Celebrity Apex accidents and incidents

01 April 2024Boat Rescue

On April 1, 2024, while navigating in the Caribbean Sea (between Cuba and Mexico) the ship encountered a boat in distress.

The liner's crew promptly deployed a boat and successfully conducted a rescue operation, retrieving 7 individuals from the small vessel. Upon boarding, they were provided with necessary medical attention.

Celebrity Cruises' spokesperson didn't disclose the identities or affiliations of the rescued individuals.

The ship collaborated closely with the USCG/Coast Guard in managing the situation. While Celebrity Apex reported the incident to the USCG, a Petty Officer from the USCG clarified it didn't partake in the operation due to its location.

The incident occurred during the 7-day "Key West, Belize and Grand Cayman Cruise" (itinerary March 30-April 6, roundtrip from Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA) visiting Florida (Key West/Mar 31), Belize City (Apr 2), Mexico (Cozumel/Apr 3) and Grand Cayman Island (George Town Harbour/Apr 4).

August 2023Other Incidents

In August 2023, due to a drydock routine inspection and maintenance, Celebrity Cruises canceled all voyages scheduled for the Apex ship between March 8th and April 26th, 2025.

All affected bookings were fully refunded (automatically, to the original form of payment) as well as all pre-paid shore excursions, packages (beverage, Internet, specialty restaurants, etc.), and flights booked through Celebrity Cruises.

Additionally, all bookings received OBC/onboard credit per stateroom (US$400 for The Retreat Suites and US$200 for lower cabin categories) redeemable on a future voyage with Celebrity.

March 2021Other Incidents

In late-March 2021, Celebrity Cruises rescheduled the new ship to start operations with an inaugural cruise season in the Eastern Mediterranean (Aegean Sea). Staring June 19, 2021, the new program was based on 7-day roundtrips from homeport Piraeus-Athens (Greece) to Greek Islands (Rhodes, Santorini, Cyprus/Limassol) and Israel (Haifa to Jerusalem-Tel Aviv).

Bookings opened on March 30, 2021.

A total of 15 departures in Celebrity Apex' Western Mediterranean program (June 6 through October 9, 2021) were canceled. Itineraries were Barcelona roundtrips (12-day "Spain, Malta and Greek Islands Cruise" and 9-day "Spain, Italy, and French Riviera Cruise") plus six 7-day itineraries were between Barcelona to Civitavecchia-Rome.

January 2021Other Incidents

In mid-January 2021, Celebrity cancelled all Apex ship cruises through May 15, 2021 (new Inaugural Cruise date). The cancellation included a total of 8x Caribbean itineraries (7-day roundtrips from Fort Lauderdale) with departure dates March 6-13-20-27, April 3-10-17-24. Also was cancelled the 14-day Transatlantic repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona (May 1-15).

December 2020Other Incidents

In early-December 2020, Celebrity cancelled all scheduled for the Apex ship departures through March 6, 2021 (new Inaugural Cruise date). The cancellation included a total of 9 Caribbean itineraries leaving roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale (departure dates January 2-9-16-23-30, February 6-13-20-27).

13 October 2020Other Incidents

On October 13, 2020, the new liner arrived in The Bahamas and anchored off CocoCay (Royal Caribbean Group's private island). The passenger-free voyage was a Transatlantic crossing from France (Chantiers de l’Atlantique Shipyard in Saint-Nazaire) via the Azores (Ponta Delgada) where the vessel made a technical stop.

At the anchorage site off CocoCay, Celebrity Apex was welcomed by five fleetmates - Equinox, Reflection, Silhouette, Summit and the sistership Edge. The special event was followed by an onboard cocktail reception for the ships' Masters/Captains - Dimitris Kafetzis (Apex), Kate McCue (Edge), Tasos Kafetzis (Equinox), Nikolas Christodoulakis (Reflection), Michael Sympouras (Silhouette) and Ioannis Kasimatis (Summit).

April 2020Cruise Illness / Virus Outbreaks

(epidemic Coronavirus outbreak) On March 28, 2020, the French Public Health Agency reported a total of 29 crew (out of 1407) tested Coronavirus-positive (COVID-19).  Two of the ill crew (suffering breathing difficulties) were medevaced from the cruise ship and hospitalized ashore. The newbuild vessel was officially still under construction (not delivered to Celebrity Cruises) and docked at Chantiers de l'Atlantique Shipyard (Saint-Nazaire, France).

French authorities initially tested only the crew showing flu-like symptoms (78 reported on March 27), but later decided to test everybody on the ship and repatriate all not infected. By March 31, 157 crew tested Coronavirus-positive (including 2 hospitalized). By April 7, 217 crew tested Coronavirus-positive (including 4 hospitalized and 2 in ICUs / intensive care units). By April 15, the total number of infected crew grew to 224 (out of total 1407, or 16% of all).

Most of the Coronavirus-positive crew (excluding the 8 hospitalized ashore) remained on the cruise liner and isolated in separate passenger staterooms. Vessel's delivery was planned for March 27th, but it remained at the shipbuilding yard following March's global Coronavirus pandemic. Still, Celebrity Cruises decided to take a "Virtual Delivery" of the vessel via video conference with the shipyard's officials. The online event was held on March 27 and attended by Dimitris Kafetzis (cruise ship's Captain), Lisa Lutoff Perlo (Celebrity Cruises' CEO) and Laurent Castaing (shipbuilder's General Manager). Celebrity Apex Inaugural Cruise was re-scheduled first for May 20th and later for June 13th. The Maiden Voyage was initially planned for April 1st.

On April 14, 2020, one of the infected Celebrity Apex crew filed a class-action lawsuit against Celebrity Cruises. The accusations included that the company (fully-owned by RCCL-Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd) didn't provide proper PPEs (personal protective equipment), allowed boarding and didn't test for COVID-19 the non-company personnel (mainly contractor workers), didn't enact shipwide lockdown, didn't provide "prompt, proper and adequate medical care" to the ship's staff-crew.

March 2020Other Incidents

The cruise ship's christening ceremony was initially scheduled for March 30, 2020, to be held in Port Southampton (England UK). However, (due to Coronavirus concerns) on March 6th, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo (Celebrity Cruises' President and CEO) officially announced the vessel's naming ceremony will be postponed for 2020-Q4 (after the ship's repositioning from Europe to the Caribbean in November) and that the special event will be held in homeport Fort Lauderdale (Florida USA).

For the inaugural season (2020/CANCELLED) Celebrity Apex had planned European voyages leaving roundtrip from homeports Southampton, Barcelona (Spain) and Civitavecchia-Rome (Italy). The season was planned to end with the 14-day Transatlantic repositioning cruise (itinerary October 22 - November 5) from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale, with call ports in Spain (Alicante, Malaga, Cadiz), Portugal (Lisbon) and Canary Islands (Santa Cruz de Tenerife).

Eventually, the entire 2020 program (8 months) was cancelled and the ship's Maiden Voyage was rescheduled for February 2, 2021 (7-day Western Caribbean roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale).