Nov 6 Apex B2B East-West Caribbean Cruise

[toddmanka]

9 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Our visit to the Eden restaurant on the first night. 

 

Taking my DW’s above advice, yesterday she was second in line at the reservation desk on deck 3 and was able to get a 6 pm reservation for last night in the Eden restaurant when it appeared there were none to be had on the app. 
 

All we can say is WOW!! What a great menu along with great service!! From the first starter, was a pallet tickling crab appetizer, to the tasty hot soup (which was the first surprise as they don’t offer a hot soup at any of their other SRs). We then had the tastiest crab cake we have EVER had that wasn’t even listed on the menu. Ever have a crab cake where you take your fork and pull on the side and all that falls out are chunks of crab? It was fantastic!
 

Then the DW ordered the fillet mignon and short rip Wellington entree while I ordered the lobster casserole, which was anything but a casserole other than it had a tasty cream sauce covering the 4 large pieces of lobster. The unique thing about 2 of the pieces was that they were fully intact claws down to the tips, but without the shell. We had never seen that before. It was totally awesome!! Of course, halfway through the meal, we switched plates so we each could enjoy them both. 
 

Then came dessert where the DW ordered the Aztec chocolate pie and I had the butterscotch crème brûlée. Both were excellent!!

 

As we were leaving we stopped by and asked the Eden hostess if we could book another reservation later on in the week, expecting the answer to be no. But, she checked and we were able to get another 6 pm reservation on day 4! Yay!! 

 

So, the bottom line is if you really want to eat at a particular restaurant and the App is not showing any available times that fit into your schedule, ask the hostess at that particular restaurant if they can squeeze you in some evening. Interesting side note, our Eden waiter said they are only filling the reservations in the Eden restaurant to between 50-60%, rather than to 100% capacity, to ensure everyone has a pleasant experience, which we thought was pretty cool. 😎

 

 

Sounds like a great dinner, have you tried  Fine cut Steakhouse ?

[Ken the cruiser]

Monday, November 15

 

[Ken the cruiser]

 

 

1 hour ago, toddmanka said:

Sounds like a great dinner, have you tried  Fine cut Steakhouse ?

We did on our first leg and the food was OK, but the steak I had was tough. See post #35 for more details. But we did feel like we got our $$$ worth at Le Petit Chef as we smiled a lot and the dinner was very tasty! We also thought Raw On 5 was also very tasty and well worth the a la carte price. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Dr. Cocktail]

On 11/13/2021 at 5:41 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Sailing away from Port Everglades is so pretty at sunset, I had to post another picture! 😎

 

Jealous and happy that you had such a great sailaway!

 

Thanks for your continuing with your great review!

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

Jealous and happy that you had such a great sailaway!

 

Thanks for your continuing with your great review!

Thanks! We are having a great time and hope you’ll be sailing soon! But we are glad we did a B2B as 9 days was definitely not enough. 😎

[like2cruise]

22 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

OK, by popular demand, here are a couple of key pages from Celebrity Today for the first two days. 
 

Saturday, November 13

 

 

 

Sunday, November 14

 

 

 

Fabulous and super appreciated.  If you have time to do any additional days, it would be so helpful.  If not, we totally understand!!

[Ken the cruiser]

24 minutes ago, like2cruise said:

Fabulous and super appreciated.  If you have time to do any additional days, it would be so helpful.  If not, we totally understand!!

No problem. I’ll keep posting them as soon as we get them in the cabin the previous evening. 😎

[ETHTrader]

18 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I would have thought the Retreat Host could have fixed you internet problem.  I had a similar problem and she just went into her system typed a couple keys and I could get my free internet.

 

Good to know that for the next time 😀

[prish]

We’re booked on the 9N western Caribbean December 11 sailing, similar itinerary to yours, with two extra ports, Roatan and Nassau. Bummer that Grand Cayman is a no go, but we’re happy to be cruising again, especially on the brand  new Apex…👍

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived at Costa Maya! However, we have no plans to go on any excursions and possibly even going ashore. Time will tell. 😎

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have a question for those on this leg or the last. Is there anyone in a cabin on deck 6?

[Ken the cruiser]

Just talked with one of the assistant CDs and he said Celebrity is capping their booking capacity at 70% right now. No estimate as to when it will go higher. That means the Apex maximum capacity right now is about 2037 passengers.

[Ken the cruiser]

This tidbit is for you chocoholics out there like my DW. At lunch as well as at dinner time, there are anywhere between 2-4 tasty chocolate desserts up at the Apex Oceanview Cafe. So if you ever get tired of the Classic chocolate cake served in the MDRs, you now have an option.

[ETHTrader]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We have a question for those on this leg or the last. Is there anyone in a cabin on deck 6?

 

Not me. I am on deck 11

[ETHTrader]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We have arrived at Costa Maya! However, we have no plans to go on any excursions and possibly even going ashore. Time will tell. 😎

 

 

I didn't get off the ship either. It was raining pretty much all morning (and it's raining right now as I type this from The Retreat deck) so I spent the morning on the Retreat Deck, lying on a lounger under a gigantic umbrella and watched the scenery and the rain. 

 

Serenade of the Seas is docked next to us and all their passengers are waving and taking pictures of us. I think they are jealous of our ship because in comparison, their ships looks like it needs some refurbishment. 😁

 

Also had a blast watching football on Sunday at the Craft Social Bar with all the Patriot fans. I am from NY (and grew up a Jets fan) so it was interesting to mix with the Patriot fans but they were great people. Met a great couple who are doing B2B2B2B on Apex (for like 31 days). So jealous of them. Also Aleksandra at the Craft Social Bar is fantastic. She remembered me from my Sept Apex sailing and remembered my go-to drink. What an awesome service she provides.

 

Lastly, had an interesting run in at the entrance to The Retreat Lounge. There were these couple trying to enter The Retreat. Now I don't know if they were Suite guests or not but to enter The Retreat lounge, you have to scan your Seapass in order to get the sliding doors to open. This couple did not know that so when they realized that the doors did not open automatically, they forced it to open. 😅  No idea if they were trying to sneak in or it was just their first time using the lounge.

Edited November 15, 2021 by ETHTrader

[Ken the cruiser]

I was just curious as someone mentioned awhile back they had booked a cabin on deck 6 on this leg, if I’m not mistaken, and they were just wondering how that was going to work if the new crew was also being quarantined on deck 6. Well, today we went and checked and all 4 hallway doors, both forward and aft on both the port and starboard sides, we closed. When we’ve asked various crew members about the quarantine area on deck 6, they have always said deck 6 was only being partially used as a quarantine area for the new crew coming on board.

 

So, I was just checking if anyone actually had wound up in a cabin on deck 6, how were they accessing it if all the hallway doors are closed? But then again if they did not have streaming, they wouldn’t even be able to post to CC anyway. So it guess it will just have to remain a mystery. 😎

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, ETHTrader said:

 

I didn't get off the ship either. It was raining pretty much all morning (and it's raining right now as I type this from The Retreat deck) so I spent the morning on the Retreat Deck, lying on a lounger under a gigantic umbrella and watched the scenery and the rain. 

 

Serenade of the Seas is docked next to us and all their passengers are waving and taking pictures of us. I think they are jealous of our ship because in comparison, their ships looks like it needs some refurbishment. 😁

 

Also had a blast watching football on Sunday at the Craft Social Bar with all the Patriot fans. I am from NY (and grew up a Jets fan) so it was interesting to mix with the Patriot fans but they were great people. Met a great couple who are doing B2B2B2B on Apex (for like 31 days). So jealous of them. Also Aleksandra at the Craft Social Bar is fantastic. She remembered me from my Sept Apex sailing and remembered my go-to drink. What an awesome service she provides.

 

Lastly, had an interesting run in at the entrance to The Retreat Lounge. There were these couple trying to enter The Retreat. Now I don't know if they were Suite guests or not but to enter The Retreat lounge, you have to scan your Seapass in order to get the sliding doors opened. This couple did not know that so when they realized that the doors did not open automatically, they forced it open. 😅  No idea if they were trying to sneak in or it was just their first time using the lounge.

I remember we were in a SS on the Edge back in August and as we were approaching the Retreat Lounge, there was a young lady in her early 20s lingering outside saying her App wasn’t working to open the sliding door. Of course, we had no idea what she was talking about as we never used the App once we boarded and went to the muster station to check in.
 

But once we opened the door, she quickly walked in and disappeared off to the left. When we mentioned it to the Concierge, he just smiled and said he knew who she was. Obviously, she did it quite often and since the ship was only around 30% full and the Retreat was usually pretty empty, he wasn’t too worried.

[ChucktownSteve]

30 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I remember we were in a SS on the Edge back in August and as we were approaching the Retreat Lounge, there was a young lady in her early 20s lingering outside saying her App wasn’t working to open the sliding door. Of course, we had no idea what she was talking about as we never used the App once we boarded and went to the muster station to check in.
 

But once we opened the door, she quickly walked in and disappeared off to the left. When we mentioned it to the Concierge, he just smiled and said he knew who she was. Obviously, she did it quite often and since the ship was only around 30% full and the Retreat was usually pretty empty, he wasn’t too worried.

 

Did you buy her a drink?  🤣

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 

Did you buy her a drink?  🤣

Uhhhh, no!

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re still here in Costa Maya and were looking from our balcony and saw this sailboat high and dry on the shore. I wonder what the story is behind it winding up there as it looks very well intact, except for maybe the keel as it’s sitting pretty flat. My guess is it’s been there for some time as they’re still probably trying to figure out how to get it back in the water!

 

 

[Mrs_Tiki]

Hi Ken, I know this is a pretty specific question, but do you know if there were service club meetings (specifically Rotary International) held onboard? 

 

And thanks for popping by our Roll Call - sorry that you will be departing just as we arrive.  My college friend is on your sailing - look out for Dawn and Johnny from Atlanta who like to dress up on Elegant Chic nights!

 

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, Mrs_Tiki said:

Hi Ken, I know this is a pretty specific question, but do you know if there were service club meetings (specifically Rotary International) held onboard? 

 

And thanks for popping by our Roll Call - sorry that you will be departing just as we arrive.  My college friend is on your sailing - look out for Dawn and Johnny from Atlanta who like to dress up on Elegant Chic nights!

 

I haven’t seen anything in the Dailies about any meetings. But if you go to posts #154 and #177, you can look line by line to see if there are any listed? My guess is because of the pandemic X might not be promoting private group meetings, to include CC Roll Call Meet and Greets from what I understand.

[judebarsto]

Hi We are currently on board. Originally we had cabin 6237 but as soon as we boarded we were switched to 8300. Higher deck but no upgrade otherwise and further from the elevator. Also they didn’t manage to deliver our luggage until late and we didn’t get out captions club notifications until much later. BTW I’m very disappointed because we were unable to book Eden, even though we were on the ship at 11. Apparently all the Eden reservations were mostly booked before the ship even sailed! Probably the 900 travel agents on board for a convention had something to do with that. Anyway I really think celebrity needs to address the reservation system for the specialty restaurants. We only waited to get a reservation until we were onboard so we could use shipboard credit. Bad mistake. So Ken! Would you like to sign over your second Eden reservations to us? ?! 🤣 I’ll be your best friend! Have a great cruise, Judy

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, judebarsto said:

Hi We are currently on board. Originally we had cabin 6237 but as soon as we boarded we were switched to 8300. Higher deck but no upgrade otherwise and further from the elevator. Also they didn’t manage to deliver our luggage until late and we didn’t get out captions club notifications until much later. BTW I’m very disappointed because we were unable to book Eden, even though we were on the ship at 11. Apparently all the Eden reservations were mostly booked before the ship even sailed! Probably the 900 travel agents on board for a convention had something to do with that. Anyway I really think celebrity needs to address the reservation system for the specialty restaurants. We only waited to get a reservation until we were onboard so we could use shipboard credit. Bad mistake. So Ken! Would you like to sign over your second Eden reservations to us? ?! 🤣 I’ll be your best friend! Have a great cruise, Judy

LOL!! You’ll have to ask my DW that question, but I think you know what her answer might be. 😂

 

Glad to hear you weren’t put in the quarantine section! Have you gone down to the Eden Restaurant desk and talked with the hostess to see if you can get a reservation. If you haven’t, it might be worth a try. That’s how we were able to get our second one. You just need to beg a little and be flexible.

[CruiserFromSC]

On 11/14/2021 at 12:03 PM, Jim_Iain said:

Terry -  Have to agree with you.    The app isn't always the most intuitive but if you use it a little you get accustomed to it's little tricks.     One that would fool me was that on many screen there is a white arrow to get back to previous screen but often sits on a light or white area and you can't figure out how to get back. 

 

Another difficulty many have is to select a different ship or cruising.

 

Click top middle Icon (Calendar)

Go to very bottom and select Change Ship/Date

You will get a list of your reservations  Go to the very bottom

Choose Get more details on Ships we Support

Choose Ship

Choose Sailing

 

That is such great information.  Thank you so much for sharing!!! I’m one of those people who could never seem to switch to other ships.  Thanks again!!