Live Review Apex 1/8/2022 - 1/15/2022 Virtual Cruise Plenty of Pictures.

[BennyBrun]

8 hours ago, jwlane said:

Seems like I recall it's Deck 3, Aft, Starboard, just in front of Tuscan.  I think there are cabins on the other side of the nakedness.  An excellent illusion.  I'll let you know for sure in 17 days.

The “naked ship” is by the quarantined cabins.  I found out last night as we walked by.

[RedneckBob]

2 minutes ago, BennyBrun said:

The “naked ship” is by the quarantined cabins.  I found out last night as we walked by.

Actually after Celebrity spent $1.2 billion dollars to build the Apex, Celebrity ran out of money 😜. The plexiglass is for safety so a kid like me want fall through the opening.

[BennyBrun]

6 hours ago, cltcruisers123 said:

Our NCL Joy cruise was just canceled earlier tonight for Jan 22nd so I went ahead and booked the Apex for same time period. Will be first time on Celebrity and went with Retreat suite. Looking forward to going back and reading your posts! I’m sure I’ll have some questions shortly. Thanks!

WOW!!!!  I have not checked other boards yet because of Wi-Fi.  I have the basic classic Wi-Fi.  It has been good to me with posting pictures I did not want to jinx it.  Please ask away!!!  I have been on the Joy before but I think you will feel super pampered in the retreat.  Do try the MDR as a comparison for yourself to Luminae.  Definitely comeback and let us know how you like or dislike Celebrity.

[BennyBrun]

1 hour ago, tunaman2011 said:

Greetings

 

We are always amazed that every time we cruise we will see at least 1 person at breakfast in their cruise bathrobe.  This isn't just on Celebrity, we have witnessed the same on HAL, NCL, Princess, MSC, and even on Azamara, Oceania, and Viking.  We always wonder just what these people are thinking.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

 

PS Maybe the best "live" review ever.

 

Thank you so much!!!  I am used to bathrobe at breakfast time but I was a shock to see at the Casino 😂.

[BennyBrun]

9 hours ago, CruiseDoc79 said:

Amazing thread thank you! We are on Apex Feb 12 and just got an email from Celebrity that they are swapping Puerto Rico for Nassau. It's unfortunate as we were looking forward to seeing Puerto Rico for the first time but also have been prepared that ports may change or be missed due to COVID.

I think we are close to the end of the pandemic (my guess is by March everything will be much more normal again). Omicron is so contagious that it will out-compete any other variants, we will have a huge spike in cases then a rapid decline to manageable levels, and so many of us will be exposed that it will nicely supplement vaccine immunity.  Anyways, that's my prediction, here's hoping I'm right (for what it's worth I am an pediatric infectious disease specialist so I know a bit about this stuff). Happy cruising!

Thank you so much.  I really hope that’s true because as much as I feel this has been a semi normal cruising experience (mask wearing / health protocols) I really enjoy chatting with fellow cruisers without having to worry about stranger danger contact tracing.  I am sorry about the port swapping.  Puerto Rico is wonderful port to visit and I know it’s not like Nassau.  We also got swapped out to Nassau but we are not sure if we will make it because last week they wanted everyone onboard to be tested before they can go ashore and the port was skipped.  So we will see.

[BennyBrun]

1 hour ago, cltcruisers123 said:

Have you noticed whether you can eat at any of the specialty restaurants without reservations if you wanted to? Booked this last minute and hope we’ll still have options next week (1/22). Thanks

Book Eden and Fine Cuts as soon as you get onboard.  Head over to to the guest relations area, in front of the iLounge there is a table set up to make dinning reservations on embarkation day.  The Eden and Fine Cuts prime dinning time goes really quick.  BTW the fine dinning on Celebrity is nothing like the fine dinning on NCL.  It is so much better.  They are so eager to please.  At Fine Cut I wanted the lobster tail entree and my waiter said he will be happy to have two lobster tail appear on my plate and with no extra entrée charge.

[cltcruisers123]

1 minute ago, BennyBrun said:

Book Eden and Fine Cuts as soon as you get onboard.  Head over to to the guest relations area, in front of the iLounge there is a table set up to make dinning reservations on embarkation day.  The Eden and Fine Cuts prime dinning time goes really quick.  BTW the fine dinning on Celebrity is nothing like the fine dinning on NCL.  It is so much better.  They are so eager to please.  At Fine Cut I wanted the lobster tail entree and my waiter said he will be happy to have two lobster tail appear on my plate and with no extra entrée charge.

Oh great tip! Appreciate it. Been playing catch-up with Apex YouTube videos and so far everyone seems to love it too.
 

Wife is Vegan/plant based so having to run down those options across the menus. I see Blu has a Beyond Burger, so that’s something. 

[BennyBrun]

The specialty restaurants do have vegetarian options, not sure about vegan but they are happy to discuss any dietary concerns and make alterations where possible!!  You might find more  vegan options at OceanView.

[Cruisegoer]

10 hours ago, BennyBrun said:

Trying to solve the deck 3 mystery…. So on the AFT side one side is closed off as out of bounds and the other side is open as guest rooms.

Sheesh this is getting worse n worse, so based on the 2 posts identifying deck 3 locations, on the starboard side (even cabin #s) that is a straight hallway of rooms from 3100 to 3202.  So I imagine that that whole section of rooms is  blocked for quarantine, the port (odd side) does break up around Guest Relations.  Of course I'm booked to be in room 3140 so my conundrum is that I don't want a room my cruise week, that had previously been used as a covid quarantine room! I'm sure they clean well but who knows what's in the ventilation.

[RedneckBob]

48 minutes ago, BennyBrun said:

Book Eden and Fine Cuts as soon as you get onboard.  Head over to to the guest relations area, in front of the iLounge there is a table set up to make dinning reservations on embarkation day.  The Eden and Fine Cuts prime dinning time goes really quick.  BTW the fine dinning on Celebrity is nothing like the fine dinning on NCL.  It is so much better.  They are so eager to please.  At Fine Cut I wanted the lobster tail entree and my waiter said he will be happy to have two lobster tail appear on my plate and with no extra entrée charge.

Agree! Our Apex cruise between 11/27-12/11, the specialty restaurants were booked by end of day one; only times open were very late, though there were 1500-1700 passengers.

[Julma]

13 hours ago, Martini Queenie said:

Question for those of you that have done a B2B. We are in a suite coming up in a few weeks and wondered if the menu is the same for both weeks or if the have a 14 day menu rotation. Trying to decide which nights we want to book Eden thanks to the wonderful pics by Benny! 

Our fall b2b the menu in Luminae stayed the same.  If you don't like a menu on week one, book a specialty on that night for week two.  Also, Blu has a nice menu.  We ate there a couple of times.  With percentages down, it was never a problem and Blu was def less crowded and more spread than Luminae.  

[little britain]

9 hours ago, jwlane said:

Seems like I recall it's Deck 3, Aft, Starboard, just in front of Tuscan.  I think there are cabins on the other side of the nakedness.  An excellent illusion.  I'll let you know for sure in 17 days.

Yes there are cabins on the other side….we had to double check! 

[dazey]

Regarding reservations for Fine Cut and Eden, we were on Apex in November and I made the reservations online months before sailing.  This way you get the time you want and can always cancel  once on board if you change your mind. Because of the lower number of passengers you might be okay doing it once on board but why take the chance.   

[BennyBrun]

1 hour ago, Cruisegoer said:

Sheesh this is getting worse n worse, so based on the 2 posts identifying deck 3 locations, on the starboard side (even cabin #s) that is a straight hallway of rooms from 3100 to 3202.  So I imagine that that whole section of rooms is  blocked for quarantine, the port (odd side) does break up around Guest Relations.  Of course I'm booked to be in room 3140 so my conundrum is that I don't want a room my cruise week, that had previously been used as a covid quarantine room! I'm sure they clean well but who knows what's in the ventilation.

Can’t you call then and asked to be moved to a different deck?  Unless of course there is a specific room that you want on deck 3 then they will not be able to assist.

[BennyBrun]

8 minutes ago, dazey said:

Regarding reservations for Fine Cut and Eden, we were on Apex in November and I made the reservations online months before sailing.  This way you get the time you want and can always cancel  once on board if you change your mind. Because of the lower number of passengers you might be okay doing it once on board but why take the chance.   

If you have a dinning package unfortunately you can’t do that you will have to reserve onboard.  I wish they would let people reserve with packages ahead of time.

[BennyBrun]

Day 5

 

Cozumel… get ready for some videos today.  We are going to our favorite cafe today and they have great Wi-Fi!!!

[jwlane]

1 hour ago, cltcruisers123 said:

Wife is Vegan/plant based 

Ditto.  By the end of 15 nites on Apex last July she was pretty disappointed in the limited offerings.  I've reached out ahead of our sailing on the 29th in hopes they can have more offerings.  That said, I'm reserving Fine Cut beause it looks like Benny's photos are showing many sides that she can choose.

[cltcruisers123]

15 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Ditto.  By the end of 15 nites on Apex last July she was pretty disappointed in the limited offerings.  I've reached out ahead of our sailing on the 29th in hopes they can have more offerings.  That said, I'm reserving Fine Cut beause it looks like Benny's photos are showing many sides that she can choose.

Ha yeah, she normally ends up eating sides too a lot of times. Though, doubt she’ll eat the added fee worth. Menu will factor in whether I’ll need to get table for 1 on some of these 😢. 

[Cruisegoer]

58 minutes ago, BennyBrun said:

Can’t you call then and asked to be moved to a different deck?  Unless of course there is a specific room that you want on deck 3 then they will not be able to assist.

So far has not had any luck, from a sales perspective they won't even acknowledge where in the ship the quarantine cabins are located.

[Birdnutty]

Benny, do I remember you saying that were also cabins on Deck 6 that were part of the quarantine area?  If so, can you tell me where they are?  I'm curious as to Forward, Aft, port starboard.  I would imagine they would reserve the same rooms for each cruise, and am curious to see if the one we have booked in a few weeks might be affected. 

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVING this review.  Thank you so much.

[BennyBrun]

1 hour ago, jwlane said:

Ditto.  By the end of 15 nites on Apex last July she was pretty disappointed in the limited offerings.  I've reached out ahead of our sailing on the 29th in hopes they can have more offerings.  That said, I'm reserving Fine Cut beause it looks like Benny's photos are showing many sides that she can choose.

Many many many sides and you can choose multiple appetizer if you need to.  Very accommodating and they do their best to customize!

[BennyBrun]

28 minutes ago, Cruisegoer said:

So far has not had any luck, from a sales perspective they won't even acknowledge where in the ship the quarantine cabins are located.

Perhaps you can try onboard.  I find that you catch more flies with honey!!!  They are very accommodating at guest relations but Just don’t go there expecting that they will 100% be able to do it.

[BennyBrun]

16 minutes ago, Birdnutty said:

Benny, do I remember you saying that were also cabins on Deck 6 that were part of the quarantine area?  If so, can you tell me where they are?  I'm curious as to Forward, Aft, port starboard.  I would imagine they would reserve the same rooms for each cruise, and am curious to see if the one we have booked in a few weeks might be affected. 

 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVING this review.  Thank you so much.

Thank you so much!  Yes, 6 forward is out of bounds!

[BennyBrun]

Day 5 

Cozumel Getting off the ship and into town.  We are lucky today because we are docked closer to downtown!!!  The Wonder is next to us.  The Apex is towering over the Wonder.

[countess5]

The out of bounds section sounds a lot like the naughty room where all non-qualified electrical devices go. 😂

 

Cheers!