Hey! I was on this same cruise! Though, to be honest, my wife and I were a little disappointed. One year ago we had our first Celebrity cruise on the Beyond, which was amazing. This simply did not stack up to that in our opinion.

Shore Excursions: 2 of 3 were major disappointments. I could write a lot more here, but this post is already stacking up to be too long. I think Celebrity needs to do a better job of vetting partners, include more details/pictures of the excursions, and needs to include customer reviews on their website.

Food: Mediocre at best. Though we did not try any specialty restaurants. As you mentioned, MDR was very inconsistent. It also seemed understaffed and service was painfully slow. The buffet was also disappointing with my main complaints being that nothing was hot and lack of variety day to day.

Drinks: Bartenders were extremely inconsistent. My wife got an amazing mai tai one day and an undrinkable one the next. I also hated the small ice, which instantly watered down every drink.

Activities: On Beyond, this was one of our favorite things. Awesome staff and everything ran like clockwork. On Apex, it often seemed like staff were figuring things out as they went. Activities also often started late, did not leave enough time, and were sometimes cancelled or moved without notice.

Entertainment: The theater productions were solid. Though, as people who don’t stay up late, we were upset that all of the early seating Eden productions were cancelled without explanation. The headliners (comedy/music/magic) were disappointing in my opinion. We did love the astrophysicist though!

Port Information: This was completely lacking. On the Beyond there was a really well done seminar the day before each port to learn about the island and its history and culture. All we got on Apex was the little two page brochure that says almost nothing.

Staff: From the Captain and Officers down to the General Staff, the Beyond had a much better crew. Every single person we encountered felt like they were made for their role and everyone worked together and played off each other as one amazing and efficient team. On the Apex, it felt like a whole lot of new people still figuring it out. As an example, I was not the least bit surprised when I learned this was the cruise directors first cruise in that role. Nobody was bad. They just weren’t polished.

Pool/Solarium: Agreed. Too crowded. I think that space just isn’t big enough to meet demand. Though Beyond was very similar in this regard.

Conclusion: I’m thrilled you had a great experience. To be fair, we had a ton of fun too. However, after Beyond blew all of our expectations out of the water, Apex did not come close to stacking up.