Would recommend the Alaska Cruise
Celebrity Edge Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 42
7 Night Alaska Dawes Glacier (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: July 26, 2024
Ship: Celebrity Edge
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 9146
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 4 months ago
Review summary
Overall I would absolutely recommend the Alaska cruise. The Celebrity Edge is a great ship and I liked the uniqueness of the infinite veranda. The staff is just fantastic. You truly feel like a celebrity as they get to know you. There was plenty to do on the ship and we did see more children on this cruise than on other cruises. Celebrity is an outstanding brand and we will continue to cruise with them in the future.Embarkation
It was seamless, luggage was taken right outside the ship and delivered to room. Very easy to do the muster station as well.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
First off we were a party of 8 and they split us in to two parties of 4 and put us in different restaurants. We had many problems trying to iron out reservations because of this mix up.
I found the variety on this ship to be lacking. Many of the menus were repeated among all of the different dining rooms. I was not at all happy with the Ocean View Café. The food was lukewarm at best and cold many times. They had no variety, nothing changed with any of the buffets. It was also very crowded and difficult to find seating. The il Secondo Bacio service was terrible. They did not know how to make many of the specialty coffees.
Most of the bar drinks were good, however, the classic drink package only goes up to $10 drinks. We had to upgrade to the premium package at $15pp more a day in order to get most of the beverages included as the specialty drinks and coffees are mainly over $10. The drink menus were also the same and did not have the variety for which we were looking. Sometimes we want to just order a drink and not have to create one.
The Café al Bacio was great. The coffee and tea drinks were all done well and correctly. Having bar drinks ordered there along with the coffee was not good. It created long lines and wait times. Also the pastry display case could not be seen from the bar side and it was difficult to order a pastry along with your coffee for that reason.
One thing to note room service charged separate fees for delivery of beverages and food. While it was one order placed, the drinks came first with a charge, and the food came later with another delivery charge.
Would also like to point out the sit down breakfast only goes until 9am. On the days that lunch is not served it would have been nice for the sit down to be extended to at least 10:30am.
Sit down breakfasts, lunches, and dinners were good. Some were excellent, however, I am not finding myself raving about the food on this cruise as I did on our Bermuda cruise last year.
Onboard Activities
Did not participate in activities.
Entertainment
I found the shows were just ok, nothing special. The comedian was fantastic. The musicians were fantastic as well. I did enjoy the aerialist portion of the shows.
Children's Programs
Do not have children.
Service and Staff
The service was impeccable as usual. All of the staff are there for you with smiling faces. The waitstaff was phenomenal. Our room attendant Eden was top notch. He made sure we has everything we need and always went above and beyond with this efforts. Cannot say enough good things about him.
Ship Quality
The ship is very clean and well maintained. The layout is good, but not great. As stated earlier, the seating in the Ocean View Café was always crowded and a challenge. I didn't feel this ship was as easy to navigate. There are hidden gems that are tucked away and hard to find. I did like that the casino was off to the side and you did not have to traipse through it to get to meals.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin was great. We loved the infinite veranda. The cabin was clean. The touch screen control for the lights, ac, and veranda controls did not work properly. We were suppose to be able to automatically raise and lower the shade as well as the window. Most of the time we had to walk over to the veranda and use the manual controls. Once again Eden our room attendant was fabulous.
Ship tip
Plan to have sit down meals if you like hot food and bring all types of medications because the dayquil in the store on board was $21.99.
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
We flew in a couple of days early and visited some of the Seattle attractions on our own.
We did the trolley excursion. It was very informative, however, we are glad we got it on sale because the full price of it would not have been worth the cost. The excursion time was supposed to be 2hrs and we were back within an hour and a half.
CRUISE ENDICOTT ARM & DAWES GLACIER
This was not a port stop, however, being on a smaller ship allowed us to get very close to the glaciers. It was an amazing experience. The scenery was just breathtaking.
Juneau is extremely touristy. You feel like you are hit in the face with all kinds of tourist traps especially with the shops. We did a whale watching excursion that was wonderful. We went out on a smaller boat maximum 14 passengers. We were able to get what felt like up close and personal with the whales. They came up along side the boat. It was a amazing experience.
I would have given this port an excellent rating except for the long hike to get to town. The pier is a pretty far hike from the town. The ship provides a shuttle to the end of the pier because of the rock slide a year ago. However, this shuttle is literally a two minute ride to the end of the pier. Then it is over a 1/4 mile walk to the edge of town. They did not have shuttle service readily available to town. We had elderly people in our party and it was difficult for them to walk to town. We would have gladly paid for the shuttle had it been there. We did see some in town, but did not know how to go about getting one. Skagway itself was a quaint town. We had a doughboy and coffee in town. Walked around through different shops and felt like we were taken back in time. Others in our party did a jeep excursion and went exploring. It was also very cool to see the different ship names on the rocks in port. We were told it was tradition for the first time a ship comes into port. The Celebrity Edge first visited this year and it was fun to know the name was put on a rock just 1 month prior to our visit.
We didn't do an excursion. I did not like that we got to Victoria at 6:30pm. It made the visit feel very rushed and many of the local shops were closed as we passed by. Victoria itself is beautiful, the gardens are gorgeous. I think it would be a great place for a couple days visit, but the 6hrs in the evening off the ship didn't really cut it.
Disembarkation
While parts of the disembarkation were excellent, other parts were not. The checked baggage program they have with the airlines is excellent. They take your checked bag from your room and check it all the way through for pick up at your final destination. Of course there are some requirements to participate. We had two elderly people in our party needing wheelchair assistance. They did not have staff readily available to assist us. The sent one staff member to push two people. Had to be taken down in the elevator one at a time. Then we had to wait an hour for our shuttle transfer. When it was time to head out to the shuttle, we had to request several times for staff assistance for the wheelchairs.