Just of the Apex 12/20-12/27

[Want2Cruise 701]

I’ll start with the positive. 
 

The Good. 1/3 Full. Only 7 confirmed cases. Thought that was good since it was inevitable there would be some cases and hearing about other ships. Read below for more. Service excellent. Staff willing to go above and beyond. No waits. No lines. No problem getting seats anywhere. Staff willing to go out of their way; whereas, they wouldn’t normally do so at full capacity. Eden dinner was the best dinner we had. Rooftop Grille was good too. Stayed in the Retreat. Lounge and Sundeck they really did it right with this class. 
 

The ship is absolutely gorgeous. I was hesitant  at first given the negative reviews of Edge initially. So glad we decided to give it a try. Some of the furniture is a little uncomfortable I will add. Not all but some. 
 

The Bad. DH most likely has Covid. He has had the flu since yesterday late afternoon/evening after disembarking. I have no symptoms. We are both vaxxed and boosted. He is getting tested tomorrow. I will post results when we get them. Could only get one appt. If he is, I’m most likely asymptomatic. There were probably way more cases than known about given us now. 
 

Only about 10% wore masks. We did always then didn’t as much given no one was, and we got into the vacation mode I guess. We do regret that now but would it have changed things who knows. We still wore them compared to most. We even kept our distance and didn’t do ship excursions to keep away from crowds. 
 

Even though only 33%, they packed the Retreat. Only two available cabins due to one cancellation and another cabin had to disembark the ship due to a family emergency our butler said. Luminae was packed and tables very close together. Hardly ate there for that reason, plus we didn’t love the menus and it was a very busy atmosphere with the decor and capacity. Not relaxing to dine there at all. 
 

To my surprise, they held a captains club event in Eden on night 2. We left as soon as we got there. No social distancing. Standing room due to tables being full. They were coming around with drinks and passed hors d’oeuvres. BUT, they won’t hold an Elite cocktail hour 🤔. Would have been less people if they just had it for Elite and above rather than for everyone with just one sailing completed. Makes total sense. Some things I just don’t get. 
 

We didn’t love the Sunset Bar setup on this class. Very narrow and more curved around the aft as compared to the S&MClass. Same with the oceanview outdoor seating. Fine Cut was a disappoint. Good thing we had an extensive amount of OBC because it wasn’t worth a surcharge at all let alone $70/pp. 
 

Overall, if it weren’t for the fact that we now most likely have Covid, it would have been one of our best sailings. We did say that when we got off how enjoyable it was with reduced capacity and excellent service. 
 

Instead of enjoying a post cruise week in Boca, we will be spending it with DH sick in the hotel room while I quarantine as well tending to him. We will drive the rental back home instead of dropping it at FLL for our flight which we will cancel. 
 

We did receive our survey today. I will wait to fill it out until after we find out DH’s results. 
 

Happy New Year all!
 

 

 

[kathynorth]

It's terrible that your wonderful trip has been spoiled due to this post cruise illness. Hopefully it's not covid and your DH has a speedy recovery. Fortunately, you were both fully vaccinated. We've been thinking of submitting a move up bid for a suite on our Feb cruise, but based on what you, as well as others are reporting, I'm thinking I'll feel more comfortable in a regular veranda, MDR, and the lesser crowded parts of the ship. 

[kwokpot]

I'm sorry about your covid situation spoiling your wonderful cruise. We were on the sailing prior to yours also in Retreat Class and it wasn't crowded at all. In fact most of the time the Retreat Lounge was literally EMPTY. We generally went for Aperitivo around 6:30-6:45 and either two or three other couples at the most, some evenings we were the only ones in the Lounge. Dinner at Luminae around 7-7:30 it was never crowded and we never had to sit next to anyone. 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Edited December 29, 2021 by kwokpot

[hcat]

To Want to cruise

Feel better.

Hope it works out..you sound upbeat even with this sad end to the cruise.

Glad u enjoyed the cruise

[cangelmd]

Want2, best wishes to your DH, there’s a fair amount of plain of flu and nameless crud going around, and the flu vaccine is not a very good match this year - so his illness may well not be Covid. Hope you enjoyed your cruise at least part of the time.

[Blondebomb]

Glad you were able to still enjoy the Apex. We went on the Edge pre Covid. We get on Apex this Jan 22,2022. Coming from Indiana we fly down on the 20th. Hopefully no cancellations for flights.🙏🏻 
 I was curious if your husband Covid test had come back yet? ?
I had the flu right after Thanksgiving. Took several test. Just the flu. 

Hope he’s feeling better 

Susan from Indiana 🥰

[TeaBag]

It's bad enough getting off a cruise and realizing the vacation is ended without getting off sick.  I wish your husband a quick recovery and hopefully you will remain asymptomatic.

[ldgiff]

Hope health returns soon. We are scheduled for 6pm dining. I see the Apex uses 4 different dining rooms. Are you assigned to a certain dining room when you board? Do you have to reserve dinner in the other free dining areas prior to sailing? Thank you.

 

[Lourex]

I’ll agree with about everything Want2Cruise stated.  The ship was great and the service was outstanding.  With it being only 1/3 full made it completely stress free.  The only spoiler was Covid.  There were a lot more than 7 people on that ship with Covid (we know of 4 ourselves amongst a small sample size of people we met).  And the staff indicated there were a lot.  I certainly don’t blame the ship for that as it is a known risk especially given how contagious omicron seems to be.  However, the communication once it was spreading was non existent as we were in close contact with some of those impacted.  We were not warned even though the impacted party communicated they were with us.  Unfortunately we did not find out until we had symptoms at the very end of the trip.  I would suspect there will be others like DH that will experience symptoms after disembarking (and unfortunately likely jumping on airplanes).   Again, I really enjoyed the ship, staff, food, entertainment and overall experience.  I just think everyone needs to understand the risks of testing positive and what that brings with it  (potential illness, passing on to others, Quarantines, no flights home, the impossibility of finding a rental car when you can’t fly, confined to your stateroom, etc.). 

[Pushkin]

Did OP ever report if DH tested positive for Covid?

[RandyOnie]

21 hours ago, ldgiff said:

Hope health returns soon. We are scheduled for 6pm dining. I see the Apex uses 4 different dining rooms. Are you assigned to a certain dining room when you board? Do you have to reserve dinner in the other free dining areas prior to sailing? Thank you.

 

We have the same question. We are on the Feb 12th cruise. I booked our excursions and the Chefs Table, but when I went to see how you go about choosing your other nights, the system wouldn't let me as we don't have "flex". We are the late seating. I've emailed my TA to see if she can shed any light on this. 

 

Hoping the best for the OP. We had our sons and their families over for Christmas a week early....and one son called me that Monday morning to say they were all sick and the adults and my oldest grandchild tested positive. Luckily we are double vaxxed and boostered, but we tested on Tuesday night anyways and it came back negative. My other son's family tested negative as well. This new variant is going to be a booger to wrangle. 

[Want2Cruise 701]

On 12/28/2021 at 9:21 PM, kwokpot said:

I'm sorry about your covid situation spoiling your wonderful cruise. We were on the sailing prior to yours also in Retreat Class and it wasn't crowded at all. In fact most of the time the Retreat Lounge was literally EMPTY. We generally went for Aperitivo around 6:30-6:45 and either two or three other couples at the most, some evenings we were the only ones in the Lounge. Dinner at Luminae around 7-7:30 it was never crowded and we never had to sit next to anyone. 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I will say the lounge wasn’t very crowded but Luminae was. The 3x we ate there we were always seated next to another couple. Because it was a holiday sailing, there were large groups taking up the big tables making the smaller, closer together tables the only option. 

[Want2Cruise 701]

 

I am really sorry as the OP here. I tried posting a couple days ago but couldn’t to everyone’s posts. Anyway, DH did indeed test positive. Results came in around 11pm last night. Great job CVS on the PCR. Results in a little over 24hrs. Tested at 4:30PM and received them at 11PM the following day. 
 

This Omicron is so contagious right now. We arrived home today after driving to find out everyone here we know has it. Our family in another state has it only because he has to be tested because of his profession. All asymptomatic or mild. Our adult son and GF are traveling too. They had their test to travel back to the US and have tested positive to their surprise. Unfortunately, they are there to stay until they can test positive to fly back. 
 

So torn. We had regretted cruising since we contracted it even though one of our best cruises, but given what we know after returning, it seems like we would have caught it either way.  
 

The worst part is we most likely passed it to people unknowingly and hopefully the person or persons we contracted it from were asymptomatic. Big takeaway on all this is be vaxxed and boosted. If we weren’t, I don’t even want to know or find out. 
 

Happy New Year all!!

[Want2Cruise 701]

On 12/29/2021 at 11:07 PM, Lourex said:

I’ll agree with about everything Want2Cruise stated.  The ship was great and the service was outstanding.  With it being only 1/3 full made it completely stress free.  The only spoiler was Covid.  There were a lot more than 7 people on that ship with Covid (we know of 4 ourselves amongst a small sample size of people we met).  And the staff indicated there were a lot.  I certainly don’t blame the ship for that as it is a known risk especially given how contagious omicron seems to be.  However, the communication once it was spreading was non existent as we were in close contact with some of those impacted.  We were not warned even though the impacted party communicated they were with us.  Unfortunately we did not find out until we had symptoms at the very end of the trip.  I would suspect there will be others like DH that will experience symptoms after disembarking (and unfortunately likely jumping on airplanes).   Again, I really enjoyed the ship, staff, food, entertainment and overall experience.  I just think everyone needs to understand the risks of testing positive and what that brings with it  (potential illness, passing on to others, Quarantines, no flights home, the impossibility of finding a rental car when you can’t fly, confined to your stateroom, etc.). 

I hope you are well and safe. I’m sorry. It’s disheartening to hear about so many other cases we didn’t know about, and there wasn’t more transparency. I wish Celebrity would have communicated more. I know we took the risk, and as stated we wore our masks less toward than the end than in the beginning and let our guard down. We still distanced ourselves to the point we didn’t communicate with other passengers other than a hello and had no idea what was going on amongst the ship.  If there was more communication, we would have worn them more and sanitized more frequently. Our fault. We should have anyway, but Celebrity could have done a little more too. 
 

Just curious if you have more numbers?  Was anyone put off the ship who tested positive?  Were you or the others in The Retreat?

[Lourex]

Hi.  I do not have numbers.  I am unsure if they will post them.  We were told ‘I cant give you numbers but you will see it in the news.’  We are fine.  1 has had flu since the last day.  And 3 of us have bad head colds.  The other party we know about lost smell and had flu symptoms.  We were staying in Aqua Class and the folks we interacted with were in the Retreat.  I find it most disturbing that Celebrity never asked us who we were in contact with over the previous 24 hours to potentially warn others nor shared with us the person they knew that was positive (and this person shared with Celebrity that he was in contact with us the day before!).  They also suggested we might be best served by getting a Covid test when we get home versus on the ship. We pushed to test as all signs pointed towards 2 in our party being positive.  If we waited, we would have then flown home and brought it on the plane with us.   (Instead we embarked on a 22 hour drive with a rental car at $389/day.   I feel Celebrity will do the right thing and pick this up).  The medical staff was very nice and I think were just overwhelmed as they were trying figure things out.  I do want to reiterate that the ship was fantastic and so was the service.  So I dont want this event to cloud that.  It just ended on a disappointing note.  

[WonderMan3]

31 minutes ago, Lourex said:

Hi.  I do not have numbers.  I am unsure if they will post them.  We were told ‘I cant give you numbers but you will see it in the news.’  We are fine.  1 has had flu since the last day.  And 3 of us have bad head colds.  The other party we know about lost smell and had flu symptoms.  We were staying in Aqua Class and the folks we interacted with were in the Retreat.  I find it most disturbing that Celebrity never asked us who we were in contact with over the previous 24 hours to potentially warn others nor shared with us the person they knew that was positive (and this person shared with Celebrity that he was in contact with us the day before!).  They also suggested we might be best served by getting a Covid test when we get home versus on the ship. We pushed to test as all signs pointed towards 2 in our party being positive.  If we waited, we would have then flown home and brought it on the plane with us.   (Instead we embarked on a 22 hour drive with a rental car at $389/day.   I feel Celebrity will do the right thing and pick this up).  The medical staff was very nice and I think were just overwhelmed as they were trying figure things out.  I do want to reiterate that the ship was fantastic and so was the service.  So I dont want this event to cloud that.  It just ended on a disappointing note.  

This post wasn't clear. Are you saying that you and your entire party all tested positive for Covid after being on the ship? I ask because you keep mentioning flu, but loss of smell is not a flu symptom and is a key symptom of Covid.

 

And the reason the cruise line recommended you test after you get off the ship is to lower their numbers showing positive onboard. What is confusing here though is I thought everyone had to be tested on the last day or next to last day of the cruise before debarking? Did that requirement go away?

[Lourex]

Yes we all tested positive.  And I agree they didnt want the numbers associated with the ship.  No, there is no requirement to test upon disembarkation. (Maybe for international?)

[Want2Cruise 701]

21 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

This post wasn't clear. Are you saying that you and your entire party all tested positive for Covid after being on the ship? I ask because you keep mentioning flu, but loss of smell is not a flu symptom and is a key symptom of Covid.

 

And the reason the cruise line recommended you test after you get off the ship is to lower their numbers showing positive onboard. What is confusing here though is I thought everyone had to be tested on the last day or next to last day of the cruise before debarking? Did that requirement go away?

The only people tested are the ones doing a B2B and traveling international I think on the latter. 
 

I don’t know why, but I’m just blown away after reading that X would tell you to test when you get off the ship. I know they don’t want the numbers and statistics but that’s just wrong. 

[WonderMan3]

9 minutes ago, Lourex said:

Yes we all tested positive.  And I agree they didnt want the numbers associated with the ship.  No, there is no requirement to test upon disembarkation. (Maybe for international?)

No wonder the case numbers being reported onboard are low. Insanity...