Scottishclover

Ports General Info First an explanation of the review title. Here in Scotland we use the word “baltic” when it’s cold e.g it’s Baltic in here.” We were blessed with perfect weather on our cruise, so warm and pleasant for walking about. In fact the only place that was Baltic was the Grand Plaza and the theatre. What is it with the Arctic blast air conditioning?? Turn it down a notch please! Most of the ports are a bit outside the city centres and there were shuttles everywhere apart from Copenhagen. Cost was either $10 /12 or $20 (Stockholm) . The Riga shuttle was complimentary and the only one we used as there was no other way to get out the port. We prefer walking anyway and for a family of 4 the shuttle costs would mount up. Since returning home people have asked us about our favourite ports. In truth, it’s impossible to answer as each place had its own personality and charm. Some were more scenic than others, some had more atmosphere and authenticity. In fact, we all have a different favourite in our family. Ronne, Bornholm Walk to town: 15-20 mins Coffee Prices: excessive and don’t even ask about the Vegan magnums. It was a firm no from Dad! Our highlights: Hammershus Castle Our tip: Take the public bus - you get a good idea of the island’s landscape. Either buy ticket beforehand or with cash on bus. They don’t take card and we got caught out which meant we had less time at the castle. The castle sits up on a rocky outcrop and can be seen from quite a distance. It’s an impressive sight. There was some paths we would have loved to hike in on the cliffs below but time wasn’t on our side. ☹️ Bornholm Final Thoughts: I think people on the cruise were a bit underwhelmed by this port. The town is quaint but small. We were glad we chose to giro the ruins. Would we go back? Probably not, it’s similar to the south of Sweden and we’d rather go back there. Helsinki Walk to centre: 45 mins - 1 hour Coffee prices : eye watering!! But the Finns love their coffee do we had one anyway. Our highlights: Suomenlinna Fortress and Senate Square. The cool and quirky vibe. Food Hall at basement of Stockmanns - most gorgeous food store we have ever been in. Our tip: Walk to the centre along the path by the sea. Lots of Finns enjoying the sunshine. Lots of boats, outdoor gyms, cafes, paddle courts and even a big sauna. Nice slice of local life. You can scooter back - they’re lying around everywhere. The walk from port takes you to the market at the harbour. Take the HSL public ferry to Suomenlinna - it’s cheaper than the other boats. The island has lots of history, museums, walking trails and cafes. DD2 loves a cannon! A rare photo of all of us. A couple from the ship kindly offered to take it at King’s Gate on the island. We stayed on Suomenlinna island until lunchtime and then went back to Helsinki proper and visit the main sights. I was tour guide. The verdict- definitely no tips!! Uppenski Orthodox Cathedral. Quite ornate inside with lots of icons. The Russian influence is easy to see In Helsinki. Senate Square with the Lutheran Cathedral. Later on when we visited there was a weird performance happening on the steps.The Chapel of Silence. A place where anyone of any denomination can go for peace, quiet and support. DD1 loved this building. Helsinki Final Thoughts: centre is easily walkable and it still felt local, not overrun by tourists. Helsinki is more about atmosphere than attractions. Would we go back? : Definitely! The gf and vegan emphasis on menus alone is worth a second visit.

Ashland, sometimes it must depend on timing. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, luggage was waiting and no queues at border control. It lulled us into a false sense of security and we got our comeuppance when we flew back home on Monday.

Eating Vegan and Gluten Free Ok, here’s what you need to know: 1) Fill out the special needs form before you go. 2) After you board, talk to the Maitre D. 3) Don’t be frightened to ask if particular dishes can be veganised or made gluten free. 4) Pre order for the next night. 5) Be flexible. Normandie was a favourite MDR We actually booked early dining so we would have the same server each night for ease, but the ship was so quiet you could eat in any of the four MDRs at any time. We found that when we made a repeat visit to a restaurant we got the same servers, not sure if that was the same for everyone or just for us freaks LOL. I’m sure the staff must have been dreading seeing us walk through the door. On the whole the pre ordering between the different restaurants went smoothly. We loved: - vegan corner at OV at lunch - gf desserts at OV ( sometimes not to DH’s liking but nice to be offered) - gf section at breakfast - hummus and salad selection - that everything on the buffet is marked - oat milk at Cafe al Bacio - coconut macaroons, need I say more! Well I will, tasty even if you’re not gf - the separate vegetarian menu at dinner, most things can be made vegan if you pre- order What could be better: - healthier breakfast options like nuts and seeds to put on granola - soya yoghurt at breakfast - fresh berries ( we were in Scandinavia after all, there’s berries everywhere) - better quality peanut butter - more dishes with beans and lentils for protein - gf bread Overall, the ship made our particular eating situation easy. It wasn’t too bad off the ship either. Remind me to go back to Finland- we have travelled a lot and it had by far the best gf and vegan offerings anywhere. The only food photo I have. Eating local in Denmark. This was my Smorrebrod - neither gluten free or vegan 😂 It’s not easy being the only ‘normal’ eater in the family. Now my non vegan, non gf take: We only ate in the four MDRs. For obvious reasons the steakhouse was out but I would have liked to have gone to Eden. DH’s opinion was why pay extra for something you have already paid for. I had a few standout dishes - sea bass in Cyprus and the toasted Israeli Couscous cake. I’m a dessert girl and was a little disappointed in this area. One day I had a limoncello cheesecake and I’m pretty sure they passed the bottle over the mix without opening it. I thought the selection in the buffet at lunch was excellent, much better than on Disney. I would like to see more local food though. Nobody should be eating Australian sea bass or Tilapia on a Baltic cruise. Where was the herring or cod? There was gravlax one day and a Danish buffet but to be considered sustainable, Celebrity needs to do more in this area. I know I mentioned it before but it needs done again - WHERE WERE ALL THE BERRIES? Drinks Just to add there is gf beer on board. It’s Daura Damm, DH asked for it one night in The Club and the bartender went to Craft Social to get it. That’s service for you. For anyone reading this and looking for information on ports, I’m afraid you’ll need to wait until tomorrow. I promise it will be more photos and less words!!

Fitness Something it’s very difficult to find out about on these forums for some reason. Now we are no gym bunnies by any stretch of the imagination but like to keep reasonably fit. Pro tip : go to fitness centre on the first day and pick up a schedule. Some classes are free, some have a fee e.g., Yoga, Ryde and F45 training. Also on offer this cruise were dance classes and Zumba ( led by cruise director Shawna). Most days DD1 and I got up for morning stretch at 7am. Some days it was active stretching ( otherwise known as morning burn) , some days it was passive stretching, kind of yoga stretches. The instructor was excellent. Corrected your positioning, knew when to push you and had the right amount of humour. I felt it set me up for the day. I normally walked for half an hour straight afterwards. Whoever came up with the idea of an incline on the walking/running track is a genius. DD1 also went to mindset meditation a couple of times. She enjoyed this but it was poorly attended and she felt a bit awkward I think with just 3 in class. She also went to yoga a couple of times on sea days which had a fee. At 19$ DH was not happy about it but DD1 assured him that was the going rate for a class in a yoga studio in Edinburgh. She does a lot of yoga and was happy with the quality of the class. On each of the sea days and on one day when we didn’t dock until lunch, cruise director Shawna did Zumba in the club. I normally do Zumba at home and went to every class. It was just the way Zumba should be - upbeat, sweaty and fun. There was quite a crowd. This class made my sea days and I really looked forward to it. I think it’s only offered by Shawna as she is a certified trainer so I was lucky she was on the ship. DD1 also did this a few times: The running track was never too busy. While DD1 and I were trying lots of classes, DH and DD2 were doing this: The table tennis table was the most in demand thing on the ship. Seriously, the only time it was free was before 8 am. It’s on deck 15 and went like a fair all day long. Pretty much our only complaint- get another one! I will add that the gym was really well equipped and never that busy. I never felt the need to go as we were walking on average 10 to 15 miles when in port ( yep no shuttle busses for us!)

The Apex I’m the planner and researcher when it comes to holidays and I had watched enoughYoutube videos and read enough blogs to know what was coming. The other three though had no idea what to expect. They were absolutely blown away with the ship’s decor and facilities. I know people think it’s a bit greige but honestly we loved almost everything about it. As I mentioned before, I won’t post too many photos of the ship ( there’s some amazing photographers on this forum who have done that already) but we did have a few favourite spots. The Rooftop Garden. Nice place to relax but what is with the awful Red Bull extreme sports screen? The rainbow chairs in Eden. Our DD’s ultimate spot. We loved Eden as a space to relax and read but also as a venue. Cafe al Bacio. When the server knows your order and room number by day 3, you know you have a caffeine problem! We got our money’s worth out of the classic beverage package on tea and coffee alone. Now to the nitty gritty. We had originally booked an inside ( we’re frugal Scots, remember?) but bid the lowest possible amount on an IV and got moved up and to a midship location to boot. I know there are naysayers but we loved the extra space in the IV when the bifold doors were open. We basically just used it as s bit of a dumping ground for sweaty gym gear and stinky trainers - you will be grateful there’s no photos 😂 - but it served it’s purpose. We never intended to use it as a balcony as we prefer to be out and about doing stuff. We’re not fans of air conditioning, just not used to it in Scotland as there’s no need for it, so we had the window down on the IV a lot instead. I’m sure some of you will be gobsmacked at 4 in a cabin ( I did forewarn you DH is cheap!) but it really was fine. Our girls are petit so no problem on sofa bed and trundle. However they nicknamed the sofa bed ‘the rock’ ( and not affectionately either). In fact, they took turns on it as neither of them could face sleeping on it two nights straight. For those who are interested, it’s difficult to get the drawers open when the trundle is out so we just pushed it in first thing in the morning ourselves to solve that problem. In terms of demographics we were really surprised by the range of ages on board. Lots of teens and very young children - well more than we expected. As a teacher, I don’t really want to be surrounded by lots of children on holiday but in general they were all well behaved and I think there were only 2 occasions in the 12 days when I said to DH that we would never have allowed our girls to behave like that. I think they livened the ship up a bit tbh. It was just the Goldilocks amount of children. It was school holiday season but a server in Al Bacio told us that the cruise before last there were just 2 children on board. Moral of the story, if you want to avoid children, go in term time. FYI A few of the officer’s families were on board too as it was a quiet cruise. The ship had 1100 passengers and I think capacity is 2800 so as you would expect the service was impeccable. Next cruise was going to have 2600 . Around half the passengers were American, the other half made up of mainly Mexicans , Brits, Germans and Dutch. I love people watching and found it really interesting to watch the behaviours of different nationalities. I’ll keep those thoughts to myself though😉

Thank you so much . I plan to rattle through it the next few days rather than drip feed as I’m a teacher and school starts back very soon.

Thanks but just to be clear it’s not a live review. I admire everyone who does that but I didn’t have the time or good enough WiFi! Although I’m back home, I hope I can still give some good info to interested cruisers. As we were first time Celebrity cruisers , I gleaned such a lot of useful tips from this forum which helped make our cruise go smoothly so want to payback.

Pre- Cruise Amsterdam I’m going to include a bit of detail here as most people spend a bit of time in the city pre or post cruise. We spent 3 days pre- cruise in Amsterdam. Well we stayed in Haarlem to be exact. People, if you are ever in Amsterdam get yourself on the train for a 20 min ride to this mini Amsterdam. It was an inspired choice. Full of charm, good restaurants, upscale shopping and has a more relaxed atmosphere( but just as many bikes 😱) as Amsterdam. See what I mean about the bikes? My mission pre- cruise was not to get run over. Dutch cyclists take no prisoners. De Grote Kerk in the main square. Worth a visit inside - we went in to avoid the heatwave and it was pretty impressive. We stayed in the beautiful Malts Hotel B&B who did an amazing job of catering for our dietary needs. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Fresh flowers on every table in the breakfast room and spotless ( according to DD2 who considers herself an expert due to a housekeeping Saturday job!) It was located in a historic townhouse and had very steep stairs but nothing we couldn’t handle. On Monday morning we did the obligatory covid test at a test centre in Haarlem. Spoedtest.nl have centres throughout the Netherlands and we were pleased with the service. Not going to lie - we had an anxious wait as DD1 had been at a big music festival the previous weekend and covid rates in Scotland were spiking again. With a huge sense of relief and negative test results in hand, we headed into Amsterdam for a very long day. We planned to do as much as we could and hit the Van Gogh Museum, did a Canal Tour, ate Dutch Pancakes ( Pancakes Amsterdam do vegan AND gluten free) and went to the Anne Frank Huis. It was a roaster but that didn’t really hold us back. We really put in the miles, walking everywhere. I would have loved to have visited Rijksmuseum too but sadly no time. Next visit…. The canals and surroundings were so pretty. The Rijksmuseum. I think we would need a full day to do it justice. Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. It’s always a real privilege to see famous works of art in the flesh. But who knew we’ve been pronouncing Van Gogh wrong all these years? Basically it’s like Van Hoch ( as in rhymes with the Scottish word ‘loch’ but cough up a week’s worth of phlegm as you’re saying it!!) We had an amazing day in Amsterdam but let’s just say DH’s credit card was on fire! His assessment: canal tour too expensive for what it was but Anne Frank’s House worth every penny. We went late in the evening, which was a good move as I think it could be very crowded earlier in the day. Do not miss Anne Frank’s House. You cannot help but be deeply moved by it. The day before we boarded the Apex was the heatwave day. We had planned to go to Volendam and Marken to cycle for the day but decided against it due to the extreme temperatures. Instead we spent a sweaty but enjoyable morning in Zanse Schaans in the morning and hid from the heat in shady cafes in Haarlem in the afternoon. Windmill central! Ok it was a wee bit kitschy but nice nonetheless. All your Dutch stereotypes were here: windmills, cheese, clogs. In the evening I had a birthday dinner in an Indonesian Restaurant called De Laachende Javaan. Most people have the traditional rice table but of course it wasn’t suitable for us so instead we tried out a few of the gluten free and vegan dishes. The menu was marked with allergens which is always helpful. It was a lovely end to our time in Haarlem. FYI Haarlem is a foodie’s heaven and at weekends you really need to book. Even on a Tuesday evening the restaurant was busy. Next up, our impressions of the Apex.

If you are expecting the usual with lots of photos of food, cocktails and the ship then this review is not for you. Other posters have made a much better job of photographing and reviewing this than I ever could. However, if you want to know about things that are not often covered in the forum like eating vegan and gluten free, activities on the ship, fitness classes, Celebrity for families, etc. then read on. And of course lots of details and photos of the gorgeous Baltic ports we visited on our 12 days cruise. So a little about us. We’re probably not your typical Celebrity cruisers - Scottish, In our 40s and travelling with teens, not big drinkers ( but you’re Scottish, I hear you say 😂) , not foodies ( more on that later) and very independent travellers. Why on earth do we cruise then? Well, purely for convenience. DH has coeliac disease and both DDs are vegan and so the easiest place to eat is on a cruise ship. Unless we go to airbnbs and cook ourselves ( and let’s face it, that’s not exactly a holiday), it is nigh on impossible to find restaurants that cater for gluten free and vegan. One or the other - yes, but rarely both. We discovered cruising in 2016 and have done 3 cruises before, all with Disney, to Norway, Caribbean and Alaska. While we had a fantastic time we knew we needed a change. Our girls who are 19 and 17 had grown up in the 3 years since our last cruise, the prices were eye watering for the Baltic and well, let’s face it there’s only so much Disney you can take. So after much research we decided Celebrity would be a good fit for us….. and how right we were. One last thing to know before I start this review proper is that DH is a bit cheap, ahem, I actually meant to say he enjoys getting value for money 😉. He loves nothing better than a good moan about the cost of things. Scandinavian prices - surely we’re on the wrong cruise??!! Waiting to board the short 1 hour flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. What we wouldn’t give to be back at this point in time.

Helsinki

I’ve been waiting for this 😀 Eager to read about the first leg as I would really like to do this cruise next year. We are just off our first Celebrity cruise on the Apex to the Baltic and had an amazing time - needless to say we are hooked. Looking forward to seeing what you get up to in Iceland, it’s my favourite holiday destination of all time. Hope you both have a fantastic trip.

Just back from a Baltic cruise and got a move up to an IV from an inside. We loved the IV for a few reasons: 1) Additional space - our teenage girls were with us also. It just really opened up the stateroom. We kept the bifold doors open the whole time. 2) We are not lovers of air conditioning, coming from Scotland we’re just not used to it. We had the window open all the time for fresh air however I appreciate on Caribbean cruises this wouldn’t be as practical. 3) Here’s a pro nobody has mentioned so far - it makes a great airing room for sweaty gym gear and trainers😂 We were due to have an inside before we moved up - not sure how we would have coped with this issue! I was able to wash through kit and then leave it to dry with the window open without worrying about it being blown off the balcony. As others have mentioned, it really depends on what purpose you have for the IV. We never book a balcony as normally the price difference for 4 compared to an inside is obscene and we just never sit out enough to merit it. We much prefer being out and about people watching but that is just us. I would definitely book one again - it was of more use to us than a traditional balcony.

Just back from out first cruise on Celebrity and to be honest I was slightly worried about what to wear in the evenings given all the differing opinions on this forum. My advice- wear whatever you want, whatever you feel comfortable in, really nobody cares. I have worn open toed sandals on cruises to Baltic, Norway and Alaska with no problem. Out of all these cruises, Alaska was most casual. I do find you need a cardigan/long sleeves though as the public areas can be really cold with air conditioning. Maybe we are just not used to it - funnily enough air conditioning isn’t really a thing in Scotland 😂

Hopefully things will be better by September as typical summer holiday season will be over. I imagine you will have a separate queue to check in but after that as far as I was aware, everyone was in the same boat. There was only one line to get through security as far as I could see.

Definitely get off the ship as early as you can. I would schedule a taxi. With an 11:15 flight you need to be at the airport at 07:15. Schipol advise 4 hours beforehand and I would say even that is a stretch. See the post above for our timeline. Best of luck!

Our flight was at 13.10. We left the ship at 07.45. We walked to Centraal Station and caught the train. Arrived at the airport around 09:00. Went to check in as soon as our flight was on the board. This was at 09:10 ( exactly 4 hours beforehand). Luckily our flight had a 2 hour delay or it would have been tight. Guests from our ship were not far behind us in check in and they missed their flight which was at 12:15. Regarding a wheelchair there was a special assistance area but not sure if you would be fast tracked. It was tucked away and completely obscured by the massive line. I never saw anyone getting fast tracked in the 3 and a half hours I was in the queue. To be honest because we walked I didn’t even look to see if taxis were available. If you have a morning flight, I would have one arranged as you can’t afford to waste time.

Just flew back from Schipol yesterday after our cruise. Took us 3 and a quarter hours to get through security. We arrived 4 hours before as advised and would have struggled to catch our flight had it not had a small delay. The queue to check in baggage was also long. Although I had read about the chaos, it really has to be seen to be believed. Funny thing was when we arrived there were no queues anywhere and we got our luggage really quickly. Security guards control the line, there is no skipping and no fast tracking. No exceptions for anyone. Felt sorry for those with small children and the elderly. Lots of people missed flights including some from our cruise.

We disembarked the Celebrity Apex in Amsterdam yesterday. We also had sailaway at 3.30pm due to low salinity but I got the impression that this was sprung on the captain as their was no prior notice beforehand. It did not have any impact on the return. When we woke up early yesterday morning we were already docked in Amsterdam. What might affect your flight home is the utter chaos at Schipol airport. We got there 4 hours beforehand as advised and we stood in a queue for 3 and half hours to get through security. I had read about this beforehand but it had to be seen to be believed. We were relaxed as we knew our flight had a small delay but we would have had to run if it had left on time. We left the ship at 7.45 am for a 1 pm flight. There were hundreds of people in the queue who missed flights. There is no fast tracking, any queue jumpers sent to the back of the queue (security guards patrol the line) and no exceptions - everyone needs to stand in the queue. I would not attempt a flight before 1 pm.

Thank you so much for your review. It has been fabulous. We board the Apex tomorrow, as you get off and we are so looking forward to it. My husband is coeliac and his eyes lit up when I showed him the photos of the gluten free cakes! Your information about how to get to each city centre from the port has been invaluable. I love how you give alternative means of transport - although we are not brave enough to cycle in Copenhagen! Enjoy your last day cruising.

Suggestions for further afield - jump on the train to Sweden and visit either Malmo or Lund or Ystad. Another possibility is the island of Ven in the Oresund and hire bikes but that takes a bit more organisation. You need to get a train to Landskrona and then ferry but really worth it. We based ourselves in Malmo for a week before a cruise from Copenhagen to explore the south of Sweden and loved it. Your children will love Tivoli - we have been twice and our now 19 and 17 year olds have requested it again when we visit Copenhagen in a few weeks time.

I can’t thank you enough for these photos. Assuming we dock the same place as you, the port entrance seems simple enough to reach. Considering our tour guide has picked up clients before, I see no reason why we couldn’t walk from the ship. Worst case scenario we will get the shuttle. Sorry your day has been put on hold by bad weather. I hope it improves for the rest of the cruise.

We are on the next cruise on the Apex and I only discovered last week we were docking at KS. It is not ideal. We have a private tour booked and the guide is going to pick us up outside the main KS port area ( he has done this already for other guests on RCCL ) I am a bit concerned about getting to the entrance as the port seems very industrial so would be interested if tomorrow you see anybody walking instead of getting the shuttle. Thank you so much for taking the time to report on the port location/ logistics. I really appreciate it.

You were right not to walk up to Eze. We were there in April and had planned to walk up Nietzsche’s path from Eze sur Mer to Eze. We love to hike but even we bailed and walked down instead. It was pretty steep and you really need trainers - it would be a step to far in Birkenstocks! Your photos brought back lovely memories. Really enjoying the report.

Loving your review of the ship, but loving the fashion show even more . You all look so stylish. I would love to do a Med cruise on the Beyond or Edge next year but the heat would worry me. As a fair skinned Scot I just can’t cope with it. Was it unbearably hot when you got off in the ports?