Nov 6 Apex B2B East-West Caribbean Cruise

[Ken the cruiser]

It's finally time once again to get ready for our next cruise. Yay!! The last time was on the Edge in a Sky Suite for a 21 day B3B in August. This time will be on a 16 day B2B on the Apex in a Sunset Veranda. Our ports of call (according to the website as of today) will be:

 

Leg 1 (Nov 4-13)

 

 

 

 

Leg 2 - Nov 13 - 20

 

 

Some pre-cruise highlights so far.

 

Cabin Selection: We were initially booked in an Aqua cabin. But, being that I like to sit on the balcony most of the time during the day (rain or shine) when we're not doing something around the ship, we decided a couple of months ago to change cabins to a Sunset Veranda and save a few $$$ in the process. We were also able to score $1,400+ in nonrefundable OBC when we submitted the Best Price Offer form a few days later when the 20% discount perk took effect, even though the SV category was sold out! Who knew!

 

Dining: When we made the SV change, we were also able to secure Anytime (Select) Dining and subsequently make 6 pm reservations in each of the 4 MDRs, twice! My DW was definitely happy about that as she has to eat early. However, about 3 days ago our Anytime Dining reservations were magically converted to Early Traditional Dining at 6 pm and we will instead be assigned to one of the four MDRs once we board. As one might imagine, we were a little upset. But, keeping a positive attitude as this 4 MDR concept is new to us anyway and we did at least get early 6 pm seating, we're just going to see how this all works out. Hopefully, we'll be able to order any of the MDR-specific entrees from our assigned MDR. And who knows, we may even be able to make isolated reservations at a few of the other MDRs during the cruise if the need arises, so stay tuned. 

 

Home COVID Antigen Tests ordered through Optum. This morning, we started my test first with a 7th generation iPad. However, it would subsequently get knocked offline (4 times in all), each time after the test monitor started talking with us. Very frustrating. We then decided to try using my iPhone as it was a newer version than my DW's. Worked like a champ and we both wound up testing negative!! Yay!! 😎

 

Now it's time to pack and get ready for our drive to Florida tomorrow to overnight in a hotel before embarkation day on Thursday!!

Edited November 2, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Want2Cruise 701]

Looking forward to reading along.  We will be on the Apex next month!

[ETHTrader]

I will be on the second leg as well. Look forward to your reporting!

[CruisinMama2003]

Im on board for my virtual cruise with you 😁 your last review was fantastic! 

 

Cheers 🍹

[parrothead33]

Can’t wait to follow along.  Have a great B2B!

[vickykay]

Looking forward to your review as we’re doing the eastern on the Apex in Jan.

[countess5]

Locked in and ready to follow.

We sailed on Edge back in September and will be sailing Apex on a B2B in February. Looking forward to seeing any differences, which I am sure will be minimal.

Thanks for sharing your adventure!

 

Cheers! 🍸

[Ken the cruiser]

We arrived at the Hyatt hotel in West Palm Beach after a very uneventful 11 hour drive from central Alabama. We picked this Hyatt over the one near the port because it was $100 cheaper and only about an hour drive to Port Everglades. 
 

Our check-in time tomorrow is 11:30 and will hopefully be just as uneventful during the final check-in process. On our last cruise on the Edge in early August, the ship didn’t arrive in port until 5:30 pm as they had to take a detour at the last minute to drop off a sick passenger at the Grand Turks Island and then had to wait 9 hours for the medical transport to come from Tampa before they could leave. 😎

 

[azbirdmom]

Looking forward to your reports.  My 95 YO MIL is on this cruise and it will be nice to know what's going on on the ship.  Have a wonderful cruise!

[Guest]

Looking forward to your review for two reasons!

1. We are on the Silhouette in February visiting similar ports- so interested to see the excursion policies in place

2. We are looking to book a Sunset Veranda on the Edge for next year! 
 

Enjoy your cruise! 

[mac_tlc]

Looking forward to following along!

 

mac_tlc

[Ken the cruiser]

Hi all, sorry you had to wait for my update, but I have a big lesson learned to tell you first.

 

A little background first. We arrived at the terminal at 11:08 and checking in went so smoothly we were in our cabin by 11:30. However, since the cabin wasn’t officially ready, we were just allowed to drop our stuff off then walk around the ship and have lunch up at the buffet before we were allowed to really settle in at 1 pm.  Our luggage arrived all intact around 2 pm.

 

Now for the big lesson learned. From the time I first created my internet account until about 9:15 pm this evening, I was using the unlimited internet account for 1 device we received with our All Included package. The problem was, besides only being allowed to perform email functions and surf “simple” websites as well as only achieving 0.43 mbps download speeds regardless if we were on our SV balcony with the door closed, in the cabin, in the theater or even the iLounge, I could not successfully log onto Cruise Critic. Why? Because it’s a multi-tiered (my words) website and logging onto boards.cruisecritic.com was just too multifaceted for what the basic AI internet package is designed to allow. 
 

It wasn’t until I went down to the iLounge at his evening after the game show in The Club, showed them my issue, that they said I needed a “streaming” internet account to access this type of complicated web site. Luckily, I just made Elite+ and am allowed 240 minutes of “streaming” internet.

Now I have two options to choose from when I log onto to my internet account, depending what I want to do - check email and surf the web or check out CC and update this thread. Yay!!  Problem solved. BTW the reason I didn’t have this issue accessing CC when we were on the Edge back in August on our B3B was because we were in a sky suite and automatically got streaming internet as part of our promotional package. 
 

I’ll post more about our upcoming cruise later on, but want to share this lesson learned with you first. 😎

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

For those interested in the latest disembarkation rules at the ports we will be visiting this leg, here’s a copy of the letter we received in our cabin today. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Talked with the CD this evening and there is around 1900 fully vaccinated passengers with no children. About 1000 more than we’re on the Edge in August! Here’s what it looked like where we sat down to eat for lunch up at the buffet. Also, just checked the download speed using my streaming login and it was 1.5 mbps, about 3 times as “fast” if you want to call it that. 
 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here are a couple of pictures of our SV cabin, both inside as well as looking out at the aft-facing balcony. 
 

 

[dkatzenbach]

Are you required to do any COVID testing prior to getting off at any of the ports?  For example, Bermuda requires testing on the cruise ship before anyone can get off.  Assuming nothing like that is required for any of the ports on this cruise?  

[Ken the cruiser]

28 minutes ago, dkatzenbach said:

Are you required to do any COVID testing prior to getting off at any of the ports?  For example, Bermuda requires testing on the cruise ship before anyone can get off.  Assuming nothing like that is required for any of the ports on this cruise?  

No. Not at all. I had read about the testing required to visit Bermuda. That was quite the process you had to go through.

[Ken the cruiser]

Last night we ate at Raw On 5 and had a great time as well as a delicious meal and only spent $50. That’s the one main thing we like about this specialty restaurant over the others. It’s a la carte and you can spend as much or as little as you want where the others average around $55 per person. Afterwards we went to the evening show in the theater which was a comedian that had us laughing from start to finish! As far as picking our goto theater seats for the duration of the cruise, we found a couple out of the way ones, which is not easy to do with 1900 others onboard. At least it wasn’t as easy as it was on the Edge when there was only 900! 😂

 

Today is a sea day. After breakfast in The Cosmopolitan, we went to a Beyond the Podium lecture about the mystery of the Romanovs from a forensics point of view and it was quite interesting and very well presented.
 

Description: The Russian Revolution ended 300 years of rule by the House of Romanov. Learn how DNA testing was used to identify Tsar Nicholas II and his family, the last of the Russian royals. Did Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov survive the execution and reappear as Anna Anderson? Join Dr. Hal Tinberg, forensics expert, for a look into this fascinating story.

Then it was back to The Cosmopolitan for lunch! We were going to stop by the Eden deli afterwards to try their chocolate desserts, as they didn’t offer any on the lunch menu. But got sidetracked by stopping by the iLounge and waiting in line for about 30 minutes to upgrade the DW’s basic internet service to streaming. By the time we finished there and got to Eden, they had just closed up. I guess we’ll just have to wait to taste their tasty chocolate desserts until tomorrow.

 

As far as differences between the Edge and Apex, there are enough to make it a unique experience from what we can tell so far. But one difference we really enjoy is they have eliminated the step down from the bathroom into the cabin! That is definitely a big plus for us!! 😎

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[swsf99a]

Great to read all your posts. We Will be on the ship Friday November 13 !  Someone posted that our  cruise is supposed to have 800 travel agents aboard!  Hope the ship is not too full!

[Ken the cruiser]

Had dinner in the Tuscan (Italian) MDR this evening. Definitely enjoyed the ambiance and the food was tasty, but I think we’ll be trying all 4 MDRs before we settle in to picking just one or two to visit on a more regular basis.

 

The evening show tonight was a violinist, who we also saw on the Edge back in August, that was quite good. But after the show we saw something we hadn’t seen yet on either the Edge or the Apex. The Magic Carpet was actually moved down to deck 5 this evening. But when we were walking by, they were just closing up. My guess is they were just offering bar service as it’s still pretty hot and humid outside.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Just noticed heading back to our cabin a little while ago that deck 6 has been sealed off. When we asked our steward about it, he said it has been designated a quarantine area for any new crew members coming onboard. Makes sense as I’ve been reading other Celebrity ships have been doing the same thing.

[vkb2751]

Thank you for a great review! If possible can you please find out how many passengers on next cruise? Thanks

[Ken the cruiser]

5 hours ago, vkb2751 said:

Thank you for a great review! If possible can you please find out how many passengers on next cruise? Thanks

Just talked with the folks at CS. There are 1850 passengers on this leg and are expecting around 1900, barring any cancellations, on the next cruise.

[Ken the cruiser]

Just thought I’d add a little tidbit comparison regarding internet connectivity on the Edge versus the Apex. If you recall I mentioned I like to sit out on the balcony during our downtimes when we’re not otherwise roaming around the ship.

 

When we were on the Edge in a S2 sky suite back in August, I had to leave the sliding door open about 4-6” in order to get internet connectivity for my iPad. I know, even with streaming. Who knew!
 

Of course on Edge class ships, the cabin AC doesn’t work when the door is ajar, so I had to periodically close it to keep the DW happy as she was inside playing her internet games. On the Apex, though, same deal regarding AC, but internet connectivity is the same both inside as well as on the balcony in our SV. This of course means the sliding door can stay closed. Another plus for the Apex!

 

 

[vkb2751]

21 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just talked with the folks at CS. There are 1850 passengers on this leg and are expecting around 1900, barring any cancellations, on the next cruise.

Thank you. Will be crowded compared to 1,000 and 850 on 2 cruises we did on Edge!