Just another Thanksgiving cruise live blog...on Celebrity APEX

[AshleyDillo]

I was toying with the idea of live blogging my Thanksgiving cruise.

I guess it's no secret what my decision is. 

Maybe this will inspire me to take photos..maybe not. I took maybe 3 photos on my last cruise. That was a RCLBlog group cruise..so it's probably for the best there isn't photographic evidence of that though

[AshleyDillo]

I'm sailing yet again with my mother and brother, both recently anointed Pinnacles. However, I am not remotely close.

That shouldn't matter on this cruise however for a plethora of reasons. 

For those familiar and unfamiliar, my mother is hell bent on spending my inheritance. As she gets older, this becomes more and more evident as she continually pushes boundaries of what she considers acceptable pricing for cruises.

I've learned not to fight this extravagant spending on cruise fares with the person who will, in the same breath, tell me flying to Ft. Lauderdale is too expensive, especially when I'm available to do the 7 hour drive.

[LandstromCruise]

31 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said: 

For those familiar and unfamiliar, my mother is hell bent on spending my inheritance. As she gets older, this becomes more and more evident as she continually pushes boundaries of what she considers acceptable pricing for cruises.

 

Not that I will have any inheritance to leave my children anyways, but if it’s between me cruising in my older years and them getting left the money that I worked for, cruising wins out hands down! 

[AshleyDillo]

31 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

Not that I will have any inheritance to leave my children anyways, but if it’s between me cruising in my older years and them getting left the money that I worked for, cruising wins out hands down! 

It's fun to poke holes in her logic, but I don't begrudge her. I would say she earned it, but I guess she did by being married to my father for so long

[AshleyDillo]

Made it onboard...I have the drink package this cruise. It's been a looong time since I've had it. Usually I just stick to my D+ drinks and casino drinks and that gets me through just fine.

But here's to happy sails

..and happy Black Friday sales that I get to avoid. I will be just hanging out and catching some views.

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

Maybe this will inspire me to take photos..maybe not. I took maybe 3 photos on my last cruise.

That's the exact excuse I've mentioned for not doing more live blogs. Looks like you're off to a good start!

Enjoy the DBP while some of us settle for raiding the in laws' liquor cabinet.

[JohnK6404]

Enjoy your cruise! 

[asquared17]

have a wonderful cruise!! i hope it is a peaceful + relaxing time

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

both recently anointed Pinnacles.

Yay! and Congrats to @CGTLH and your Mom!

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

For those familiar and unfamiliar, my mother is hell bent on spending my inheritance. As she gets older, this becomes more and more evident as she continually pushes boundaries of what she considers acceptable pricing for cruises.

I will have to get my kids to come and talk to you as the years go on. I am with your Mom in this case lol

1 hour ago, LandstromCruise said:

but if it’s between me cruising in my older years and them getting left the money that I worked for, cruising wins out hands down! 

Haha! +1 

@AshleyDillo What ship are you on?

[AshleyDillo]

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

What ship are you on?

Shhh..it's a secret for now. New ship to me..now I shall retreat back into hiding and I will come back with photos

[AshleyDillo]

We have spent the afternoon/early evening plane spotting. Port Everglades is fantastic for that. You can see planes coming into Ft. Lauderdale and Miami from this vantage point.

[SMOKEY0202]

For me i can't imagine leaving my money as inheritance when it could be logically or selfishly spent on more cruises for ME.....

Maybe i could leave a small inheritance with stipulations on cruising and say forget planting a tree at a park, instead buy me a bench on each ship in Central Park, table in Coastal kitchen or a bar stool in Schooner bar with name engraved in memory of......whose fondest memories were sailing the seas til the end.

[AshleyDillo]

Peace out land...

Time to get ready for dinner. It's been almost 4 hours since we last ate

[OCSC Mike]

6 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

It's been almost 4 hours since we last ate

Something I don't ever think I've said on a cruise except when waking up in the morning.

[Sweety]

Have a peaceful cruise 

[AshleyDillo]

[asquared17]

hahaha i love it!! 

will be following you guys since we just booked ascent for february 2025!!

[Sweety]

We are on Celebrity in 2025 as well.

[Lovetocruise2002]

I knew it! That was my guess!! Did @Matt tell you lol

I guessed it after the Stella pic cause that colouring in the background is not Royal colouring

[LandstromCruise]

I figured it too after she posted by to FLL as I knew Symphony hadn’t left yet and I had just watched Apex sail away. 

[MaryS]

I'm on the Ascent end of January!

[asquared17]

22 minutes ago, MaryS said:

I'm on the Ascent end of January!

i can't wait to hear how you like it!!

[Neesa]

8 minutes ago, asquared17 said:

i can't wait to hear how you like it!!

Plus 1! Following !!!

[Ampurp85]

Hey @AshleyDillo tell you mom and brother congrats on making pin. I don't know why I thought you were at or over 340 already. I was just telling @asquared17 I was looking into a celebrity sailing now that I am D+. I am really looking forward to your blog .

[AshleyDillo]

This cruise spawned from the December Wonder Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise. @Matt mentioned he was going to be trying out Celebrity over Thanksgiving this year. Unbeknownst to him we accepted his obvious invitation to join his sailing.

We ran into him last night and chatted for a bit in the effy store and thought fondly of @Lovetocruise2002. We successfully kept it a secret since we booked.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, I suppose I can recap the past day and a half. Maybe I can even convince @CGTLH to step in and share as well.

[AshleyDillo]

4 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I knew it! That was my guess!! Did @Matt tell you lol

I guessed it after the Stella pic cause that colouring in the background is not Royal colouring

He did tell us you guessed it. I even tried deliberately to find somewhere neutral to photograph it..this ship has an extreme lack of lime & coconut and pale fake wood coloring on this ship.

3 hours ago, LandstromCruise said:

I figured it too after she posted by to FLL as I knew Symphony hadn’t left yet and I had just watched Apex sail away. 

Yup..I figured someone would do the leg work to put two and two together with enough clues. I'm on Symphony in less than 2 weeks though.  Caught her from across the port before we backed on outta there.

46 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Hey @AshleyDillo  I don't know why I thought you were at or over 340 already.

Oh, I am over that threshold. I'm just not close enough to Pinnacle where it feels achievable if I have to pay for my own cruises

[AshleyDillo]

Since I've experienced a lot of Royal Caribbean cruises, including Star Class on all 5 Oasis class ships, it's really hard not to make comparisons.

This is my first Celebrity sailing, which they gladly advertise with a Star on the SeaPass (which I don't even know for sure is what they call them on Celebrity).

[AshleyDillo]

We are in a Royal Suite which is part of the Retreat. I think it's as close to Star Class (read: all inclusive) as you can get. Our cabin includes the premium beverage package, the dining package, and free wifi. When we booked it gratuities were still included but that has since changed. We have a butler which is as close to  Royal Genie as you can get. 

[AshleyDillo]

This door at the end of the hallway goes to Luminae which is the special restaurant for the Retreat guests. 

[AshleyDillo]

Some things to note that I feel heavily factor into our experience onboard:

This is a Thanksgiving sailing so there are tons of families onboard.

This is the first sailing after a transatlantic sailing. There was a Coast Guard inspection that delayed boarding and sail away and also I've found provisioning issues after a transatlantic can be hit or miss. We are seeing interesting items from the European supply and some menu items have been not available.

Suites have a dedicated suite lounge at Terminal 25 (Celebrity's dedicated terminal) at Port Everglades. I guess they aren't used to a crowd in there.and because of the Coast Guard inspection delay it was a bit of a cluster in there. They weren't able to bring snacks off the ship until 11am (normal boarding time) and we didn't make it onboard until almost noon. The earliest arrival time for our sailing was noon, compensating for the Coast Guard inspection, but none of us followed the arrival times obviously.

[AshleyDillo]

I tried to snap some room photos before we moved in. We have 3 people sharing this space. My brother is on the couch and the master bed is split into 2 beds (maybe 2 inches apart). It's not the best set up for us because of the lack of privacy style bathroom set up, but it was the most reasonably priced (in she who holds the purse's opinion) so it's what we are dealing with. Fortunately there is a second half bathroom that has a door like a standard cabin bathroom, with an airtight seal. We refer to the bathrooms as bathroom 1 and bathroom 2 for obvious reasons.

The room also came with a complimentary welcome bottle of champagne.

[AshleyDillo]

Another perk of the room is you get to select 2 bottles of hard liquor for the room.

We chose the Woodford Double Oaked but supply issues may have struck..we haven't followed up to see what happened.

[AshleyDillo]

The room opens to this, which is pretty stunning.

I do find myself to have modern luxury design tastes which clashes with my interior cabin budget sensibilities. 

The living room seating area reminds me of the renderings I've seen of the Panoramic Suites which we have booked for the inaugural Icon sailing.

There's comfortable dining room seating and underneath the banquet are drawers that give you plenty of storage.

Ignore the beginnings of my mother's stockpile of toiletries to bring home

Bathroom number 2 is right off the entrance.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Wow! I am liking this already! Moët and 2 bottles of hard liquor. Already have me step up from Star. 
Would you say that the room size/layout is more comparable to a GS or OS on Royal?

[Lovetocruise2002]

Also, do you get the complimentary pyjamas in this cabin type? 

[AshleyDillo]

There's a counter with a Lavazza coffee maker. There's a mini-fridge and a beverage fridge that came with stuff I think we requested beforehand..but I'm not sure. I also don't know if this gets restocked automatically or we can request it to be restocked.

[AshleyDillo]

4 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Would you say that the room size/layout is more comparable to a GS or OS on Royal?

Bigger than OS. It.almost feels like two adjoining JS side byside. The bedroom/bathroom  layout is a lot similar to the grand Panoramic Suites on Oasis or Allure..obviously not the high ceilings, but the master bath is behind the bed in the room.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Poor @CGTLH is always on the couch or cot….

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Poor @CGTLH is always on the couch or cot….

I'd sleep on a lounger on the pool deck for the perks you guys are used to, lol.

[AshleyDillo]

The bedroom backs up to the bathroom.

There are sliding doors to separate the bedroom and bathroom from the living room.

The balcony is at the end of the bed so you can lay in bed and enjoy the view.

There are just two chairs and boxes on the balcony..nothing that reclines.