bjt3

Last October, my wife and I stayed in a royal suite on the Apex while cruising Greece. We loved the suite and would book it again in a heart beat. Being so close to Luminae was super convenient. We were in the suite right next to the restaurant(12103) and used the door that connected to the restaurant entrance at the end of the hall. We were also close to the retreat lounge and sundeck. The suite location was super quiet with no cross traffic in the hallway nor from the restaurant. We liked the split balcony concept where we could sit inside in AC in the afternoons and watch the waves roll buy or sit on the balcony in the mornings with a cup of coffee. Overhang did not bother us as it shaded our room from direct sun exposure in the heat of the day.

I suspect either is fine. We showed up at 2pm with no issues.

Random thoughts from the cruise:
 
- The Virgin Voyages App stopped working around 24 hours prior to sailing. We stayed at the Intercontinental across from the port and tried to lookup our boarding time at dinner the night before but the app failed to connect. We asked Virgin about it and they said it was expected. So we just showed up at 2pm when general boarding started with no problems.
 
- Embarkation was fairly painless. You register for the covid test while you wait in line outside. There are Virgin employees walking around outside as you line up with a QR code that takes you to the registration website. We were released in a group into the building. Once inside you check-in at the covid test desk, walk to the test location, take the test and then walk to the cruise check-in. Cruise check-in was super simple and our test results came back as we were finishing up the check-in. From there we waited a few minutes and then were allowed to board. Super quick and easy.
 
- The app and the entire IT system on board needs a lot of work, but I'm sure it will get better. Once on-board you will need to connect your devices to the ships wifi, pick a package from free to premium and then load the app. Couple of tips on getting the app to work although this is from an iPhone users perspective:
    - The ship wifi is called Marmaid4U-ScarlettLady
    - For this WiFi network, make sure you turn off Private Address support. You can find this in Settings-> WiFi -> (Press the i next to the Mermaid network)
    - If you have and ad blocker app or some other form of VPN on your phone, you must turn this off to use the app. Also make sure to turn off auto-on for the VPN.
 
- The crew wear masks, but none of the guests. We were fine with this as all crew and sailors (passengers) on-board were vaccinated and the crew is tested regularly. It was so nice to be free of masks, even for a short cruise like this. In contrast, the Celebrity Apex cruise we took in September required masks but it was not adults only and thus all on-board were not vaccinated.
 
- The food is FANTASTIC, although we were not fans of Test Kitchen. My wife and I love prix fixe menus and the expected fine dining experience, but the Test Kitchen is just trying too hard and the food doesn't reach the heights they are hoping to achieve. It was just ok, which is way below the bar. Everything else was fantastic! This includes the Galley, which was great as we are not Buffet people. Extra Virgin and Pink Agave (Italian and Mexican) restaurants were our favorites.
 
- We were in a standard balcony room. It was small but functional. Bed was fairly comfortable. There isn't a ton of storage so for cruises over 5 nights it might be an issue for some. Laundry service isn't that expensive. I think a bag of laundry was $30. The bathroom is small but also functional. I'm 6'3" and fit in the shower, but just barely. Taller sailers may have issues. The shower has a rainfall head and a wand head, which was nice. Room AC worked well. Stewards. kept the room spotless.
 
- Shows were unique, fresh for the most part fun, although I wouldn't consider them a highlight. You do realize quickly how different this cruise is though when you attend the "Never Sleep Alone" show... Just, wow...
 
- The crew was super engaged, friendly, helpful and just a ton of fun. We were able to talk to a few of the crew and they all loved working for the company. One crew member had worked for Disney before this contract, which she also loved. She said Virgin was as good as Disney to work for but with Tattoos... 🙂
 
- There is no cruise director per se. They have broken up the role of the cruise director into different personalities that is represented by a different person. Not sure I'm into it as there was no single person running the show, at least not that we could tell. 
 
- We were often not sure what came next. There is a Line Up in the app, but it didn't have everything listed and we were constantly running into things we didn't know about. I think this is expected, but its a bit disorienting when you are planning your day.
 
- The spa was great. Massages were really good.
 
- Costa Maya was Costa Maya. Been there, done that...
 
- Bimini is terrific. Food was good. Plenty of places to sit. Pools are beautiful. We highly recommend the sunset cruise if its available. Really nice way to finish the day before dinner.
 
- Disembarkation was super easy. Virgin disembarks up to 11am so no need to wake up early and chow down breakfast before you have to run off the ship. We really loved this!
 
- We will most definitely be back on a Virgin Voyages cruise. We like to travel with two other families and next year we will all be over 18, including the kids. Can't wait!
 
Hope this was helpful

We are joining you on the first leg of your B2B. We are flying over from San Francisco tomorrow afternoon, changing planes in London after a 6 hour layover (ugh) and then on to Athens.

It's amazing how arduous international travel has become in this time of Covid, but hopefully we have all of our paperwork filled out properly and the process is friction free... If you see a graying, somewhat tall guy that kind of  looks like a linebacker for the 49ers, say hi! 🙂

33 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Congratulations.  Great to hear.  I have only been in a RS on the Solstice Class, but it was an awesome experience.  Enjoy the unlimited Speciality dining.  Come back and let us know which ones you like best.  You can try them all.

My wife and I were just discussing this. Plan is to try them all!

53 minutes ago, Keddy72 said:

Really pleased for you a lovely surprise and glad the anticipation was worth it.  Have a lovely holiday and celebration, look forward to seeing your pictures and update on your experience 

Indeed! It's very nice to close on this before we leave and enhance our anticipation. I'm finding it very hard to work today. 🙂

Thank you all for your invaluable insights!

For those keeping score at home, one of our offers was just accepted this morning. Woot! We have moved up from a Sky Suite to a Royal Suite. I don't recall the exact amount but it wasn't a minimum offer and a bit of a splurge for us, but we are celebrating! 🙂

Now to finish packing!

9 minutes ago, Keddy72 said:

We got notified today of ours - successful as experienced travellers on here predicted.  We were in the same boat (no pun intended) as you, so fingers crossed yours will come through 

Awesome! Crossing our fingers and toes! 🙂 

10 minutes ago, sfitz2000 said:

I am also waiting for something to happen on Moveup, we are also on the 25th sailing and flying Heathrow to Athens on Wednesday. We booked a week ago and are bidding from inside to balcony. Only put just over minimum bid on sunset and infinite and they are both ‘pending’! To be honest we are not overly bothered if we remain in an inside cabin as we have already had a staycation cruise on Silhouette in June and I did a mini cruise on Princess in August. We ideally wanted to go to the Caribbean or Florida on this holiday but can’t get into the States and decided against the islands at this time so thought this cruise would be a good alternative. If the Moveup bid thing doesn’t work I’m going to enquire about an upgrade when we get on board. To be fair the biggest pain in the ass is all the forms I’ve had to fill in today online …….

Best of luck on your MoveUp offer! We leave SFO on Wednesday and land in the UK on Thursday morning with a long layover before we fly down to Athens. We are working through all the forms as we'll... So much paperwork...

7 minutes ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

For the current sailing, MoveUp room changes were assigned Wednesday late afternoon/evening (EST). Hopefully you'll hear around then! 

That's good information, thanks! We takeoff from SFO just after 4pm PST so maybe we will see an update before we takeoff... That would be a fun way to start the trip!

1 minute ago, CalTexCruiser said:

We are also leaving Wed for Athens, from SFO (which I assume is your departure airport given your location).

Yep. We are flying to LHR on United from SFO and then on to ATH. We live in Sunnyvale.

1 hour ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

It may be that they prioritized a bid for the Iconic suite from one of the Penthouse suite folks, over your bid even though your bid sounds like it's on the high end.

 

Perhaps you'll get the Penthouse Suite vacated by the upgrade of those folks to the Iconic suite.

 

 

That would be nice! Still no word yet and all remains the same as of 9am PST on Monday. We leave for Athens on Wednesday! We should probably start packing... 🙂 

2 hours ago, jagoffee said:

And you are still not able to change your bid (cancel or change the amount) for your pending category?  Does not seem right and is opposite of what it says in the bidding platform.  

That's correct. As of Friday, the MoveUp page is locked with no option to change our offer or even delete it... It would seem to indicate that they have accepted our offer and the Celebrity agent we spoke to indicated as much, but it still shows as Pending and our CC has not been charged and our room number remains the same. We shall see happens on Monday. 

Six days remain until we board the Apex. Cant wait!!

Thanks all for the comments.

We spoke to Celebrity on Friday and they confirmed that the "Expired" state is just telling us that they didn't accept our offer or they found a better one. Curious if this is due to someone with a higher number of loyalty points providing an offer? Our offers where nearly max on a few of the high end suites, such as the Iconic and none of them were accepted... It was kind of an obscene amount, but it's our 30th wedding anniversary so why not. 🙂 

Looks like we are still in the running for one of the rooms we placed an offer on as it is still showing as Pending. Crossing our fingers that we get it!

Brian

My wife and I are taking our first cruise with Celebrity in just over a week on the Apex out of Athens. We are more than excited to experience all that a Celebrity cruise has too offer and we cant wait to just travel for fun again! We leave for Athens in just over 5 days!!

I searched a bit for the answer to my question but I was not able to find it and I have zero doubt that the brain trust in these forums will know the answer. If this has already been asked, I apologize for the redundancy.

We submitted MoveUp requests for multiple room categories. Nearly all that were available to us... We were excited! Until this afternoon, all of our offers were "Pending", but nearly all have changed to "Expired", except one. We are also no longer able to change our offers. Is this a normal process? Should we anticipate that the remaining offer that is "Pending" will be accepted? 

Thanks for your help and for this amazing forum of cruise experts!

Brian