Many cruisers simply seek an attractive ship to call home while visiting incredible destinations.
How about an attractive vessel with tasteful art and a design focused on the outdoor spaces?
That’s precisely what I love.
If this sounds like you, too, Celebrity Apex just might be your spirit animal.
The ship is the sister of Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge, and Apex debuted with a weeklong sailing in the Greek islands in mid-June. Cruise Addicts was onboard the 2,900-passenger ship that sails out of Athens for its inaugural season. While sailing to places like Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes and Cyprus, we discovered five reasons cruisers are going to love Celebrity Apex.
The Resort Deck and Rooftop Garden
Celebrity Apex features a wonderful emphasis on the beauty and spaciousness of the outdoors areas. The ship’s Resort Deck on 14 features the main pool, with nearby art installations. The outdoor sculptures include the Apex’s iconic silver heart hands at the head of the pool.
The 25-yard lap pool features in-pool loungers, a wonderful way to sit back and cool off. The pool bar sits below a dazzling and massive LED light installation that serves as art with ever-changing light displays. Passengers can reserve the stylish cabanas that line one side of the pool deck.
On the other side, two martini glass-shaped hot tubs rise high into the sky above it all. The outdoor space leads back to the Solarium indoor pool area, which is a more serene space that also has the Spa Café for light and healthy bites.
The Rooftop Garden is a relaxing chill-out space that owns the feel of an urban park, with natural wood tones and plants. It is full of cozy seating areas and benches, with a large screen that shows movies. Adjacent is the Rooftop Garden Grill serving up barbecue favorites in a magnificent al fresco setting.
The jogging track is inspired and innovative. The route takes runners on twists and turns, rising and dropping between Decks 14 and 15, a wonderful varied course that avid runners will like.
At the very aft of Deck 16 is the Sunset Bar, a wonderful gem of a quiet spot that looks out over the wake.
The Dining Options
With more than a dozen included and specialty restaurants onboard, it takes good planning to try them all on a one-week cruise. And once you’ve been to a few of these places, you’ll likely want to go back again. So, that makes the choices even tougher.
Celebrity Apex features the Fine Cut steakhouse, Raw on 5 for sushi and Japanese specialties and Le Grand Bistro, a French restaurant with amazing fresh-baked breads, sandwiches and Mediterranean cuisine. At night, Le Grand Bistro is the venue for the creative Le Petite Chef, an animated show that accompanies your meal. Apex features a new storyline for the tiny chef, who debuted on Celebrity Edge.
Eden Restaurant has contemporary cuisine and an open kitchen where you watch chefs prep your courses. You also can grab a light breakfast or lunch at Eden Café.
The Rooftop Garden Grill is the al fresco backyard barbecue joint on the top deck.
The one eatery where the venue is the top draw (although the food is quite good, as well) is Dinner on the Edge. This is a dining experience on the ship’s Magic Carpet platform that hangs from the side of the ship. Dinner on the Edge takes place with the platform set at Deck 14, and the sunset and sea views are incredible while you dine.
Blu offers wellness-inspired cuisine for passengers staying in Aqua Class staterooms, and Luminae is the dedicated restaurant for cruisers who book suites.
Apex also offers four main dining rooms and an elaborate buffet-style eatery in the Oceanview Café.
The Entertainment
The main theater on Celebrity Apex is a technological wonder, with a circular stage in the center of the venue and a wraparound 20-foot-tall 4K 17-million-pixel LED screen that deliver images that help immerse the audience in cool environments for shows like “Tree of Life” and “Rockumentary.” The Tree of Life itself is a dynamic production using an 18-foot-tall tree at the center of the stage that evolves throughout the show, by way of its 3,300 LED leaves.
The Club is a spot for trivia and other activities by day and for live music and the show Caravan, a circus variety show, late into the night. Passengers also gather at the ship’s impressive Grand Plaza, which occupies a huge multi-level space as the foyer midship. This is where you can find live music throughout the afternoon and into the evening and settle in for craft martinis and cocktails at the vibrant Martini Bar, where the flair bartenders put on a thrilling show.
The Resort Deck also offers DJ music, dance parties and silent discos.
The ship’s Eden space is also a big location for nightly entertainment.
Eden
Speaking of Eden, this large immersive space debuted on Celebrity Edge, and it was unlike anything we’ve seen before on a cruise ship. Celebrity Apex has refined this multi-level “room that lives” with a lineup of delightful programming that we saw bring smiles to cruisers throughout our week onboard.
During the day, most use it to settle in for a little relaxation. Eden is at the very aft of the ship, with multi-story windows that bathe the space in natural light. You can plop down in one of the comfy chairs, couches or daybeds and read a book, chat with new friends or even take a nap.
Eden has a bar serving up craft cocktails, and entertainment during the evenings includes live music acts, dancing, acrobats and aerialists. Each evening takes on a different theme, such as “The Night of the Chill” or Night of Enchantment.”
The Retreat
Suite passengers get an array of amenities for booking to top staterooms on Apex. Among these perks are The Retreat Lounge and Retreat Sundeck. This area located at the top of the ship at the front is a serene enclave that offers a private pool, hot tub, loungers, a bar with a small but delicious menu of food and the lounge area with a concierge service and another bar.
It’s worth the splurge to enjoy the special service and extras (like the Luminae restaurant) you get in The Retreat.
Learn more about Celebrity Apex’s Culinary offerings:
