love2crews.

We love a good photo opportunity! We'll have to add this to our list. 🙂

Going a little out of order as we just had a medical evacuation via helicopter. So scary to see it in real life. It was a very well executed maneuver and was relatively quick. From what we could see, the person did look conscious/alert. The person in the orange suit gave a tap to the person on the stretcher prior to hoisting them up into the helicopter and the person nodded like they were ready to be lifted. I hope they are ok and they recover quickly. Closest land is Denmark so this is a Danish helicopter.

Room service took a while but finally came. I forgot to time exactly how long to share here. I'm learning, lol. The plate was clearly sitting there for quite some time. Maybe under a heat lamp? The tomato, onion, and lettuce are literally dehydrated. Trying to figure out why it was so hard to place the order and why it was so old. Don't think they're short staffed as our butler told us we're at 1300 out of 3000 capacity. Definitely plan on giving the club sandwich another chance.

Thank you! Yes, it's definitely taking a lot of time. I'm sure it will be easier as I post more. I found it's easier for me to break into smaller posts. I type the post on my computer, post it, open cruise critic on my phone, edit the post and insert the photos,

I heard about that sale! Kind of jealous we just missed the chance to cancel and rebook to get better pricing. We only have one excursion booked through the cruise line and that's when we visit Warnemunde.

Well...accidentally butt dialed room service and now waiting on a club sandwich. My diet will restart tomorrow. Oh well. Took over 6 calls to order the sandwich. Kept getting disconnected and called back only to speak to the same man who kept acting like he didn't know my order and that he didn't just disconnect me. Quite humorous and with our lack of sleep, we are in delirium. My sister and I are in hysterics as we type this! This better be a good club sandwich! I've heard good things about it from the Traveling Gamblers' videos. Looking forward to trying it as I'm a big club sandwich fan. Let's just hope the sandwich shows up!!

Tomorrow I'll be posting about our hotel and boarding day experiences. Logging off for the night. 💤 Thanks to everyone following along with us! 😃

For the final activity of the day, we caught a canal cruise at our hotel, the Pulitzer, on "The Tourist." This is an absolutely beautiful boat and is also a part of history. Our captain, Niells, explained how Winston Churchill rode The Tourist when World War II ended. Such a remarkable experience to be on the boat and cruise through the canals. We chose a 9pm start time because sunset is around 9:40 here. This way, we got nice photos both in the day and at night. There weren't too many boats on the canal and Niells even let us "steer" the boat and brought along a captain's hat for photos. He also had blankets to use and drinks/snacks available for purchase. There was a toilet on board as well. The cruise was an hour and a half and ended back at our hotel at 10:30. What a way to end the day!

A quick stop to Albert Heijn to grab a few more snacks to try before the canal cruise…

After Anne Frank, we had dinner at Long Pura and tried the traditional rijsttafel, or "rice table." We went here on Steve's recommendation and really enjoyed it. We didn't have a reservation, but fortunately, they were able to seat us. We were in and out fairly quickly as we had a 9pm canal cruise to get to. It was nice having a variety of options to try and everything was delicious. Another food/experience checked off the list!

At 5:30, we went to the Anne Frank house (or as Steve informed us, her hiding place, NOT house). We opted for the introductory program which said it lasted about 30 mins. It was more like 45. I expected a video presentation, but it was actually a guy talking. We thought it was a bit long, but I'm glad we did it. Anne's original diary can only be seen if you opt for the introductory program. For those who aren't aware, the Anne Frank tickets go on sale 6 weeks in advance on Tuesdays at 10:00 Amsterdam time. They sell out in minutes, so you have to set an alarm and be quick. Photos are not allowed inside the museum once you go through the ticket scanners. You're given an audio guide and can go through the museum at your own pace. It was a very memorable experience and I'm grateful we were able to experience it.

After breakfast, we met our tour guide, Steve, in the hotel lobby for a walking tour of the city. Let me start by saying the tour was absolutely WONDERFUL and Steve is such an INCREDIBLE and knowledgable guide! We had also booked him for a few days after the cruise and I am sooo glad we did!!! Throughout the course of the day, we passed by the Anne Frank Hiding Place, strolled around the city learning history, seeing the sights found in well-known paintings, visited the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum, stopped by the floating flower market and checked off several foods from our list. We did not have reservations for any of the museums. We walked right up with Steve and he got us in, even if it was sold out for the day. 🤫 He has special passes for everything. He also got the hang of our family very quickly. When my sister was tired of all the walking, he knew to use the tram to visit the last few sights. He already had the tram cards and we didn't have to do anything other than tap in and out at each stop. The tram was not additional. He includes everything in the tour so you don't have to worry about anything and can just enjoy the city. For lunch, we stopped at Café In de Waag. We got some toasties, steak tartare, and the soup of the day: mustard soup. Lunch is not included in the tour. Here are the snacks we tried throughout the tour (again, not included, but Steve will tell you the best places to get the snacks on your must-try list): -pickled herring (Amsterdam style) -croquette from FEBO food vending machine -lavender goat cheese (from Henri Willig) -traditional dutch cheese sandwich from Sterk We still had a few things planned after our tour ended at 4:30. More to come in a separate post. For those wondering, Steve is from Private Day Tours Amsterdam. His tours are all-inclusive and you don't have to worry about anything other than food/drinks. 10/5 stars for Private Day Tours Amsterdam and Steve ⭐

It's been a crazy day and a half and we're officially onboard the Apex! Woo hoo!!!! We had a little glitch in the boarding process, but more on that later... Going to start with yesterday's itinerary and then I'll post another update about today. I still need to post hotel info as promised, too. Yesterday (Wednesday) started with a quick breakfast at our hotel's restaurant, Jansz. It had a cold buffet with meats, cheeses, bread, fruit and freshly squeezed juices. My sister would like me to add the orange juice had too much pulp for her liking, lol. It was delicious though. You get the cold stuff from the buffet and order the hot food off a menu. My sister and I each got the eggs benedict and my mom ordered the avocado toast. We also got a side of potatoes and bacon. OMG, the eggs benedict was probably the best I've ever had!!! Everyone loved their food!!!

Thank you! I’ll try this next time I post a photo dump. 🙂

Absolutely. I think you’d just wait a bit longer at customs, especially during the summer in July. We also had a little “shortcut” way to get to the customs area, but other than that not much of a difference. We will see on the way back when we leave AMS and how the service differs from arrivals.

I think it’s just the camera angle, but they were still a good size!

If anyone has tips/tricks for posting photos, I’m all ears! I made the post on my iPad and then uploaded photos from my phone. I’m going to try to figure out how to add spacing between the photos next time.

We made it to Amsterdam! We had a great flight and Schipol was super easy. I pre-arranged what they call “Meet and Assist” to have someone escort us through customs and help us collect our bags. She was waiting for us as we walked off the plane and stayed with us until we found our driver. I highly recommend this service. It also allows you to essentially bypass the customs line (you go through the same line the flight attendants go through). We arrived to our hotel around 1pm. Fortunately, our room was ready before the 3pm check-in time. I will upload hotel info and photos once we are checked out of the hotel. So stay tuned! After dropping our luggage in our room, we were in need of some fresh air from being on the plane for so long. We made the 30 minute trek to the Albert Cuyp market. We weren’t too hungry, but needed to check a few snacks off our list. We went to the original Rudi’s stroopwafel stand and opted to share the chocolate stropwafel. There was a short line, but it went quick-I’d say not more than 5 minutes. Right across from Rudi’s is a poffertjes stand and we got Nutella and banana. YUM! We also plan to try pickled herring and we looked for a licorice stand, but didn’t see one. We could have missed it though. On the walk back to our hotel, we were on the hunt for a little sandwich shop that caught my sister’s eye on our earlier walk to the market. We finally found it, but they closed at 3pm. 😞 She rerouted us to another sandwich shop with good reviews, but we passed a Joe & The Juice before we made it there…so Joe & The Juice it was! Our last stop of the day was to Albert Heijn. Contrary to what I read online, they DID accept my US credit card (VISA). They had some really nice prepared charcuterie meats and cheeses. We grabbed a couple to try and I’m currently snacking on them as I type this! The “bests de fuet” is my favorite. A little note: the streets are definitely a little wonky with some of the cobblestones and curbs (as expected in Europe), so you really need to watch your step. It’s also hard to decipher the street and crosswalk/standing areas at times. It feels like you’re standing in the middle of the street, but you’re technically standing in a standing area. It’s confusing. We almost got run over by bikes several times, too. They come out of NOWHERE! It’s also virtually impossible to take a bad photo here. The weather today was wonderful and we didn’t even need a jacket. No rain at all and sunny skies! Amsterdam sure knows how to welcome us! We’ve got a full day planned for tomorrow, so off to bed! My mom and sister are already asleep and it’s only 7pm here, lol!! We are TIRED!

I’ll have to remember that we need to get up extra early that morning, lol!

And we’re off to Amsterdam!

The original itinerary was roundtrip Amsterdam, but was changed to roundtrip Rotterdam a few months back. We decided to keep our hotel in Amsterdam and just head over to Rotterdam on the morning of the cruise. We will be sure to share our Amsterdam activities here. 🤩

Here are our ports:

Hello! Please bear with me as this is my first live thread. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading other lives and thought it’d be nice to do my own. :) It will also be a good way for us to document our trip. This will be our first sailing since the pandemic. I am traveling with my mom and sister and we have had this girls trip planned since 2020… we all know how that went. It’s also our first Celebrity cruise and first time visiting each of these ports. Our original itinerary included an overnight in St. Petersburg which has since been replaced with Visby, Sweden. We are very excited to experience the Apex and all it has to offer. We are big foodies, so feel free to chime in with any snacks or food we need to try. Expect lots of food photos! At the moment, we’re finishing up all our packing. We have a few days pre-cruise in Amsterdam as well as a few more days post-cruise. We plan to explore the nearby cities as well and have an exciting itinerary planned. Looking forward to sharing our trip with you all and thanks for following along! 🙂

@TowandaUK Do you remember if it was pending and locked (no option to modify or cancel) or were you still able to edit/retract your bid?