LIVE from Celebrity Apex: Best of Scandinavia May 25, 2023

[love2crews.]

After touring Visby and getting back to the room, we wanted to have lunch.  It was a late lunch (about 2pm), so only two options were Oceanview or room service.

 

We ordered room service and it came in about 40 minutes. 

 

 

 

 

 

For dinner, we had Fine Cut Steakhouse at 6:30.  We arrived about 15 mins early, but they had no problem seating us early.  

 

I think this was our favorite meal on the ship so far!  Even the chicken was phenomenal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by love2crews.

[love2crews.]

Retreat Room Service Menu.  Sorry the photos are the wrong direction. 😬

 

Breakfast from 6-9:30am

 

All day dining from 11am-5am

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by love2crews.

[lostchild]

4 hours ago, love2crews. said:

Finally caught up with posting now!

 

Wifi has been impeccable, even on sea days.  Haven't had any issues using our phones or accessing the internet on my computer.

This is great news for us.  I know a lot of people could leave their phone/computer behind on vacation, but for us, my wife still needs to work on vacation.  Without internet, we can't go on vacation.  

[librarylady19]

1 minute ago, lostchild said:

This is great news for us.  I know a lot of people could leave their phone/computer behind on vacation, but for us, my wife still needs to work on vacation.  Without internet, we can't go on vacation.  

Is this the basic or the premium internet?

[love2crews.]

@lostchild We are the same.  If for some reason the internet becomes unreliable, I will post an update.

 

 

[love2crews.]

Just now, librarylady19 said:

Is this the basic or the premium internet?

 

This is the premium internet.  We are each allowed 4  premium devices, but that is way too many.

 

If you do not have it included, I suggest purchasing a package for 1 person with multiple devices, that way it is more cost effective.  For example, 1 person with a 4 device package instead of 2 people with 2 devices each.

[lostchild]

1 minute ago, librarylady19 said:

Is this the basic or the premium internet?

We booked premium wi-fi with the Flash Sales saving.   Since OP is in the IC suite, I am sure she also got the premium wi-fi.   I already did some research on Apex wi-fi before I book and Apex supposed to have Starlink.  The speed originally was over 15 Mbps when they first launch it but later on limited it to about 4 or 5 Mbps but that's still plenty fast for what we need to do.   We are just checking up on our online business not streaming video or anything.

[AF-1]

love2crews  you have done a wonderful job posting your pictures.  I like the room service pics from your suite.  Have fun on the remainder of your cruise.  Cheers

[love2crews.]

I'm not tech savvy at all.  I know there is a way to test wifi/internet speed.  I will happily do that if someone can instruct me how. 

[love2crews.]

1 minute ago, AF-1 said:

love2crews  you have done a wonderful job posting your pictures.  I like the room service pics from your suite.  Have fun on the remainder of your cruise.  Cheers

 

Thank you.  Eli is doing a wonderful job plating everything.  When he is on break, it is Liam.  Both are exceptional at what they do. 

[Mickey22]

Hello,

  I have been following your review as we are doing this cruise in July. As soon as I read about your day in Visby I emailed Consu and arranged for the same tour. I loved your pictures and am glad that we will be visiting the farm. She answered immediately and I was able to confirm the tour, so thank you for posting! Hope you continue to have a wonderful cruise.

 

Jane

[lostchild]

3 hours ago, love2crews. said:

I'm not tech savvy at all.  I know there is a way to test wifi/internet speed.  I will happily do that if someone can instruct me how. 

If you are on a browser on computer, phone, or tablet, just google "speed test" then just click the "Run Speed Test" in the box on top and it will tell you.   The test takes about 10 seconds to run and will give you download and upload speed in Mbps.   For cruises, anything over 3 Mbps is "useable".   I read some blogs that people tested speed on Apex and the latest ones were around 5 Mbps download.

[cqtiger]

With the post cruise tours do they take your luggage on the bus

[love2crews.]

Thank you for the instructions.

 

Looks like it's less than 5 right now. Currently pulling into Stockholm.  Very pretty!

 

I should add, we have not tried streaming or uploading.  Only texting, calling, facetiming, and searching/emailing.

 

 

[love2crews.]

8 hours ago, Mickey22 said:

Hello,

  I have been following your review as we are doing this cruise in July. As soon as I read about your day in Visby I emailed Consu and arranged for the same tour. I loved your pictures and am glad that we will be visiting the farm. She answered immediately and I was able to confirm the tour, so thank you for posting! Hope you continue to have a wonderful cruise.

 

Jane

 

Jane, 

 

This makes me so happy!  You will love Consu and her tour.  We would love to hear about your experience after your sailing in July.

 

She answers emails very quickly and thoroughly.

 

I took me a while to find a good guide on the island.  Not a lot of options.  We are so grateful we found Consu!! ☺️

[love2crews.]

5 hours ago, cqtiger said:

With the post cruise tours do they take your luggage on the bus

 

I will ask about this. 

 

I would assume yes, but I will find out.

 

If anyone knows, please feel free to chime in. 🙂 

[love2crews.]

May 29: Stockholm, Sweden

 

Woke up a little before 7 in hopes of seeing the sail-in everyone raves about.  Sadly, we were pretty much almost to the dock at that point.  We will watch on the sail away.  We'll be at Eden tonight.

 

 

Eli brought us room service for breakfast and made a special run to get some crepes for my sister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our day started at 9am right outside the cruise terminal.  We arranged a tour with Thomas of Stockholm Guiding.

 

We headed right to the Vasa museum to beat the crowds.  The museum opens at 10, so we had a little time to walk around the outside of the museum.  Everything is so beautiful.  We managed to see some little ducklings and swans!  If you've been following along, you've probably realized we love animals.  It doesn't take much to impress us!

 

 

 

 

Thomas has a front of the line pass for the museum, so we were able to wait in the group line.  Much shorter than the "normal" line that was backed up to the street and turned a corner, we couldn't even see the end of the line.  This was at 10am.

 

 

We learned the Vasa is the biggest attraction in Scandinavia.  It's such a unique story and we definitely recommend it.  Get there early as it gets crowded quickly.

 

 

From there, we headed to a food hall, called "Saluhall."  It was beautiful with lots of fresh fish, meat, cheese and ready made meals.  We picked up some kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls).  We got a traditional and a cardamom and really enjoyed them.  We also had to get some Swedish meatballs.  It came with mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, and pickled cucumbers.  This was soooo good!

 

 

 

 

 

Right across from the food hall was a hot dog stand.  Another food on our list is called "tunnbrödsrulle" which is a hot dog wrap.  We ordered it the traditional way and weren't sure what to expect it to taste like.  It comes with 2 hot dogs, mashed potatoes, shrimp in a creamy sauce, lettuce, onion and tomato all wrapped up in a flatbread style bread.  We asked for it the traditional way, so they added ketchup and mustard.  OMG, it was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!  You couldn't really taste the shrimp, you could only really taste the creamy sauce it was in.  The wrap was pretty big and the best way we can describe it is having your entire meal wrapped up in bread.  Please try this if you are in Stockholm.  I never imagined myself eating shrimp from a hot dog stand, but we all loved it!  Totally under-rated!

 

 

 

 

 

There was a grocery store across the street called "Hemköp" so we had to stop in for our obligatory snack search.  Grabbed a few candy bars along with some fresh licorice.  The licorice is really yummy.

 

Thomas drove us across a few bridges and showed us the city highlights, like City Hall, the Royal Opera House and the Royal Palace and Gamla Stan.  He also took us to a lookout above the city with an incredible view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're all exhausted and still trying to adjust to the time change, so we ended about 30 minutes earlier than planned.  We were back on board at 1:30 and stopped by Le Grand Bistro and Cafe al Bacio for our afternoon snack and coffee run.

 

Tour Provider Info:

Stockholm Guiding

Thomas

Edited May 29, 2023 by love2crews.

[love2crews.]

Tomorrow we're in Helsinki, Finland.  We have a few snacks we might try, like pasties, but looking for more.

 

Anyone recommend snacks, food, candy we should try there?

[Hummingbird Lover]

19 minutes ago, love2crews. said:

Tomorrow we're in Helsinki, Finland.  We have a few snacks we might try, like pasties, but looking for more.

 

Anyone recommend snacks, food, candy we should try there?

Thanks you so much for the detailed information. We are doing this cruise on June 25. 
We are starting a B2B2B on June 6 to Iceland, followed by Norwegian Fjords. Will you be doing either of those cruises as well?
Thanks again, I look forward to your updates daily. Enjoy the cruise.
P.s.  did you use Swedish Krona at the hot dog stand or just tap Credit Card? 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Hummingbird Lover

[love2crews.]

1 minute ago, Hummingbird Lover said:

Thanks you so much for the detailed information. We are doing this cruise on June 25. 
We are starting a B2B2B on June 6 to Iceland, followed by Norwegian Fjords. Will you be doing either of those cruises as well?
Thanks again, I look forward to your updates daily. Enjoy the cruise.

 

How wonderful!  We will not be doing a B2B.  We get off on the 6th when you'll be getting on!

 

So jealous, I would love to do a B2B one day.  Have an AMAZING trip! 🙂 

[hcat]

great review ongoing..love the artistry in your photos..love swans, ducks and flowers, old buildings but all of them are  nice!

[love2crews.]

48 minutes ago, Hummingbird Lover said:

P.s.  did you use Swedish Krona at the hot dog stand or just tap Credit Card? 

We used a credit card (VISA) for everything.  Food hall, grocery store, and hot dog stand all took cc.

 

Only thing we used krona for was tipping Thomas.

[love2crews.]

Also, can anyone recommend mocktails we should try on board?

[love2crews.]

Eden Round 2:

 

We weren't feeling sea sick this time, so it was a much better experience.  Our waiter King and assistant waiter Kimberly are a stellar duo!  King is so friendly and even did some magic trick/mind games and origami for us between meals since the restaurant wasn't too busy.

 

 

We chose the tasting menu and everything was delicious!  They recently debuted a plant based menu.  Not sure if the menu will stay, but we tried a few things and they were just as tasty as the regular menu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great night and we were seated by the window where we could watch the wake as we sailed out of Stockholm.  Fantastic night!

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by love2crews.

[love2crews.]

Sailing out of the Swedish archipelago.  Captain made an announcement earlier that it's 55 nautical miles and we'll be sailing through over 1200 islands.  We've already been sailing through for about 4 hours and as far as I can see, there is much more to go.

 

 

 

 

 

We time travel tomorrow, so we have to move our clocks forward an hour tonight.

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by love2crews.