Celebrity Edge - practical and to the point review with lots of tips for future guests.

hi we've just spent 12 nights on the celebrity Edge and over the next few minutes we're going to take you on a tour of the ship and we'll show you the state rooms and we'll talk about the food the drinks the venues the activities and the entertainment and the tour will include lots of video clips and photos we're going to talk about our exciting itinery and then at the end of the video we're going to do as we always do we're going to give you our honest opinion about what time on Celebrity Edge is like and we might even make you a little bit Jealous by tell the price that we paid so if you're planning a trip or going on the celebrity Edge then watch this video so we got some great tips for you I'm John I'm Lou if you've been if you watched our channel before then welcome back if you're new then you're very welcome and we hope you enjoy our content let's start with having a look at the state rooms so the state rooms on Celebrity Edge are nicely decorated with quite light colors which makes them feel quite Airy the bathroom in particular felt quite roomy now the um inside and the standard Veranda cabins are pretty much the same size with the exception of course of the addition of The Veranda uh on a a balcony cabin uh and on on edge the uh Verandas are some of them are slightly controversial because they have what they call an infinite Vera um which is actually inside The State Room unless you then open the window and put the partition across like this now some people we spoke to said they really like the infinite design um others said they didn't uh I think those that did said they liked it because it gave them additional space inside The State Room those that didn't said they preferred the Simplicity of just having a standard balcony I guess the key thing is to be aware of what you're getting before you book we're going to move on to everybody's favorite topic on a cruise ship now which is food food oh yes um now celebrity Edge is a little bit different isn't it it is yeah there are four main dining rooms on Celebrity Edge there's the Cosmopolitan the Cyprus the Tuscan and the Normandy and all of these offer the early sitting at 6:00 p.m. and the late sitting at 8:30 p.m. and you can also choose anytime dining but that doesn't guarante guarantee you a time or a table we were on a late sitting in the Cypress restaurant but we did change three times to anytime dining so we could experience all four restaurants um yeah now each restaurant has their own kind of theme and their own set menu um of three starters and three Entre um now these are specific to each restaurant and they say the same for the whole Cruise um uh but in addition all four restaurants also um share and offer exactly the same menu as you would kind of expect on a normal Cruise which changes every day now this all sounds a bit complex but actually once you get your head around it it's pretty flexible actually and it makes I think the main dining experience um a little bit more enjoyable one other thing to bear in mind is that if you're in the Cypress restaurant and you particularly like something that is on the Tuscan restaurant you can order that from the Cypress restaurant can't you yeah and they bring it to you like you did several times with the uh the lamb I think it was um anyway so yeah we tried all four restaurants um I don't think any of us had a favorite no I mean although they are slightly different they're not massively so are they really no and they're all really nice um the quality of the food is superb yeah I think it's a feels like a step up from Royal Caribbean for example but I have to say I did miss the grand dining experience there's it's it's more like restaurants for restaurants no main right so moving on to speciality restaurants now these are restaurants that incur an additional fee celebrity Edge offers five raar on [Music] five look Bri and [Music] Chef Eden [Music] restaurant fine cut the rooftop grill so we uh ate in two of the speciality restaurants that's Eden and the rooftop grill uh and if you are prepared to pay the additional fee then I think we would thoroughly recommend both of those wouldn't we definitely so the traditional Buffet on the edge is called the ocean view uh it's of a pretty good standard isn't it yeah it's a high standard and it's nice it's never too busy in there we could always find a seat uh we particularly like the outdoor seating at the back of the boat and it's open pretty much all day uh except with a couple of short so the final couple of pieces in the culinary jigsaw uh the cafe albo in the Grand Plaza serves coffee and cakes in lovely surroundings the Mas Grill provides freshly cooked burgers and there is also a self-served soft ice cream dispenser here finally the Eden Cafe which serves breakfast and lunch at limited times right so let's talk about drinks now and let's break this down by what's free and what you pay for okay so in the Ocean View cafe tea coffee and juices are are always free and there's a good selection of different types of tea and when they are open the Eden Cafe Mass Grill and Spa Cafe also offer free juices now it's worth noting that you can ask for a kettle and tea and coffee making facilities in your state room too and that is free soft drinks such as Coke come in around $3 to4 but are included in the drinks packages now quite a lot of passengers on our cruise had bought a fair which included the basic drinks package but if you were to bu yourself then it comes in at around $100 per day including a compulsory gratuiti charge of 20% you can pay around $20 per day to upgrade to the premium package all right now if you don't have the package then you'll pay between $7 and $10 for a beer 7 sorry 7 to $14 for a glass of wine and around $14 for a basic cocktail you need to add a 20% compulsory gratuity charge to all of these prices well although it's worth noting that you can bring up to two bottles of your own wine on board on embarcation day only these are supposed to be drunk in your stateroom unless you pay the $25 per bottle corkage charge now you haven't mentioned the other of lice Essentials for a while other light what essential uh ice cream oh ice cream okay yeah so there is free ice cream on board celebrity Edge um you can get ice cream ano sbay available from Scoops which is in the ocean view um they also have one flavor of ice cream per day that you have to pay for I never went for that cuz they had all the rest was free and they also have the uh soft ice cream available there you can also get the soft ice cream yourself from the mass Grill so you can go and help yourself whenever you like but if I'm completely honest the ice cream is not as good as that you get on Royal Caribbean o controversial I know okay so thinking about the venues uh starting on Deck three you'll find guest services and the kids club also on Deck 3 on embarcation Day by Guest Services there is a desk where you can inquire about your main dining options okay so moving on to the Grand Plaza area that you'll find on decks three four and five yeah and it's the kind of heart of the ship isn't it and there's a lot going on here yes you'll find the uh popular martini bar uh where there's live music throughout the day and night and also the very popular Cafe albo serving specialities coffees and teas yeah and free cakes oh yes yes free cakes yeah Al bacho is a lovely area it does get very busy um and kind of feeding into that a lot on those decks are the usual selection of the art gallery there's an ATM machine um dishing out US Dollars um there's the shops and the photo gallery and the the kind of internet cafe type of place so it's quite a busy area isn't it yeah it is okay so at the back of the ship on dex4 and 5 you will find the Eden area yeah it's quite unique actually the Eden area and quite quirky isn't it um you get to it via a kind of mirrored Corridor and then it opens out into this very nicely decorated area which has got a quite a small Cafe Eden it's got the Eden restaurant down on a a kind of deck below and then it's got a bar area has isn't it yeah and at the bar area there's some activities like uh yoga and Tai Chi that go on during the day and every evening they have this really lovely uh acoustic group that play throughout the evening and also um on either side of the Eden area there's little outside areas where you can kind of go and sit and and are quite quite quiet although one of them is the smoking area yeah and it's um at the actual inside the Eden area itself there's kind of two levels of seating some of them look out over the back of the the back of the ship there's some lovely swinging chairs it's a great area to sit in to relax read a book and all that kind of stuff um and it's actually quite quiet isn't it yes you certainly can lose yourself in there or lose the people you're with and I think whatever celebrity were C trying to achieve with Eden I think they succeeded didn't they yeah really enjoyed it now on Deck 14 right at the front you'll find The Spar area and this is where you have access to the thermal Suites and above this you'll find the gym which is available 24 hours a day and includes a range of uh activities classes some some are free and some you pay for uh yeah uh and it's pretty well equipped the gym actually and it was usually relatively quiet and never had a problem getting on any of the pieces of equipment um and there's a range of spinning bikes as well in a separate room which you could use even when they weren't being used for um spinning classes now situated just behind The Spar on deck 14 you'll find the salarium now this is an indoor adult only pool and does include one hot tub and some very comfy sunbeds okay so moving outside then from the salarium area um we get to the main pool area which includes a lively bar and the mass Grill yeah and the pool is actually uh it's just the one pool but it's long enough to be able to swim lens in when it's quiet enough which is quite unusual for cruise ships and also in that pool area there's the kind of banners which you can uh which you can rent but again slightly unusual um the hot tubs are found on Deck 16 so they're not right by the pool you've got to go up two flights of steps to get into the hot tubs but they're they're very attractive and they were very nice they're on these kind of groovy stalks aren't they and they actually weren't that busy no they weren't it was great so we' just mentioned the Magic Carpet now that's um situated on Deck 16 normally I think it's on the star board side yes the starboard side and most of the time it's used as a bar uh which is a nice place to have kind of pre-dinner drinks yeah so it can occasionally be used as a restaurant and it also doubles up as the place for tender operations doesn't it yes it does unfortunately yeah so the rest of deck 14 is mainly taken up with the Ocean View cafe but above this you will find the rooftop garden which also includes the Rooftop Garden um speciality restaurant and then behind that is a Sunset bar with great views out the back of the ship and also the jogging track yeah and the jogging track is quite unusual isn't it because it kind of covers two decks it's got a little slope on it up and down it's quite cool isn't it yeah let's move on to entertainment yeah so celebrity has a reputation for great entertainment and activities doesn't it unfortunately we weren't disappointed were we no um the amount of variety of entertainment and activi that were offered on the boat was very impressive so I think particular mention needs to go to the cruise director a guy called jeppe um who was clearly very popular with the guests and also popular with the crew yeah and the uh dancers and singers on the boat were of a really high standard and their shows were really modern high energy and very entertaining so as well as the resident cast there's also a variety of visiting acts and we particularly enjoyed the comedian didn't we a guy called Phil Bor an English guy um but I think special mention needs to go to one of the singers is an Irish singer called Steven Barry that's Steven with a pH um and he was really excellent um he did three shows in the end he was only supposed to do one he ended up doing an extra couple and he was absolutely excellent probably I think one of the best kind of Standalone um singers that we've seen on a cruise ship would you agree yeah no he was he was really really good um as well as the theater there is a venue called the club right next door and this hosted a variety of um activities and entertainment in the evening it included mini shows by the dancers and singers um there were tribute AXS uh Abba and queen and uh they held the silent disco which apparently is a bit of a thing on Celebrity boats we'd never done one before and uh good fun wasn't it they were great fun yeah um so let's talk about the itinery now now so this was a repositioning Cruise the ship was on its way to Australia and we were going from Dubai to Singapore and so our P ports of call were mbai coachin Columbo in Sri Lanka and fuette so that completes the tour of the ship and now moving on to the summary now I had really high expectations of celebrity and they did not disappoint I think one of the strengths was the state room um it probably was the nicest inside inside State room that we stayed in and our cabin attendant Julietta was outstanding she really went above and beyond and celebrities still do uh twice daily daily cleans yeah turn arounds whatever you call it yeah and I really enjoyed pillow chocolate the pillow chocolate it sounds pathetic but I did it's the little things that count well it is isn't it and and I think the Julietta um was kind of representative of the crew as a whole because they were all very engaged and engaging lots of eye contact they were always cheery always said hello and it felt to us I think like that came from the top didn't it because the captain and the crews director captain captain captain Matt from the beautiful country of Greece his words not ours but they were he and ji were both very much um kind of front of house all the time um and it felt like the crew fed off that uh and I think they they enjoyed it and we enjoyed it because yeah the crew were really excellent so on the whole the things that I would say need improve Improvement are pretty minor and uh for me there were things such as um before we got on the boat the amount of information that came through was uh quite limited I wasn't aware of how many sheep canites there were I didn't know there was a white party um so I yeah I would have liked a bit more information before we got on yeah and there's a couple of little things wasn't there like the app was a little bit glitchy didn't always tie up with the um the written um daily uh program which in entally is you get a paper versional which is another strength actually but it does help with that and the app tie together yeah and I was a bit disappointed that the outdoor movie wasn't working I quite like that and it kept being advertised that it was but it never did and probably the smallest complaint I have is because the food was so good and such a high standard but the cookies and the ice cream did let them down a bit not going on Celebrity again no we are okay so the big ticket item in terms of what celebrity could do better revolved around the embarcation day in Dubai some of the immigration in India but also the tender operations in fukat they were kind of borderline chaotic we're not going to focus on those big time now because they may well have been a function of the fact that this was a repositioning Cruise um but there is no doubt that there is room significant room for improvement um on that one celebrity and the only other thing that I would say I felt that and I but this is not the first time I've experienced this guest services was not particularly effective so our top tips for celebrity Edge would include taking a book to the Eden and uh getting completely lost and having some me time um watching one of the nightly shows at the martini bar and if you're eating in the Ocean View cafe take your food all the way down to the back and go and eat outside U make sure you take part in one of the later activities in the club such as the silent disco or one of the shows or one of the trip nights and if you haven't got a drinks package make sure you take your two bottles of wine per cabin on on embarcation day now the pools and the hot tubs in the resort area are particularly quiet in the evening after about 5:00 so if you want a bit of quieter time there that's a great time to go and then finally um there's a few little outside areas that I really enjoyed there's on Deck five actually there's one either side of Eden and there's also one just outside of the fine cut Steakhouse and as promised we will now reveal the price that we paid okay so let's wrap this up then would you recommend celebrity Edge I would totally recommend celebrity Edge I had an amazing time yeah I absolutely agree we did have a lovely itinery which obviously made a difference but I think overall when you consider the price repaid it represented amazing value for money [Music]

Channel: Independent Travel Reviews

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Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023