1) Capacity- At around half capacity, I think we sailed on the Apex at the optimum time. There were no cutbacks due to low numbers and at times, especially in the MDRs, I’d go as far as to say the service was over-attentive.
2) Crew- Just fantastic. Special shout out to the cleaners in particular, who never get the recognition they deserved. We witnessed them hoovering the underside of the stairs( I mean, come on!) and DD1 said one jumped in the lift with her to clean a single finger mark she had spotted, just as the doors were closing. Everywhere was spotless and there were even times you could hardly go to the toilet in peace, without an industrious cleaner joining you in the public bathrooms!
3) Entertainment - I can only compare with Disney but the entertainment exceeded my expectations. Most guest entertainers got standing ovations and the three big production shows, as well as Caravan and some of the shows in Eden were great.
4) Food - It would be very difficult for us to get the variety of vegan and gluten - free food that we got on Apex, anywhere on land. I know because we have tried and it is not easy. Even in major cities, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack. In truth, we would need to go to a specialist vegan hotel. It was just so easy on the ship and meant I finally got a lovely break from the kitchen sink 😀
5) Ports - For anyone not sure about a Baltic Itinerary, I’d say go for it. A land trip in Scandinavia can work out very expensive so cruising is a value for money way to visit this beautiful part of the world.
The Bad
You may have guessed this already but we are pretty easy to please. We laughed every night when asked at dinner, “What is your water preference?” If you’re Scottish, there is only ever one answer to that and it’s “from the tap!!” Maybe if we had cruised more, we might be a little more picky but really we had absolutely no major complaints.
Perhaps only one, very minor gripe. Being a planner, I would have liked a bit more info about where we were docking in advance. In Riga, Stockholm and Copenhagen I had looked at transport options from the other docks. It wasn’t until I looked at the app, I realised I had boobed. So that’s one thing to be aware of if you go this itinerary.
The Ugly
The only thing ugly about this cruise was the 3 and a half hours it took to get through security at Schipol Airport on our way home! Oh and the terrible, but typical, Scottish weather when we returned. It put a real spanner in the works trying to get all the holiday washing hung out on the line. So really nothing Celebrity Cruises had any control over.
So our first cruise on Celebrity was hailed a success by DH and the DDs. So much so that we have 2 more booked. Next summer, we go to Italy, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro on The Beyond and then we are doing Best of Southern Japan in Easter 2024. I suspect after that, DH and I may start cruising a bit more on our own, but we have the girls to put through university first.
Thanks to all who read and commented - I appreciated it very much and maybe one day our paths might cross somewhere out on the ocean waves.
Cheers!
On 8/12/2022 at 10:53 PM, Scottishclover said:
Review Round Up: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good
1) Capacity- At around half capacity, I think we sailed on the Apex at the optimum time. There were no cutbacks due to low numbers and at times, especially in the MDRs, I’d go as far as to say the service was over-attentive.
2) Crew- Just fantastic. Special shout out to the cleaners in particular, who never get the recognition they deserved. We witnessed them hoovering the underside of the stairs( I mean, come on!) and DD1 said one jumped in the lift with her to clean a single finger mark she had spotted, just as the doors were closing. Everywhere was spotless and there were even times you could hardly go to the toilet in peace, without an industrious cleaner joining you in the public bathrooms!
3) Entertainment - I can only compare with Disney but the entertainment exceeded my expectations. Most guest entertainers got standing ovations and the three big production shows, as well as Caravan and some of the shows in Eden were great.
4) Food - It would be very difficult for us to get the variety of vegan and gluten - free food that we got on Apex, anywhere on land. I know because we have tried and it is not easy. Even in major cities, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack. In truth, we would need to go to a specialist vegan hotel. It was just so easy on the ship and meant I finally got a lovely break from the kitchen sink 😀
5) Ports - For anyone not sure about a Baltic Itinerary, I’d say go for it. A land trip in Scandinavia can work out very expensive so cruising is a value for money way to visit this beautiful part of the world.
The Bad
You may have guessed this already but we are pretty easy to please. We laughed every night when asked at dinner, “What is your water preference?” If you’re Scottish, there is only ever one answer to that and it’s “from the tap!!” Maybe if we had cruised more, we might be a little more picky but really we had absolutely no major complaints.
Perhaps only one, very minor gripe. Being a planner, I would have liked a bit more info about where we were docking in advance. In Riga, Stockholm and Copenhagen I had looked at transport options from the other docks. It wasn’t until I looked at the app, I realised I had boobed. So that’s one thing to be aware of if you go this itinerary.
The Ugly
The only thing ugly about this cruise was the 3 and a half hours it took to get through security at Schipol Airport on our way home! Oh and the terrible, but typical, Scottish weather when we returned. It put a real spanner in the works trying to get all the holiday washing hung out on the line. So really nothing Celebrity Cruises had any control over.
So our first cruise on Celebrity was hailed a success by DH and the DDs. So much so that we have 2 more booked. Next summer, we go to Italy, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro on The Beyond and then we are doing Best of Southern Japan in Easter 2024. I suspect after that, DH and I may start cruising a bit more on our own, but we have the girls to put through university first.
Thanks to all who read and commented - I appreciated it very much and maybe one day our paths might cross somewhere out on the ocean waves.
Cheers!
Thank you so much for such a detailed, interesting and well written review - we are super excited to be doing this cruise in July 2023.
Not so baltic in the Baltic - July 20 -August 1st Best of Scandinavia on the Apex
in Celebrity Cruises
Posted
Thank you so much for such a detailed, interesting and well written review - we are super excited to be doing this cruise in July 2023.
Thank you again - for taking the time 🙂