Equinox rerouting to Labadee instead of Key West

[shipgeeks]

2 hours ago, Fogfog said:

We were on this sailing and it was fabulous from start to finish

We're especially impressed that with the change of itinerary that the Food/Bev did such a great job in Labadee.

All of the food/bev was loaded on pallets and then unloaded for the day... and then reversed at the end

We spoke with one of the Mgrs who was up with the crew til 1am the morning of Labadee and then back at it at 6am when they were ready to unload for the day in the resort

The Officers and crew of the Equinox are very customer service oriented. It was a great time

 

I agree 100%!

And watching passengers coming back from their time at Labadee, all seemed to be smiling.

We were fine with the change; just being on the ship is wonderful wherever we go.

[George C]

We always look forward to ladabee, it’s even better if you have a suite since they have there own beach and buffet Which is really good

Edited September 24, 2019 by George C

[ipeeinthepool]

Labadee is one of my favorite stops in the Caribbean.  I was glad to see Celebrity add it back to some of the itineraries and I hope they will resume having some of the S-class ships stop at Labadee in the future.

[calicakes]

51 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

I agree 100%!

And watching passengers coming back from their time at Labadee, all seemed to be smiling.

We were fine with the change; just being on the ship is wonderful wherever we go.

Thats funny because everyone I spoke with on the ship, hated it.  

 

Personally, I don't understand bringing the same food off the ship to serve on land.  It would have been nice to have something different.   However, on the other hand, its nice that you don't have to use your own money for food/drinks.  On NCL's private island, Harvest Caye, nothing is included.  

[Fogfog]

14 hours ago, calicakes said:

Thats funny because everyone I spoke with on the ship, hated it.  

 

Personally, I don't understand bringing the same food off the ship to serve on land.  It would have been nice to have something different.   However, on the other hand, its nice that you don't have to use your own money for food/drinks.  On NCL's private island, Harvest Caye, nothing is included.  

"everyone" ?

Honestly Labadee is better that Key West.... 

And the bev package was included

It IS part of an island/nation so of course everything has to be imported per Health code etc... they don't serve from Haiti's resources...that's industry standard.

The food was NOT the same on the buffet on the ship that day... for example--no jerk chicken in Ocean View..no Pork like the island buffet etc

[calicakes]

3 hours ago, Fogfog said:

"everyone" ?

Honestly Labadee is better that Key West.... 

 

Yes,  Every PERSON that I spoke with about Labadee said they didn't like it.  Obviously, I didn't speak to everyone on the ship.  If you thought I meant that, Hmmmmmm

 

In YOUR OPINION Labadee was better than Key West.  In mine, NOT so much.  I had another reason for wanting to go to key west.  I'd ordered bagels from a deli there.  I explained that in my live blog.  

 

Personally, I don't want to go to a 3rd world country on my vacation.  I don't want to be harassed and harangued to purchase things I don't want or need.  I don't want my credit card info stolen.( I'm not saying that happened to me, but it did happen to someone on my cruise).  I don't want to see dogs that are starving, begging for food( how did it get there anyway?)  I don't want to be made to feel bad if I haggle for a lower price. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by calicakes

[mickrory]

Not sure about Labadee, the comedian later described it as Fake Haiti however Celebrity did a sterling job finding us a stop at short notice instead of another sea day.

I wanted to go on the zipwire but with our UK £ on the floor against other countries currencies couldn't justify paying over £100 for the privilege.

Labadee has also replaced Cartagena as the place we've had the most hassle to buy things we don't want and our guy who lugged a couple of beach chairs down to the waters edge for us was not happy with his two buck tip, not sure what others were giving them, think he wanted $10. I was more than happy to get my own chair but the guy  simply wouldn't let me. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by mickrory
typo

[Pickels]

On ‎9‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 5:00 PM, calicakes said:

I'm on the ship too. I dont see hurricane warnings, just wind and rain.

There are three storms "cooking" in the Atlantic right now.

[Pier290]

On 9/24/2019 at 2:02 PM, Fogfog said:

We were on this sailing and it was fabulous from start to finish

We're especially impressed that with the change of itinerary that the Food/Bev did such a great job in Labadee.

All of the food/bev was loaded on pallets and then unloaded for the day... and then reversed at the end

We spoke with one of the Mgrs who was up with the crew til 1am the morning of Labadee and then back at it at 6am when they were ready to unload for the day in the resort

The Officers and crew of the Equinox are very customer service oriented. It was a great time

 

Totally agree!  We loved Labadee and thought Celebrity did an awesome job with lunch and bar set up.

[rattanchair]

21 hours ago, calicakes said:

 

Personally, I don't understand bringing the same food off the ship to serve on land

Dear cakes,  Your photo shows you both to be young. When you get older you will appreciate the care the ship takes in food handling and preparation verses some third world island. Back in college days a college buddy and I spent spring break on a Colombian island called San Andres off the coast of Nicaragua. An enterprising entrepreneur set up a street grill and was selling skewers of meat for $1 peso each. How could he be selling these delicious skewers so cheaply did not dawn on me (8-12 pesos to the dollar 40 years ago). Needless to say I could not eat enough of his product. To this day I still do not know what it was I was eating, and have not been back there since. I do recall the exorbitant number of dogs running loose.

   More to the point, we loved traveling to Asia and had been a couple of times on the ship tour buses. Those that got back to the ship that got violently ill were the ones that partook of 'refreshment' on tour.. We shared a cab back from the port when we arrived home from a cruise the last stop was Vietnam. Our cab mate had the driver stop along the side of the road so he could vomit and called his son to come over and drive him over to the hospital. Yes, he raved about the last meal he had in Vietnam while on the plane. He is lucky it  did not end up his last meal ever.

[rattanchair]

7 hours ago, Fogfog said:

 

Honestly Labadee is better that Key West....

Let us just say' Cleaner'.

[calicakes]

48 minutes ago, rattanchair said:

Your photo shows you both to be young. When you get older you will appreciate the care the ship takes in food handling and preparation verses some third world island.

I'm not that young. LOL  I'm 52 and my wife is 57.  Let me rephrase my original thought.  I don't understand the concept of private island where you just trade one venue for another.  Same food, different venue.   Oh and I beg to differ on the care the ship takes with food handling.  I witnessed carts full of food( I saw containers of salad) left in the hot sun before they were wheeled to the island.   I have a culinary education so I'm well versed in food safety.  I also live in Los Angeles where street vendors run rampant. I've never eaten from one and I never will. 

[dkjretired]

8 minutes ago, calicakes said:

I'm not that young. LOL  I'm 52 and my wife is 57.  Let me rephrase my original thought.  I don't understand the concept of private island where you just trade one venue for another.  Same food, different venue.   Oh and I beg to differ on the care the ship takes with food handling.  I witnessed carts full of food( I saw containers of salad) left in the hot sun before they were wheeled to the island.   I have a culinary education so I'm well versed in food safety.  I also live in Los Angeles where street vendors run rampant. I've never eaten from one and I never will. 

 

The concept is a day at the beach with other things added. That’s why a lot of people enjoy private islands. The food is there for convienence. People don’t go to a private island for the food.

[calicakes]

14 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

 

The concept is a day at the beach with other things added. That’s why a lot of people enjoy private islands. The food is there for convienence. People don’t go to a private island for the food.

The majority of passengers on this cruise I'd say were over 65.  I didn't see too many of those people signing up to zipline and use a jet ski.   I was not impressed with the island( its really a peninsula) at all.  When a fellow passenger reported his credit card info was stolen, that was the icing on the cake.  My wife is law enforcement so we were extra vigilant, but I heard from a few people that they didn't feel safe. 

[dkjretired]

57 minutes ago, calicakes said:

The majority of passengers on this cruise I'd say were over 65.  I didn't see too many of those people signing up to zipline and use a jet ski.   I was not impressed with the island( its really a peninsula) at all.  When a fellow passenger reported his credit card info was stolen, that was the icing on the cake.  My wife is law enforcement so we were extra vigilant, but I heard from a few people that they didn't feel safe. 

 

I was only commenting on you statement that you don’t understand the concept of a private island.

[rattanchair]

1 hour ago, calicakes said:

also live in Los Angeles where street vendors run rampant. I've never eaten from one and I never will. 

You do not know what you are missing! Do the two of you have hidden pictures in the attic? You are safer from riff-raff on the out islands than anywhere else, they have no where to run and Labadee was surrounded by security to keep the riff-raff out. Eating in the US is safer because you are close to a 'good' hospital. Do not depend on medevac when on an out island. First, because they are out of reach of the US Coast Guard which do the evacuations and they do not enter Mexican waters. Second, you have to be sanctioned by the ship doctor at his discretion, then you are at the mercy of the Captain who will never allow any fly-by-night company or third world evacuation from his ship (evacuations are dangerous to the ship, its passengers, and the patient). I am contemplating a new thread on just subject. I will title it "A horse, my kingdom for a horse" . When you need medevac it is a life and death situation for YOU. Now I understand Shakespeare's Richard III, you will be willing to pay everything to save your life and you are at the mercy, EVEN WITH INSURANCE, by the cruise lines.

[AZ Ocean Lover]

I was also on this cruise and having been to Key West before but not Labadee I was happy with the change.  I do like sea days but the original itinerary had us doing sea day, sea day then Key West.  This change had us doing sea day, Labadee, sea day, Fort Lauderdale.  This was preferable to me. 

 

We we got off the ship early and explored the park and then had a very enjoyable beach day.  While the vendors were present in the Artisan area you didn’t have any walking up to people on the beach.  Our drink package worked (which was a surprise to me) but we ate back on the ship.  We had an excursion planned on KW but was refunded the money immediately.  We are beach people so we were pleasantly surprised.  

 

It’s actually a lovely, very tropical area.  Nice weather and very friendly people.   Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

[NASCAR Bubba]

7 hours ago, mickrory said:

Not sure about Labadee, the comedian later described it as Fake Haiti however Celebrity did a sterling job finding us a stop at short notice instead of another sea day.

I wanted to go on the zipwire but with our UK £ on the floor against other countries currencies couldn't justify paying over £100 for the privilege.

Labadee has also replaced Cartagena as the place we've had the most hassle to buy things we don't want and our guy who lugged a couple of beach chairs down to the waters edge for us was not happy with his two buck tip, not sure what others were giving them, think he wanted $10. I was more than happy to get my own chair but the guy  simply wouldn't let me. 

I saw very little tipping even when six chairs had to be moved to waters edge. Labadee was a pleasant change except for people wanting wifi and phone service in Key West. 

[Icon901]

On 9/25/2019 at 11:15 AM, calicakes said:

Yes,  Every PERSON that I spoke with about Labadee said they didn't like it.  Obviously, I didn't speak to everyone on the ship.  If you thought I meant that, Hmmmmmm

 

In YOUR OPINION Labadee was better than Key West.  In mine, NOT so much.  I had another reason for wanting to go to key west.  I'd ordered bagels from a deli there.  I explained that in my live blog.  

 

Personally, I don't want to go to a 3rd world country on my vacation.  I don't want to be harassed and harangued to purchase things I don't want or need.  I don't want my credit card info stolen.( I'm not saying that happened to me, but it did happen to someone on my cruise).  I don't want to see dogs that are starving, begging for food( how did it get there anyway?)  I don't want to be made to feel bad if I haggle for a lower price. 

 

For someone who got bent out of shape for people who expressed bemusement at your "tips" of low-cost eBay wallets and makeup for the cruise staff, I find it interesting to see your bristling over differing opinions in this thread as well.

 

A pattern, perhaps. 
 

Edited September 26, 2019 by Icon901

[calicakes]

3 minutes ago, Icon901 said:

 

For someone who got bent out of shape for people who expressed bemusement at your "tips" of low-cost eBay wallets and makeup for the cruise staff, I find it interesting to see your bristling over differing opinions in this thread as well.

 

A pattern, perhaps. 
 

Whatever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Doesn't mean I have to agree.

[Icon901]

59 minutes ago, calicakes said:

Whatever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Doesn't mean I have to agree.

Agreed, which is why it was odd to see you so upset with folks giving their opinions in your gift thread. 

In any event, merely an observation from an impartial forum browser. Cheers!

[Icon901]

Double Post - 

Edited September 26, 2019 by Icon901

[ipeeinthepool]

1 hour ago, calicakes said:

Whatever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Doesn't mean I have to agree.

 

Thank you for your live review of your cruise, it was entertaining and informative.  But I really wonder if you are enjoying yourself on this forum.  It seems like you end up getting irritated at anyone that doesn't agree with your perspective on chair hogs, dress codes, tips. Labadee and perhaps other subjects that I missed.

 

You seemed to enjoy your cruise, I hope the enjoyment of your vacation is continuing.  

[hcat]

2 different ports: 

Labadee is a day at the beach with option to swim,  walk,   rent a chair or clamshell  zip line  and  the coaster ride..(dtr and sil loved it,) shop  crafts if you like or not  , lunch, drinks  etc.. we rented an on water cabana... It had a cooler with water, beach towels...cooling fans. Lots of room for folks to spread out but some bathrooms  do have long lines!

Having been there and done that more than once...no longer very interesting.  Rainout if weather bad.

 

KW  is an interesting town, quaint architecture, a few nice museums and gardens ,  good restaurants and bars, good drug store to re-stock water etc, other  overpriced stores, very touristy and crowded when ship is in port. ... A fun day but after a few times visiting not much new! 

 

Not worth debating!

 

 

 

[calicakes]

1 hour ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Thank you for your live review of your cruise, it was entertaining and informative.  But I really wonder if you are enjoying yourself on this forum.  It seems like you end up getting irritated at anyone that doesn't agree with your perspective on chair hogs, dress codes, tips. Labadee and perhaps other subjects that I missed.

 

You seemed to enjoy your cruise, I hope the enjoyment of your vacation is continuing.  

Oh my gosh, I don't let strangers on the internet upset me.  If thats the case, I'd be upset all day every day.  I participate in a lot of animal related groups on FB and the assine things I hear on there would send me to the loony bin if I let it. 

 

What I don't enjoy on these forums( and other forums) is the snobbery and outright rudeness.  On My creature comforts thread for instance, I don't enjoy being told to "stay home" if I need/want my pillow and blanket.  I asked if people bring anything.  Thats all I wanted to know.  I don't need reasoning for NOT bringing anything.