A Celebrity Thanksgiving, Apex 11/20/21

[Andrew Ford]

The original plan was to make this a liveblog, but as soon as I got connected to the Wifi on Apex, I knew that wasn't happening. 

 

Some background:

 

-This was my first Celebrity sailing, should have had two before but those got cancelled last year. 
- We depart the Saturday before thanksgiving, 11/20/21 out of Port Everglades
-Sailing with me will be my Wife and Daughter (11)

- We’re booked into an Infinite Verandah room on Deck 9

- This will be the family’s first sailing since moving to Florida, so first time we didn’t have to hassle with flights. 
 

[Andrew Ford]

Day 1

Walked in to the terminal at 10:55 for our check-in.

My daughter, Addison was checked in as she needed to be tested. There was no line for testing and by 11:02 her sample collection was done.

There was a fairly large waiting area setup while you awaited results. The one part of the process that made no sense is that you have to walk to the main terminal entrance, then turn right back around as the testing is setup in the baggage claim area. There apparently used to be a sign but they took it out as they want people to check in before testing. 🧐

Celebrity offers a pre-cruise testing registration but judging from the 30 seconds it took us to check her in versus the five-ten minutes many took, I don’t think too many people took them up on that option.

The published waiting time is up to 40 minutes. The test they are using is just a Binax-Now test like you can get at any CVS, but it’s in a bulk pack not in a purple box.

Testing was a cluster. It took us 92 minutes to get a result. The others in the testing area are really starting to lose their patience as it’s more than double the advertised time.

1:11 finally on gangway.

Once onboard we dropped our bags off at the room and discovered that there was yet another problem. We had purchased the Elevate upgrade for this sailing (premium beverage package, surf wifi, and shore excursion credit.)

As soon as we got to our seapass cards it was immediately clear that not only had the upgrade beverage package not been processed, our cards showed no beverage package at all. So that meant schlepping it to the guest services line which meant another almost hour wait and explaining over and over where their mistake was. Luckily I had printed out the reservation so could easily show there where the line item charge was.

By the end of the day, the shore excursion credit is still outstanding, hopefully they get it fixed quickly.

As I hadn’t eaten, after waiting in the line we took a quick visit to the Oceanview cafe to grab a quick bite. There’s definitely a step up on food quality from the cruises I’ve done this year on Royal Caribbean and MSC.

Unlike on MSC where pizza is at the forefront and Royal where Sorrento’s gets it’s own area on the promenade, Celebrity hides pizza in the back like it’s a red-headed step child. The pizza was serviceable but not near the level on MSC.

 

 

Once my hunger had been satiated, it was time to take a walk around the common areas of the ship. There were a few that stuck out and I’m sure will be a bi g part of the week.

The first one of those is Eden, it’s a visually gorgeous space with plants and great views. I think if I remember correctly some of the angles are based off the Fibonacci sequence.

I think my daughter would have been perfectly content just sitting in Eden coloring for the week. There’s food and drink so she’d make it through the week without parental support.

 

We also decided to do a Spa Tour as in videos the spa space looks much more well developed than on many of the other ships we’ve been on. It certainly is, and feels like a very high quality space like in a Vegas Resort like Aria, and less like a cruise ship spa.

We did run into one issue, online they advertise a Mommy and Me and Father and Son massage, but even though there are small stock image children, you have to be 13 to participate.

As our boarding had been delayed, Sail Away snuck up on me so after meeting our state room attendant, Arven, I rushed up to the open decks to say hi to @CruiseHabit Billwho was out on Sky Princess. Billy was kind enough to grab some photos of me from their ship.

 

A common thread of the rest of the evening is the rough seas. From the moment we exited the channel in Port Everglades and went straight to 21st, we had very rocky seas. That meant for the rest of the evening we were down one family member as my wife gets seasick so spent her evening in bed.

 

We setup Celebrity’s my time dining which usually means you can go whenever you desire, but also you can reserve times at the dining rooms.

Dinner tonight was originally reserved for Cosmopolitan, but we arrived to quite a long line, and one of the officers came by and let us know we could head to any of them as the others didn’t have any wait. We ended up at Tuscan where we were immediately seated.

Overall Tuscan was good for an MDR, and definitely an uptick in what I’ve had on other lines.

After dinner my daughter wanted to head to Camp@Sea to check out the activities. She had a great time and was a fan of the Foosball competition. For a line that doesn’t cater so much to children, so far they seem to have a great variety of selections for younger people. I’m not sure if it’s like that every week or because this is a Thanksgiving Week sailing.

Since adults need activities as much as children, I ventured into the casino for a few hours. One interesting thing about Apex is that there is no casino bar, all casino drinks have to be ordered though a water/ress which at least this night often meant twenty minutes or more before your drink order got back to you.

 

After that it was time to turn in for the evening and get ready for our first full sea day on our way to San Juan.

 

[Andrew Ford]

Day 2

Sea Day

Unfortunately the seas didn’t magically get any smoother overnight. The seas just didn’t want to give in. The full steam ahead to San Juan definitely didn’t help us. Swells were between 6 and 12 feet with lots of whitecaps.

Breakfast started out at the Oceanview cafe, sometimes I’ll opt for an MDR breakfast, but often it’s easier and more convenient to just go to the buffet. And with limited capacity, crowding in the buffet wasn’t an issue.

 

Our first activity on the schedule today was Origami inside of Eden. My daughter also used this as a reason to head there early and get some coloring done. I was incredibly surprised with how many people showed up, as there were probably 50-60 of us there.

 

As my wife was ready to try and leave the room, we decided to try one of the MDR’s for lunch, this time Cosmopolitan. Food was ok, but nothing spectacular. The menu is pretty limited, I went with a burger, and my daughter decided on the Spaghetti Bolognese from the Kids menu.

One of the best parts of a sea day is that the Casino is open all day so you can visit at your leisure. One great thing about Celebrity is that all of their casinos are completely smoke free. It helps when sitting at the tables and also there’s no smoke seeping out into the other public areas. All the normal games are there; blackjack, craps, UTH, 3 card poker, and roulette. 3:2 blackjack is only available at the 25$ and up tables. Its your standard Hit on soft 17, no surrender, aces split only once rules.

 

While walking we noticed that the transition over to Christmas was well underway even before thanksgiving. Trees had sprung up on the public decks and in the Grand Plaza.

 

Our first formal night dinner took us to Cyprus, which is the main dining room with a greek focus. Like the others its a cool look with myriad seating options. Our server, John was very good, and was very attentive throughout the meal.

Beef Tournedos

 

Grilled Chicken Breast

Apple Crumb Tart

 

Cafe bacio tea

Located on the grand plaza, Cafe Al Bacio is a great place to grab a coffee or tea. I’m not a coffee guy, but we spent many hours during the week having tea at the Cafe. They offer a litany of black, green, oolong, and herbal varieties that can be done either hot or iced. And the best part is that it’s included in the Deluxe Beverage package

 

Our first show of the cruise and of this evening was Rockumentary. It’s well executed but as with most jukebox shows, there’s not a story arc throughout. Most of the singers were quite skilled and kept your attention. The screen setup is curved to fit the most space in on the forward part of the ship. One thing that separates the show from most of its ilk is that it features a live backing band rather than recording tracks.

 

 

 

Between rockumentary we stopped in to see what the Chandelier light show was all about. It’s more of a flair bartending exhibition. The show only last a few minutes and ends with a “cup snake” martini pour.

 

Our second show of the evening was Eden’s night of enchantment and some drinks in Eden. One advantage Celebrity has over Royal Caribbean so far is their assortment of scotches and whisky. I didn’t see any of @cruisehabitbill Talker, but having Macallan included is always a plus. The show was a very cool display of singing, dancing, and acrobatics. It also became clear that we’d be back for the all the eden shows as the venue and performers were all excellent.

After the shows we stopped up in the Oceanview cafe for some after dinner dessert at Scoops. Scoops is near, but not really inside of the buffet area. Unlike many ships, Scoops always had a ton of options both hard and soft serve with lots of topping choices.

[karl_nj]

So even the "upgraded" wifi wasn't great?  I was on Edge in August, with the "included" level wifi, so I wasn't expecting much.  But if I paid to upgrade, i'd be pretty annoyed.

[CruiseHabit Bill]

@karl_njIt really depends on what you're comparing to.  I always get the streaming plan, and interestingly I found Apex (last week) to be similar to Edge in June and July...sometimes.  On Edge I worked from the ship for two weeks straight without issue.  On Apex there were days it worked fine - not breakneck speeds, but adequate to work, and then other days it slowed down.  It didn't seem to match with the weather, either.  Except for part of one day where something was clearly wrong, it was still miles better than some RCI and X ships which have older setups, but not as good as others.  On the upside, nothing seemed to be blocked.  I was able to connect to two OpenVPN connections without issues, and didn't run into any other protocol probs.