Scottishclover

As others have said, you won’t be able to do all 3 cities in a day. We spent a week in Nice in April and did a bit of travelling around so here’s my advice. Forget Cannes and focus on Nice for a day. Bus from Villefranche drops you at the port in Nice. it takes 15 mins at most. Train stations are a wee bit further out. There’s so much to see and do and although there’s lots of tourists, it still has some authenticity. We didn’t enjoy Monaco at all - ugly buildings and designer shops. Spent an hour there and then got the bus to the delightful town of Menton near the Italian border. The 100 bus goes to Menton.If you MUST do Monaco, I would combine it with Menton or the mountain village of Eze. Eze was so beautiful but we were there early on and it was quiet. I would not like to be there when all the bus tours arrive. You can get a bus there from Monaco. Villefranche is also a pretty port for drinks/coffee. There is a great walk from there round Cap Ferat. A nice alternative if you get sick of wandering around cities on your cruise. We found Bus 100 to be pretty reliable. It’s generally busy at rush hour times as commuters use it. A tip is if you are travelling back from Monaco/ Menton to Nice/Villefranche around 4 pm , it’s best to take the train or you will be standing. Also great views from the bus as it hugs the coastline.

Agree with the above. The best trip we have ever done was a land trip to Iceland. Scenery is other worldly. We did a fjord cruise in 2016 and Norway is beautiful from the water. Added bonus you don’t need to eat out much at exorbitant prices. Norway prices were eye watering. If you were to have a week in South Iceland before this itinerary, that would be the perfect trip.

The Grand Central Hotel is a lovely hotel actually attached to Glasgow Central Station. There is a popular champagne bar inside the hotel with big windows looking onto the main station concourse. You will have a 10 min downhill walk from Buchanan bus station to the hotel if you catch the airport bus. And well you literally could not get any closer to catch your train to Greenock! The hotel is right in the heart of Glasgow with lots of eating, drinking and shopping options nearby. I would recommend taking a trip up to the West End ( the area surrounding Glasgow University). It is walkable - maybe an hour - but probably easiest is to take the subway ( yep that’s what the underground is called in Glasgow) from Buchanan Street to either Kelvinbridge or Hillhead. The university is a lovely building and the newly refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery is there too. The National Trust has a property in the centre of Glasgow called The Tenement House, which shows what it was like to live in this typical type of crowded house which you will see everywhere in Glasgow. If you visit there be sure to visit my favourite cafe in Glasgow called the “Singl-end” at the very end of Renfrew Street near the Glasgow School of Art. It has a great lunches/cake and coffee as well as some non - tacky Glasgow souvenirs. If you have anymore questions, ask away. I know Glasgow pretty well. Enjoy your couple of days there - it’s a city with personality.

Has anyone walked the path from Paleokastritsa to Lakones? We are keen hikers and thought we could do this in the morning before returning to Corfu Town in the afternoon.

If you have time, take a 20 minute train journey to Haarlem. It’s a really pretty town, almost like a mini Amsterdam with lots of independent shops and cafes and an imposing church on the main square. It’s great for an afternoon stroll to escape the crowds in Amsterdam.

Super review so far😀 I visited Toronto around 20 years ago so your photos brought back some great memories. Can’t wait to read more about your travels.

Agree with the above poster about the app. We used it a lot. We were normally asked where we planned to eat the next night. In truth it only really matters if you want one of the MDR exclusives made gluten free.

We took the bus to Osterport then train to the airport after a cruise in 2016. It worked like a dream, in fact we were at the airport much earlier than we needed to be. There was a huge line for taxis so it was a great option. We bought tickets at the kiosk. I imagine you could use an app to buy tickets nowadays. So easy to use public transport in Scandinavia.

We were on the Apex in July and my husband is gluten free after being diagnosed 10 years ago with coeliac disease. Gluten free-corner at breakfast , although he said the muffins were tasteless. The gluten- free bread is not the best. Lunch in OV was easy as everything was marked ( we had also cruised Disney and this wasn’t the case). Gluten free dessert section on lunch buffet looked impressive but you need to like mousses. Not a lot of cake/ sponges which my husband prefers. He did order a gluten free pizza, chef changed aprons and made it separately but didn’t look happy about the extra hassle😂 DH said it tasted good but wouldn’t risk it again as too much as flour in the area for cross-contamination. Ice cream is marked too but you need to be careful as cones are going around. Cafe Al Bacio - coconut macaroons/balls are a must! Occasionally there were other cakes but much to DH’s delight the coconut ones were there daily. There is gluten-free beer. It’s Daura Damm and came from Craft Social, our server went there especially to get it as we were in The Club at the time. Not sure about other venues. DH not a big drinker, occasionally a cider and there’s a few different options on board. Dinner was where the service was fantastic. We had originally booked early dining so we would have the same servers every night. However capacity was so low on our sailing you could go to any of the 4 MDRs at anytime. When you go to the desk there is a red flag against you so they know instantly about your dietary requirements. My daughters are both vegan so we were known pretty quickly!! When we returned to a MDR to eat we were automatically given the servers we had had before, which was great. First night was a bit slow but after that we pre-ordered for the next night ( even if we were going to a different MDR). If there is something you would like on the menu but it isn’t marked as gluten-free, just ask as they will try to make it without gluten. Sometimes it’s a quick fix like no croutons in soup but they were really accommodating.Desserts were either chef’s special or sorbet/ice cream. We could absolutely not have faulted the attention to detail in the MDR but not sure what it will be like on a full ship. I’m sure there’s a few options at Eden Cafe and Spa Cafe but my husband never ate there. There were no gluten free rolls at Mast Grill for a burger, which was disappointing. We didn’t eat at any speciality restaurants so can’t comment there. We went diy for all our ports ( Best of Scandinavia cruise) and let me tell you there is no problem eating gluten free ( or vegan) in that part of the world. I have always wondered how dietary restrictions are catered for if you are on a ship excursion. I hope this information helps. People who have no dietary needs have little idea how restrictive it can be. Let’s face it, food should play a big part in your holiday and not be the thing which spoils it.

@chamima if you click on the current sailing on the Apex on the App, then main dining, then the menu on Cyprus you will find the vegetarian menu. I was mistaken, you need to scroll right down to after the desserts. Maybe your cruse is too far in the future or the app is just a bit unreliable. We are sailing on the Beyond next year and the vegetarian menu is also missing. I found seeing the menus on the app beforehand really useful but tbh our servers were amazing and took time to make sure the meals worked out for us.

My daughters are vegan and I am vegetarian. We were given the vegetarian menus every night. Normally one choice was vegan. The vegetarian dishes were very reliant on cheese, mushrooms and aubergine. We would have preferred more dishes with lentils/ beans for protein. We preordered for the next night ( only really necessary for vegan) and they would have made us anything we requested. One night we asked for Dahl. We were on the Apex and it was sailing at half capacity- maybe this wouldn’t have happened if the ship was full. We never had any problem eating at Oceanview Cafe - there’s lots of veggie options as well as a vegan corner. I was able to view the vegetarian menus on the app beforehand, maybe check menus on the app for other ships?? You need to scroll down, past the children's menu. Hope this helps.

There were 5 Zumba classes on our recent summer cruise on the Apex. This was led by cruise director Shawna who is a certified Zumba instructor. It was in The Club on the 4 sea days and also on a day when we didn’t port until noon. Shawna was great, lots of energy and the class was really well attended. While there are other fitness classes on board, true Zumba, instructors have to have completed special training. As far as Shawna was aware, Celebrity doesn’t have any other activity staff who do Zumba, so really it’s the luck of the draw if you have her on board.

Thank you so much for your review of this unique itinerary. I loved that you covered the entertainment options onboard - few people do. You should try a land trip to Iceland, there are so many amazing views and landscapes, especially on the South coast. Safe trip home.

Don’t know about Silhouette, but it was available on the Apex in July. My husband ordered it one night in The Club and the bartender went to Craft Social to get it. So it may not be available in all venues. Cost was $10. Although you get many good gluten free beers now, when my husband was diagnosed many years ago this wasn’t the case so he soon became a cider drinker. He’s so used to it now that’s his drink of choice.

What a wonderful review. We just booked this same itinerary on the Beyond next year. We were swithering between this and another itinerary but your fantastic photos have confirmed that we came to the right decision. With all the detail you included, you’ve made my planning a lot easier too! Thank you.

In Reykjavik go to Valdis for ice cream. We were there in July 2020 on a land trip and it was very popular with locals. Salted liquorice is a very “local” flavour. Didn’t try it though - there was an abundance of flavours on offer.

Your photos of Greenland were stunning. The ones of the island reminded me of remote parts of the Scottish Highlands. Looking forward to the photos of Prins Christian Sund.

Review Round Up: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly The Good 1) Capacity- At around half capacity, I think we sailed on the Apex at the optimum time. There were no cutbacks due to low numbers and at times, especially in the MDRs, I’d go as far as to say the service was over-attentive. 2) Crew- Just fantastic. Special shout out to the cleaners in particular, who never get the recognition they deserved. We witnessed them hoovering the underside of the stairs( I mean, come on!) and DD1 said one jumped in the lift with her to clean a single finger mark she had spotted, just as the doors were closing. Everywhere was spotless and there were even times you could hardly go to the toilet in peace, without an industrious cleaner joining you in the public bathrooms! 3) Entertainment - I can only compare with Disney but the entertainment exceeded my expectations. Most guest entertainers got standing ovations and the three big production shows, as well as Caravan and some of the shows in Eden were great. 4) Food - It would be very difficult for us to get the variety of vegan and gluten - free food that we got on Apex, anywhere on land. I know because we have tried and it is not easy. Even in major cities, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack. In truth, we would need to go to a specialist vegan hotel. It was just so easy on the ship and meant I finally got a lovely break from the kitchen sink 😀 5) Ports - For anyone not sure about a Baltic Itinerary, I’d say go for it. A land trip in Scandinavia can work out very expensive so cruising is a value for money way to visit this beautiful part of the world. The Bad You may have guessed this already but we are pretty easy to please. We laughed every night when asked at dinner, “What is your water preference?” If you’re Scottish, there is only ever one answer to that and it’s “from the tap!!” Maybe if we had cruised more, we might be a little more picky but really we had absolutely no major complaints. Perhaps only one, very minor gripe. Being a planner, I would have liked a bit more info about where we were docking in advance. In Riga, Stockholm and Copenhagen I had looked at transport options from the other docks. It wasn’t until I looked at the app, I realised I had boobed. So that’s one thing to be aware of if you go this itinerary. The Ugly The only thing ugly about this cruise was the 3 and a half hours it took to get through security at Schipol Airport on our way home! Oh and the terrible, but typical, Scottish weather when we returned. It put a real spanner in the works trying to get all the holiday washing hung out on the line. So really nothing Celebrity Cruises had any control over. So our first cruise on Celebrity was hailed a success by DH and the DDs. So much so that we have 2 more booked. Next summer, we go to Italy, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro on The Beyond and then we are doing Best of Southern Japan in Easter 2024. I suspect after that, DH and I may start cruising a bit more on our own, but we have the girls to put through university first. Thanks to all who read and commented - I appreciated it very much and maybe one day our paths might cross somewhere out on the ocean waves. Cheers!

Enjoying your live report Ken. We are just off our first Celebrity cruise,Apex to the Baltic, and also enjoyed the game shows each night with our teens. Great that you’re including some of the entertainment options. We would love to do this itinerary but there are quite a lot of sea days - is there enough to do, especially when the weather isn’t great?

Thanks for taking the time to do a live report. Loving your photos. We are doing a similar cruise next summer on the Beyond. Did you find the temperatures to be really prohibiting?

Actually, we must have been on the same bus back to the ship from Hammershus. Small world! We were the couple waiting for the bus with the two teen girls. There was another couple travelling back to the ship too, if I remember. I think it’s great when people are adventurous enough to use the public transport and explore independently. We also enjoyed the ruins and would have loved longer to explore and hike on the paths down by the water. However, we weren’t brave enough to wait for the very last bus back. How lovely you got to spend time with your daughter in those fantastic ports. I hope to round off the review at the weekend before school starts up again on Monday. So glad you’re enjoying it.

Thanks Mimiya11 for your input. Glad you agree on the peanut butter. My girls are peanut butter snobs, will only eat one brand and normally cover it with an array of nonsense, e.g . Hemp/ chia/ flax seeds. It also gets added to porridge in our house. Let’s just say it was the one thing on the cruise they had to “put of with.” Will have to agree to disagree on the Abba night sing-a-long. Just couldn’t bring myself to do it ( but I was definitely in the minority).

Really enjoying your posts so far. I love your photos of Halifax. You have a good eye and always photograph a nice variety of local life. Just off the Apex, my first Celebrity cruise, and when faced with the choice of cakes at Cafe al Bacio, I went with the lemon tart on your recommendation😋Thanks for the tip!

We just cruised from Amsterdam. There were a few porters outside dealing with a taxi when we arrived, but we pulled our luggage inside the terminal and popped it on the luggage belt ourselves. Others did this too. We had already lugged our luggage from Centraal Station so there was not much point in a porter. If you do feel the need to tip when you are in the Netherlands you should tip in Euros not dollars.

I’m glad you are enjoying it. Copenhagen is such a child friendly city- lots to do. It was the first city break we ever attempted with our girls. The National Museum had a special children's section where they could dress up. On Djurgarden in Stockholm there’s so many museums suitable for children - Junibacken and Skansen are a couple which spring to mind. Our two also still enjoy looking for “foreign sweeties” in supermarkets, which is how we discovered the infamous Plopp. I’m sure you will have a great time on the cruise, when it comes around.