Celebrity Edge

Hello fellow cruisers! I am happy to report back about my week aboard the Celebrity Edge traveling to the Caribbean.

The ship was really beautiful. New, shiny and immaculate! I didn’t see any areas that weren’t in great shape. The ship is also thoughtfully laid out and very easy to negotiate. Interestingly, there is no single main dining room but instead there are several smaller dining rooms, each with it’s own atmosphere and unique decor. That really added a lot of dining variety for guests.

I ate almost every breakfast and several dinners in Blu, the Aqua Class dining room. It was lovely and the fact that the menu changed daily was a plus. Service was attentive and the food was very good.

I tried the Fine Cut Steakhouse, Raw on 5 and Eden Restaurant as well. I didn’t like Raw on 5 at all – the food all smelled really fishy. While the steakhouse was good, Eden was an unexpected delight. The venue is beautiful and the food was equally stunning. They offered six courses prepared by a chef and kitchen that was open to observe. For each course you chose between two different options. Not being a very adventurous eater I didn’t expect to like much – but it was all DELICIOUS! In addition to being delicious, the food was beautifully presented and service was outstanding. Our waiter, Zoran, was wonderful. Dessert was SO YUMMY! A globe of white chocolate was melted into petals using hot fudge to expose passion fruit sorbet. The only disappointment was the entertainment in Eden. Both the singer and the contortionist left a lot to be desired. Watching a shirtless man wrap both feet behind his neck two feet from the dinner table just wasn’t my cup of tea!

Among my favorite areas on the ship were the Rooftop Garden where live plants added an unexpected lush feel to the top of the ship and the Grand Plaza, where evening cocktails were accompanied by live music and an equally lively atmosphere.

The Magic Carpet was a small but interesting area that moved up and down along the outside of the ship. It was set up as a casual bar or a dining venue but high winds made it unusable many days.

Perhaps the most innovative and controversial part of the Edge are the new Infinite Veranda cabins. My Aqua Class cabin was sleek and well laid out. The cabin sports an outside wall of windows that can be lowered to form a balcony railing. The whole thing is see through, which is nice. There are also folding doors that can close off the balcony area from the cabin area but I can’t imagine why you would do that unless someone was sleeping and the other person wanted to use the balcony area. So, it does help to make the cabin interior bigger but on the downside, you never really feel like you are truly “outside” like you do with a traditional veranda. There is a motorized blind that you can use to block sunlight but both the blind and the actual glass wall were slow moving and often got stuck. I asked a lot of people what they thought of the new veranda cabins and the opinions were definitely mixed. That said, I didn’t really hear any negatives about the ship in general.

Entertainment on board included the usual singers and dancers in the main theater. There was also a really fun aerialist/acrobatics show where the entertainers were suspended from silks. That one was really good.

The spa and gym were both very pleasant. The Persian Garden area was really nice with heated tile recliners, a wet and a dry sauna and both a salt room and a crystal room to enjoy. Aqua Class cabins get complimentary access to the Persian Garden and I think that made the upgrade worth the extra price. Even without the first day discount the seaweed massage was worth the price!

All in all, I think the Edge is a great experience. If you don’t spend a lot of time in your cabin I think it is an exceptional experience.