Equinox- Finally made it back to Celebrity after 3 years!!

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, bEwAbG said:

Have you tried to re-confirm the jeans thing with Blu?  I would be pretty upset if I got on a ship and they were enforcing a different dress code.  If someone is going rogue, then that needs to be resolved, especially if it's a factor in you going elsewhere. 

 

Sorry to harp on dress code.  Sounds like you are having a great cruise.

no.  We have the correct clothing and truthfully do not want to make a big deal about it.

[sbt518]

3 hours ago, jean87510 said:

So about 1245pm on Day 4.  Up in the alcoves.  Very glad I did this as it is a zoo in the pool area.  However around 12, the Captains club event was here so we had some entertainment plus more drinks.  10 Zenith on this cruise.  Highest points were 9000? Or 900?  IDK as I've had 2 Mojitos and 3 Champagnes. 😁.  Watched Bocce Ball and Hot glass.  It's really nice and shaded. Just ordered my lunch of a Celebrity burger and fries.  I have watched our butler chase out at least 5 groups of non Alcove people.  One said we are in the Retreat, isnt this included?  

 

Do you have any photos of your alcove or the amenities? I'm on Equinox in March on the same itinerary and thinking of doing an alcove on the Grand Cayman day.

 

Also, thanks for taking the time out of your vacation to keep us updated!

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, sbt518 said:

Do you have any photos of your alcove or the amenities? I'm on Equinox in March on the same itinerary and thinking of doing an alcove on the Grand Cayman day.

 

Also, thanks for taking the time out of your vacation to keep us updated!

 

[jean87510]

We did go down to our cabin for a couple of hours as it started to rain a bit.  Haven't seen a butler yet since we came back up an hour ago.  I did ask the bar staff at the Sunset bar when I finally just went to get my own drinks and they said someone should be there.  Oh well.  We never got the ice bucket, the 6 beers, or the Vodka.  Yet.  So unfortunately, we may be making a trip to GS to either get a partial refund or 6 beers or sodas and some grey goose to enjoy on our balcony.  😁

[jean87510]

Day 5 early am Aruba.  Love the cafe in the am!  Got my cafe americano to go and admired the pastries.  Upside down!!

[jean87510]

Did go to GR, explained the evening in the Alcoves was eh compared to earlier.  Asked to at least deliver the grey goose to our room and substitute the 6 bottles of beer for 6 coke zeros.  Explained we were not given all that was promised.  We shall see.

[Spikedr]

2 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Did go to GR, explained the evening in the Alcoves was eh compared to earlier.  Asked to at least deliver the grey goose to our room and substitute the 6 bottles of beer for 6 coke zeros.  Explained we were not given all that was promised.  We shall see.

Please let us know if they take care of you. If they do, I may book one.

[Quik2flip]

On 2/21/2023 at 2:52 PM, sbt518 said:

 

Do you have any photos of your alcove or the amenities? I'm on Equinox in March on the same itinerary and thinking of doing an alcove on the Grand Cayman day.

 

Also, thanks for taking the time out of your vacation to keep us updated!

Thinking of doing the same…in April

[boxkite]

jean87510, hoping they do end up taking care of you with your requested items.

 

We have a Alcove reserved for one of the Sea Days for next week's Cruise on Equinox.

 

Based on your experience, we may have to go to GR ourselves. Oh well it was a good ideal!

[LMHSRN]

10 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Did go to GR, explained the evening in the Alcoves was eh compared to earlier.  Asked to at least deliver the grey goose to our room and substitute the 6 bottles of beer for 6 coke zeros.  Explained we were not given all that was promised.  We shall see.

if i'm not mistaken, you only get those items if you rent for the full cruise.  Not just one day.

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, LMHSRN said:

if i'm not mistaken, you only get those items if you rent for the full cruise.  Not just one day.

No.  I was told tonight it was for the day.  

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, boxkite said:

jean87510, hoping they do end up taking care of you with your requested items.

 

We have a Alcove reserved for one of the Sea Days for next week's Cruise on Equinox.

 

Based on your experience, we may have to go to GR ourselves. Oh well it was a good ideal!

It was.  I actually spoke to a Maitre'd and he apologized and said yes, I should have received the items but more importantly he was concerned over no butler anywhere for almost 3 hours.  I don't think it's my job to have to chase them down.  He offered me an alcove for one of the last 2 sea days and I declined.  He then gave us 1 specialty dinner and a specialty lunch and is going to put 6 sodas in our refrigerator.  I said that was fine.  

[jean87510]

10 hours ago, Spikedr said:

Please let us know if they take care of you. If they do, I may book one.

they did.  I was ok with the offer.

[boxkite]

8 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

It was.  I actually spoke to a Maitre'd and he apologized and said yes, I should have received the items but more importantly he was concerned over no butler anywhere for almost 3 hours.  I don't think it's my job to have to chase them down.  He offered me an alcove for one of the last 2 sea days and I declined.  He then gave us 1 specialty dinner and a specialty lunch and is going to put 6 sodas in our refrigerator.  I said that was fine.  

 

Glad they were able to work out an acceptable offer!

[jean87510]

Aruba Day 5.  Our ship arrived, docked, and we were allowed off at 1130am.  We had reserved a rental from Hertz that we walked about 3/4 mile to retrieve.  We had already downloaded a map of Aruba with some points of interest to see.  

First stop was the Donkey sanctuary.  We have visited the Bonaire and Antigua ones so we wanted to see these guys as well.  You park and walk around an enclosed area with them.  You can buy food to give them.  We stayed about 45 minutes then headed to our 1st snorkeling spot.

I dropped my husband off at a drift snorkeling spot called Puerto Chiquito.  It takes you down to Mangel Halto beach area.  It is about 30 minutes or so to do.  I absolutely do not recommend this unless a strong experienced swimmer.  I am and I saw the waves plus the current and said nope.  I parked at Mangel Halto and went out on my own.  It was pretty tough getting to the reef but it was nice.  Husband met up with me and said the drift snorkeling was fantastic but agreed I made a good call not going.  We did go back to Puerto Chiquito to snorkel at the beginning of the drift and I concurred THIS is definitely the best shore snorkeling in Aruba. Wow!

We debated between Arashi and Boca Catalina and decided on Arashi as Boca was mobbed with cars. Plus Arashi has a rinse off.  We pitched our tent,got our cooler out that our room attendant had filled with ice for us, had our snacks and relaxed for an hour.  Then we walked all the way down to the right of Arashi and went out to see another great reef.  We rinsed off and relaxed more then decided to head to the Natural Bridge.

Husband went down the ladder to look at the bridge.  I decided to walk around the terrain instead.  He tried getting me to go down and I thought, why not!  Very cool.  I don't think this is normally recommended.  

We had to drop off rental at the airport by 730 and it was getting dark now plus 645pm so we headed to the airport.  Easy to drop off and get a cab.  We headed in, showered, and since now it was 825 and we really did not feel like dressing up, we just went to the OVC.  Along with the rest of the ship.  Food selections are still in my opinion good.  Since it was Ash Wednesday, myself plus the entire population of the OVC were getting plain pizza.  They were plating it for you.  I got a couple of pieces quickly, made a nice big salad, bread, and we were able to get the last table. Yes it was THAT crowded.  They brought staff down from the MDRs.  My opinion is on these port long nights just let us go in to MDR in shorts.  It's so ridiculous to enforce the dress code especially when the ship got in late morning and was still docked.  It's why we decided no Blu that night.  I didn't feel like dressing up.  

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by jean87510

[boxkite]

Aruba is one of our favorite islands.

 

Do they still have "One Happy Island" on their car license plates?

[jean87510]

2 hours ago, boxkite said:

Aruba is one of our favorite islands.

 

Do they still have "One Happy Island" on their car license plates?

yep!!

[Spikedr]

Are there photographers taking pictures or is there just 1 location with a green screen? 

[Stteenvoern]

Hi! Thanks for sharing.

 

If you have a chance, can you share senior officers onboard? If not in stateroom, then probably on the TV. Interested in Food and Bev mostly, but whatever you can provide is great!

 

Enjoy!

[jean87510]

Day 6 Curacao.  We were in port from 8a to 10p.  Around 830a, we took a $40 cab ride to airport to get our Avis rental.  We also discovered we couldn't drop off at port as we have before and had to return to the airport. We headed up to Christofell National park to hike but unfortunately got there at 1001 am and they dont allow after 10am.  We then headed to Playa Piskado to snorkel with the turtles and see the statue of Posieden.  Note here.  I absolutely hate feeding turtles to have 30 people swimming around them.  I love animals in the wild.  Its why I hate dolphin encounters as well.  

We then stopped for a mini picnic then headed to the Hato Caves.  This was $10 pp.  Nice and interesting.  

Then we headed to Directors Bay.  THIS is the best place to snorkel from shore.  I was absolutely stunned at the reef.  If interested, you need a rental car.  And reef is not at beach you park at but around the rocks to the right.  It was incredible and rivals Klein Bonaire.  We have been everywhere snorkeling in Curacao and this is the best.

Since it was close, we headed to Tugboat beach and my husband went out as it was around 5pm and I was getting cold.  He agreed beautiful as before but no comparison to prior spot.

After 1 hour at airport returning our car, we took a $30 cab back to port.  By the time we cleaned off our stuff and showered it was around 830 so we again went to OVC which was not busy (thank God).  

Our room steward has been an absolute gem.  I've already praised him personally and to guest services.  

Im not sure who the senior officers are let alone the Captain.  We have been really busy.

We also haven't been around for the pictures but I will look.

[jean87510]

Bonaire Day 7 early am.  So I forgot to talk about the laundry!  Since we are Elite we get one bag per person.  I sent out laundry on Day 3 and today I packed a laundry bag.  We do have the metallic hooks and dry bathing suits and other clothing items but since we work out on ship, we do tend to build a pile.  This perk I love on Elite status.  Better than the Tuscan "breakfast".

[jean87510]

Bonaire Day 7.  Took water taxi from Caribe to Klein Bonaire for $50 round trip total for the 2 of us.  We had our portable tent, cooler with ice, sodas and water.  We opted to drop off our bags then Caribe brought us to a further drift spot then the normal yellow marker and we drifted for about 45 minutes.  We pitched our tent, walked a little, people watched, then walked down to yellow marker and did another drift.  Then we took the last ferry we could at 145pm as ship onboard was 230pm.  We did notice many people came unprepared and left on the next ferry they could.  Klein Bonaire has no facilities, shade, chairs, food.  You will be miserable if not prepared.  We have a portable tent that is in a small bag.  It has been a lifesaver in situations like this.  

We did go to Blu at night.  I ordered a Beyond burger.  They asked where we had been and my husband said honestly we are so busy it's less stressful to wear shorts to dinner and we've been getting back so late, we really don't feel like getting dressed up.  The Beyond burger was truthfully not good.  I couldn't eat meat as it was Lent and I don't eat nuts, fish or shellfish.  Everything on the menu in both MDR and Blu has one of those items other then the Beyond burger.  We just left and I went up to OVC and made my salad and got a couple of slices of plain pizza.  I was hungry as I skipped lunch and had a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  We peeked in at the show which was a magic act then walked around Deck 5 and then headed to our cabin.  

[jean87510]

Nothing like a balcony in the Caribbean!

[lovetocruisee]

52 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Nothing like a balcony in the Caribbean!

 I really can’t wait !! 🚢🏝️

[mjschutte]

5 hours ago, jean87510 said:

We have a portable tent that is in a small bag.  It has been a lifesaver in situations like this.  

Curious how you manage to bring a tent(!) Great idea, but I can't imagine having room for it in luggage. (And presumably your snorkel gear). Also, great pic of the turtle!!