GenerationX

It’s crazy to think that a mere 24-hours before we found ourselves on an extended stay in Miami, we were enjoying our last night on Apex. That night before dinner we went to the Rockumentary production show. Jeremy who is a big classic rock fan said it was his favorite entertainment of the week. Whether you’re so young that the only place you’ve heard the artists was Spotify playlists or lucky enough that you actually got to attend some of the concerts honored in the show, the music and dancing are probably going to be entertaining. I bet some of you can even tell from my photos what artists were being performed. For the last performance of the show, passengers could vote in advance in the app (scroll to the very bottom, swipe left till you see the guitar in a circle with “vote” underneath it and click) for which song the cast would close with. For our cruise, We Are The Champions won. After the show we went to one last dinner in Luminae. We started with the tomato soup (one of my Luminae favorites), smoked salmon and pork belly. The pork belly was sadly overdone and a bit dry. Jeremy’s expression while eating the salmon spoke for itself. For dinner I went with another Luminae favorite of mine and got the bucatini and Jeremy and I split a very nice duck breast. Inspired by his stellar filet mignon experience at Fine Cut, Jeremy ordered the filet. He said it was good but the fine cut one was much better. We thought about skipping dessert but we still had a couple of glasses of champagne left in our bottle and Kumar reminded us that tomorrow there would be no dessert service (oh now right he turned out to be). So Jeremy had the poached pear and I had almond cake. We’re about to board our rebooked flight home and hopefully all will go smoothly this time! I know I still have a couple of catch up posts to do and then will go back through to answer any questions I missed and do a final post on our overall thoughts on Apex and future cruise plans.

I think you’re correct that it may vary. We didn’t have the same waiter every time we ate in Luminae but it was the same two who seemed to alternate. We usually had Marlon at breakfast and Kumar at dinner but a couple of times it was switched (Kumar at breakfast and Marlon at dinner). Both gave us great service and took the time to get to know us and our preferences so we didn’t mind.

Guys, I have no words for how our travel evening has gone. Actually I take that back, I have 2 words: travel insurance. Highly recommend. Our flight boarded on time and started to back away from the gate when there was a loud bang and the whole plane jerked hard then came to a complete stop. Turns out there was a mechanical issue with the front landing gear during pushback. After 2 hours of sitting at the gate on the plane during repairs, at 11:15pm, the captain came on and said the flight crew timed out and we were canceled. Everyone is automatically rebooked on a new flight tomorrow at noon. But of course this meant that at close to midnight, a plane full of people needed a place to stay tonight. AA’s compensation offer was, get this, a whopping $100 hotel voucher. I’m not even sure there’s such a thing as a $100 a night hotel in Miami (and if there is, I can only imagine what condition it’s in). Because of all our travel plans this year, in January I bought an annual travel insurance policy for a little over $500 total that covers me, Jeremy and Gen Z, not only for international medical but also for covered reason trip cancelation and expenses of trip interruptions just like this one . Thanks to insurance, I should be fully reimbursed for our very last minute stay at the Hilton Blue Lagoon at the airport. We’re going to try and make the best of the situation and get some sleep and tomorrow morning while I’m starting one more day laying by the pool drinking my coffee (turns out I had a swimsuit packed in my carryon, yay!) I’ll do some catch up posting. Good night from still in Miami!

Well ladies and gentlemen, we’re at the airport waiting for our 9:30pm flight home. On the plus side, after getting off the ship we had a fun day in Miami thanks to our day hotel booking. Our $120 prepaid booking got us a room from 10am till 6pm. When we arrived at the hotel, they also charged a $40 resort fee and a $100 hold for any incidental charges. The resort fee included wifi, beach chairs and umbrella rental on Miami Beach a few blocks away as well as beach towel rental and free bike rentals for up to 4 hours. We originally planned to spend most of our day at the hotel’s pool, but when we checked in the front desk let us know they’d be having their weekend DJ pool party all day and that the party gets “pretty wild”. We weren’t really in a wild party mood so decided to just shower up and walk around south beach and have lunch. The hotel and our room were spotless and the decor was very cool with a retro Miami style. When we arrived a door man greeted us with cold towels and offered us a complimentary glass of welcome champagne while we checked in. The room was kind of small but I wasn’t expecting much for a day reservation and it served our purposes of a place to keep luggage, shower and nap (which we did quite well after our south beach lunch). I’d definitely stay there again before a late post-cruise flight. I’d be interested in seeing what they charge for an overnight rate in one of the larger room categories, but I think I really do prefer the Brickell neighborhood to South Beach pre-cruise. The vibe is a bit more relaxed and meals and entertainment are better priced. Walking around Miami Beach, we stopped into a couple of small art galleries and shops then had a couple of very touristy cocktails while people watching and listening to a salsa band, then went to lunch at Havana 1957 on Ocean Drive. My food was good other than the tostones which were really bland. Jeremy loved his Cuban sandwich and papas fritas. While we were listening to the salsa band, Jeremy and the bartender got chatting about the wide selection of tequilas behind the bar and he poured Jeremy a few half shots of things to try, all of which kicked in for him on the walk back to our hotel and inspired him to try and do some Latin dancing in front of a couple of the bars playing music as we passed. Oh Jeremy, bless his tequila-fueled, two left feet heart. While we were on Apex a couple of nights we saw an adorable couple really showing off their cha cha and swing moves on the dance floor and it FINALLY convinced him to agree to do some ballroom and Latin dance classes with me. Our poor instructor is going to have his/her hands full. Once we got back we napped for a couple of hours in the comfortable bed then packed up our things and headed to the airport. While we’re in flight, I’ll start working on back in time posts about last night and dinners in Eden and Raw on 5.

Thank you! Yes, tour recommendations would be very much appreciated! If you don’t feel comfortable sharing in the full review audience, just let me know the best way to reach out.

Well here we are back in Port Everglades. This morning at breakfast when Jeremy’s smoked salmon eggs Benedict arrived, he just sat there looking at it for a moment, admiring its beauty one last time before we regress again to breakfasts consisting of toaster pastries consumed in the car on the drive to work. T25 was using facial recognition for customs this morning so disembarkation was very quick and easy. Less quick and easy was getting an Uber. The first car we were assigned stopped moving at the entrance to port Everglades and sat there for 15 minutes then our ride was canceled and we were reassigned. By the time our new driver was making his way in, a car had broke down in the middle of one of the Uber pick up lanes, causing a traffic nightmare. While we’re on our way to Miami, let’s go back to better days and talk about our day St. Thomas. In some ways the excursion was a lot like the one we did in Tortola. We were picked up by a motor (NOT sailing) catamaran right in the port area and sailed about a half hour out to a protected marine reserve off St. John to snorkel. Unlike Tortola, for this excursion the boat was jam packed and we were all sitting hip to hip. Also unlike Tortola, the music on this boat on the sail out was definitely not conversation friendly level. They were ready to start a party. If you want less of a party boat atmosphere for your St. Thomas snorkeling, I’d recommend the “luxury catamaran sail and snorkel” excursion that I did on my last cruise to St. Thomas. The snorkeling was decent. We saw lots of colorful fish and a few rays. Unfortunately Jeremy’s dream of seeing a sea turtle in the wild remains unfulfilled, but he still had a good time. After snorkeling the crew opened up a complimentary rum punch bar and we sailed to a nice clean small beach where we could swim and lay out in the sand for about an hour. While we were on the beach we met a very cool couple from Virginia and when we got back to port, fueled by the rum punch, the four of us decided to walk around and see if we could find another local cocktail or two. We ended up inside an air conditioned bar inside a windmill in the port area where we were the only customers at 1pm. The bartender was very sweet and friendly and since we were her only task for the afternoon, she joined us at our table and we had a great conversation about her life on the island and its food, culture and, of course drinks! Speaking of drinks, we did get to try a few local specialties, including a drink called the Cruzan confusion (made with 7 different types of flavored rum) and the Virgin Islands spin on Mamajuana. I drink quite a bit of mamajuana when at our favorite land resort in the Dominican Republic. In the VI’s in addition to adding rum to the spices and special bark steeped to make the drink, apparently they also add Hennessy! Prices at the bar were also surprisingly reasonable for a tourist spot. There were four of us and we each had a cocktail, a local beer and a couple of shots, and our total tab came to a little under $25 per person before tip. We got back to the ship in that weird time window between lunch and tea when food options were scarce, so we just grabbed a couple of pieces of pizza in oceanview to ride us out till dinner at Raw on 5. Which reminds me I still need to report on that too. Much more to come from this recently evicted resident of Apex!

Packing and envelope stuffing have begun…we drowned our sorrows enjoying a last veranda sunset with a bottle of wine we brought onboard from the winemaker who lives up the road from us (yes, that is as dangerous and expensive of a neighbor to have as it sounds). After our morning in the cabana Jeremy and I had lunch at the rooftop grill. We started with the oh so good train wreck fries again and ordered the dry rub wings but they came out with the Buffalo sauce instead. It ended up being a good mistake because we REALLY liked the buffalo wings. Sweet and tangy with just the right touch of heat. They’re messy as all get out so probably not an evening chic night order, but our server gave us wet wipes to clean up our fingers afterwards. For mains Jeremy had the most massive Reuben burger I’ve ever seen in my life and I had the sausage flatbread I’d been anxious to eat again ever since edge. Jeremy loved his burger. I was sad to find that my flatbread was nowhere near as good as it had been on Edge. Some of the sausage wasn’t cooked through all the way and the broccoli chunks were cut way too big to cook properly on a pizza. I’d had plenty to eat with the huge apps and splitting a ceasar salad, so I didn’t go hungry. After lunch we spent a bit more time in our cabana and then went to do some shopping before our future cruises meeting. The cabana attendants brought us any cocktails we wanted for free since we had the beverage package and we weren’t feeling up to drinking a whole bottle of veuve yet (included in the cabana rental), so we took the champagne bottle with us when we left and dropped it in our stateroom fridge and will have it with dinner tonight in Luminae instead. On Edge and Beyond the shops were sold out of the ship Christmas ornaments that we’ve gotten for every ship we sail on. This time I got the last ornament on the rack! Then it was time to have tea and meet with future cruises to book Jeremy’s 40th birthday bucket list cruise. In October we’ll be spending 10 nights on Beyond in Aqua class sailing to Italy, Greece and Montenegro out of Rome! The future cruises consultant matched the price online under the current promo. We also got the onboard booking perks of an additional $200 onboard credit and reduced $200 non refundable deposit. She also gave us our captains club complimentary stateroom category upgrade. I’m off to finish pre-departure tasks then shower and dress for the rockstar production show and one last dinner in Luminae. We’ll be turning in early tonight, so before bed I’ll do a catch up post to remind me of happier times back on the beautiful island of St. Thomas.

Ugh, we’ve come to the last full day of our cruise. To give some idea of what kind of shape I’m in after silent disco and partying in the club till 3am, we’re sitting in our poolside cabana and my husband just informed me that I managed to snoring sleep through an entire loud, bumping music aqua Zumba class. The main pool deck is packed and so is the pool, which is slightly cooler than bath water thanks to the sun and number of people. I’m glad I made our cabana reservations in the cruise planner in advance because they’ve been completely booked for every sea day. Yesterday, after having sea day lunch at Luminae, Jeremy and I went to the premium wine tasting event. I believe the cost was $90 per person and all the wines tasted were sold on the ship for $150 or more. Cheese lovers that we are, we were really there for the cheese as much as the wine and there were some very good ones offered. The best part was as the event ended, there was still half a bottle of the Caymus left and one of the somms came by and poured Jeremy and I a glass for the the road. After the tasting we hit the casino where the card table was friendly to Jeremy and the dancing drums penny slots were very friendly to me. After cocktails in Eden we went up to dress (and I put on my new favorite accessory) for chic night dinner in Luminae. We got there about 8pm and it was completely full. We had about a 15 minute wait for a table. Once we got seated the wait was totally worth it. I think this may have been our best overall meal of the cruise so far. The kale soup and ceasar salad were on point. Jeremy and I were both torn between having the scallops and the lobster so we each ordered a plate of both. The lobster tail was just the right size for me considering we were eating two other courses and I found myself swirling everything on the plate in the champagne sauce. The scallops were a little on the small side but cooked perfectly and delicious. Even Jeremy who had proclaimed himself too full for dessert couldn’t resist several bites of the baked Alaska. We wanted to celebrate finally coming to agreement on a cruise to celebrate Jeremy’s 40th birthday this fall, so Arnold brought us a bottle of the champagne we had during the premium tasting. We got a 20% discount on the bottle as part of the premium beverage package. I’m gasping myself as I say this but I think I like it even better than veuve. After dinner we changed into more party friendly attire and hit a packed grand foyer dance floor for silent disco then headed to the club till the DJ shut us down. When we got back to the room, my tequila soaked husband looked at the coffee table, groaned and said “call Albert and tell him to come take this [bleep] out of our room!” I guess he’s enjoyed his cruise. It was one of those nights of cruising where everything was just perfect and you fall asleep feeling happy and blessed just to have each other and have the life you do. Our agenda for the rest of the day: -More rehydrating before lunch at Rooftop Grille -Come back to the cabana to spend the afternoon enjoying our included bottle of champagne -Head to the room to start making up tip envelopes and thank you notes for the folks who’ve gone above and beyond for us this week. -Tea Time meeting in the lounge with future cruises (See? I told you guys MSC hasn’t convinced me to completely break up with Celebrity…yet.) -Happy Hour on our veranda before packing and one last dinner in Luminae

Thank you! I think they did still have the queues set up for arrival times, but there was a separate area to the far left with a sign for the Retreat check in. We booked this cruise late so our express pass had a 1:30 boarding time on it but we went up to the man at the Retreat sign and all he did was check that we were suite guests and we were escorted right inside even arriving before 11am.

Quick real time update from Apex: My husband and I both had good afternoons in the casino and are celebrating our luck with sunset cocktails in Eden with live music from the fantastic Radio Duo out of Brazil. It was surprisingly easy to tempt Jeremy to try a sip of my cocktail…🍎🐍😉

Thank you! Happy to help. I want to say I’ve seen this bottle on the shelf in a couple of bars. I’ll take a more focused look and report back on availability and whether it’s still included in premium.

Same! It has a special place in my heart but not a regular place in my budget!

Oh sit right back and you’ll hear a tale of how the Retreat lounge saved my life this morning. Explanation below, Jeremy and I were out partying till 1am last night and as a result slept in till 10am and woke up in the predicament of desperately craving sustenance when almost all the breakfast options were closing. I had to go to the retreat lounge to make an appointment for future cruises and when I finished I saw there were still a few pieces of fruit out from the lounge breakfast spread left out (sharing the full retreat areas hours sheet from our cruise below in case anyone is interested). A server who was putting things away helped me get the fruit and when I thanked her and mentioned it was much needed because I slept through breakfast she said “oh ma’am please wait let me go to the back and get a few more things for you!” Before I could object she disappeared and returned with a plate of charcuterie and pastries. Jeremy joined me for the late morning snack then we headed up to the pool deck where Tiago and Atish promptly delivered more cold water, chilled fruit skewers and mimosas. Bada bing, bada boom, GenX has been resurrected! We’ve reached the point in the cruise where I start to get a little sad. Granted we have two full days left, but we’ve left our last port and now it’s a slow roll (last night literally) back to reality. Speaking of last night, due to said ship rolling and technical issues, the production show was cancelled last minute. There was a singing group performing instead but Jeremy wasn’t very interested, so we went and had a martini in the grand plaza then went to dinner a little early. We got to Luminae about 7:45 and it was busy, I’d say about 75% full, but no wait for a table. We arrived the same time as a fun couple from Virginia that we hung out with in St. Thomas and the 4 of us decided to dine together. Our waiter came over quickly and reminded us of the items from the MDR “classics” menu that could be ordered in addition to the Luminae menu for the night. He also gave good recommendations on which items on the menu for that night were the best. (He told us that each night before dinner service the chefs have the waiters taste each of the appetizers and entrees and walk them through how the dishes are made, allergens, etc.) The drink servers seemed to be running behind so our waiter took our drink order after they hadn’t made it to our table after a few minutes. Poor guy did his best on the wine front, but had no clue. Next time I’ll just use my patience skills and wait till Arnold is free to come over to assist with my wine selection. Once Arnold did free up and come by he made a great recommendation for a cote du Rhône to go with my entree. We for the most part followed our server’s recommendations and I started with the ginger crab cake and Jeremy started with the tuna carpaccio and seafood velute then we both had the lamb loin for entree. We also split an order of the black bass. We were very happy with everything. The sweet spicy thai peanut sauce on the crab cake gave it a unique twist. I had a bite of Jeremy’s soup and the broth was excellent. You could tell someone put some love into making the seafood stock for that soup. My lamb was a bit past the medium rare that I’d ordered it, but seasoned well, and the sausage on the side was really good. The sea bass didn’t have much flavor on its own, but was much better when dunked in a once again really flavorful broth poured in the bowl. I could’ve eaten just a plate of the mushroom dumplings served on the side of the bass dunked in that broth. For dessert we split the strawberry cheesecake on the MDR classics dessert menu and as soon as it arrived at the table, there was Arnold’s arm placing a tiny glass and pouring me my favorite after dinner 20 year port. Our dinner company couple was more adventurous and split this cool looking Vacherin. After dinner the 4 of us went up to the pool party on the top deck, but it was a little too windy for us and turned into a lot too windy for us when the magic carpet, which had been acting as a wind break, moved up a deck. Instead we went back down to the grand foyer where there was an equally popular Motown party with live band going on. While we listened to the music I got to check out Craft Social for the first time this cruise. I think someone had asked about the beer currently on tap. Pics are below. I think the one turned to the side was Guinness. One of my favorite little activities on the E class ships is over the course of the cruise to make a point of ordering a Manhattan and a rye old fashioned at Eden and Craft Social (and on Beyond, also World Class Bar) and see which bar makes the one I like best. I’ll be trying an Eden old fashioned tonight and will go on Manhattan quest tomorrow and will report back on my winners. More back in time catch up posts coming soon!

Oops! Yes, that was a typo. I can neither confirm nor deny the blood alcohol level of the server or its role in his weird behavior. 😂

This is the champagne Jeremy and I drank at our wedding reception. It holds a special place in my heart.

Hello from a beautiful sail away from Tortola! Our day so far: This morning we once again had an early tour assembly time so went with room service breakfast ordered the night before. I had some work to do early morning and Wi-Fi speeds were terrible. My connection kept dropping and I was very worried I wouldn’t be able to finish my noon deadline project in time and would have to skip our tour. It reminded me that a similar issue with Wi-Fi happened early morning on my last cruise that ported in Tortola pre-starlink, and I did have to miss going to port to take care of it later in the day when internet was better. Fortunately I finished just in time as Albert arrived with breakfast. Once again everything we ordered was some of the better quality Celebrity room service I’ve had in a while. After breakfast we headed out on our excursion to Virgin Gorda for snorkeling and beach time at the Virgin Gorda baths. The catamaran boarded right next to the ship and it was about a 30 minute sail over to the Baths. Unlike our excursion in St. Thomas (I swear I’m going to catch up writing tomorrow) the boat wasn’t crowded at all even with a sold out tour and the crew kept the music on the sail out at a low conversation friendly level. If I remember correctly, the tour advisories for this excursion included a weight limit as well as a warning that it is only suitable for very strong swimmers and those without any kind of mobility issues. Those advisories are very well heeded. We initially moored off of Devil’s Bay beach where we snorkeled about 300 yards in from the boat to the beach. The boat captain told us we were very lucky as it was the first yellow flag day after weeks of red flag waves and undertow. Even on a yellow flag day, our guide was very right in telling us that the ocean there “is NOT a swimming pool”. To get to the beach you had to swim through about a 6 ft wide gap between massive boulders and the end of the line of buoys marking off the snorkeling area. Fighting a current pushing you towards the boulders. You have to take anything you may want from the boat for the beach with you on the swim. I suggest strapping water shoes through the strap of your snorkel float vest (our guides told us they “wouldn’t be necessary” but that hike through the baths definitely would have been more comfortable if I’d had water shoes on) and maybe bringing a dry case for your phone/money and strapping it to you as well if you think you’ll want it for the beach. The guide did have a dry bag that he offered to carry people’s phones, medications and glasses/shades in, but said he would not accept towels, money/wallets or cameras, so if you want to bring any of those things, you’ll have to have your own floating dry bag. The snorkeling on the way in wasn’t very good. We saw a few fish but that’s it. Lots of sand bottom and no real coral. Once we got to land, we hiked a trail for about 45 minutes through the Baths. I think about 10-15 minutes of that was our group standing in line and waiting for the guides to try and assist a mobility impaired passenger (who I guess didn’t take the booking warnings seriously) through the more technical parts of the caves. There are areas where you climb up and down some steep, narrow wooden ladders and wade through about knee deep water assisted only by anchored tow ropes. There were also a few passages where at 5’5, I still had to almost crawl to go through. If you’re up for it though, it really is a fun experience and with such cool scenery. When we got to the main beach on the other side of the caves, there was an area with vendors and a small restaurant. We were given about an hour to swim and hang out. The waves and currents there were decent as well, but swimable with some effort. In fact it had to be swimable because after beach time, we had to swim about another 200 yards back to our boat which had moved over to meet us on the other side of the baths. Jeremy and I decided to snorkel our way back a little early and the snorkeling out to the boat from the main beach was much better than the snorkeling in had been. We saw lots more fish and a ray almost the size of me! I think if we were to do an trip to the baths again, we’d probably book one that is just a trip to the Baths and beach and bring our own snorkel equipment to hit the good spots if we feel like it. Rather than deal with the swims back and forth to/from the boats. On the sail back to the ship, the crew offered complimentary (stiff) rum punch and water and turned up the music a bit. When we got back to port, we tried to stop at a small bar in port for conch fritters and more rum punch, but after sitting at a table for almost a half hour without a server stopping to take our order, we decided to head back to the ship and have a late lunch in the buffet. I am pleased to report that the food options, even on a port day a half hour before lunch was set to end, were plentiful. To match our destination there was a Caribbean theme to the chef’s specialties. We had some very good jerk pork, jerk chicken and barramundi (one of my favorite fish) and I even got adventurous and tried goat curry for the first time (I’m a fan). I also couldn’t pass up a piece of leg of lamb and one of the thin steaks from the grill which are a buffet favorite of mine and were just as good on Apex as I recall from other ships. Drink service was a little weird at first, a drunk server walked by our table, flipped down the little menu (the sign to other servers that we’ve been given drink service) but then just walked away without saying a word to us. Fortunately a couple of minutes later, a nice young lady who’d served us the day before when we went for a pizza snack came by and greeted us by name and even remembered our drink orders. After lunch Jeremy headed to the pool and I came back to the room to do some work and found our butler had left us a nice note and a treat, which I thoroughly enjoyed while forced to do my day job. Now it’s time for me to tear myself away from this beautiful sunset to shower and dress and head to the second production show before dinner in Luminae.

Thank you for sharing Jim. This is so weird. Your menu is definitely different from the menu in our room. The other side of the hang tag just has the space for stateroom info and selecting delivery time. All of the specialties have been removed. They don’t show up in the room service booklet either. Like you I’m not able to see the retreat room service menu in the app, even connected to ship wifi. I wonder if they’re tested a more limited Retreat room service breakfast on this ship/sailing? If we do room service again this sailing I may try writing in an order for steak and eggs and a mimosa just to see what happens…solely for research purposes of course.

If you aren’t spending happy hour sipping bubbly at dusk off the USVI’s I feel bad for you, son… I’ll fill you guys in on our day shortly, but while Atish brings me another glass of Chandon, a report on dinner last night at Rooftop Grill. I purposely scheduled this dinner for our late night in Puerto Rico to avoid the wind issues that I experienced at the restaurant on Edge. We started with the smoked dry rub chicken wings and oh so excessive but delicious trainwreck fries. The wings had some decent heat on them so I don’t recommend if you aren’t a spice person, but Jeremy and I loved them. For mains Jeremy had the dry rub ribs and I had the lamb chops I’d been longing to eat again ever since I stepped off Edge. Those lamb chops are so tender and juicy and flavorful. If we hadn’t had such big appetizers, I probably would have ordered two servings. Jeremy must have really enjoyed his ribs because he barely came up for air to say 5 words to me while he ate them, other than to offer me a bite of his (very good) jalapeño cornbread…talking with his mouth full of rib meat. 🤦🏾‍♀️ I drank Shiraz to pair with my lamb and Jeremy checked another drink off his list and had the steakhouse margarita made with (brace for gag reflex) steak sauce. I wondered if he’d taken leave of his senses but I did try a sip for review purposes and it was surprisingly better than expected. Not what I’d usually go for but Jeremy liked it enough to have 3 of them. We split the dirty rice as a side which Jeremy really liked but I didn’t think was that great. Honestly just my personal opinion based on my 2 visits, I think the sides at Rooftop Grill just take up prime stomach real estate. Going forward I’ll just focus on the meats. For dessert we had the warm chocolate chip cookie and comically had the opposite issue as with dessert at Fine Cut the night before. The cookie was served oh so wonderfully warm. The problem is that someone clearly put the scoop of vanilla gelato on top of the warm cookie LONG before our server delivered it to our table, so by the time we got it we basically had a cookie with warm vanilla soup on top. The restaurant was getting busy by the time the dessert course came so we didn’t want to risk waiting a bunch of time to have it remade. The cookie part was still as good as I remembered from Edge. Our server Satish seemed like he was newer to Celebrity and still learning the ropes, but he was very nice and responsive. Jeremy said this was his favorite dinner on the ship so far (I, an Eden loyalist, hissed under my breath at this) and was so into it that he booked us lunch there for the last sea day. I was kind of looking forward to Luminae that day, but I’m not one to argue with a man who’s buying me jewelry this week!

It’s a beautiful morning in St. Thomas! Luminae didn’t open until 7:30 this morning and we have to be on the pier for our excursion at 8:15, so we ordered room service from the hang tag last night for delivery between 6:30 and 7. Albert called at exactly 6:32 to say it was ready and he was on the way with it. I’m so confused by the suite room service menu differences from ship to ship. Or maybe it’s an upper suites vs sky suites thing. On silhouette and millennium I remember having steak and eggs as a room service option. And the silhouette menu also had an option to have mimosas and bloody marys delivered complimentary. But again, those were a celebrity suite and a royal suite, so maybe that’s why. I will say, the quality of this room service is far better. The fruit plate is nicer than the ones I’ve gotten in Luminae. My toasted bagel was still warm, orange juice was ice cold and Jeremy said his omelette was hot and tasted great. I wonder if the upcharge for non-continental breakfast room service (for non-suite staterooms) has reduced the volume of breakfast room service orders and, as a result, has given the kitchen and delivery teams more time to focus on quality of the output? When I was going through my beach supplies to pack for shore, my “thanks for trying us” goodbye gift from the yacht club concierge team on the Divina fell out of a zipper compartment in my suitcase that I must’ve forgotten to unpack on the last cruise. I think I’ve already done enough damage on the MSC cross-sell front, so I promptly buried it back where I found it and grabbed my margaritaville clips instead. 😂 Later this afternoon after our day of snorkeling, beach time and conch fritters, I’ll report on last night’s dinner and go back in time to talk Eden. Have a great day friends!

This sounds amazing! First thing when I get home I’m going on a Pinterest quest for a recipe for raspberry soufflé. My very first Celebrity cruise almost a decade ago was on Constellation when she still had the French restaurant. I think it was called Oceanliners? We also ended up eating there 3 of the 4 nights because it was so good and service was so outstanding. I particularly remember an outstanding roast duck that was rolled out on a cart and carved table side. Our next couple of cruises after that were on Royal Caribbean or S class ships and I remember being so sad when we sailed again a few years later and that restaurant was gone.

Hola from Puerto Rico and a special hello to Apex’s older sister Connie in port with us! Our day so far: This morning after my workout we had a little breakfast at Luminae. I feel like I remember the charcuterie and cheese plate on Beyond having much more exciting meats on it, albeit in Blu for aqua class, but the Gouda cheese was yummy at least. After breakfast we headed up to the retreat pool deck for swimming and relaxing. I had a wine event at 12:30 so we had a light early lunch of shrimp cocktail and Caesar salads on the pool deck before I headed to the Blendtique event. I’ve never done this one before but it was a lot of fun. We were seated at tables of 4 and each group was tasked with tasting 4 different wine types and mixing them in certain percentages (with some help from suggested recipes) to create a red blend wine that the ship’s sommeliers would taste and judge. The table with the best blend won a couple of bottles of bubbly. Unfortunately my table’s blend didn’t win, but I still thought we produced a decent product. I took note of our blend so that I can go on the blendtique website when I get home and order bottles of it with my own custom made label. Everybody on my list gets wine by Charla for Christmas this year! After wine antics I was on my way back through the grand plaza to the forward elevators and spotted Kadek starting his day at the martini bar and he waived me over for an espresso pick me up. Jeremy joined me after the casino closed and we had another round together before heading up to our veranda to read for a while. We went to the Retreat lounge for afternoon tea and really enjoyed the mini empanadas and salmon salad sandwiches. Tonight is the ship’s pride party at 11pm, but we have an early excursion meeting time in St. Thomas tomorrow, so after our 8pm dinner at rooftop grill we may just stop by Eden for a cocktail and the art showcase then head to bed.

Yes the casino was open this morning, I’m not sure how early they opened but they closed about an hour before our scheduled arrival time in port. Jeremy said he was there right before they closed and they were doing announcements on the PA saying that they would be reopening the casino at midnight tonight (we leave PR at 9:30). Interesting considering tomorrow is a port day too.

I agree on missing Murano! That’s my favorite specialty restaurant and something I look forward to every time we book S class. Remind me, have you and Iain sailed Beyond yet? Le Voyage reminded a little of a more contemporary version of Murano. Not a replacement for me, but it was my favorite E class specialty dining experience thus far.

A couple of quick tips from the Apex Retreat sundeck: 1) The restroom doors on the deck are operated by hand sensors. When you go in the restroom and the automatic door closes behind you, there’s this button on the wall that says “Door Lock”. As your attorney in this matter, it is my duty to advise you that this claim is often false and misleading. Do NOT act in reliance on this button’s claim that it has locked the door, that is unless you want to risk suddenly becoming much more intimately acquainted with a fellow suite guest in need of the facilities. Instead use the manual lock underneath the handle of the door itself and rotate clockwise until it won’t go any further to actually lock the door (and of course, wash your hands vigorously and use a paper towel when unlocking and exiting). 2) Do not consume Atish’s strawberry daiquiris on an empty stomach. He’s not stingy with the rum. Even with having had breakfast, after two I found myself swinging around in the pool chair singing show tunes from South Pacific. Bon Voyage.

The lounge chair was already on our veranda, but I don’t recall having one on Edge in a sky suite so I wonder if maybe a previous guest requested it and they just left it there. Enjoy your April cruise! Based on what I’ve experienced so far I think you’ll have a great time!