Apex Wester Caribbean - Nov 12-19 - Live

[Ben100014]

Hi there! Thanks for sharing! Do you know if Starlink is active on the sailing yet, or when it may go live?

[leyland1989]

We left about half an hour early, turns out we are sailing in tandem. 

[Ejuric]

Good evening,

 

thank you for your wonderful reviews and posting. My parents, who are in their 70s (and apparently a lot less tech savvy than I realized), are actually on the same ship as you, and have been completely and utterly unreachable. After trying multiple ways to reach them, I am worried and feeling stuck at this point. I was wondering, if out of the goodness of your heart, i could ask for your help in either asking Guest Services to reach out to them, or knocking on their door yourself. I have their room number. Here is a picture of my parents, Nada and Joe, at my sons birthday 2 weeks ago.
 

From a fellow Tri Stater,

Emily

[carolina_yankee]

55 minutes ago, Ejuric said:

Good evening,

 

thank you for your wonderful reviews and posting. My parents, who are in their 70s (and apparently a lot less tech savvy than I realized), are actually on the same ship as you, and have been completely and utterly unreachable. After trying multiple ways to reach them, I am worried and feeling stuck at this point. I was wondering, if out of the goodness of your heart, i could ask for your help in either asking Guest Services to reach out to them, or knocking on their door yourself. I have their room number. Here is a picture of my parents, Nada and Joe, at my sons birthday 2 weeks ago.
 

From a fellow Tri Stater,

Emily

 

I am fairly certain I saw your parents in the Solarium pool around 11:15 am today if your father uses a floating ring to avoid getting water in the trach. They looked very relaxed and happy. 

[carolina_yankee]

8 hours ago, Ben100014 said:

Hi there! Thanks for sharing! Do you know if Starlink is active on the sailing yet, or when it may go live?

It’s not active yet. I believe one of the other threads has the published install dates for the various ships. Premium has been ok so far, even with YouTube videos and Netflix, but there have been some shaky moments. 

[Ejuric]

Thank you so much. Yes, my dad would be (should be!) using a floating ring to avoid getting water in his trachea. What a small world that you saw them today, when you mentioned there are 2600 people! if you wouldn’t mind if you happen to see them again- please just say that you spoke to me and that i would love for them to reach out to me however they can. 

[Ejuric]

Good news! My mom reached out via cell this morning. She’s been having phone issues on ship. Thank you for your help- it really comforted me reading that you saw my parents. Have a wonderful rest of your cruise!

 

best,

Emily 

[Mrs_Tiki]

19 minutes ago, Ejuric said:

Good news! My mom reached out via cell this morning. She’s been having phone issues on ship. Thank you for your help- it really comforted me reading that you saw my parents. Have a wonderful rest of your cruise!

 

best,

Emily 

We are on this sailing and have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Carolina Yankee. If we don't cross paths, I wanted to say that this interaction is an example of the kindness of strangers that seems to have gone missing from our culture. Warms my heart!

[Ejuric]

1 minute ago, Mrs_Tiki said:

We are on this sailing and have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Carolina Yankee. If we don't cross paths, I wanted to say that this interaction is an example of the kindness of strangers that seems to have gone missing from our culture. Warms my heart!

Yes, I agree! Warms my heart too.  

And also, the beauty of technology. Had it not been for my cousin recommending that I check out this message board, I would not have gotten the chance to share the story and hopefully see if any paths had crossed with my parents!!

[leyland1989]

We are sailing in tandem again today with the Apex. It appears that we are catching up:) 

 

Is it possible that someone can snap a picture from the other side ? 

 

 

[leyland1989]

We are sailing in tandem again today with the Apex. It appears that we are catching up:) 

 

Is it possible that someone can snap a picture from the other side ? 

 

 

[boxkite]

Following along and enjoying the cruise reports.

 

Thanks!

[terrydtx]

We are booked on the Apex next September from Amsterdam and have enjoyed your review. I am curious, you said you are booked in Aqua Class, have you not tried the AQ Class exclusive Blu restaurant for any diners?

[carolina_yankee]

On 11/19/2022 at 9:08 AM, terrydtx said:

We are booked on the Apex next September from Amsterdam and have enjoyed your review. I am curious, you said you are booked in Aqua Class, have you not tried the AQ Class exclusive Blu restaurant for any diners?

Ooops - I need to go back and check what I wrote! We booked concierge class. I'll have some thoughts on whether we would do that again.

 

Blu looks truly beautiful on the Apex!!

[carolina_yankee]

On 11/17/2022 at 11:54 AM, Ejuric said:

Good news! My mom reached out via cell this morning. She’s been having phone issues on ship. Thank you for your help- it really comforted me reading that you saw my parents. Have a wonderful rest of your cruise!

 

best,

Emily 

 

I am so glad! I did keep an eye out for them but didn't see them again. The internet was really bad on one day, and we were really busy on another day so I haven't been keeping up as I wanted to. I hope your parents have wonderful memories to treasure!

 

On 11/17/2022 at 12:16 PM, Mrs_Tiki said:

We are on this sailing and have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Carolina Yankee. If we don't cross paths, I wanted to say that this interaction is an example of the kindness of strangers that seems to have gone missing from our culture. Warms my heart!

 

Thank you for your kindness, too. We didn't show up at any of the gatherings that we heard about but did keep our eyes out. I hope you had a great cruise.  Just test this morning, and five days out - still negative and no symptoms so I think we survived!

[Cruise a holic]

Thank you for sharing.  We love Mr. Sanchos in cozumel and always book it pre-cruise.  Also, we will be on the Apex end of December and the first week in January.    Is Rooftop grill covered?  We do not like direct  sun as my DH has had skin CA.  

 

We also do stay at the Riverside Hotel.  Love to walk around and window shop on Los Olas Blvd.  The choice of places to dine is wonderful.  We have stayed at many hotels in Dania Beach for a few dollars less, but Riverside is now our go to hotel.  We stay in the old section of the hotel and the rates are significantly cheaper.  

[carolina_yankee]

I can't get to my photos easily right now, and bad internet plus the pursuit of the perfect being the enemy of the good kept me from posting most of the remainder of the cruise. Anyway, let me pick up the story and I'll drop in photos later.

 

Day 6 - George Town, Grand Cayman

 

Those who have seen my posts know my gripes about the upper age limit of 70 for X's QE II Botanic Garden and Pedro St. James tour. I'm 57 - my husband is 71. We traipsed all over France in Spring, all over the Grand Canyon the previous year, up Mont St. Michel in Normandy, and on this cruise, all over Chacchoben Mayan ruins. But nope, excursion provider was unyielding on age limit due to insurance issues. 

 

So, we booked the same excursion through shoreexcursiongroup.com. I think they use the same provider as Viator - CayTours. Price was the same as X, which surprised me.  

 

For the TL;DR: the booking process was straightforward and reliable, the provider good with communication, and the sites worth the visit. The tour itself fell short of expectations.

 

For the details:

 

We had no trouble getting on the first tender calls - we were #2 and they called 1-5. (We showed up at ticket distribution about 30 minutes early and thy started handing out tickets about 15 minutes early, so I was please at how quickly everything went.)

 

We were to anchor at 10 and tendering was to begin at 10:30. Well, we were on our tender at 10:15!! Plenty of time for the 11:00 am excursion. As soon as we got on the tender, CayTours was calling us to see where we were. Uhm, 11  was the meet-up time!  So, as soon as we got to George Town, I called them - they told us where they were and to meet them a few minutes before 11, which we did.

 

I somehow threw away all my confirmation print-outs, which they required, but they let me email them my ticket pdf. So far, so good. Then they gave instructions to the driver.

 

He was quite peeved - he was told to take a group of five to 7 mile beach - the opposite direction we were headed. So he did, which chopped 30 minutes off of our time. And, oy, were they annoying! So, I chalked it up to the bonus of "getting to see more of the island."

 

Then, on the way to QE II and Pedro St. James, the driver asked when we needed to be back - turns out some had to be back for last tender at 3 pm (another ship), so our excursion was cut short. It was time for 11 am to 3 pm. Hmm. Not happy. Drive tried to make the best of it.

 

We toured QE II on our own for 45 minutes. Would have had a good 1:15 if the original schedule had been kept and could have used it, but OK - we still saw some neat things and gardens weren't at their best due to time of year (though still interesting and lovely).

 

Then we got to Pedro St. James - bonus was our tour guide was a descendent of an owner. Sad  was that we did not have enough time for the full tour and he complained mightily about it. We did get to see most of the place, though - just very rushed and no time to walk around a little on our own, which we were supposed to have.

 

Then, we got back to the pier at 2:15, instead of our original 3 pm time and with 30 minutes lopped off due to the beach drop-off detour.

 

In the end, the tour, for which we paid $100 each, was basically transportation to the two locations and entrance fees, with timing lopped off due to competing schedules and the company throwing in a beach detour at the last minute.

 

Oh, and our Pedro St. James Tour guide was 78.  Guess he wasn't too old for his job!!

 

Honestly, next time, I would look into hiring a drive to take us to those locations on our schedule, even if it cost more. It would be worth it compared to the limitations we've faced through X and CayTours.

 

In Better News - - 

Our friends took X's Stingray City and lunch tour and LOVED it. They thought it was one of the highlights of their lives - lunch not so much, but the stingrays.

 

After we got back, we cleaned up and grabbed a quick burger, though Ocean View was actually still open with a fair amount of food left available. We then had our next acupuncture session and got ready for dinner.

 

Tonight's dining was in Tuscan. Service was excellent - way better than it was in Normandie, and food was great. We had differing opinions on the Carbonara, but I saw what they did and it wasn't a problem for me - I just wouldn't have chosen the particular pasta they used. The non-carbonara people thought their meals were very, very good - lived up to X's reputation.

 

At the end of dinner, though, we decided to try for Eden again for our final night. The app had nothing available but the maitre'd got us in at 8 - perfect since we wanted to Rockumentary on our last night, too.

 

We split for tonight's entertainment - our friends went to Caravan in the Club, and we went to Charity Lockhart's second concert in the Theater, singing hits from other divas. Again, she was fantastic, and I love how she made each song her own instead of copying their styles.

 

Our fiends loved Caravan. We really wanted to see it, but missed the first night's opportunity (should have gone) and just couldn't make it work with dinner and Charity tonight. It's a good thing when X offers more quality entertainment than you can do - a far cry from their previous reputation of mediocre entertainment!

 

We were bushed and went to back to the room and to bed. Friday would be our last day and we really wanted to enjoy it while minimizing the trauma of packing.  In fact, I had already folded and prepped most of my clothing so I just had to throw the packing cubes into the suitcase. Nothing is more mournful than packing up one's stateroom after a fantastic cruise so we tried to minimize the task as much as possible.

 

Next up: Cruise stories "below decks," how to beat pirates, Rockumentary, and Eden II!

 

 

 

[carolina_yankee]

11 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Thank you for sharing.  We love Mr. Sanchos in cozumel and always book it pre-cruise.  Also, we will be on the Apex end of December and the first week in January.    Is Rooftop grill covered?  We do not like direct  sun as my DH has had skin CA.  

 

We also do stay at the Riverside Hotel.  Love to walk around and window shop on Los Olas Blvd.  The choice of places to dine is wonderful.  We have stayed at many hotels in Dania Beach for a few dollars less, but Riverside is now our go to hotel.  We stay in the old section of the hotel and the rates are significantly cheaper.  

 

We stayed at Nachi Cocum or last trip in Cozumel and just weren't feeling it this trip - we wanted a ship's day so took it. Mr. Sancho's is one we have looked at many times, too. I love those small clubs - they are so relaxing and beautiful!  With 9 ships in port, Cozumel just screamed "stay on board!" to us!

 

Rooftop Grill is covered - you are definitely outside but I don't think you would get direct sun anywhere you would sit - and particularly not in the fall/winter season since the sun sets so early. It's a lovely setting. I think most of the food is probably good to great - just don't get the burgers - they could have been more interesting than they were.

 

I think we would stay at Riverside again - the breakfast restaurant was great and the area really is cute. I used to live in Fort Lauderdale in the late '80s, so much has changed for the better and I like seeing that. In the future, we would probably plan on a 2-3 night stay before a cruise. We have friends there whom we often cruise with so we don't think about seeing FLL itself, but there really is a lot to do!

[terrydtx]

18 minutes ago, carolina_yankee said:

Those who have seen my posts know my gripes about the upper age limit of 70 for X's QE II Botanic Garden and Pedro St. James tour. I'm 57 - my husband is 71. We traipsed all over France in Spring, all over the Grand Canyon the previous year, up Mont St. Michel in Normandy, and on this cruise, all over Chacchoben Mayan ruins. But nope, excursion provider was unyielding on age limit due to insurance issues.

My wife and I are both 72 and very very active and in excellent health, and the age restrictions by ship sponsored shore excursions has driven us to booking more private tours without the restrictions. We did this all over Italy and Greece in August, not once were we asked our ages by any tour. 

[Cruise a holic]

18 minutes ago, carolina_yankee said:

 

We stayed at Nachi Cocum or last trip in Cozumel and just weren't feeling it this trip - we wanted a ship's day so took it. Mr. Sancho's is one we have looked at many times, too. I love those small clubs - they are so relaxing and beautiful!  With 9 ships in port, Cozumel just screamed "stay on board!" to us!

 

Rooftop Grill is covered - you are definitely outside but I don't think you would get direct sun anywhere you would sit - and particularly not in the fall/winter season since the sun sets so early. It's a lovely setting. I think most of the food is probably good to great - just don't get the burgers - they could have been more interesting than they were.

 

I think we would stay at Riverside again - the breakfast restaurant was great and the area really is cute. I used to live in Fort Lauderdale in the late '80s, so much has changed for the better and I like seeing that. In the future, we would probably plan on a 2-3 night stay before a cruise. We have friends there whom we often cruise with so we don't think about seeing FLL itself, but there really is a lot to do!

We went to Nachi Cocum once and were very dissatisfied  Found the service poor and the chairs and tables were dirty and busted.  A small pool and lacking nice facilities.  We love port days and do stay on board many times, but our go to is Cozumel and Mr. Sanchos.  We always now skip PR.  Find first of all the ship docks late and we are settled in on the ship.  Nice when the ship isn't crowded.

[Crazy planning mom]

Enjoying this review.

[NBliving]

I'm glad you posted about your experience visiting the QEII Botanical Gardens.  I really wanted to go there on our last cruise but the timing/cost for private driver/bus route made me nervous about the trip.  Actually I never heard back from the private driver the Garden suggested.  Oh well, maybe next trip! We have a membership to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin and the QEII is a reciprocal garden so our entry would have been free! 

[carolina_yankee]

12 hours ago, NBliving said:

I'm glad you posted about your experience visiting the QEII Botanical Gardens.  I really wanted to go there on our last cruise but the timing/cost for private driver/bus route made me nervous about the trip.  Actually I never heard back from the private driver the Garden suggested.  Oh well, maybe next trip! We have a membership to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin and the QEII is a reciprocal garden so our entry would have been free! 

There are two or three different areas to the gardens - the first is a cluster of different themes along a circular walk - an orchid trail, a colour garden, a children's garden, and they also have a typical early colonial Caymanian home and grounds.  I think there are a few more areas on the loop, but we didn't get there because we felt pressured for time. This was not the best time to see the orchid trail (a boardwalk circle through some forest), but it was interesting and would be gorgeous when they are in full bloom.

 

The second is a circular nature walk through woods/forest, and the third is a spur off that walk to an Iguana area. We were lucky that Jonny, their chief Iguana, was hanging out near the entrance to the welcome center! (Pictures later.)

 

So, a nature or plant lover could easily spend an hour to two hours there without a problem. There is no food for sale (that I noticed), but if you bring some food there are tables on a patio to sit and enjoy it. They may sell food on occasion.

 

The gift shop is small, but has some decent stuff.

 

The Gardens pairs well with Pedro St. James - they have a really good set-up. It's basically their birthplace of Caymanian identity so it is well preserved and has a good interpretive center. Guides can take you through the house (small, but with interesting history) or you can wander on your own. The grounds are on the sea so there is plenty of opportunity to walk around and explore the area. With private transportation, it could easily be a full port day for a nature/history buff. Grand Cayman would do well to beef up tourist transport to the East End (this area) - it would be ideal of a hop-on/hop-off kind of tour as there are a couple of other stops that could be interesting for 15-20 minutes for views.

[carolina_yankee]

23 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

We went to Nachi Cocum once and were very dissatisfied  Found the service poor and the chairs and tables were dirty and busted.  A small pool and lacking nice facilities.  We love port days and do stay on board many times, but our go to is Cozumel and Mr. Sanchos.  We always now skip PR.  Find first of all the ship docks late and we are settled in on the ship.  Nice when the ship isn't crowded.

 

The restrooms weren't the cleanest (but serviceable) when we were there (pre-pandemic), but everything else was fairly well run and kept. I don't think they were at capacity. The pool could have been larger, but met our needs for the day - it was a good relaxation day. 

 

I know I went back and forth over whether to go with Nachi or Mr. Sanchos and can't remember why I chose Nachi over Mr. Sanchos.  

[NBliving]

@carolina_yankeeSounds like my "cup of tea". I know I would love to visit! And thank you for the info on Pedro St. James.