Living on the Edge!

I have just returned from a week Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity’s newest ship EDGE. After spending 3 nights in Fort Lauderdale ( more about that in my next blog) we joined the ship on Sunday 7^th April in Fort Lauderdale. After taking the shuttle transfer from the hotel to the port, we arrived around 11.45, and we were onboard in around 15-20 minutes. The ship was berthed at the new terminal in Fort Lauderdale and embarkation was really slick. The porters took our luggage from us and then once we were in the terminal building we were greeted by staff with hand held devices, who swiped our set sail passes, and then we were allowed to embark the ship straight away ( no waiting around in a holding area)

Our Cards to get into the cabin were outside the cabin waiting for us and we had access straight away and the luggage was delivered around an hour after we arrived.

We had an Infinite Balcony on deck 8 midships, which was very spacious with plenty of storage space and a spacious bathroom with glass cubicle (no shower curtains that stick to you!) The infinite balcony was controlled by a switch which moved the top half of the window down to make the Balcony. Inside the room there were bi-folding doors to shut this area off, but in my opinion I felt these were a waste of time. We had the doors folded back the whole time and if they had been closed it would not have given you much room to get out of bed. It was lovely though lying on the bed with the window down and letting the sea breeze in, but of course as soon as you open the window the air conditioning switched off. This was OK on sea days but on port days we had to keep this closed to keep the air conditioning on as the temperature was over 85 degrees every day. The concept is good but would I have one of these type of cabins again, probably not. We had a clear view looking out of the window but to the right of the window was the framework for the Magic Carpet which didn’t allow you to look along the side of the ship. This didn’t worry us at all but some people may perceive this as a partially obstructed view so be careful which cabin you select when on the side of the Magic Carpet. This didn’t move while the ship was at Sea but was parked on decks 14 or 15 during the days and on Deck 5 outside Raw on 5 in the evenings. This is open from 9am – 4pm and 5pm and 9.30pm

We had selected 8.30 dining in the main restaurant and there are 4 of these onboard, Normandie and Tuscan situated on deck 3 and Cyprus and Cosmopolitan on deck 4. We were allocated Tuscan on Deck 4 which had a mixture of fixed dining and select dining and this is how it worked for all 4 Restaurants. Each restaurant had the same main menu with dishes that were available every day,and they had dishes that changed nightly too. Each restaurant also had dishes that were only exclusive to themselves so there was plenty of choice

Tuscan Dining Room

The Oceanview Café, which was the buffet restaurant, was open 24 hours a day for Tea, Coffee and Juices and was open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you didn’t want to do formal dining. In here there was also a Pizza station where they were made fresh to order. The Mast Grill was also open from 11.30-6.00pm serving burgers and hotdogs and chips which was great for a quick snack on the deck.

There are also 4 Speciality Restaurants onboard, Raw on 5, Fine Cut Steak House, Le Petit Chef which was a French Bistro and Roof Top Garden which we visited twice while we were onboard. There was a cover charge of $35.00 in the evening and $25.00 for lunch (more about that in a future blog about dining and entertainment)

Roof Top Garden

The Bars and Entertainment areas on board were all beautifully decorated and lots of quirky art and decoration. The shows in the theatre were on at funny times though, being 7.30 and 9.30. As we were on 8.30 dining it was not possible to make it to the 9.30 show so we had to go to the shows at 7.30 before dinner and most of these were about 45 minutes long. This did interfere with my afternoon/ evening scooby snooze that I’m used to on cruises, usually taking a nap between 6-7.30 (it’s my age) This was easily rectified with a snooze in the Solarium between 5-6 as we had enough sun by that time lying by the outside pool in 85 degree temperatures.

Solarium

There was a main pool on deck 14 that also had loungers in the pool which were lovely to lie on and they also had them in the Solarium Pool, which was on the same deck. The 2 hot tubs were situated on deck 15 and looked like wine glasses on long stems that were suspended on stems from deck 14. In the evenings these were lit up and looked impressive in the dark.

There is a well equipped Gym on deck 15 which has a spiral staircase leading up to it from the Spa and Treatment Area on Deck 14. Taking a look was as far as we got as the Gym is what other people do, not me!

Gym and Spa

The Casino onboard was large and had a huge selection of gaming machines and tables and different tournaments were held alongside the gaming to win various prizes including Veuve Clicquot Champagne. One day they also offered $5 Fever which meant every guest over 18 received $5 of complimentary slot credits on their card. Another promotion you were in with a chance of winning $1000 of promotional chips for the tables.

Casino

There was many branded shop names onboard including Tiffany’s and Bvlgari so it would have been rude not to pay a visit and buy something!

Shopping

Here are some more pictures of the ship and I will be back to tell you about my time in Fort Lauderdale and about Dining and Entertainment in future blogs.