APEX 02/26-03/05 2022 Retreat, Eastern Caribbean out of Ft Lauderdale

[graphicguy]

CARAVAN show in The Club…..quite good!

[graphicguy]

Heard  Charity on the EDGE….also excellent!

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

CARAVAN show in The Club…..quite good!

Don’t tell anybody, but that’s the best seat in The Club for watching shows IMHO. The only issue is you need to get there 30 minutes prior to showtime to get those seats! We always brought a deck of cards to past the time as we do enjoy sitting there! 😂

[RichYak]

5 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Well…..all good things must come to an end.

I thought you were going to say you finally lost some $$ in the casino 😄

[MDCruze]

Thanks for your review, GraphicGuy. I’ve been avidly following it and love the pics. We’ll be boarding today - can’t wait!
 

We we’re thinking about going to the beach in Nassau. Do you know if the mask rule applies to beach and pool areas also?
 

[graphicguy]

3 hours ago, MDCruze said:

Thanks for your review, GraphicGuy. I’ve been avidly following it and love the pics. We’ll be boarding today - can’t wait!
 

We we’re thinking about going to the beach in Nassau. Do you know if the mask rule applies to beach and pool areas also?
 

We went to Emerald Beach.  No one wearing masks there.  
 

Glad you enjoyed our trip.  We left the ship in good shape for you!  Have fun!

[graphicguy]

11 hours ago, RichYak said:

I thought you were going to say you finally lost some $$ in the casino 😄

Good week in the casino.  We played on house money all week.  That alleviated the sting of my losses on the Edge this past summer!  
 

GF was a little greedy because the slot machine next to the one she played hit on $2,600 while she was sitting at hers.

 

She still netted about $1,500 when we counted it all up.

 

I think I won a little over $2K between Hold’em Tournaments, A cash game Thursday night, and some nice runs on the craps table.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by graphicguy

[graphicguy]

12 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Don’t tell anybody, but that’s the best seat in The Club for watching shows IMHO. The only issue is you need to get there 30 minutes prior to showtime to get those seats! We always brought a deck of cards to past the time as we do enjoy sitting there! 😂

Ken…agree.  Great seats, but get there early.  Actually, all the seats, in all the venues were good…not a bad seat in the house!

[graphicguy]

Now that I’m off the ship, fill in some details.  We were in cabin 9184.  It’s an S2.  But, we would see the MAGIC CARPET pass by our balcony if we were in the cabin when it was going up or down, which was either to deck 15 or deck 5.  All other times we didn’t know we were below or above it.  Loved the cabins given it was almost dead center between Fore and Aft.

[Shadow9612]

Thanks so much!

 

Is it too early to ask when our next ride along with you  is (or should I say cruise along!) 😉

[graphicguy]

9 hours ago, Shadow9612 said:

Thanks so much!

 

Is it too early to ask when our next ride along with you  is (or should I say cruise along!) 😉

You’re kind.  You’re welcome. 

 

We’re always perusing the threads here and looking at pricing to see what can be had as a deal.  We were talking last night, and comparing what we’ve seen price wise 3 years ago to what we’re seen the last few months.  Prices are definitely down, across the board, at least for Celebrity (and probably NCL, which we also keep an eye on).  

 

I think the “secret sauce” for health protocols for all these cruise lines is now set in stone, at least for the foreseeable future.  That is, vaccines required for age appropriate guests, and negative tests to even board.  That seems to be working well.  That seems to alleviate all unnecessary risk, so that’s the way forward.

 

Masking seems to be more of a policy of the different itineraries, at least in the Caribbean.  So, the driving factor is where the ships will be docking.

 

All of that means we’re always looking because we have the requirements completed for cruising.  Will prices creep back up?  Probably eventually.  Given there were 5 ships docked in Nassau on Friday, I’d say some ports are opening up more, also.  But, although our Apex cruise still did not sail at capacity, it certainly had more passengers than last Summer’s Edge sailings.

 

I guess what I’m saying is, “we’ll see”.  The fact we’re always looking says we’re always willing.

[graphicguy]

Promised more pics and videos,  but first, while it’s fresh in my mind, want to provide a summation/review.  Not waiting until the end, so will say up front, we had a wonderful time.  There were a few head-scratching moments, but overall, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

 

We’re both pretty laid back….her more so, than me.  But, we more or less roll with the punches.  Sometimes, when I am provided with an issue that really shouldn’t be “an issue”, I get confounded.  But, overall we both are pretty positive people.  In brief, we don’t go looking for issues and look for the rainbow after every storm.

 

This was a cruise that we had to be open minded about.  I’m going to start with the “not so good” portions so I can end this on a high note.  From the get go, our itinerary changed (no San Juan, but added Nassau).  

 

Usually, the guests and crew are great.  This time?  The vast majority were great, but…..

 

This time, there were a few snafus with both.

 

Not going to replay the whole “ink stained pants” issue as I probably spent an inordinate amount of time on it to begin with.  If you missed that scintillating banter, go back a few pages.  It’s mesmerizing, I tell you.  But, the Concierge Manger, my personal Concierge, the Luminae Manager, and one other restaurant manager all got involved and fell all over themselves to rectify the issue.

 

I took one for the team….LOL!  I had people rooting me on when I explained the situation, both here and on board.  We thank you for your support!   Hopefully, as long as you’re not dressed ridiculously, no one again will be denied service in any Celebrity restaurant, again.

 

We had pre-planned and pre-paid for our excursions.  One was a morning 3 hour train ride around St Kitts.  The other was a beach excursion in St. Thomas.  Both were “messed up”.  

 

The St Kitts excursion was sold out, and they had no record of our booking it.  Ah-Ha….good thing I had a printed receipt for it.  And, I took it to the meeting place for the excursion.  After much discussion among Celebrity staff, and looks of confusion between the staff and the excursion operator, we were asked if we would be willing to take the afternoon excursion instead as they could not fit us on the a.m. event.  Again, we’re flexible.  “Sure”!  So, back to the ship to “hang” for a few hours.  Not how we planned it, but we’re flexible.

 

St Thomas excursion…..again, Celebrity had no record of it.  Again, I did have a record of it.  Not sure what happened on that one, but they ended up refunding the excursion without offering any explanation.  No worries, we ended up getting a taxi to take us to Emerald Beach, and came to pick us up afterwards.  Give it was USVI, we could use our phones to communicate.  He also took us downtown for about an hour.  Thoroughly enjoyed using the “non-Celebrity” excursion we custom fit for ourselves.  Plus, it was less expensive than using Celebrity’s.

 

Although we are not needy and don’t demand much, we do like sailing in suites, no matter the cruise line.  With prices being what they are, this has become easier in the last 6 months or so.  In this instance, the squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease.  More times than not, it seemed we were invisible to the Retreat Lounge staff.  They’d be passing by us, back and forth, talking and helping other folks in the Retreat, and just pass us by without even a nod.  I’d say every day we were in the Retreat Lounge, we got our own drinks and had to go out of our way to get a Retreat Host to help us with some of our excursion and restaurant issues. This was a first for us. 

 

Seeing the service offered to others, who seemed to demand someone know them by their name (yes, we saw a guest get upset because they weren’t addressed by their name), I suppose we were wall flowers.  No matter.  We eventually got our own drinks and had our issues ironed out (by others).

 

We love us some gelato.  While we didn’t dine in the Oceanview Buffet but once (the night we could not get into Luminae), and it was quite good.  After dinner we spotted the ice cream/gelato stand.  We both scored our preferred flavors.  It was handed to us, in our preferred cups (we kid ourselves that if we don’t get it in a cone, we’re saving calories).  When asked for spoons, the server said to go to the dining room to get them. OK!  Dining room had no spoons, not at the drink area, not at the plates area…NONE to be had anywhere.  Asked a server if we could get a couple of spoons.  They looked, but didn’t find any.  SERIOUSLY?????!!!!!!!!

 

How do you run out of spoons?  In a dining establishment, no less?

 

We set our gelatos down on the nearest table an walked away….more amused than irritated.

 

Bottom line, some things just seemed off this cruise.  Mostly details, but as they say…”the devil is in the details”.

 

Can’t recall seeing the Captain out and around the ship other than the Q&A we saw on our cabin TV.  Giuseppe, the CD, was around, but mostly it was by the pool.  We don’t need a Captain nor a CD for us to have a good time.

 

But, in stark contrast to the EDGE cruises this summer, where Capt Kate was very visible, interacting regularly with the guests, in the entertainment areas, around the Martini Bar, etc….all the while sailing the ship, it was clear to us she was in full command of every avenue of the ship.  No detail went unnoticed.  The Apex Captain (no going to butcher his name) was pretty scarce.  And, those details on the APEX were the things that went un-cared for.

 

Next….the positive….the overwhelming positive….coming up!

 

 

[graphicguy]

Forgot…this may be a negative for some, but a positive for others….WiFi was, at best dismal…at worst non-existent.  No matter when we were using it, where we were using it, in port, at sea…regardless of where we were on the ship…didn’t seem to matter.

 

It never registered on any of the Speed Tests.  I even had a repeater in my cabin…no help!

 

Pics posted here at CC took a while to post.  Posting in general was pretty time consuming.

 

Just be aware!

 

Quite different from the WiFi on the Edge.

[KKB]

Compared to the Edge last summer...yes, differences to be sure. There was NOTHING, I mean NOTHING to complain about last summer (that I can think of now).

 

 NO SPOONS??!! WHAT in the world??

 

As with you, none of these are deal breakers. We are also go with the flow people. We have even joked that had we been on that Carnival cruise stranded out in the ocean for a few days, we would STILL have had a good time--and plenty of stories to tell.

 

Regarding Captains & CDs--I remember 2. Captain Kate, of course, and a very social captain who had his MOTORCYCLE onboard! 

CDs--all good to great EXCEPT ONE. I think it was our MX Riv RCCL cruise. This CD was the most pompous jerk. He only showed up to show himself off--sing a song at karaoke, tell a joke before the show...then POOF! GONE! His poor asst was run ragged. She had to run EVERYTHING. 

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. 

Don't worry--none of this will detract from our vaca, but perhaps just remind us to go with the flow just a LITTLE bit more!

Edited March 6, 2022 by KKB

[Martini Queenie]

Wow, sorry to hear about those issues you incurred last week. I will say it was the complete opposite the two weeks we were on prior. The suites are booked so the staff is running around a lot trying to serve everyone but we never had an issue getting service from the bar in the Retreat or poolside or speaking with the Retreat Concierges in fact we thought Tajana and Denisa were absolutely fantastic seeing all the people and issues they had to resolve. 
I give you kudos for working with everyone to hopefully resolve the dress code issue in the future! We try to roll with things as well but I had a minor meltdown on the second last night of the cruise when both my dyson and flat iron blew a fuse and stopped working. Between our Retreat Host Al, Tajana and the Electricians they were able to resolve the issue in our room outlet and fix both of my devices on the last day. On a side note ladies, I would not bring my dyson back on a cruise, I think it is too much for the outlets to handle. 
Can’t wait to hear the rest of your thoughts, I know we have missed the crew on Apex this week, especially the croissants in the morning! 

[camella]

59 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Forgot…this may be a negative for some, but a positive for others….WiFi was, at best dismal…at worst non-existent.  No matter when we were using it, where we were using it, in port, at sea…regardless of where we were on the ship…didn’t seem to matter.

 

It never registered on any of the Speed Tests.  I even had a repeater in my cabin…no help!

 

Pics posted here at CC took a while to post.  Posting in general was pretty time consuming.

 

Just be aware!

 

Quite different from the WiFi on the Edge.

Just got off the Apex also - we were on your cruise and also encountered several issues.  The very first day we were unable to get the premium wines we had paid for.  I don't drink hard liquor so it was really disappointing. I thought maybe it was the particular bar I was in but nope - went to the magic carpet which usually had the premium wines when we were on Apex in July and for the transatlantic and was told very rudely I might add that this is a caribbean cruise we don't have premium wines.  Um say what?  Then on the second day they ran out of pina colada mix!  (hubby drinks those)  How do you run out of pina colada mix on a caribbean cruise?  Then we had made arrangements (or so we thought) to take a suitcase off at St Kitts because our daughter is there going to vet school and that was a fiasco.  The arrangements were made for St Thomas and not St Kitts so we wasted our precious time on the island waiting for clearance to take the suitcase off.  It was eventually granted but annoying to have to wait when we had tried to avoid wasting time.  Ate in the Steakhouse and they added on an additional tip that we did not sign for and the other was the internet was dismal at best and since we are elite plus they give you the free 240 minutes of the high speed but they made you use that first before you get your free regular wifi that was part of the perks.  When we sailed before on Apex we were able to switch back and forth so that when we needed the high speed we would switch to our elite plus minutes and then make a phone call and switch back.  I felt like they just weren't prepared for this cruise like they were before.

[Tyler414]

Reading some of these post cruise comments, l’m wondering if they moved their top staff onto Beyond already?  Cruise lines typically have the “best of the best” on their flagship, which at the moment is Apex.  With Beyond doing sea trials currently, and hearing about some of these issues, leads me to think this is the case. ??

[RichYak]

15 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

l’m wondering if they moved their top staff onto Beyond already

...along with all the spoons, premium wines, and internet bandwidth 😄

[Ipeeinthepools]

35 minutes ago, RichYak said:

...along with all the spoons, premium wines, and internet bandwidth 😄

and Pina Colada mix. 😉

[graphicguy]

I didn’t want this to come off as totally negative.  I guess it did, as I re-read the posts.  I don’t want to lose site of the fact it was a great cruise.  Not up to the standards Celebrity sets?  No doubt.  Not a bad cruise, though.

 

While I gather my thoughts on the overwhelming positive parts, here are some interesting vids that just could not be posted previously.  This one from our Balcony……….

[graphicguy]

While I do agree that it seemed some of the crew were not as polished as what I experienced on the EDGE, I don’t know that they were the “lesser” of Celebrity crews.  There were some outstanding crew members.  Diana, my personal Concierge, was one of them.  There was nothing she did not take care of me that I requested.  This will sound like another negative, but I pack light.  As such, I get laundry done about ½ way through the cruise.  Along with my “ink pants”, I had some shorts and shirts laundered.  

 

The laundry lost one of my pair of shorts and returned to me someone else’s shirt.  Was it a tragedy?  No!  But, it meant I would be wearing shorts more days than anticipated.  What did Diana do?  She had the charges from the laundry removed.  Plus, she found my missing shorts (with as much laundry as is done on a daily basis, no mean feat).  And, instead of making me wait 24 hours to get my laundry returned, she had everything returned clean and fresh in 12 hours.  How she did, what she did, I can’t explain.  But, she was excellent at it.

 

That said, there were others who just seemed to be in a state of not knowing what to do next.  So, perhaps more senior staff did indeed go to “BEYOND”.  Have no proof of that, though.

[graphicguy]

Interrupt the rest of the review for a moment, I noticed the craziest things in the Retreat Lounge.  I noticed it on the EDGE, also.

 

Some people bend the ear of the wait staff and Concierge hosts about personal problems.  I am sure the crew is trained to be intent listeners, but some of the things I heard were about subjects I’d never discuss with anyone but my family, my physician and/or my psychiatrist.  I can’t imagine Cousin Joe’s drug addictions would be of any interest to a Concierge.  Or, your specific routine in taking care of the surgery bandages.  Or, how much of a PITA your husband is all the time.  Really?  You think that’s appropriate to bend a Concierge’s ear for any of those topics for an hour or so?

 

Maybe I’m in the minority on any of that, though.

 

I request the Concierge to help me make dinner arrangements, help with billing snafus, resolve excursion issues, etc.  Personal stuff?  No way!

[graphicguy]

Here’s the positives about this cruise (and there are many)…..

 

THE SHIP

 

Beautiful…It’s the newest Celebrity ship now sailing regularly.  As such, its sparkly clean, and even smells that way.  Given its “E” class legacy (the 2nd of the EDGE class ships), it’s nearly identical to the EDGE.  The layout is the same.  The cabins (at least the ones I saw) are the same. The public spaces are the same, except for some minor reshuffling.  For example, the EDGE has Tiffany’s.  The APEX has Mont Blanc in that same space.  The iLounge area on the EDGE is the PHOTO area on the APEX.  ILounge was moved down a deck.  Speaking of iLounge, they are finally starting to get rid of their old stock.  They had 1 Apple Watch (albeit it was a 5).  The only iPads they had were the older 10.7” versions.  They had NO M1 MacBooks, just the old Intel variety, and it looked like they had less than 5 of those. Even Apple Accessories were looking sparse.

 

The Art work and sculptures are different….particularly in the funky hall way to EDEN.  Everything else is the same between the EDGE and APEX.  There were NO wholesale changes between the two. 

 

That’s a good thing.

 

CLEANLINESS was very apparent.  I can’t even recall a piece of lint on the floor….ANYWHERE!  Even the public restrooms had a FULL TIME attendant.  The wash sinks never had any splash anywhere.  And, at least in the ones I went to, the attendant was constantly mopping the floors.  I have never seen cleaner restrooms, anywhere….including my home, which the GF is fastidious about.

 

CABIN

It was an S2.  I was upgraded (no charge) from an S3.  Beautiful with the bed facing the windows overlooking the balcony.  And, the bathroom overlooking the balcony also.  Nice showering while looking out to sea.  Kind of interesting, because the S3s have the beds pointing towards a wall and usually along the Magic Carpet track.  Per the video above, our cabin wasn’t exactly on the MAgic Carpet Track (slightly to the side), but we could see the Magic Carpet move up and down as it passed our balcony.  Not in any way an issue.  Matter of fact, we found it entertaining.  Plus, it never interfered with our view up, down or out to sea.  Our Cabin attendant could not have been any better. She got to know our schedule (such as it was).  She magically knew when we went to breakfast, or any other meals.  She magically seemed to know when we were napping (ahem).  In short, we were never bothered or interrupted by her, but always had a clean, well kept cabin, while rarely seeing our steward.

FOOD

This is always where Celebrity shines.  Let’s clear up something about Luminae.  Some will find the food not to their liking.  We aren’t a part of those folks.  But, they do offer some things that are more adventurous (like SQUABB, for example).  If your palate is not a little adventurous, you’ll probably want to order the more standard fare, which they also serve.  

 

Did not eat at any of the MDRs this go round.  But, the most surprising was the meals (2X) we had at BLU.  Both were worthy of any of the specialty restaurants and we preferred it over Luminae.

 

Plus, the one dinner we had in the OCEANVIEW CAFE was quite good.  Matter of fact, the GF had a ribeye cooked to order.  It was on the smaller side, but quite tasty and cooked to perfection.  I had a grilled chicken breast, and it was moist, charred nicely and very flavorful (which is hard to do with chicken).

 

We were “given” a dinner gratis at the Rooftop Garden Grill.  It was in a perfect spot and the weather was wonderful.  It’s outside and you can actually see the kitchen preparing your meal.  Plus, there was a very good duo performing during our meal.  It’s a fixed menus that covered something for everyone.  Apps, fis, steak, veggies, desert, etc.  If there is one complaint, it was a LOT OF FOOD.  We were only able to eat probably ½ of what they served.  Still, a very enjoyable experience.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

Hit on this throughout the posts here.  In a word, great.  Even the entertainment we found to be the lesser of the other shows (a female magician) was still good.  The house band is led by who I think is the same person who led the EDGE house band. He and his band are excellent.  We saw the singer who was the lead for JERSEY BOYS on both Broadway and Vegas, who was outstanding.  His show had many Frankie Valli tunes but he also had some of those 70s-80s tunes.  GF loved him.  Me? I’m more of a rocker.

 

Which brings us to the Main Theater ROCKUMENTARY.  Again, house band stood out…..from 70s Zeppelin to ‘80s-90s metal.  All of it was good.

 

There were the “mini-shows”, Caravan, Lost in Time, Trivia, etc all held in THE CLUB.  Said it before, say it again, there is not a bad seat in the house for any of these venues.

 

None of that includes the entertainers we stopped to see at EDEN every night for a nightcap, or at the Martini Bar, which seemed to be the central gathering place every night.  If you can’t find some entertainment you like, every day, the problem is not with the APEX.  It’s with YOU!

 

CASINO

…alright…we probably spent more time in the Casino than we should have.  But, we won.  So, don’t judge.  GF liked the slots.  I played mostly Hold’Em tournaments and cash game, BJ, as well as dice.  What can I say.  It’s clean.  It’s smoke free (not wanting to start a smoking debate, but I sure enjoyed it).  Dealers, pit boss, cashiers…all were friendly and accommodating.  We did have quite a bit of OBC we used in the casino.  Tried to get the GF to just shove about $500 of OBC into a machine and see if after one pull she could get a cash ticket.  She would hit and not want to jinx herself so we never really had the opportunity to see if that was possible.  In the end, she always ended up with a cashable ticket. Table games, I was given “promo” chips, which I proceeded to turn into “regular” (cash) chips.  We never had a problem finding a machine or a seat anywhere we wanted to play.

 

SAFETY

Celebrity seems to have this down pat.  Proof of negative COVID test 48 hours before boarding.  It has to be a proctored Antigen or PCR test.  They inspect it…closely.  Same for looking at an ORIGINAL vaccine card.  Must have one if you’re eligible for the vaccine.  Asked a Retreat host on embarkation whether there were any exceptions aside from age.  She said she was unaware of any credible medical, personal, or religious exemptions.  She said she had only saw two who allegedly had a religious exemption and one with a medical exemption, but neither was accepted.  I saw someone turned away at embarkation because they could not provide an original (copy only).  

 

No masks necessary for guests.  We saw probably 4-5 people wearing masks.  However, masks were required in every port (St Thomas, St Kitts, Nassau).  Saw 4-5 children under 6 on board.  But, they were rarely in any of the areas we hung out in.

 

All-in-all, I like the way Celebrity has handled this.

 

GENERAL

There were no crowds.  The ship holds 2,910 guests and about 1,800 crew.  We had 1,950 guests and about 1,400 crew.  So, it’s getting better from a percentage basis.  But, we never really waited long for an elevator.  We always found a seat in the OCEANVIEW CAFE.  We always found a good seat at the bars, restaurants, entertainment venues.  There was no “bump and grind” going through the cabin aisles.  I do think Celebrity is shifting crew around quite a bit and that reflects some of the more glaring faux pax we experienced.  But, that doesn’t account for some of what we experienced.

 

OVERALL, we certainly loved our cruise.  And, we have many good memories.  We met some wonderful people (and some people who were miserable probably before they even got to the pier).

 

In short, don’t think twice.  If you see a Celebrity Cruise you like, book it.  I doubt we’ll be seeing prices or lack of crowds as we’re seeing right now.

 

Will have some more pics I’ll post later.  Open to questions.

 

Oh yeah…..hope this was useful and or entertaining.

[PTC DAWG]

Nice review…did you enjoy the train ride in St Kitts? Do they make you mask up on the train? Etc..
 

sailing the eastern Apex iten. March 26th..

[graphicguy]

41 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Nice review…did you enjoy the train ride in St Kitts? Do they make you mask up on the train? Etc..
 

sailing the eastern Apex iten. March 26th..

Did enjoy it.  Great way to see a good portion of St Kitts, which is beautiful.  The train was an old sugar cane train that they converted to passenger use.  Tracks are pretty rickety.  As such, as old as the train cars are and the uneven terrain, it rocked back and forth quite a bit.  It had two areas as a “double decker”.  One was at the bottom and was enclosed as well as air conditioned.  The top was open air.  We preferred the top.

 

I’m sure you’ll love your cruise.  Hope to hear about your adventures.