My husband and I (age 62) took our daughter and boyfriend (age 27, and 30) for the New Years cruise. We were a bit concerned having read many critical reviews before our trip. For all of us, this cruise exceeded our expectations. We had booked it while on a celebrity cruise in 2017 due to it being a new ship. It did not disappoint. It is simply beautifully designed with fantastic areas - rooftop garden; eden; pool deck; martini bar. Food was amazing and we ate in all 4 of the regular restaurants and the oceanview restaurant and Eden for breakfast and lunch. We had a regular ocean view room and we found the space fine with the bathroom being larger than experienced on other cruises. Service from everyone was generally outstanding - waiters, bartenders, guest relations, and housekeeping. Pool area was great and we never had an issue finding chairs, although often on the hot tub level. Singers were amazing and we enjoyed during the day at Eden or the rooftop garden and in the evening in the midship area. Only thing requiring more work is the theatre shows/entertainment. Sound system was not great and shows were below the caliber of our experiences on other ships. The show in Eden is simply weird and most people did not appear to be enjoying it. Not sure who this appeals to as neither us or our daughter/boyfriend enjoyed. The celebrity app is great on your phone and the embarkment and disembarkment process was easy and fast. Overall an outstanding ship and great vacation. Read Less

My in-laws purchased this cruise for our entire family of almost 30 people. The entire thing was absolutely designed to take as much money from you as possible. They nickel and dime you mercilessly. I ordered the same drink the entire time and the price was never the same. I felt psychologically manipulated the entire time by the layout. I understand that it’s a business. But their methods are ham handed at best. I felt like just another head of cattle in their money making operation. I felt like a cog in someone’s personal cash machine. Don’t bother staying onboard when in port. Almost everything on board is closed. Any last minute purchases, you’re out of luck. Anecdotally, the line questioning charges at debarkation was massive. Toss in that virtually our entire party now has the flu. It wasn’t my best cruising experience by far. The boat is far too large and carries entirely too many people. It’s a floating Petri dish. If you really want a pleasant cruise stick with Holland/America. Our party took a vote afterwards and it was unanimous, which is unheard of in this family. None of us will ever travel with them again. Read Less

Why I booked the EDGE: New, innovative and New Years Party! #1 Loved the entertainment. Comedian AL Ducharme fabulous. Yes, I enjoyed the new Eden concept as well as all the singers and dancers shows. #2 Easy embarkation as face recognition and your on your way up the ramp to the ship no more than 4 min. in line. #3 Food was excellent. We were on the "anytime dining" plan, as I had booked all our reservations 6 months before My favorite was Cyprus. My husband ordered the Lamb Shank, he said it was the best he ever had. I felt the same way about my chicken kabobs. Loved the dips offered with the assorted breads. Fine cut Steakhouse, prime meats, delicious steaks. Rooftop Garden Grill had very good bbq ribs. We tried everything. 4-5 apptz and my husband had two entrees. Don't get the dry rub wings. Our server was great and very attentive. So full after our meal as we could not order dessert! I was told it can be windy as Celebrity is going to enclose that area to be sensitive to weather. #4 Lots of room in cabin. I personally like the infinity veranda. Our cabin was 8205. Yes, It is not a true balcony. Yet is offered so much more space visually. Also my husband enjoyed raising the window and lowering it off his i phone;) Only when it rained were our windows shut by the captain. Makes sense as you don't want rain coming in side the cabin. I could hear noise thru the walls at times. #5 Great pool vibe as very resort feel. Except many people got up early and put their towels out on chairs, therefore when I got there at ten am, no chairs left as all had towels on them. #6 We never got off the ship as we had been to all the islands before. We truly booked it for the ship as it's new of course. Never used the spa. Didn't shop in the stores but all merchandise looked very nice and expensive. Would I do it again. Absolutely ! Booked next year as well as 2020 APEX! Go with an open mind as it's not the ordinary regular basic cruise! Read Less

We chose this cruise based on dates, ship, and itinerary, with NYE 2018 being the target day, then looking at the ships and Itineraries next. We chose the Allure as we had already sailed on her sister ship Oasis and very much enjoyed it and wanted the family to experience the big ships. This was a very similar experience as the Oasis and the ship layout felt very familiar. A few things were updated and there was music, live and recorded, on the pool decks most of the time this time!!! That was one of our biggest complaints last time. Our Central Park View room was more spacious than expected. The bathroom was small, but I think the bathrooms are pretty much the same on most cruise ships. Room for one person at a time! LOL. We had an early dining time and the service was excellent. Those in our group were mixed on the overall quality of the food. Some thought RCCL was much better as do I, but others thought Carnival was better. This is an individual preference in the end, but I think the food is a step above carnival in taste and presentation. The ports for this Eastern Caribbean cruise, Sint Marteen, San Juan, and Labadee, were probably one of the better itineraries we have ever sailed. And we definitely want to revisit the first 2 again. Read Less

Avid cruisers, so excited to be on the “revolutionary Edge” couldn’t be more excited for the cruise to END...that’s a first. Cruise terminal was beautiful, check in very efficient, quick, helpful. Entrance to the ship with complimentary champagne, showed such beautiful decor, artwork, lighting...we were pleased. The infinite veranda stateroom quite nice — great bedding, view, storage space, desk, amenities. That’s the end of the compliments...here’s the brutal truth of the Edge...boring and pretentious. NO library or game room, NO Soduko, crossword puzzles. No BINGO, crafts or demonstrations. Trivia, a great way to join a team, meet people, learn, has morphed into a solo event you play on the app — hope you have a WiFi package. Entertainment is amateurish, over productive and boring as hell. Walk outs during the performance were so frequent, it was a distraction. We went to each show with an open mind...let’s see...Acrobatic routine to Shakespeare, “The Purpose”, The Jewelry Box, to name an abysmal few....total snoozefest. The Eden production was horrific, and the “entertainers” looked embarrassed through the constant fog. Where was the opportunity to hear a variety of music? Where were the dance spots? No Motown, coverbands, hip hop, funk, Caribbean, etc. etc. Just a few sad solo artists with tired songs and non-varied set. So, there’s no entertainment, so let’s try the food to compensate. Didn’t live up to the beautifully appointed rooms. Tables for two, so close to one another, proved conversation difficult. Four similar dining rooms, each offering a few “specialty menu items” gave fair service with passable food, not cruise quality food...think Applebees, Chili’s. Why do servers wear aprons? That’s a caste divider. No presence of a cruise director but we did see him on the TV screen...make that position virtual too. Add a virtual activities director as well, as there is very little to do on SEA days. First port was San Juan...arrival at 3:30 on New Years’ Day....nothing was opened. Huh? Two SEA days at end of itinerary...couldn’t alter to provide three full days. The Celebrity Edge must quickly figure out who its’ target audience is. It’s not the frequent cruiser, it may be a millennial who wishes the dream fantasy sequence, techno babble, and introvert catering. Good luck attracting the few in that demographic who could pay. Read Less

First off to give some perspective, we have sailed maybe 25 times. We're obviously not first timers but we also have some relative experience with different lines. We have sailed Celebrity, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival lines. We have stayed in Suites, Balconies, Oceanviews and Inside Cabins. We chose the Carnival Conquest primarily for the ports but also the holidays and past experience with Carnival. Although there were definite bright spots along the way, we ended our 6 night cruise with a definite decision not to come back to Carnival for the foreseeable future if ever. We were a family of five and booked two suites on the Empress deck; my husband, son 22, daughter 16 and our stepdaughter 36. Embarkation at Port Everglades was fine. We had taken a red eye flight from PDX to FLL and arrived around 8am. A cruise staff person at the port was extremely helpful and assisted us in getting a porter to take our luggage early so that we could walk out and find some breakfast nearby. Great customer service. Suites allow for priority boarding and we were on the ship by around 11:30. Champagne offered poolside on the Lido deck was a nice touch and something we hadn't experienced before that was complimentary. Had a bite to eat - pretty standard fare and very predictable if you've sailed Carnival before. Rooms were available by 1ish and we unpacked and explored the ship. Dining: Even though we booked 6 months before and had suite status we were unable to reserve a dining time which put us in the Your Time Dining category. Not initially a bad thing because there is some flexibility for eating when you are ready and not assigned a certain time. Your Time Dining was only available on the lower level of one of the two main dining rooms. Something we didn't know ahead of time. Also not a deal breaker but would have been nice to have some alternatives. First dinner was fine. Livia our waitress was very good. No complaints - just getting settled in. The next night was New Year's Eve and it was a total disaster. Wait times were over an hour and when we finally got a table we were stuck in a booth with a chair on the end of it. Still not a dealbreaker but we literally had NO staff ever. Everything we got was because we had to literally flag a person down and ask for it. Very much an afterthought. Finally after waiting the hour to be seated plus another 45 minutes to have anyone come to our table I went to the hostess station to let them know. Shortly after that someone came and took our order but there was nothing nice about it. Disappointing for what we hoped would be a really nice elegant New Year's Eve dinner with our family. Food was so marginal. Because of the time dinner took, we missed the evening show. And our experience was consistent with many other diners who left before the meal was completed. After that experience we stumbled upon I Wayan in the Renoir Dining Room and never went anywhere else. We opted to wait for his section than to take an earlier seat. Very professional and reminded us of what cruises and dining used to be like. He was excellent for the four remaining nights we were seated in his section. Food in the formal dining room was fine; some things better than others but you won't get a lot of perks that you may still get on other lines; pulling your seat out, putting your napkin on your lap, offering coffee at the end of the meal. They used to have more fanfare with Baked Alaska, Cherries Jubilee table side etc. That didn't exist on this cruise or maybe just with Carnival. Casual Dining: The first day we tried the Lido deck for breakfast. Long wait lines for what was institutional type food with no variations throughout the cruise. We had breakfast every remaining day at the Blue Iguana Cantina poolside. It was amazing and the staff were excellent. Made to order burritos, tacos, huevos rancheros - definitely a plus. Deli was fine, pizza was good and Guys Burgers were good but greasy. We ate dinner every night in the formal dining room so no input on the Lido dinner fare. Desserts were adequate. Pastries in the morning were horribly dry, tired and not worth putting on your plate. Soft serve ice cream stations were nice if they had cones and were operating properly - hit and miss. Staterooms: Our suites were very nice. Bedding was wonderful, very comfortable. A lot of storage and very generous bathroom size. Anita our steward was wonderful. You can opt for once or twice a day service. We opted for just one in the morning to get fresh towels and bedding done. Anita was very attentive, learned our names the first day and always had a smile and a kind word. No complaints with the cabin or service. Ship: This is a nice sized ship. Not a mega ship but big enough to feel like you had some options. Activities were lacking which didn't really bother us. We're not big poolside contest people but again, just not impressed with the offerings or even the delivery. Carnival has gotten away from a lot of the paper information they used to provide. But they will still paper you to death with 'offerings' and attempts to get you to buy something I miss the newsletter that we used to get talking about the next day activities, port information, dress for dinner, weather, etc. They still gave you a small brochure but just not the same. They expect you to utilize their Hub app instead which brings me to another negative - wi fi. Cleanliness of ship was lacking. The windows were filthy. They washed them on the last day. Paying for a suite and not being able to see out of your balcony is a definite negative. Wi-Fi: Short and simple, don't purchase it. Not worth it and is really just a money maker for Carnival and a source of frustration for the consumer. My family all purchased wi-fi; our oldest daughter purchased the premium for work reasons, our 22 year old the middle option and our 16 year old the basic. None of them worked adequately. Save yourself the frustration and cost and don't bother. Ports: We booked in large part because of a couple of ports that we hadn't visited before but also for some diving options that my oldest daughter and husband wanted to repeat. Bahamas was fun - walked to Junkanoo Beach and spent the day there. Half Moon Cay was fine. It's the cruise line's private island. Drink prices are high and they served the drinks the first time in $16 carnival funship glasses that we didn't ask for and didn't want. Turks and Caicos is beautiful. Lots of shopping and drinking if you like that. Amber Cove was fine - again not really authentic but just an artificial cruise port. A taxi to Puerta Plata was $70 roundtrip. The pool area was very nice. Diving: My husband and stepdaughter dove twice on the trip. Staff was great but organization was very poor. Debarkation: Smoothest debarkation so far. Our flight was leaving late so although we had priority debarking we opted to stay up on the Lido and get off near the end. No lines, no issues. Read Less

Overcrowded ship, not enough employees, long waits for food at dinner (6:00 seating), food quality in dining room noticeably lower than all my past cruises. Our cruise director made too many loud and annoying announcements. He interrupted the poolside movie twice and it took over 20 minutes for anyone to turn it back on (and it did not start in the right place). No one seemed to notice it had turned off until guests went and told someone. Room dusty and no robes in cabin anymore. Room service (sandwiches, etc.) no longer free. Evening stage shows noticeably worse than in years past. No lobster on elegant night (unless we paid $20 per person). Lobster has been a part of all the other cruise elegant nights we have attended. I couldn't believe how far downhill Carnival had gone since my last cruise 2 years ago. This was our 6th cruise together (16 people), and it was unanimously and by far the worst with many disappointments each and every day. There were never enough lounge chairs (fights and yelling broke out on board on the pool deck on the day that we couldn't stop at Amber Cove and had an unexpected "fun" day at sea). Once the announcement that we wouldn't visit Amber Cove was made, people were running and grabbing chairs out of the chair stacks, fighting over them ,and even bringing the chairs off their balconies just to have a place to sit. In the stateroom, the sofa "bed" for the third person was an absolute joke. A mattress, longer than the small sofa, was placed on top of the loveseat size sofa, and the overhang of the mattress was supported by a pillow on the floor. The bed was not suitable for an adult and we were not warned that it would be this short. Carnival, please provide better service and stop cutting amenities. Your longtime customers notice every cut. If you continue to cut corners and cut costs by serving low quality food and reducing amenities, I believe you will see a downturn in the type of clientele you attract. Read Less

I will start by saying that we are seasoned cruisers and are Elite status on Celebrity. We have sailed the Caribbean many times so the ship itself was our destination. Since it was a new ship and our experience on the Soltice Class ships has been exceptional, our expectation was to sail on what we thought was the best new cruise ship in the industry. As you can read from many of the reviews, the ship and staff just does not deliver. I would avoid this ship until the company figures out how to fix all the issues. That is, if they can. So what are the Pros and Cons: Pros: Embarkation. Room itself. Coffee shop. It is a new ship. Getting on the ship literally took minutes. Fastest Embarkation ever. Already talked about the room below. Coffee shop had fast service and very friendly staff. It is a new ship although it is vastly different from the Soltice class and for me, not in a good way. Cons: This list is so long, I will take it one at a time. The ship itself does not deliver in terms of public rooms. First of all, most are gone. No library, no game area and really no quiet spaces. The front of the ship is reserved space for Suite Class customers. The only way to see out of the front of the ship is to go in to the fitness center. You can tell that the company has decided to cater to the high end cabin purchasers. Last time I reviewed my MBA business model, I think it is the couple thousand plus people in the other cabins that are making a profit for the company so to close off that much of the ship for a privileged few seems like a waste of space. There is really no place that feels open. There are low ceilings everywhere and even the grand area where the martini bar is, only is 3 decks high and you cannot see out of either side due to no windows, so you feel like you are in a hole in the middle of the ship. Even the Grand Theater is so low in the back that you cannot see anything high up on the stage from the back seating. The Eden at the back of the ship is OK, but trying to be a garden of Eden fails. It has a constant funny smell to it, probably caused by the smoke machine they use to infuse some of the drinks. Because of the lack of other public spaces where you can actually look outside, it turns in a gathering point for kids and families to have a playground. Also, the music used to create some kind of exotic atmosphere is just flat terrible. Makes you feel like you are in some kind of elevator trapped in a twilight zone episode. I will say that the Eden cafe is a great place for lunch and worth trying. Dining. We always use traditional dining at 8:30. The first two nights we were basically ignored and on the second night when we (eight of us) had sit for 20 minutes without seeing anyone, I complained to the maitre d’ and almost immediately our service turned 180 degrees. Every night since then, our service has been impeccable and I credit that to the maitre d’. The bad thing, it that they have split the main dining room into four theme oriented restaurants. If you do traditional dining, you are stuck in your own restaurant and miss out on the theme inspired food in the other restaurants. I would recommend doing select dining where you can try all the main dining restaurants. The food was average without anything exceptional to talk about. We did have lobster on New Year’s Eve which was nice. Entertainment and Activities. I already talked about the terrible seating in the theater and the stage looks great, but the main dance crew were less than inspiring. We went to all the shows and only the comedians were worth it. In fact, they made us laugh till we hurt. They were very good. As far as activities on the ship, there was nothing inspiring. As a matter of fact, the ship is just flat boring. Every venue plays slow and soft music. Even on the pool deck, there is nothing. No water volleyball games, no parties, nothing. If you are in your 70’s and 80’s you will love the entertainment. They may have decided to design a relaxing atmosphere, but they reached near death. Even the sail away party was non existent. We left one port and the Jewel of the Seas was next to us having a “Sexiest Man” completion at the pool and we were listening to the DJ play sleep music. Deal or No Deal was a new addition and was a fun activity even at $25 a card. Better then Bingo which is gone. In general, the interaction between the crew/entertainment staff is virtually gone. Plan to have a lot of time for reading and sitting around. Buy the drink package, you will need it. If you are technology challenged, you will miss out on a lot of cool thinks. The Celebrity App allows you to access so much, a map of the ship’s floors, activity guide, menus, etc. etc. Only probable I found and was told by the crew, the paper copy of activities was more up to date then the App. How that is possible is hard to believe. Service in general on the ship is spotty. We usually give tips early to some of the waiters we see on a regular basis so our service is usually pretty good as they remember you. I almost forgot to mention the Flying Carpet. Another miss in my opinion. First, it is this terrible orange color and actually is an eye sore once you get past the novelty. Underway it is very windy and will actually blow your drinks over. Don’t see the value so you can expect plenty of time to hang out there and have a drink since it was not used that much. In fact the ship itself is not very pretty. On the dock, one couple was commenting on how the front of the ship looked like the back and I had to somewhat agree. OK, not sure I got to everything, but in general I would NOT come back on the Edge again and if this is the future direction of the Celebrity, I will move to another cruise line. I do not like the ship at all and I hope the company makes adjustments based on cruise reviews. The voyages are expensive right now so if I were you, I would wait until the newness wares off. The value for the price is just not there right now. Spend your money elsewhere and have more fun. I did not rate ports, because the Caribbean is the Caribbean. Once you have been there, it is the same stuff. I will say that it was terrible to see the damage the the hurricane season inflicted on these communities. They are rebuilding, but I pray for peaceful seasons ahead. Read Less

A group of 10 of us decided to book this cruise for a fun NYE cruise. We live in Florida and the cruise was taking off from Port Canaveral so it was a breeze getting to port. Embarkation was easy and quick despite the lines... Disembarkation was a nightmare and took about 45 minutes. We all had cruised this ship before and loved it -- if this was our first cruise on the ship, we never would go again .. it was overbooked! Two of the 6 days we couldn't get a chair outside - people were saving them and at 7:45 AM very few people were in the loungers but there wasn't a chair that wasn't being saved! Staff did nothing to control this. My room was wonderful (mini-suite) very roomy and plenty of place for storage. They need to put more light near the sink though - its impossible to put makeup on or fix your hair. NYE was the best - parties all over the ship -- we were in O'Sheehans looking down on the Atrium and it was really fun. We booked all our speciality dining before the cruise - food was delicious everywhere. Service was good except at Cagneys - we sat for 20 minutes before a server came to the table and when he did come he was clearly annoyed. It sometimes took a while to get a drink at O'Sheehans - I blame the overbooking for all this.. There were alot of kids on this cruise - and they were everywhere, not just in the kid zones... Ports were nice but we didn't go to their private island because getting on a tender was a mob scene - no organization -- we rented a clamshell but just gave up and lost that $40. They keep the same shows for too long - everything we saw in April was there again so we didn't go to many shows. That's my review .. Read Less

Planned New Years cruise to relax - didn't necessarily care about the ports. From day one it was a bad experience - the room was filthy, dirty carpet with rat droppings all over. The sofa was filthy, I put a towel on it before I could sit. Paid for a suite with a balcony as usual. Would not have stayed if it were a hotel. The shows were very good, easy to get into, very pleased. Dining was OK- seemed to have lots of leftovers on the buffet, but it a buffet.... Service was very much less than expected - while we have been on other Norwegian cruises I have never seen staff speak to guests as I saw on this cruise - had them bark at me and suggest I go to another place for service as they were busy. Saw them making fun of other guests....really, at least go behind closed doors if you are going to make fun of the people paying your paycheck. Never again - not just done with Norwegian Epic - done with Norwegian - period. Will lose almost $2,000 in deposits but would never do it again. Read Less