In June 2026 I was lucky enough to set sail onboard the Celebrity Apex, on a 7-night cruise to the Norwegian fjords from the port of Southampton.

Long term readers of this website or watchers of the CruiseHols YouTube channel will know that I have sailed from Southampton numerous times before, that Celebrity are my favourite line and that I have been to the fjords before.

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Despite all of that, there were plenty of new things on this getaway including sailing in one of the lines new Infinity Balcony’s, I visited the port of Nordfjordeid for the first time, and I sailed on an Edge class of ship for the first time.

If you have any interest in that, or visiting the Norwegian Fjords on a cruise, or just want to see what a cruise is like, this is the trip report for you as I take you through what my journey was like on the Celebrity Apex to the fjordland region of Norway.

After travelling down to the Newbury area the day before, we had a straightforward run down to Southampton, where me and my wife first went to the Mayflower Park, next to the cruise port and which is a great place to see the ships.

That is especially true for those berthed at City Terminal and that is where we would depart from, so after getting some photos of the ship and having a good look at the Eden area, we would head around the corner to the car park.

Southampton has also been a simple cruise port to use and whenever we have sailed with Celebrity from there, or their sister line Royal Caribbean, we have always had a great experience.

That continued to be the case as all of the staff were friendly, the service exceptional and we went from our car to the ship in minutes.

Upon boarding the ship, we quickly watched the safety video and headed to our muster station (always a simple process with Celebrity- maybe MSC should pay attention!), and set off exploring.

The Apex is an incredible ship and has really maximised much of what we love about the line, from plenty of seating all around the ship to works of art around every corner to its relaxed atmosphere and plenty of entertainment happening all around the ship.

As is always the case when boarding a cruise ship, it wasn’t long until we found ourselves up in the buffet and trying out the food, which is always helped with Celebrity as you drop off your carry-on bags in your cabin before they are ready for you to use.

I normally like to have a steady start to a cruise and don’t really plan to much for the first night but with this only been a short cruise, me and my wife would head into the feature where a trio of singers known as The Voxens gave a harmonic twist to some pop songs after the captain welcomed us aboard.

All were great singers, but their patter needed a bit of work and with that it was time for bed before a early start the next day.

When heading to the fjords from the UK, ships will normally call into a port such as Haugesund or Stavanger on the southern tip of the fjordlands after a day at sea crossing the North Sea.

For this itinerary, it was a bit different however as instead of heading through the channel and heading north-west, we would simply cross it for an early arrival at the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Perhaps best known as the port for Bruges, one of the best Medieval cities in Europe, Zeebrugge is somewhere I have visited many times before on cruises, ferries and coach holidays.

With it not really been the focus of a trip such as this one, my plan for the day was to simply wonder around Zeebrugge itself, including walking to its church, around its port and a visit to its chocolate factory shop.

Things would soon change however as the first thing I would see when exiting the terminal was a police car, then I heard bagpipes and lots of noise before noticing a crowd.

Something was definitely happening and then I was soon greeted by some giant models of people in traditional dress, some horse and carts and a procession heading through the port area.

I would later find out that it was a traditional sea blessing, where a procession and service is performed in memory of those who have been lost at sea.

It’s always great to stumble unexpectedly on some local culture such as this when exploring a port and we would look to take some more of it in later on in our visit, but me and my wife would soon set off on our original plan.

We start by heading east along the main coastal road towards the Zeebrugge church, Sint-Donatianuskerk, and from there we would continue to the far end of the marina part of the port of Zeebrugge.

It was a glorious sunny day for our visit leading you to easily think you were in the Med or the Caribbean but no I was on the northern coast of Europe.

After a few minutes walking along the marina, we heard the unmistakable sound of bagpipes and noticed that the procession had made it way to the other side of the harbour that we were in.

With that in mind, we would continue to the chocolate shop (of course), grab some gifts for family and ourselves, before heading round to where the bagpipe noise was coming from.

The parade part of the Sea Blessing had now done, and it had turned into a remembrance service, where the names of those lost at sea were read out and people dressed in traditional dress crossed in front of a memorial.

It was one of those moments where you really wanted to watch it, but with it been something so deeply personal to many there, you also felt in the way as a visitor to the town.

I would head round to the back of the memorial to try and keep out of the way but that would soon prove to be a mistake as a number of tugs were in the harbour and giving a water salute- the only problem been that the wind changed and soaked all of us watching the service!

I took that as a sign to move on and headed back down to the marina and walked back to the cruise terminal.

We had always planned on getting back onboard early to give us some time to explore the ship and that was just what me and my wife did.

One of the great things about the Apex is not only does it have four separate MDR’s for you to try, but each has its own cuisine that are offered as ‘Specials’- but you can still get the regular menu across all of them as well.

I visited Normandie on the first night, a French restaurant, and it was right up there with one of the best meals I have had on a cruise ship, including speciality restaurants, with the duck main course the highlight.

After that, it was down to the theatre once again for the first production show of the trip which was called the Tree of Life.

One of the things both me and my wife love about the line is there traditional style theatres and the fact that they have a live orchestra accompanying shows and guest acts.

On this class of ship, they have thankfully continued with the latter, but they have made big changes to their theatres to become ultra-modern ones.

That does give Celebrity plenty of opportunities to use modern technology to enhance their shows and before boarding, I was fascinated to know if they were going to take advantage of that or whether it would be the same style of shows but in a new setting.

As much I enjoy the shows that I have seen before with Celebrity, it didn’t take long for my question to be answered and yes, they not only use lots of modern theatre productions tricks, but they used them really well to enhance the skill of the performers.

Just as the meal was one of the best I had experienced, the show was also one of the best and with us not even reaching the fjords yet, it was a great sign of things to come.

We would wake up to our first day at sea and this was our first big chance to make use of the Infinity Balcony and what a great innovation it is.

If you don’t know, it is basically a balcony that is also a window that can either be part of your cabin or external. The window can be opened to create a more traditional balcony, or if the weather not great, you can turn it into an outside cabin with a ceiling to floor window.

I have only sailed once in a balcony cabin before and too be honest, never really got much use out of it and that was to the fjords as well, but this new design just becomes part of your cabin.

With the weather taking a turn for the worse that night, it highlighted how useful the new cabin type is as we could simply shut the window and still have great views.

A sea day for me tends to start with a swim, but none of the pools on the Apex are really designed for swimming, just for cooling off in, so that was out of the window, so I would head down to the beautiful Eden area of the ship.

Sadly, it was closed off for a private event, so me and my wife would sit in the outside dining area of the Eden Café, which was where we were heading for lunch anyway, and wait for it to open.

As soon as it did, we went to see what was on offer and it’s a good spot for those wanting to grab a quick bite but don’t fancy a burger or a hotdog that you can get around the pool.

I had a carvery sandwich, and it was fine, nothing special but it filled a void and the deserts in there soon made up for that as the brownie was delicious.

After an afternoon of doing not too much really, it was time to get ready for our next visit to a Main Dining Room, this time in the Tuscan restaurant which as you would expect offers Italian food but, for me, it just wasn’t as good as the meal I had in Normandie.

It certainly wasn’t bad, but to be honest I do find Italian food a bit bland anyway and this meal did little to change that view- although we did meet a lovely Canadian couple on the table next to us, who were on their 2nd ever cruise.

From there, we headed over to the theatre for that night’s guest entertainer who was a singer-songwriter who performed the songs of famous singer-songwriters- play what you know as they say.

She was a Danish performer called Tabitha Purcell and was a hugely talent singer and musician and it was a great show- although she did use a looper for part of it and that is just a pet peeve of mine as it takes so long to set up for such little payoff.

After taking in the incredible sunset, it was time to get some sleep before another early start as we would finally enter the fjords and visit our first Norwegian port of call- Nordfjordeid.

Since last been in the Norwegian Fjords, I have been lucky enough to have sailed in the Icelandic fjords, the Prince Cristian Sound, the Chilean fjords and Antarctica- so I was concerned that they had maybe lost some of their lustre since I was last there but soon after entering Nordfjord, that concern disappeared and they are just as majestic as ever.

It takes a couple of hours to sail down the Nordfjord to Nordfjordeid, our next port of call, and with it been in the early hours of the morning, I missed much of the sail in but again, the new balcony type comes in great for this as you can sit in bed and still have those great views.

If you are the only ship in port, as we were, you stop just off of the coast of the port and a floating ‘Sea Walk’ comes out to meet you, which allows you to walk back to shore without the need for tendering.

You get these at a few different ports in Norway, and they are a great solution to ships getting bigger and bigger.

This was our first chance to exit through the ‘Destination Gateway’, which is where you normally exit and rejoin the ship and is a great idea as there is plenty of space to do all of the security stuff and really makes things simple.

Nordfjordeid is almost the archetypal Norwegian fjord port of call as in you can simply stroll from your ship, wonder around and see all that there is to enjoy there and by the time you get back to the ship, you will not have really done anything in particular, but you will still have had a great time.

That’s not to say that there isn’t anything in the port as there is, but the main attraction of somewhere like Nordfjordeid is just taking in the natural beauty of the place and meeting the friendly locals.

At the end of the walkway, there is a gift shop, tour excursion office and a large car park where excursion buses pick you up, you can also jump on a road train here as well.

Me and my wife would simply head off into town, starting with a visit to a local supermarket, which is something that I also love to do to grab some local treats as gifts for people. We then continue along the fjordside path down to the impressive Sagastad- a Viking museum.

To cut a long story short, the port has a long history with the Vikings, including a large Viking ship that was found there.

A modern replica has thoughtfully recreated what it would have looked like and is actually used out on the fjord to do re-enactments, but on a regular day, you can head in the museum and take a walk around it.

As with everything in Norway, it is expensive and you are only in it for around an hour, but it is interesting and despite living somewhere with a strong Viking past, there is something about seeing one whilst staring at a fjord that makes it that much more interesting.

From there, I continued to walk along the path, and now that I was clear of the big box buildings at the front, the views are just breathtaking.

It has everything you need from a port such as this, beautiful mountains, a magnificent fjord, a glacial river and those famous traditional white wooden houses found throughout Norway.

Once I managed to drag myself from those views, I set off exploring once again, including continue to walk along the fjord for a bit, before heading back into town, where I first arrived at the Nordfjordeid church.

It’s a quaint church but with a E8 cost to get in, we continued to back of the town, through some of the beautiful houses in the village and for a walk past the Myklebust Farm- a petting zoo type attraction with some fjord horses.

After that is back past the church and on to high street of Nordfjordeid, where there is a Christmas shop, a year-round staple in Norway, a small bakery that is well worth stopping off at, and a couple of large gift shops- a must visit for my wife.

After doing some more gift shopping, we continued down the back streets to a small campground from where you can access the beautiful river that wiggles its way from the mountains to the fjords.

Not too many from the ship bothered heading back past the ship and down to this bit so we got to experience the peace and tranquillity of the port.

From the river, it was back to the ship, via the port gate adjacent gift shop and up into the buffet for some lunch. Another great thing about sailing somewhere such as the fjords is that unlike most posts where you set sail and its over, in many ways your departure is just the beginning when leaving Nordfjordeid.

I headed up on to the top deck and got ready to watch us sail out through the beautiful Nord fjord but this is when it became apparent that the Apex isn’t the best type of ship for sailing in these regions as there are few places to get great views- something I will discuss more in my ship review.

I will never tire of seeing the natural beauty of a fjord and finally I wouldn’t have to late long to experience another as the next day we would explore the beautiful Geiranger- at the head of the equally stunning Geirangerfjord.

It would be an even early entry into the Storfjorden, which the Geirangerfjord is a branch of, so I chose to watch us depart and instead of arrive but again the new balcony type allowed us to take in the views whilst getting ready to head down to the theatre, as I would head out on my first, and only, shore excursion of the trip.

It isn’t really something that you need to do in the fjords, but me and my wife had already visited Geirangerfjord and one thing I wanted to do was head up into the mountains that surround it.

That is just what we would do as we would jump on a coach and first stop off at the Flydalsjuvet viewing platform, where you get incredible views of the village and of your ship.

From there, we would continue up the winding mountain road to the Dalsnibba viewpoint.

This is right up in the mountains and gives you great views of not only Geiranger and the Geirangerfjord but also the lakes, glaciers and snow-capped peaks of the mountains that surround the valley.

Up there, you find a gift shop and café, a viewing platform and some rocks you can climb over to add an element of adventure to your viewing. For what is one of the cheaper excursions to do in Norway, a country where nothing is particularly cheap, it was an incredible couple of hours and something I would highly recommend.

It was aided by Celebrity not packing out the coaches and great guide who mixed comedy with commentary perfectly.

The last time I visited Geiranger, I injured my foot just before going and was on crutches for my day there, which made it incredibly difficult and frustrating to explore.

Thankfully, there was no such concerns this time around, so we set off up the hill to the port’s visitor centre.

On the way, you get great views of the port and you can visit the villages beautiful church, although it only opens 1 days ever three weeks, so the chances are you will not be able to enter into it if that is of interest to you.

Up there, you can visit a small museum to learn about life in Geiranger, enjoy using a free playground if you are travelling with kids but for me and my wife, we would head to the café for a local snack and drink.

The fjord centre is also the start of a waterfall walk, where a series of walkways and steps go down the side of the Storfossen, which starts up in the mountains we had just been in and that you can see coming down the valley throughout Geiranger and even from your ship.

The walk down takes in 327 steps, but there are plenty of places to stop and either take in the views or just have a rest and it was something I did on crutches, so it is available to most cruises and is something I would highly recommend attempting.

At the bottom, you can either head back through the village and to your ship or turn left and head to the mountainside and after spotting a field full of goats on the way down, that is where we would head.

After saying hello, we left the goats behind and walked back into the centre of the village and it is here where you can really appreciate those incredible fjord views and get a great snap of your ship, but all of that would soon be out of the window as yes, it was once again time to do some gift shopping!

I would head into the supermarket again, always a place to grab some cheap gifts, and my wife would head in the numerous gift shops throughout the village.

In those you get all of the usual gifts you would expect from somewhere such as Geiranger, including t-shirts, jumpers, magnets, stickers, pens etc etc but the standout is always the selection of trolls and really, it is something you need to buy on any trip to the country.

Geiranger is another port where you can get ashore using a Sea Walk, but just as those sailing on Ambassador found out, you can also drop anchor and then get tendered ashore, thankfully for us as it started to rain when we arrived near the ship, we could just scoot back on board.

From their it was time to grab some lunch in the buffet and get ready for the sail out.

If you have never visited Geiranger, it is one of those ports where you really need to head up to the top deck for either the entry or the exit (or both) as you start by sailing out of the village, giving you great views of where you have just explored, before taking a 90 degree turn and then sailing within metres of the iconic Seven Sisters and Suitor waterfalls.

This is where one side of the fjord features a waterfall that splits into 7 smaller ones (known as the Seven Sisters) and straight across from it is a large single waterfall (known as the Suitor).

After that, you soon sail past the port of Hellesylt, where the Iona was just setting off and the two of us would head out into Sunnylvsfjorden, which links the two popular cruise destinations with the main Storfjorden.

Along the way there is lots to take in including numerous small villages, a lot of fishing huts that you wonder how often they get used, fish farms and even a few villages connected by ferry going back and forth across the fjord.

Once we arrive back at the sea, it was time to head down to the theatre for the next production show onboard the ship- Rockumentary.

This was another great show that they utilised new bots of the theatre and as a rock music fan it really was up my street, although a few of the songs were pop songs but still no complaints.

One of the cast singers really had a great voice for rock music and got a couple of standing ovations but it was the overall show that got one from me and if you love your musicals, or rock music, it is a must watch when sailing on the Apex.

After that, it was time to head back to the buffet, grab a late tea whist taking in the stunning views of the Norwegian coast and then head to bed as we were all set for an early start once more the next day in our next, and last, port- Bergen.

Bergen is also somewhere I have been before, when we took the funicular up the mountain, but for this visit we just planned to walk around the port area of the city, and it was a good job we did as we had a wet welcome to Bergen.

That led to us changing the route we had in mind to try and stay nearer to shops, cafes and other places we could get undercover if needed, so we would start by walking to the main harbour in the city, after stopping off at a local bakery for a quick brekkie.

After walking past an historic city gate, we arrived at the old fish harbour the cities famous fish market, which on this day was both the main indoor market and also an outside one, although it was just opening when we walked throughout it.

That takes you to the other side of the harbour where the Bryggen area is found, arguably the iconic image of the city, but I continued past that to the Bergenhaus fortress, where you can walk around the grounds of it for free and get an inside into the more turbulent parts of the city’s history.

After a quick loop around there, it was time to head back to the colourful and historic wooden buildings that make up the Bryggen.

It does give the sense of stepping back in time, even if the majority of the buildings are now given over to tourist shops and that of course it was time for my wife to do her favourite hobby- gift shopping!

Sadly, the rain was starting to get a bit heavier by this point, so we would head to the main pedestrianised centre of the city which is where the bulk of Bergens shops are found.

It’s also a great place to grab a bite to eat or a drink as well but for me, it was time to once again step into a gift shop whenever my wife spotted one and in Norway that far to easy as most will have a giant troll outside of them.

As you walk through the shopping district, you are also heading back towards the ship, so we would walk past the National Theatre (with an interesting Ibsen statue outside of it) and look through the historic cobbled streets and guinnels towards the port area.

Before arriving back at the ship, we walked past where the Hop On Hop Off tour buses pick up and drop off and a Viking gift shop, which yes, my wife just had to go into, before heading through the port gate, winding through the port and got back on board.

It was time for lunch up in the buffet once more before getting ready for the sail away from Bergen which not only gives you great views of the city as you pull out but you also sail under the Askoy Bridge.

By this point, the weather had gotten even worse, the winds were picking up but we did get to enjoy the sail out from the comfort of our balcony.

It was there that a receive a message from my mum saying that they had had some bad weather back in the UK and it was heading our way.

The captain did his usual announcement and said that we were set for some winds but there was nothing of what was actually to come that night.

I would start by once again going to the theatre, where tonight it was the guest entertainer Adam Barry, the husband of Tabitha Purcell, who were sailing together with their 3-year-old child.

His show was very similar to his wife’s, in terms of the set up, but was more of a musician than singer and whilst another good show, he also used the looper machine that his wife had that as mentioned in that part of the trip report, is not my favourite thing.

Whilst watching there were a few sways and a couple of bangs under the ship, again hinting at things to come but it was when we were up in the buffet for tea when it really became clear of what the night would be as the ship was really starting to move, simply walking was becoming tricky and I got to (quite literally) bump into a few of my fellow cruisers.

After sailing in the Arctic, the Antarctic, the North Atlantic and the dreaded Drakes Passage changing conditions and swells moving a ship, but this was the worst I have personally experienced and after getting through the night and checking the overnight weather, we had sailed through a gale force 9 storm.

Thankfully, I don’t suffer from seasickness to much, but my does although the max strength tablets we had got for the Drakes Passage seemed to really work here and she got through the night with not too many issues.

A rougher prospect awaited us the next day, which would be our last day on the ship and the time when we needed to re-pack in preparation for our departure.

That took up much of the morning, as it tends to do (just where does the time go when packing?), so with lunch not quite open, we headed down the ships shop to buy a model of the Apex, something I do for all of the ships I sail on before heading into the casino.

I like to play the poker machines and after around 45 minutes, I managed to break even, so no complaints there.

After a quick lunch, I went down to the Eden area, where I managed to get one of the window seats on the walkway that offers great views out over the wake of the ship. After a bit of time sitting there, the house band came in and did a set which made for a relaxing last afternoon onboard.

That night I was supposed to eat in the Cyprus MDR, the ship Greek dining room, but after checking the menu for there and seeing that it was the ship Gala style night in the buffet, we cancelled our booking and went there instead.

There was a great selection, including lots of fancy deserts and seafood but for me, one of the highlights of sailing with Celebrity is that they often bring you local dishes from the ports you visit.

That wasn’t really the case too much on this sailing but on this night, they did have some Moose, which I had to try and it was very nice.

We would finish our last day onboard with our last visit to the theatre, where there was another production show which this time was called Crystallize.

Without spoiling it too much, this one was based around a main dancer and was much more music based rather than a focus on the singers and was once more excellent.

After sailing with Princess earlier in the year wherever show was the same and most had songs that had already been sung on the trip, it was great to have so much variety on the Apex.

Sadly, it was then time to retire back to the cabin before another early start before a long drive back to the north of England from Southampton after a great getaway.

It was the City Terminal we would arrive at and just as it always does at Southampton, it was incredibly straightforward as you simply walk off of the ship, head to the number you have been given in the baggage hall, grab your bags and then walk across the road to your car.

I won’t to much into the ship on here as I have written a full review of the Celebrity Apex but its fair to say that I was hugely impressed, and whilst not perfect, she is a ship I would highly recommend sailing on.

My cabin was stateroom 6167, which was a bit lower in the ship that I was normally choose but after a great sail away rate, we couldn’t complain.

Again, I have done a full review of the room, but once more, I was really impressed with it and it has to be up there with the best cabins I have had at sea, especially with the innovative Infinity Balcony.

There is just something special about the fjords and I could spend a whole year just sailing in and out of them, so the only real issue I had with this cruise is that it was just too short. The Apex is a great ship, each of these ports should be on your list of places to visit and if you get the chance to mix the two, as I did, you really should take that opportunity.