ISABELLA

Thank you all for your input. We like to eat early, so walk in at anytime will work perfectly. 

We will be sailing on Sun Princess in May. Do we need to pre book our dinners in Main Dining room? We always enjoy Any time dining on other cruise lines.

How does it work on Princess? ( have not sailed on Princess since 2006.) Lots of changes....

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

On 1/24/2024 at 4:35 PM, azbirdmom said:

 

I checked cruises on the Sun through May.  The only ones that don't show sold out are the ones on March 29 & April 17.  There aren't any others that show availability until June.  Has it been like this or is that new?

Our May 18 sailing was showing not available for few months and then as sold out. I hope we will be ok to go.🤞

18 hours ago, C4HCG said:

How do you know what our expectations are?

Clearly - something is OK for you, is not OK for me ( and I can see for many others). Just a matter of opinion. After sailing with Celebrity on over 35 cruises, I was a custom to premium product, not average. Celebrity is still a very nice cruise line, but not what used to be. That is my point. 

1 hour ago, C4HCG said:

We sailed Celebrity before the pandemic and since and can sincerely say say we remain truly happy with the experience that much so we have 2 Celebrity cruises booked for next year. 

Different expectations. 

From reading a lot of posts about sailings on Equinox lately, including our own experience during our 10 days cruise ended December 10, it is clear that X experience is not what used to be. And the only pax that are truly happy with experiences are the ones who never sailed with X before or didn't sail before pandemic.

I have to say that our cruise on Equinox in March of 2022 and November 2023 were day and night in most areas. I graded last cruise 6 on the survey. I hope big cheeses are reading these reviews and make some changes. 

4 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

All perception.   I booked a 10 day cruise in June 2022 on an E-class for March 2024.  I paid about $2900pp in a Sunset Veranda prem. bev. prem. wifi and $800 obc.  

My parents booked the same cruise about a month ago, IV cabin base fare $2250pp w/o grats.  they bought the prem. bev during a sale for $600pp w/grats.  They will not use wifi so they are not spending the money on it.   We both feel like we got a decent deal, but did we really??  

At the end of day we both feel like we got a "good" deal and that is all that matters.

Can't wait for March!!!

I just booked 10 days Carib on Ascent in 2025, Sunset veranda for $2250/pp with refundable deposit, no perks and $200 obc. Good deal? Can save about $700, if yo change to Nrd.

On 12/17/2023 at 8:12 PM, CruiseDuck said:

We were on the Equinox 11/30 to 12/10. We have cruised a lot but this was our first cruise with Celebrity. All in all we thought it was a wonderful cruise. Our room steward was outstanding. The ship was full but never really felt full. We found the passengers to be a much older crowd. We found most to be nice and friendly.

We did witness what could have been a very bad accident. A man who clearly had his limit at the Martini Bar fell as he got up from his bar stool. He got up and stumbled towards the atrium railing and nearly went over before a man standing nearby grabbed his arm. They put him in a chair and as two ship's people in Uniforms were standing near by he got up from his chair and nearly went over again before another man grabbed him. I have to say many were getting their money's worth with the liquor package....I will leave that there.....   

We enjoyed the shows and went to almost all of them. We really enjoyed the Cruise Director, Crystal, with her high energy. She mentioned it was her first cruise as Cruise Director.

Getting off the ship was at first a little confusing as everyone lined up and snaked through the Theatre before going down the gangway. Once we got off it was easy to find our luggage and our way to the parking garage even though we embarked at pier 25 and disembarked at pier 19. 

We enjoyed Celebrity and booked the Apex for the Norway and Arctic Ocean cruise in 2025.

So glad that you enjoyed your cruise. When you said you cruised a lot, what cruise line you have most experience with? 

2 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Is there anything you did like about  the equinox?

We have sailed on Equinox at least a dozen of times. We liked this ship, even she needs some updating. On this cruise really nothing stood up as exceptional and very good, except our room steward - he was great.  I don't think it is related to the ship, but rather to Celebrity brand. It just not what it used to be. Our previous Celebrity cruise was on Equinox back in March of 2022. It was very good in all areas. We are not giving up on Celebrity and will try Ascent in 2025.

14 hours ago, CCRUZER said:

Thanks, but I have to have my Reisling

Reisling is offered by the glass. I didn't care for it.

Forgot to mention. At one of themed lunches there were the worst fish-n chips ever.  Tiny piece of fish drenched in thick batter. Horrible. 

Agreed on Cruise Director. Trashy.  Don't know where Celebrity gets them. 

Really sad to see a once good cruise line going down so quickly. 

8 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

I'm trying to remember, is there anywhere else on the ship to get a specialty coffee?  What I mean by that is anything more than black coffee, or with cream?

OV bar

22 hours ago, CCRUZER said:

Good to know...it's my wife's favorite too. We will be bring one on board for her, but I doubt she can make it last 10 days.

 

You are allowed 2 bottles per room.

2 hours ago, SevenSeas1492 said:

Moscato is my favorite wine!  How much is a glass in the Premium pkg?  We have the Classic pkg., so I guess I will have to pay the difference plus tip!!!

Moscato was not available by glass - bottle only. If I knew that, I would have brought my own on board. 

We were on the same cruise. Nothing was outstanding for us in any areas except for friendly crew and our room steward Peter - exceptional.

MDR food was uninspiring, food served was not hot. Had to return few times. No more Moscato by the glass in Classic package.

WiFi was very spotty. Entertainment was hit or miss. We enjoyed few shows. Didn't like production shows 4 years ago, so we didn't go back to watch it again.

Embarkation and disembarkation were quick. 

Most definitely Celebrity is not what used to be even 2 years ago. 

10 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

What hours were the worst?

All day. They just didn't know what they were doing. 

12 hours ago, Rjbobalou said:

Café al Bacio in the morning was the worst service on any of my 58 Celebrity cruises

I guess we were not alone that felt this way. In 10 days, never got my latte done correctly. 

In the morning we were getting it upstairs in OV.

We just came back from 10 days Caribbean on Equinox. Very noticeable decline in MDR food quality and choices. Food in OV was better than MDR, enough variety for breakfast and lunch.

No more organic teas. Service in Al Bacio was awful. Half the time they made my Latte wrong. Cleaning tables was very slow. All seemed very disorganized.

For the first time ever, while we were sitting and enjoying our evening tea, we were approached by some officers from non customer related departments with questions about the cruise - if we were enjoying the cruise and if we have any comments.... Not sure what was the point....

Even with noticing all cutbacks, bad entertainment, we were glad back on the ship, but we would not return next year on X. We will be trying MSC YC and new Sun Princess. 

On 12/13/2023 at 11:55 AM, seasoon said:

Just wondering.... would there be complaints if X ADDED to the cruise experience instead of taking away just after final payment?  This is business today I suppose and nothing is static.  BTW...there are the same type of 'complaints' on other boards so 'go somewhere else for your cruise or even land holiday' isn't really a satisfactory option.

Leaving customer unhappy is a bad business model.

9 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Quite frankly I did not think that I had a shot at winning a bid.  Our cruise was sold out and my bid was in the middle, In that yellowish green color.  I guess that some may have cancelled after final payment.

Congratulation! Enjoy your new cabin.

11 hours ago, CruiseDuck said:

We embark on Thursday and we just received our declination of our 3 bids  we placed months ago.

We are set to sail on sold out sailing tomorrow and got "Offer was not accepted" email yesterday. Disappointed, but not surprised. I guess it will be hard to get an upgrade to no rooms (suite in our case).😉

On 11/25/2023 at 7:25 PM, Older Sister said:

We’re on the same cruise.  According to the Port Everglades port schedule, the Equinox should be at terminal 25.  

Thank you. I think we sailed from this terminal last year. Looking forward to this cruise.

We are sailing on Equinox Nov 30, how to find out what terminal will be used?

Our bid for Nov 30 sailing still showing Pending, but cruise is sold out for a month now. I think the only chance we have if someone cancels. 

1 hour ago, villauk said:

 

Does Elite Plus still get the free coffees at Cafe al Bacio or has that disappeared since covid?

We had free coffee after covid on Equinox.