Jan 17

Jan 17 Day Three - A Day At Sea

I learned this morning that The Retreat Lounge is open 24 hours a day and that coffee service begins at 7am. That is good news for me since I tend to get up between 5am and 6am and like to get my blogging done early. And, I prefer a quiet, peaceful place to work away from the stateroom so that I don’t interrupt Rickee’s sleep. The Retreat Lounge is the perfect spot!

While on the topic of blogging, which requires me to access the Internet to post our blog, photos and Instagram posts, the WiFi onboard has been abysmal for the past two days. It seemed to be decent on the first day, but since then, it has slowed to a crawl. And, before you ask, YES, we have the upgraded Streaming WiFi option. I can’t imagine what the “classic” WiFi package is like! I have been fighting this battle on cruise ships since 2001 when the first cruise ships began offering Internet. In fact, I would have to say that this could be one of the worst Wifi experiences I have had on a cruise. I cannot even get my blogs posted on time because of the slow Internet speeds.

Honestly, the technology has not improved much in 20 years. Celebrity promotes this WiFi as being capable to stream video, but so far, I have barely been able to get a web page to fully load within 30 seconds. And, just so you know, I have the latest MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and a new iPhone 13 Pro. Maybe Internet speed will improve later in the cruise. If so, I will make sure to report it.

Today is another day at sea as we sail toward St. Kitts, our first port-of-call. A sea day means relaxation and more time to explore the activities onboard. For lunch today, we are back at Oceanview Cafe.

Rickee has the sandwich station make her a ham-and-cheese sandwich on a fresh French baguette while I am intrigued by the huge platter of braised oxtail.

Rickee enjoyed her sandwich and I had to go back for seconds on the oxtail as it was delicious. As we are leaving Oceanview Cafe, Rickee stops at Scoops for a Coffee Gelato cone.

This afternoon, as the sun was beginning to set, we decided to open our bottle of complimentary champagne and enjoy a glass on our balcony as we watched the sun go down.

This evening, we returned to The Retreat Lounge for a cocktail while trying to decide what to do for dinner. There are so many dining choices on Apex it can be hard to decide. Should we go to Luminae, the private dining room for suite guests? We looked over the evening menu at Luminae and nothing really appealed to us.

Then we considered going to one of the four main dining rooms, but honestly, we began to realize that neither of us was really very hungry after the lunch at Oceanview Cafe. We opted to go back to Oceanview Cafe for something light. The service at Oceanview Cafe in the evening is reduced from lunchtime, but they still have a lot of options available. I had a Chicken Caesar Salad and Rickee fixed herself a plate of bread, olives cheese and other snacks. Oceanview Cafe was not crowded at all and we were able to find a nice quiet table by a window.

Tomorrow, we will be in St. Kitts.