Dar & Bob

Hotel Smeraldo - small boutique hotel near most everything. Walking distance to Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Coloseum. When we stayed breakfast was included. There is a fabulous bakery ($$) across the street. Can't say how much we enjoyed this hotel. Rooms are typically small, but great bathroom and room This is the link : https://www.smeraldoroma.com/en/

Tell that to the people waiting outside to get on the ship. Typically that starts around 11 am and the last groups off barring any hold ups in Customs is 10 am.

So I did get a response from X - that they will get back to me as they are still looking at why only one bar was open. I did tell them about the other cruiseline and that supposedly the Apex had them all open. Let's see if they can come up with an explanation **** Just saw on a FB post that they have changed the port from GC to Puerto Plata for some upcoming ABC cruises on the Equinox, Feb 9th & March 9th and April 6th

Our May 7th had the embarkation port changed from Amsterdam to Rotterdam but we are still flying RT to AMS. As I said ours still shows on our booking and I was able to find it by doing a mock booking

We have FBC booked for our May 7th cruise on the Apex and they still show on my Flights and More tab on manage my reservation. I don't mess with them otherwise. 🙂 I just did a mock booking to look at the prices - our Premium Economy ticket on Delta is now $5606 per person, WOW Glad we got ours when they came our at $1900 pp

Just went to the taxi site and they have terminated their company

I really do think they are changing this since according to FB posts the Apex had several bars open while in GC waters. I got a response from X that I will hear from them.

I understand - you were able to get what you wanted 🙂 However, due to other circumstances - docking at Spotts bay not at George Town and the fact that all watersports (snorkeling, stingray city etc) were cancelled there were many more passengers still on board. Had we been at George Town we would have walked around the town but we weren't. We ended up spending more time on board. I will add the bar staff did a tremendous job but again they shouldn't have had to hustle like that. The biggest dig however, is that this is not happening on other ships and I do believe as some others that Celebrity decided to just not pay a duty possibly to have what would be open in most other ports. On FB forum yesterday supposedly cafe al bacio, the OV bar as well as the Pool bar were open. Maybe Celebrity has gotten our message?

While we were in Grand Cayman the pool bar was the ONLY bar that was serving alcoholic drinks. The OV had coffee, sodas and water but no beer, wine or other alcohol.

So friends are in GC today on another cruiseline and multiple bars are open. I have sent a second email to Celebrity requesting an explanation. Waiting on a response

We were in 11270 on the Edge and loved it . Only con is it is one loooonnnnnggg walk to the elevator so make sure you have everything before you leave the room. The only issue we had - noise on the last night due to rough seas making the partition let loose, had we figured it out before morning we would have had it fixed 🙂 Also note those corners are a bit weird as they share an entrance with the Sunset Sky Suite on the corner. No issues just weird that the door opens outward and you have a shared entrance

As has been mentioned, it was according to the bar signs due to customs regulations. Did Celebrity have to pay duty for each bar. $$$ Waiting for the definitive answer

According to the blurb in Celebrity today and on the Bars it was "due to local laws and customs regulations" that they were able to offer bar service only at the Pool Bar. Yes, you can drink at that one bar along with 2,799 other guests. The 4 bartenders were hustling off their behinds. Since they mention customs did they have to pay a Duty for the bars they had open? This hasn't seemed to be the case on any of the other cruise lines. So that is the big question - what is the reason. It would really be strange for GC to say only ONE bar. IMO \

I just sent an email to Celebrity asking them to explain the situation and show where this law/regulation is cited. We had another issue with the dining room so decided to see what they have to say. I have a huge final payment due in a couple of days and mentioned that these situations are of a concern. We shall see. And no I have no intention of cancelling at this point but some answers as to what X is doing would be nice.

I replied to her as well. I don't think she understands the situation. Just like the person on the Apex that says the bars have been open. No, the question is at the moment while anchored, how many bars are open. Oh well, tomorrow our friends will be there on another cruiseline so I hope to get a straight answer. So far no answer from GC port or GC tourisn emails.

If it's true, we really don't know what the law is. I found a Cayman Port email and sent an email this morning asking if they could clarify. We'll see if we get a response. With number of posts saying they will avoid GC it should concern them if isn't completely true.

I will add to our situation that the hostess was down right rude, refusing to let us speak to anyone. I found the maitre'd the second night and as I said we had to change our 7:30 time to 6:00. We had two couples with us who had never sailed X before and it wasn't a good start introducing them to Celebrity. I plan to send an email to the higher ups. We do have two more cruises already booked before this but one is Retreat so I am assuming we won't have those problems. Not sure if you have been on the Equinox with a group before but it isn't very group friendly, since it was difficult to find space in all of the bars, got seats in the martini bar on one occasion only. The areas will seat 6 but couples many times would sit in the larger areas leaving 4 or fewer seats.

Which ship are you on?

I really find this completely and totally unacceptable. Why put it on the app and allow a reservation to be made. I filled out the survey and a comment card which I dropped at Guest Relations since they said those were read. I think I will also send an email too.

Just off of the Equinox with a 7:30 reservation. We were travelling with 2 other couples and I called to combine the reservations and was told even though we were all linked that we would be able to combine them onboard. When we went to dinner we got there a bit early and we were told no way to combine them, they told us that they couldn't even seat at individual tables for two. On the second day I found the Maitre'd even then the ONLY solution we were given was to come at 6:00 every evening. Not really an acceptable solution but what could we do. Basically everyone wants to eat at 7 - 7:30 and those arriving at 6 aren't finished yet. BTW there was a note in our room telling us if we didn't have to wait for dinner to come at 8 or 8:15 (standard card put in every room)

Sorry paid for a Premium Beverage package and wanted something with lunch. Also on this particular cruise we did NOT go into George Town but Spotts Bay, you know what is there??? very little and as metioned previously people with any type of water excursion booked had them cancelled. So there wasn't much to do. And if you are refering to just walking to the Pool Bar, 4 bartenders to take care of 100's - yep lots of fun. I'm with the rest - wishing it would have been cancelled instead. I will avoid GC on future bookings

Funniest thing was that the bartenders came out at 3:45 and took orders from everyone and had everything set up and ready to go and we did a count down (like NYE) Those guys are the best!!

The Pool Bar was the Only one open. We stopped at OV bar on our way in and was told no beer or wine but that one of the waitstaff could get us a beer. When sat down on the Aft deck we asked for 2 beers and they were delivered. When our friends came a different waitstaff came and told us no. My husband went out and found the bar services manager, who told us he would get someone to serve us. Funny thing was the person sent to help us was the same one that said no,

Excuse me!! Sorry, if you read my post I was on this same cruise and I missed the one post from a cruise line other than X that this happened. That is why I am inquiring if our friends encounter the same.

We were on the Celebrity Equinox from 1/12 to 1/21/2023 - one of our ports was Grand Cayman. When we got back on board we were told due to Grand Cayman's current laws that the ship could not have more than 1 bar open while in GC waters. Just curious if anyone else has sailed since 1/1/2023 and if this is the same on other cruise lines.