Celebrity Edge Review 11/29/18

Our sailing was a travel agents and press ‘preview’ cruise – only two nights with one full day at sea so that we could test the ship features, the dining venues and experiences, entertainment, and see various cabin types. 

The Ship – Celebrity Edge

For the first time ever, Celebrity actually has a ship that truly embodies their tagline “Modern Luxury”.  For years, they’ve been saying they’re Modern, equivalent in service and feel to the W hotel brand, but their ships were never really that modern feeling.   Celebrity Edge certainly is.  It was designed by an architect and various interior designers and not a traditional ship-builder.   There is lots of metal, glass, bright modern LED lights, artwork and wood accents in geometric shapes.   There is also a lot of plant life around the ship.  Way more than you normally see on a ship.  There are lots of succulents in the walls, and leafy potted plants around the ship.

The Magic Carpet -

One of the unique features of the ship that is heavily publicized is the “Magic Carpet”.  Funny, the true purpose and design of the Magic Carpet is actually to be a luxury bar and lounging area on DECK 2 for you to wait to board the Celebrity Edge’s tenders, which they call Launches.   There is an entire section on Deck 2 called Destination Gateway and the Magic Carpet abuts it when they are doing tendering, and you embark the luxury Launches from there.   The Launches themselves are the equivalent of a luxury coach bus, with wide comfortable seating.   The Launches can, of course, double as emergency lifeboats, where the capacity is higher and guests are more crammed together.   However, in Launch capacity they’re lovely.  You might actually look forward to tendering ports!

When the Magic Carpet isn’t doing tendering activities, they had to figure out where to park it up higher on the ship to get it out of the way.   They decided to place it in three different places.   On Deck 5 it sits adjacent to the Raw on 5 sushi bar, giving it higher capacity and a bar.   On Deck 14 it sits behind the private cabanas, extending the pool deck.  And on Deck 16, at the top of its range, you can pay for “Dinner on the Edge”, a specialty dining restaurant.   It will only park there for the special dinner once or twice during your voyage, so if you want to do that you will have to reserve it once onboard and expect to pay about $70 per person for that dining experience.   It varies by itinerary and expected weather.  We did notice from afar that the wind really whips thru the Magic Carpet as the ship moves, so be mindful of that as you prepare to hang out there.

NOTE about Magic Carpet – nobody is allowed to be on the Magic Carpet as it moves up and down from deck to deck for safety purposes.  So, if you choose a cabin in the center along the track of the Magic Carpet, don’t be concerned that someone is going to be able to look into your cabin.  Also, it’s very quiet, and guests on my voyage said they never heard it move while they were in their cabin sleeping.

The Showroom –

The showroom on the Edge is different from any other ship or venue.  It has large floor to ceiling screens in a half circle at one end of the theatre, and then a round stage that sticks out into the floor in the center.   There are no curtains.   The crowd sits around the circular stage, and the performers come to it thru the aisles in the crowd AND from behind the screens at the end.  There are a lot of movable platforms and props above and below the round stage and the stage area in front of the screens, giving Celebrity many options still on shows, just in a different way that is traditional.    Because of its unique and different nature, Celebrity commissioned FIVE totally new shows to be presented on the Edge.  None of them are the same as what you see on other Celebrity ships.   During our two night cruise, we saw one production type story show and one singing and dancing show.  Both were great.

Eden –

Celebrity has created area in the aft of decks 4, 5 and 6 called Eden.   Eden is meant to resemble, in essence, the Garden of Eden.   There are designated crewmembers dressed up in wood nymph type clothing that entertain and interact with the guests throughout the day.   In the evening, they do more choreographed movements, and in the day they might stop and talk to you about funny things.  Celebrity calls these beings Edenists.   Apparently, they do some very suggestive type things late in the evening, so it may or may not be your cup of tea.

There are lots of comfy seating areas in Eden, on decks 5 and 6, some hidden away in cute corners, and some with great views of the ocean.  If you want a quiet place to read, I’d think this might be great.   There is also a small outdoor seating area next to Eden with funky deck chairs you might want to try if the crowds by the main pool aren’t for you.

The Eden Bar on deck 5 has unique and expensive cocktail creations that are only available at that one bar.   They have a lot of fresh herbs and fruits in them, which are growing right behind the bar.

The Eden Café, also on deck 5, has complimentary food and beverages like salads and sandwiches during the day, and is closed in the evening.

The Eden Restaurant is a fixed multi-course menu Specialty dining restaurant with a cover charge that requires a reservation.  The Edenists do the serving, so it is likely a very unique experience.  Check the menu before you try it though, as for each course you only a have a couple options and it could be challenging on a strict diet.

 

The cabins –

Infinite Verandahs -

Celebrity has created a totally new balcony cabin style on the Edge that they call the Infinite Verandah.  All balconies and Aqua Class cabins are Infinite Verandahs.   The Infinite Verandahs are very interesting.  It is basically your sleeping cabin and your balcony all in one continuous space, with your balcony chairs in the balcony ‘section’ of your room, and a powered raising and lowering window at the end of your cabin.  If you want to stand on your ‘balcony’ and look out, you lower the upper half of your powered window down and it slides in behind the lower half.  Then you can stand at your window and look out and have fresh air.   OR you can sit in the deck chairs in the balcony section of your room and just look out the floor to ceiling window (balcony section is tiled/has hard flooring separating it from the carpeting of the bedroom part of your cabin).

Of course, if you do either of these things without a little preparation, you could lose all the air conditioning in your room.  There IS a solution to that.  There are glass bi-fold doors in the room at the threshold between the cabin carpeting and the balcony area on both sides.   The challenge with the glass doors is wrestling the deck chairs out of your way so you can fold them shut and truly separate the cabin from the infinite veranda area of the room.   So, you may or may not actually want to deal with that.   It DOES make the cabin larger and more comfortable for moving around at night with the glass bi-fold doors open, as you have elbow room then on the far side of the bed where a wall would normally be.

Also note that the Captain has the power to shut all the Infinite Verandah windows and lock them from being used at various times he feels the need.   This would likely be during ANY kind of weather (imagine, your window is open and it’s raining basically into your room?!), or during maybe a docking maneuver.   So, if ever you’re in your cabin and the little button to move the glass down isn’t working, know that it’s probably not broken, it’s just the Captain has restricted your ability to use your window for a short while.

I think some people will enjoy the Infinite Verandah, and others will really prefer a traditional balcony.  You’ve probably got to try it to know for sure though!

 

The hairdryer is in a large drawer under your sink.  If the facing underneath your sink doesn’t pull out like a drawer should, just keep pulling and rattling it around.  There IS a drawer there.

 

The Night Light on the Celebrity Edge cabins –

In their attempt to be modern and “Edgy”, most of the lighting on Celebrity Edge is very bright white energy efficient LED lighting.   This is awesome in a hallway, not so great when there is a light in your cabin that you can’t easily turn off at night.

They have decided that for safety purposes, they have installed a “night light” on the underside of your bathroom cabinet that reflects down on the floor.  This is an LED light bar that is slightly dimmed, but is still bright white in color.   If you’re a person that likes a lot of light when you sleep, and you will appreciate being able to see the step up into the bathroom at night.   If you’re a person that actually likes to sleep in the dark and brings your own appropriately colored night light with you, I will explain how to turn it off.

First, you can control many things in your cabin with the new Celebrity app OR the control panel that is on the wall near the bathroom entry.  (Lights, blinds, etc.)   However, for the “night light” in the bathroom, you MUST use the control panel on the wall in your cabin.  

Second, be sure everyone is ready for sleeping when you do this, make sure you’ve got the room temp the way you like it, etc. as when you turn off the night light, you will not be able to touch the control panel again without every light coming on and the blinds going up!  This will wake up all the sleeping people.   Consider having an eye mask too, in case this happens, as both my husband and I caused the ‘all lights and blinds up’ thing to happen accidentally while the other one was sleeping.

Third, go to the control panel.  Hit the gear / circular symbol in the upper right corner to get into the settings.  Engage the green/energy saving mode and the night light and every other light will turn off.

 

Side bar – there is actually a functioning electrical outlet in the bathroom of this ship you can use for an appropriately colored night light if you want to take a small one with you.   I always take an electrical outlet thing that turns one outlet into three, and has a nightlight integrated in it.  That way, no matter what hotel or cruise ship I’m on, I have more outlets and a light to find the bathroom at night.  You might wish to do the same, as it will be pitch black in the cabin if you turn off the night light in the bathroom.   They have awesome blackout  shades in the infinite verandah staterooms.

 

Cabin types and styles in Edge –

 

Please note that I think cabins on Deck 6 are undesirable as the life boats are directly below that.  So, even if they are not actually blocking your view from your infinite verandah stateroom, you don’t have as much of a wide open feeling as you can’t really look straight down to the water from your cabin.

 

Celebrity has done a great job in creating a category of rooms for singles on the Edge.  They are called Edge Single Stateroom with Infinite Veranda, Category ES.   These are the smallest cabins on the ship, 131 sq ft with a 45 sq ft infinite verandah.  They are basically a narrower Infinite Verandah room with one queen bed.   There are 16 on the ship, 8 near the forward elevator bank and 8 near the aft elevators.   I’m guessing they’ll be some of the fastest selling cabins on the ship.

There are very few inside cabins on Edge, only 51 on the whole ship, so they also will sell out I’d expect.  Beyond that there are tons of Infinite Verandahs, and quite a few suites.

Family connectedness cabins – There is a specific category of Sky Suite called S3 that are Sky Suites that are along the track of the Magic Carpet on the starboard side of the ship.   These Suites, four on each deck from 6 to 12, are very nice full suites with all the suite perks.   What I most want to mention though is that someone designed most of these to be inter-connecting pairs, and they’d be great for families if you’re willing to pay the full suite price for two of the family members.  

If you look closely at the deck plan, on most of the decks the outer two S3 Sky Suites have an interconnecting door to an Infinite Verandah cabin.  The inner two S3 Sky Suites have something even more cool though, they have their own little mini-hallway at their entry that has an inside cabin adjacent.  So, you could have one door to the public hallway that puts you into your private mini-hallway and keep the doors to the inside cabin and Sky Suite open as a self-contained little two room suite.   The only drawback of this full suite + something else connecting plan is that the full suite guests will have all the full suite perks, and the guests in the adjoining cabins will have only the perks that go with their cabin type.  So, if you wanted to eat in the suite-only restaurant Luminae, the Sky Suite guests would get to eat there complimentary, and the family members in the adjoining cabin would have to pay for it every day, like a specialty dining restaurant.  

Since Edge is new, I’m not sure if they will attempt to hold the cabins adjacent to the S3 Sky Suites to be sold in the interconnecting pairs, or they’ll allow just anyone to book them, therefore messing up the ability for family or friends traveling together to use them.  I’m guessing they will sell them separately, so if you WANT to book an interconnecting pair, best to do that as far out as you possibly can.

 

 

More review to be added – stay tuned!

To book the Celebrity Edge or her sister ship Celebrity Apex, please call Suzy!