Presidents Cruise Epiblog

This was an exceptional cruise from start to finish. 

It started with a sailaway English garden party around the pool with Olympic athletes display and Beatles tribute band. The president opened the proceedings, copious quantities of champagne, sparkling English wine and Pimms were provided, accompanied with canapes of dainty cones of fish and chips and towers of macrons. The party was whipped into a frenzy by two enthusiastc cruise directors and the warm sunny weather was perfect as we sailed away past the IOW towards Zeebruges.

We had visited most of the destinations before, but the fjords never dissappoint whatever the weather and on this cruise we had everything from warm sunshine to wind and snow.

The entertainment was better than average with speciality acts from Eagles tribute rock band to Las Vegas magician jetted in from the US for the occasion. The resident Celebrity cast entertained in the theatre, the club, Eden and the grande plaza, while the silent disco, Abba singalong and the nightly Martini bar show are established favourites now.

The chocolate extravaganda provided an opportunity for the chefs to show their skills including a giant chocolate model of the Apex and live manikins wearing costumes decorated with chocolate. Belgium chocolates, dipped strawberries. tiffins and macrons were everywhere as were chocolate themed cocktails. The President, chef Daniel Boulan and assorted executives provided a photo opportunity by the chocolate Apex and the manikins.

We ate in three of the main restaurants, Normandie was our favourite, where we made friends with Dewi, Ali and March our table attendants. The food was excellent, as was the service and we enjoyed more than our fair share of some gourmet dishes.  

We made the most of our Elite status to take breakfast in Tuscany restaurant but Ocean view buffet was also excellent and did a superb sea food buffet on the last sea day. Eden at the stern of the ship was our favoured cocktail destination and Bacio served us countless coffess and cakes.

On most evenings Captains club members received a gift, so we came home with scarves, water bottles, beannie hats and socks.

The weather was good in Olden, Stavanger and Alesund where we did excursions to the Briksdal glacier, the youngsters took a ride on a RIB to the iconic Pulpit rock and we rode the little train to the Mount Aksla viewpoint respectively. Geiranger was close to freezing and provided sunny intervals and showers, with snow on the hills,  for a close pass of the seven sisters waterfall, but unfortunately the weather was not good enough for the scheduled drone display.

It would be difficult to better this cruise and as Celebrity slogan reads - 'Nothing comes close'.

 

Southampton

After a smooth North sea crossing we docked and were up at 7:00 on our wedding anniversary. We all met in Bacio for a last coffee before disembarking and driving home via M&S foodhall at Coventry.  Mark and Christina were home about midday but we arrived home around 2:30 and will not be opening our cases until tomorrow.

Seaday for home run

It's a grey seaday today. Time for a lie in and partake in a bit of onboard shopping and activities.

Katie and I went to an interesting talk about sea birds and missed the sea food extravaganza in ocean view cafe! The others didn't.

We packed and put cases out for 8:30 departure. We met in the Martini bar for cocktails and we had our final dinner back in Normandie, said goodbye to Dewi, Ali and March our regular table attendants and had a speciality coffee before bed.

Stavanger

This is our last port of call in Norway and is another sunny day. After the Elite breakfast in Tuscany with Mark and Katie we are going to have a walk into the old town.

The youngsters decided to go on a RIB safari along the fjord to Pulpit Rock and the nearby waterfalls. After they had put on dry suits and set off on the RIB we went to the cathedral which has been closed for some time being refurbished. It's not a particularly impressive place but we lit a couple of candles. Browsed around the popup market, had a coffee and met the others at the completion of their safari. 

We all went to one of the harbour side restaurants and had an excellent light lunch of mussels, prawns and fish soup with a beer in the afternoon sun. Returned briefly to the market before rejoining the ship. It's another chic night with lobster on the menu.

The traditional parade of the chefs does not happen any more since the main restaraunt has split into four but the restaurant chef came around the tables greet the diners. The lobster and beef wellington was on the menu and some of us managed to order beef with a lobster side dish.

Geirangerfjord

Today we cruised into Geiranger, passed the waterfalls on a much colder and wet morning.

We walked up to the fjord information centre on the road, intending to walk back down beside the waterfall. Mark went ahead and told us it was very wet and slippery so we walked back on the road. We met Rosemary at the bottom of the hill (she was recovering from a swollen ankle aquired at Briksdal) and we went for local beer and Norweigen tapas before boarding Apex in the rain. 

We met the bass player from the Eagles tribute band (The Long Run) in a lift and he insisted on having his photo taken with me.

It's been almost freezing on shore and we could see the snow falling on the hills all around.

We had a very close pass of the seven sisters waterfall during the sailaway. There were not many on the top deck for the sailaway party and we saw the waterfall from the warmth of our cabin. We were looking forward to a drone display just before midnight but unfortunately it was cancelled because of the poor weather.

Alesund

It was just a short cruise overnight to Alesund and the morning started cool and wet. We decided to wait for the rain to stop and took the little blue train up to the top of the Aksla mountain by which time the skies had cleared. We had lovely view of the art nouveau town below in the sunshine followed by an interesting tour of the old part of the town with an entertaining commentary.

We were back to Normandie restaurant tonite for an early dinner, then a show in the theatre featuring magician Adam Trent from his residency in Las Vegas. It was a rather underwealming performance involving a lot of audience participation and assisted by a young girl from the audience who got the biggest applause of the evening.

Olden and Glacier

Today we are in Olden on a beautiful sunny morning with stunning scenery all around. Woke up early to enjoy the cruise down the fjord and after breakfast caught the Glacier express to Briksdal. We oldies took the troll car towards the glacier while the youngsters walked up to big waterfall under the troll route. None of us made it all the way to the lake at the foot of the glacier but we enjoyed what we did do and have plenty of photos to prove it. We swapped restaurant to Cosmopolitan and enjoyed yet another high quality meal. Managed to catch the last half of a good Eagles tribute band from California and we all had our first early night while Apex cruised into the sunset.