Trip Report for Apex Iceland Cruise 7/723

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, Poconolady said:

Really interested in your review. We are on the Aug 9 sailing and I have been struggling with what clothes to pack. I know, layers—, but “which” layers? Hoping to get a better idea from watching your report.  Hope you continue having a great trip!

I sympathize with your wardrobe dilemma and had the same issues (I spent two days Scotchgarding our walking shoes). At least for our sailing the weather forecasts so far are very favorable for all three Iceland ports! 🤞

[Jim_Iain]

Anthony,

 

I'm late to finding your live post but just got caught up.   Thanks for posting.   Your pictures and dialogue really bring back such fond memories.

 

That Dover Sole looked incredible.

[soozles]

4 hours ago, Poconolady said:

Really interested in your review. We are on the Aug 9 sailing and I have been struggling with what clothes to pack. I know, layers—, but “which” layers? Hoping to get a better idea from watching your report.  Hope you continue having a great trip!

I’m on that cruise as well, and I keep trying to find other people who were in Iceland that time of year and looking at what they wore… even the weather forecast isn’t super helpful because sometimes 50 feels cool, and sometimes it feels warmer depending if it’s sunny, windy, humidity, etc. 

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, soozles said:

I’m on that cruise as well, and I keep trying to find other people who were in Iceland that time of year and looking at what they wore… even the weather forecast isn’t super helpful because sometimes 50 feels cool, and sometimes it feels warmer depending if it’s sunny, windy, humidity, etc. 

You are correct about that! 

[kwokpot]

Day 2 - Evening Entertainment

After dinner we went to Cafe Al Bacio for coffee and to relax and wait for the late show in The Theater. The staff at the cafe are all very nice and the coffees are always well prepared. You can hear the entertainment from the Grand Plaza which was just fine with us. 

We headed to The Theater right as the doors opened at 9:00(show is at 9:30). Tonight's show is "All Hail The Queen" Charity Lockhart sings Aretha Franklin. This may not be a popular opinion but I found her show tedious. She has a beautiful voice but her show was 55 minutes long and she sang for 30 minutes of it. Her rendition of Over the Rainbow was overly flourished and my husband called it schmaltzy. Sometimes less is more and more is too much.

Although Chic Night is tomorrow (we have 2 seadays before our 1st port) the Captain's welcome aboard was tonight before Charity's show. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by kwokpot

[Silkroad]

@kwokpot thanks so much for your posts and photos thus far. DH and I will board Apex at the end of the month for a b2b and your posts have filled in some blanks for us. I do have a question. Did you and your husband find it easy to find a place to stow your luggage on the tram?

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, Silkroad said:

@kwokpot thanks so much for your posts and photos thus far. DH and I will board Apex at the end of the month for a b2b and your posts have filled in some blanks for us. I do have a question. Did you and your husband find it easy to find a place to stow your luggage on the tram?

If you're asking about the Rotterdam street trams yes, there were places to put luggage and it was much easier to manage the luggage on the tram than on the Amsterdam/Netherlands train system cars. You're supposed to activate the transit card when you board and disembark at a machine that's located near the tram doors. There's a ticket person onboard who will verify your transit card is valid. 

[jwlane]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Charity Lockhart sings Aretha Franklin.

Is her daughter still performing with her?  Keep your eyes to the sky later in the week---aurora chances are increasing thru Thursday!

[kwokpot]

7 hours ago, jwlane said:

Is her daughter still performing with her?  Keep your eyes to the sky later in the week---aurora chances are increasing thru Thursday!

She is not. She's at Arizona State University for her Masters degree and will also pursue a Doctorate too. 

[kwokpot]

Trip itinerary

Note the time changes and which days are Chic Nights

 

[kwokpot]

Apex facilities hours - Sea day

Edit: In posting this I noticed that there seems to be set early and late seatings, which runs counter to what was started this past Fall on all E-Class ships. I'll enquire further about this to get the full story. TBH I find this whole situation annoying when they change the dining times situation back and forth. You either have set seating or you don't. If the changes are temporary, which I can understand, COMMUNICATE to the guests this is the case. 

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by kwokpot

[kwokpot]

Day 3 - Morning

We have an Infinite Veranda cabin and waking up this morning we were greeted with sunshine and a view of the passing Faroe Islands. Breakfast was our usual in the buffet followed by a visit to Cafe Al Bacio for more coffee and/or tea and enjoying the views out the window. Taking a walk around the ship I was astounded that the weather was picture perfect, so much so that people were out sunning in bathing suits and in the main pool outside. Mind you, tomorrow we dock at Akureyri, Iceland.  Our forecast tomorrow is for partly sunny sky's with the high temp of 63 degrees and NO RAIN!!!

Not wanting to waste such beautiful outdoor weather I spent the last 90 minutes before lunch at the Resort Deck albeit in regular clothes rather than swimwear. The temperature was probably in the mid 60s so perfect in the sun but a bit nippy if you're in the shade. 

 

[kwokpot]

Day 3  - Evening

I always find it interesting the ebb and flow of cruise passengers on the ship when it's a set number of people for the whole journey. Since tonight was Chic Night every passenger was out and about. We had dinner in Normandie tonight and the dining room was the busiest of the three nights. I enjoyed the baked Brie and the duck was tender and not chewy or rubbery.

My husband was happy with his Caesar salad and salmon. 

We had our coffee at Cafe Al Bacio and it seemed the whole ship was on Deck 5. As the early show in the Theater let out there were waves and waves of guests passing by the Cafe. It was crowded but fun people watching. The Grand Plaza was also packed with people. 

We went to tonight's late show, the first production show of the cruise called Crystallize. It's your basic singing, dancing, and acrobatics but here it's enhanced with  electric violin performances and the visual displays on the immense video screen backdrops. Some acts were stronger than others but overall we enjoyed the show. 

 

Edit: It's 12:38am and we're in bed watching Shark Tank and the Midnight Sun is out full force. We should go to bed so we're refreshed for our first Iceland port of Akureyri. Last photo is an unedited photo of the Midnight Sun from our IV cabin. 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by kwokpot

[kwokpot]

Day 4  - Akureyri port day, Morning

It's 8:30am and yes, the IV cabin is a great choice for a cold weather itinerary. I woke up and was able to walk right over from the bed to the chair by the window in my underwear and watch the sailing through the Eyjafjordur to Akureyri. The big panoramic window provides the views without opening the window. 

At 9:15 we finally make our to the buffet for breakfast and while we knew it would be busy it was worse than we expected. Despite the buffet itself being large and airy it was a mass of people and a bit too chaotic to manage before our first cup of coffee. Being Elite+ we decided to go to Le Grand Bistro for the Captain's Club coffee lounge casual/continental breakfast. We were so glad that we did. There were only three other occupied tables and with the windows facing the city of Akureyri and the mountains behind it was a calm, quiet breakfast. The only issue is the limited menu. On the Apex there's no buffet set-up like some other ships, it's ordered from servers from a handful of set choices. I had the ultimate platter which is a mini bagel with lox and European style cold cuts and cheese platter and my husband ordered the lox and bagel platter and a fruit platter. We both had lattes and a second round of Americanos. Just the right amount of food without the craziness. 

When we finished we decided to go back to our room and relax a bit before disembarking to do our own walkabout in the town of Akureyri. We are in port from 10-8 so no rush to get off. 

Edited July 10, 2023 by kwokpot

[theopup]

Lovely pictures today

[Nado44]

Following along.

 

Be sure to listen for announcements about possible aurora borealis conditions.

[kwokpot]

Day 4 - Akureyri port day, Afternoon

I would like to preface this section by saying that my husband and I are less is more kind of people, so we don't have to be out touring the minute the gangway goes down and be the last ones back on. The same goes for onboard activities. As we all know part of the allure of a cruise vacation is the ability to do as much OR as little as you want, and you can switch that up at a moments notice. Try doing that on a fully escorted land tour!

 

With that said we left the ship about 11:30 to walk around the town on our own. Having never done this itinerary before but having done a Norwegian Fjords cruise last summer we came prepared with rain jackets, puffy coats, knit caps, gloves, etc. The great thing was today's forecast was sunny with highs in the mid 60s! It was in the high 50's when we left the ship and immediately in the shadow of the ship it was a little breezy so we put on our coats. Five minutes later in the bright sunshine we took them off. We did have long sleeve pullovers and they were just five walking around. Parked perpendicular to the Apex was the MSC Preziosa, about the same size as the Apex. The buildings in town had a simple and clean designs and reminded me of Norwegian or Finnish architecture. We walked to the town square and through the main street which was lined with shops, restaurants, and bars.

 

Our destination was the church and botanical garden. The main staircase to the church was under reconstruction so you had to walk around it via one of the main streets. We took pictures of the exterior but didn't go in because of an entrance fee (yes, sometimes were cheap like that). We then made our way to the botanical garden. On Google maps it doesn't seem much of anything but it was a major surprise and I give it a big thumbs up as a do not miss attraction(and it's FREE). What's nice about it is the various shaded pathways through large trees and varied elevations which made for interesting walks among beautiful plantings, flowers, shrubbery, fountains, and ponds. Some unique flowers of beautiful colors. Loved it!

 

Along the way to and from the botanical gardens are beautiful historic homes built in the 1910's, church's and other public buildings. It was enjoyable just to meander around enjoying the sights. We spent about 2 hours out and then made it back to the ship for lunch at the buffet. Today there was roast chicken and it was excellent! Juicy and full of flavor! A takeaway coffee from Segundo Bacio and back to our cabin to enjoy coffee while looking out our IV window and take in the scenery. Then a nap before dinner. 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by kwokpot

[lunedemiel17]

Great report, wonderful photos.  Thank you. 😁

[soozles]

Loving the photos

[jwlane]

Lucky you! Maybe your tour will go close to the newly erupting volcano this week! 

[kwokpot]

Day 4 Akureyri port day, Evening

I talked about the ebb and flow of ship passengers last night and tonight is no different except it was the exact opposite. We had a 7pm reservation at the Cyprus dining room and it was pretty empty despite all aboard being 7:30. What was strange when we looked at the menu was it was slightly different than what the Celebrity app had shown. Gone was the Sea Bass entree. No issues, we both found something else to eat.

I started with the Cyprus special pasta as an appetizer and ordered the Saganaki cheese to share, while my husband had a salad. We then both had the Cyprus special short ribs. Everything tasted very good, the special pasta is made a Greek way using milk instead of water. The gravy in the short ribs was rich and flavorful, with different spices than American style short ribs preparation. Although the dining room was quite empty the pacing of the courses was a bit more leisurely which honestly I preferred. We finished off with the Cyprus special dessert, Galakatoboureko (no, I don't try to pronounce it). The three courses took about an hour, whereas on a previous night it was a bit hurried at forty minutes.

 

We proceeded to Cafe Al Bacio for after dinner coffee and tea. This becomes a regular habit, especially on E-Class ships. Detractors complain that Cafe Al Bacio on E-Class ships are noisy since it's completely open to the Grand Plaza and Martini Bar. And for this reason it is why we love being there. We enjoy getting seats facing the walkway and Grand Plaza. Here we enjoy people watching, listening to the music being played at the Grand Plaza, and gazing at the beautiful interior design elements of the E-Class ships. We have the dance band Essence playing and the main vocalist is excellent!

 

We stayed at Al Bacio for over an hour and we were going to get seats for the late show of the headliner Uptown but my husband decided he wanted to gamble instead and I kinda felt a bit tired so casino for him and back to the room for me to relax and enjoy the views of cruising the fjord from our IV window. As I said earlier I never feel I'm 'missing out' on anything. 

Pictured below the Cyprus dining room special pasta and short ribs entrees. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by kwokpot

[Poconolady]

Cafe al Bacio is our “ go to” spot after dinner, esp on Apex. It’s fun to watch the comings and goings of passengers while listening to music. We opt for people watching over going to the show most evenings.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 minute ago, Poconolady said:

Cafe al Bacio is our “ go to” spot after dinner, esp on Apex. It’s fun to watch the comings and goings of passengers while listening to music. We opt for people watching over going to the show most evenings.

 

Can they do the drinks decaf at al Bacio? For late afternoon/evening?

[Stem to Stern]

@kwokpot Loving your pics and your entire report!! 🤩

[Poconolady]

I’m sure they can, just order it as you want it. I’m a tea addict and absolutely love their Tea Forte teas, both over ice and hot.