Disappointing
Celebrity Apex Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 14
Helpful Votes: 62
7 Night Spain & Portugal (Southampton Roundtrip)
Sail date: July 27, 2024
Ship: Celebrity Apex
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 8183
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 months ago
Review summary
When we entered the ship to our surprise there were not staff there to greet us, that might sound odd, but we are used to having staff standing in the lobby as you enter to welcome you onboard, this immediately set the tone for the entire cruise: service isn’t valued here. We entered our cabin on our first day on board and opened the wardrobe to find a pair of dirty socks inside. Now I know things can be missed but this just assured us that the cabin hadn’t quite been cleaned properly, which on a cruise ship is a top priority post-COVID. The bedsheets were damp on touch, and this was repeated throughout our stay, every time we had our sheets changed, they were damp, which was uncomfortable and unsanitary. The dining experience on Apex, or perhaps Celebrity as a whole is not something we were used to, having different restaurants that are bookable. We have no issue with this concept, but our issue was we didn’t understand it at first and nobody explained it to us. We went to the restaurants on day 1 to ask about how it worked, we were greeted by staff that at best didn’t understand themselves how it worked and at worst couldn’t be bothered to help at all. They were confused themselves if you had to book a table or didn’t. We decided to come back later because we couldn’t get a straight answer from them. We did so an hour later, and entered the restaurant and asked a waiter if he could help us with booking a table for dinner, his response was “call 7000”, no hello, no other words uttered just looked up at us and said “call 7000”, he didn’t even wait for our response before walking off. We then tried to book dinner in the app and discovered every main dining restaurant, on every day of our cruise was fully booked. As I said before, we have no issue with a new alternative dining concept on cruises, but you can’t do that and not explain to guests how it works. It was only on day 2 when we bumped into other cruisers that they explained how it operates. So multiple staff, including Guest Services couldn’t be bothered to explain it, but our fellow guest had to. The bars onboard – Declan and like to drink when on holiday and we pay for the Premium drinks package for this purpose. It is important to us as it leads to a relaxing experience however, I think this is where your service fell down the most. The bars onboard, particularly by the pool were regularly three deep with guests, on Day 2 I waited 45 minutes for a drink at the Rooftop bar, this was 45 mins STANDING at a bar in the sun whilst the bar staff were clearly run off their feet and unable to keep up with the demand. It was regular that we waited 20 mins + at a bar for a drink crushed in with other guests – that is not a “premium” experience. We also found table or pool side service to be entirely absent. We would wait at other bars and at the main café for at least 20 mins before a member of staff even acknowledged us, let alone could provide a drink. There was one or two roaming servers’ poolside but they were woefully understaffed and unable to cope with the number of guests you had onboard. In the nightclub, as a server brought Declan a drink, I asked if I could have another drink, to which the server pointed at the bar and said “yeah the bars over there mate”. I have never experienced such an unwillingness to help or reluctance to provide any sort of service to guests. This massively impacted our overall experience, we were unable to enjoy or relax poolside because we had to regularly get up to go to the bar and were gone for 30 mins because there were not enough staff. Late one evening I couldn’t sleep as I was quite hungry, so I wondered up to the buffet and went to the pizza section where a cook was cooking pizza, I asked if I could have one to which he responded “closed”, again no acknowledgment of the guest or offer an alternative just “closed”. Lack of shoreside staff – when we got off at the ports on this cruise there were no shoreside side from Celebrity to explain anything, this was particularly frustrating at Porto, where there were two different buses, one was paid and one was free. We had to speak to other guests to work out which was which as there were no staff to explain anything. Cleanliness of ship – there was a general uncleanliness to the ship, most of the outdoor tables had black marks all other them, the cups the drinks were served in which were originally clear had turned white and were cracking through overuse, the sunbeds were filthy, surfaces across the ship were sticky in what reminded me of a bad nightclub more than a luxury ship. Future Cruise experience – I have just come off an MSC cruise where I used the future cruise desk to book a further two cruises. Now I compare that to your Future Cruise desk where we visited twice. Both times we sat down next to one of your agents and said we were interested in looking at another cruise, both times the staff just pointed towards a rack of brochures, they seemed more interested in gossiping with each other than helping us spend our money. We wanted to talk to a human and get their advice so we walked away thinking we would come back later and hopefully someone will be more helpful but no, we returned the next day to see 4 free agents sitting at desks gossiping with each other, we walked up to one of them and asked if we could talk about booking another cruise, only to be yet again directed towards a wall of brochures with no offer to help or talk to us about what we wanted and what Celebrity might be able to offer. A general lack of service and experience – throughout our cruise there just appeared to a complete lack of service, we felt more like a burden than a guest where merely asking for a bottle of water seemed too much and we were subject to tuts, eye rolls and just a complete lack of any communication, no hello, no how may I help you. Staff would just walk past you with their eyes down in the hope of avoiding any contact. We spent a lot of money onboard, Declan brought a £3,500k ring, I brought a £1,800k bag and spent several hundred dollars in the casino but everything seemed like hard work to the staff. We spoke to several crew whilst there and expressed our dissatisfaction, including with Guest Services, to which the standard response seemed to be “the ship is very full” or “this is most amount of people we’ve had onboard”, “we have never had this many children onboard” as one senior officers commented. My question to you is this: at what cost? It is all well and good packing the ships full to make more money, but someone has to ask at Head Office, what is the wider cost of this? If the ship is too full to provide a good service to its customers than surely it is over capacity. You should not have that many guests onboard if you can’t keep up the experience. On every single sea day, Declan and I were unable to find a SINGLE sunbed free, bar staff were overrun, on Day 3 the ship had run out entirely of a popular rose Whispering Angel, which is Declan’s favourite, we were unable to find a single table at lunch in the buffet to the point we had to eat outside.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Communal area dirty. Dirty socks left in cabin.
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Do not book in summer holidays. Do not book from Southampton.
Thumbs up
0
Disembarkation
Traveler Photos
16 Comments
ghosthunter66 3 months ago
We are Royal Caribbean snobs. We have been on 31 cruises. We are going on Celebrity Apex and can’t wait to try Celebrity. Everyone has different opinions and we can’t stand Norwegian. You just have to enjoy your vacation. Make the best of being able to cruise. There will always be bad things, but we have never had any major issues cruising.
PaulzyJC 4 months ago
My first two cruises were with Celebrity in 2019 (Equinox & Infinity). I loved them. Though the staff in some venues had the same attitude as anyone would working in an upscale venue in Los Angeles. And the experience changes from both ships. And others were very helpful, my Steward was more attentive on Eq then then one on Inf. Also, the as size of the ship matters. I like Inf. better for its small size and crowds, but I likes Eq. for its dining and activities. Also Summer cruises are crowded, and it was cold and wet in December.
wynwyn 4 months ago
I have sailed on the Edge, Beyond, Apex, Reflection, Silhouette, Eclipse and Solstice ships and have never experienced what this reviewer had. Research would have helped you to understand that if you have anytime dining you need to make a reservation for each restaurant ahead of your cruise. Celebrity has one of the better buffets as they have a diverse selection. To each his own find a cruise line that works for you.
jpmato16 4 months ago
I wholeheartedly understand your positions, and I can’t disagree. Very similar experience last year on this ship in the Caribbean. We ended up showing up to random main dining restaurants right when they opened so that we could eat. We booked the cruise only 1 week ahead of time, and all restaurants were booked up. They usually were able to accommodate us. The buffet was always unpleasant. We’ve taken 5 NCL cruises after the pandemic, and had great experiences on each sailing. Turned us off from Celebrity entirely.
ahawk20 4 months ago
A tip for others reading, dinner times in any dining room can be reserved before you board via the app or on the website. Including the four main dining rooms. We did on The Edge in June and all were honored on time as we arrived for our meal. Saves so much hassle & worry. This is for anytime diners, not set dining time diners.