We were fortunate to get to sail on Celebrity Ascent on her Inaugural cruise from Fort Lauderdale in November, 2023. What an awesome ship!! This was the first time we have been on one of their Edge Class ships. Everyone whom we have booked on an Edge class ship told us how wonderful it was, and we can now confirm all of the positive reviews.
Boarding was the best we have ever experienced. A quick picture, scan the QR code, walk onto the ship. As fast and easy as our boarding was, I think it would go very smoothly on a regular voyage. Our cabin cards were waiting for us in a little package outside of our cabin. Very easy boarding! Getting off was just as easy. We carried our bags, so it was just a facial scan at customs, and we were done.
This is a 3,260 guest, double occupancy ship. There are lots and lots of very nice public spaces. The infinite balcony in our stateroom is awesome. More about that later. There are 8 speciality restaurants – Le Voyage Steakhouse, La Grand Bistro which serves French cuisine, Le Petite Chef which has the 3D table animation art form to add to your experience, Raw on 5, a seafood restaurant, The Magic Carpet for nibbles and drinks and dinner in the evenings, The Rooftop Garden Grill, and the Eden Restaurant which is an open kitchen restaurant. There are 4 main dining rooms, all serving the same menu for each meal. The ship also has several other complimentary dining – The Eden Cafe which offers morning beverages and bites, the Spa Cafe and Juice Bar for healthy cuisine, the Oceanview Cafe which offers made to order breakfast and lunch with an international menu for dinner, Mast Grill for burgers on the top deck with an amazing view. The Retreat (an exclusive area) has 2 restaurants. Ascent has 9 bars, some on the top decks with gorgeous ocean views – a Martini Bar on Deck 3 and the bar on the Magic Carpet.
The Magic Carpet is a great place to sit and gaze at the ocean with a drink. It is a cantilevered, floating platform, surrounded by glass or open areas (except obviously against the ship). It juts out over the ship. It stops at 3 different levels during the day. It stops on the deck in front of the cabanas and becomes a pool deck extension, and it stops at one of the ships main dining rooms to serve as alfresco dining. In the evenings it stops on deck 16 to offer “Dinner on the Edge” dining.
Our cabin was very nice. We entered with bathroom to the right – good size room with a decent shower. Backed up to the bathroom is a large closet with shelves and hanging up space. Then a 3 person couch with desk and shelves across from this. Refrigerator with water on the top. Some shelving and a safe. Then the king size bed with small built in tables on either side with usb ports and drawers.
Our stateroom, as do most of the veranda staterooms, had an infinite balcony. We were interested to see what this was. It was pretty impressive – with the push of a button, the top of the window slides down until you have an area very much like a normal balcony on a ship. But, it is protected so no wind, it’s shady, and you have opened your room up to the outside! It gives more space in the cabin and is useful even when the water isn’t conducive to sitting on the balcony.
The balcony area can be closed off with panels that can be opened or closed at the touch of a button. A plus on this ship, as far as I am concerned, slightly in front of the window is a black out curtain that rolls up into the ceiling and lowers to the floor, with a switch.
We stopped by our muster station and got that done in about 5 minutes. Our first lunch was at the Oceanview Cafe, the buffet. There are about 10 huge stations there not counting the dessert and bread stations. Anything you could want almost, even grilled steaks, Mexican station, etc. It was a huge spread!!
We started our exploration on deck 16 and worked our way down. (Deck 17 is for The Retreat guests.) Deck 16 has part of the jogging track and a hot tub. Deck 15 is the “Resort Deck”. It has the rest of the jogging track, the Rooftop Garden Grill, the Rooftop Garden area, the Sunset Bar, and the Fitness Center. The Fitness Center had lots of equipment. We stopped at the Sunset Bar, what a fabulous area – several levels, mostly outside areas with a few covered areas, lots of little nooks for privacy or joining a few other couples. Part of it is a Rooftop Garden with lots of greenery. There are several float pools that are cantilevered over the ocean.There are some really neat pluses on this ship – infinity hot tubs look out on the ocean, most with glass panels, there are lifts to get handicapped people into the pools, lots of green spaces with chairs to have some quiet time, lots of lounge chairs under a cover, etc.
Deck 14 has the Mast Grill, ll Secondo Bacio (a coffee bar and fresh squeezed juices), the Oceanview Cafe (the awesome buffet), the Spa, the Solarium which is an adult only pool and lounge area, SEA Thermal Suite, Spa Cafe and Juice Bar, and where the Magic Carpet was at the time. There is also the Main pool with a terraced deck. It has a huge silver octopus on one end of the deck, very nice.
Decks 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were all cabins. Deck 6 was mostly cabins but also the Eden Restaurant which is multilevel. Deck 5 is the Theater (multilevel), The Club (a hub of activities and social interaction, morning, noon, and night), the Steakhouse, The Club, Shops, more of the Eden Restaurant, The Eden Bar, Raw on 5 Restaurant and the Grand Plaza which is multilevel.
Deck 4 had more of the Grand Plaza (this is really a nice space, multilevel and great places to sit), the rest of the Theater and the Eden Restaurant, Le Grand Bistro Restaurant, Cypress Restaurant and the Cosmopolitan Restaurant, where we ate our dinners. The Casino is also on this deck. Deck 3 had some staterooms, the rest of the Theater and the Grand Plaza, the Martini Bar, Tuscan Restaurant, Normandie Restaurant and Camp at Sea for the kids. Deck 2 was where the Magic Carpet goes for passengers getting to the tender boats and the medical facility.
There are no water slides, etc. for the kids. There is a Camp at Sea group for 13-17 year olds, one for 10-12, one for 6-9 and 3-5 if they are potty trained. The programs look like most cruise ship programs but they do use Stem Programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The are also autism friendly. They base their programs on the interest of the children participating on the cruise, so it changes a little with each cruise.
The shows in the Theater were done twice a night – 7:30 and 9:30. The first night, the show was “Bridges”. The daily happenings paper said it was “a celebration of human connection set against the backdrop of some of the world’s most iconic bridges from London to Venice, New York, San Francisco and Sydney, featuring a scenic bridge as the centerpiece that transports the audience to breathtaking locations.” It was a well done musical.
The second night was “Awakening” which is “a captivating, sensory experience taking you on an eye opening journey through a showcase of surreal dreams, awakening your sensed to explore a world where anything is possible”. Not something we enjoyed but lots of people really liked it. I think our biggest issue was with how dangerously loud the sound was. I measured over 117db at one point. They have another show – Residency which is a Las Vegas style music show. We didn’t get to see that one.
We didn’t use the Casino but it was large. It is non-smoking which I thought was unusual but great. They have over 200 slot machines and 150 game tables.
I was amazed at the choices at the Oceanview Cafe. Breakfast was everything you could think of plus stations for cook to order food. They even had my favorite – sausage gravy and biscuits and grits. One lunch buffet had one station (out of the 10 or so) with only seafood – lobster, shrimp (boiled, fried, grilled, etc.), crab legs and more!! It was awesome!! We ate suppers in one of the main dining room, the Cosmopolitan. The food and choices were great! Each main dining room has the same menu.
Everyone was friendly, nice and very service oriented. We couldn’t have had better service in the restaurants, bars, shops, or anywhere. It was an awesome, great experience!!
Celebrity has a party on board called “Shine the Night”. You were to wear a metallic outfit if you had one for a party on the Resort Deck. Lots of music and some surprise music performances. It was fun! There were also several places that had music and dance floor. There was a piano bar, game show of trivia, lots bar tastings, lots of music options, art shows, shop options, spa options, pickleball, dance, yoga and other fitness option classes, live music, wine and liquor tastings, dance parties, comedy shows, All the activities you find on most cruise ships with their own spin.
The ship was very pretty. The colors were subdued with tan, white and black with red and blue accents. No in your face purple, orange, etc. Very subdued and nice. They were just starting to decorate for Christmas too, which I loved. The “elves” came during the night and did gorgeous greenery with white lights and red decorations on railings, beautiful trees, etc. It was starting to look a lot like Christmas!
This ship has brothers as co-captains. One of the things the ship did for us was to take us out in the life boats and go around the ship for pictures, I’m sure they don’t usually do that, but they did for us. It was wonderful! The life boats have individual seats for passengers, which was nice. One of the captains was piloting one of the life boats, He was driving around in figure 8’s, racing the other boat, and just generally having a good time, as did all of the passengers.
We really enjoyed the trip and seeing the ship. We will be going on more Celebrity cruises, especially the Edge Class.