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Celebrity Equinox Ultimate Caribbean Mar 16-27 2015 Mini Review


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Just got back yesterday from a mostly spectacular cruise on Celebrity Equinox! I wrote a review for Cruise Critic (should be posted soon) and I'll be writing a much more comprehensive review on my review page later on this month or next (see below).

 

But for now, here's the cruise pros/cons in a nutshell:

 

 

 

 

Pros:

  • Excellent food, 10pts outta 10pts, in every restaurant aboard! Even the buffet is amazing!
  • Excellent productions shows... especially the Cirque-like, Equinox
  • Fantastic inside cabin (1100). I'd book it always, but I'm generally aiming for Aqua Class on Celebrity... for Blu!
  • Persian Gardens... ahhh....
  • Adults only Solarium... always gorgeous on the Solstice class!

Cons:

  • Select Dining... a complete failure. Out of 9 nights eating there, we only ever saw an actual waiter on 2 of the nights. On all the other nights, we only had confused or disoriented or disinterested assistant waiters. No explanations or recommendations on the food... just "what do you want". I've had better service in diners here in NJ! Then there were the smiling hostesses that listened to your requests then ignored them then glared and rolled their eyes at you when you politely asked to be moved. Empty tables that were "on hold" but when you asked to "hold" a table, you were told that was impossible. The list goes on. If it wasn't for the outstanding food, this would have been a total disaster. The only shining light in all of this was the one night we got Sam and Wida as a real, traditional Celebrity wait staff. They were superb. (On one of the other nights, one of the disinterested assistant waiters completely ruined my wife's 55th birthday dinner... and the smiling hostess completely dropped the ball on their singing Happy Birthday to her... I even saw the hostess make a note on the computer screen to celebrate her birthday. Nada.)
  • Unsafe food on Celebrity Shore Excursions. We booked the Panama Canal Tour... which was GREAT!... but some of the food on that ferry was apparently tainted (according to the Equinox medical staff) and my wife got food poisoning. She was quarantined in our cabin for 24 hours (I was lucky as I didn't get sick) and we missed our whole day in Costa Rica because of it. Celebrity did refund the shore excursion for Costa Rica, but they really should have also refunded her Panama Tour as she got sick (along with many others) on that tour.
  • Canyon Ranch Spa... astronomically overpriced treatments! I decided to try their gentlemen's pedicure for $69 and when I asked for their cheapest pedicure, I was quoted $108. When I asked about the $69 version, in the brochure, they said I didn't want that one. I know they are trained to upsell, but that's ridiculous. I did go back for the $69 one which was great, but they snuck in a little $25 paraffin surcharge... I thought it was part of the procedure when it was done during the pedicure. That's really bad practices in retail. I will never buy any treatment from Canyon Ranch again.
  • No more grand buffet on the last day at sea in the MDR?!? Now it's sorta in the regular buffet. What's the point in that?

Now, would I recommend the Celebrity Equinox or sail on her again? Absolutely. But I'd tell anyone else to avoid Canyon Ranch (But definitely buy the Persian Garden Package if you aren't Aqua Class). I'd tell them NOT to do Celebrity Select Dining, period. I'd also tell them to pack a lunch and sneak it into port even if going on a shore excursion that has food during that trip. With these things in mind, Celebrity Equinox is a 10 all around!

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We sailed the 11 day last yr and are booked on the 10 day this yr. did the CO26 tour too, and it was great. Tho The buffet was lame, Celebrity has no chefs on a private tour Co excursion. Sorry the wife got sick.

The Grand Buffet feeding frenzie has been gone for some time now. It was not set up in the MDR when we were on the Reflection in 2013 or the Equinox in 2014.

 

IMHO you did not miss anything in C.R.

Edited by wallie5446
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Hi

We did the previous sailing and had a completely different experience

With Select Dining.

It was the best dining experience we have had on any Celebrity

Ship so far.

Just shows how things can be different to different folks.

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We did this same itinerary in December 2014. We did that same Panama Canal excursion and while we didn't get sick, I would agree the setup of the food left a lot to be desired and left me wondering about the sanitation. Maybe because we had a few of the local beers, the alcohol cancelled out the salmonella. ;)

 

I would be curious if you received a letter in advance of that excursion stating that the food and transportation were "not up to Celebrity's standards". We got that letter and found it very odd since the transportation was a normal excursions bus - nothing unusual. The food was basically Bologna sandwiches, muffins and some sort of rice dish. Not terrible, but my standards of excursion food are low (we always bring some type of granola bars as backup).

 

What was stranger is we also booked the cave tubing in Belize. Didn't receive a letter for that one but should have. We were picked up in an old school bus for the 90 minute ride to the cave tubing. And the food there was scarier to me than what was offered on the Canal excursion. We made note of that with the excursion desk and on our disembarkation feedback.

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Max- yes, we got that same letter the day before Panama. But it didn't say to "avoid food provided by our shore excursion partners" on it. If they are warning us that an excursion SOLD by Celebrity might make you sick, they should say so before you buy the ticket. When my wife reported to Medical at 7am, they had already had 4 cases of illness from this tour. They volunteered this info to us.

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Just goes to show that even on the SAME cruise there can be different experiences! Our Select Dining was fine and we had wonderful service with both waiter and assistant. Now the food itself was inconsistent. Starters and desserts were always good but the entrees were not. It is hard to make fish tough enough that you can barely cut it with a knife but that was accomplished not one night but two. One night the entree was extremely salty--to the point it was inedible and the next night, the entree was excellent. Our waiter was superb though and immediately brought out another entree. He was always ready to help with menu suggestions and took feedback very seriously.

 

We didn't eat in the Oceanview very much--mostly the Aqua Cafe for breakfast and lunch. But when we did, we felt the food was good and there was lots of variety.

 

We were disappointed with Tuscan Grille. The meat was OK but not great. Perhaps we have been spoiled by Chops on Royal where the meat has always been excellent and the sides also very good. It was better on departure night than four days later. My husband ordered the mac and cheese and there was so much garlic in it that it was inedible--garlic in mac and cheese?????

 

We take independent tours and were extremely pleased with all of them on this cruise. The groups were small (4 to 8), the transportation relatively new with good AC, and the tour guides easy to understand and sociable. We had food on three of them and not only was the quality great, we felt that it had been well prepared in a safe environment. I am so sorry about your experience in Panama! What a bummer.

 

Best bar for us was the Ensemble. Rabe was typically our "go to" guy.

 

All in all, a great cruise itinerary and a beautiful ship. Though the ship was "sold out", it didn't feel that full, even on sea days. Now Cafe al Bacio around 4 p.m. was another story! I have never seen a coffee bar so packed with people so consistently!

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OP, sorry you did not enjoy Select dining. I always say that poor service can ruin even the best meal. Looks like you made the best of it and enjoyed your food anyway. We have never had a bad experience in Select and have found some very good waiters there.

 

The big sea day brunch has been gone for some time. They have sometimes had a "brunch" in the buffet complete with sushi and chocolate fountains etc. I don't know if this is still the case.

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To those who replied that they had a great experience with Select dining, it seems as if all of you had a waiter/assistant waiter team. Again, we only had this on 2 (!) out of 9 nights in the MDR. On those nights, everything was exceptional. But the other 7 nights were just bad service-wise as on all of those we only had a variety of different assistant waiters who, as I said, weren't ready for the post of waiter. This is unforgivable for a line like Celebrity.

 

Also, where are the head waiters that you have on Royal? They used to be all over the place on Celebrity. I saw ONE on the last night (of course).

 

The gate hostesses on Port and Starboard were generally useless (smiling does not equal great service). All-in-all, the Select Dining (imo) is an epic failure on Celebrity Equinox -unless- you are fortunate enough to get a waiter/assistant waiter team and you somehow figure out how to reserve "impossible to reserve" tables. I guess you have to grease some palms to get that? How slimy...

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OP, sorry you did not enjoy Select dining. I always say that poor service can ruin even the best meal. Looks like you made the best of it and enjoyed your food anyway. We have never had a bad experience in Select and have found some very good waiters there.

 

The big sea day brunch has been gone for some time. They have sometimes had a "brunch" in the buffet complete with sushi and chocolate fountains etc. I don't know if this is still the case.

 

Yes, the food was 10 outta 10 at all places on Equinox. It should be noted (and it can be seen in my full reviews on my site) that we are extremely forgiving... almost cruise line apologists!... when it comes to service. But the service in the Silhouette Select areas was slow and incapable. If the food was as bad as the service, I'd be quitting Celebrity... or at least the Equinox... for good.

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We typically sail on Royal and this was our first Celebrity cruise. I agree with you about the head waiters. I saw only one--the very tall guy and he didn't seem to interact with passengers at all. What time did you typically eat? We were there usually around 6:30 and were seated next to the window almost every time (there were NO greased palms). If we had had the kind of non-service that you experienced, we too would have been put off of Celebrity.

 

We did see the notice about food on the tours in the Today as well as the expeditions guide--thought that was strange! And that there were multiple people affected by the food on your tour is cause for concern! If they cannot assure that the food is safe to consume (our guide in Panama told us not to eat anything that was not in a sealed can), then they shouldn't have food.

 

Did anyone on this cruise notice the large speed boat that came up along side (starboard side) around 7:30 p.m.--about an hour and a half after we left Cozumel? It sped along with the ship for more than 20 minutes--coming in alongside several times while maintaining speed with the ship. The ship never slowed down that we could tell. We wondered if someone missed the ship and paid this guy to bring them out. A mystery many of us at the windows watched with fascination.

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Very sorry to hear the OP had such issues in Select dining - we also were on this cruise and in Select dining and had no issues. I wonder if you asked for a different section with different wait staff after the first or second poor experience? In future, a conversation with the maitre'd might help, too. The best advice is to advocate for yourself while on board and escalate if needed.

 

We were much luckier, with a decent but not spectacular head waiter but a terrific assistant waiter that we really appreciated.

 

Sorry your experience was so disappointing.

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Max- yes' date=' we got that same letter the day before Panama. But it didn't say to "avoid food provided by our shore excursion partners" on it. If they are warning us that an excursion SOLD by Celebrity might make you sick, they should say so before you buy the ticket. When my wife reported to Medical at 7am, they had already had 4 cases of illness from this tour. They volunteered this info to us.[/quote']

 

So sorry your wife got sick. I certainly didn't mean to imply that you should have read into the letter that you shouldn't have eaten on the ferry. I agree that all excursions should have food that is safe to eat - even if it is not up to Celebrity's "Modern Luxury" standard (whatever that means).

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Very sorry to hear the OP had such issues in Select dining - we also were on this cruise and in Select dining and had no issues. I wonder if you asked for a different section with different wait staff after the first or second poor experience? In future, a conversation with the maitre'd might help, too. The best advice is to advocate for yourself while on board and escalate if needed.

 

 

 

We were much luckier, with a decent but not spectacular head waiter but a terrific assistant waiter that we really appreciated.

 

 

 

Sorry your experience was so disappointing.

 

 

Oh, we definitely asked (begged) for a waiter/assistant waiter team... Only got this on two nights. Looking down onto the lower deck of the Silhouette, we saw all traditional waiter/assistant waiter teams. I think Celebrity just doesn't get it with Select. This is strange as when we were in Blu on Silhouette years ago, open seating worked flawlessly.

We met one couple aboard that had been on Equinox four times with Select; they told us to avoid at all costs the port side when using Select. I thought this was funny at the time, but thinking back on it, the two times we had a team, we were in starboard.

What's so frustrating is that the food is so outstanding... A waiter/assistant waiter have a much easier time when the food they are serving is so great. It's a shame they failed on service using just assistant waiters.

Again, this was the first time I rated the food a 10 and the service a 1 on any cruise. If you are headed to Equinox... Use traditional seating. If you can't stand that idea, and you must do Select, I'd become really great friends (if possible) with the person assigning tables at the front. (Warning- we were as polite as possible to them... So maybe a bribe helps?)

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So sorry your wife got sick. I certainly didn't mean to imply that you should have read into the letter that you shouldn't have eaten on the ferry. I agree that all excursions should have food that is safe to eat - even if it is not up to Celebrity's "Modern Luxury" standard (whatever that means).

 

 

Oh, no... I didn't think you meant that. I was just saying that if Celebrity delivers this the night before Panama (and not at the beginning of the cruise???), it's indicative of problems at this port. Again though, as a seasoned cruiser, I've always felt safe eating in port using cruise sponsored excursions with meals. Never had problems before. Sure, you can get sick eating at buffets back home... But I think since they charge you so much for these excursions, and since the medical staff admitted the illness struck many on this tour (I'm sure anyone on this cruise noticed the enhanced cleaning around ship post Panama?), it would have been a nice gesture to refund my wife's tour price. (We also requested and traveled back to the infirmary several times after for documentation of her quarantine... They kept telling us it was on its way to our cabin. We are still waiting...)

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Should have been handled better by Celebrity. Our comments in this excursion and the cave tubing in Belize were similar. That Celebrity needs to take a longer look at the vendors they are using. The quality is lacking in some cases - and not just with the food.

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Just goes to show that even on the SAME cruise there can be different experiences! Our Select Dining was fine and we had wonderful service with both waiter and assistant. Now the food itself was inconsistent. Starters and desserts were always good but the entrees were not. It is hard to make fish tough enough that you can barely cut it with a knife but that was accomplished not one night but two. One night the entree was extremely salty--to the point it was inedible and the next night, the entree was excellent. Our waiter was superb though and immediately brought out another entree. He was always ready to help with menu suggestions and took feedback very seriously.

 

We didn't eat in the Oceanview very much--mostly the Aqua Cafe for breakfast and lunch. But when we did, we felt the food was good and there was lots of variety.

 

We were disappointed with Tuscan Grille. The meat was OK but not great. Perhaps we have been spoiled by Chops on Royal where the meat has always been excellent and the sides also very good. It was better on departure night than four days later. My husband ordered the mac and cheese and there was so much garlic in it that it was inedible--garlic in mac and cheese?????

 

We take independent tours and were extremely pleased with all of them on this cruise. The groups were small (4 to 8), the transportation relatively new with good AC, and the tour guides easy to understand and sociable. We had food on three of them and not only was the quality great, we felt that it had been well prepared in a safe environment. I am so sorry about your experience in Panama! What a bummer.

 

Best bar for us was the Ensemble. Rabe was typically our "go to" guy.

 

All in all, a great cruise itinerary and a beautiful ship. Though the ship was "sold out", it didn't feel that full, even on sea days. Now Cafe al Bacio around 4 p.m. was another story! I have never seen a coffee bar so packed with people so consistently!

We were on the same cruise and Select dining. Our experience was the opposite. We ate at 5:30 every night and got the same table without "greasing palms" and our waiter and assistant were fabulous. We simply walked up and asked for it. Our table was all the way at the other end and we were practically tripping over waiters and assistants on the way in and again on the way out. They seemed plentiful. As stated, the food was excellent. In fact, we had a five-dinner package and cancelled after three dinners because we felt the food and service were just as good in the MDR.

 

Though we don't generally frequent buffets, we actually enjoyed eating in the buffet area. The food was always good and at the proper temp. Again, we ate when they first opened. I wonder if this made a difference.

 

The trip was a 10 all the way. Happy people everywhere, including staff. We did feel the Captain's Club Hostess was the only person we've ever encountered on a cruise that didn't smile and give out the usual happy attitude. Didn't impact our cruise at all. The shows and live music were great. I do wish they would eliminate those art shows and sales. Do people really buy that art? They take up a lot of space.

 

We booked again next year for a B2B on the Reflection. Even with the cuts, we feel Celebrity is our go-to cruise line.

 

So sorry about the passengers getting food poisoning.

 

Jennie

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Hi

We did the previous sailing and had a completely different experience

With Select Dining.

It was the best dining experience we have had on any Celebrity

Ship so far.

Just shows how things can be different to different folks.

 

Other than an extremely busy sommelier who dashed around trying to help everyone, Select Dining worked out fine for us w/waiters and entrance to get seats.

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OMG... I was also on the Panama Canal Trip and ended up in sick bay about 1:30 a.m. I must have been one of the early ones. Was only down for 24 hours and then felt much better. Must say Celebrity was great about follow up on how I was doing, where I had been on excursions, where I had eaten on the ship. I just thought I had a virus. Sorry others also got sick, but nice to know I was not the only one. I never even gave the food a thought.

 

I must say, I really did enjoy the panama Canal tour, and would do it again, just not eat off the ship next time. Lesson learned. I did get a letter from Celebrity stating I would be credited for the day I was ill, and could be used on another Celebrity cruse in the future. I would sail Celebrity again.

 

Thanks to all of you that made this such a special trip. Cruise Critic people are the best. Really enjoyed meeting all of you.

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We were on the same cruise and Select dining. Our experience was the opposite. We ate at 5:30 every night and got the same table without "greasing palms" and our waiter and assistant were fabulous. We simply walked up and asked for it. Our table was all the way at the other end and we were practically tripping over waiters and assistants on the way in and again on the way out. They seemed plentiful. As stated, the food was excellent. In fact, we had a five-dinner package and cancelled after three dinners because we felt the food and service were just as good in the MDR.

 

Though we don't generally frequent buffets, we actually enjoyed eating in the buffet area. The food was always good and at the proper temp. Again, we ate when they first opened. I wonder if this made a difference.

 

The trip was a 10 all the way. Happy people everywhere, including staff. We did feel the Captain's Club Hostess was the only person we've ever encountered on a cruise that didn't smile and give out the usual happy attitude. Didn't impact our cruise at all. The shows and live music were great. I do wish they would eliminate those art shows and sales. Do people really buy that art? They take up a lot of space.

 

We booked again next year for a B2B on the Reflection. Even with the cuts, we feel Celebrity is our go-to cruise line.

 

So sorry about the passengers getting food poisoning.

 

Jennie

 

We ate at 7:45pm almost every night. Maybe that's when the waiters disappear? :)

 

I love how people got the same table every night as mentioned here and in several other posts... but when we asked the hostesses about this, we were told that wasn't possible. And yet, tables were being held... according to the same hostesses. It was really exceptionally unprofessional and so very not Celebrity.

 

And really people, I'm sorry, but I can't remember ever having just assistant waiters handling even just a table for two (we were four) on any other cruise; and the "Are you ready to order?" without introductions or explanations of the menu or follow ups every night except two out of the 9 nights we ate in Silhouette? Again, I've had much better service in diners in NJ. Sam and Vida (the only waiter/assistant waiter team) and Tyrone (also a waiter but I can't remember his assistant) were phenomenal in the Silhouette dining room. I can remember their names because they were the only ones that were a team and the only ones that bothered to introduce themselves on the two nights of great service we experienced.

 

Oh well, as I said, at least the food was flawless on this ship. Service was excellent at Tuscan and Silk.

 

Service was extremely sloooow in Bistro on Five at 3pm and we were the only guests. But Bistro always seems kinda slow anyway. They've also changed the menu... I remember more crepes selections in the past. Oh, and it's $7 now. I'd pass on Bistro from now on.

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OMG... I was also on the Panama Canal Trip and ended up in sick bay about 1:30 a.m. I must have been one of the early ones. Was only down for 24 hours and then felt much better. Must say Celebrity was great about follow up on how I was doing, where I had been on excursions, where I had eaten on the ship. I just thought I had a virus. Sorry others also got sick, but nice to know I was not the only one. I never even gave the food a thought.

 

I must say, I really did enjoy the panama Canal tour, and would do it again, just not eat off the ship next time. Lesson learned. I did get a letter from Celebrity stating I would be credited for the day I was ill, and could be used on another Celebrity cruse in the future. I would sail Celebrity again.

 

Thanks to all of you that made this such a special trip. Cruise Critic people are the best. Really enjoyed meeting all of you.

 

Agree with you on the tour! Spectacular trip! And my wife said she'd do it all over again... just don't eat on the tour! :D

 

When we got to the infirmary at 7AM (they weren't really open yet, but they took us in) my wife was the fourth patient and they were already asking about "were we on the Panama Canal tour?" and "did we eat the chicken and the pineapple?". It was so obvious that the docs thought it was food poisoning as the rest of the symptoms for Noro weren't there. Still, CDC rules supercede all else (and for good reason). Any sign of diarrhea and you are quarantined. (There's a reason they don't sell imodium in the ship's store!)

 

My wife's symptoms disappeared by 9AM (as she said, there was nothing left after about 12 "D" trips to the bathroom overnight) that same morning, but she still had to wait till the next day to escape the cabin. I stayed aboard ship to get her food all day... I didn't want her depending on the vagaries of room service (although we heard it was great on this ship). She was on the standard "BRAT" diet... bread, rice, apple juice, bananas, chicken (BRAT?), etc. I had to be creative in the buffet, but Equinox's buffet was so very comprehensive and excellent that she ate well!

 

Btw- we are usually balcony junkies on cruises, but we took an inside cabin on this cruise to save money. Fortunately, cabin 1100 was extremely roomy inside... much easier to move around in than an actual balcony cabin... so it wasn't too bad. On the other hand, it's certainly another argument for a balcony... if you have to be quarantined, it's nice to be able to go out on a balcony. (This was our first quarantine experience ever)

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We ate at 7:45pm almost every night. Maybe that's when the waiters disappear? :)

 

I love how people got the same table every night as mentioned here and in several other posts... but when we asked the hostesses about this, we were told that wasn't possible. And yet, tables were being held... according to the same hostesses. It was really exceptionally unprofessional and so very not Celebrity.

 

Just to clarify -- we did not have a table held for us. At 5:30 each day we simply asked for the table by number. Of course at that time it was vacant, so they gave it to us. Our service was perfect with dishes being recommended and explained. We don't drink alcohol and don't eat anything prepared with it, so the waiter was very good about his recommendations. He also seemed genuinely concerned about our opinion of what we ordered and ready to switch to something else. The assistant waiter was equally attentive. We never felt rushed, but still we managed to get to the 7:00 show each night.

 

So sorry your experience was not the same as ours. I really suspect that the time makes a big difference. Perhaps later in the evening the waiters are more spread out with more passengers to serve. The service really does make a difference in the overall enjoyment of dining.

 

Jennie

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  • 2 weeks later...

We were on the cruise following you and have actually booked your cruise for 2017 on the Equinox.

We enjoyed the ship very much, and unlike you we had no problems with Select dining. We would usually get there about 8.00pm and most nights had a loose arrangement to dine with two other couples we had met during the cruise.

The hostess we dealt with most night I beleive was called Simone, she was very helpful and was always able to arrange a table whether it was for 8,6 or 4 depending on how many turned up. We did also have a couple of nights where my wife and I dined just the 2 of us, every time we had a waiter explaining the choices and the chefs recommendations aided by an assisatnt waiter.

 

We also had the 3 speciality dining package and felt that Tuscan Grill was best for service.

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