Aboard the Equinox 6/23 Cruise

[giustot]

On the Eastern Caribbean sailing the ship’s time and local time remained the same for all ports. From what I can tell the islands are on AST which is the same as Eastern time during daylight savings.

 

Beautiful weather for our day at sea today. I finally discovered the lawn club and the glass blowing studio. The outdoor pools were jammed.

 

Lobster tonight for dinner in Luminae.

 

I also took part in the research survey today. My session was about suite travel. Didn’t learn about any new plans so no secrets.

 

 

 

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[charleysmom]

Can’t wait to be on this gorgeous ship in about a month! Quick question… Can you ask one of the bartenders if they have diet tonic anywhere as a mixer? I’ll be shocked if they do, but also really relieved as that will help me stick to my diet! Something that, based on all those gorgeous food photos, I’m gonna have a really hard time doing!

 

 

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[39august]

In a previous thread, several people posted that there is diet tonic water on board.

[giustot]

Went on a tour of the bridge on our last day at sea. Beautiful weather again.

 

The cruise has been great but one word of caution for those booking packages with perks included, such as go best. Make sure the ship is aware of what you have when you board.

 

Like others, our go best package was not specifically listed on our invoice. When we boarded we had free internet and the shipboard credit, but not the drink package and the gratuities. It took a bit of time to realize we didn’t have them and get it straightened out.

 

 

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[charleysmom]

In a previous thread, several people posted that there is diet tonic water on board.

 

 

Thanks!! That’s such good news for me.

 

 

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[Duanerice1]

 

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to report back.

 

Looking at this picture - I don't see how anyone could find this enjoyable. Too much humanity in one small place - lol

[miched]

Was the bridge tour arranged thru the host in MC or did you have to pay for it?

 

You mention of making sure you have the perks when boarding. We found that the people doing the check on can’t help. You will need to go to Guest Relations, CC host and etc.

 

On many of our last cruises our drink packs, SBC and etc have been missing. One time they didn’t even us designated as having any Captain Club status and therefore none of the perks. Went to see the CC host and had to wait a long time as others were ahead of us. She was very rude and not helpful. She insisted it was our TAs fault. We had the same TA for years and never had a problem before. She said it will have to be investigated. Two days later we received our coupons and a message that we need to go to Guest Relations and have our cards changed to reflect our status so we could attend the events and etc.

 

On the same cruise we couldn’t log into the internet because we didn’t “know”our birthdates. Celebrity had our birthdates as Jan 1 1961 and Jan 1 1962. It was very nice of them to try to make us a lot younger than we are. Problem was that we had to wait in a long line at the ILounge to get it corrected because many others were having the same problem.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[giustot]

I checked and there is diet tonic available.

 

I posted the pool picture because it was so crowded. For me the solarium pool was a much better option.

 

I think there is definitely an issue with perks not showing up at check in. Having the Michael’s club host look into it made solving it a lot easier.

 

The bridge tour was arranged by MC for suite guests. There is also a behind the scenes tour for $99 that includes the bridge. Although I don’t know for sure, I would think that a passenger could probably request a bridge tour.

 

Tonight’s farewell dinner was in Luminae. We had buratta, tuna and the usual delicious desserts. I was very impressed with Luminae. You can get three excellent meals a day all cooked to order in a quiet environment.

 

Thanks for following the cruise.

 

 

 

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[charleysmom]

I checked and there is diet tonic

 

Thank you!! I am so happy that I will get to focus on eating my calories instead of drinking them. All the food just looks amazing!

 

 

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[abbydancer2003]

I checked and there is diet tonic

 

Thank you!! I am so happy that I will get to focus on eating my calories instead of drinking them. All the food just looks amazing!

 

 

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It does - and it was on our Reflection cruise. And will in a month!

[hrt4girls]

We were also on this cruise. Yes there were lots of people in the pool and at the buffet on sea days but it was sailing at full capacity with over 3100 passengers. We still had a wonderful time and enjoyed our trip immensely. Celebrity does a wonderful job of making guests feel special

[lovecruzin]

We were also on this cruise. Yes there were lots of people in the pool and at the buffet on sea days but it was sailing at full capacity with over 3100 passengers. We still had a wonderful time and enjoyed our trip immensely. Celebrity does a wonderful job of making guests feel special

 

I thought capacity is 2850...3100 is over capacity...I know where I wont be spending sea days when we go in July!

 

giustot, thanks for the review and especially menus. Last time we were in Luminae was 2 years ago and it seems like all the entress had some sort of truffle sauce or butter. I have a strong aversion to truffles and these menus look a bit more varied.

[momjkm]

Enjoyed your trip report! what beach was that in St Marteen?

[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.

[misterkevin]

Thanks so much for your pictures and review! After a trip on the Summit in January, I cancelled my old plans and rebooked on the Equinox in October.

 

Your picture of the pool area on a sea day, however, has me worried. It looks more crowded than any other ship's pool I've experienced on Carnival or Princess.

 

Is it like that all day? Are there other areas or hot tubs on the Equinox on a sea day that aren't people soup? What about the solarium?

 

Thanks. Any tips for quieter areas in deck would be appreciated.

[giustot]

The beach in St Maarten was the one right in Philipsburg. There are other beaches too but we wanted to go to the town.

 

The outdoor pools are definitely jammed on sea days and there are usually no lounge chairs available.Probably a combination of too few lounges and too many chair hogs. But the solarium pool was much less crowded so that's where I went.

 

The food in Luminae was excellent and the service was very personal. It was the highlight of the cruise. Even though there are only four choices for starters and four for entres, they were usually very good and better quality than the MDR. You could also order from the MDR menu which they were happy to provide. The Luminae menu is cooked to order so if you have any special requests it's easy to comply.

 

Michael's Club was nice and our go to bar. But it was always empty. I guess with many suite guests having a drink package they could go anywhere. We had the premium drink package and I think I ordered five alcoholic drinks the entire cruise. But when you get the drink package bundled with tips, internet and shipboard credit, it's a good deal.

 

Disembarkation was a breeze but that was partially due to being in a suite and have a wheelchair guest in our party. We had breakfast in Luminae at 7:45 am, finished about 8:30 and headered for Michael's Club to have the hostess escort us to the gangway. But we passed the gangway on the way to MC, saw that it was empty, and walked off the ship.

 

There were probably 200 people in line for immigration and customs. But since we had a wheelchair the porter took us right to the front of the line. Unfortunately, I was honest about our purchases and we were directed to another room to determine if we owed any additional duty. It took about 10 minutes for them to decide that the additional duty was so small is wasn't worth doing the paperwork. Then out the door and in the car shortly after 9 am. Even with the customs delay disembarkation took less than 30 minutes from ship to car.

 

All in all, a very enjoyable cruise. I really liked the suite product and what it had to offer. One negative observation is the amount of time spent trying to sell you things. Almost all of the activities in the daily planner were aimed at selling you something. But I'd still do another Celebrity cruise.

 

Thanks again for reading along.

 

Tom.

[Maven3]

Thanks so much for your pictures and review! After a trip on the Summit in January, I cancelled my old plans and rebooked on the Equinox in October.

 

Your picture of the pool area on a sea day, however, has me worried. It looks more crowded than any other ship's pool I've experienced on Carnival or Princess.

 

Is it like that all day? Are there other areas or hot tubs on the Equinox on a sea day that aren't people soup? What about the solarium?

 

Thanks. Any tips for quieter areas in deck would be appreciated.

I was on the Equinox last October for her Southern Caribbean itinerary, the pool never looked like that. The only thing that was rarely available was one of the hammocks. There are plenty of places on the ship to find peace & quiet. You'll have a great cruise.

 

We are sailing again on her on August 4th. I am soooooo looking forward to it! -- I will avoid the main pool though. In October there were probably less than 5 people under 18 on the ship, in the summer the ship will probably have a different vibe with all the kids. It will still be awesome, the crew & ship are great.

 

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[Maven3]

The beach in St Maarten was the one right in Philipsburg. There are other beaches too but we wanted to go to the town.

 

The outdoor pools are definitely jammed on sea days and there are usually no lounge chairs available.Probably a combination of too few lounges and too many chair hogs. But the solarium pool was much less crowded so that's where I went.

 

The food in Luminae was excellent and the service was very personal. It was the highlight of the cruise. Even though there are only four choices for starters and four for entres, they were usually very good and better quality than the MDR. You could also order from the MDR menu which they were happy to provide. The Luminae menu is cooked to order so if you have any special requests it's easy to comply.

 

Michael's Club was nice and our go to bar. But it was always empty. I guess with many suite guests having a drink package they could go anywhere. We had the premium drink package and I think I ordered five alcoholic drinks the entire cruise. But when you get the drink package bundled with tips, internet and shipboard credit, it's a good deal.

 

Disembarkation was a breeze but that was partially due to being in a suite and have a wheelchair guest in our party. We had breakfast in Luminae at 7:45 am, finished about 8:30 and headered for Michael's Club to have the hostess escort us to the gangway. But we passed the gangway on the way to MC, saw that it was empty, and walked off the ship.

 

There were probably 200 people in line for immigration and customs. But since we had a wheelchair the porter took us right to the front of the line. Unfortunately, I was honest about our purchases and we were directed to another room to determine if we owed any additional duty. It took about 10 minutes for them to decide that the additional duty was so small is wasn't worth doing the paperwork. Then out the door and in the car shortly after 9 am. Even with the customs delay disembarkation took less than 30 minutes from ship to car.

 

All in all, a very enjoyable cruise. I really liked the suite product and what it had to offer. One negative observation is the amount of time spent trying to sell you things. Almost all of the activities in the daily planner were aimed at selling you something. But I'd still do another Celebrity cruise.

 

Thanks again for reading along.

 

Tom.

Thanks for your review. We are on the same itinerary in August. Last October we were in a Royal Suite, in August we are in a Celebrity Suite.

 

Can you tell me who your butler was? Was the service what you expected? Who is the suite manager now? Did you have any need to talk to him/her about service or accommodations? If so, was it handled well?

 

If you are willing to answer any or all of my questions, I will be most appreciative!

 

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[giustot]

Hi Maven.

 

My butler was Elizer and the one on the other side of the ship was Singh.

 

We did not use the butlers for a lot of requests. But he did one thing that was very important. We decided on short notice that we wanted to have dinner in Murano. The only table available was 9 pm which was too late to begin a two hour meal. I asked the butler to see what he could do and 10 minutes later he called back with a 6:30 reservation.

 

The butler also took care of the minibar, replacing soda, beer and water as needed. He didn’t charge us since we were entitled to the items through Michael’s Club.

 

I also had a little laundry done on two occasions and never got a bill.

 

The butler also questioned why we never ordered room service. It’s just not something we do unless we have an early excursion, which was not the case on this cruise.

 

The only criticism of the butler was that he was more reactive than proactive. I had to ask him to replenish the soda instead of him noticing it needed to be done. He never offered to shine my shoes.

 

I don’t remember the name of the person in charge of suite guests. Adriana was the MC concierge. Both were very helpful in quickly straightening out our issue with the missing perks.

 

Have a good cruise.

 

 

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[xkisses]

Hi Maven.

 

My butler was Elizer and the one on the other side of the ship was Singh.

 

The butler also questioned why we never ordered room service. It’s just not something we do unless we have an early excursion, which was not the case on this cruise.

 

The only criticism of the butler was that he was more reactive than proactive. I had to ask him to replenish the soda instead of him noticing it needed to be done. He never offered to shine my shoes.

 

 

We had Eli as well - with the same observation. Never proactive, just reactive. A couple times he didn't answer his line when we called (had questions about eating at Aqua vs Luminae, nothing too taxing). And yeah, didn't replenish the pricier items (Pellegrino, Evian) when they ran out..but did keep the Fanta and gingerale full. We did get room service every morning for breakfast, and when I would ask questions of him, he seemed very distracted and in a hurry to drop the food and leave.

 

I'm now concerned with the comment about not getting the full perks when we checked in...we had free internet and the premium drink package and the OBC (all of these I only know because the internet worked, I ordered premium drinks, and used OBC for items), but I never thought to check to see if the prepaid gratuities were on there?

[Maven3]

Our butler in October, his name escapes me at the moment, had a migraine and was off duty 3 1/2 days of our 10 day cruise. Other butlers filled in to drop off canapés, but nothing else was done (including ice) unless we specifically asked for it. I chalked up the lack of attentiveness to our butler not feeling well when he was on duty & to the fill-ins being too busy to really care.

 

I have had a Royal Genie, RCCL’s butler, she was very proactive, I thought Celebrity’s butlers would be at least equal, if not better than RCCL’s. I believe the the Royal Genie’s do have fewer rooms than the butlers though.

 

We generally don’t ask for much other than I like to always have ice on hand. We prefer to be left alone most of the time. It is nice just to have things taken care of when we get back to the room/suite, I don’t care to spend half of my vacation on the phone calling to have things refilled or maintenance done on our room. (Our lock didn’t work on a Royal Suite in October, it was the afternoon of the 2nd day until we realized it - it took three trips by the maintenance men & several hours to get it so if we closed the door, then shoved it again, it would latch. It wouldn’t have been such a problem if we wouldn’t have had so many substitute butlers coming & going— several times we came back to our room and found the door slightly open. Luckily, no one entered our room that wasn’t supposed to.)

 

I am hoping in August I can just tell the butler what we want on day 1 and not have to be concerned with our requests the rest of the week. 🤞🏻

 

 

Vickie