Celebrity Beyond Review - Let's Talk Ship

[@sbedford9833]

It is not an exaggeration to say I anxiously await each new video of yours. I think you did a wonderful job reviewing this ship. You came across as honest and communicated to me a positive, even handed review when it wasn't your favorite ship. Well done!

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Awwww what a lovey comment, thank you. We know this ship is a favourite of many, just not ours and it’s good we all like different things. Thanks again 🙏😀

[@FraserAtSea]

Really great to get your POV on that cabin - they seem to still be SO controversial, with so many people not liking them... I've never cruised on these new Celebrity ships, but was overall pretty impressed with their older product on Silhouette just after lockdown - will need to give these ones a shot!

[@CruiseMonkeys]

It’s definitely causes a stir but more and more ships are going this way, doesn’t MSC World Class and so will the new Icon have them? We guess they must increase fuel efficiency quite a bit too by reducing drag? 🤓

[@RobinH8869]

Excellent balanced and honest review. We are on our first Celebrity cruise in a couple of weeks on Apex. Thanks for your videos, they're really useful.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Glad it was helpful!

[@valdeslo1]

Hey, Wife and I are heading out on Beyond next week! We are ready to go NOW!😄 Been looking at Beyond reviews on You tube to be prepared. So far, you are the best reviewers we've run across. Love your style and details. Your vid feels like were having a friendly conversation over drinks. We now feel prepared and ready to max out our cruise. Most excellent and looking forward to more Cruise Monkeys! Cheers from Florida!

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Hope you are enjoying the cruise!

[@valdeslo1]

@@CruiseMonkeys Hey, we had an excellent time! Def enjoyed the Beyond. Quite a unique and different experience to the Big ships. We will def do it again. Your Vids were great in prepping us! We're going to start "researching" your channel for our next event, cruise Croatia / Italy🙂

[@jebre40]

Hi guys, did you have the classic drinks package or the premium when you were on Beyond and were you happy with the choice you had? Thanks

[@CruiseMonkeys]

We had the basic/classic. It did us just fine, when we had the odd martini or cocktail over the limit, we just paid the difference (plus grats). For us didn’t make sense to upgrade

[@jebre40]

Brilliant, thanks for the reply 👍. Love your yt videos, keep them coming

[@CruiseMonkeys]

@jebre40 aww thank you 🤩

[@JulieMcClean]

Great roundup - my husband is fascinated by your you tube videos 🤦🏼‍♀😂

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Hahaha! Bet he’s hungover just watching half of them. 😂

[@Mister_H]

Thanks for the very comprehensive review guys. It certainly looks nicer than the Eclipse we went on in 2010, so definitely on the radar for further investigation 😀❤

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Glad you found it useful 👍

[@nadiarobertshaw]

Hi guys. Loving your channel. We are going on our first cruise in September (Britannia). Loving all the information you provide 🙂. Normal tv rubbish today, so I’ve had your channel on 🙂, slowly but surely getting through your videos 🙂.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Awwww thank you! We hope they are fun and informative 👍😀

[@Duck-qzx]

Such a great review guys, always give you a great feel of the ship.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thank you 🙏

[@vap57]

IMO, your best video yet.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thank you 🙏

[@utterlee]

Interesting to hear your perspective on the ship, guys. My first cruise was aboard Beyond last year doing a Greek Island and Malta tour. Me and my BF were pretty blown away by it, especially having nothing else to compare to. Loved the food, loved the entertainment, loved the cutting edge design, loved the great service. You're right about Eden being too crowded when there's an act on though. We found the crowd on board pretty mixed and we met some nice people to socialise with, but we soon picked up on the fact it wasn't really a "party until late" ship which was just a slight bit disappointing. That said, we travelled with Celebrity again this year on the Silhouette and did a cruise from Southampton to Scandinavia. The ship was nice if not as fancy as the Beyond, but we were massively shocked by how OLD the passengers were, it felt like the average age was about 80. As a pair of gays in our early 40s it felt quite isolating being around such an older and un-diverse crowd. Fortunately the weather was amazing as were the ports of call, so all was not lost, but I really think we need to try a different cruise line next time. Just not sure which company to try?

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Glad to hear you enjoyed, the med ones we’d seen and read seemed to give the vibe your saying and we don’t think that was quite there. Maybe it’s the equivalent of what you got out of Southampton on silhouette? Could be down to the departure ports and time of year we guess?! There are so many to try! We had a blast on Anthem of the Seas, so worth looking in to and a sister brand. Princess also worth a look! The likes of RC, P&O and MSC are quite family orientated so worth keeping in mind if you want a more adult ship. Thought about Virgin Voyages, they are being ranked highly in consumer polls. Not one we’ve tried.. yet!

[@utterlee]

@@CruiseMonkeys Yeah I reckon time of year and departure ports must make a big difference. Think we might steer clear of Southampton cruises for the time being, definitely must bring the older crowd who want to avoid flights. Got some friends who are more regular cruisers who like the newer Norwegian Cruise Line ships, and some others who have been on Virgin who loved it, but they've not been on anything else to compare with. Choices choices!

[@CruiseMonkeys]

@utterlee yes have heard good things about their newer ships too! So much choice, that’s the great thing about cruising!

[@bbt9592]

We loved it! It was perfect

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Great to hear 😀

[@rasferrastfarian739]

Awesome review. As I have said ad-nauseam we're on Edge next March and now can't friggin' wait due to your comments and experience. Thanks boys 🙂

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Hope you enjoy it 😃

[@markhernandez1209]

Which cruise line has the best live music/ bands? I love live music

[@CruiseMonkeys]

We've found P&O quite good with music around the ship, but also Princess and Royal have some great entertainment when it comes to shows.

[@davevicary8524]

Great review guys. What would you generally spend on the cost of the cruise and how much is yr drinks bill if you don't have a package

[@CruiseMonkeys]

We aim for around £100-£150 per person per night for the cruise fare. Drinks we budget around £50pppd. But there is not hard rules, some destinations are just more expensive due to demand etc. We normally look at a few cruises, work out total cost and then go with cheapest.

[@davevicary8524]

@CruiseMonkeys thanks guys . I have said before the thing I like about you guys is yr honesty . If you don't like something you say so . I feel some vloggers never say bad stuff with fear of offending the cruise line( not that yr comments do that) and will affect any perks they may recieve

[@kathrynrees6781]

Loved this vlog. Going on Celebrity Beyond in September (if I haven't my mentioned it before) Lol. Really enjoyed this series. Our first cruise was MSC Virtuosa in May and thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to trying different cruise lines. Looking at trying Marella as a cruise and stay next year. May even try to see what we can book last minute as work and circumstances don't allow us to book at the moment. Hope Gavin enjoyed his birthday xx 🍹🥂🎉

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Oh fab! They’ll be different experiences that’s for sure. You’ll have a fabulous time! Thank you, it was a great birthday (and cruise)

[@themoulaphokou7956]

Great Series yet again guys. Looking forward to Iona’s will be different to watch one after we have experienced the same ship and itinerary already. ❤

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thank you! Hopefully Iona stuff will be put in a few weeks!

[@hannahabbie7710]

Hi both. Loved this cruise vlog series. Just wondering what websites do you use to book your cruises please or do you just book direct with the cruise lines? Thanks ☺️

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Glad you enjoyed! For this one we booked a cruise, fly and stay package within Cruise Nation. We always book with agents, our Arvia and Iona ones was with Martins Holiday Village. Google either and they should come up with their websites/contacts 😀 In the U.K., you’ll never pay more than direct prices by booking with an agent - you usually make a decent saving that you can put towards parking or a nice meal in the speciality restaurants 😉

[@hannahabbie7710]

@@CruiseMonkeys thanks so much! Always good when you can save some pennies for food! Haha 😂

[@KarenLane-g4t]

Love your videos and glad you e hoyed the Beyond. I am sailing on her next year. I wanted to let you know that there is no charge for the Scoops ice cream. It's complimentary. There is a charge for the Gelato at the Cafe AL Baccio.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Glad you enjoy them! Thanks for the info, we’ll have to go back to try it 😉

[@gillianmorris3502]

When you are on the drinks package, if you order a more expensive drink do you have to pay the full price or do you get the drink package price allowance taken off? Love your videos

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thank you. You pay the difference plus a gratuity on the full price, so it’s a dollar or two more than the difference possibly by the time you add that.

[@ianm5814]

Great video. Scoops ice cream is free btw 😊😊

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thank you! Yeah we found out after 😂

[@maik4418]

Great Vlog. Ship is easy to navigate. Food is amazing. Have Fun on an crowded Royal Carribbean Ship.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

It really is!

[@gavinnaylor1428]

Great blog very constructive

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Glad it was helpful!

[@carmelshepherd6739]

So many complimentary restaurants is amazing I really want to go on this ship 😊

[@CruiseMonkeys]

It's so good! Love the concept of different complimentary main dining rooms

[@kevins2726]

Unrelated to this video but I see you guys both enjoyed Anthem of the seas and Arvia which would you say is the better ship/experience overall?

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Ohhh now that’s a tough one! We loved the swim up bar on Arvia and the included dining options like 6th street diner and the quays as well as open decks. While anthem is lacking an aft deck due to flow rider, it does have the adult only solarium which is fantastic. Arvia is a ship where you look out, Anthem is more looking in if that makes sense? So it would be depending on itinerary and total price… but Anthem would probably be our first choice if finances allowed!

[@eminiarvii]

Hey guys…love love this review. I am going to be so prepared for my November 13 Celebrity Beyond cruise and i just cant wait!!❤🚢😊 i have the classic drink pkg because i could not up upgrade because my cabin mate did not want to up grade and we both must in order to. I am hoping i can get a premium drink and pay the difference. And i agree no hydrotherapy pool,is it really worth the 279 for the week? Ah the dilemma. Yes I want to relax on my cruises😊

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Our pleasure! Yes, pay as you go as it’s just the difference (plus gratuity) - that’s what we did for a couple of drinks we did as didn’t feel the upgrade was worth it. We thought it was expensive for what was there 🤷‍♂️

[@Silverpinstudios]

Bottom line, I feel the edge class ships fall short. They have eliminated almost all of the outdoor deck space that you typically see on a millennium or solstice class ship and almost the third of the upper deck space is reserved for suite guests. It doesn’t leave you much space to really feel close to the sea, which is why I go on a cruise. I could care less about specialty restaurants, I just want good quality food, good quality service, and to feel connected to the sea.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thanks for taking time to comment! We certainly want to try some of Celebrity’s older class of ships!

[@daqiao]

not all the ice cream in scoops is chargeable guys !! so you missed out there .Some have an upcharge but Most Don't we used it everyday after lunch they also do gorgeous sorbets. You will just have to return to check them out lol .great review enjoyed watching thanks 🧁😀

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thanks for the info! 👍

[@benjaminsmith2287]

I think the Edge ships are flawed in how they utilize social areas. Most of them are center ship with Eden being some tiered combo show space, restaurant, and place for combos to play and maybe people to dance and then a lot of activities are stuffed into the 2-level nightclub. On a ship like the HAL Rotterdam you have a place for people to listen to and dance to rock, a dueling piano club, a blues/r&b/jazz club, an observation area to view scenery yet this class of ship has few dedicated venues and tries to combo so much. So you have a spilling over of a lot of activity in the Grand Plaza with people trying to dine in the Bistro or go to the coffee bar or sports bar and if these weren't vertically stacked and were more in a row then this spilling over wouldn't happen. Eden tries to blend show tunes and again vertically stacks things. I like the 4 restaurants but what if one of those restaurants was a lounge/club for dancing to various types of music? The Club is a nightclub and is fine. But there too many spaces from Celebrity that are gone in the Edge ships and too much Celebrity character missing. Honestly the deck areas may save the ship in some ways. They're more complete and better thought out from what I can see. But they add another deck and they can't fit in an observation space in the front, what some are crying out for. No, make another fancy specialty restaurant that a small percentage of pax can enjoy and let the rest go to Eden to see aft views. I think the ship has too many restaurants. Ships need to be more than pretty and new and having the latest tech. And I think people see pretty and new and equate it with desirable and then throw out the older classes without seeing the gems in them sometimes. I feel that's going on in the cruise industry and with these IMO underwhelming Edge ships vs. Solstice and Millennium class ships. The Solstice ships are particularly nice and much more intimate and characterful IMO. I think if you guys want an active ship, then that's not Celebrity style. This ship looked rather active to me. But for more fun stuff there's RCL and NCL and others. Celebrity tries to be a foodie ship but they were also a social ship. The social aspects are compromised by this ship's design. Eden needs to be rethought IMO and redone. And, I don't know. when the newness of the ship wears off maybe more people will see that the socializing aspects are better done on Celebrity's other classes of ships.

[@wilfredogarciagonzalez2889]

Can you recommend one Celebrity class or Celebrity ship that manage better the social aspect than Edge Class?

[@JulieH972]

I will go on this in appril and your video made me happy

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Have a fantastic cruise!

[@benjaminsmith2287]

So, I'll give you a for-instance of the problems. You talk about Eden and not seeing the show. There's a hidden theater on the Solstice class ships where, if made higher and changed and altered, could accommodate the Eden like shows. It's used on the Soltice ships to show movies or for comedians or musicians. But there needs to be a limit to how many people could attend them before they are "sold out." But in an open space, yeah, it's going to be disorganized. It's not a dedicated space. It's not controlled. It wasn't totally thought out yet it is repeated on each Edge ships. Hence, this space works best as a combo large area for chilling out when not much is going on and then going downstairs and getting something to eat.

[@HelloAngie101]

Great Review! I'm excited for our trip in less than a month on the ship. From what i gathered, Scoops is complimentary. Cheers and happy sailing!

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Our pleasure!

[@juliewood9099]

Do you still get a drink on embarkation

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Can’t say we noticed, certainly was not handed one on boarding

[@audman1394]

Scoops iceccream is complimentary except the gelatalo

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thanks for the info 👍

[@chucknorris8704]

It wouldn't hurt if you guys boosted the exposure in editing for the food portions next time. It was so dark.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

It was so dark in some of the restaurants we could hardly see the food. Unfortunately there’s only so much you can do with an iPhone, that’s what we use to film, edit, the lot.

[@chucknorris8704]

I thought you guys were using a DSLR. Wow, had no idea Iphones can shoot such great quality lol - Appreciate the entire video either way. @@CruiseMonkeys

[@CruiseMonkeys]

@chucknorris8704 no, no, iPhones us. We don’t like to stick full on cameras and equipment in peoples faces if we can help it, iPhones are much easier to carry around and editing on them isn’t too bad, very convenient at times. Thanks all the same though, appreciate the feedback back and you taking the time to comment, some of the dining rooms were seriously so dark, we like ambience but it would be nice to see what you’re eating lol 😂

[@Vlad2277]

Think you've made a small mistake... Scoops is complimentary ice cream. Believe only Gelato is extra...

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Ohhh, thanks for clarifying that 👍

[@Vlad2277]

@@CruiseMonkeys Sorry, forgot to mention. Just watched your review, it's pretty good. Thanks a lot. Making final decisions, thinking of booking Celebrity, probably Beyond, once they open up summer of 2025 itineraries. Which should be in about 2 weeks 😁. Till now mostly sailed Royal Caribbean many times...

[@johnhenfrey5936]

Wow you went through that with a fine tooth comb, I will stick to my gut feeling as to what I said, to you both a couple of videos back, I just haven’t fancied the ship at all, but that’s just how it is. I am a huge music fan, and for that reason if, Holland America came to the u.k. then I would book that in a flash, if the fare was right.

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Yeah, you can’t like all ships so we get you there. HAL Would be a fab one to try

[@benjaminsmith2287]

Glad to see someone who feels like I do. This isn't Celebrity's best class of ship by a large margin. They did so much better with the Solstice class and instead of expanding and improving on them, they went and just tried to do some other type of ship. HAL updated the Statendam format beautifully with their newest ships. No ships are perfect and there are always areas that are underutilized and aren't big enough or are too big. But HAL, by sticking with what works, looks like their ship functions well and in very much a HAL way. This Edge ship is not a Celebrity ship. It has Celebrity service and food but the physical ship is not Celebrity style or even look decor wise in many areas.

[@benjaminsmith2287]

@@CruiseMonkeys That's really not an activity ship. However, it's alive in the clubs until about 11 pm. Then usually it's a sleepy ship after. But that depends on the voyage and pax. I love HAL and the pre-Edge Celebrity.

[@marywickware754]

I like you guys ❤

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Thank you 🤩

[@autolargue]

Did you spend time on the beach in South Beach and meet the drag queens ?

[@CruiseMonkeys]

No, we didn’t do the drag brunch. We did spend time in the restaurants and also over in Bayside.

[@autolargue]

@@CruiseMonkeys I wasn't thinking of the drag brunch. In the early 90s the drag queens would walk the beach in heels to invite the boys to the clubs later that same evening.

[@hollykimmey4809]

Did you oh find you were among the youngest passengers? And were there lots of children?

[@CruiseMonkeys]

Not the youngest, quite a few in the 30’s. Not many children on this one at all but it was the first/second week of January out of Ft Lauderdale, so more suited to older passengers.

[@valdeslo1]

Normal Peasant, Like us😅

[@CruiseMonkeys]

😂