 
Hits, misses, and so sos

While the misses list might be longer they aren’t deal breakers, and we always have misses on every ship we sail. We could also tell that this is a new ship, as the crew is still getting used to it, especially the 4 main dining rooms. I think in 6 months to a year from now they will have it finely tuned.
 

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