I’ve sailed Celebrity Beyond twice now, once on her inaugural call at Perfect Day at CocoCay, and more recently on a sailing through CocoCay, St. Kitts and Nevis, and San Juan. Two sailings on the same ship, close enough in itinerary that they blur together a little, but enough time on board across both to have real opinions about what works and what doesn’t.
The CocoCay day that happened to be a birthday
That first Beyond sailing landed on my wife’s birthday on the same day the ship made its first ever call at Perfect Day at CocoCay, which made for a genuinely memorable coincidence. We booked a cabana for the day, and the view from it was one of the best parts, we could actually see the ship from where we were relaxing on the island. It wasn’t a flashy excursion or a big planned event, just a good, unhurried day with family, and sometimes that’s exactly what a birthday at sea should be.
Le Voyage earns its reputation
Le Voyage by Daniel Boulud is Beyond’s signature specialty restaurant, and on our more recent sailing it was the standout meal of the trip. What stood out most wasn’t even the food, though it was excellent, it was the service. Every course felt considered, the pacing was right, and the staff clearly knew the menu inside and out. At the end of the night, each of us was given a signed cookbook of Boulud’s recipes, a nice touch that turned a great dinner into something we still have a physical reminder of.
The Arte show and Eden’s late night scene
Beyond’s production shows are genuinely a step up from what I’ve seen on other ships. The one that stuck with me is called Arte, a show built around famous works of art brought to life through dance, acrobatics, and visual effects. I can’t do it justice describing it secondhand, it’s one of those shows you have to actually see to understand why it works.
Eden is worth staying up for too. It shifts from a relaxed daytime space into something with real energy late at night, and it’s a different vibe from the main theater productions, the performers are much closer to the audience, and the shows lean interactive rather than purely watch-from-your-seat. The Club has a similar late night feel, some of the same performers show up there in a speakeasy-style set, and it has that same up-close, occasionally audience-involved energy.
The spaces worth knowing about
The Rooftop Garden is a genuinely pleasant place to spend an afternoon, plenty of sun without feeling like you’re fighting the whole ship for a lounge chair. The Solarium is the better option if you want some protection from direct sun and a bit more privacy, it has a different, calmer feel to it. Beyond is part of the same Edge-class family as the ship I wrote about in Inside vs Oceanview vs Balcony, so the Infinite Veranda staterooms are the same story here too. On days when we wanted a quiet spot near the pool without competing over chairs, we’ve booked a pool cabana on Beyond as well, not the same as the CocoCay one, but a similar idea, a reserved patch of calm in a space that can otherwise fill up fast.
Where it fell short
Not everything was a win. We had a dinner reservation on the Magic Carpet, the multipurpose platform that extends off the side of the ship, and the wind that evening was strong enough to make the meal genuinely uncomfortable. It’s a striking space and a smart piece of ship design, but it’s also fully exposed, and there’s no controlling what the weather does out there. If you book a Magic Carpet dinner, it’s worth going in knowing that the experience is entirely at the mercy of conditions that night.
The verdict
Across both sailings, Celebrity Beyond has consistently been one of the better ships I’ve been on, the dining, the entertainment, and the space to actually relax all hold up. The Magic Carpet dinner is the one asterisk, not because the concept is bad, but because it’s worth setting expectations around the weather before you book it.
