Enjoyed the Edge and expected all the great staff from the Edge to be transferred over to the Beyond ( they were nowhere to be found). Booked a Royal Suite #12125 in the Retreat. Great cabin, cramped balcony with wide overhang giving one shade most of the morning and all afternoon. Separate bedroom, walk-in shower, separate tub, double wide trough sink with end faucets, separate doored water closet, plenty of closet space and drawers. Would only book a cabin like this again if guaranteed, in writing, cushions on a balcony lounger like those on the Retreat sun deck. Found sitting on the regular netted pool loungers uncomfortable. Requested cushions from shoreside concierge and from butler once again on the ship. Butler said Retreat lounges with cushions no longer allowed on Royal Suite balcony. To have spent $18,000 on this cabin for 7 days and NOT had something we had on the Edge ? Plenty of charging outlets for laptops and phones. The new wifi was great and complimentary, could upload pictures to Cruise Critic immediately and 11 second videos took 11 seconds to upload. Tried a 2 minute video and it failed. No chocolates on ones pillow at night, but had excellent steward turndown service and cleaning twice per day with clean towels. Did receive 2 pair of monogrammed pajamas, recommend getting 2 'hers' instead of his and hers before they are monogrammed. Two bottles of liquor and a bottle of champagne on ice, complimentary upon arrival.

Entertainment was not as good as Edge or Equinox. The 'big' name acts are booked on the other ships in the fleet, like Up Town (Apex and Equinox) or Charity Lockhart's Aretha Franklin Tribute. Would venture a guess that Celebrity feels the 'newness' on the Beyond is enough of a 'draw'. The Boy Band Evolution is weak. The songs performed are the least liked of the artists, except for two by Frankie Valle and The Four Seasons. The magician was a little different combining his break dancing and Houdini-like escape trick. The comedian was terrible, we walked out. The best show production was called Stage Door, but all these production shows were a thrown together singing and dancing and acrobatics mixed in about nothing with no story line to follow. The one show we missed which might have been worthwhile was a Jazz type routine performed in an over crowded Le Club. It got so crowded we first donned masks and finally ran out.

Food is idiosyncratic. Suffice to say we took all our meals in the Luminae which we loved. The elegant ambience, the great service. the same table for every meal with the same service team. Plates were hot to the touch. Would have preferred our own unopened bottle of 'still' water at every meal instead of the bottle 'making the rounds'. Only negative to the food 'service' was that Luminae is CLOSED for lunch when in foreign ports. Read more