Trip Report for Apex Iceland Cruise 7/723

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, Lastdance said:

The street art is amazing, but did you feel it took away from areas that you visited?  It is difficult for me to tell, but hopefully there was a good balance.  So many of the drawings were very well done, especially the one of the chef...these artists are very talented!  To say that Belfast has had a turbulent past, IMHO, is an understatement...

Thanks for including these in your photos.  I enjoy trying to understand the reasons behind this type of street art.

That's an interesting question. The way that I'll answer is it depends on your frame of reference. I'm a born and bred NY'er, who now lives in Philadelphia for the past 17 years. So from my frame of reference, street art is part of the Urban fabric of life. I'm 61 so I know New York City of the 70s and 80s when graffiti was rampant and ubiquitous. In Philly street murals were a way of camouflaging blank walls due to buildings being abandoned and torn down leaving empty lots with blank walls like a mouth with missing teeth. I can see someone who's never lived in a big urban city that's faced urban decay be uncomfortable with the amount of graffiti and street art, but it is now considered a legitimate art form. Just look at Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat or Banksy. 

https://www.discoverphl.com/blog/city-of-murals/

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by kwokpot

[hawkesbaynz]

Enjoyed your photos of the street art. Glad you avoided the sectarian murals in Belfast too. Have you been to Valparaiso in Chile? You will love the street art.

[kwokpot]

Day 11 Cobh/Cork, Morning and Afternoon

We woke up our regular time and with Robert feeling better and still no fever we went up for breakfast in the buffet. Since our arrival into Cobh wasn't until 11:00am the buffet wasn't crazy busy at 9:00am. The Captain did inform us we will get into Port about 30 minutes earlier which is always welcome. We didn't decide until this morning that we would take the train into Cork and walk around. Our IV cabin is on the Starboard side of the ship so we waited until we saw the gangway being hoisted into place that we went to queue up to disembark. We waited about 15-20 minutes and all if the sudden the line started moving. 

 

What's convenient about Cobh is the train station is literally a stone's throw from the Port dock. The train runs every 30 minutes on the half hour from Cobh to Cork, and the same in reverse for the 25 minutes ride. The cost was just under $8/rt/pp. We were able to make the 11:30am train. 

 

The Cork City Centre is rather compact and the River Lee flows around a peninsula portion of the city so there are multiple small bridges both pedestrian only and cars and people bridges to cross. We enjoyed checking out the English Market which was more akin to Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market than Belfast's in that the English Market offered more meats and produce vendors than prepared food vendors so that it's more geared towards locals than tourists. Having said that we enjoyed a sandwich at the Sandwich Stand in the Market, and washed it down with some delicious Irish Apple juice. 

 

We checked out Elisabeth Fort and the adjacent Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral. We then checked out some the many pedestrian only streets filled with shops, restaurants, and bars. since Robert was just recovering from being sick we decided to head back to the ship after enjoying two hours in Cork. Despite a short Port call in Cobh with an all aboard at 5:00 the convenience of the train to Cork allowed us to see a small glimpse of the city in a short time. 

We were able to get back and take a rest/nap before our early 6:00pm dinner at Fine Cuts Steakhouse(It's Robert's birthday today!!!).

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by kwokpot

[Lastdance]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

That's an interesting question. The way that I'll answer is it depends on your frame of reference. I'm a born and bred NY'er, who now lives in Philadelphia for the past 17 years. So from my frame of reference, street art is part of the Urban fabric of life. I'm 61 so I know New York City of the 70s and 80s when graffiti was rampant and ubiquitous. In Philly street murals were a way of camouflaging blank walls due to buildings being abandoned and torn down leaving empty lots with blank walls like a mouth with missing teeth. I can see someone who's never lived in a big urban city that's faced urban decay be uncomfortable with the amount of graffiti and street art, but it is now considered a legitimate art form. Just look at Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat or Banksy. 

https://www.discoverphl.com/blog/city-of-murals/

 

When I said “took away from,"I meant in terms of my ability to figure out the reason behind each one; I did not make that clear, so I apologize.  I am older than you and grew up around the Detroit area. I worked  just outside Houston, but love living in a much smaller community now.  Absolutely, it is a well recognized art form, one that I am totally comfortable with, but decoding it is quite a fascination for me, as I have a friend who loves this art form and has shared many of his experiences with it.  I guess you may be able to tell the story behind many of them; however, I would need to have a tour guide, or snap photos and do some research myself.  So, you thoroughly enjoyed the street art whether you totally understood the personal reason behind it or not; the purpose for the art form created by the artist is what I would need information on to really appreciate it.  However, that’s just me being a novice.  Thanks for sharing your background!

[kwokpot]

Day 11 Cobh/Cork, Evening

Today is Robert's birthday. We are on a casino complementary cruise as Robert is a gambler of the family. For his play on this cruise the casino treated us to a dinner at Fine Cut Steakhouse. Our reservation is 6:00pm and when we arrived there were only a handful of occupied tables. That would soon change and by 7:00pm the dining room was filling up. Our dinner came with a bottle of wine, so I chose a Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon. For starters l had the lobster cocktail and Robert had the Arugula salad. The lobster cocktail was good and the lobster pieces were firm and tasty, and not mushy nor rubbery. For the entrees we both had the ribeye. I'll have to be very honest; both Robert and I were disappointed with the quality of the steak, considering this is an extra charge specialty restaurant. We sailed on the Beyond last October in Aquaclass and we had a ribeye in Blu that was similar in quality, so I would expect a ribeye in Finecut to be even a better quality of beef than what's served as part of Blu. Our overall experience in Finecut was no better than the MDRs on this ship. I will not pay extra to dine in Fine Cut in the future.

 

After dinner Robert and I spent some time in the casino. Overall Robert has had fun in the casino on the Apex but the slots were very, very tight and this cruise was probably the first in years where he didn't win at least one jackpot on the slot machines. 

 

We didn't see any shows but I'll publish the daily planner for everyone to see what entertainment was available on the second Chic Night of the cruise and the second to last day of the cruise. 

 

 

 

 

[kwokpot]

14 hours ago, scrapcreator said:

@kwokpot Who is the current captain? Cruise director? Inquiring for our 7/31 Roll Call. Thanks!

 

[kwokpot]

11 hours ago, hawkesbaynz said:

Enjoyed your photos of the street art. Glad you avoided the sectarian murals in Belfast too. Have you been to Valparaiso in Chile? You will love the street art.

The around the horn South America cruise is one we haven't done and on our bucket list. We've done South America coastal from Buenos Aires to Santos and enjoyed that cruise immensely. 

[kwokpot]

Disembarkation Information

Attached is the disembarkation information sheet, including a little blurb in the Daily planner regarding Celebrity transfers from Rotterdam to Amsterdam airport for a very cheap price of $39.99/pp!!!

 

[Stem to Stern]

Happy Birthday Robert!

Really enjoying your report, Anthony.

[Lastdance]

9 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Day 11 Cobh/Cork, Evening

Today is Robert's birthday. We are on a casino complementary cruise as Robert is a gambler of the family. For his play on this cruise the casino treated us to a dinner at Fine Cut Steakhouse. Our reservation is 6:00pm and when we arrived there were only a handful of occupied tables. That would soon change and by 7:00pm the dining room was filling up. Our dinner came with a bottle of wine, so I chose a Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon. For starters l had the lobster cocktail and Robert had the Arugula salad. The lobster cocktail was good and the lobster pieces were firm and tasty, and not mushy nor rubbery. For the entrees we both had the ribeye. I'll have to be very honest; both Robert and I were disappointed with the quality of the steak, considering this is an extra charge specialty restaurant. We sailed on the Beyond last October in Aquaclass and we had a ribeye in Blu that was similar in quality, so I would expect a ribeye in Finecut to be even a better quality of beef than what's served as part of Blu. Our overall experience in Finecut was no better than the MDRs on this ship. I will not pay extra to dine in Fine Cut in the future.

 

After dinner Robert and I spent some time in the casino. Overall Robert has had fun in the casino on the Apex but the slots were very, very tight and this cruise was probably the first in years where he didn't win at least one jackpot on the slot machines. 

 

We didn't see any shows but I'll publish the daily planner for everyone to see what entertainment was available on the second Chic Night of the cruise and the second to last day of the cruise. 

 

 

 

 

Our Fine Cut experience on Beyond was the best restaurant experience we have ever enjoyed on Celebrity;  Eden was so poor, on that same ship, that our money was refunded.  In both cases, the waiter and his information, or lack of it, made such a huge difference.  Food, presentation and waiter can be very subjective.  I am sorry that this was a special birthday dinner, as those are truly more disappointing in nature!    

Edited July 18, 2023 by Lastdance

[hcat]

Celebrity in the past would never have such inconsistency between restaurant quality on same or diff ships.Lack of product quality control.

 

Hope the b day was a HAPPY CELEBRATION despite Fine Cut not being very fine!

[Jim_Iain]

12 hours ago, kwokpot said:

The around the horn South America cruise is one we haven't done and on our bucket list. We've done South America coastal from Buenos Aires to Santos and enjoyed that cruise immensely. 

Definitely do it if possible.   When we did it, it was a repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Valparaiso via the Canal and then Valparaiso to Buenos Aires.   Incredible trip.   If you do let me know I have a great AirBnB place we rented for a week.

[terrydtx]

15 hours ago, kwokpot said:

The around the horn South America cruise is one we haven't done and on our bucket list. We've done South America coastal from Buenos Aires to Santos and enjoyed that cruise immensely. 

We have a  Santiago Chile to Buenos Aires cruise booked for March 2025, but it is not with Celebrity, it is with Oceania for 18 days and was too good a deal to pass up. 

[bunnyette]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Definitely do it if possible.   When we did it, it was a repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Valparaiso via the Canal and then Valparaiso to Buenos Aires.   Incredible trip.   If you do let me know I have a great AirBnB place we rented for a week.

Yes we were on that cruise!

[kwokpot]

Day 12 Sea Day, Last day of cruise

We had to turn the clock forward one hour the previous night to get onto Rotterdam time and given it's a sea day the ship was quieter than usual for our normal 8:45-9:00am breakfast time. We went to Eden Cafe and got a few breakfast items; oatmeal, fruit, bear claw pastry, egg, bacon, cheese sandwich. Unfortunately the oatmeal was so watery it was more like hot milk with some oatmeal in it (The oatmeal at Eden Cafe is made with milk rather than water as in the buffet). We went to the Spa Cafe to try out the oatmeal there for the first time on this cruise and as I remembered correctly it is made with apple cider. As I also remembered correctly the preparation is hit or miss and this time it was a miss. It was way too tart and not pleasant tasting. The coffee though is great at the Spa cafe since it comes from one of those automatic espresso machines rather than a drip coffee machine. 

 

The last day of the cruise usually has that downbeat feeling. But that wasn't the case on this cruise. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the different activities on the ship. 

 

We did some onboard shopping as Robert had some onboard credit to use up as compliments of the casino for his play. 

 

It was sunny out and very breezy and the main pool deck was occupied by people enjoying the sun but at that point it was a bit too brisk for me (Probably low, mid 60s).

 

Lunch was a bit chaotic as to be expected but there were all kinds of good things to eat and a deluxe dessert offerings for the last day. 

 

After lunch I decided to get my packing done so it was out of the way.  It felt good to be all packed and it gave me the time later in the afternoon to get in a good final workout. On this cruise the gym was busier than most cruises, especially European ones. There were many young adults and the late afternoons the fitness center resembled a college gymnasium. After my workout I went out to the main pool deck and the sun was shining brightly and the breeze had subsided so I enjoyed a Negroni cocktail under the Elite Cocktail hour. It was a great to enjoy pre- dinner drinks outside sailing the English Channel. 

 

We had dinner at Cyprus dining room at 7:30pm. I started with a appetizer portion of the ravioli and then the beet salad. Robert asked for his usual custom basic salad. For the main course I had a Chief special grilled codfish and Robert had the Cyprus Special Greek style pasta. We decided to go to Al Bacio one last time for our decaf Americanos and desserts. The ship was hopping with activity. Great music from the Grand Plaza and people coming and going from the shows. We decided to skip the late show but we heard that it was excellent! Attached is the daily planner for you to see all the activities scheduled despite it being the last day. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by kwokpot

[kwokpot]

Disembarkation Day

We woke up this morning at 6:00am with the same view of Rotterdam as we did at the start of the cruise. They had just made an announcement in the hallways/public spaces that self debarkation has started. Too early for us! We went up to the buffet for breakfast. It was busy but less frantic than a port day morning. We needed to vacate the room by 7:30 and we figured we would walk off at the same time.  At 7:30 we proceeded out of the room and slowly walked down from Deck 8 to 4, where using the aft stairwell put us right at the ship exit. It was one of the easiest walk offs we've had. No ID or passport checks needed. 

 

We walked out and towards the street tram stop, which we planned to take to the Rotterdam Central train station. We had purchased single use tram tickets prior to the cruise so it was easy to board the tram, which was sitting at the station, scan the ticket at the activation machine (photo below) to activate the ticket, and wait for the tram to depart. It was an easy ride and the train station was just behind the street tram stop. 

 

Our plan is to take a train from Rotterdam directly to Brussels Airport, where we will board a flight to Rome. After a four night stay we will board Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas ship for a seven night Greece and Mediterranean cruise. We are meeting other family members and there will be nine of us traveling together.

 

The train ride to Brussels Airport was uneventful as was checking our luggage. One annoying thing was the airport security scanning required EVERYONE to transfer their allowed liquids, creams, and pastes into ONE airport provided and sized ziplock bag to go through the scanners. Other than that we had no issues. We are now relaxing at one of the Airport lounges (Courtesy of Priority Pass from AMEX platinum card) until our 2:55pm flight to Rome, where it's 100 degrees!!! 🥵

 

I'll do a whole cruise summary in the next post. 

 

Photo of Rotterdam street tram ticket

activation scanners

Edited July 19, 2023 by kwokpot

[soozles]

I’m glad your cruise is ending only cause it means mine is getting closer. Thanks for taking us along for the ride and giving me a glimpse of what to look forward to in a couple weeks. 

[txtechmk]

Your photos are wonderful!  Thanks for this great report.

[scrapcreator]

Thank you for a great trip report. Enjoy the rest of your travels. 

[nikel]

On 7/18/2023 at 5:43 AM, kwokpot said:

 

 

Do you know how much longer Captain Nikolas will be on the Apex ? Thanks

[kwokpot]

14 minutes ago, nikel said:

 

Do you know how much longer Captain Nikolas will be on the Apex ? Thanks

I'm sorry, I don't know. I didn't attend any question or answer session. 

[bjahil47]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise!  Will you be doing an online live review of the next cruise?  

[JackE]

7 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Disembarkation Day

We woke up this morning at 6:00am with the same view of Rotterdam as we did at the start of the cruise. They had just made an announcement in the hallways/public spaces that self debarkation has started. Too early for us! We went up to the buffet for breakfast. It was busy but less frantic than a port day morning. We needed to vacate the room by 7:30 and we figured we would walk off at the same time.  At 7:30 we proceeded out of the room and slowly walked down from Deck 8 to 4, where using the aft stairwell put us right at the ship exit. It was one of the easiest walk offs we've had. No ID or passport checks needed. 

 

We walked out and towards the street tram stop, which we planned to take to the Rotterdam Central train station. We had purchased single use tram tickets prior to the cruise so it was easy to board the tram, which was sitting at the station, scan the ticket at the activation machine (photo below) to activate the ticket, and wait for the tram to depart. It was an easy ride and the train station was just behind the street tram stop. 

 

Our plan is to take a train from Rotterdam directly to Brussels Airport, where we will board a flight to Rome. After a four night stay we will board Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas ship for a seven night Greece and Mediterranean cruise. We are meeting other family members and there will be nine of us traveling together.

 

The train ride to Brussels Airport was uneventful as was checking our luggage. One annoying thing was the airport security scanning required EVERYONE to transfer their allowed liquids, creams, and pastes into ONE airport provided and sized ziplock bag to go through the scanners. Other than that we had no issues. We are now relaxing at one of the Airport lounges (Courtesy of Priority Pass from AMEX platinum card) until our 2:55pm flight to Rome, where it's 100 degrees!!! 🥵

 

I'll do a whole cruise summary in the next post. 

 

Photo of Rotterdam street tram ticket

activation scanners

Thank you for a wonderful report Anthony! Have a great time in Rome - we will be going there when we end our Edge cruise from Barcelona next month. It will be my first time in Rome and I am very excited!

[ecslady]

Thanks for a great live thread and safe travels home!

[TPCRUISER2]

Loved your review! Hope to see another on the Royal site!