It's a flagship, and a beautiful ship, but...
This is our first cruise and we booked the Sunset Veranda stateroom, for a 10 night Mediterranean Cruise on Celebrity Beyond.
We got one on deck 12, which is directly below the Ocean View Cafe which has outdoor seating right above our room.
Prepare to hear tables and chairs being dragged across said deck all day long starting at 5am.
You'll be woken up early, and don't think about an afternoon nap, the hordes of people in and out on that deck will keep you awake all day.
Management are aware of the issue, and I feel they're just not interested in sorting it out with a permanent fix. When I complained they couldn't move us to a room of similar size so tried to "upgrade us" to an aqua class stateroom with infinite Veranda which is 100sqf smaller. I'm sorry but when I book a bigger room without these fancy services it means the priority here is the size of the room and not eating in Blu or a day using the spa facilities, excl massages.
They're also quick to sell you premium drinks packages but will serve you the cheap stuff as standard unless you specify... The wines between both packages are of the same quality except for 1 in two specialty dining restaurants which is the Villa Antinori Toscana. Some premium wines they won't have in stock and will offer you the standard stuff anyways.
There doesn't seem to be enough pools for everyone, the Infinity plunge pools aren't really cooled down.
The bar staff at the Sunset Bar, Pool Bar and Martini Bar are understaffed and overworked, it is visible. I take my hat off to them for the hard work though. Some bar staff had a bit of negative attitude and some wait staff were very robotic. They were unable to make the usual stuff like a Hugo, Pimms cocktail or a caipirinha, to be fair these weren't menu items listed as a cocktail, but all the ingredients are there. Plus you'd expect this calibre of company to be able to have knowledgeable staff.
There's no consistency in quality of product across any of the bars. Quality of cleanliness was bit of an issue with us receiving soiled cutlery with old food stuck to it, and the questionable riedel wine glass with lipstick markings.
The DJ's providing you the entertainment will play the same songs for the entire 10 day cruise and by day 3 it will get predictable, kesha, black eyed peas, pit bull... Its manotonous.
The Pride celebration at Sea was okay, but just felt like an after thought on a checklist. There was a bar cart with limited drinks and the sunset bar hours weren't extended to tackle the 100+ people who attended.
