Celebrity Beyond Review

Here is the review for our latest cruise on Celebrity Beyond. In this post we’ll try and take an in-depth look at the ship, its features, food, cabins, and more. We’ll also talk about the itinerary and activities on the ship.

Ship

The Celebrity Beyond is a beautiful newer (2022) ship in the Edge class that packs a ton of amenities into its approximately 142k tons. The ship itself is beautiful and modern with the luxurious touches that Celebrity is known for. The Beyond is medium sized in comparison to the giant ships being built today but it’s still plenty big with a capacity of around 3900 passengers. If you’ve never cruised before, the size and scale of these ships will probably shock you. It did me when we first cruised on one of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class giants. On this ship there are at least 14 bars and lounges, 4 main dining rooms, 4 complimentary casual dining venues, 8 specialty restaurants, and that’s just the drinking and dining options.  There are 5 entertainment venues featuring shows and other activities, pools and hot tubs including an area for passengers 16+, and more activities than you could attend or participate in. Game shows, karaoke, art classes and auctions, guest speakers, shopping, and more. For us, just fitting in some time to just relax by the pool was a challenge. All of this in a setting that is upscale and well laid out. We thought this was one of the best cruises we’ve been on and that was partially because we loved the ship.

Embarkation

A smooth embarkation experience always gets your cruise vacation off to a good start. Boarding the Celebrity Beyond was very smooth; we arrived at the terminal around 10am and walked right in to check in. Inside we had our tickets scanned at the checkpoints and were directed to the waiting area. Make sure you have your passport and your cruise ticket in hand so when you get to the check-in stations it’s just a matter of scan and go. Once in the waiting area we sat for approximately 15 minutes and then boarded the ship. We were onboard and making dinner reservations before 11am. We drove to the port and our timing was a little off but it worked out. On most of our cruises it was 10:30-11:00am before the doors opened. If you want to walk straight onto the ship without waiting, come a little bit later after boarding has started.

Food And Dining

You won’t be bored with your choices when it comes to food. The Celebrity Beyond has 4 dining rooms and you can dine in any of them. These dining rooms each have a different theme, French, Italian, Mediterranean, and American. There is also the Oceanview Cafe, which is the buffet serving all types of food for every meal. We tried several of the main dining venues as well as the buffet and found the food good. If you are expecting five-star meals every time you might be a little disappointed. But for folks like us who don’t dine in luxury every evening the experience is well above average to excellent. The buffet is a notch or two above what you might expect; lots of choices and a serve yourself setup that can get a little busy. For pizza and burgers there are casual dining areas that you can go to and grab a quick bite or a snack. We tried two specialty restaurants, which are an upcharge, but we felt they were worth it. We went to the Fine Cut steakhouse and Eden. The food at both was excellent and the atmosphere is more upscale than the main dining rooms. At Fine Cut the filet was fork tender and the service was on point; If you like this type of dining and food, it is well worth the price. As far as Eden is concerned, we canceled another reservation so we could go a second time. That lets you know how much we liked it. At Eden the food was unique and delicious and watching the kitchen prepare it was a show. Service was top notch and we felt an extra tip was well earned. I give the dining very high marks- we loved almost everything we ate, and the service was nearly flawless.

Onboard Activities

I realize that opinions vary on some of these things and that’s ok. What I want to mention is that every cruise line has a target audience and demographic and sometimes they differ a lot. Celebrity, although fairly kid friendly (they do have a kids’ club), are not necessarily oriented to families with young children. I usually notice the age range of the passengers on a ship and this time it skewed a little older. Not old, but a good percentage in the 50+ range. This leads me to the point I want to make, which is this: if you are looking for zip lines and wave riders this likely isn’t your cruise line. The activities on board the Beyond are geared to a little older crowd but it was fun for the younger people too. We saw a movie, took an art class, lounged at the pool, visited the bars, attended game shows and more. There were still other activities including guest lectures, pool competitions, art auctions, themed parties, etc. Bottom line is that you won’t be bored. For us the chance to unplug and relax is one of the big attractions so we don’t need an activity every hour of the day. The cruise director and staff do a great job of always having something going on, so it’s there if you like.

Entertainment

As usual on a Celebrity ship, the entertainment was outstanding. Production shows, singers, instrumentalists, a comedian, and other acts were everywhere it seemed. We could not squeeze everything in that we wanted to see but the headliner Salvatore Hasard, a singer, was awesome as well as the production show “Arte”. There were movies, karaoke, acrobats, and other music all over the ship so there was something for everyone. It always amazes me that the production values of Celebrity entertainment are so high on every ship I’ve been on. You can sit in the bar at Eden and listen to a solo pianist or go to a themed party and dance; it’s up to you. We had heard that it was difficult to get a seat in the theatre, but we never had an issue. We arrived 20-30 minutes before the show and were able to sit pretty much where we wanted every time. The theatre did fill up though so arriving a little early is recommended. I need to mention the Martini Bar as well; it’s pretty much a show and people love it. The bar is generally crowded, and it seems like the place is always busy. We’re not late-night partiers so we can’t get to some of the later activities but if you want the fun lasts until the early hours.

Service And Staff

When talking about service on a cruise ship, it’s important to note that there are always outliers in every situation. I’ve never been disappointed in the level of service or attitude I have received from any member of the crew. Maybe I don’t expect as much as some other folks. It always seems that I am being treated as well or better than anyplace else and I have traveled a lot. Our room steward was as expected- keeping the room neat and clean, filling the ice bucket every day, and responding quickly to special requests. We don’t need to see him every day; we would rather stay out of the way and let him do his job as quickly as possible. We didn’t expect a personal butler so I can’t say what the response to more complicated requests would be, but everything was fine for us. The dining staff was stellar- there was only one time when we felt that our waiter could have been more attentive. If you are used to five-star dining then it’s possible you might have some type of complaint but for us the service from the wait staff above expectations. At the bars the service was good too- it’s a wonder to me that the bartenders keep up as well as they do. My expectations might be different from some, but I would say this was another area that was excellent. Overall, we felt suitably pampered and served the entire trip.

Cabin

We had an infinite veranda cabin, a sort of window with the ability to open the top half. These are controversial because they are not traditional balconies and some hate them, but we thought it was great and the views were fine. We kept the window closed most of the time. It’s a matter of opinion I guess, and we’d book it again. The cabin was spacious enough; the good news is you won’t spend much time in your room if you are like us. The bathroom was slightly upscale and there was ample room to shower and have your privacy. There was tons of storage and we had no trouble finding a drawer or cubby for our things, but if you had more than two people in your room it could be tight. There was a box on the desk with the main outlet and usb ports and an outlet by the bed too, which is nice. With our non-surge protected outlet strip we had plenty of places to plug and charge in our gear. For us the cabin was great.

Disembarkation

Getting off the ship was just as easy as getting on. I did notice some confusion with some passengers either not knowing or misunderstanding the instructions for debarking. There is an opportunity for any passenger to walk off the ship in the first group if they would like to carry their own luggage. Some, when seeing this line, got in it for some reason and there were some moments of chaos while this was sorted. We were assigned a group number and waited until our group was announced and walked off the ship. In the terminal we picked up our luggage and were scanned through customs in five minutes flat. The worst part was walking to the garage for the car and returning to retrieve my wife and luggage. We were on the road home before 9am.

Conclusion

I guess it probably shows- we love the Celebrity Beyond! After a few years sailing Royal Caribbean, we tried Celebrity and this confirms we’ve found our sweet spot. Every cruise line has a personality and for us Celebrity’s combination of upscale ships and excellent service makes us fans. We will still cruise other lines at times, but this is our line of choice. I’m sure I missed a thing or two, but I highly recommend Celebrity Beyond if you are considering a cruise.