Celebrity Beyond Embarkation Day
This morning we departed our hotel, Fairfield Inn Downtown,at about 10 am for Port Everglades. The Lyft ride to the port cost $17 + tip. Lyft/Uber ride costs can vary greatly depending on time of day, traffic and number of available drivers. We arrived at Terminal 25 at about 10:17 and a crowd of Celebrity Beyond guests was already forming. Getting through security was easy and we were directed to a waiting area.
Guests are offered flavored water in terminal
The Celebrity Cruises’ waiting area at Terminal 25 is probably the nicest we have seen for any large ship to date. They even offered guests complimentary cucumber or orange flavored water.
Boarding began at 11am and was very organized. Boarding passes are electronic (you can optionally print out your boarding pass). We entered Celebrity Beyond on Deck 4 midship and I immediately made my way to Guest Services on Deck 3 to see if we could change our stateroom location. I will explain why later in this blog. I was the only one in line at Guest Services, so there was no wait. It was then I learned that the ship is completely full and that no stateroom changes were possible. I was told that I could check back after sail away. I never did, and I will explain why later in this blog.
After my request was shot down by Guest Services, we decided to drop our luggage in our stateroom. Staterooms are ready for occupancy at 1pm, but Celebrity does allow you to go to your stateroom to drop off your hand luggage. When we arrived at our stateroom (6289), our room keys were waiting for us in the little room number document slot.
A stateroom attendant and housekeeping supervisor were in our stateroom cleaning when we arrived. The supervisor was very nice, welcomed us onboard and took our hand luggage into the stateroom. She told us that our stateroom would be ready by the time we finished lunch. I should probably mention that on this cruise, Rickee and I decided to travel with only carry-on luggage. We have learned that on a seven-day cruise or shorter, we can pretty much take everything we need in our carry-on luggage.
After dropping off our luggage, we decide to complete the muster requirements by visiting our muster station in person (Cosmopolitan Restaurant) where a crew member scanned our boarding pass. We had both viewed the muster safety video (required) while we were waiting in the terminal. This was the easiest and most logical muster process we have experienced on a large ship.
Cosmopolitan Restaurant Is Our Muster Station
It was a little too early for lunch, but not too early to celebrate our 139th cruise with a glass of Prosecco in the Martini Bar! We enjoyed a glass of bubbly before heading to Oceanview Cafe for lunch. Celebrity Beyond offers five different options for embarkation lunch:
Rickee enjoys Prosecco at Martini Bar
Oceanview Cafe (buffet) 11:00am - 2:30pm
Le Grand Bistro (cover charge) 11:45am - 1:15pm
Mast Grill 11:30am - 6:00pm
Raw on 5 (a la carte menu) 12 Noon - 2:00pm
Luminae (for Retreat guests) 12 Noon - 2:00pm
When we finally arrived at Oceanview Cafe, it was pretty crowded. This is definitely the most popular lunch spot on the ship. The restaurant appears to be identical to Oceanview Cafe on Celebrity Apex, so we were familiar with the layout. Since we have reservations this evening at Le Voyage, we decide to have a light lunch. I did try the Butter Chicken, which was excellent. In fact, everything I tried on the buffet was very good. Granted, I did not try many things, but what I did try were all good.
A Light Lunch at Oceanview Cafe (Butter chicken, Pappadam w/Raita, Caesar Salad)
After lunch, it was time to unpack and familiarize ourselves with the Infinite Balcony stateroom. On our Celebrity Apex cruise last year, we were upgraded to a Sky Suite with access to The Retreat, so this is our first time in an Infinite Balcony stateroom. We will be doing a through review video on our YouTube channel (@cruisereport) of the Infinite Balcony stateroom, so subscribe to our channel so that you don’t miss it.
I will tell you why we decided to attempt a stateroom change. We learned just a few days before boarding that our stateroom, on Deck 6 aft, is right above an outdoor smoking area on Deck 5. We were concerned that cigarette smoke would waft up from Deck 5 and right into our stateroom.
As it turns out, the smoking area appears to be a bit aft of our stateroom and we have not noticed any cigarette smoke odor yet. However, the staterooms aft of our stateroom might get some of that pleasure, I honestly don’t know. Of course, when the ship is sailing, it probably is not an issue since the wind would carry the smoke farther aft, and there is an awning that might prevent the smoke from rising into the staterooms above.
Sail Away was at 3:30pm and we missed being on deck for sail away since we decided to indulge in Team Trivia at The Club. The General Knowledge trivia was the most difficult we have ever played. The questions were very off-the-wall and we did not do well. I only got 6 out of 20 questions correct, and the winner only got 7 right!
Our dinner reservations this evening were at 6:45 at Le Voyage on Deck 5. This is the new Daniel Boulud restaurant exclusive to Celebrity Beyond.
Le Voyage is a small but very elegant dining venue. And, of course, we will give a complete, in-depth review of Le Voyage and all of our culinary experiences onboard Celebrity Beyond on our YouTube channel at the conclusion of this cruise.
After dinner, we decide to catch the second half of the SuperBowl in The Theater, which has been converted into a massive makeshift sports bar for the game. There is a huge buffet line at the back of the theater with chicken wings, burgers, hot dogs, chips and dip and even two huge cakes, one decorated with green icing for the Eagles and the other decorated in red for the Chiefs. Based on how much of the cakes were eaten, it would appear as if there were more Eagles fans onboard than Chiefs.
Superbowl on the big screen
The massive LED screen was perfect for watching the Chiefs defeat the Eagles in the last few seconds of the game. After the game, we are exhausted and ready for bed. We retire to our stateroom to get some much needed sleep.
Tomorrow Celebrity Apex will be docked in Nassau, Bahamas.
