Beyond Ultimate Southern Caribbean (10 nights) Jan ‘25 Notes

Wife and I are late 50’s (how did that happen?), experienced but infrequent cruisers, minor mobility issues. We’ve sailed on most of the major lines, and last on Celebrity in 2004. No special status or perks and can spend money but usually prefer not to unless there’s clear value. Attached are some notes from our trip provided in case they’re useful to anyone else; your mileage (and opinion) may vary.

Stuff to bring:

[ ] Magnetic hooks for the room - Amazon - pack of 12 - got this idea from this forum and they were lifesavers for hanging wet bathing suits, coverups, hats, etc.

[ ] Towel clips for chairs - as seems to be the case everywhere these days, if you don’t get out there by about 0800 you’re going to have trouble finding two chairs together that aren’t in an inconvenient / less-desirable place on deck. A lot of people were using either bands that went around the back of a chair to large squeeze clips to hold towels to chairs. These would be worth packing.

[ ] Rain ponchos - hard to find ashore and $13 onboard; $1 at Walmart ahead of time. We had brief showers a couple of our shore days and would have liked to have had these for insurance.

[ ] Umbrellas - as above, depending on your risk tolerance. We brought a small one and were glad we had it just in case.

[ ] Rash guards - long sleeve quick-dry shirts were nice for long days on deck

[ ] Snorkel pouch for phones - cheap and easy to bring for underwater photos, hard to find ashore.

[ ] Enough cash for excursion tips - we underestimated tips / incidentals in planning and the $200 US cash we brought was barely enough (so that’s $50/day for two of us for each shore day). There is an ATM onboard and we would have used it if we’d had one more day ashore. Most stores had electronic payment available but it didn’t always work, and street vendors were cash-only. US accepted everywhere. Note that different islands used different native currencies.

[ ] Clothesline? We saw another room had a clothesline in it, but are not sure how they attached it

[ ] Hand sanitizer - small, portable bottle for piece of mind before meals ahore

[ ] Evening bag (vs beach / pool bag) - small purse for the ladies to bring to dinner / around ship

[ ] Yeti tumbler - I’m not a brand guy, but our new Yeti tumbler was amazing at keeping things cold. It’s coming everywhere now.

Excursions / Referrals: we did three short excursions via Celebrity and two via ShoreEx. In all three cases, the Celebrity tours were more crowded, less comfortable, and less enjoyable than the outside ones. Guides / chaperones on the outside tours were much more engaged and personable than the Celebrity-sponsored ones. The age-old concern about outside vendors not getting you back to the ship on time has always resonated with us - we’re pretty risk-averse - but in every case our operators knew exactly when we needed to be back and made darn sure we had time to spare. In the outside tours, about 2/3 of the guests were from Beyond - which also added a little interesting nuance to conversations.

[ ] St Maarten - Sailthephoenix.com - pleasant catamaran snorkel and home-cooked lunch on the boat, open bar. Really didn’t get to see any of the island because we were on the ship all day, probably a mistake, but we got what we asked for. Snorkeling was only OK over a pretty well-traveled snorkel spot and underwater tour path seeded with a helicopter, submarine, some statuary.

[ ] St Lucia - Jungle Tours via ShoreEx - tour guide Lloyd was outstanding - driving tour (bad roads) west side plus really fun mud bath (another $8 ea) and waterfall and chocolate shop - take Dramamine first - long drive.

[ ] Grenada - bus tour via Celebrity plus chocolate shop and 15 min waterfall. Nice to see the island but not worth $150. Ship would not have been a bad place to spend the day.

[ ] Barbados - Beautiful Bermuda Tours & Excursions via ShoreEx. Bathsheba view was awesome, beach rocky. Wildlife preserve + monkeys fun. Lots of driving but good roads. Lovely beach with food trucks, might have liked to try snorkel w/ turtles. Holetown pretty upscale. Could spend a few days here.

[ ] Antigua - Nest Beach, via ship. Hour from stateroom to bus. Tourist beach, crowded, ridiculous prices. Decent beach, no reason to go back to this beach or to use this company again.

Ship: loved Beyond - so artsy.

— Staff was, as usual on these ships, great with a couple of standouts at both the high and low ends.

— Ship is looooong. No trouble getting in 10K steps most days. A few cycles of stateroom-food-deck is plenty of walking.

— Theatre is a technical marvel and the production cast shows took full advantage of it - don’t miss them. Ship band and resident cast were terrific - so much talent there. The visiting acts were fine - lounge-singer quality, generally trying to do too much in a 45-minute show, but it was something to do in the evening after dinner. Not impressed by the Eden cast show in The Club.

— The Club was generally disappointing; layout supports a floor show but the live shows / game shows were meh at best and there are few seats with good views of the floor. Don’t waste your money on the Deal or No Deal game. Entertainment hosts (with the exception of Cruise Director Alexa) were over the top and quickly got annoying.

— Enjoyed just hanging out in the Grand Plaza and people watching / drinking. Loved the Silent Disco. Flair bartenders fun to watch and very personable.

— Liked the big screen in the Rooftop Garden for evening football games. Pretty constant and good-natured Pickleball competition up there.

Food:

— The buffet is amazing. Food was fine and the variety is incredible. Staff is very helpful. Hard not to overeat.

— The four “Standard” restaurants were also fine - food quality one step above the buffet, still not gourmet by any stretch. Staff was obsequious, which one would expect. Never had to wait more than 5 min without reservations to get seated.

— The “cafe’s” were surprisingly nice places to get lunch - lighter fare (well, maybe not at the Pizza stand) and a more personal feel. We enjoyed the cafes both in Eden and in the Solarium on multiple days.

— The premium dining was indeed premium and with prices to match. Enjoyed Le Petit Chef and Fine Cut (but once is enough for each). Cancelled a reservation at Raw on 5 after looking at the menu and prices; we love our seafood but can get fine meals at home for a lot less $$.

— Bar and coffee lines tended to be long everywhere all the time.

— Last day at sea is when the best buffet food comes out - do the premium dining mid-cruise

— We’re soda and water addicts and had no trouble bringing onboard a carry-on full of sodas and water that lasted us the whole trip. Very little room in the stateroom fridge, though - two bottles at a time.

Hope this is helpful for someone - have a great trip.