Not as good as expected for the price
Celebrity Apex Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Third Mate
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 65
4 Night Bruges & Netherlands (Southampton Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 23, 2024
Ship: Celebrity Apex
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 11272
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 21 days ago
Review summary
Expensive for the whole experience but enjoyed it. Thought I would do a compare review against the other cruises we had done. Others were Royal Caribbean Indy of the seas 3 nights, Sky Princess 7 nights, MSC Virtuosa 2 nights. Royal Caribbean still tops it for us but each of the 4 cruises had great things and not so great things. Room and embarkation/disembarkation was best on Celebrity, Food 3rd best but a very good 3rd best, Drink the worst, Service joint 2nd best and a very very good 2nd best. Entertainment/Activities worst. Ship layout worst on Celebrity. Whilst my review may sound critical and sound like it’s not great because it’s last in some areas it’s still a great ship and we had a great time, the 4 cruises we have done have been of a great standard and we have enjoyed all 4 and will continue cruising. I think we may have expected more of celebrity because of the price and probably wouldn’t chose celebrity again but only cause Royal Caribbean spoilt us and we found the service and app service on princess incredible.Embarkation
Super quick. Arrived at 11:45am, in our room at 12:05pm. MSC was similar speed and RC not far behind. Princess was pretty bad.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Didn’t do speciality. Did 2 dining rooms and buffet plenty of times. Food was great but we was expecting better as we heard so much about the food on apex especially the standard of the buffet which was very good don’t get me wrong but RC and Princess was slightly better for us. Much much better than MSC though I might add. Was not impressed with the drink options, hardly any mocktails for my son, didn’t have my fav beer and didn’t have my partners fav wine apart from in dining rooms dispite both being on the menu of most places. Hardly any spirits that I loved on Princess, RC and MSC, it’s all expensive bourbons n whiskeys.
Onboard Activities
Wouldn’t really recommend bringing children on Apex, MSC n Royal Caribbean had much more for kids to do. Similar to Princess in terms of activities on board for children which is not a lot apart from kids clubs. Nice big outdoor pool on Apex and an indoor one as well. Didn’t do fitness centre.
Entertainment
Watched Crystallise which was very good, nice stage with a giant screen behind to display superb special effects. Best Theatre out of all 4 cruise ships we have been on. Elsewhere it was very similar to MSC, Princess and RC.
Service and Staff
Like MSC we hardly saw room steward unlike RC and Princess who introduced themselves on first day and you felt like u knew them well throughout the cruise. Apart from some of the Normandie staff the service throughout was excellent, plenty of hellos, good morning etc like we had with RC and Princess, MSC was worst by far.
Ship Quality
Everything was sparkling just like the other 3 ships we been on. We prefer a promenade deck that we got on RC and MSC so this was similar to Princess but probably worse.
Cabin / Stateroom
Not fair to compare this room to others as this was a higher class of room. We had a sunset veranda and there’s not a lot of them I believe. Better than the standard balconies on RC, Princess and MSC. Room was excellent, plenty of space for everything and like MSC the 3rd bed made by converting the sofa does not end up getting in the way like the Princess 3rd bed option which was awful and blocked the route to the bathroom. RC was good 3rd bed above queen bed but prefer the sofa conversion.
Ship tip
It’s not great for kids
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Food Market is a must, amazing building with loads of food stalls and the gift shop ended up lowering our bank account considerably 😁. Make sure you pre book water taxis if you plan to use them, we tried to book a boat back to ship from where we were at the time and it was 90 min wait. Very big city so if you can’t get a water taxi you will need a taxi. Food market was about 30-40 min walk from ship. Ship left at 9pm so it was our first ever night departure and wow what a view of Rotterdam at night from the ship.
Did a ‘Brugge on your own’ excursion. Had 3 hours 45 mins to explore. Lovely city, has a Middle Ages feel with the buildings, didn’t do the boat rides but they looked great. Very touristy, we went on a Monday and it was very busy but wasn’t an issue at all. My son wanted to go to the Torture Museum so we went there and it was very interesting, if that’s your thing. Plenty of seating in the centre to eat lunch and watch the world go by. Would definitely come to Brugge again.
Disembarkation
Super quick and well organised. Best of the lot. MSC n RC was very good too, Princess slightly less so.
Traveler Photos
