Ben100014

Surprised they didn't install it in FL. Interesting.

It was supposed to be installed this past weekend, so I'm not sure!

Thank you for sharing! Agree the buffet was the best we’ve had on any cruise. X food quality only seems to have improved with time. Not a single bad meal, though we were not always pleased with the selection in Luminae. Ideally, we would sail in Suites and eat at Blu for every meal. For whatever reason, the cuisine in Blu is more to our liking.

Yes, thank you-Wida AND Marcus were fantastic. I’m not sure why I got so many names wrong this cruise!

My pleasure! First formal night is the first night at sea. I am not sure about the MDR questions, though I do not think you would be able to get the same server rotating around. You are certainly allowed to rotate them all 7 nights.

Enjoying a Pina Colada (virgin) on the Retreat Sundeck as I write a little update here. Spent a relaxed day at sea yesterday chatting with some fascinating folks in the Solarium hot tub. At 27, it’s always interesting to listen to the stories of others as they share their experiences in life, past cruises, world events, and so on. Had a nice photo shoot afterwards with my family for evening chic night. My mother had a very large brain tumor removed last year which left her deaf in one ear, and forced her to re-learn how to walk, talk, and eat. She still has some lingering disabling effects from it, so we were happy she was well enough to want to take a photo shoot, and that her smile was recovered enough for her to be comfortable enough for one. We didn’t get to be seated with our wonderful waitress, Wilda, at Luminae last night, although she did come to check on us which was above and beyond. The dinner last night was just OK-was discussing with other cruisers last night how we generally prefer the food in Blu over Luminae. Don’t get me wrong, Luminae is wonderful, but the food seems, I don’t know, a bit gaudy for my taste? Maybe it’s just me. The entertainment was fun last night (Tree of Life). Can’t get over how amazing the theater is. My parents went on the backstage tour and said the large LED screen cost over $15 million. Truly a spectacle. Today, just chilling on the ship, and likely will be tomorrow as well for Cozumel. Had a great workout in the gym (best gym at sea IMHO, save for maybe Virgin from what I hear). Also had a light lunch at the aqua spa cafe but probably blowing it with this pina colada LOL. Oh well, it’s vacation! Trying Le Petite Chef tonight, so we’ll see how that is! (also want to issue a correction-our wonderful butler’s name is Dean, not Gene!) -Ben vegging in Belize City

Eden WAS amazing! Truly a gem and definitely worth a specialty dining package for that. I didn’t see his luggage was lost; that’s definitely a real issue, but hardly the entire fault of the ship. I suspect that’s what probably soured his attitude.

Can’t say I’ll have any opinion of the mains other than the buffet, as we’ll primarily be eating at Luminae/Specialty dining, but I shall provide feedback if able!

Hi all, I’m going to write and contribute to this as I get the energy to, so bear with me. I was reading on the Captain’s Club Facebook page a very controversial post by someone who is on the ship presently ALREADY saying it was the worst cruise they had ever been on-5 hours in. I’m not that quick to jump to final judgment, but here is what I will say-are we on the same ship? Embarkation, as always, was smooth for The Retreat, as X has this down to a science at this point. 15 minutes from pier to ship, with a stop in the lounge for some food. (we hadn’t eaten all day) Luminae Lunch, although slow because of the embarkation day rush, was good. Dinner was incredible, with one of the best waiters we’ve had on any line. Our Butler, Gene, has always been visible thus far and active in accommodating us. The concierge team was excellent and prompt in addressing all matters we had upon boarding. The service in general, as expected from X, is phenomenal. And this ship-let me tell you as someone who has never been on an Edge-class-WOW. X has outdone themselves, this truly is a floating work of art and very well thought out. The food has been absolutely incredible so far-superior to the Silversea cruise we were on in August, and better than anything we’ve had on NCL, RCL, and so far, other X cruises. We ate at Eden tonight and WOW-what an unexpected surprise. We didn’t know what to expect, but it ended up being excellent service and food, although our eyes ended up being bigger than our stomachs! The theater entertainment is TBD, but the singer last night was amazing, and Shawna is always a hoot as CD. Hope to keep you updated! Please post with any questions you may have. -Ben sailing from Key West

Gotcha, thanks!

Hi all, Not sure if anyone else noticed or posted about this beforehand, and if that is the case I apologize. I’m on the Apex in a Sky Suite now, and the Retreat Hosts are once again referred to as Butlers instead of Hosts. Does anyone know long this has been the case for?

Thanks for the reply. It was originally scheduled for Nov 12, and I saw Edge and Eclipse both got their upgrades on time, so I thought maybe Apex would too. Hopefully soon!

Hi there! Thanks for sharing! Do you know if Starlink is active on the sailing yet, or when it may go live?

I see that the Edge and Eclipse both got outfitted with Starlink on their originally scheduled dates. Apex was originally supposed to get it as of 11/12; can anyone confirm if this is the case? TIA!

Hi there, Who did you email to receive this information? Thanks!

Interesting, I guess this would at least somewhat be consistent with the original Starlink rollout schedule that was floating around here last month that showed the Edge getting Starlink on the 11th. Does that also mean the Apex got upgraded today as it was originally scheduled, I wonder?

Thanks so much for asking! Enjoy your cruise!

Hi all, My family and I are staying in a Sky Suite on Nov 26 onboard the Apex. Recently, my brother indicated at the last minute that he wanted to join us onboard. We're going to try to get him a spot inside our suite, but our TA is telling us that doing so will be prohibitively expensive for some reason. We're going to speak with him in a few hours to get clarification, but in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible to book my brother in an inside or balcony room, and then pay extra to get him access inside the Retreat with us. I thought I remembered seeing that this was explicitly not possible, but couldn't find a specific post on it. That said, does anyone have experience with a situation like this? Thanks so much!

Kinda a bummer it was supposed to be live on Apex 11/12 and now it’s pushed to 12/3 after my cruise ends.

For sure. I'm not certain how they're really going to readjust the pricing. I was able to access just about anything on the basic plan onboard EQ this past November, it was just very slow to use. Wifi calling worked fine as I used it to call other members of my party.

I suspect this as well. It's far too of a gap between that and the other ships, and there's no logistical hurdle I see that could warrant this big of a lapse. Seems we will be saying goodbye to Infinity soon. My guess is they will be transferring it to another line, which would line up with holding off on a Starlink upgrade until the drydock is complete for that refit.

This is true, they could just block the 'ports' for certain services, as some airlines do to prevent high bandwidth services such as Zoom or YouTube from being used. I don't think they would go this route, however, as it is easier to just throttle the overall speeds.

Great find! I wonder why Infinity isn't scheduled to get it until Jan. 2024.

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone recently on the Apex or 'in the know' might have heard when Apex is scheduled to get Starlink internet service installed? I know it is supposed to be getting it before the end of the year, and I am on a late November sailing for it. TIA!

I’ll say this with respect to the discussion as I think it’s fairly obvious that the line caters to a certain clientele-if you don’t want to follow the dress code, there are plenty of other fine lines that will cater to your preferences. My folks and I went to Atlantide last night for informal night, and my dad and I were asked to wear jackets, despite us wearing nice collared shirts and slacks. We didn’t really care to do this so we were directed to-and welcome to eat in Indochine. As for additional updates, everything has been wonderful. The food, for the most part, has been excellent. A few misses, but overall, the quality and preparation are good. Service is excellent-by far the best we’ve had on a cruise. All staff members from the CD on down to the waiters make an effort to learn your name and preferences. I suppose this is a benefit of small ship sailing! A few oddities-my mom can’t stand cilantro and requested it not be added to her meal that was served last night. However, we were told by the waiter that 24 hour notice was required for special requests? Kind of silly you need to put in advanced notice for a small omission of an ingredient. There was an issue a few nights ago where I did not receive the side order I had made and my steak was virtually raw, but this was promptly corrected. The time to receive food is a bit on the longer side. Each meal has taken at least an hour and a half from start to finish. The pizza restaurant was good, but not really worth the wait, in our opinion. The grill looked far more enticing and that is what we will be trying for lunch today. -Ben, whale watching in Juneau