brovol

When my wife and I started cruising, 30+ years ago, they referred to it as the "lido buffet" (sovereign of the seas), so we still do. The buffet is always on the lido deck. Not "fancy talk", just what we have always called it.

Overall, this was an excellent cruise. I would definitely book Apex again, and would not hesitate to do the infinite veranda either. Although it has some drawbacks, overall we were extremely pleased. And I was a very concerned with the infinite veranda before we got on the ship. Accommodations, food, service, entertainment, were all very good. Few negatives, including: Need more public restrooms. Depending on where you are in the public areas, frequently there are very long walks to the closest restroom. Restrooms also could have more frequent maintenance. I like the cloth hand towels, but too often they were all gone. Definitely need more recliners in the main public pool. Particularly in the sun area. I think the pool bar should open prior to 10:00 a.m. The exterior of the infinite veranda windows should be cleaned more frequently. I think ours was only cleaned once, and by that it was only hosed off. There are probably a few other things I'm not thinking of. But basically, and outstanding ship.

Disembarked a little while ago. We did the self disembarkation. We were hoping to get to the airport and get in earlier flight, but no luck there. Disembarcation was a breeze. Got off the ship, and headed right to the taxi area. Jumped on a taxi, and off we were. As far as embarkation and disembarkation, this cruise was as good as it gets.

The buffet. Traditionally cruise ship buffets were on the lido deck.

There are rowing machines. I think two.

They do have fixed early and late seating. We were assigned fixed early, which was supposed to be 6pm, but when we boarded ship we had a card in our room which said we were fixed early, but at 5:30. Worked out great for us. If you get the fixed early you basically walk right in and go to your table at the assigned time. The card also says what dining room you are assigned to. Anytime dining has to wait and be assigned a table.

Can't say staff being unhappy is consistent with our experience this week. To the contrary, staff is extremely upbeat and friendly. All smiles. Very high level of service all around.

Experiencing the last two days of Apex Western Caribbean trip, so thought I would share our experience so far. We are fairly experienced cruisers. Over 40 cruises in 30 years. We have sailed most mainstream cruise lines several times, but this is the first celebrity. We have generally preferred Princess over the others, but also like Holland America, and have sailed Norwegian many times as well, including a couple in Haven. This time my wife and I are on with a group of nine total. We all booked infinite verandas, and I was quite concerned, as we enjoy having a balcony. As for the infinite veranda, I do miss having a separate balcony to a certain extent, but actually having a separate patio-like area, with a full window, is pretty nice. You can sit there anytime and enjoy the view, without having to deal with the heat, humidity, or other weather. The other thing we like about it is, in our case at least, the bed is near the veranda area, and we had the steward leave the shades open at night. Left them open all the time actually. But you always have that fantastic view, which is much better with the infinite veranda, because you don't have to look through the balcony if you are just laying in bed. One criticism I have though is that they need to wash those windows. They do a poor job at that, which leaves watermarks, compromising the view to a certain extent. The rooms are quite comfortable and functional in all respects. I'm not going to get into storage space or stuff like that, because so many videos exist to show you exactly what you get. I can say it was certainly adequate for us in every respect. Very good cabin steward, who was quiet, but took care of business. Check in was perhaps the fastest and easiest we have ever experienced. It was actually amazing. We barely slowed down walking from the time and Uber dropped us off, to the time we got into our room. FYI, we showed up at around 10:30, or 10:45, which was prior to our assigned time. Incredibly smooth process. Food on the ship was excellent. We ate as a group in the cosmopolitan. Fixed early dining time, which prior to the cruise indicated would be at 6:00, but was actually at 5:30 once we got on board, which we preferred. Had a very good wait staff. Food was always excellent. I've asked everyone in our group, and there have been no complaints. Lunches we generally took in the lido. I thought the food and variety was quite good, but it did not change much from day to day. Ate at the grill after embarking, and it was also really good. Burgers were very tasty, and the grilled buns on the burgers were exceptional. I don't drink coffee, but my wife does. She was very pleased with Cafe el bacio. We did not do specialty restaurants. Did not feel it was necessary at all, as food and service were a high quality in the dining room, and never felt the temptation to book specialty dining. We had the premium drink package. I'm still not certain that we got our value out of that, as we don't typically do much sophisticated drinking, but enjoyed having the package, as we typically do. We like having the mindset that we're not calculating our account balance while on board. We are not big drinkers at home, but do tend to let our hair hang down a bit on cruises. Lol. Service was quite good with the wait staff and bartenders. No complaints there either. We also had the internet package. I upgraded to premium, and must say I was delighted. I was able to stream live sports without an issue. I did a speed test one day, and I don't recall the exact results, but they were better than what I had been reading on cruise critic. We didn't take in any of the production shows yet, so I can't give you an assessment. But I can tell you the live music is generally excellent. We have been to Eden after dinner several evenings, and then the atrium music. There's some great voices on board. We like just chilling in the evening, and played cards a lot in the evening while listening to music. Had a very nice experience in that regard. Eden is a fantastic venue. The pool, where I am dictating this review right now, is nice, but would prefer if it had more lounging in the sun space. The solarium is very nice, but I don't think you can catch rays there, so my wife and I spent mornings generally at the pool. On port days it is not as bad, but on a sea day you better get there really early. We did, and enjoyed the peace until it got busy later. The bar doesn't open until 10:00 though, so if you're interested you need to go elsewhere. I work out early each morning, and will say I was satisfied with the gym. I have been to larger, and probably better cruise ship gyms, but this one did the job nicely. I never had to wait for an elliptical, but did have to wait for weights and strength machines a few times. Not too bad though. Again, no real complaints. Service was excellent. Not much more to say there. Couple of minor negative things, but I think those were mostly personal to us, so I'm not even going to mention them. Obviously we still have a couple days on board, but our experience so far has been exceptional. We would absolutely cruise celebrity again. I think it is very comparable to princess, if not a bit nicer in a few respects. We do prefer the princess medallion benefits. But I would say from this experience celebrity is very comparable to princess. I'm not sure how much I might check this thread after sending it. So not promising to get back with answers to questions. I do appreciate when I'm able to get fresh reviews from regular style cruisers prior to booking or heading out for a cruise, so I wanted to share our experience while they had the opportunity. Obviously can't talk about disembarkation, because won't be doing that for a couple days. So, for whatever it's worth.....

Holland America has an unlimited laundry deal, and although I cant recall to total cost, I do know it was significantly less than what Celebrity charges for a single bag. I purchased the laundry bag deal for our upcoming Apex cruise, but I'm also bringing some of the tide sink packs. I work out every morning and my workout stuff is drenched in sweat, so I will do a sink wash every day or two. We sail Princess frequently, and I like how those ships generally have self laundry rooms, but that can also be a pain in the a$$, because you need to wait for machines to open up, and hope the soap vending machines and token machines work, then run back and forth for cycles. We really like the HAL deal the best.

The chair hog thing really ticks me off, because usually the chairs are vacant for 90% of the time. I may be inclined to do some self justice, and pile a bunch of chair-hogger towels, hats, bags on one chair, so those who are actually present can use those chairs. It is what it is I guess. Every cruise ship has the same issue. Just got to beat the rush apparently. Who wants to get up and to the pool by 7am when on vacation though? I wish there was another outdoor pool on the ship. Most ships have an aft pool; sometimes for adults only. Surprised the Apex doesn't.

On Apex first week of April with a group of 9, and typically we like hanging in the sun by the pool in the morning through early afternoon. It looks like there is only the one outside pool, and I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on how early we will need to get loungers. We are not "chair hogs". We don't save chairs; we occupy them, but want to be able to sit together. With only one outside pool I'm concerned we will have to get out there by 9am. Is that the case? Also, it looks from pictures like the only hot tubs are the champagne glass tubs, which are accessible from two decks above the pool. Seems inconvenient. Is it?

How has the internet been on board? I purchased the upgraded internet for our April Apex cruise, and hoping it is worthy of streaming live sports, and video conferencing.

Would prefer to eat at least once in each of the dining rooms. We will follow your advice, and try to reserve once on board. On the app it says reservations start at 5:15, but wont let me reserve anything in any of the rooms. So I agree, I'm not getting perfect information.

Our travel agent (who booked our entire group) called, and was just told by the celebrity TA rep the same thing I was told. Perhaps recent change?

Half hour.