New ship, needs improvement
Celebrity Apex Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 70
12 Night Israel & Mediterranean (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 05, 2022
Ship: Celebrity Apex
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review summary
It’s once a like time cruise but We doubt that we want to have another Mediterranean cruise. Ports in this area are too far from the interesting sites. It takes money or time or both to see a few places. Once you see a ruin, you see them all!Embarkation
Once you arrive at the Civitavecchia embarkation terminal and have all documents required, the process is easy and quick. The trick is how to get there!
Rome is two hours away from the cruise port. The easy way is to pay premium prices to Celebrity or any private shuttle bus/taxi to take you there. We chose the hard but inexpensive way: from airport train station, we bought train tickets from a ticket booth, airport to cruise port for 11 euros each. The ticket agent told us what binary (track) to wait for the train. We rode the first train and exited at Roma Trastevere station, catcher another train to Civitavecchia. Arrived at the train station in Civitavecchia, we got on a shuttle bus to drop us in front of the cruise terminal for 3 euros each.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Food at the four main dinner restaurants are good. We rotated with friends through the four every. nights. We did not try any special restaurant but one of our friend couples said it was not worth the extra cost.
Ocean view Cafeteria for breakfast and lunch are good, especially the dessert counter.
Onboard Activities
Nightly shows are good. Dancing class were taught by non professional dancers at the 15th deck garden on at sea day only. Trivia offered everyday in the Club. There was one speaker to lecture about history of the next destinations.
There was no useful information offered about the next ports. If you don’t take the expensive Celebrity sponsored excursions, you have no guidance even for minor details like how to go from of the cruise port to town.
Entertainment
Service and Staff
All workers worked hard and very pleasant towards passengers.
Ship Quality
The ship is new so the common areas are clean and no wear and tear. Public areas are lacking of a cozy library to relax in. The ship has no comfy couches and chairs in nooks or crannies for passengers to enjoy private moments away from noises and crowds. No promenade deck so if you want to walk or run you are exposed to the sun or the rain. No covered walkway around the ship for a leisurely walk before or after dinner!
Cabin / Stateroom
Our inside cabin is good, firm bedding, and spacious bathroom. There are enough plugs for phones and such.
Ship tip
Wifi is slow and inadequate even if you pay for premium package.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Again, no walking allowed at the port except from the cruise dock to the fancy new terminal. You could get a local bus to town paying by euros but not much to see in town.
Again, no walking in ports allowed. Celebrity shuttle buses dropped us at a mall called Seamall. Most people went with the ship’s expensive excursions. Independent passengers like us must fend for ourselves. Israel uses shekels for money. No train in Ashdod. You must buy bus tickets to go to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem at the the bus station behind the mall. The bus personnel speak little English and don’t take USD, Euro or credit cards. You must find a Change place to exchange money.
Tel Aviv taxi drivers don’t speak or read English even though local signs are written in there language. Normal people are friendly but tourist related personnel are unfriendly and unhelpful.
Jerusalem was very crowded. There is no direction to show how to go to the old town from the bus station.
Bus station in both TelAviv and Jerusalem are dark, dirty and no sign whatsoever to tell where to find a bus for your destination.
Passengers are not allowed to walk in this port. Celebrity offered bus to drop us in town. We wandered around town for a bit, most places were closed because of holidays. Caught the bus back at the predesignated location.
Rome is crowded with tourists. Lines are everywhere. Public trains are fast mostly on time but hard to use because direction signs are confused or rare. The trains itself do not have next stop information like most trains in Europe. If you want to see the Vatican or Colosseum better join a tour.
Disembarkation
We opted for getting off ourselves carrying our own luggage. Again, nobody from Celebrity bothered to let us know any information. They wanted us to use their expensive shuttle service back to Rome! We were concerned that we may have to walk from the cruise terminal to the local train station. Luckily, there is a private shuttle bus going back and forth from the cruise port to the train station. It parked away from all Celebrity shuttle buses around a corner. We paid 3 euros climbing in and it dropped us in front of the Civitavecchia train station. We got our inexpensive train ticket with the help of a Trenitalia worker and got back to Rome in two hours.
If you have problem carrying luggage up and down stairs you may need to use the Celebrity bus services.