Lesverts
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2014
Since this question has come up a fair bit over the years I've watched the boards I thought I would provide a review of my most recent experience on a Celebrity ship.
Details:
Celebrity Apex, 7 night Western Caribbean cruise, 2 brothers sharing an infinite verandah room. My 8th Celebrity cruise, my brother's 1st. We were on the premium beverage package. Visited Roatan, Belize City, Cozumel and Grand Cayman.
Room:
I Hated the infinite verandah cabin. To me the 'verandah' was completely useless and nothing more than a glorified oceanview window that can open with some patio furniture in the room. If you tried to use the 'verandah' you heated your room up to uncomfortable levels. It was impossible for me to actually enjoy the 'verandah' at night when I usually like to sit out and hear the sea go by. Beyond that the room was a more updated version of the Solstice class cabins with a decent amount of storage. Biggest drawback for me was that there was not charging outlets on both sides of the bed. Even a ship as old as the Disney Wonder had that. The bathroom was a good size and the shower was a major upgrade to the Solstice showers. The bed was pretty hard and uncomfortable to be honest and having gone from having a queen with an excellent mattress on the Wonder to the demure twin with a terrible mattress on the Apex was a letdown. Also, weird complaint, but the pillows were a size in between a regular pillow and a body pillow. They did not work for how I slept. The A/C, which is a frequent complaint with Edge class ships, was not great. If you wanted the room to be 70, you had to set it to 66. I also had the distinct impression that there is central controls for stateroom climate control because it seemed like the A/C did not work during the days in port and magically started to blast as soon as we left port. I would not pay the extra charge for an 'infinite verandah' and I don't like seeing RCG adding these to the Icon class ships. Celebrity's ship cycle will mean loyal cruisers will be stuck with these awful staterooms for awhile, since it is probably another 4-5 years before RCG floats out a new class for Celebrity.
Technology:
Celebrity's app is really good and functions really well with the provided WiFi. Being able to control your stateroom from your phone is a really nice feature. It was very easy to book shore excursions and other activities on the app. That being said, the app would show no availability for restaurants that you could just walk up to and be seated at. Tech also made the embarkation and disembarkation process extremely easy and efficient. Was very pleased overall and felt the need to use your phone was a lot more 'optional' than mandatory and made it feel less intrusive to your vacation.
Public Spaces:
The ship was beautiful but a bit cold. Too much gray and blue for my tastes. I also was not a fan of the central part of the ship being only open from deck 3 to deck 5. When the Solstice class was open from deck 3 to deck 10. I know it was done to keep the ship more compact and smaller while adding more staterooms but it just didn't have the airy open feel of previous ships. Also the layout was very modular and winding. It was a lot harder to locate restrooms for instance compared to previous classes of ships because they were inconsistently placed and depending on location you were on the ship, it would be a multiple minute walk or having to traverse stairs to get to the closest restroom. Norwegian has a similar design with Prima and Viva, Icon has gone a bit in this direction. Virgin is also like this. And it sounds like the Wish is a similar explore and find venue layout.
One positive for me was just how many places there were to sit on the ship. There was seating and loungers and nooks everywhere. You never had a problem finding a place to sit on the resort decks. Only issue here was there was a few places where there was many places to sit, but nothing near by to use while having a lounge. Obviously Celebrity agrees because they have added two more bars on the resort deck and changed up the back of the ship to have more venues for people to use to go along with all the chairs.
The biggest positive for me though was the Destination Gateway. What a wonderfully designed space, was absolutely fantastic to use to get on and off the ship. This was by far the biggest win of the Edge-class ships for me. Instead of a dank, small, cramped space. It was this open, bright, big space that functioned beautifully to get people on and off the boat. I absolutely hate tendering and this space plus the Magic Carpet made the process a breeze.
It is also hard to give ratings on the bars and lounges on board because their quality really depends on the crew working them. On my sailing Craft Social, Eden and the Magic Carpet had excellent service and really friendly bartenders. But on a sailing a year for now with different crew it could be completely different. They all had their own charms. Only thing I would like to see improved is more pool side/resort deck waiters/pool butlers/servers because they were few and far between. Getting a drink in the Solarium was not convenient.
Food:
Buffet: Oceanview Cafe was outstanding. I regularly see that this is rated the best traditional buffet at sea and can usually see why. It had a ridiculous number of options every day. Themed food that rotated daily. Friendly staff helping when necessary. It was clean, bright and easy to get around to find something to eat. The oddity was that pizza was tucked away in a back corner down a hallway underneath the Sunset Bar. I don't rate this well for breakfast though because there was never a good time to get there for it to be a bit less busy. I would say the Disney Wonder had a similar quality buffet, but less choice compared to Oceanview Cafe.
Main dining: Disappointing is the word here. Inconsistent and the menus were shrunken versions of previous menus I have experienced. There was a lack of rotating options and a much larger contingent of items that were on the menu every day compared to previous Celebrity sailings I have been on. Service for me was not great. I am use to the assistant waiter being a lot more involved in service but it seemed like my particular assistant seemed to take issue with any table that was exclusively male. Our poor waiter had to do everything and I could tell he was frustrated. I gave him extra tip because of it. Our sommelier was also not good compared to previous ones. Add in the lackluster wine list and it was disappointing. The one thing I will say is that the dining venues were a lot more willing to go out of their way to get bottles from different venues compared to previous sailings. I was able to get the 'exclusive' Japanese beers at 2 other venues because they were willing to phone up and get a few sent over. My brother was able to get the same wine at every venue regardless of its status on the menu. The general staff for our main dining room was outstanding, though they looked very overworked.
Also want to add that the dining is a bit confusing. Celebrity still offers set and any-time dining but we were set dining. Never got an assigned table though. We were told to do anytime but because we were listed as set we couldn't make reservations for the main dining rooms. With them being reluctant to seat us when we just showed up.
Speciality: We tried Le Petit Chef, Le Grand Bistro, Raw on Five, Rooftop Garden Grill and Fine Cuts Steakhouse. All were outstanding. Service was fantastic, the food was fantastic. It was like the food was coming from a different line. I was so, so pleased with how good these all were. We had a massive onboard credit to use to going to all these venues was a way to use it up. Also the reports of the restaurants being stingy on how much you could order was not accurate. You could only order one 'main' but you could order whatever else you wanted. Rooftop even just brought extra food when they said our mains would be a bit delayed.
Cafe al Bacio: Just a special point to say the coffee service on Celebrity is fantastic. Really enjoyed this venue, the crew and the coffee. Also having Mr Black was an added bonus that just made me more happy.
Crew:
Overall I was very happy with the service. A few misses as mentioned above. But overall pleasant and good service. It really does help slipping a few crew a 20 at the start of the cruise to get good prompt service. Not a lot to say here to be honest. Good crew, not intrusive or overbearing. Shop staff were nowhere near as pushy as previous sailings.
Overall:
I warmed up to the ship as the sailing went along. The passenger demographic was a good decade younger overall compared to previous sailings. A lot more kids on board then I am use to. Kids club seemed to be popular with them though. I did here there is more concentrated age activities, no 3-12. But 3-6, 6-9 etc. The people I talked to with kids said they seemed to like it. The interior of the ship is completely smoke free for those of you that don't like the smell coming from the casino. I may have mentioned a number of negative or disappointing things but the good outweighed the disappointing and I will always happily sail Celebrity. I would not choose an Edge-class for Alaska given the balcony situation. But have booked a Celebrity Ascent cruise later this year for the Caribbean and just picked an inside. The difference in price can cover premium access, premium drinks and the unlimited specialty dining.
Shore excursions booked up, but hard to make any comments because at every port anything to do with water was cancelled because of the weather and winds.
Celebrity is for people that want a bit of luxury feel without the price tag of the true luxury lines. The feel is relaxed and calm. Great for enjoying the sun, some drinks and fun. I highly recommend you give it a go if you want that kind of experience.
Details:
Celebrity Apex, 7 night Western Caribbean cruise, 2 brothers sharing an infinite verandah room. My 8th Celebrity cruise, my brother's 1st. We were on the premium beverage package. Visited Roatan, Belize City, Cozumel and Grand Cayman.
Room:
I Hated the infinite verandah cabin. To me the 'verandah' was completely useless and nothing more than a glorified oceanview window that can open with some patio furniture in the room. If you tried to use the 'verandah' you heated your room up to uncomfortable levels. It was impossible for me to actually enjoy the 'verandah' at night when I usually like to sit out and hear the sea go by. Beyond that the room was a more updated version of the Solstice class cabins with a decent amount of storage. Biggest drawback for me was that there was not charging outlets on both sides of the bed. Even a ship as old as the Disney Wonder had that. The bathroom was a good size and the shower was a major upgrade to the Solstice showers. The bed was pretty hard and uncomfortable to be honest and having gone from having a queen with an excellent mattress on the Wonder to the demure twin with a terrible mattress on the Apex was a letdown. Also, weird complaint, but the pillows were a size in between a regular pillow and a body pillow. They did not work for how I slept. The A/C, which is a frequent complaint with Edge class ships, was not great. If you wanted the room to be 70, you had to set it to 66. I also had the distinct impression that there is central controls for stateroom climate control because it seemed like the A/C did not work during the days in port and magically started to blast as soon as we left port. I would not pay the extra charge for an 'infinite verandah' and I don't like seeing RCG adding these to the Icon class ships. Celebrity's ship cycle will mean loyal cruisers will be stuck with these awful staterooms for awhile, since it is probably another 4-5 years before RCG floats out a new class for Celebrity.
Technology:
Celebrity's app is really good and functions really well with the provided WiFi. Being able to control your stateroom from your phone is a really nice feature. It was very easy to book shore excursions and other activities on the app. That being said, the app would show no availability for restaurants that you could just walk up to and be seated at. Tech also made the embarkation and disembarkation process extremely easy and efficient. Was very pleased overall and felt the need to use your phone was a lot more 'optional' than mandatory and made it feel less intrusive to your vacation.
Public Spaces:
The ship was beautiful but a bit cold. Too much gray and blue for my tastes. I also was not a fan of the central part of the ship being only open from deck 3 to deck 5. When the Solstice class was open from deck 3 to deck 10. I know it was done to keep the ship more compact and smaller while adding more staterooms but it just didn't have the airy open feel of previous ships. Also the layout was very modular and winding. It was a lot harder to locate restrooms for instance compared to previous classes of ships because they were inconsistently placed and depending on location you were on the ship, it would be a multiple minute walk or having to traverse stairs to get to the closest restroom. Norwegian has a similar design with Prima and Viva, Icon has gone a bit in this direction. Virgin is also like this. And it sounds like the Wish is a similar explore and find venue layout.
One positive for me was just how many places there were to sit on the ship. There was seating and loungers and nooks everywhere. You never had a problem finding a place to sit on the resort decks. Only issue here was there was a few places where there was many places to sit, but nothing near by to use while having a lounge. Obviously Celebrity agrees because they have added two more bars on the resort deck and changed up the back of the ship to have more venues for people to use to go along with all the chairs.
The biggest positive for me though was the Destination Gateway. What a wonderfully designed space, was absolutely fantastic to use to get on and off the ship. This was by far the biggest win of the Edge-class ships for me. Instead of a dank, small, cramped space. It was this open, bright, big space that functioned beautifully to get people on and off the boat. I absolutely hate tendering and this space plus the Magic Carpet made the process a breeze.
It is also hard to give ratings on the bars and lounges on board because their quality really depends on the crew working them. On my sailing Craft Social, Eden and the Magic Carpet had excellent service and really friendly bartenders. But on a sailing a year for now with different crew it could be completely different. They all had their own charms. Only thing I would like to see improved is more pool side/resort deck waiters/pool butlers/servers because they were few and far between. Getting a drink in the Solarium was not convenient.
Food:
Buffet: Oceanview Cafe was outstanding. I regularly see that this is rated the best traditional buffet at sea and can usually see why. It had a ridiculous number of options every day. Themed food that rotated daily. Friendly staff helping when necessary. It was clean, bright and easy to get around to find something to eat. The oddity was that pizza was tucked away in a back corner down a hallway underneath the Sunset Bar. I don't rate this well for breakfast though because there was never a good time to get there for it to be a bit less busy. I would say the Disney Wonder had a similar quality buffet, but less choice compared to Oceanview Cafe.
Main dining: Disappointing is the word here. Inconsistent and the menus were shrunken versions of previous menus I have experienced. There was a lack of rotating options and a much larger contingent of items that were on the menu every day compared to previous Celebrity sailings I have been on. Service for me was not great. I am use to the assistant waiter being a lot more involved in service but it seemed like my particular assistant seemed to take issue with any table that was exclusively male. Our poor waiter had to do everything and I could tell he was frustrated. I gave him extra tip because of it. Our sommelier was also not good compared to previous ones. Add in the lackluster wine list and it was disappointing. The one thing I will say is that the dining venues were a lot more willing to go out of their way to get bottles from different venues compared to previous sailings. I was able to get the 'exclusive' Japanese beers at 2 other venues because they were willing to phone up and get a few sent over. My brother was able to get the same wine at every venue regardless of its status on the menu. The general staff for our main dining room was outstanding, though they looked very overworked.
Also want to add that the dining is a bit confusing. Celebrity still offers set and any-time dining but we were set dining. Never got an assigned table though. We were told to do anytime but because we were listed as set we couldn't make reservations for the main dining rooms. With them being reluctant to seat us when we just showed up.
Speciality: We tried Le Petit Chef, Le Grand Bistro, Raw on Five, Rooftop Garden Grill and Fine Cuts Steakhouse. All were outstanding. Service was fantastic, the food was fantastic. It was like the food was coming from a different line. I was so, so pleased with how good these all were. We had a massive onboard credit to use to going to all these venues was a way to use it up. Also the reports of the restaurants being stingy on how much you could order was not accurate. You could only order one 'main' but you could order whatever else you wanted. Rooftop even just brought extra food when they said our mains would be a bit delayed.
Cafe al Bacio: Just a special point to say the coffee service on Celebrity is fantastic. Really enjoyed this venue, the crew and the coffee. Also having Mr Black was an added bonus that just made me more happy.
Crew:
Overall I was very happy with the service. A few misses as mentioned above. But overall pleasant and good service. It really does help slipping a few crew a 20 at the start of the cruise to get good prompt service. Not a lot to say here to be honest. Good crew, not intrusive or overbearing. Shop staff were nowhere near as pushy as previous sailings.
Overall:
I warmed up to the ship as the sailing went along. The passenger demographic was a good decade younger overall compared to previous sailings. A lot more kids on board then I am use to. Kids club seemed to be popular with them though. I did here there is more concentrated age activities, no 3-12. But 3-6, 6-9 etc. The people I talked to with kids said they seemed to like it. The interior of the ship is completely smoke free for those of you that don't like the smell coming from the casino. I may have mentioned a number of negative or disappointing things but the good outweighed the disappointing and I will always happily sail Celebrity. I would not choose an Edge-class for Alaska given the balcony situation. But have booked a Celebrity Ascent cruise later this year for the Caribbean and just picked an inside. The difference in price can cover premium access, premium drinks and the unlimited specialty dining.
Shore excursions booked up, but hard to make any comments because at every port anything to do with water was cancelled because of the weather and winds.
Celebrity is for people that want a bit of luxury feel without the price tag of the true luxury lines. The feel is relaxed and calm. Great for enjoying the sun, some drinks and fun. I highly recommend you give it a go if you want that kind of experience.
