Apex Translant Sailing Update:

[JeffB]

Left Tenerife on Sunday, 10/16 for the crossing. First thing that went down that evening is an announcement of no more masks inside. That was the ongoing measure I described up thread and probably the result of 7 positives and 56 contacts (crew + guests, quarantined, all negative x2 and released in 5d) on the Greek Isles itinerary out of Piraeus ending in Barcelona immediately prior to the Apex Translant from there. Masks inside is also a typical requirement for dining inside in some EU countries. Those are easing.

Ports in Southern Spain are very nice and accessible from where cruise ships port. We experienced lots of port and date changes. In the end we visited Alicante, Cartegena and Cadiz. The Cadiz port call required Celebrity curated tours only. They were inexpensive and pulled off pretty well. No complaints except you could not leave the tour group to dine or shop. Both these tours had a restroom, coffee and snack stop. The venues where we stopped in for around 30 minutes each were nice. One drink and a snack were included. Both port calls in the Canary Islands - Santa Cruz and Tenerife - specified curated tours. Again, they were pulled off nicely. Tenerife, the largest Island in the Canary islands, is stunningly beautiful. Both of these islands are off the NW African coast. You have to hunt for itineraries from the major cruise lines that visit them. They are European country destination vacation spots. Just starting to reemerge from the pandemic that was tough on these places as their economies are about 90% tourism based.  Visiting them is totally worth it. It's just too bad the COVID restrictions limited shopping and dining. Hopefully, these will be coming to an end going forward.   

No one on Apex staff that I have inquired about this is the question of what happens to sailings on Apex from US ports after the CSO expires on 10/31, assuming it's not renewed. It might be but I'd say it's a 70/30 proposition it won't be renewed. This sailing is not involved as it ends on 10/24 in Fort Lauderdale. The next sailing is a 4d media event promoting the porting of Apex in Fort Lauderdale. You can book it but that's what will be going on. After that it's 7 or 9d Caribbean itineraries.

Something of note on this west bound translant is the presence of a persistent swell from north to south, typical this time of year. We're sailing on a course of 277 degrees. The swell hits the forward starboard side of Apex. It makes the ride a bit uncomfortable with a combined, but gentle, pitch and roll motion. The weather though has been nice with clear skies, low winds and temps in the mid 70s.

Food has been of high quality and presentation. Service very good with only 1280 something guests. I like the 4 main restaurants with different themes thing. Each has a signature entr'e and desert but they essentially all have the same menu. There are other specialty restaurants that we booked a dining package for on our last Apex sailing out of Piraeus, not this one though. Worth a visit but not 2x. The food in the mains is really good. Edge class ships feature the "Magic Carpet." This is a platform the moves up and down from the middle of the ship. It's a bar and restaurant and also a debarkation platform on port days. On offer was a 5 course meal with wine service on Saturday evening while in the port of Tenerife. It was $125pp. A tidy sum, indeed. We didn't partake but comments from those that did thought it was worth it. Each to his own. It is a neat feature but it's windy at sea, not in port or just leaving port like it was scheduled in Tenerife. 

The internet is not good. A combination of satellite position and something affecting the network aboard has produced poor service and several outages. Adjust your expectations. There are naturally occurring limits to satellite based internet that cruise ships can't completely eliminate. The iLounge staff aboard Apex has been very accommodating in either refunding the cost of internet packages or restoring minutes. Classic Celebrity ..... if something is wrong, they'll try to make it right.    

Entertainment is unique to Edge class ships. Full production shows are in the main theater that is an almost in the round venue. The stage is round, seating is unchanged but it changes the sight lines. All of them are fine. There are also limited production shows in what is called the Club (a small venue with limited sight lines. OK if you are sitting right on the center stage but poor everywhere else). But the shows are quite good featuring more dancing and acrobatics than in the main theater. Eden also features limited production shows. In all three venues, even with a less than 100% guest load, you need to be in the venue at least 30m before show time if you want a good seat with good sight lines. 

Overall, this is a beautifully appointed and technologically very modern cruise ship with excellent food and a level service in all areas across all departments that is pretty high. Pricing has gone through the roof in the last year with the appearance that this company is shooting for cruisers that want exclusivity (the Retreat) and have a lot of money to spend. Among building in two story suites and private pools that go for $20K on a 7d itinerary on Edge class ships, Celebrity also moved to an "everything included" concept that covers gratuities, classic beverages, and unlimited internet. For us, I've done the math and the everything included options saves money compared to buying the base fare and adding the extras. If your on a strict cruise budget you can save without any of the typical bar or internet costs. If you are Elite, Elite Plus or Zenith on Celebrity, one can manage the base fare and taking advantage of the bar perk which is classic drinks in any bar from 5 - 7pm and the internet perk that is 120, 240 or unlimited depending on status. We're Elite Plus and doing that on this sailing. We also booked a Deluxe  inside cabin (they're bigger) when this sailing was first booked in the spring of 2019 as cabin fares were high on this ships planned inaugural season that got COVID'ed.  Maybe should have had the TA that booked this pursue an upgrade to a balcony but by the time it seemed certain this cruise would go, bookings and pricing had increased.  

But instead of a 7d cruise in a balcony cabin for 2 costing around $1200pp (not including your bar tab, internet or specialty dining), the new Celebrity fare concept now cost a shade over $1500pp. That's $170/person/day with the old fare structure compared to $215/person/day with the new one. Just a slick method by Celebrity to get more money out of your pocket up front.  I'm fine with that, others may not be. Inflation is a fact of life if you want to continue cruising. 

[cruisellama]

28 minutes ago, JeffB said:

The internet is not good. A combination of satellite position and something affecting the network aboard has produced poor service and several outages. Adjust your expectations. There are naturally occurring limits to satellite based internet that cruise ships can't completely eliminate. The iLounge staff aboard Apex has been very accommodating in either refunding the cost of internet packages or restoring minutes. Classic Celebrity ..... if something is wrong, they'll try to make it right.    

 

Have you been sailing through much precipitation (as your ship isn't full, wouldn't think its a local bandwidth issue)?  

Have you stopped by the Apple store?  If so any sales on Apple Watches?

[JeffB]

25 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

Have you been sailing through much precipitation (as your ship isn't full, wouldn't think its a local bandwidth issue)?  

Have you stopped by the Apple store?  If so any sales on Apple Watches?

On your first question, No. The weather has been fine. Second question, no it's not a bandwidth issue per se'. The main problem, I'm told, is that the Satellite that the ship tunes to for it's internet connection is low on the horizon. That induces noise and a less than clean internet connection. There's not much the tech staff can do about it. It's a problem on all the cruise ships and is affected by where a ship is located.

Third question, I don't know. I'm not an Apple user so I'm not paying attention. 

[twangster]

The only ships that have great internet in the middle of the Atlantic are ships with O3b.  For Celebrity that is none.  For Royal that is Freedom, Quantum and Oasis class plus Enchantment.  The rest of the Royal fleet also uses geostationary satellites like Celebrity.  O3b uses earth orbiting satellites so they cover the planet between 70°N and 70°S.

The problem is that geostationary satellite providers tend to position satellites and focus their footprint where they are most likely to sell services.  That means land with population.  There is limited fringe coverage in the middle of oceans because fish don't buy satellite services.  Because O3b satellites circle the earth in a moving orbit they cover everywhere including the middle of oceans.

SES who operates O3b has pretty much maxed out their current capacity.  They aren't really taking more ships on right now.  That's about to change with more O3b next generation satellites recently launched and more to come.  Some of those new mPower O3b satellites went up on a ride share with SpaceX last month.  The newly upgraded O3b constellation of satellites is supposed to come into service in the fall of 2022.  They are claiming they will be able to accommodate thousands of new ships at that time or "all the cruise ships in the world" in their words.

Princess recently completed a project to upgrade all their ships to "MedalionNet" which uses the same SES/O3b satellites that Royal's newer ships use.  Princess doesn't police user traffic down to 4x2Mbs like Royal does.  Consequently Princess has the fastest internet of all cruise ships.  I've personally enjoyed 45Mbs down and 30Mbs up on them but other users reports of even better speeds.  It's pretty great and they've upgraded the whole fleet.  Royal doesn't upgrade the internet on older ships.  Even as ships like Navigator and Mariner have been amplified the satellite was left stuck using the old technology, so no O3b for Voyager, Radiance or Vision class.     Consequently I won't book one of those class on a transatlantic for exactly the reason that you experienced.  

[JeffB]

Quote

 

Consequently I won't book one of those class on a transatlantic for exactly the reason that you experienced.  

 

I know lots of cruise enthusiasts need to be connected to the internet for work and social purposes. So this won't apply: I'm not going to book a cruise ship on the basis of their internet service. We all need to be disconnected for a time. It's like working out. It's good for you.

[KathyC]

On 10/19/2021 at 1:34 PM, JeffB said:

I know lots of cruise enthusiasts need to be connected to the internet for work and social purposes. So this won't apply: I'm not going to book a cruise ship on the basis of their internet service. We all need to be disconnected for a time. It's like working out. It's good for you.

It may be good for him, but it's not good for us.  We live and breathe live blogs and photos by @twangster