Celebrity Apex, May 7th - May 14th, 2023 Norwegian Fjords Cruise

[sergel02]

Hi all. Usually I do live threads for my cruises but considering there’s only 3 days left it’s kind of late for that. Been busy having a nice trip! 
 

This 7 night cruise on the Apex, leaving from Rotterdam, Netherlands, and terminating in Amsterdam. The itinerary is leaving Rotterdam - Day at Sea - Haugesund - Flam - Gerianger - Bergen - Day at sea - leave the ship in Amsterdam 

 

Few details:

 

- In an infinite Balcony

- Was told around 2000 guests and 1900 crew (not sure how accurate that is though)

- Purchased the Streaming internet and it is working super well. They said they’re using Starlink.

- No drink package or excursion purchased. 2 spa treatments between the family though.

- Anytime dining, but ate at Petit Chef and Raw on Five.

 

Going to try to keep it fast and bullet pointed since I get long winded but I don’t mind any questions!

 

Amsterdam

 

- Schipol was easy to get through but did require walking off the plane on stairs, in case mobility is an issue. It’s not common though.Our plane just got lucky I guess.

- Everyone we met through the whole city was nice and helpful.

- Lots of good Malaysian and Indonesian food

- Canals are a must see.

- Surprisingly warm in the sun despite lower temps. Dress in layers.

- Uber was the best way to get around for us due to health issues, but it’s pricey. A trip from Schipol to the heart of Amsterdam was regularly €40, and during rush hour in a Saturday I got a quote for nearly €100. The Uber from the hotel to Rotterdam was over €100 but you can take the train and it’s cheaper.

- City is a bit dirty and lots of graffiti around, though I haven’t been to any city other than maybe Tokyo and Singapore I’d say is super clean.

- it can get very crowded and busy so plan accordingly. 

- Didn’t get to see the tulip fields but there are lots of tours. Did do a hop on hop off bus, canal cruise, and visited This is Holland for their flight simulator.

 

Embarkation on 1st Sea Day

 

- Embarkation was super easy. We needed a wheelchair and the workers made it super easy and helped a lot. I never know if the smoothness of embarkation is more the cruise ship or the port workers, but whoever did a good job.

- I can’t honestly recall anything bad on the first sea day so it went pretty nicely. 

- First production show on day 2 was “Crystalize” and I really loved the violinist, music, and light effects,

Haugesund

- We booked a quick blue trolley ride at the pier that took us around town and some special sites. It was cold and raining a tiny bit, but it was a good price and we got to see a lot. It lets you get off as well.

- We didn’t do much here but there are tours that go further out of the town.

- The ship was plugged into Shore Power which was neat. Let’s it turn off it’s engine and cut emissions but plugging into the local power grid. Apparently Apex is the first cruise ship to do so in this port. I’ll attach a pic below.

 

We went to Flam today and took the train which I will talk about tomorrow. Tomorrow is Gerianger!

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by sergel02

[Silkroad]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us! My DH and I will board Apex in late July for a Norway & Iceland/Ireland b2b so your tips are greatly appreciated.

[WNCtourist]

Looking forward to more of your experience. Definitely a bucket list cruise for me!

[scrapcreator]

Looking forward to your posts. We'll board in late July as well.

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for you post.   We are taking a week off in Amsterdam between the TA and British Isle.   Can't wait to be back aboard.    

 

Weather continues to be nice in Amsterdam except rained all day Monday.  

[kab407]

Also looking forward to your posts. My sister and I will be on board in late July. 

[McGarrett5oh]

How was Geiranger?  Weather?  What did you do on-shore?   Thanks.  Enjoy!!

[sergel02]

A couple days behind since we’ve been busy, but luckily tomorrow is a sea day (our last one sadly) so I should be able to catch up. 
 

Day 3 - Flam

 

- It rained the whole day in port. Light rain but constant. 
 

- We booked the train from Flam to Myrdal at the station. It’s a short walk from the ship, and we didn’t book any ship excursions. 
 

- Price for the train was 2000 Norwegian Krone so slightly under $200 for 3 people total. 
 

- In the summer they say there is hiking in Myrdal but it was too cold and snowy for any of that to be open, so we just got round trip tickets. 
 

- One benefit I think of excursion groups is they get to board a different area of the train. The train was PACKED. It holds like 400 people. The right side, leaving Flam, is best, but honestly if you can get a window seat on the let side I’d go with it, as it has nice views too. 
 

- The seats are a bit tight so get comfortable with whoever you’re with. There’s so assigned seating to carriages so we had to run around a find seats. 
 

- Ride is about an hour each way. They stop at a waterfall with a surprise performance sometimes. Very gorgeous ride. 
 

- Usually it stays in Myrdal for a few minutes but we were behind schedule so once people got off it turned back around. 
 

- There’s a cafe in Flam called the Flam bakery which has some great pastries and sandwiches.

 

- On the ship, they had Jessica Jane the magician ding a show. I liked it overall, though it does require a lot of audience participants.  
 

Anyway, really enjoyed it despite the rain. The train area has a a couple nice shops too. I did think the train could be organized better but it was still gorgeous. 
 

Going to hopefully post about Geiranger and Bergen tomorrow 

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by sergel02

[MMMCruiser]

Thanks so much for sharing your trip here.  I'm hoping to take a very similar itinerary on the Apex next summer, so this is really helpful.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[sergel02]

Day 5 - Geiranger 

 

This was a really nice port. Small but great views. 
 

- The sea walk comes out to meet the ship which is neat, though it can still be a long walk.  No tendering. 
 

- There’s a few tours at the pier. There’s a panoramic bus tour that takes you to I believe 4+ stops that’s around 1.5 to 2 hours long. It’s around 400 Krone (~$37 USD) a person. There’s also some kayaking tours offered. 
 

- We did the hop on hop off which was also around 400 Krone also but much shorter. Fantastic views going up the mountain. The bus driver didn’t wait for people very long at the top of the lookout despite saying she’ll wait 10 minutes. More like 5 minutes and luckily we were back in the bus in time. 
 

- We got off at the museum and waterfall (stop 2) and took the walk down. It’s really pretty but about 15-20 minutes and you have to go down around 300 steps fyi. 
 

- Some small grocery stores near the port too to buy some candy or snacks. There’s a camping ground right there so that’s probably why. 
 

- As we sailed out we passed by the 7 Sisters Waterfalls, and Captain Nikolas was nice enough to do a slow 360 degree turn so everyone could see it. 
 

- The show this night was Tree of Life and I loved it! Music was great and the setting for the stage was beautiful. Also liked how the screen shifted. I will say the ending was a bit tame for a production show, I expected more music and dancing but still one of my favorite shows at sea. 

[gerelmx]

Thank you, going July next year from Southampton to the Norway Fjords and the Artic Circle (Tromso & Honningsvåg)

[denby]

Really enjoyed your post with all the pictures. We are boarding Apex on June 18th. The excitement is mounting!

[Lena11033]

I was considering the hop on hop off bus so thanks for the information

[terrydtx]

I am following, we board the Apex on September 14th in Rotterdam for 12 days to Athens.

[sergel02]

Finally home! It’s been a long time getting home, around 24 hours since we left our cabins, and then there was stuff to do at home and some rest needed. We need a vacation from our vacation lol. Sadly I’m not feeling too great so not sure if it’s bad allergies or I’m getting sick.

 

Day 6 - Bergen

 

- Really enjoyed this port. For a city of less than 300,000 it has a lot to see and do. There’s the fish market, the aquarium, the city park, and the funicular which is what we did.

 

- There are transfers to the city center for those with mobility issues. However, since one of our party members doesn’t use a device like a cane, walker, or wheelchair, people kind of assumed there wasn’t any mobility issues and cut in front of us, and we can’t really argue otherwise. There are only 13 seats in the vans. We ended up walking a bit to the hop on hop off bus, though it did take a while, so it worked out fine.

 

- Took the bus to the funicular (stop 12). The funicular was around $15 USD a person I want to say. They don’t take American Express though fyi.

 

- It’s mostly standing on the funicular too but there are some seats. Some more walking though Ho steps afterwards. Gorgeous views from up top though and there’s a nice little cafe on the top with good pastries and great soft serve (and ducks who knew we had food lol). There are clean and private washrooms up there too, and more trails to take if you want. The washrooms here are free (since you paid for the ticket) but not every public washroom is in Norway or The Netherlands.

- We then rode past the city center and made it back to the ship. The Viking Venus and some AIDA ship were in town too so it was a little busy at times, but nothing

terrible.

 

* One unique thing happened that night though. Around 8:30-9:30 PM captain Nikolas spoke on the intercom into the rooms saying there was a medical emergency on board. The Norwegian authorities were going to be bringing a helicopter to airlift the patient, so he said not to be alarmed. The cruise director Shawna also asked everyone to stay off the top deck since they’d have to isolate that area for the team and for privacy concerns. 
 

Have to say the crew did a great job with it. I loved how they explained what was going on (it’s a bit trippy seeing the ship not moving in open water and helicopters hovering) while maintaining patient privacy. As a nurse I can respect that (this also happened on intentional nurses day funnily enough). We were told the next day the patient is in Bergen and doing much better.

 

Day 7 - Sea Day

 

- A nice relaxing day. Not much happened, but Shawna did do a talk about ship life and I highly recommend it. She shared stories about how last year they ran low on toilet paper and had to raid the Celebrity Constellation, what it’s like chartering a nude cruise, how there was an SOS rescue of fisherman one day in the pacific they did, and other things like that.

 

- Did eat at Raw on 5 again which is probably my favorite speciality restaurant in terms of food.

 

Disembarkation 

- Honestly nothing bad to say personally, it was one of the smoothest disembarkations I’ve had on my 13 cruises along with the Disney Fantasy. They want you out the room by 0730. We had to use a wheelchair, but even without it it would have been smooth. We didn’t have to go through customs which surprised us (edit: though probably since they’re in the Schengen area).The area outside trying to get a ride was a bit of a mess, but we grabbed a taxi van to the airport. It was €70 for 3 adults.

- Do get to Schipol early. They’re efficient but the airport is huge and gets lots of people. 
 

Overall really enjoyed the trip. We booked it last minute because the price was great but we loved it. Having done Alaska and the Northeast if the US and Canada, there are some similarities but sailing through the fjords is gorgeous and breathtaking.

 

Some tidbits:

 

- Everyone we met in the Netherlands and Norway was super nice and kind (though I’m still wondering about that one Uber driver who gave me a 1 star rating while everyone else gave 5). 
 

- Sunset at this time was around 10PM/2200, and sunrise around 5. The deeper into summer and further north the more pronounced that will be.

 

- Norway takes Krone not Euros since it’s not part of the EU, but every place we went took card payment.

 

- Baked goods were wonderful in Norway and worth a try.

 

- High Speed internet was super fast. Was able to watch Emma Cruises on YouTube, stream Eight Sense, and play Star Rail with few issues.

 

Anwyay, nice trip, and I’m happy to try to answer any questions anyone has.

Edited May 16, 2023 by sergel02

[kr00t0n]

I did a similar cruise last year, but in June, so the sunrise/sunset thing was super pronounced.

 

Just wanted to say, never, ever, EVER, expected to see a fellow Honkai Star Rail player on Cruise Critic, let alone the Celebrity board, haha!

[sergel02]

5 hours ago, kr00t0n said:

I did a similar cruise last year, but in June, so the sunrise/sunset thing was super pronounced.

 

Just wanted to say, never, ever, EVER, expected to see a fellow Honkai Star Rail player on Cruise Critic, let alone the Celebrity board, haha!

Omg I didn’t either, but that’s partly why I mentioned it. Was thinking “maybe there is someone out there.” 
 

haha I admittedly played too much while resting in my cabin but it played really well even with the cruise ship internet. The SpaceX internet is a game changer for cruise ships. 

[BuckeyeMark]

Great report.  I am worried about Celeb not being able to go to Geiranger in '26 because someone said they won't let any ship in that is not zero emissions after 26.  We had planned to take the cruise you took in 26...  Appreciate your good reporting here!

[GMaCarolK]

I highly recommend Fjord Cruise to Mostraumen  in Bergen. The ship was very comfortable and had both inside and outside seating. We got so close to one waterfall that those at the front of the ship got wet from the spray. Tickets can be purchased at the dock and are also offered by Cruise Complete Shore Excursions Group. I did not do a price comparison, sorry. 

[GMaCarolK]

The rescue that was mentioned in a previous post happened right outside our window.  Seemed to go very smoothly.  Picture is guy rappelling down from the helicopter.