On Celebrity Cruises’ cutting Edge in the Caribbean
There’s plenty to do and see while cruising the true-blue waters of the eastern Caribbean.
What is there to do in the eastern Caribbean, famous for true-blue waters and the diverse character of its islands, variously colonised by the British, Spanish, French and Dutch? Well, quite a lot, it transpires, even if you are doing not much more than passing by. In my case, it’s a whistlestop circuit aboard Celebrity Edge. On a cruise liner of this size, with 16 decks and about 2900 passengers, it’s as much about shipboard life as days ashore. Our eight-day return itinerary from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, includes stops at just three ports, all close together, which leaves an ample four days afloat, as the final day merely refers to morning arrival back at the departure point.
Deckchair lazing? Idly watching waves crest and seabirds soar? Hardly. The packed daily activities sheet is for over-achievers, the array of options daunting. I could have a non-surgical facelift in the MedSpa, guess the price of a Picasso painting in the Art Gallery, engage in the Bean Bag Toss on Resort Deck 14, get stuck into golf putting, celebrity trivia or ping-pong tournaments. Or how about sushi-making, pool volleyball, gin-tasting or herbal remedy sessions? It’s only halfway through the voyage that I sufficiently relax to slow down and successfully navigate myself around a multitude of facilities. The ship is in party mode this northern spring, full of families and groups of young adults, and everyone is determined to have fun, but not in too raucous a fashion. Some passengers appear never to go ashore, preferring to claim the ship as their own on port days. San Juan in Puerto Rico, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and Philipsburg in St Maarten come and go, untouched. I book excursions at all but now realise it’s possible to over-achieve on Celebrity Edge without once touching terra firma.
And what a home base it is. There’s 24-hour cabin service, and 29 “food and beverage experiences”, of which those in the surcharge “specialty” category are indisputably the best. Most ships have one main dining room but Celebrity Edge boasts four, all a la carte — Normandie, Tuscan, Cosmopolitan (with “walk-through wine display”) and Cyprus. Decor differs in each, menus are similar, with some regional dishes, and passengers are assigned tables for the first night after embarkation, after which it’s necessary to make bookings via the Celebrity Edge X app, which is free to download and relatively easy to use. It sends reminders about timings, and works without Wi-Fi; it can also be used to control your TV and regulate your stateroom airconditioning and lighting.
The standard is uniformly excellent across the quartet, especially Mediterranean-style seafood, but I prefer to eat more widely at the specialty options, of which Fine Cut Steakhouse, with its “choose your cut” grill menu, toppings (black truffle butter, thanks) and sides, is a standout, and the menu runs to premium seafood, too, including split-roasted Maine lobster.
But again and again I return to the casual Raw on 5 for its “barely dressed” Japanese dishes and sea bass ceviche with ponzu, ginger oil, orange, soy and coconut milk; and mussels steamed with lemongrass, lime, chilli and pepper.
There are cruise-happy cocktails here, too, with ingredients such as barley tea syrup, matcha and almond milk, but it’s the clear, sunny flavours on Raw on 5’s menu that most appeal to me and the fact the dishes seems more in tune with warm-weather destinations than some of the heavier and more convoluted cuisine served at other venues.
The Magic Carpet orange-arched mini-deck lounge, which tracks up and down the ship’s starboard side from Decks 2 to 16 (without passengers, thankfully, when in progress) like a very sophisticated gantry, features a selection of Raw on 5 dishes and, when it’s docked alongside the otherwise sealed “mothership” diner, the experience becomes indoor-outdoor, albeit windy on sea days. It was designed by Tom Wright, who conceived Dubai’s Burj al Arab hotel’s dhow sail profile, but feels a little too gimmicky unless being used on Deck 2 as a lounge to expedite disembarking and reboarding passengers on and off tender boats for shore excursions. As well as joining with Raw on 5, the Magic Carpet docks on Deck 14 for sail-away festivities.
There’s also fare-included dining at Eden Cafe and the enormous Oceanview Cafe, with sufficient live cooking stations, ice cream and salad bars, grills, bakery items, and towers of club sandwiches to, well, stall a ship. The top-deck, poolside Mast Grill is perfect for a swimsuit lunch, with great burgers, hot dogs with choice of toppings and fries. Also on this deck, port-side midship, are private cabanas that can be rented by the day, with “room service” and butler.
More tricks? The theatre entertainment is large-scale, with a stage that juts into the audience. Be ever vigilant for flying trapezes and late-night comedians peddling adults-only jokes. Artists wander around the voluminous greenhouse-themed Eden Restaurant like rogue street performers, dressed as animals and making faces at diners who are otherwise occupied in tucking into a five-course dinner menu. It’s a take on the Garden of Eden but feels more like Avatar meets Where the Wild Things Are and is a bit perplexing, a feeling that extends to the mirrored-maze corridor that leads you there. The food, however, is exceptional, prepared in an open kitchen, and featuring an extravagant and much talked-about dessert of warm dark chocolate poured from high on to a sweet white choc shell that opens like a flower unfurling to reveal quenelles of ice cream. All presented with show-and-tell flourishes, of course.
And then there’s Le Petit Chef, “virtually” in a class of its own. It’s an interactive comedy-style dining experience in which augmented reality brings to life a four-way battle for cooking supremacy. A quartet of 58mm-tall chef figures is projected on to your table and place settings; they then each “cook” a dish from the four-course menu to musical accompaniment. Waiters then bring the real meal, placed on top, and it’s all mad fun, unlike anything I could have imagined. The tiny virtual Italian chef wins the evening of my visit, amid riotous rounds of applause and shouts of “Bravo!”.
My accommodation is in Concierge Class, which as the category name clearly announces, comes with concierge service; this is helpful for booking on-board meals or tours. I would recommend this style as snug and good value, although the bathroom is poky. Celebrity Edge’s much-vaunted “infinite balcony” feature — whereby balcony doors fold against the wall, and at the touch of a button, the top half of the outer window opens to become a semi-enclosed extension of the stateroom — is cool and I enjoy testing its novelty value as we sail out of Fort Lauderdale. There are fine quality bedlinens and towels, and super-soft down pillows in abundance. Decor is by British designer Kelly Hoppen in a safe and muted charcoal and navy palette, while public areas are the work of myriad international design houses, reaching a crescendo of extravagance in the Grand Plaza atrium, where the LED strips of the massive bladed chandelier change colour according to the time of day.
With its inventive features and technology, Celebrity Edge, launched last year, has been a game-changer for cruising. It will be joined by sister ship Celebrity Apex in 2020; its inaugural cruise will be a round trip from Southampton, April 5-13, around the Mediterranean and Iberia, followed by Baltic and Norwegian cruises. OK, game on. Looking at booking right now.
Jo Makito was a guest of Celebrity Cruises.
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In the know
Celebrity Edge is the first of four ships in a new class for Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Line.
The ship has back-to-back seven-day cruises in the eastern and western Caribbean that can also be booked as one 14-day voyage. The next season of nine seven-day sailings in the eastern Caribbean starts December 1, from $1751 a person, twin-share, in an inside cabin; veranda category from $2781.
Celebrity Edge’s current season in Europe ends with a 14-night Mediterranean Transatlantic voyage departing Rome on November 1, followed by southern and western Caribbean sailings.
Upgrading to Aqua Class staterooms can be great value due to the number of extra inclusions and exclusive dining at Blu restaurant.
■ celebritycruises.com/au
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More to the story
It’s worth booking excursions and at least a few surcharge dining options before departure.
An afternoon walking tour in Puerto Rico of San Juan’s old town, including the 16th-century Spanish hilltop fort of Castillo San Felipe del Morro (pictured), and the cobblestoned, cat-filled streets of less touristy parts of the city, is an enjoyable excursion, although Celebrity Edge docks in the heart of San Juan so it would be easy to undertake an independent tour.
On the British Virgin Islands, a popular beach trip from Tortola, including ferry, bus and hiking, is a great day out, with sugar-white sand and aquamarine water.
Because of protests on the French side of the island, a rejigged tour on St Maarten, billed as a 4x4 “adventure”, was not much more than a drive to a mountain lookout and lunch at a below-standard restaurant next to the Instagram-friendly “airport beach” where planes land perilously close to the sand.
Other excursions include the likes of scuba diving tuition at the Escambron Marine Park in San Juan; zip-lining in the jungles outside Tortola or diving the 19th-century wreck of RMS Rhone, which served as a film set for The Deep (1977), starring Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset. And sailing on an America’s Cup yacht as crew or passenger in the waters off Sint Maarten seems a cruise world bargain at $US109 ($160) a person.