By Ricki Linksman
Celebrity’s Cruise Ship, The Beyond, was already a fantastic cruise experience since its maiden voyage with Captain Kate McCue and her famous sidekick, Bug Naked, her hairless cat. Sailing on it this February 2024 for the second time, it was evident that even Beyond has gone beyond. One of the hallmarks of Celebrity is that they not only invite feedback and surveys from their guests, but they take them seriously, listening to the comments, and making improvements. After sailing with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity for many years, each return successive cruise has made the suggested improvements. Again, they have listened to passengers and have provided new experiences—“beyond” expectations.
Captain Kate’s Example to Crew Members Creating a Fabulous Passenger Experience:
One of my goals in creating this HealthAndTravelGuide.com blog and “Ricki’s List” is to share with other resorts, cruise lines, spas, and restaurants examples of the best most relaxing vacations in the hopes they take a page out of their playbook and emulate them. As an avid traveler seeking the most relaxing resort hotel spa vacations and cruises around the world, I find very few are actually relaxing and stress-free. I have realized that one of the key components is the staff and the quality of customer service. This is the reason I write about those that provide such a high level of caring customer service that the vacation is truly relaxing and stress-free. If this blog site only mentions a few, it is because I don’t like to criticize those resorts or cruises that have provided stressful experiences, but rather I write about those that make it to Ricki’s List in the hopes that those resorts and cruise lines that find themselves missing from this blog site will strive to improve the experiences they provide their guests.
For this reason, I have added to Ricki’s List the wonderful Captain Kate McCue as one of the absolute best captains on all the ships I have sailed on from over 20 cruises. She is a stellar example of “above and beyond” customer service. Quality customer service is one of the pillars that make any vacation stress-free and rejuvenating. Here are some reasons she makes people feel welcomed and joyful: Her incredibly vivacious personality and her caring, friendly, and humble nature make each cruise a delight. She makes herself accessible through more than just her daily announcements with her jokes, witticisms, and enthusiasm for each day’s offerings. Captain Kate takes time out of her busy day to greet her guests, take photos with passengers, conduct a Q and A sessions in the theater and host a “Bug Naked Trivia” program. She takes time to meet guests at the various venues throughout the cruise—even greeting us when we leave the ship! Who does that? We have never seen anyone take the time to get to know the passengers and make everyone feel like a member of her family! She even remembers people’s names from one cruise to the next.
Her joyfulness permeates the spirit of all the crew members on staff. Her customer service ethos and family-feeling extends to all staff, from the senior officers to the food service staff, to the pool attendants, cabin attendants, and the even the people who clean the public bathrooms, staircases and elevators to keep them sanitized —everyone is friendly and caring and make guests feel welcome. That all starts at the top with Captain Kate. Her influence spreads through every staff member on the ship. Everyone has a smile, a kind word, and makes you feel like a welcomed part of a big family.
Not to mention: Bug Naked—her hairless cat and sidekick who she calls her maneuver support cat because she not only provides support to the new training staff on the bridge to calm them down when they are learning ship maneuvers, but she makes everyone feel happy.
The Adults-Only Solarium Boasts Spa-Like Music:
Many guests seek a space for adults only. In researching many cruises, and correct me if I am wrong, one of the only cruise lines that offers an adults only solarium is Celebrity. For those of us who want to rejuvenate from working hard all year and want some quiet time to read, meditate, relax, or enjoy a quiet swim or dip in a hot tub, far from the madding crowds, it is a pleasure to have an adults-only solarium on board a ship. While there are many adults-only resorts, those who love cruising don’t want to choose between a land vacation and a cruise but want the best of both worlds—adults only space on a cruise.
The Solarium on the Beyond in February has listened to guest comments and now plays
music in the solarium that is calming and peaceful and not loud, giving it a spa-like atmosphere. Some places play music in spas that are more like those in the work-out exercise rooms that are loud, dancing music and takes away from the relaxing mood people want in a solarium. I hope that the atmosphere in the solarium will remain calm and peaceful, and what was done on the Beyond is copied on other cruise ships. I also hope the solariums are reserved for adults only – as it is one of the few places on the ship that provides such a restful atmosphere. There are plenty of other spaces for families with children including the main pool deck, but the solarium is a rare space where one finds people reading a book, meditating, resting, relaxing, and soaking their bodies in the pool or hot tub.
New 2024 Vegan and Vegetarian Menus Go Beyond with their Gourmet Dishes, Delicious Flavors and Artistic Presentations:
Over the years Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have been adding vegetarian options to their dining menus. They always offered off-the-menu options for those on a vegetarian diet, even before veganism became popular. But it always entailed talking to the Maître D’ the night before so they could give the chef time to prepare the dishes. It was always a hit and miss affair as sometimes the chefs were not always familiar with the recipe and it took more than one try to get it to the guests’ liking. Over the years we suggested that they create a separate menu, one for vegetarians who ate dairy but not eggs, called lacto-vegetarians, and one for vegans who did not eat any dairy. Several years ago, such menus were created which made it easy to order from in the main dining room on Solstice class ships and on the new Edge class in their four restaurants that took the place of the main dining room. For vegetarians, in the past, the main ingredients to provide protein were limited to tofu, beans and legumes. When we first sailed on the Equinox with Captain Kate and met Executive Chef Alex, and later on the Edge pre-COVID pandemic, and on the Beyond post-COVID when the pandemic ended, I had spoken with the other Executive Chefs and the Food and Beverage Directors about adding more of the meat substitutes that had become popular to enhance the vegetarian and vegan menus. “Beyond Meat” and the “Impossible Burger were becoming a staple in restaurants around the world, but there were so many more options of plant-based meat substitutes to enrich their menu. We had suggested plant-based steaks, plant-based chickens, plant-based meatballs, plant-based fish, plant-based hot dogs and plant-based sausages, and other plant-based dishes using the flavorings and seasonings of some of the meat, chicken, and fish dishes to give a wider variety for vegans and vegetarians. AND CELEBRITY LISTENED! I was over the moon when I saw what they offered in their Oceanview which is their buffet and their new 2024 menus in the dining venues. To name a few:
Plant-based chicken—round moist inside and crispy breaded outside (without using eggs) in a vegetarian tomato sauce
Plant-based meatballs in a tomato sauce over eggless pasta like spaghetti, penne, or various other shapes
Plant-based meat sauce for the pasta
Plant-based steak made of cauliflower with a mushroom sauce
Plant-based sausage to go with the scrambled tofu
Plus, on a 10-day cruise we expected the dinner menu to be repeated but each night had different gourmet-style offerings, all delicious and all beautifully presented.
Their menu accommodated multiple dietary needs whether one is gluten-free, dairy free, avoiding eggs, meat, fish, or fowl, low salt, no salt, no sugar, low-fat, diabetic, have religious restrictions, or have individual allergies, whether to peanuts, or a particular spice, or cinnamon or whatever! What was special on this trip was a dedicated Executive Chef for special meals. Chef Vijay was incredible making such a wide variety of special vegetarian and vegan meals.
One of the features that was new that we had an assistant Maître D’ named Gorica in the Cyprus restaurant who went out of her way to take our orders from the menu but to list for the chef what to adjust in any dishes to our dietary needs and our liking for the following evening to make sure the chefs were aware and made them properly. She personally came to the table each night, wrote down what appetizer, salad, soup, main dish, sides, and desserts we wanted, checked the ingredients in advance with the chef to make sure he could prepare them, and on the following evening made sure they were exactly as requested. She was the most caring, detailed-oriented, and friendly Maître D’ we had ever seen, as she did it all with a smile and delight. Some people elsewhere will find it an inconvenience to take a special order and find it simpler to say no or seem annoyed, but she exemplified the Celebrity attitude of instead, smilingly and graciously finding ways to say yes and not making anyone feel it was an imposition. Many others should take a lesson from Gorica and our waiter, Ramil, who also assisted in making sure everything was served properly. These are two of the many examples of servers and chefs throughout the various Celebrity ships that help make the dining experience a pleasure.
One suggestion given on past Celebrity cruises was the need for more pastries for vegetarians and vegans who do not eat or cannot eggs. They often offered sorbet, or a vegetarian panna cotta, but seeing the non-vegetarian desserts that looked so yummy made the vegans and vegetarians who don’t eat eggs envious and deprived. We asked that they start preparing eggless desserts and vegan options, and again, CELEBRITY LISTENED AND DELIVERED—GOING WAY BEYOND. They had a pastry chef, Doorshini, who made the best vegetarian cakes and desserts we ever had. She made the most moist chocolate cakes and chocolate brownies without eggs. The other ships should bottle her recipes and serve them on other ones, too. She made all kinds of flavored cakes. She made crème Brule and mousse without eggs. Each morning she made eggless blueberry muffins, zucchini muffins, and corn muffins, which were brought to the Aqua Spa where they daily served such muffins but with eggs. They went out of the way that vegetarians could enjoy the same offerings as other passengers but substituted the same dishes but without eggs and for vegans that are dairy free. They also offered different eggless cakes in the Oceanview and Bistro on 5. They even had a “Vegan Corner” in the Oceanview and it was amazing to see how many unique and delicious dishes they offered, varying them each day. I hope Celebrity continues to add to these as it gives the growing number of vegans and vegetarians the same fulfilling culinary experience as the other passengers enjoy.
On previous cruises, attempts at eggless pastry-type dinner items didn’t always work out as being too dry, too grainy, not tasty, or they couldn’t get the pastry light and fluffy. But Doorshini was able to make some of these pastry type dinner items without eggs such as fluffy and flaky pastry shells for the mushroom benedict, or empanadas, and stuffed mushroom in pastry cups, and vegetarian spring rolls, which very few chefs had done in the past.
One suggestion we made on the last day of this cruise to Chef Vijay was to add “Just Egg” products which are an egg substitute made from plant-based ingredients that could be used to mimic scramble eggs, egg patties, and French toast, and can also be used in baking recipes.
I also want to express appreciation to the Raw on Five restaurant, Chef Rhutsu, who made special delicious off the menu vegetarian dishes.
Captain’s Club breakfast: For frequent cruisers who are members of the Captain’s Club, Celebrity Edge Class ships have also designated a new space to offer breakfast items. Instead of the Tuscany Restaurant, they now offer it in the Grand Bistro which is mid-ship and easier and faster to reach. They offered various smoothies, fruit platters, cheese platters for vegetarians along with rolls and bagels, and coffee and tea.
Fabulous Entertainment Shows: When taking trips on the same ship multiple times it can be repetitive to see the same show on each cruise. But during this cruise, the Beyond kicked it up a notch with fabulous nightly entertainment. Shawna, the cruise director, was great with her enthusiastic high energy and friendly personality. Her choice of headliners on this cruise was terrific. We loved Hayden and Alexi Smith—what amazing talents. Uptown was great. We loved the musicians and comedian. The Celebrity Band that backs up the musicians is fantastic, especially how they learn an entire repertoire of songs with only 1 or so hour practice before the show when the headliners give them their musical scores. One of the highlights was singer Jen Maldonado—who we saw last year perform an amazing medley from female vocalists with her powerful voice. She was able to belt out songs in the style of Aretha to Whitney, to Barbara Streisand, and many others. I thought, “She should be famous with that talent she has and someone should write songs for her to perform of her own.” I was delighted that my wish came true and she now has a songwriter who can help her record her own albums. She was fabulous and what a voice!
Celebrity has its own production show and on this cruise they were presenting for the first time their new show: “Arte.” OMG, this was over the top fantastic. It was the first time the new cast performed it and Wow! It was spectacular. On the screen behind the performers and on the stage, amazing graphics were shown that were woven into the performance. The graphic images, from photographs to famous paintings and artwork presented as its background really elevated a cruise theater production to amazing heights. The lighting and sound for the performances, which is a hard job, was flawless.
Largest Vow Renewal at Sea Officiated by Captain Kate: In 2023 we were fortunate to sail on Valentine’s Day and participate in Captain Kate’s Largest Vow Renewal at Sea. Hundreds of couples joined on the pool deck as Captain Kate read out the sweetest and moving vow renewal speech and had every couple re-exchange rings. It was such a romantic experience, filled with tears of joy and smiles.
This year, again sailing on Valentine’s Day, Captain Kate led another vow renewal. She had written another set of vows, equally moving, for hundreds more couples. A band played love songs to dance to, and a cake was cut. Every couple got a beautiful certificate of the vow renewal sent to their cabins and suites.
Captain Kate was so giving of her time, mingling with the crowd and posing with couples for memorable pictures.
What sets the Beyond apart inspired by Captain Kate is they realize that people wait a long time for a vacation, spend a lot of money, and want a mixture of relaxation, fun, new experiences, and happy memories and they recognize the crew and staff are the ones that can make that happen. One can have the most beautiful, luxurious venue but it is the staff that can make or break a vacation.
As I add the Celebrity Beyond to Ricki’s list as one of the best cruise experience one can have for a relaxing, rejuvenating, and stress free vacation in the hopes that cruise lines everywhere can emulate it for their guests.
(photos in this article by Ricki Linksman)