I Would Like to Thank the Genius Who Came Up with Chocolate Schwarma

March 2-3, 2023

We have two days at sea now, and then we will be back in Florida. I have a lot of loose ends floating around in my head. Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order.

Cruising Ducks

A recent fad involves hiding little rubber duckies on cruise ships. I found one the other day! Usually they are easy to spot — unlike a geocache. They are supposed to be found. The finder can keep it, or re-hide it. There are various places where you can post a photo of yourself with your new pal, such as #cruisingducks.

Walking/Jogging Track

The Apex has a really nice track. It is shaped like a figure eight. It goes up one level via a ramp so that it can cross over itself. It passes the Magic Carpet, and the pool, and a “rooftop garden.” There are separate lanes for walking and running and the direction of travel is clearly marked. There are plenty of curves, too. One mile = 4.5 laps. We enjoyed walking on it during the daytime because it was so interesting.

Daytime view from the track , Magic Carpet in upper right 

We went up one evening to see how it looked at night.

On the walking track at night

The Rooftop Garden

Sky Suite Tour

Early in the cruise we were invited to tour an unoccupied “Sky Suite.” We knew the Apex had some very luxurious suites, so we took the tour. Let me just say that is was another underwhelming experience. It was not a suite. It was slightly larger than our cabin, but it had a smaller balcony than we had. The sitting area was part of the bedroom. “Suite” implies more than one “room,” and this was just one, not large, room. It did have a larger bathroom than we had, but I really don’t care to have a tub. There was a sliding window between the bathroom and the bedroom. I assume that was so one could look at the ocean while soaking in the tub. Meh.

How Much Did You Say?

We were reminded by the cruise director a number of times that the Apex is a $1.2 billion ship. I won’t argue with that. As I have said before, it is beautiful and innovative. 

One of the excellent design features that comes to mind is the elevators.There were 8 forward and 8 aft, as I recall. They were roomy and very user-friendly. When an elevator arrived at your floor, the entire doorframe would light up green for up and red for down. It was so easy to know when the one you wanted arrived. Inside the elevator there were flat screen panels that told you the current floor, the temperature outside, the port you were in or heading to, some of the day’s activities, and more. 

The “waymarking” was excellent. It was always clear which direction was aft and which was forward. It was always easy to find out what floor things were on.

Chandelier Show

There is a large martini bar in the center of the ship. There was always some sort of entertainment there in the evening. In addition, the bartenders do tricks, such as juggling with liquor bottles, or pouring drinks in fun ways.

There is a large “chandelier” behind the bar. Every night there is a “Chandelier Show” with lights flashing in time to music. The show lasts less than 5 minutes and is not worth going to see for its own sake. I hesitate to put up a video clip, because it is just not that special.

During the Chandelier Show

Silent Disco

Celebrity is known for its “Silent Disco.” It was very popular with guests on the ship. It drew a large crowd to watch and a good number of people were motivated to join in the dancing. Dancers get a pair of headphones to wear and that’s how they hear the dance music.

The night we went the Silent Disco was combined with a Battle of the DJs. You could change the color of you headphones and you would hear either Latin, Contemporary, or Classic Rock. You could tell which DJ was the most popular by the number of headphones set to each color.

Our Stateroom

Once we figured out how the lights worked, we really enjoyed our stateroom. You could set the lighting to “day,” “night,” or “TV watching” with a tap on a screen. There was a lot of backlighting, which was nice in the evening. In the bathroom the backlighting under the counter worked as a a nightlight. The colors of the wood, carpet and upholstery were soothing.

These photos were taken before the room had been made up for the day because we had to pack. Our cabin steward, Rakesh, was efficient and helpful.

I loved the little niche with the piece of coral (I hope it was already dead when it was collected.)

There are throw pillows from the bed on the sofabed, so it looks a little more crowded than usual

The red arrow shows a built-in charging station, with USB ports and European and American outlets. The yellow arrow points to a desk that slides into  the white cabinet to give you a full-length mirror

On the last day, we were impressed by the fresh seafood-themed lunch buffet.

And we were completely blown away by the spectacular dessert buffet. I couldn’t take photos of most of the stunning cakes because so many people were crowding around them.

Key Lime cake

But, as far as I am concerned, the pièce de résistance was the crêpe bar, complete with chocolate schwarma.

O. M. G! What a concept!

After dinner we went to a production show called Rockumentary.

I had high hopes for a blockbuster of a show, but it wasn’t all that. The choreography was insipid and the costumes looked like leftovers culled from several prior shows. It wasn’t a bad show, but it wasn’t anywhere near a great show.

I want to say a word about the music. I grew up with rock and roll, and I love it. But I never noticed a classical piece, or a Broadway show tune, or any opera, on this cruise. Despite our itinerary, there didn’t seem to be a calypso or reggae band. I would have liked a little more diversity in the music. We did not check out every venue on the ship, so maybe we missed it.

It was hard to meet people on this ship. There were many large groups traveling together, and they did not mix. We asked for “sharing” tables at dinner, but they did not seem willing or able to seat us at a sharing table. The only sharing tables were given to those large groups traveling together. We were argued with, and told we wouldn’t want a sharing table because it would take too long or there might not be anybody else who wanted to share.

We enjoyed the cruise, but we like other cruise lines better. We would consider another Celebrity cruise if they had an itinerary we really wanted, at a competitive price.

Today’s color is chocolate.