Apex Christmas Cruise, 12/23-12/30, not-live review

[Rika1]

I was going to post live throughout the cruise, but the ship's internet had other ideas, so this will be more of a summary (albeit a long one). For some context, we are long-time Celebrity cruisers in our 60s (me) and 70s (DH). We don't drink much and are fairly quiet in our pursuits on board and off. This was our first cruise since January, 2019.

 

Executive summary: We had a good time despite a very crowded ship and less than ideal weather. The Retreat absolutely rocks!

 

Arrival: We left home a day before the cruise started; we always do that, but it was especially important this time because of the major winter storm working its way across the country. We were about an hour late arriving at FLL, and were astonished by the number of major flight delays that showed up on the arrivals board (mostly on Southwest, which was a harbinger of things to come).

Check-in on the ship the next day was a breeze. They have a special check-in area for The Retreat, where they escort you to comfortable chairs before asking you a few basic questions, pointing out the service area (coffee, tea, soda, fruit, pastries), and inviting you to go to the ship whenever you're ready.

 

The ship:

The ship was very crowded because of the holiday; we heard estimates of anywhere from 500-700 kids on board (I assume that included teens, and we saw a lot more teens than younger kids on board). There were also many more young adults than we usually see on Celebrity, cruising with their families. The staff mentioned a few times how full the ship was, and you could really feel it. The weather made that worse, as our first few days were cold and/or rainy so the outdoor spaces weren't getting much use. In fact, I heard that they eventually opened up the Solarium to families because otherwise the kids had nowhere to swim. 

We've sailed on most of the Millennium- and Solstice-class ships, but this was our first time on Edge class. We found the Grand Plaza to be not so grand--a disappointment compared to the Grand Foyer on other ships, and very noisy most of the time, but that was by no means a deal breaker.

 

Otherwise, we liked the ship and especially The Retreat features. We didn't get as much time on the Retreat Sundeck as we would have liked due to the weather; in fact, they were handing out blankets one afternoon when I went up and found a quiet spot out of the rain and wind. But toward the end of the trip when the weather improved, I enjoyed my time up there. In addition to loungers (with the same problems as on Deck 14, with people reserving them and then disappearing), they have comfy sofas, chairs and even rockers in various nooks and crannies, many in the shade. There's a bar with a limited lunch menu and tons of attendants available to serve drinks (or, one afternoon, to distribute little cups of pistachio ice cream).

 

The Retreat Lounge was nice as well, and we visited it during afternoon tea a little more often than we should have, and it was a popular spot for pre-dinner drinks, quieter than the Grand Plaza area.

 

By the way, we struggled at first to get into the Retreat areas--you use your SeaPass card to do so--because we weren't doing it right. Place the card against the electronic device and hold it there without moving it for a few seconds. We kept waving the card at the device instead and it doesn't work! I hope that saves someone the frustration we experienced till we finally learned the answer.

Our cabin:
We've stayed in Sky Suites on other ships (and just once in a Royal Suite that I got for a tiny upgrade fee in an amazing bit of luck). We prefer Sunset Sky Suites, but they were all taken when we booked this trip. Aside from the smaller balcony we loved our suite (11211, port side, just behind the aft elevator lobby). It was a bit of a walk to the special areas of the Retreat but we didn't mind. Plenty of storage space (with tons of hangers), and room to move around except on the balcony, which really had too much furniture for its size. 

The cabin was surprisingly quiet - they've done a good job of designing doors and drawers and such so that they close securely and don't rattle when the ship rocks. Or at least, it seemed so to us; the captain said 10-foot seas were expected one night but the ship always felt pretty stable to us. Then again, we're good at getting our sea legs and aren't really bothered by a little motion. However, I met a couple at the Chef's Table dinner who were in one of the Iconic Suites (Deck 12 above the bridge); they complained about the motion up there and in fact had asked Celebrity to move them. But nothing was available except an Edge Villa, and those are near the bow on Deck 15, so the ride wouldn't have been any smoother. (If only we'd known sooner - we would have been happy to trade with them! :-D)

The food:
We ate in Luminae every night except the Chef's Table night. We had reservations for Eden the last night but canceled them; we're going to be on the Edge next December for a longer cruise and we'll probably try some specialty restaurants then. Honestly, the food in Luminae was so good that we didn't feel the need to move, despite having a lot of leftover OBC we could have used. And our waiter and the rest of the team (kudos to Bhavit, Anish, and Ian) knew us by then and made the experience even better.

 

While the Chef's Table experience was fun (especially the Executive Chef telling us how to make risotto), the food that night was no better than what we'd been eating every night at Luminae. We did miss the quieter atmosphere at Luminae on other ships in the past; others here have mentioned that it's much louder and busier, and we noticed that too.

 

In the past, my husband had usually ordered from the MDR menu while I ordered from Luminae's menu. Although we knew that he could still do that as long as he did it the night before, he found that he didn't need to. He frequently ordered one of the "always available" appetizers (usually French onion soup or shrimp cocktail) but always found an entree that worked for him.

Also, on past cruises, my husband always wanted to go to Oceanview Cafe for breakfast and lunch, but this time I convinced him to eat at Luminae more often and he enjoyed it. This was unfortunately in part because our first breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe didn't impress him - we were there a little after 10:00 and the food was mostly cold. Also, again due to the crowded ship and the weather outside, it was usually hard to find a table. Luminae is only open for lunch on sea days, but we ate a couple of lunches off the ship and one at the Retreat Sundeck, so we really weren't in the cafe that much this trip. We also had room service breakfast a few times and it was always fine.

The Celebrity app and the Internet
This was the first time we'd cruised with an app of that sort, and I really liked it. The daily event list, the ability to move something to your calendar (and then get a reminder), and the ability to turn the lights on/off and open/close the curtains while lying in bed were all great. You could also sign up for excursions, make dinner reservations, and message other people in your party.

We had premium internet access, one device at a time for each of us. You could move it from one device to another pretty easily, which we both did. However, for the first four days or so, the Internet was practically unusable, except to use the app. I'm glad it was bundled into our fare and we weren't paying extra for it. I'm sure the crowded ship and the larger-than-usual number of younger people made it worse.

Then one morning it was noticeably better, so I went down to the iLounge and asked them about the plans for Starlink on the Apex. At first they said it would be available starting with the next cruise, but after I mentioned noting an improvement, they confessed that it had been installed the night before and they were testing it. I didn't run a speed test, but it was much better. Youtube videos would still pause periodically, and I wouldn't have wanted to try to watch a Netflix movie unless I'd downloaded it before the cruise, but I did download some Kindle books and Facebook and Instagram became usable again.

The shows and activities:
I think we're atypical in this regard; we don't enjoy the theatrical production shows. We attended one on the first Evening Chic night and it did nothing to change our minds. The tech features of the theater with its huge digital screen are impressive, and the musicians and singers were fantastic, but the acrobats and dancers just didn't impress us and it seemed repetitive and frankly boring after a while.

 

We did, though, enjoy the show the first night, with Nick ??? (forgot his last name) on the piano and the Celebrity Orchestra. We also attended Claire Maidin's show and Rockumentary, but had to leave both of them early because it was so RIDICULOUSLY loud. Mind you, we both have mild hearing loss and wear hearing aids; however, even with our hearing aids removed, the sound was painful and we couldn't stay. We tried sitting in different areas of the theater but it didn't seem to matter; the sound blasted at us no matter where we were. This was disappointing, because we are both musicians and would have enjoyed those performances at a lower decibel level. We did enjoy some music at other venues--my favorite was a Christmas Eve performance in the Retreat Lounge by a jazz singer and a guitarist whose names I didn't get.

Perhaps because the ship was so full, many of the activities seemed to take place in venues that were too small. For example, there was a "Musical Bingo" game on Christmas Day in the Grand Plaza with people sitting on the steps, on the floor, basically everywhere. And we tried to attend an Abba sing-along/dance evening event at The Club (DH loves Abba) but, again, it was crammed full of people. 

The ports:

• Key West: The temperature was in the 50s with a cold, biting wind; we got off the ship and walked around a little, but that was all.
• Belize: I was supposed to go cave tubing, but it was chilly and rainy so I decided to cancel. We had heard that the port area wasn't very nice so we stayed on board (and watched "Top Gun: Maverick" in the theater).
• Cozumel: We went to Nachi Cocom and enjoyed it, though three times in two hours we had to run for cover from major short rainstorms. Great place for people looking for a quiet day on the beach.
• Grand Cayman: We went on a ship's Stingray City/Coral Gardens snorkel excursion that, frankly, was awful due to high winds and waves, and the boat not anchoring in sufficiently shallow water at Stingray City. 

The crew:
How the crew manages to stay so friendly, helpful, and all-around wonderful, especially with the ship as full as ours was, I don't know, but they are amazing and are Celebrity's greatest asset. We ended up with almost $350 in unused OBC and signed it all over to extra tips for the crew (I hope it actually gets credited to them). Some of the little things will stay with me; for example:

• After I asked for ice for my water at dinner one night, a glass of ice automatically appeared on the table every night after that.
• When I expressed disappointment one evening that the French Onion Soup my husband was enjoying wasn't on the lunch menu in Luminae the next day, they said they'd make it for me (and they did; it was delicious).
• Up on the Retreat Deck one day, the attendant didn't just bring me a Coke Zero and a glass of ice; she insisted on opening and pouring the drink for me (and brought me a blanket).
• Rajeev, our butler, who was always cheerful and friendly, melted my heart the last evening when he asked for a good-bye hug.
  
  Summary:
  If you haven't given up on this lengthy review, thanks for making it to the end! I would probably not go on another holiday cruise due to the crowds, though had the weather been better the crowding would have been less of an issue. However, I'll probably favor Edge class ships in the future because of the Retreat Sundeck and Lounge; I know the older ships are being retrofitted to some degree but the full experience on Apex was fantastic. We have a Sunset Sky Suite on the Edge on our next cruise (New Zealand next December) and are looking forward to it.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Rika1

[Lastdance]

We also had Rajeev as on butler on our b2b/TA in Oct/Nov.  He was so much fun that we asked to have him again with our Sunset Suite.  When we were quarantined for five days, he brought us great food and was always laughing/smiling.  My nick-name for him was Xman.  Unfortunately, we are doing Beyond for a couple of cruises in Apr/May, so will cross our fingers that we get another exceptional butler that has friends all over the ship...they all were also excellent!

 

Thank you for your very balanced review; sorry about the weather and learning about holiday cruises, but glad you did have a great time. You will love New Zealand, as we hiked and drove all over South Island.  Milford Sound, along with many other places  were fantastic; the air was so clean and scenery magical.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Lastdance

[MLP12]

We are going to Nachi Cocom next week.  What did you think of the lunch that was served?  Also, were there chairs available in the shade near the pool area?  Sorry the weather was so poor the week you were on the ship.  Hopefully, ours will be better.  

[Crazy planning mom]

Glad to hear that you mostly enjoyed and that the service was great.  

[Cruising Divers]

Thank you for your detailed review! We were also on this cruise (A1 Aqua Cabin deck 10) and agree with 99% of it. The differences:

 

Our cabin drawers/furniture were all quiet but the cabin itself “creaked” quite loudly and the room itself vibrated for long periods of time and on most days. We were quite surprised by this and found it difficult to sleep through the night in multiple days for this reason and also because we found the mattress to be a bit too hard for our preference.
 

We ate at almost all of the specialty restaurants and found the food quality and taste to be the best of any cruise we’ve ever done before, very impressed! The one exception was Le Petit Chef - it was *awful*, easily the worst meal experience at sea we’ve ever had. 2 poor overworked waiters for the entire restaurant and over 2.5 hours for 4 two minute animations. Clever idea but (besides the filet) the food itself so bad that we skipped some dishes altogether and saw other guests putting their food back into their napkins, others just walked out altogether.
 

Also strongly agree about the staff - absolutely stellar!! Such a full ship and they all did amazing, really impressive crew on the Apex everywhere. Will also agree about the atrium; was shocked to see it be so small and was thinking there must be a main one somewhere else… 

 

There were many missed opportunities for X to do photos on the ship IMHO - only 1 green screen and on photographer on each side of the atrium stairs were ever available for photos (that we found) and the ship must have at least 10-15 much more extremely photogenic areas that were never available/manned. Probably not a minus for most people but we do like to have our photos done when onboard and I’m sure X could have sold a lot more packages this week especially with all of the families onboard.
 

The infinite veranda was a nice/new/different experience for us and was better than expected. Wish we had had better weather but overall I feel like the crew and the cleanliness (and constant cleaning) really made the trip quite nice. Thank you again for your review and apologies for the hijacking!

[Rika1]

5 hours ago, Cruising Divers said:

Our cabin drawers/furniture were all quiet but the cabin itself “creaked” quite loudly and the room itself vibrated for long periods of time and on most days. We were quite surprised by this and found it difficult to sleep through the night in multiple days for this reason and also because we found the mattress to be a bit too hard for our preference.

 

Sorry to hear that. We were truly surprised by how quiet our cabin was. One night I heard a bit of creaking for maybe 15 minutes; other than that, the only noise we heard was the people upstairs stomping around a bit (I'm guessing they had little ones with them).
 

5 hours ago, Cruising Divers said:

The infinite veranda was a nice/new/different experience for us and was better than expected. 

It occurred to me that given the weather we had, an IV might have been more useful than a balcony. 

[Rika1]

16 hours ago, MLP12 said:

We are going to Nachi Cocom next week.  What did you think of the lunch that was served?  Also, were there chairs available in the shade near the pool area?  

 

I was expecting a lunch buffet, but actually we ordered off a fairly broad menu (don't let the listed prices scare you; lunch is included). Our food was good--nothing extraordinary, but good (and I heard the rum punch was delicious).

I had to check my photos regarding shade by the pool, as we sat under an umbrella on the beach. It doesn't look like there are actual umbrellas by the pool, but there are lots of trees and other vegetation around so I imagine you could find shade there. (The umbrellas in the photo are in an area adjacent to the pool).

[KKB]

2 hours ago, Rika1 said:

 

I was expecting a lunch buffet, but actually we ordered off a fairly broad menu (don't let the listed prices scare you; lunch is included). Our food was good--nothing extraordinary, but good (and I heard the rum punch was delicious).

I had to check my photos regarding shade by the pool, as we sat under an umbrella on the beach. It doesn't look like there are actual umbrellas by the pool, but there are lots of trees and other vegetation around so I imagine you could find shade there. (The umbrellas in the photo are in an area adjacent to the pool).

Nachi Cochum is our MUST do every time we go to Cozumel!

[Booking It]

Great review! I agree with a lot of your points. The ship was beautiful, and it was easy to find our way around. Way more kids than I thought for a ship that really didn't seem to be designed for kids. I definitely wouldn't tell families to book this ship. 

 

But I've never felt a ship move so much. I was so seasick on Christmas day! I'm finding that my body is still swaying at random times and it's three days later. 🤣

[Rika1]

11 hours ago, Booking It said:

But I've never felt a ship move so much. I was so seasick on Christmas day! I'm finding that my body is still swaying at random times and it's three days later. 🤣

We must be lucky with good sea legs because we weren't bothered by the motion and barely even noticed it in our cabin at night. But I heard of others who were sick or at least uncomfortable (and I think especially on Christmas) so you definitely had company. 

[Texed]

Rita,

We sail on Apex January 7th and 14th.  So, thanks for the nice review.  😊

[nps001]

I double your thoughts on this cruise.   Food was great, service amazing, shows some of the best we've seen, and the officers were present everywhere.  Internet was either great or awful.   I am guessing great while testing Starlink and awful other times with all of the cloud cover.    

 

The winds were crazy.   And I did notice the ship rocking a few times but I had no issue with seasickness or sleeping at night.

[Dave Judy]

2 hours ago, Texed said:

Rita,

We sail on Apex January 7th and 14th.  So, thanks for the nice review.  😊

Texed, 

We are on the Apex on 1/28 and would love to hear from you regarding ship occupancy…

[Texed]

21 minutes ago, Dave Judy said:

Texed, 

We are on the Apex on 1/28 and would love to hear from you regarding ship occupancy…

No problem.  I would be glad to.  😊

[maggieq]

On 12/31/2022 at 12:23 PM, Rika1 said:

I was going to post live throughout the cruise, but the ship's internet had other ideas, so this will be more of a summary (albeit a long one). For some context, we are long-time Celebrity cruisers in our 60s (me) and 70s (DH). We don't drink much and are fairly quiet in our pursuits on board and off. This was our first cruise since January, 2019.

 

Executive summary: We had a good time despite a very crowded ship and less than ideal weather. The Retreat absolutely rocks!

 

Arrival: We left home a day before the cruise started; we always do that, but it was especially important this time because of the major winter storm working its way across the country. We were about an hour late arriving at FLL, and were astonished by the number of major flight delays that showed up on the arrivals board (mostly on Southwest, which was a harbinger of things to come).

Check-in on the ship the next day was a breeze. They have a special check-in area for The Retreat, where they escort you to comfortable chairs before asking you a few basic questions, pointing out the service area (coffee, tea, soda, fruit, pastries), and inviting you to go to the ship whenever you're ready.

 

The ship:

The ship was very crowded because of the holiday; we heard estimates of anywhere from 500-700 kids on board (I assume that included teens, and we saw a lot more teens than younger kids on board). There were also many more young adults than we usually see on Celebrity, cruising with their families. The staff mentioned a few times how full the ship was, and you could really feel it. The weather made that worse, as our first few days were cold and/or rainy so the outdoor spaces weren't getting much use. In fact, I heard that they eventually opened up the Solarium to families because otherwise the kids had nowhere to swim. 

We've sailed on most of the Millennium- and Solstice-class ships, but this was our first time on Edge class. We found the Grand Plaza to be not so grand--a disappointment compared to the Grand Foyer on other ships, and very noisy most of the time, but that was by no means a deal breaker.

 

Otherwise, we liked the ship and especially The Retreat features. We didn't get as much time on the Retreat Sundeck as we would have liked due to the weather; in fact, they were handing out blankets one afternoon when I went up and found a quiet spot out of the rain and wind. But toward the end of the trip when the weather improved, I enjoyed my time up there. In addition to loungers (with the same problems as on Deck 14, with people reserving them and then disappearing), they have comfy sofas, chairs and even rockers in various nooks and crannies, many in the shade. There's a bar with a limited lunch menu and tons of attendants available to serve drinks (or, one afternoon, to distribute little cups of pistachio ice cream).

 

The Retreat Lounge was nice as well, and we visited it during afternoon tea a little more often than we should have, and it was a popular spot for pre-dinner drinks, quieter than the Grand Plaza area.

 

By the way, we struggled at first to get into the Retreat areas--you use your SeaPass card to do so--because we weren't doing it right. Place the card against the electronic device and hold it there without moving it for a few seconds. We kept waving the card at the device instead and it doesn't work! I hope that saves someone the frustration we experienced till we finally learned the answer.

Our cabin:
We've stayed in Sky Suites on other ships (and just once in a Royal Suite that I got for a tiny upgrade fee in an amazing bit of luck). We prefer Sunset Sky Suites, but they were all taken when we booked this trip. Aside from the smaller balcony we loved our suite (11211, port side, just behind the aft elevator lobby). It was a bit of a walk to the special areas of the Retreat but we didn't mind. Plenty of storage space (with tons of hangers), and room to move around except on the balcony, which really had too much furniture for its size. 

The cabin was surprisingly quiet - they've done a good job of designing doors and drawers and such so that they close securely and don't rattle when the ship rocks. Or at least, it seemed so to us; the captain said 10-foot seas were expected one night but the ship always felt pretty stable to us. Then again, we're good at getting our sea legs and aren't really bothered by a little motion. However, I met a couple at the Chef's Table dinner who were in one of the Iconic Suites (Deck 12 above the bridge); they complained about the motion up there and in fact had asked Celebrity to move them. But nothing was available except an Edge Villa, and those are near the bow on Deck 15, so the ride wouldn't have been any smoother. (If only we'd known sooner - we would have been happy to trade with them! :-D)

The food:
We ate in Luminae every night except the Chef's Table night. We had reservations for Eden the last night but canceled them; we're going to be on the Edge next December for a longer cruise and we'll probably try some specialty restaurants then. Honestly, the food in Luminae was so good that we didn't feel the need to move, despite having a lot of leftover OBC we could have used. And our waiter and the rest of the team (kudos to Bhavit, Anish, and Ian) knew us by then and made the experience even better.

 

While the Chef's Table experience was fun (especially the Executive Chef telling us how to make risotto), the food that night was no better than what we'd been eating every night at Luminae. We did miss the quieter atmosphere at Luminae on other ships in the past; others here have mentioned that it's much louder and busier, and we noticed that too.

 

In the past, my husband had usually ordered from the MDR menu while I ordered from Luminae's menu. Although we knew that he could still do that as long as he did it the night before, he found that he didn't need to. He frequently ordered one of the "always available" appetizers (usually French onion soup or shrimp cocktail) but always found an entree that worked for him.

Also, on past cruises, my husband always wanted to go to Oceanview Cafe for breakfast and lunch, but this time I convinced him to eat at Luminae more often and he enjoyed it. This was unfortunately in part because our first breakfast at the Oceanview Cafe didn't impress him - we were there a little after 10:00 and the food was mostly cold. Also, again due to the crowded ship and the weather outside, it was usually hard to find a table. Luminae is only open for lunch on sea days, but we ate a couple of lunches off the ship and one at the Retreat Sundeck, so we really weren't in the cafe that much this trip. We also had room service breakfast a few times and it was always fine.

The Celebrity app and the Internet
This was the first time we'd cruised with an app of that sort, and I really liked it. The daily event list, the ability to move something to your calendar (and then get a reminder), and the ability to turn the lights on/off and open/close the curtains while lying in bed were all great. You could also sign up for excursions, make dinner reservations, and message other people in your party.

We had premium internet access, one device at a time for each of us. You could move it from one device to another pretty easily, which we both did. However, for the first four days or so, the Internet was practically unusable, except to use the app. I'm glad it was bundled into our fare and we weren't paying extra for it. I'm sure the crowded ship and the larger-than-usual number of younger people made it worse.

Then one morning it was noticeably better, so I went down to the iLounge and asked them about the plans for Starlink on the Apex. At first they said it would be available starting with the next cruise, but after I mentioned noting an improvement, they confessed that it had been installed the night before and they were testing it. I didn't run a speed test, but it was much better. Youtube videos would still pause periodically, and I wouldn't have wanted to try to watch a Netflix movie unless I'd downloaded it before the cruise, but I did download some Kindle books and Facebook and Instagram became usable again.

The shows and activities:
I think we're atypical in this regard; we don't enjoy the theatrical production shows. We attended one on the first Evening Chic night and it did nothing to change our minds. The tech features of the theater with its huge digital screen are impressive, and the musicians and singers were fantastic, but the acrobats and dancers just didn't impress us and it seemed repetitive and frankly boring after a while.

 

We did, though, enjoy the show the first night, with Nick ??? (forgot his last name) on the piano and the Celebrity Orchestra. We also attended Claire Maidin's show and Rockumentary, but had to leave both of them early because it was so RIDICULOUSLY loud. Mind you, we both have mild hearing loss and wear hearing aids; however, even with our hearing aids removed, the sound was painful and we couldn't stay. We tried sitting in different areas of the theater but it didn't seem to matter; the sound blasted at us no matter where we were. This was disappointing, because we are both musicians and would have enjoyed those performances at a lower decibel level. We did enjoy some music at other venues--my favorite was a Christmas Eve performance in the Retreat Lounge by a jazz singer and a guitarist whose names I didn't get.

Perhaps because the ship was so full, many of the activities seemed to take place in venues that were too small. For example, there was a "Musical Bingo" game on Christmas Day in the Grand Plaza with people sitting on the steps, on the floor, basically everywhere. And we tried to attend an Abba sing-along/dance evening event at The Club (DH loves Abba) but, again, it was crammed full of people. 

The ports:

• Key West: The temperature was in the 50s with a cold, biting wind; we got off the ship and walked around a little, but that was all.
• Belize: I was supposed to go cave tubing, but it was chilly and rainy so I decided to cancel. We had heard that the port area wasn't very nice so we stayed on board (and watched "Top Gun: Maverick" in the theater).
• Cozumel: We went to Nachi Cocom and enjoyed it, though three times in two hours we had to run for cover from major short rainstorms. Great place for people looking for a quiet day on the beach.
• Grand Cayman: We went on a ship's Stingray City/Coral Gardens snorkel excursion that, frankly, was awful due to high winds and waves, and the boat not anchoring in sufficiently shallow water at Stingray City. 

The crew:
How the crew manages to stay so friendly, helpful, and all-around wonderful, especially with the ship as full as ours was, I don't know, but they are amazing and are Celebrity's greatest asset. We ended up with almost $350 in unused OBC and signed it all over to extra tips for the crew (I hope it actually gets credited to them). Some of the little things will stay with me; for example:

• After I asked for ice for my water at dinner one night, a glass of ice automatically appeared on the table every night after that.
• When I expressed disappointment one evening that the French Onion Soup my husband was enjoying wasn't on the lunch menu in Luminae the next day, they said they'd make it for me (and they did; it was delicious).
• Up on the Retreat Deck one day, the attendant didn't just bring me a Coke Zero and a glass of ice; she insisted on opening and pouring the drink for me (and brought me a blanket).
• Rajeev, our butler, who was always cheerful and friendly, melted my heart the last evening when he asked for a good-bye hug.
  
  Summary:
  If you haven't given up on this lengthy review, thanks for making it to the end! I would probably not go on another holiday cruise due to the crowds, though had the weather been better the crowding would have been less of an issue. However, I'll probably favor Edge class ships in the future because of the Retreat Sundeck and Lounge; I know the older ships are being retrofitted to some degree but the full experience on Apex was fantastic. We have a Sunset Sky Suite on the Edge on our next cruise (New Zealand next December) and are looking forward to it.

How great and so kind of you to give up your obc when you could have used it for yourselves.  Again, so very kind and so nice to read 😊

[Dave_J]

Thank you for this review! We sail in the same suite 11211 in 2024. Could you confirm whether it had an outside balcony or one of the infinite veranda windows? Thanks again!