micmacmissy

That evening we hit up Eden for some drinks, and I saw Jared and Jordan from J&J Cruises (follow them on You Tube for cruise content, if you don’t already)! I went up to introduce myself and thank them for their content; we had a lovely conversation. Eden was our choice over Martini Bar before dinner - Martini Bar was always packed, didn’t have the greatest service (due to sheer numbers) and was definitely overrun with cruisers with the most life experience. 😉 Then on to the Rooftop Grill. Our last al fresco dining experience was the Lawn Club Grill on Silhouette…and that was like eating in a dang wind tunnel. I was a little worried and didn’t spend too much time on my hair for this dinner. We were so pleasantly surprised by how well designed the Rooftop Grill was on Apex! A lovely breeze but no wind - you could sit and enjoy and not be blown away (except by the food and drinks!) We started with the wings and pork sliders (yum!) watermelon salad (excellent), husband ordered the filet and I got a delicious burger. Of course we finished off with the warm cookie (which is insanely good). Service was great, food was great, ambiance was EXCELLENT (are you listening, Fine Cut??). Best specialty dining experience for us!

Spa appointment this day was a sea salt scrub/massage. It was fantastic! After days of sweat and sunscreen, it felt great to have all that scrubbed off. After the scrub, you hit the in-room shower to rinse and there is a 20 min quick massage after that - lovely! The spa lady in charge of my appointment noticed how dry my face was and did a few things to my face, too (that were not part of what I booked!). She put some under eye stuff on, moisturized, and did a skin buff…THEN hit me with the hard sell (she kept handing me products). I did wind up busing the skin buff. The bottle was huge (probably 12 oz.) and she said is was $37 - not terrible! She said she would have it sent to my room. Great! Back at the room, a quick google search yielded the Elemis Skin Buff available at Nordstrom Rack for $14.99. LOL. No biggie - I didn’t expect a bargain and I hope the spa lady got some credit for that sale. My only disappointment was when the product arrived - it was NOT the bottle she handed me…it was maybe 3 oz, and the attached receipt said $48, not $37. But it’s vacation, and I will not stress on my vacation. A cautionary tale for the rest of you…. 🙂 The treatment rooms are lovely - but they lower the shades almost all the way to the floor - so this lovely ocean view is not something you will see. Then again, your eyes should be closed. But those shades should be open as you are coming and going! Small gripe! Stock photos for your viewing pleasure…

Day 6: At Sea Big goals for today: trying to figure out how to use the next 2 specialty dining meals we paid for but hadn’t booked, relaxation, and spa appointments. A lot of people asking lately what your Retreat Host can do for you…honestly, ours didn’t do much. We requested two things: ice in our ice bucket at turndown. And on two separate mornings, coffee delivered to our room. It took until day 4 (and two reminders) before the ice showed up. Coffee took 30-45 minutes to be delivered. Meh. The other request - can you help check on our reservation requests for Eden and Rooftop Grill? He ghosted us on those things. After another great breakfast in Luminae, we headed to the Retreat and found a couple loungers. (Chair hogging still seriously out of control). After reading and relaxing, we decided to hit up Le Grand Bistro for lunch. They were entirely booked but the hostess there was wonderful! We explained we had 2 specialty dining meals unused. She immediately got to work and had no problem booking the Rooftop Grill for us that evening. (Made us wonder what the heck our Retreat Host was doing…). She couldn’t help with Eden (no surprise) but did offer to book us lunch in the Le Grand Bistro to use up our 3rd meal credit. Now - lunch is not the same as dinner there (which is Le Petite Chef) but that’s ok. I will say I was a little disappointed that specialty dining was so ridiculously hard to secure (and yes, I did try to book weeks before we boarded!) Video of the view from the Retreat hanging chairs. What a great place to sit and read (and chair hogs haven’t figured out a way to “save” these yet!). With the added waves it was so relaxing! FullSizeRender.MOV

Hi everyone, We are just off Apex, our first cruise since 2017. Previous cruises include Celebrity (Mercury, Millenium, Silhouette) and Royal Caribbean (Independence and Allure). This was the first time cruising as a couple without anyone else…and after a couple of rough years, we felt we were entitled to some pampering so we booked a Sky Suite in the Retreat. We booked pretty last minute (2 months out) and got a great deal by using a website where you can input the cruise you want, and travel agents compete with one another and offer you bids on your cruise. This has worked really well for us in the past and we once again scored a good price and $1,600 OBC. I’ll break down the cruise day by day with as much detail as I can remember. Here we go!

Waiting at the airport with time to kill. Just finished up an incredible week on Apex. Full photo review will follow…but until then, amy questions? Highlights: Luminae Retreat Service Spa Lowlights (i’m being picky here, there really is little to find fault with): Some seriously entitled/rude fellow passengers Weird ship layout Casino didn’t like me Can’t get a dinner reservation at Eden