April Jewel

8 hours ago, miched said:

Look at the deck plan for the Apex and compare.   How many bars do you need?   There may be  the same or more.  If there is less the bars may have more BT’s and servers.   It all works out 
 

There are more than enough.  
 

Naturally there are certain bars that are busier that others.   It depends on the time of the day. 
I never had a problem getting a drink or dying of thirst.   We would sit down and within a reasonable time we were served a drink.   Not any worse than a land based bar.

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

That wasn't really the question that was asked.

The question was 'do the bars tend to be noisy and crowded at most times?  What's the best bet for a quiet before- or after-dinner drink?'

I suppose it depends on your definition of 'most times' but I would contend that the main bars are busy for most of the evening. That's not to say that you can't get a drink within a few minutes, but we sometimes had to go to the bar and queue up ourselves as the waiter service was somewhat sparse.

Is there really a quiet bar for an after dinner drink? The martini bar is the main focus in the middle of the ship and tends to be pretty 'buzzy' all evening (or it was on our sailing). We recently did a cruise with Princess and they had a number of quiet bars away from the atrium that were lovely to sit and relax in after dinner.

This sounds like I disliked the Apex and I really didn't. In fact we have booked another cruise on her next year. I just wanted to give an honest answer to the question asked.

Whatever our opinions I hope we all enjoy our future cruises.

We recently completed a 4 night cruise on Apex. I thought excatly the same - fewer bars and they do get very busy especially on a cruise in cooler weather as the sunset and pool bars don't get used in the evenings.

Martini bar was always busy and difficult to get a seat in the evenings. Eden was generally better and we managed to find seating at nearly any time.

I think the ship would benefit from another couple of bars during the evening hours.

Thanks for all the information, it looks lovely.

Is the gratuity included in the $110? Do you tip more if the service is very good?

Thank you.

To be honest we can't remember, we had $800 on our free bar tab - so that explains the fact we have no recollection of drink prices!

Tammy

For anyone interested we did the above cruise last September,  but have only just updated our website with the trip report.  If you would like to read it we have link to our home page below and from there you will find the link to September 2022 - Virgin Cruise.  Thanks and any questions do let us know

http://kevinstringer.co.uk/

Thanks for all your replies - interesting to hear the vibe is akin to Celebrity as that is one of our favourite cruise lines and also we enjoy Disney cruises.  So it sounds like Virgin Voyages are going to be right up our street.

Thanks for the reply - the blues and latino salsa are right up our street.  Hopefully we'll find something we enjoy listening to.

We're not great fans of dance/electronic music and were wondering are there any venues on board that have either rock/indie/reggae/americana/blues music or acoustic artists. 

Thanks

Does anyone know if NCL do anything on the ship for Halloween?  We'll be sailing this year over that date and would love to know if they do

Thanks in advance

Thanks for all the welcome advice.  I will look forward to trying a selection of gins on the premium package next week and I'll have to make do with the tonics they have available

Thanks that's great.  Any idea if they have Fevertree tonics?

Anyone know what types of gin and tonic Celebrity serve?  Looking forward to our cruise next week and I'm partial to a nice gin and tonic (flavoured or otherwise) and wondered if anyone knew what sorts of both gin and tonic they have available.

Thanks

Tammy

Thanks for your response - that's what we figured probably an hour before

Tammy and Kevin

Can anyone say what time the last tender will be if we are scheduled to depart at 13:00. We're booking an overnight Bai Tu Long cruise but want to ensure we are back in good time to catch the tender.

Thanks

Tammy and Kevin

Thanks for all the replies and advice.

We are on the Solstice in October and are trying to organise a trip to the Great Barrier Reef/Whitsundays.

Although our itinerary shows the ship docks at 8 am does anyone have any knowledge of what time the tenders might start and finish.

We are very wary of booking anything that won't be feasible to achieve in the timescales.

Anyone got any experience that might help us with this one.

Thanks

We have just updated our website with an account of our wonderful cruise on the Celebrity Reflection in August last year. It contains photos and some video clips too - if you fancy a look.

Here is a link http://kevinstringer.co.uk/August%202013/august%20homepage.htm

CABIN #: 6292

DECK #: 6

CLASS: 2C

AREA: Starboard, aft

BED NEAR: Balcony

QUIET?: Slight sound from the engines but not a problem at all

BALCONY VIEW: We knew we would be above the roof of QSine and picked this cabin in preference to one overlooking the lifeboats. To be honest we thought it was fine - we knew we wouldn't be looking down to the sea but we could still see very well

BALCONY SIZE: larger than standard

WIND A PROBLEM?: no

SOOT A PROBLEM?: no

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: A great room loved waking up and seeing the ports - we definitely picked the right sight of the ship for our 11 night Eastern Med Itinerary. There was one issue though - when docking the thrusters made the bed vibrate and did tend to wake us up. For this reason I am not sure I would book this room again but perhaps we are just light sleepers. Other than that it could be said it was a walk to the lifts but we don't mind a walk.

Thanks for your replies - I will make a note that these are the most likely days.

Three weeks today we will be on our way

Thanks for the replies - well I won't raise my expectations and I'll wait and see if/when it happens.

Thanks UniPac - enjoy your cruise

Hi I am still trying to find out what night the concert on the lawn takes place. We are on the 11 night Eastern Med cruise departing Rome 19th August and are trying to work out what night to keep free.

Any recent cruisers got an answer for me I would really appreciate it?

Thanks

I experienced this on a cruise and felt awful for the whole of the shore day which was a shame as we were on a beautiful beach.

Thankfully it has never occurred again although I always worry it will.

There was an article about a poor woman who has been suffering from this since 2008

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21786689

I hope you can go on your cruise and not have any symptoms

What a fabulous report - I really enjoyed your vivid descriptions and your witty humour

Thanks

Tammy

What a great sense of humour you have and how refreshing to see someone making the best of a bad situation - instead of moaning and groaning and looking to cause a scene

An absolutely brilliant trip report with some classic one liners in there.

Thanks for sharing with us

Tammy

Wow what a great thread.

We have just booked a 2C cabin for the Summit in August and our tour operator told us that we could have one at the front with a bigger balcony. Lo and behold we have 6030 - sounds absolutely perfect - especially as there will be 4 of us in our cabin. Myself, my husband and two teenage girls.

Sounds like there will be plenty of room for us all to hang out on the balcony

Tammy