Apex Live — December 4, 2021

[Nashna]

I feel your pain and how you take the opportunity to devour good bread.  Since my DH was diagnosed with Celiac 10 years ago, we rarely have good (non GF) bread in the house.  We have tried every available GF bread and have not found one we like.  We are in Aqua Class on our January Apex cruise.  Hopefully, the bread served in Blu will have the same bakers as Luminae.

[dazey]

We sailed a week ago on Apex and again that Cafe al Bacio is still very nice.  Most seating helps a lot.

 

Cabana:  I agree the placement is not worth the money.   Any you have everyone walking back looking at what you have to eat, drink, etc.

 

Not a fan of aluminum cans.  We found that you need to be sure the cap is screwed on tightly.

 

Except for Eden we found that the menu in each MRD or specialty restaurant are the same as for Edge and previous cruises.  All very good.  Eden was especially nice(yes to lobster casserole-not really a heavy sauced dish which is nice and the lobster was good).

 

We had the IV cabin and actually enjoyed it as we are not big on sitting in the sun so we get added cabin space and also can enjoy the sea air and sound of the ocean.

 

I know you will have a wonderful time.

[BennyBrun]

13 hours ago, What A Market said:

First onboard dinner this evening at Luminae. DW has Coeliac so eating gluten free is an absolute must. The staff from top to bottom did an amazing job taking care and of her. Truly impressed. 
 

Here’s some photos of a couple of my choices: the escargot (a must for me wherever I can get it) and the duck breast. Both excellent. The escargot in particular. Accompanied with some crusty baguette. I also had the tomato bisque. (No photo.) Probably the top dish of the evening. 

Oooooh that escargot….it is amazing and I usually require two per meal lol.

[BennyBrun]

25 minutes ago, What A Market said:

First “fail” of the cruise — the baguette bread in the Oceanview Cafe. Oh the horror.......

 

DW and I generally choose to eat breakfast in Oceanview instead of Luminae.  Both of us prefer to graze for breakfast, picking and choosing whatever appeals to us in the moment. Luminae, while very nice at breakfast, feels too formal for first thing in the morning.

 

I say I graze as well, but really I don’t.  I always start with yogurt and some melon. This is followed by eating a stupid amount of baguette and butter. I relish this opportunity while cruising because I don’t eat “real” bread because I live in a totally gluten free household. (Both DW and DD having Coeliac.)

 

The bread display in Oceanview looked marvelous, and I zeroed in on the baguette. It looked a little pale and didn’t seem overly crusty. I get back to the table and grab to tear apart. And that’s when my heart sank. Not to get too Paul Hollywood on you, but it was like grabbing a loaf of Wonder Bread. Not crusty, no structure, totally bland, soft and tasteless. Argh!  This was so surprising because the baguette at Luminae that I devoured last night with my escargot was perfect.

 

As I said, the Horror. Went back to bread display and tried a sour dough roll. A little better. But not good enough to finish, let alone eat more than one.

 

The bakery at Oceanview looks amazing but unfortunately not everything is a gem… I do recommend the almond croissant if you can have that… it is quite good especially when it is warm and out of the oven.

[volk904]

Did they make and design changes from the Edge to the Apex?

[Guindalf]

I feel your baguette pain! I’m a Brit and I moved to the States about 24 years ago, and one of the many things I miss is decent crusty bread (apart from decent chocolate, but that’s another story!).

 

I also love that I can get real bacon for breakfast!

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, volk904 said:

Did they make and design changes from the Edge to the Apex?

Not really. Some minor tweaks but in general exactly the same. Biggest change is an extra hot tub in the solarium, Craft Social Bar replace the casino bar,and a couple of services swapped decks between 3 and 4. 

[tunaman2011]

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

Not really. Some minor tweaks but in general exactly the same. Biggest change is an extra hot tub in the solarium, Craft Social Bar replace the casino bar,and a couple of services swapped decks between 3 and 4. 

Greetings

 

They also installed an awning over the Sunset Bar which allows you to sit there without roasting in the sun.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

[What A Market]

Interesting, can't post for the past couple of hours from iPhone or iPad.

Using laptop now.

 

[What A Market]

Edited December 5, 2021 by What A Market

[What A Market]

Ok, sorry for disjointed posting routine here.

Above photo is DW's gluten free pizza from lunch.  Her favorite -- mushroom and spinach done Alfredo style.  Low cal it's not.  HA.

 

Prep time 10 to 15 minutes.  Baked in an individual aluminum pan to avoid cross contamination.  Well done Celebrity!

 

[What A Market]

[BennyBrun]

2 minutes ago, What A Market said:

The pizza looks great!  Enjoy!

[miched]

Since you are in a suite why don’t you have the butler serve you the coffee and sweet rolls in the morning in your cabin ?   You could then have it sitting on your balcony while looking at the sunrise or just enjoying the ocean.   We would ask for 4 Americanos every morning and 2 bran muffins.  Sometimes we would designate a time and others we could call.   He would then call us a little before he would serve it to make sure we were ready for him.  He would ask on the days why we didn’t want it and seemed disappointed. 
 

Happy cruising. 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Edited December 6, 2021 by miched

[BennyBrun]

The freshly baked croissants … so many variations 

[DaKahuna]

29 minutes ago, BennyBrun said:

The freshly baked croissants … so many variations 

 

We love the almond croissants.

 

[terrydtx]

54 minutes ago, miched said:

Since you are in a suite why don’t you have the butler serve you the coffee and sweet rolls in the morning in your cabin ?   You could then have it sitting on your balcony while looking at the sunrise or just enjoying the ocean.   We would ask for 4 Americanos every morning and 2 bran muffins.  Sometimes we would designate a time and others we could call.   He would then call us a little before he would serve it to make sure we were ready for him.  He would ask on the days why we didn’t want it and seemed disappointed. 
 

Happy cruising. 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

That was what we did to utilize our butler on the Equinox in August, really enjoyed our aft facing sky suite balcony for breakfast with no wind.  The first morning I commented to our Butler that the pot of coffee was on the weak side and that DW and I prefer a stronger bolder coffee. The next morning, he brought a pot of coffee but he had Cafe El Bacio add 4 espresso shots and the coffee was perfect.

Edited December 6, 2021 by terrydtx

[terrydtx]

I am following, we have the Apex booked in a Sky Suite in 2023 for a Cruise from Amsterdam to Athens.  We also have a B2B Edge cruise booked in 2024 of New Zealand and Australia for 24 days.

 

I am looking forward to a future cruise on the new Beyond with the changes to the Retreat. The Luminae is moving from the side of deck 12 to a forward view on deck 16 with the Retreat Lounge just behind the Luminae and Retreat deck is one deck above on 17.

[What A Market]

Ok, looks like I can post from my iPad again. Yay!

 

So Monday morning here on the good ship Apex. Sitting at my usual morning spot at Cafe al Bacio. Today we arrive in Puerto Rico sometime around 3:30pm with gangway down at 4:00pm. Puerto Rico is allowing ship passengers off on a regular basis. This is not the case with St. Kitts tomorrow.  You can only leave the ship on a planned excursion, but both ship and private excursions are allowed. Since I did no planning, the restriction caught me off guard. Dumb dumb.  I booked a ship excursion last night for St. Kitts.  The excursion is a beach visit where I think we visit a “private” club.  I’ll report more on that tomorrow.

 

But back to Puerto Rico.  With the late afternoon arrival, we are just planning to wander around in Old Town and eat and drink as we go. Forecast says partly cloudy when we arrive. 83 degrees and some chance of rain.  Looks like it will definitely be raining earlier in the day, so works out  to arrive later. Looking forward to bar hopping and doing dinner ashore. All aboard at 9:30pm.

 

More later.

[mac_tlc]

We love Cafe al Bacio. Spent a lot of time there on Edge. Any word on how many passengers onboard? 
 

mac_tlc

Edited December 6, 2021 by mac_tlc

[What A Market]

While boarding, the Retreat host told us about 1700 people sailing. 

[little britain]

7 minutes ago, What A Market said:

While boarding, the Retreat host told us about 1700 people sailing. 

I also found issues with trying to post to CC from my phone - did it quote the whole thread?  Very strange.

I know it is early but could you possibly please find expected figures for the January sailings - our RC is dead which makes me think not many!  But will be more than the 900 when I was on her last! 

Great review. 

Thanks

LB

[What A Market]

Time for sentimental Dad gobbledygook.

 

This is the first cruise in over 12 years that I haven’t had my daughter with me. She and her SO (husband as of February 2020) have joined DW and I on a number of cruises throughout Europe and our last one in Alaska. We’ve also had the chance to bounce around Europe and the States on some land tours.

 

I’ve posted before about Shannon on live threads from previous cruises.  She has spent her whole adult life (since a freshman in college) engaged in a battle with two different forms of cancer. Between never ending surgeries, chemo, and radiation treatments I would find time for us to travel. Almost always by cruise ship. More surprising was how much she loved the Oceania ships (both the large and small ones). This is generally not where you find a lot of younger people. But she would also never turn down a trip with Celebrity either. (She told me once she loved being around “old people” because she spent so much time with them during her treatments. Weird kid!)

 

In December 2019, she got her first “clear” cancer screening. Two things happened immediately following that. One, is she married her long-time SO (the amazing Blaine). The second is she set herself on a path to become an FBI agent. She is what many people call a “9/11” kid and had the calling for government service since before high school.  Cancer derailed her original pursuit of service, so it was literally shocking to see her pick it up again so many years later at the age of 33. She just graduated from Quantico last month, and is off on her first posting. 

 

She is a fierce and driven person. Traveling with her has been the greatest joy of my life. Here’s a photo of the two of us bar hopping in Vancouver the night before getting on board our last cruise together with Celebrity. The second is a photo of Shannon going in for what turned out to be her last radiation treatment. Her life motto up to that point (as with many people fighting the Big C): F@#k Cancer. I can’t wait to cruise with her again!

 

Gott ist die Liebe.

[lizinindy]

If you’re doing the Carambola Beach club excursion in St. Kitts, I’ll be anxious to hear your impressions.

[What A Market]

lizinindy:  

Bingo, that’s the tour we’re doing in St. Kitts. I’ll definitely report on that.