Dreamer68

Ouch! That sounded painful! We wanted to see FLL a bit after the cruise so I picked an 8:45 pm return on AC to Montreal. We only have carry-on luggage for the cruise...and I had assumed we could put them in some luggage locker storage at the airport after disembarking the cruise. It's pretty obvious now that we can't just get the luggage transferred from Port Everglades to AC at the aiport if they aren't taking any luggage until only 3 hours before flight. The FLL airport website shows that not all public luggage storage is opened due to Covid, at least not the one at T2 where AC departs. I thought the US was fully open without Covid restrictions. I will call next week before our weekend departure to see if the public luggage storage is indeed closed...but in case anyone here knows, please share your "intel" 🙂

Interesting options offered here. We get off the Apex in FLL in on the 14th of Jan 2023 and our flight is at 8:45 pm. DH wanted to do a half-day fishing while I wanted to try the Water Taxi way to visit the city of Fort Lauderdale. Originally, I figured the best thing would be to get to FLL airport from Port Everglades...find a locker at the airport for our two carry-ons...and then figure out public transportation/ taxi to where the Water Trolleys start (I see this free option connects to the Water Taxi routes).... any better ideas what to do with our carry-ons? Due to DH and I doing different things for half a day, renting a car is not an option. Thanks for any advice.

Hank, you make a lot of sense to me! I always thought they wanted us off the ship ASAP so we were being polite to get off quickly. So glad I read this thread and will now plan to disembark at a more relaxed pace. It will be nice to say a slow goodbye to the Apex at the end of our cruise. ❤️

I am VERY much looking forward to seeing the Apex. I've watched lots of YouTube videos of walkthroughs. It really looks like a stunning ship. How lucky to be on her maiden voyage!! I think we might do what you recommend, go some days just the 2 of us, and others request to share. The thing is, should I reserve on the app or just do reservations daily around lunch time for dinner and specify table for 2 or 6? The app requires we name who we want to sit with but this time, we are not traveling with any friends or kids.... thanks for any guidance. 🙂

Thanks!! How would this work then with advance booking on the app for Anytime Dining? Do I pick a time, add the 2 of us, and then go to the specific MDR restaurant the first night or every night (as I hope to try all 4 MDR restaurants) sometime during the day and request to be seated with others?

I love this advice! I did not know we could have a leisurely (somewhat) breakfast on disembarkation day. We wanted to visit FLL a bit for the day and thus only booked an 8:45 pm flight. We're only traveling with carry-on luggage for the week (yeah, wanted a challenge, LOL) and am now trying to figure out if we should go drop them off in a locker at FLL airport after disembarking Celebrity...and then find our way into town...figured that was the best idea for our luggage. Any other tips?

I've also had trouble navigating the Celebrity website since booking our trip in November for Jan 2023. I thought it was just me, not being tech-oriented. The mobile app seems a bit more responsive...but then I find myself going in loops and am unsure if anything I do/ action is really as it should be. Hope so! 🙂 Definitely had better luck speaking to humans by phone and so far, they've been friendly and helpful. I trust the cruise itself will be far more superb than the website. 🙏🤞

Interesting! I did not know that it was still possible, as a couple, to arrange to sit with other passengers we do not know. We are not frequent cruisers and thought this mix-and-match arrangement was no longer available. I agree with you that it's a hit or miss opportunity, either find new friends or awkward conversations. We are booked on the Apex where Anytime Dining is the norm and we're only about 2 weeks to sailing and I cannot decide what is best to do for me and the hubby as neither of us a big extroverts...and yet we enjoy good conversations with new people. 🤨 Any further advice?

These Daily News info are precious! So helpful to get an idea in advance what's available to help me plan my stay on the Apex. Thanks a million! It'll be our 2nd time on Celebrity after the Summit to Bermuda back in 2016. Looking forward to getting onboard on the 7th of January! Question - do you know if the Inside Access (Behind the Scenes) tour now cost? We did this on the Summit in 2016 or something like a Galley tour and it was free. According to my Celebrity app, this Inside Access 2-hour tour is now over Cad$150 per adult. Ouch. PS - Happy belated birthday @barbeyg 🙂

Thanks again. I subscribed to your channel and totally ignored my bedtime!! Dangerous on a work night. LOL. 🤣

It's been a few years since this was written on the thread but oh boy am I doing this! Thanks @peter_krynickifor the witty idea and @Neachy79for making me feel less alone because I like a well-thought out plan. Looking forward to getting around by walking and getting on and off the Duval Loop come January 2023! Sooo excited. I know where to get my Key Lime pie but now need to search for conch fritters. 🙂 What else should I try, food-wise, while in Key West?

I am thrilled to discover this Duval Loop option! I love hop on-hop off trolleys and buses. Totally enjoyed my 8-hour transit in Miami one year thanks to the Miami Beach free trolley. Free wifi too for a girl who doesn't have data on her phone. Yes, we exist! Downloading maps and marking where to stop even as I type this. Thanks for all the information. 🙂

Hello! I was checking on TripAdvisor for things to do in Key West when we stop there in January and a walking food tour was one of the options. Has anyone gone on one in Key West? I checked this particular forum but other than a pub crawl thing offered by HAL, I did not see other postings on a walking food tour. I have experienced a terrific one in Miami and have since looked for similar experiences elsewhere. If there is no input, I'll check out the one listed on TripAdvisor. Thanks!

Thanks, @keywester33! Your comments have been very helpful for a someone arriving soon for a visit. BTW, hope the places affected by Hurricane Ian are recovering well.

Thanks for explaining. I can appreciate why the residents would wish this. I wonder if my stop on the Celebrity Apex is still on the week before. No message from them about changes but then again, navigating their online system has been buggy.

Loving this thread! We're stopping in Key West in January 2023, my first time there and I wanted to try a Key Lime Pie from Key West. 😋Thank you for all the contributions, especially in recent years. 🙂

@Merion_Mom - I'm just returning to the forum board after a few busy weeks at work and just checking in that you visited Labadee, had a lovely time, enjoyed the rest of your cruise and returned home safely with good memories. I'd love your thoughts on this. I appreciated everyone's input on comparisons with other islands as well. I remember now the aggressiveness of some local vendors our very first cruise years ago. To an extent, I understand why. I suppose we all hustle for our bread and butter. Thanks again to everyone who gently and generously shared your perspectives. I'll keep reading the general topics on the forum to refamiliarize myself with cruising. About to purchase a Celebrity cruise for early January 2023. 🤞

Thanks for the heads up! I will double check the week of our departure. Our trip is Jan 7th so that's not far away...

I just booked the Celebrity Apex for January and downloaded the app. Indeed, the menu for each MDR restaurant is noted for each day of the cruise. I'm going to have a lot of fun deciding which day to go where for dinner. Definitely trying out each dining room's specialty and have to decide which one to repeat. 😋

Interesting! We had booked a Celebrity cruise via a 3rd party in 2016. 1 balcony for us and 1 inside for our kids (13 & 16). Due to the sale price, we could not pick our own cabins and had to receive whatever was assigned. We traveled with another family who bought the same deal ( balcony + 1 inside), their kids were 18 & 19. On embarkation day, both sets of parents were assigned balcony cabins one deck below each other. Our friends' kids got an upgrade to an oceanview cabin. Our kids got an inside cabin diagonally across from our friends' kids. Both those cabins were 1 or 2 doors down from the stairs. My cabin was also 2 doors away from the stairs, one floor up. Celebrity was aware of the ages of the kids but said it was a full cruise and therefore could not arrange to move us. DH and I were ready to split up and take one kid each in each cabin. Our kids considered the offer and requested to stay on their own, across from their friends. All 4 of them had a total blast with our family friends. The older kids watched out for ours. The girls enjoyed dressing up. My boy learned to do his hair fancy, emulating the older teen. All 4 always arrived on time at our specified dining time, nicely showered and smelling good. LOL! Turns out whenever we were not at excursion, all 4 spent time playing board games or watching Funniest Home Videos in the inside cabin of my kids. They said it was more cosy. We did all our meals, shows, excursions together but the kids learned to watch out for each other as well. In the end, my kids were appreciative of being treated like young adults, as if we trusted them... and they rose to the occasion and enjoyed looking up schedules and independently choosing to get ready to be on time for everything (okay, I confess, I did call their cabins as back-up alarm clock person).

Thank you!! I do not know why that post did not come up for me looking through the RCCL forum. I will read more slowly. I went till page 8, used the Search tool, and then gave up and chose to ask the question. This explains some curt responses here.

Excellent point! I had forgotten to consider that of North America...coz I'm Canadian. We pulled off major world events including several Olympic games with barely a gun in sight amongst our law enforcement officers. 👌

Thanks! I DID go through the Search tool first. It's usually a really effective tool on FB groups. Not so simple on CC, at least I did not find it so. I'm glad though, that most people are friendly and welcoming instead of the opposite. Thanks for the encouragement. 🙂

I did. I am sorry I am not frequent enough a cruiser to know where to go and how specific to make my search queries. Even went through the newbie pages and scanned multiple pages on the RCCL forum. Perhaps I should have asked it in the Celebrity thread but like I said, I was looking to try the Royal Caribbean. How difficult is it to offer a helpful tip about effective scanning on the hundreds and hundreds of threads on CC?

THANK YOU! I am not privileged enough to be a regular. I appreciate your patience and help. I DID use the Search tool but I suppose I made my search term too specific. I did not have time to go through ALL Labadee...and I did check the RCCL's list of forum topics...starting on page one and it was all about specific cruises that were not helpful to me. I already read a bunch of blogposts but figured I'd reach out to the CC community. Now I will be more careful about asking what might sound like an ignorant question to those who have cruised lots.