julieNmike Cruise Review on Celebrity Edge on Dec 09, 2018

Celebrity Edge Cruise Review

julieNmike

Contributor Level: Cruise Director

Reviews: 14

Helpful Votes: 418

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Sail date: December 09, 2018

Ship: Celebrity Edge

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

The Celebrity Edge certainly is a fabulous ship with so many things to be impressed by and enjoy, but traditional she is not. Some of the new features perhaps need something of a rethink considering many of the comments from our fellow passengers? We really enjoyed our 7 day cruise from Ft Lauderdale and we’re hugely impressed with the quality feel of the ship, but it seems very obvious that Celebrity have set the Edge class to appeal to a younger demographic than their current clientele. The most visible feature is of course the Magic Carpet. This the the orange ‘lift’ which moves vertically between decks and doubles as a bar, restaurant and tender bay. Whenever Edge was in port we found that there would be a private function on the carpet, and for lunch and dinner the supplements are $40 and $75 respectively! On the occasion we got into the Magic Carpet bar, we quickly found out a major flaw - it is really windy! Pretty obvious really, but probably nothing an aeronautical engineer couldn’t fix with a wind tunnel and some deflectors, but having a half-full glass blown across the table is not good... The Eden Bar is very interesting, quiet during the day, with lots to look at. This includes a panoramic window overlooking the stern, faux plants and odd background muzak, far-out cocktails and mixers, but is perhaps more in tune with Avatarworld in Disney’s Animal Kingdom on an evening than as a nice venue to have a quiet drink. The swirling, pulsating lights and dry ice actually made me feel nauseous. The entertainment in Eden is weird to say the least, and we saw people leave almost as soon as they had arrived having briefly experienced ‘Eve’ looking vacant and wandering around in her golden dress. The circular theatre is very impressive with the partial surround back screen, but don’t expect any Broadway / West End style shows in there, everything we saw is cut from the same cloth as the Eden Bar; not really to our taste, but perhaps aimed at attracting the younger passenger (which is fine, but I don’t feel at all old - we’re in our mid 50s). I’m sure that many will enjoy this type of entertainment, but not us, I’m afraid. We loved the ambiance of the rooftop garden and the solarium, both of which have pleasant soothing background music, though the former usually has live music in the evening. The eye catching bow is not a new idea, but is unique in current Cruise shipping. It stems - I understand - from turn of the century military ship bows but has been proven to be highly efficient. Odd it’s taken so long to establish that again! There is virtually no symmetry or straight lines in the passenger areas of the ship which is great in that no two areas are alike; even the main pool is an irregular shape, forcing the sun beds into a similar pattern. Slopes or ramps between decks are not uncommon and are not just for the disabled. Included is the running track which is actually shaped like an 8 and covers three decks. State rooms are beautifully equipped but small but with ample storage despite noticeably low ceilings. I don’t think anyone we spoke to were keen on the infinite balcony concept as it feels like you’re still in your room. Staff are excellent as we always find on Celebrity and food in all four of the ‘complementary’ restaurants is quite superb. Embarkation took 10 minutes from dropping off our luggage to stepping on board. Amazingly, disembarkation was almost as speedy. We have, in the past, usually found Ft Lauderdale to be tediously slow. In summary, and amazing and fascinating ship, but we much prefer the Solstice class, and would return to them far sooner than to the Edge or upcoming Apex.

8 Comments

wgammon1 3 years ago

Glad you had a good cruise. Thanks for the great review.

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jmp594 5 years ago

Nice review. I largely agree with your review. I was on the December 6 preview sailing.

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julieNmike 5 years ago

@cruisellama Thankyou. I’m sure that must have done some testing, but when the ship is moving - and we were just leaving Costa Maya when in the ‘carpet’ so we were only moving a max of 10 knots - some thing will need to be considered or she might not get used when at sea. I can’t imagine eating a meal when moving - at a $75 supplement too! 😎

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cruisellama 5 years ago

PS - Excellent review

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cruisellama 5 years ago

Thanks! - you confirmed my suspicion about the Magic Carpet being very windy. I wondered if they did any scale model wind tunnel testing on it to evaluate the environmentals under different weather conditions. Betting they have some limits on its use while at sea. We'll be on the ship next year.

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samboney194 5 years ago

Thank you for the review.

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almtsbb 5 years ago

Having veiwed several You Tube videos, I don't think Eden is going to be an area to my tastes. Still looking forward to my cruise in April.

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iankaus 5 years ago

Thank you for the review. Very comprehensive- we board on Sunday, so looking forward to it.

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