This article is Celebrity Ascent Highs and Lows. It is a review of my experience sailing on Celebrity’s newest ship, Celebrity Ascent.
As the fourth ship in the Edge Class, Celebrity Ascent features the iconic Magic Carpet.
The ship recently was formally named in Fort Lauderdale at a special ceremony and is now offering Seven-Night Eastern and Western Caribbean Cruises from Port Everglades. In the Spring and Summer, Celebrity Ascent will offer Mediterranean Cruises.
I sailed on the fifth or six sailing of the ship on the Seven Night “Maiden” Voyage. Celebrity offered two public short sailings the week before as well as approximately three short media sailings prior to the Maiden Voyage on December 3, 2023.
Want to know what I pack for a Celebrity Cruise? Read my packing list article here.
Booking
I booked Celebrity Ascent shortly after the sailings were announced. At that time the December 3, 2023 sailing was the first public sailing.
I paid $6,400 for an Aqua Class Infinite Veranda Room. The rate was under the Indulge Package that was offered during Covid. The indulge package included Premium Internet, Premium Drink Package, Gratuities, as well as $600 onboard credit. That package unfortunately is no longer available. The closest option to it is the All-In Package which includes basic internet and the Classic Beverage Package. It does not include the gratuities or any onboard credit.
Room
I stayed in room 10231, an Aqua Class Infinite Veranda stateroom on Deck 10 towards the back or aft of the ship.
Aqua Class rooms include access to the thermal suite as well as dining at the Blu Restaurant. In addition, the shower in the stateroom bathroom include some spa-jet features.
The room configuration of this room had the bed close to the Infinite Veranda.
Infinite Veranda Rooms are ocean view rooms with a small sitting area and a window that can be lowered to make the room feel like it has a balcony.
As you can see from the walkthrough the room is modern and decorated neatly.
The room was clean and comfortable and offered plenty of storage in the cabinets as well as bathroom and under the bed.
If I had to pick one negative thing about the room was that the bed was a bit harder then what I have experienced on other Celebrity ships.
Highs and Lows
Overall I had an awesome time on Celebrity Ascent. The ship lived up to the Celebrity Brand in terms of top class entertainment, great food and fun experiences.
I sailed on the sister ships and loved those experiences. You can read about my experiences on Celebrity Apex, Celebrity Beyond, Celebrity Edge. Note all of those reviews are very positive. They are not sponsored and I was not hosted on the sailings, I just really enjoyed them.
Here are some of the positive and negative things about my experience on Celebrity Ascent:
High: Amazing Entertainment in the production shows in the Theater
Celebrity attracts some incredible talent to perform in the production shows as well as in the musicians throughout the ship.
During the sailing, there were two Production Shows in the Main Theater. Both were done well and with a very talented cast.
The two female lead singers, Bettina and Kristine are very talented and is worth following them on social media.
The first show is Bridges and it features stories of love and emotion around classic bridges throughout the world.
The best part of the show was probably the New York, Brooklyn Bridge Scene with the hip hop dancing.
The second production show is Awaken, which is a show about dreams.
Both shows were awesome in terms of the theatrics and the singing and dancing.
One thing that I found surprising was generally on Celebrity the music in the shows are ones where the entire audience is singing along with. While that was the case in Awaken, for Bridges there were several songs that perhaps were not as iconic as on other shows.
Note: the songs in those two medley videos are copyrighted by the original artists. They are performed by Celebrity Cruises Entertainment on Celebrity Ascent.
Low: Challenging Seating and Views of Production Shows in the Club and Eden
Celebrity Ascent has two theatrical casts onboard. One that performs in the theater and another that performs in Eden, the imaginative space onboard as well as in the Club.
The cast performs most evenings either in Eden or in the Club.
While the shows in both venues are top notch and the performers are very talented, it is difficult to get a good view even if you arrive very early due to the setup the the venues.
In particular in the Club, the only real good seats are on the main level on the floor just in front of the performance space. If you sit upstairs, you either can only watch the show from the monitors on the wall or have to stand and look down over other people.
Eden has seating throughout the lounge, while some offer a good view, others have the views restricted so unless you arrive very early, it is often impossible to get a seat where you can see the full performance.
The shows were excellent, but it is just very difficult to get to appreciate the talent due to the seating arrangements.
High: Incredible Cruise Director Luigi who brings the fun
The cruise director on Celebrity Ascent is Luigi Delmar. He has been with Celebrity for over 12 years has is one of their top cruise directors.
Luigi got to open both Celebrity Beyond and now Celebrity Ascent.
He really brings the fun from organizing awesome activities throughout the day.
Luigi even teaches Latin Dance Classes and brings so much energy during the day and into the night.
I loved dancing in the Grand Plaza at the Ritmo party which brought together all the dances he taught during the day!
Luigi really is an awesome cruise director!
High: Amazing Artwork onboard
Celebrity Ascent features a lot of cool artwork throughout the ship.
The icon art feature on Ascent is located at the pool on the resort deck and is named Ocho, which is a shiny octopus sculpture.
In addition, you can find awesome artwork throughout the ship.
Another cool statue I admired was near Oceanview Cafe and it features multiple faces.
You can even find a bear statue watching over you when you use the walking and running trail on the ship!
Wherever you go on the ship you can find some awesome artwork.
One of my favorite places on the ship is the Sunset Bar.
Nate Berkus designed the space and it offers two levels of outdoor seating with great ocean views and a fun bar with music in the afternoon and evening.
Low: Infinite Verandas
Celebrity introduced the concept of Infinite Veranda on Edge Class ships. While the idea is great that it gives more balcony options onboard the cruise ship, it falls short.
One of the best things about having a veranda on a cruise ship is the ability to feel the breeze and take in the views while being in a private outdoor space.
The Infinite Veranda is more like a Oceanview room, with a window that can be lowered.
The setup of the window doesn’t allow for much breeze to come into the room. I could only feel the breeze if I put my hand outside the window as due to the shape it generally didn’t allow for the breeze to come into the room.
Another problem with the veranda is the fact that when you have the window down, the air conditioning in the room turns off and the room gets very hot and humid.
I know a lot of people like these rooms due to the large window and extension of the room, however, I would actually rather have an inside room than spend extra to have the Infinite Veranda.
Outside of suites on Celebrity Ascent, the only true veranda options are the Sunset Verandas which are at the back or aft of the ship.
The next Celebrity ship, Celebrity Xcel is adding a class of traditional veranda rooms to the offering which will give more options for guests who enjoy traditional verandas.
High: Amazing Deck Party for Shine the Night
One of the nights of the cruise offered a chance to party under the stars in the Shine the Night Party.
Guests are invited to dress up in metallic and come out and party on deck.
The party was awesome and everyone had their hands up and was dancing and having a great time under the stars.
Luigi led the party and had everyone having so much fun.
There was even a pop up performance by the band Uptown! Uptown performs Motown Music and is a fan favorite on cruises.
High: Fun Silent Disco Parties and Great Tunes from DJ Blease
I love Silent Disco Parties and Celebrity Ascent offers at least two of them each week.
I loved the party with DJ Blease spinning the tunes on the blue channel! Dj Blease also brings the tunes throughout the day at the pool, in the Grand Plaza and other venues onboard!
There is something so fun about listening to music in one ear and listening to everyone else singing along to something different.
It was awesome that on this sailing, Silent Disco was offered in the Grand Plaza one day and then in Eden for a great way to end the cruise on the last night.
High: Two Amazing Captains
This ship offers two amazing Captains to lead the cruise. The two captains are Celebrity’s famous brothers Captain Dimitris and Captain Tasos.
The famous Captains are the master of the vessel on on these sailing both were at the lead. They are so funny and bring so many laughs to the guests and crew onboard!
On other sailings they will take turns as the official Captain of the ship while the other is on vacation. How cool of an experience on my sailing to have them both lead.
Captain Tasos invited me to the bridge to meet and tour the modern bridge.
Thank you so much Captain Tasos for the opportunity!
High: Great Coffee at Cafe Al Bacio
I love a good cup of coffee and Celebrity Ascent doesn’t disappoint with Celebrity’s Cafe Al Bacio.
The baristas bring smiles to guests with the latte art and serve Lavazza Coffee.
I enjoyed working some from the coffee shop as well as listening to music in the Grand Plaza while enjoying a coffee with good company.
High: Fun Port Days on the Eastern Caribbean Itinerary
This sailing of Celebrity Ascent offered three Eastern Caribbean ports including Sint Maarten, St. Thomas and Puerto Plata.
The ship also offers visits to St. Kitts and other islands on some of the Eastern Caribbean sailings this winter.
Sint Maarten
The first port was Sint Maarten.
I went on a tour that visited two beaches. One on the French side of the island called Orient Beach. The other beach is on the Dutch Side and is famous as airplanes land right overhead of guests on the beach!
It was such a cool experience to watch the planes land as well as enjoy the ocean from both beaches.
St. Thomas
The St. Thomas port is Crown Bay which is a bit of a distance from downtown and the other cruise ships in St. Thomas.
I enjoyed checking out the port area and getting views of the ships in port. Oasis of the Seas was our neighbor.
You may want to go on a tour since the main attractions in St. Thomas are a bit of a distance from the port.
Puerto Plata
Celebrity docks at Taino Bay Port in Puerto Plata. The port has resort pool, lazy river and shopping and dining right in the port area.
I loved wondering around the port and checking out the Lazy river and pools.
For tours I recommend Shore Excursion Group as they offer smaller tours that the cruise line and they are not marked up as high as those offered from the cruise lines. They also offer a guarantee similar to the cruise lines to make sure guests return to the ship in time. My tour in St. Maarten was led by Shore Excursion Group and it was awesome!
In addition, I enjoy Resort for a Day to get day passes to beach clubs or resorts in various ports of the Caribbean.
You may also consider Viator for shore excursions as well.
Thanks for considering to use my links when booking your shore excursions as it is a way to support John the Wanderer.
Low: Temperature Levels on the ship
Celebrity Ascent is a beautiful ship and the experience was really great overall.
One area that I found a little negative was the overall temperature in the guest rooms as well as in the public spaces.
I found it to be warm most of the time.
On other Edge Class ships I never felt like it was too hot, but I think in the case of Celebrity Ascent that this was just a growing pain of identifying the correct temperature to use for the public spaces.
The age group on this sailing was on the older side, so perhaps the warmer temperatures were because of that.
The room temperature can be controlled from the Celebrity App but I never found it to lower to a comfortable level for sleeping.
High: Martini Bar Fun with the Flair Bartenders
Celebrity makes the Martini Bar a key feature on each of the ships.
The martini bar takes center stage on Celebrity Ascent.
With the large chandelier and open space, the martini bar shines on the ship.
The best part is how fun the bartenders are.
Every night the bartenders perform flair bartending with routines choreographed from Danielle Istrate a famous flair bartender.
These bartenders are so much fun and they make for a lively party. I loved spending time in the Martini Bar to catch the show most nights as well as enjoyed the entertainment in the Grand Plaza.
Note: They have an awesome menu of Martini’s. You will need the Premium Package in order to have them covered otherwise if you have the Classic package there will be a $7 upcharge for them since they are all priced at $17.
Fun Cruise
Celebrity Ascent Highs and Lows includes some of the things I loved and disliked while on the beautiful ship.
It sure was a great cruise on Celebrity Ascent. I defiantly recommend sailing on Celebrity as the entertainment, food, music and overall experience is incredible.
The week went by quickly and I blinked and was back in Fort Lauderdale and dreaming about the next voyage.
Do you have a cruise booked soon?
Until next time, enjoy the magical hallway outside the Magic Carpet.