Anyone on board Equinox now with January 9, 2022 sailing?

[TourDeCruise]

We are booked on the Equinox January 21st sailing and are wondering if anyone will be posting from the current Equinox 1/9 sailing, so we kind of know what to expect. We have been on Equinox multiple times but not during the past 2+ years, so looking for what is different from pre-Covid days.

 

How many passengers on the current sailing? How many Covid cases (new cases and total cases) during the cruise? Are guests following mask mandates? Anything new we should be aware of or any issues we need to be concerned about? How are the service and food? Any shows, entertainment, or big events being canceled? Which ports were you able to get into or denied entry? I saw you had a Port Everglades terminal change today, so I am aware of that.

 

Thank you for any information you can provide for those of us on the January 21st sailing and others on sailings after ours.

[TourDeCruise]

I am adding the link to the post on the Port Everglades terminal change for the January 9th cruise which has some information on how things are going, at least pre-boarding.

 

 

[TourDeCruise]

Another question. Did Celebrity put masks in your cabins on the Equinox? If so, how many and what type are they? Cloth multi-layer or N95/KN95?

Edited January 10, 2022 by TourDeCruise

[savethewave]

We are also cruising on Equinox Jan. 21. Would love to know if the present cruise was able to dock at any of the ABC's. Also, will we be getting tested at every port? Are we only tested on the ship if we have symptoms? Hard to find answers on-line.

[TourDeCruise]

20 minutes ago, savethewave said:

We are also cruising on Equinox Jan. 21. Would love to know if the present cruise was able to dock at any of the ABC's. Also, will we be getting tested at every port? Are we only tested on the ship if we have symptoms? Hard to find answers on-line.

The January cruise has a different itinerary and is not scheduled go to the ABCs, but the current Constellation cruise got into all three ABCs. I doubt we will be tested at every port but only if symptomatic. But hopefully guests of current Equinox cruise will reply to our questions.

[gardengalaz]

We are scheduled for three B2B cruises on Equinox beginning January 30.  We are booked into Sunset Veranda #6315 which we specifically chose over 2 years ago.  Can anyone onboard confirm whether the Sunset Verandas on Deck 6 ARE being used by healthy cruisers OR have those rooms been closed or set aside for COVID quarantine/isolation.  I called our travel agent to confirm, who in turn spoke to Celebrity, who said they "cannot confirm if this is the case" but did say that there were no other Sunset Verandas available.  Bottom line, we've cruised extensively on Equinox over the years and would prefer to cancel the three cruises if we can't have the room location we reserved.  Thanks for your help.

Edited January 10, 2022 by gardengalaz

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, TourDeCruise said:

Another question. Did Celebrity put masks in your cabins on the Equinox? If so, how many and what type are they? Cloth multi-layer or N95/KN95?

We were on Equinox a couple months ago and the masks on the bed were double layered Celebrity Branded cloth masks.   There were 1 mask for each guest.    At the time I did not see any crew with N95 / KN95.

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, gardengalaz said:

We are scheduled for three B2B cruises on Equinox beginning January 30.  We are booked into Sunset Veranda #6315 which we specifically chose over 2 years ago.  Can anyone onboard confirm whether the Sunset Verandas on Deck 6 ARE being used by healthy cruisers OR have those rooms been closed or set aside for COVID quarantine/isolation.  I called our travel agent to confirm, who in turn spoke to Celebrity, who said they "cannot confirm if this is the case" but did say that there were no other Sunset Verandas available.  Bottom line, we've cruised extensively on Equinox over the years and would prefer to cancel the three cruises if we can't have the room location we reserved.  Thanks for your help.

 

From everything I have seen and heard about Equinox is that the quarantine cabins are forward on deck 6.   The only time I heard of the aft cabins being used was during the shutdown and those stuck on the ship for months were given private cabins and some of the more senior members were given the larger rooms.

[rachiem]

15 minutes ago, gardengalaz said:

We are scheduled for three B2B cruises on Equinox beginning January 30.  We are booked into Sunset Veranda #6315 which we specifically chose over 2 years ago.  Can anyone onboard confirm whether the Sunset Verandas on Deck 6 ARE being used by healthy cruisers OR have those rooms been closed or set aside for COVID quarantine/isolation.  I called our travel agent to confirm, who in turn spoke to Celebrity, who said they "cannot confirm if this is the case" but did say that there were no other Sunset Verandas available.  Bottom line, we've cruised extensively on Equinox over the years and would prefer to cancel the three cruises if we can't have the room location we reserved.  Thanks for your help.

I have cancelled today for the 30th. SV number 7364 (so slightly larger balcony)...they may be able to secure that for you?

[snowmc]

39 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

We were on Equinox a couple months ago and the masks on the bed were double layered Celebrity Branded cloth masks.   There were 1 mask for each guest.    At the time I did not see any crew with N95 / KN95.

Crew is now required to wear only the KN95.  Not sure what passengers are being given.

[gardengalaz]

45 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

From everything I have seen and heard about Equinox is that the quarantine cabins are forward on deck 6.   The only time I heard of the aft cabins being used was during the shutdown and those stuck on the ship for months were given private cabins and some of the more senior members were given the larger rooms.

Thank you for the response.  We were on Equinox for a B2B ABC cruises back in October/November, booked into the same stateroom #6315 and we weren't informed until boarding that it wasn't available and they were "upgrading" us to  a different room on the side of the ship, which we simply didn't want.  Only after delivering an ultimatum were they suddenly able to "find" us a sunset veranda on a higher deck.  On those cruises, we were told that Deck 6 had been completely closed since we were sailing at 50% passenger load and with a reduced crew complement.  I know a lot of people are going to think we're being overly fussy, but we're retired and can cruise anytime ... and we've sailed on Equinox in virtually every cabin type and location since the ship went into service, so we'd rather not sail at all than be put into a room type/location we don't want.  Thanks again.

Edited January 10, 2022 by gardengalaz

[wattsde]

We are on Equinox now. The cruise is about 40% full, around 1200 passengers the staff said. Interestingly they said there were originally 2200 bookings, the day of sailing there were 1800 "confirmed" but only 1200 actually boarded. 

 

Boarding went very smoothly. They paid no attention to what time you were scheduled, when you showed up they checked you in. We did almost everything on line which made check in a breeze. We showed up at 10:45 and checked right in. We had to sit in a waiting area for about 15 minutes for the ship to be ready and were on the ship by 11:30.

 

There were masks provided in the room as well as a paper listing what the situation was for each island. So far no announcement of COVID cases. Almost all of the staff are double masked, usually with a cloth mask over and N95.

 

[wattsde]

Also, forgot. There was a show last night "crooner" singer, with a full band, very nice! Casino was open but not crowded. A number of $10 Blackjack tables available.

 

[wattsde]

1 hour ago, gardengalaz said:

We are scheduled for three B2B cruises on Equinox beginning January 30.  We are booked into Sunset Veranda #6315 which we specifically chose over 2 years ago.  Can anyone onboard confirm whether the Sunset Verandas on Deck 6 ARE being used by healthy cruisers OR have those rooms been closed or set aside for COVID quarantine/isolation.  I called our travel agent to confirm, who in turn spoke to Celebrity, who said they "cannot confirm if this is the case" but did say that there were no other Sunset Verandas available.  Bottom line, we've cruised extensively on Equinox over the years and would prefer to cancel the three cruises if we can't have the room location we reserved.  Thanks for your help.

We are in a sunset veranda on 7, so far I have not seen any guests below us, but I will keep checking, it's only day 1.

 

[Beba-Beba]

1 hour ago, wattsde said:

We are on Equinox now. The cruise is about 40% full, around 1200 passengers the staff said. Interestingly they said there were originally 2200 bookings, the day of sailing there were 1800 "confirmed" but only 1200 actually boarded. 

 

Boarding went very smoothly. They paid no attention to what time you were scheduled, when you showed up they checked you in. We did almost everything on line which made check in a breeze. We showed up at 10:45 and checked right in. We had to sit in a waiting area for about 15 minutes for the ship to be ready and were on the ship by 11:30.

 

There were masks provided in the room as well as a paper listing what the situation was for each island. So far no announcement of COVID cases. Almost all of the staff are double masked, usually with a cloth mask over and N95.

 

@wattsde

When you get a chance could you please post a snap of that letter.  TYIA

 

Mary

[gardengalaz]

2 hours ago, wattsde said:

We are in a sunset veranda on 7, so far I have not seen any guests below us, but I will keep checking, it's only day 1.

 

Thank you so much!!!

 

[bob4uall]

3 hours ago, wattsde said:

We are in a sunset veranda on 7, so far I have not seen any guests below us, but I will keep checking, it's only day 1.

 

I'm guessing you won't.  We had a deck 6 sunset veranda, but booking was moved to deck 7.  Then we got our 48-hour Covid positive test result, so we are not aboard.

[wattsde]

Reposted

IMG_1410.heic

Edited January 10, 2022 by wattsde
deleted image

[wattsde]

2 hours ago, Beba-Beba said:

@wattsde

When you get a chance could you please post a snap of that letter.  TYIA

 

Mary

IMG_1410.heic

[Rayhorn]

2 minutes ago, wattsde said:

IMG_1410.heic 1.49 MB · 1 download

Thanks for this. 

[Rayhorn]

Happy to see that St Lucia and Barbados are allowing approved local taxi tours. 
 

We are hoping to sail in Feb or March on a B2B on Equinox and there were almost no celebrity excursions to choose from. There was one beach excursion in Barbados and it only let you be at the beach for 2 hours which was crazy to me. With approval for local taxi tours it seems like you should be able to arrange a round trip to the beach once you get to the pier and I imagine you could set your own return time. I’d love to hear if anyone has success with this. 

[snowmc]

Just curious....would you mind telling me who is handling the Activities onboard this cruise?    Are there plenty of things planned so far?

 

Edited January 10, 2022 by snowmc

[TourDeCruise]

5 hours ago, gardengalaz said:

We are scheduled for three B2B cruises on Equinox beginning January 30.  We are booked into Sunset Veranda #6315 which we specifically chose over 2 years ago.  Can anyone onboard confirm whether the Sunset Verandas on Deck 6 ARE being used by healthy cruisers OR have those rooms been closed or set aside for COVID quarantine/isolation.  I called our travel agent to confirm, who in turn spoke to Celebrity, who said they "cannot confirm if this is the case" but did say that there were no other Sunset Verandas available.  Bottom line, we've cruised extensively on Equinox over the years and would prefer to cancel the three cruises if we can't have the room location we reserved.  Thanks for your help.

 

I know this is probably a long shot, but are there any Sunset Verandas that are available on your three January and February cruises? If so, Celebrity or your travel agent could move your booking to the cabin now. Normally Sunset Verandas are a little hard to get especially this late - no less the same cabin on multiple legs, but with the current last-minute cancelations, perhaps there is an acceptable cabin available on all B2B2B legs. We love the Sunset Veranda (or Junior Suite Sunset Verandas), so we understand your concern.

[wattsde]

43 minutes ago, snowmc said:

Just curious....would you mind telling me who is handling the Activities onboard this cruise?    Are there plenty of things planned so far?

 

The cruise Director is Shauna from Canada. There is a full compliment of activities, very similar to other cruises I have been on. If anything, there seem to be more than in some past years. Some things that would normally take place inside (such as Captains Club welcome event) have been moved to outside or more open venues to allow social distancing. With the smaller number of passengers social distancing is pretty easy. Loungers by the pool are always available. Plenty of room to leave space between  parties in the dining venues.

ECDB627D-17C7-47BB-ABE3-D0F8312CB884.heic

Edited January 10, 2022 by wattsde
added image

[wattsde]

57 minutes ago, Rayhorn said:

Happy to see that St Lucia and Barbados are allowing approved local taxi tours. 
 

We are hoping to sail in Feb or March on a B2B on Equinox and there were almost no celebrity excursions to choose from. There was one beach excursion in Barbados and it only let you be at the beach for 2 hours which was crazy to me. With approval for local taxi tours it seems like you should be able to arrange a round trip to the beach once you get to the pier and I imagine you could set your own return time. I’d love to hear if anyone has success with this. 

 

When we booked this cruise, there was very little to choose from even close to sail date. Then as the date approached, more and more things appeared (and a few things disappeared). The day of boarding, it (seemed like) even more things appeared. For example a couple of weeks ago there was nothing for Dominica, now there are 10 choices. I think the situation is so fluid they are being hesitant to post too much too far out.