Celebrity's NEWEST Cruise Ship!! Celebrity Ascent First Impressions + Q & A

We're onboard Celebrity Ascent, Celebrity Cruises Newest ship!! Although we've sailed on Celebrity's Edge class ships before, we have some thoughts about this new ship, including the Infinite Verandas.

In this video I share my first impressions & answer viewer questions about Celebrity Ascent. This includes how Celebrity Ascent compares to Celebrity Beyond. Whether you're a first time cruiser or a cruise veteran, if you're wondering if you should book this cruise, this video is for you.

Our cruise onboard Celebrity Ascent is a Caribbean cruise, and went to Cozumel, Nassau Bahamas & Grand Cayman. This is a mini Celebrity Ascent cruise review.

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Please note that I am unable to give personal cruise and travel advice. If you leave a comment I try my best to answer.

ABOUT ME
Hi! I'm Ilana! I live in Montreal, Canada with my husband Frank. We can often be found dreaming about and planning future cruises, ideally to hot and sunny destinations! I believe in having fun, being kind and that you are never too old, or too young, to live the life of your dreams!

Please note that I do not sell cruises on Life Well Cruised. This and all other videos are for entertainment purposes only. I share my own opinions, personal experiences and information with other cruise travellers, which I hope can be helpful. Please contact your travel agent or the cruise line directly for advice and any information specific to your booking.

Some of the B-Roll footage used in this video courtesy of Celebrity Cruises
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Music Credit: Surf Time by Lux-InspiraMusicMusic

[JaKrish]

We just did a Celebrity cruise with a standard balcony. I would tell everyone one very important thing: We spent almost no time on the balcony. We’d go out in the mornings to see the port and at night for maybe 10 minutes before bed. There’s a few reasons for this. One, we were always busy! Especially if you have excursions planned on port days. You get up, quickly get ready and go! And then at the end of the day, after dinner, entertainment, a few drinks, by the time we’d get back to the room, we were exhausted. And just wanted to sleep.

Having said that, we will always book a balcony / veranda. It opens the room. It allows fresh air in when we want it, and of course, the views (from even inside the room) are invaluable.

The Infinite Verandas allow us to have the same experience. I just noted a big tip for these infinite veranda rooms in another post, but I’ll repeat it here: You can pick between TWO layouts! You can either select to have the bed beside the veranda or beside the bathroom. So what does this mean? A couple things. The A/C vents are above the bed on the bathroom side. So if you require it cooler to sleep, and you’re cruising somewhere hot, choose this layout. If, however, you’re cruising in a cooler environment, perhaps choose having the bed beside the veranda so you can sleep with the cool fresh air coming in. The rooms beside the veranda are marked with an indentation beside their verandas on the ship map when you’re selecting which room you want.

Being able to choose the room layout, the infinte balcony rooms are much more flexible than I hear people complaining about. Yes, the A/C shuts off if the window is open. But you can close the (easy) folding doors if you’re standing by the window during the day, to help keep the A/C in the rest of the room. Also, be honest with yourself about how much time you’ll actually be spending in your room during the day. The Edge-class ships are BEAUTIFUL and there’s always somewhere new to explore for fun, or even just to chill-out alone somewhere.

Also, how often do you open all your windows at home on a hot day while keeping your A/C cranking out? I don’t think anyone should be too put out by this, if we’re being honest.

[kimberlywinter]

My husband and I sailed on the Ascent in December and had a wonderful time. Food, drinks, entertainment was exceptional and hanging at the pool was a blast. We booked the infinite Veranda and liked it. No complaints. Thanks!

[deborahricupero-bess]

I have numerous food allergies including GF. I notify their Special Needs Dept prior to sailing. And meet with the Maitre d upon boarding and provide a detailed list of all my allergies as well as foods “I can eat”. They prepare All my meals in a separate kitchen away from All food allergens to prevent cross contamination.

[kristinewilson]

We sailed the transatlantic in April 2024 and I fell in love with the celebrity ascent! The crew camaraderie was like family. The entertainment was the best we’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. I absolutely love the infinite veranda! It can be used in any kind of weather. If you have an open balcony and it’s really windy rainy or cold and you can’t go out you lose 4 feet of space and some sea view. But, if you have the infinite veranda with the window shut on the bad weather days, you gain extra space in your room and you have a big picture window of the sea. I love it so much I can’t wait to enjoy this ship and infinite veranda again!

[kathymcdougall]

We cruised a few months ago on the beyond with an infinity balcony we absolutely loved it. We are balcony lovers of the traditional balcony, and found this to be a fun way to have extra space in your room to be sorted outside when you open the window and enjoy, looking at the ocean, the whole time without the railing, one thing that we did have was rough on our cruise us and many many other passengers complained about how much noise the infinity balcony made. We were trying to figure out was it the window squeaking? Was it the wind what was happening to make so much noise, we eventually went down to guest services. They sent up the engineers who put shims in the window, like they were little metal washers to help cut down the noise That absolutely worked it was about 95% better so if you’re ever in an infinity balcony and you have this ridiculous noise, squeaking cracking creaking do mention it to guest services. It looks like they know something that could be a fix for it. To our surprise at the end of the cruise they gave us $400 in future cruise credit for our trouble that we had with the balcony way to go celebrity, taking care of your guest like you should.

[itstimetoread]

i was on the ascent in July it was absolutely an amazing time we started in Athens Greece then Mykonos Greece then Ephesus Turkey then Santorini Greece then Naples Italy then last but not least Rome Italy we had so much fun and there where 2 at sea days and the view from our room seeing a new city every morning was just unbelievable

[ljacobs]

Celebrity is becoming glitz and glitter.

[MuscularDUDE]

I cruise a lot and this was the best ship I've ever been on. I did Ascent a few weeks ago

[michellnav]

We love the Infinite Veranda rooms. We will sit out there but we close the balcony doors to try & keep the cooler air inside. We'll be sailing on the Ascent on the 28th. I need some warm weather after living in the Colorado deep freeze for the last few days!

[dianeheaton]

In November last year, We sailed on the Apex from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale. What a fabulous ship in every regard, I am completely spoiled. We had the infinite balcony which we loved. The food and entertainment were better than any other ship we have sailed on so far.
We had such a great time we booked the same trip (minus Nassau which is fine by us) while we were on the Apex for the Ascent this October. Can't wait for October and our next Celebrity cruise.

[teresaschiltz]

I would like to see a comparison between Celebrity and Holland America. I have only sailed HAL and am interested in seeing the pros and cons between the two lines.

[sherryslr]

Sailed on Apex in Dec. I’m both gluten and lactose free—I had NO problems.
I really liked the face that all items on the buffet were labeled as to their allergen content.

[debkruse]

Wexjust gotcof the Ascent and we loved the infenite balcony!

[FABRCTR]

1:25 as we can see from behind you? How can anyone tell this is a Veranda room by looking at the interior?

[ijunqua]

My daughter is gluten and soy-intolerant and Celebrity Reflection was awesome and accommodating. We had the same waiter each night in the main dining and he would bring her the next nights menu at the end of our meals so they could stay ahead of it. Also, she had her own gluten-free breads etc. She was blown away with how good everything tasted. You just need to let them know. Even specialty restaurant accommodated with no problems.

[kathygillis]

curious; do you like the arrangement with the bed near the veranda? what do you feel are any advantages or disadvantages?

[davidrojas]

I'm sailing on the Ascent at the end of February on a 7 day trip. My wife loves planning outfits for themed nights. Can you tell me what theme nights I can expect?

[michellecowan]

I noticed when my bed was by the veranda the room felt smaller, but when the bed was toward the hallway and sofa area was by the veranda it just felt bigger. Not sure how your room arrangement was on the Beyond but that has been my experience on the Apex and Edge. So from now on, I make sure my room arrangement is with the sofa by the balcony when booking an infinite veranda. My main complaint is that you can't get a traditional balcony in Aquaclass on the Edge Series ships.

[eminiarvii]

I liked the infinite verandah on the Beyond…i see your bed is near the Verandah, mine was near the door…and seemed spacious…you asked..it may just be the difference you cant put your finger on! I was on a longer cruise and i hung my line out there with 5he clothes i washed and it was amazing..dried so quickly🙂🚢

[I_like_pears]

Interesting that you found the infinity veranda stateroom felt a bit smaller. My wife and I were just on the Celebrity Apex and one of the things we loved about the stateroom - in addition to having an incredible amount of useful storage space - was that it felt bigger than the staterooms on other ships. We would definitely sail on one of the Edge class ships because of the infinity veranda!