Dreamer68

And here are some food offerings for breakfast and lunch. There are several egg stations in the morning. My favourite was the Eggs Benedict section. When I travel or eat out, I choose stuff I would not make at home due to cost or skill. So, I had a "Benny" almost every morning, I figured out that I could just ask for one half of the English muffin so one poached egg, normally atop a slice of Canadian bacon and some spinach, drenched with Hollandaise sauce and then I picked up some smoked salmon on the side. Yum-oh! There was always plenty of fruit and an Asian station with congee and condiments. So, I had an East-meets-West plate most mornings and afternoons. That's what I love about buffets, I get to pick and choose based on my curiosity and preference and I determine the size of the servings. If my adventure proves delicious, I go for a 2nd round. Love that! This is the main reason I have never done an MDR at lunch. I just enjoy exploring food too much! 😋🤣 And yes, I gained weight in this one week of cruising. I expected that. 🤭 Loved the squid ink paella! Enjoyed the churros afternoon and the display of cake day. PS - there is always a carving station at lunch and one day, the focus was fish... the display was fantastic although I was sad there was no sashimi/ sushi to be had (the Summit used to have a 5-6pm sushi hour). Got to taste at least 4 different types of fish though and was quite satisfied. And the pizza station which was outside the main seating area in the back of the ship had been brought back to be part of the stations. I kept going back there where it said "Pizza" for the first 2 days, especially after reading some threads here on CC but turns out the outside pizza station was not being used for my cruise...maybe coz we were only about 2300 passengers.

OK, then, here is the Oceanview Café of the Apex. I really like the concept of food stations vs the long U of the Summit and other class ships. I felt the line-ups were shorter and everything was so much more efficient when people could just zoom in on their favourite types of cuisine. For breakfast and lunch, all the stations were in use. For dinner, only half the stations were opened but before anyone gets really upset about that, I have to say even with just half the stations opened, there were plenty of options to eat.. There is no way anyone would have gone hungry if they chose Oceanview Café for dinner unless they were extremely picky, IMHO. I'll do my best to separate my dinner offerings photos so you can see. I spoke to a supervisor at lunch time and asked about the dinner offerings. He confirmed the options were reduced as they were noticing a lot of waste. He said there were generally themes for the evening buffet despite the lesser quantity. We'll start with the seating areas after you get in. Oh my...so many beautiful spots to sit at. Tall stools among raised narrow tables, regular chairs among narrow tables along the windows looking out to sea, clusters of two or four, outdoor seating, indoor, some areas further from the buffet (near the washrooms) that are really quiet. There was a large contactless and gorgeous handwashing station at the entry to OVC (a bigger one if coming from the pool area). There was always a staff member there to encourage guests to wash their hands before moving on to the food but not all guests washed their hands and some staff members looked young and shy and did not stop anyone who chose not to wash their hands from enjoying the buffet. BTW, you cannot not notice the giant sculpture at the entrance to OVC if you are coming in passed the swimming pool. PS - the photos of the food stations were taken in the afternoon where it was either the tail end of lunch or around tea time when they bring out tea items like mini scones served with cream and jam (one day I found clotted cream - score!) and other baked treats. It also felt like you could always get smoked salmon and bread throughout the day if you ever wanted to make yourself a smoked salmon sandwich. Also, as I mentioned, I try my best to take photos with as few people as possible for privacy reasons.

Here's something I really appreciated about the Apex - the contactless public washroom entrances and the faucets. I know, we all get our joy from different and sometimes strange things. I loved all the handwashing stations as well at the Oceanview Café so right after this, I will move on to dining stuff. Feel free to ask questions as I will do my best to refrain from too many opinions and simply stick to my original goal of just sharing photos of this stupendous ship. 😍 I liked the options of paper or cloth towels to wipe my hands. PS - the lock for the stalls in the washroom took a bit of time to remember which way indicated locked and which way meant available. Vertical vs horizontal look. It meant you really had to have the habit of knocking on the stall door to check for occupants before trying to push i open. t I actually took photos to remind myself but ugh, 6 months later, I cannot remember which way was which. LOL!! I think it would have been far simpler for some sort of green and red colour marker on the doors to discreetly indicate to those waiting in line which stalls were available or not....but then, would those colours fit the decor? 🤷‍♀️😂 VID_20230111_072338983.mp4

Ooh, how interesting the differences in Blu among sister ships! I didn't expect that. On the Apex, I got to chat with a few Suites guests and they enjoyed the Luminae. And gosh, I can imagine the amount of work your Art Walk would've been coz there was so much art! I remembered to photograph the identification plate beside each piece as well so I could learn a bit about the work and the artist.

YOU have the Art books!!??! LUCKY!! And somebody needs to update their Guest Relations crew members about the existence of the books. There was an Art tour on the Apex as well, of course but it was too expensive for me. As mentioned, I was prioritizing my excursions. Even the galley tours cost a pretty bundle now. I'm pretty sure I went on a free galley tour at the Summit in 2016. I'd love a Sunset Veranda someday... 🤞 As for Aqua class, Blu Restaurant was WOW from the outside. Is that how it looked on the EDGE and the BEYOND? Gorgeous!

Awww, Susan...what a nice compliment! I am a planner by nature, ouf, the amount of research on the Disney forum boards the year we went to MouseWorld...so I love anticipating my hard-earned trips. I think the important thing is to differentiate between anticipation and expectation. There seems to be a fine line between the two which will make or break my vacation. 😉 All of us like different things after all. Regardless of the diversity of preferences, the Apex remains a stunning ship regardless who travels on it. I am certain your will make wonderful memories 142+ days from now on the Apex. 😍

I was on the Apex in January. I liked the traditional MDR broken into 4 different ones. I downloaded my Celebrity App late, only a couple of weeks before departure so by the time I picked an Anytime dining time for DH and me, the app only showed me late dining times (between 8 pm and 9:30 pm) every night at each of the 4 MDRs. Either I was literally among the last to make reservations and eat or somehow my app defaulted to LATE dining each time as I found that we could have walked in 30 minutes earlier at any of the 4 and gotten a seat easily. Perhaps this was because my cruise was only about 2/3 capacity. I picked the restaurant based on the menu I liked. There seemed to be 3 parts to their menus: 1) Classics (available all the time at all 4), 2) Each restaurant's Exclusive items(I can ask for this any night at that specific restaurant) eg. see the Cyprus menu below, and 3) each one also has Celebrity Signature items that rotate daily and are available at all 4 restaurants. You can get the menus on your Celebrity app as well, of the 4 MDRs and other F& B options onboard. I liked the idea of visiting 4 different restaurants to try their Exclusive items, each one looked spectacularly different...the thing is I never got to get to know my serving team well enough, and vice versa. We always got someone different instead of the team that got to know our tastes and preferences well, like way back cruising in the 90s. On a 7-nt cruise where there are other options for dinner, this 4-option MDR was a hit for simulating exciting options but a miss for connections(with the crew), I feel. Just my 2 cents. Here's a sample of the menu from Cyprus so you can see what I meant by Classics, Exclusive, and Signature. Cyprus Menu - Celebrity Edge Class Ships

Sorry for my excitement but in case you didn't catch it, here's the self-serve soft serve machine at Mast Grill on the Apex. I felt like a kid again! Hahaha! I believe there were some toppings as well (sprinkles etc. for those young at heart. Please note however that on my trip, the soft serve ice cream was not exactly silky smooth as some famous soft serve ice creams we might know but the fun of swirling my own soft serve cone and having as much as I wanted brought me lots of joy. 😍🤣 PS - you can pay good quality gelato at Oceanview Café if you wish.

I might as well show you parts of the "Resort Deck" while I am out here. That includes the Rooftop spaces, the pool, the solarium, the cabanas. As it was just DH and me, there was no occasion to rent cabana space on the Apex but it too, is lovely and there are YouTube videos from people who have rented these spaces. The cabanas are near the Mast Grill (complementary dining). The food is fast (generally) and fresh at Mast Grill. There was at least one staff member in training the day I went after a morning excursion. Unfortunately, many of us returned AFTER the MDR and OVC lunch hours were done so the lineup at Mast Grill was very long. I feel that an Apex supervisor in the food and beverage department should have anticipated the number of people who might be looking for food in between regular serving hours and therefore assigned enough help to serve the numbers. Having said that, the most important find for me on that day was the soft serve machine!!! OMG! Chocolate soft serve too!! So, let me quickly show you the food first at Mast Grill, and then enjoy the rest of the walk along the Resort Deck, in the day time and night (I had taken a walk after some rain that evening and it was blissfully quiet with nobody around... I try not to take photos that include people in them as I feel guilty I've not asked their permission to share my photos which happen to have them in them. 🤷‍♀️ The photo of people in the pool was the day the officers went up against the guests in pool volleyball. PS - apologies for that fast-paced timelapse video at the end of this section of photos. VID_20230112_224554269_HL.mp4

Oops, forgot a shot of Tom there as Maverick to show you how a bright day affected the screen, or not, at the Rooftop Garden. Be early though to grab your seats (nice options) or you'd be like me, behind some sort of obstruction.

So, meetings ended early and I've got some time to kill before mom duties kick in. Here then, are some photos of the outdoor space on the Apex, specifically, the top 2 decks. As with the rest of the ship, I found this space intentionally designed for function and beauty. Yes, some of the beauty seemed quite "modern" and sometimes even "cold" but the skillful mix of earth tones and nature (fake or real greens and woods) plus geometry and abstract... I don't know, I was quite impressed. I found these decks quite breathtaking and yet comforting. I don't know if you know what I mean. There is opulence in the world that seems overwhelmingly much and then there's classy elegance that is simple yet effective. Here you go, these are the Rooftop Garden (enjoyed TaiChi one morning and watched Top Gun Maverick (for the 4th time) one afternoon - I thought I would not be able to see the picture well on the screen considering it was an outdoor screen on a bright, sunny day but surprisingly, it was fine), the Rooftop Garden Grill and the walking/ jogging tracks (connects one deck to another). BTW - I loved the hints about which "lane" to be in when using the jogging track. The track goes around above the pool so you will see my vantage point in a few of these photos. I liked seeing the Magic Carpet from up there as well.

Cool! Thanks for inviting my thoughts... I will share what we ended up choosing and doing and why. Most important thing is to know yourself and your interest, I believe. e.g. no matter how much fun someone might have had at a beach club, I am just not a beach club type of traveller, y'know? Happy for those who are but I'll be happier doing something else based on my interest and season of life. Heads up - it's definitely cheaper booking your own excursions vs ship excursions but $$$ should not be the main consideration (says me who has never chosen Aqua or Concierge or Suites 🙃🤭)

Oooh...the Beyond...with Capt. Kate! We missed her on the Summit...she had gone on leave two weeks before we got on and sadly, the Captain then, did not do the same pass by the Statue of Liberty the way she did as we sailed away from New Jersey. I am 100% the Beyond is as gorgeous as the Apex. 😍 I had flagged a 2024 Mediterranean cruise on the Beyond a few months ago but that itinerary seems to have been removed from Celebrity's lineup. So, my party and I are now considering a choice between the Ascent and the Constellation (not yet "revolutionized" but "refurbished") based on their routings...

Glad you are enjoying the photos. They made me smile as I looked at them again. Will share food and dining options as requested.

Oooh....nice!! We considered an IV. We had the traditional balcony on the Summit to Bermuda as we envisioned all this breakfast and tea sitting there looking at the sights but nope. Turns out we are explorers when we get to destination and I barely used my balcony privileges much. So, we chose to allocate our budget elsewhere i.e. excursions (gosh, those are so expensive now via the cruise).

And this is...another piece of art! I'm not exactly an art aficionado but I felt surrounded by beauty everywhere, some of it very interesting! VID_20230108_031526103.mp4

Okay, Susan! I will continue tomorrow. 😂🤣 Here are a couple of videos before I go off to bed. This first one is at sailaway. This spot is accessible via the Spa. That's FLL along the horizon as I finish panning. VID_20230107_164830407.mp4

So, should I continue? I'll share photos from the 4 MDRs including some food choices, the theatre and some show videos (all entertaining, some more than others), the outdoor space and of course Oceanview Café. If people are interested, I can share some photos from the excursions we took (one through Celebrity itself). Now contemplating between the Constellation and the Ascent for a 2024 Mediterranean cruise... surprisingly hard choice.

I highly recommend the itinerary and the ship...unless people prefer smaller ships. I trust you will enjoy your trip. 🙂

Other gorgeous seating spots and some of the spectacular art on board OUTSIDE the art gallery. Actually, the entire ship IS an art gallery. I took a photo of just about every piece of art on the wall of each staircase but I did not get them all. This was a pretty port-intensive itinerary (for me anyway) and I would have loved to have more time to enjoy the ship. There is an actual book about all the artwork of the Apex. I had a strange adventure attempting to gain access to that book which in the end, I never got to see due to not-so-great customer service by someone at Guest Relations who did not believe me that the book existed. Even the Art Gallery people did not know about it. Strange! Another crew member who noticed me taking photos of the art at staircases had told me about the book. I felt validated when Cruise Director, the wonderful fellow Canadian, Shawna Hachey mentioned it in her daily video in the last 2 days of the cruise (she is hilarious!) The book is supposedly available at the Retreat...so, mere mortals like me could not get to see it...and since there was no library on the Apex, oh well.... BUT here are few wonderful pieces...

Some seats at Café al Bacio and half of my nightly visits to grab a sweet treat. Sorry, not sorry about my waistline expanding during the week. The lemon tartlet is as good as Celebrity fans say it is! ❤️ I loved the chocolate tartlet too and wished I had seen it more often.

The APEX has a multitude of gorgeous (and comfortable) seating areas. My favourite spots to be by myself quietly with my book (yes, we exist! LOL!) were at Eden (omg, what a terrific space!) and deck 5 near the boutique stores...and yes, Café al Bacio. I had already liked Café al Bacio on the Summit before it got "revolutionized" but the al Bacio on the Apex...like so much on the ship, this space was just stunning! Here are some of my fave seats... starting with Eden. VID_20230108_172046380.mp4

Spa plus gym/fitness centre located above the spa.

Here's the Spa. How blessed are the folks who can afford this. I had a lovely time visiting!

Hello there, I was on the Celebrity Apex to Key West, Belize, Cozumel, and Grand Cayman back in January 2023 to celebrate a milestone anniversary. I had meant to do a trip report but life got super busy following a Covid visit and then later by a death in the family (not connected to the virus). Such is life. I'll blog about my impressions of our trip but I thought some of the photos I took were just too good to keep to myself. The Apex is a STUNNING ship!! I was last on the Summit to Bermuda about 6 or 7 years ago and loved it but omg, the Apex is absolutely GORGEOUS! Especially if you love art. So, I will share mainly photos here. If you have questions, feel free to ask but otherwise as mentioned, I hope to blog about this wonderful trip. Unlike what seems to be the majority, I am not a Luminae/ Concierge/ Aqua club type of cruiser. If I want to splurge, I'd get a balcony stateroom. Otherwise, I'm an Oceanview sailor. I'm an educator with an engineer DH and most of our budget is taken up by long trips to Asia. I was however a TA for 7 years before the kids arrived so we've travelled a decent amount. Starting with Day 1 - embarkation was super easy (15 mins tops at 11:30 am-ish) at Fort Lauderdale. Wonderful day of ship exploration (go for the Spa tour and stay awhile. I had a blast!) We were on Jan.7th cruise and were told we were at about 1/2-2/3 capacity following two FULL capacity ships at Christmas and New Year.