The Celebrity Apex was a beautiful ship! It was a little smaller than some of the other cruises we've been on, but that was actually nice. It felt less crowded, and we enjoyed plenty of space. We boarded at Southampton, and we knew from our balcony we were going to enjoy this trip!
We had two rooms in The Retreat area of the ship which worked out great. This gave us all a bit more space which was appreciated, and it gave us access to some more secluded areas.
Our butler brought us snacks every afternoon which was always a fun surprise to come in and see. There were cookies, popcorn, chocolates, and cheese plates galore! Jackie sent us chocolate covered strawberries at one point and a box of macarons another; those were delicious surprises!
I always enjoy walking around a ship and seeing the artwork and spaces. It's always so creative.
This was probably my favorite space onboard. The Retreat has its own area where they served afternoon tea each day, and they had these wonderfully comfortable chairs to relax and read in while looking out over the water. We were pretty far north, so I loved that they had beautiful blankets out to keep us warm.
We always enjoy seeing the entertainment onboard cruise ships too. Some ships we've been on have given us absolutely incredible Broadway level entertainment. Smaller ships don't quite reach that level, but it was still a lot of fun to be out and enjoy the shows. One night they performed "Tree of Life" which showed life going through the different seasons around a tree. We enjoyed the music and the acrobats were fun to watch.
Tabitha Purcell gave a great performance of iconic female singer/songwriters, and Adam Heppenstall was an excellent magician. I always enjoy these types of shows.
The ship also presented a show called Crystillize which again gave us some lovely music and impressive acrobatics.
The girls and I enjoyed a completely different type of entertainment one evening by going to dinner at Le Petite Chef: The Musical. They projected a fun story about the little chef directly onto the table, and then they presented you to eat with whatever he had just made (there was an alternate menu available to give a bit of choice). This was both delicious food and a ton of fun!
We expected the food on this ship to be a bit elevated, and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed quite a few delicious meals this week! I know pictures never do it justice, but here are a few of our favorites.
The Retreat private restaurant has a menu prepared by Chef Daniel Boulud. I loved it! There was a chilled corn soup appetizer (not pictured) followed by my favorite food on the whole trip: duck leg confit with apricot, braised radish, bok choy, and duck jus. It was absolutely delicious! I ordered it when we returned later in the week too. Dessert was an almond cake with grape confit, mascarpone, fig, and a buttermilk ice cream. I could eat a gallon of that ice cream. It was the lightest, creamiest ice cream I've ever had. It wasn't the dessert on Chef Boulud's menu, but I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it.
The dessert on the Chef's menu was this Milk Chocolate Pill which was a milk chocolate cremeux, hazelnut sable, caramalized hazenuts, and crispy praline. It was fantastic! We tried several other restaurants onboard too. This warm apple pie crumble was a delicious finish to the French restaurant, Normandie.
The beef wellington and phyllo dough tulip from Normandie were pretty tasty too.
I enjoyed stopping by The Retreat area for afternoon tea each day. They had little sandwiches as well as scones with clotted cream and jam; of course there were little pastries to choose from too. At Cyprus, I definitely enjoyed this Greek braised lamb shank; it was delicious!
At the Retreat restaurant, they offered little amuse-bouche which was a fun little add on. This was some kind of little fish cake, and I loved it. Of course, I'm always a big fan of bread with pretty butter too!
You can't be on a cruise that goes to Belgium and not have a Belgium Chocolate Buffet in the main dining room one evening! There were so many fabulous options to choose from!
We didn't spend a ton of time on this ship because we were enjoying our excursions so much, but what time we had was definitely enjoyable (other than the one night on the North Sea where there was storm that tossed us all around!). I would definitely recommend this ship to others!
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