kwokpot

Yes he is, no fever, no COVID. Going to dinner in the MDR tonight.Thank you for asking.

Yes, He tested negative for COVID and no fever. Although he stayed in the cabin the whole day he feels well enough to go to dinner tonight in the MDR.

Day 9 Greenock/Glasgow, Evening I went up to the Oceanview Cafe to get my husband Robert some food for dinner. I felt like eating dinner in the dining room rather than the buffet in my own, so I went to our 7:30 reservation at Tuscan dining room. I had the arugula salad as a starter. A classic Italian salad and it was fresh and tasty with the lemon vinaigrette. For my entree I ordered the 4 oz. filet mignon that's on the kids menu. I honestly never ordered this before but it's always recommended here on Cruise Critic so I decided to try it. When the steak was served the server said he ordered a double portion of steak for me. The filet was tender but flavorful and cooked to medium rare which is what I ordered. I was surprised how tasty it was. The steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes were just fine as side dishes. I declined dessert at Tuscan and went up to the Oceanview Cafe instead. During lunchtime they had served mochi for dessert. For those who don't know what that is it's a cold Asian dessert that's made with sweet, sticky rice flour on the outside and ice cream on the inside. It's a sorta like if a profiltrole and an Asian dumpling had a baby. The rice flour is flavored and has a chewy texture and there are various ice cream flavors inside. They are yummy! The lunchtime flavors were mango and strawberry and during dinner it was chocolate and green tea. I don't remember seeing mochi before at the buffet and it was a real treat. After dinner I didn't sample any evening entertainment and went back to the room to relax and get to bed early to rest up for the next day. I'll post the daily planner to the day so you can all see what entertainment was available on a port day.

Day 9, The street art and murals of Glasgow city centre

Day 9 Greenock/Glasgow, Afternoon With having to get my husband sorted with food, medicine, and tests, I had a late start to get to Glasgow on my own. The Greenock Central rail station was a easy 15 minutes walk, even quicker if you walk fast to catch the train, which I did. I even had time to buy my return ticket at the ticket office which for off-peak travel was under 9 pounds. The trip was about 40 minutes and it was quite full up with families and children all going into town on a nice summer Saturday. Glasgow Central Station was crazy busy and once I got onto the city streets I realized one reason why Glasgow was so busy, it was Pride Day! I don't mean to be presumptuous but I didn't expect the thousands of people in the Glasgow city centre celebrating Gay Pride. It made me feel very proud as an out gay married man and I had to spend a little time supporting my community and enjoyed watching everyone having a great time. The Glasgow Cathedral was beautiful and the organ was playing which added to atmosphere and grandeur of it. Equally interesting was the adjacent Glasgow Necropolis, or cemetery. I wish I had some more time to checkout some of the headstones and monuments. I enjoyed walking the many pedestrian only shopping streets and also checked out some of the beautiful high end shopping arcades. I spent less than three hours in Glasgow and felt I barely scratched the surface of this city. The architecture is historic and I'm glad I got to a few different areas around the main city centre. PXL_20230715_125221762.TS.mp4

Day 9 Greenock/Glasgow, A quick recap Today was a good day and a bad day. Bad because my husband Robert isn't feeling well and has a slight fever (Tested negative for COVID so far). Obviously he stayed in the cabin all day and I brought him meals. It was a good day because we had wonderful weather and l had a very quick walkabout on my own in Glasgow. I'll post a more comprehensive review but he's a snippet of our port day in Greenock/Glasgow.

Day 8 Sea Day, Late afternoon, evening Went for my daily workout at 4:45 and it was quite busy. Thinned out around 5:30. A shower and then it was dinner at the Cyprus dining room at 7:30. I think I like the decor in Cyprus and Tuscan the best of the four MDRs. I started with the lobster bisque and husband requested an off menu green salad which wasn't a problem. Our entrees were the Cyprus special lamb shank and my husband ordered the pork schnitzel and just some mashed potatoes. We both enjoyed our food. We decided to have dessert and coffee at Cyprus rather than up in Cafe Al Bacio so I had the creme brulee and he had the apple pie. And then enjoyed my new favorite after dinner coffee, decaf Americano. Dinner took a leisurely 90 minutes for all three courses, the longest so far this cruise in a MDR but we were just fine with the measured pacing of the courses. Since it was 9:00 I decided to go straight to The Theater to find a seat for a headliner show, called Broadway in Love. It stars a husband and wife team who both performed on Broadway separately and met and got married. I didn't care for them so I left after the second song, called it a night.

Day 8 Sea Day, Afternoon Being a Seaday all the food venues were pretty crowded for lunch. We initially tried Eden Cafe for lunch but it was crowded and my husband didn't want anything from there so we decided to go to the buffet BUT not before getting a couple of the famous brownies and cookies from Eden Cafe (More on that later). As expected the buffet was packed at 12:30pm and it took a few minutes to find an empty table. There's a daily lunch food theme and today was French. But I gravitated to the Indian selections again (My husband doesn't eat Indian so this is my opportunity). I did have some of the French soft cheeses and also liver pate. After lunch we went down to Cafe Al Bacio for Jasmine Green Tea and to try out the desserts from Eden Cafe. For those who aren't aware when the Edge Class ships first debuted the Eden Cafe had two desserts during lunchtime that wasn't served anywhere else on the ship nor on the M or S class ships. The brownie and walnut chocolate chip cookie were both excellent and a treat to savor. When the Beyond debuted last year people were saddened that at least on that ship the recipe for the brownie had changed and it was closer to a dense fudge than a traditional chewy but cake-like brownie texture. I can report that the Apex Eden brownies are nothing like then ones on the Beyond and ALMOST like the originals. The slight difference is the top layer which previously had a thin crispy 'crusty' layer. The walnut cookie is also better than the Beyond version. After tea and brownies we went back to our cabin to read and relax. As I previously said we're not big activities people so I'm sorry I can't discuss about all the scheduled things to do on a Seaday. What I can do for all of you is printout today's daily planner so you can see for yourself all the scheduled activities and entertainment.

9th gen on the larger ipad 10.2", 6th gen on the iPad mini.

Day 8 Sea Day, Morning This seaday is a needed rest after our three in-a-row Icelandic ports. Losing a hour didn't help the sleeping but necessary. For breakfast we decided to go to the Eden Cafe since it's only open on seadays. There we had oatmeal, which is made with milk rather than water like it is at the Oceanview Cafe. The milk makes it taste much creamier (I use almond milk at home). If I remember correctly in the past both the Eden Cafe and Spa Cafe offered Apple cider oatmeal. It was quite tasty when made correctly but would be too tart if the ingredient proportions were incorrect. I'll have to check tomorrow if the Spa cafe still has the Apple cider oatmeal; if not it probably wasn't a passenger favorite and thus eliminated. We also had some fruit, Greek yogurt with granola and berries, and an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich. Everything was good and tasty. FYI breakfast at Eden Cafe ends at 9:30am (sorry no photos, I didn't have my morning coffee and wasn't in the mood). We had to do Immigration check this morning. It was assigned times based on your cabin deck and you had to appear before UK Immigration officials with you passport, which subsequently the ship took to hold until they are returned after our last port stop of the cruise in Cobh, Ireland. Then back to our cabin to catch up on some news on TV.

Reposted as photos

FYI Ports of Call information sheet Scanned_20230714-1007.pdf Scanned_20230714-1008.pdf

Day 7 Reykjavik port day, Evening I was able to get in a good workout at the gym late afternoon/early evening. Dinner tonight at 7:30 in Normandie. The dining room wasn't busy and we were seated right away. For appetizers I had the Panzanella salad and husband had the Cream of Chicken soup. Both was good. For entrees I had the almond crusted Hake and husband had the Strozzapreti Carbonara from Tuscan. My Hake was just OK, the first entree on the cruise that I didn't think was up to standard. My husband's pasta, though not an authentic recipe, was quite tasty. We decided to skip dessert in the dining room since nothing stood out on the menu. The two courses took about 35 minutes tonight. We went to our usual after dinner spot, Cafe Al Bacio for decaf Americanos and some dessert. I enjoyed the matcha cake. We thought about attending the late show of Tree of Life but after awhile we decided not to go. We've seen that show many times. We just relaxed, listening to the music from the Grand Plaza and people watched until we went up to our room.

That's what I was saying about seeing the Northern Lights. It won't be dark enough.

Ship Time 2:00am, we moved forward 1 hour from Iceland time.

The problem is it doesn't get really dark, it stays light out until past 2:30am

As a point of reference our day 2 all aboard was 12:30pm.

It was with artic shoreex https://arcticshorex.com/ They have both group and private tours . This was a private tour that another passenger organized. We were originally booked for the longer 5 hour tour but Artic shoreex commandeered the van for another tour ( we didn't fill up the van) and said we can have the van afterwards for a shorter tour, which is what we did.

The ship generally is comfortable temperature-wise. The Theater can be a bit chilly, and the corridors and stairs are cool, but otherwise the ship is not generally cold. As reference I get cold easily and we are keeping our cabin at 74 degrees. I don't feel I need to wear a sweater or hoodie around the ship.

Day 7 Reykjavik port day - Morning & afternoon After a buffet breakfast I utilized the free city shuttle provided by Reykjavik to do a little more sightseeing before all aboard at 12:30pm. Ging alone today, husband is staying on the ship. We have another sunny rainless day at 50 degrees but extremely windy. It's nippy when the wind blows. Reykjavik City Center is extremely picturesque and one can spend hours waking around and checking out the shops, cafes, restaurants, museums. The streets are spotless and the atmosphere is calm and serene. Here's all the photos I took. Full disclosure, the cathedral photos are from yesterday after we missed our more Golden Circle tour but before the replacement afternoon tour. It was a long day yesterday!

Day 6 Reykjavik port day, Evening Error correction, previous post should be Day 6, Reykjavik port stop. We arrived back from our Reykjavik Golden Circle tour At 7:30pm and decided buffet dinner over MDR. The good news is unlike the beginning of the year when there were reports of severely curtailed buffet dinner offerings the buffet is now back to full station availability. All stations except one were opened and available. The buffet was actually quite crowded but we had no problems finding a seat. The food was hot and tasty, albeit some of the same types of stations open as during lunchtime (Mexican, Indian, Asian Stir fry). Afterwards we went to our usual spot at Cafe Al Bacio for a decaf Americano and to relax and people watch. After a long day of waking up very early for a missed tour and then getting on an afternoon one we didn't have the energy to doing anything else so after coffee it was back to the room to relax and to bed. I planned to go back into Reykjavik City Center the next day to do some quick sightseeing before all aboard at 12:30pm.

Currently on the Apex Iceland cruise and show schedule is the same as you listed. We normally eat dinner 7 or 7:30 and can always make the late show. Doors open at 9.

No worries. I also mistakenly attributed the statement "not paying AQ prices to look at someone's junk." to you.

When did I ever imply one should walk around naked? And it's funny that you imply that you don't want to see a man's private parts rather than just saying you don't want to see anyone naked.

Day 5 Isafjordur port day, Afternoon As we make our way back to the ship from our last tour stop, the Geyser, I'm glad we were able to salvage this tour. The tour drivers aren't the issue, it's the company dispatcher and scheduler who doesn't know how to properly schedule cruise ship passengers with non-cruiseship customers. The company website states to be patient with the tour pickup and it can take up to 30 minutes after the scheduled pickup. Yet the tour company didn't give it's customers the same courtesy and left waiting only about 17 minutes. To make matters worse we came to realize that the company abandoned another couple from the Apex on the morning tour, so they left 4 passengers stranded who were late only by 20 minutes. They then separately scheduled the 4 of us to the noontime tour but neglected to tell any of their tour drivers. The Artic Adventures tour company actually came by at 12:50 but to pickup a separate group of 4 from the Apex. We had been waiting since 11:40. I can only assume we were SUPPOSED to be with this driver but the company never informed him. It then took another 15 minutes for this driver to speak with his company in which they evidently couldn't figure out within 30 seconds that the 4 of us should just go with this driver. It was incompetencey at it's highest. Of the three stops on the Golden Circle tour the Gullfoss waterfalls are the most impressive. Thingvellir National Park is beautiful and fascinating but you really need 90 minutes to walk more of the paths to get a sense of that these are tectonic plates of two continents you're walking around and in-between. The Geyser is a geyser, like Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park in the States. The following photos are from all three stops. Oh and we had an ice cream stop at a family owned farm that's 7 generations old! You order ice cream and the cows are 50 feet away in their barn.