Boatharbour

Do you recall if the food items in the buffet have common allergens listed? I read reports from the past that indicate they don’t. I’m hoping HAL is now more up to date in catering for allergies. I’m (reluctantly) on a GF diet.

I would be ok with that. I wouldn’t want to lose the $100 fee because I booked a non refundable fare and they canceled. Well, after Celebrity emailed us to cancel our cruise and told us that our deposit could only be returned as another FCC, our credit card received a full refund today.

What is it with all the surveys? Received a third survey overnight. The first two are the same as others have received. The third is a pre-cruise survey so they can “continue to elevate our hospitality”. Slightly baffled as we’re not cruising for another 7 months. I clicked on the link anyway and the first question is about my interaction with Irina. No idea who she is, but we haven’t initiated any “interaction “ with anyone at Celebrity.

When they cancelled our Antarctica cruise, the FCC wasn’t refunded in cash. It can only be used as another FCC.

We went to an Alaska presentation on board and were definitely told the same thing. However when I went to purchase a FCC on the same cruise I was told it was whatever the promo was at time of the actual booking, We felt slightly duped but bought the FCC anyway attracted by the low deposit. A day later we booked a cruise to Antarctica. Three weeks after that Celebrity cancelled the cruise and offered us $200 OBC as compensation. I’m unsure if we still keep the original OBC. All the changes made us open our eyes to other lines and we’ve now booked with HAL. For $200 PP we can take out cruise cancellation protection. Far less than the refundable deposits charged by Celebrity.

We took this cruise in July and thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report beforehand. I’m looking forward to reading this one too. We heard the same comment over and over from those who had taken the Berlin excursion from Warnemunde - it was a long day. We decided to take a train to Rostock and Schwerin Castle instead. Schwerin was only an hour away by train, so what could possibly go wrong! While we were at the castle I received a call that my mother had passed away. We decided to head back to the ship. Walking back to the station we noticed strange looking clouds. Not clouds - smoke. The railway museum was on fire and all trains were cancelled. We were stranded. One taxi, three trains and four hours later we arrived back at Warnemunde after being assisted by a carriage of passengers, many of whom were drinking beer and peppermint schnapps on board. They found it amusing that two Australians were on their local train and went out of their way to help us get back. I’ve never been so glad see a ship in the distance as the train finally pulled in. We then had time left to walk around Warnemunde and thoroughly enjoyed it. Interesting shops, lots of nice restaurants and a wonderful group of male singers standing on a boat singing sea shanties and other songs. Truly a memorable day without the long haul to Berlin. Following your adventures.

We had turn down service and chocolate on the pillow every night on Apex in July.

I agree with your summary 100%. This was also our experience on Apex in July. We cancelled most of our MDR reservations after several disappointing meals. The food in the OV for dinner was surprisingly good and the specialty restaurants very good to excellent.

We were on the Apex in July and the FC desk was very busy on sea days and extremely busy on the last day. We purchased a FCC for the first time and then used it while on board to book Antarctica 2025. The low deposit and OBC were the draw cards. Barely three weeks later, all these cruises were cancelled yet bookings were still being taken right up until the announcement. Unless we can apply the credit to a previously booked NZ cruise in 2024, we’ll probably let it go. All of this uncertainty has led us to try another line , another destination in 2025.

This morning I booked our first non-Celebrity cruise with HAL. We’ve always been so happy with Celebrity but too many changes and cancellations caused us to question our loyalty. I did look at some of the premium lines mentioned in this thread but they all came out around AUS$3000 per couple more for similar itineraries. That would pay for our shore excursions and then some. I do have a FCC from our just canceled Antarctica cruise and may end up simply forgoing it as we won’t be cruising twice in one year.

Ouch.

First time cancellation for us so could someone please explain the $200 OBC. Is this on top of the OBC we had for our Antarctic cruise? Or do we lose the OBC associated with the cancelled cruise?

Received an email overnight cancelling our Antarctic cruise, reinstating our FCC and giving us an $200 OBC.

Our booking for Antarctica 18 Jan 2025 is still showing in my app. I did notice there were a lot of sunset verandahs still available last week which I thought was a little unusual given they usually sell quickly.

There was definitely a shuttle fee for most ports(including Copenhagen) on our 19 July Apex Baltic cruise. It actually cost more to buy the shuttle tickets on board than buying shoreside as you boarded the bus. Hop on Hop on buses were servicing many ports, so that it another option.

Absolutely agree. Indeed the vast majority of guests on this cruise followed the dress code.

No comment. No judgement, just responding to above. On Apex two weeks ago a woman walked into Fine Cut for dinner in collarless tee shirt, denim shorts and wearing rubber flip flops. She wasn’t turned away.

I take a “Scrubba” wash bag, plus a stretchy clothes line and use on sea days.

I’m glad you mentioned the cereal as there wasn’t a GF option. I too carry my own cereal on my travels. I just pop a meal size portion into a resealable plastic bag each morning and take it with me to the buffet.

There are a few other recent threads about this that I read before our July cruise on the Apex. I’m not celiac but have a wheat allergy. The buffet worked well for me as everything was labelled so I knew what was GF. There was plenty of variety. There is a GF corner for desserts at lunch and dinner and bread/ pastries in the morning with separate toaster. The first day I had the maître d walk me around and explain the labelling. Dining room options were limited unless you preordered which I didn’t, I did have a superb meal at Eden though. Prior to going on the cruise I submitted a special needs form. Every time we went to dinner it was clear that the wait staff knew about my allergy without me mentioning it,

We have sailed Celebrity four times usually September-November in the northern hemisphere and once in March in the southern hemisphere. Very few children. In mid July we boarded the Apex in Rotterdam and found there were a lot of children on board which was to be expected at this time of the year. However at no stage did we find them disruptive except for one sea day when the kids club decided to have a scavenger hunt around the ship. We didn’t use the pool deck however. We did note that overall the demographic was much younger and more diverse than all of our previous cruises- more representative of the general population. What did annoy us was the constant piped music everywhere, often inappropriate for the time of day. There was nowhere to sit quietly to read, chat or just watch the world go by unless we sat on our verandah.

We got off the Apex last week with an all included classic package. The only time we had to pay extra was at the martini bar. I had a cocktail each day and my husband had various spirits, wines and martini’s. The only anomaly was that when I ordered a sparkling water I was charged an extra $4.50 which doesn’t make sense when I could have had a cocktail for “free”. I realise that sparkling water is part of the premium package, but don’t understand why.

It depends on where you’re sitting though. We had a table for two last week next to the exterior windows and couldn’t hear any noise thing from the central atrium.

Pretty much all of the above is what we experienced on the Apex two weeks ago from the boarding school potato scoops to the limited menus. Our first night in Cosmopolitan was such a let down we cancelled all of our bookings there. The menu was uninspiring and extremely limited in choices for someone who is GF. The tables seemed even closer together than I remembered. I don’t know why Celebrity can’t remove some tables as the restaurant was never full anyway. I like meeting people but I don’t want to feel like I have to make conversation with strangers at every meal. Tuscan was the worst with no GF options available on the specialty menu so it was back to the classic menu which was the same as the Cosmopolitan - chicken or steak. The vegetables at Tuscan were so undercooked they were difficult to cut. I quietly mentioned this to the waiter when he noticed I hadn’t eaten them. Remember he asked, I didn’t make a fuss. This led to an over the top response where the waiter brought the maitre d over to investigate. Ten minutes later the maître d and waiter reappeared with an anxious looking chef sandwiched between them wanting to discuss my meal again. It was very uncomfortable for us seeing this man being publicly humiliated. The atmosphere in that restaurant was “off” and I don’t mean the decor. We’re not regular buffet diners of an evening but after canceling most of our MDR bookings we found the buffet had plenty of variety and we could actually find something we wanted to eat. This mixed in with a couple of specialty restaurant bookings became our new routine during this cruise. So different to our pre covid cruises.

There was definitely salmon on the menu. Tilapia was spotted at the buffet at least once but they often had barramundi too at the grill. Battered fish was featured several times. Shrimp cocktail wasfour small prawns in a heavy handed tomato sauce. The seafood broth entree in Normandie had had perhaps 6-8 very small pieces of seafood in it floating in a brown watery soup with two mussels.