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Celebrity Apex Cruise Review to Europe - Western Europe

Tomaslvs2cruise

Contributor Level: Second Mate

85 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 5

Helpful Votes: 109

Overall rating:

4.6 out of 5

12 Night Portugal Spain & France (Amsterdam Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 11, 2022

Ship: Celebrity Apex

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 8117

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

We really enjoyed the cruise. I have never had a bad cruise in the 20 that I have taken. Saying that, for the cost I had higher expectations of the food. We were expecting to have the same experience that we had on the Edge prior to covid. The magic we felt on the Edge did not translate back to the Apex. Everything was totally fine but when you are paying a lot more to be on Celebrity you don't expect to have Carnival level food. We love both Carnival and Celebrity but if both seem to have the same quality, why pay that much more. Our group was much younger than the average age of passengers on board. We are below 50 and felt the cruise overall on board was dry. We loved the fact that there were almost no kids, and we didn't have to worry about people having too many drinks. We like the livelier feel on Carnival and Royal where you have the music playing around the pool that's more current then was constantly being played. One thing we would do different is we would have done more excursions. When you are walking around old town after old town you really need to have guide to explain the importance of what you are looking at. Since we had not been to most of these ports, we thought we would do our research ahead of time and go from there.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Very easy and quick!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

The food was good but not amazing like it was when we were on the Edge. The breakfast and lunch buffets were great but the dinner buffets were just ok.

Raw on Five

4 out of 5

The food was fresh and enjoyable. The cost of the actual food is very high but you are paying for the experience. The one odd thing we felt with the rolls were, they put a solid carrot down the middle of the rolls. When you are eating something that is meant to be soft and you have a hard crunchy item in the middle, it really didn't make sense. We eat a lot of sushi, and I don't ever recall having that in any of the ones I've ever ordered.

Craft Social Bar

4 out of 5

We ordered wings and fries. They were good but very very small portion.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Didn't do many activities on board.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

There was one singer on board for just this one cruise by the name on Monique Dehaney. She was fantastic to the point I thought she should be performing at her own concerts. The rest of the singers were just ok.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

All staff were amazing. They were the highlight of our cruise. There were some comments that said the ship felt understaffed and we did not experience that at all.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Love the design. This is our second cruise on and Edge style ship.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Loved our room. It was an inside cabin with lots of room to move around and plenty of storage. The washroom was a great size.

Ports of call

Amsterdam, Netherlands

5 out of 5

We have been here before and we love Amsterdam. We took a train to Zanvoort & Haarlem. Very cute towns and not as busy as Amsterdam.

Thumbs Up 1

La Rochelle, France

4 out of 5

Like most of these ports, we have not done La Rochelle. We walked around and it was a cute town but not a whole lot do.

Thumbs Up 0

Bilbao, Spain

5 out of 5

We did an excursion to San Sebastan. This is one spot that I could come back and visit again. It was a self-guided tour of the town.

Thumbs Up 0

La Coruna, Spain

4 out of 5

Nice port but did not do an excursion.

Thumbs Up 0

Leixoes (Oporto), Portugal

3 out of 5

I had Lisbon and Porto high on my list of places to see. We did not do an excursion here. There were so many buildings in desperate need of repair they overshadowed the ones that were in good shape. I think I had seen too many pictures online prior to seeing this port in person and perhaps I had an unrealistic expectation of the port.

Thumbs Up 0

Lisbon, Portugal

5 out of 5

Very clean and lovely port. We would come back here for a follow-up visit.

Thumbs Up 0

Cadiz (Seville), Spain

4 out of 5

It was good. Not enough to do for a fully day of wondering around.

Thumbs Up 0

Gibraltar (U.K.)

5 out of 5

Loved this port. We did an excursion to go up the Rock Of Gibraltar. Very much enjoyed the tour and the guide was amazing.