Arubamoose

If we ever go back to Curacao and have a full day we would rent from Advance again. Seamless experience - unlike Avis. Unfortunately we get in late this trip and will just walk around downtown.

We are doing a B2B on Millie - Singapore to Tokyo (Yokohama), Tokyo to Tokyo. We would like to do a tour of Tokyo the day in between cruises. Celebrity does not offer anything - just airport transfers. Does anyone know if they do Private Journey Consult Tours for turn around days? Thanks!

This has been an amazing review! We are going on the Millie (lift/shift/cancelled 2021 and lift/shift/cancelled again 2024 and final lift/shift) in March of 2025 - Singapore to Tokyo via Vietnam. We also booked Xuan in HCMC and Nha Trang. I am the organizer of the HCMC trip and thankfully NOT the organizer of the Nha Trang trip! Have a Happy New Year.

Neither Eagle or Palm Beach have any snorkeling. You would have to go out to Baby Beach or Mangel Halto south of the cruise port or Boca Catalina, Arashi or Malmok north of the cruise port.

I would say go on the tour, especially if you haven't been to Aruba before. We go every year as we have timeshare there and can say those stops are interesting. Most cruise lines do a long stop in Aruba and leave late. You could possibly go to a close by beach after your tour.

The last time we went to Curacao in February 2023 we contacted the Avila Hotel. They had a $20 per person resort pass. No food, no drink but you could plotz yourself anywhere with sunbeds and umbrellas. Lovely, uncrowded, quiet resort. It was nice. We've done Mambo so many times. We've stayed in Curacao. We've rented cars there. We've done tours there. Avila was just the ticket.

We board on the 18th of January. I hope that they reinstated the old dining in the MDR. Can't trust the menus that are listed on the app, considering they only have 6 nights worth. It's our first time on Equinox and we are without a beverage package. We are Elite and have a bit of OBC. The review is hopeful.

Thanks for the specific directions!

We usually drive to the cruise port. Parking for a longer cruise is getting expensive at $30 a day. How easy is it to get an Uber or Lyft or Taxi from the cruise port to a local hotel?

We use Vista. We have been doing so for at least 20 years. Only ran into a problem with them once during a blizzard. Sign up for their newsletter and get a discount code.

There is an excursion that I would like to purchase on our Anthem cruise for St. Lucia that is available on the app. However - they want me to pay for it with my credit card. It is not available on their website! Have purchased other excursions on their website and I was able to use OBC. I have lots of OBC and don't want to lay out cash. I am afraid that I will have to call and wait for hours. Any clue? TIA

We had an obstructed view on the Edge and Apex. If you look at the deck plans on Decks 7 and 8 forward there are cabins that have real balconies but have "porthole" openings. Much cheaper and the view is fine.

Granted we were on B2B Edge cruises back in February/March. Not current. Upgrading to premium for drinks was great. No problem getting the fancy drinks that I wanted or the better scotch for DH. However - wine was a different story. Every "premium" wine was never available by the glass in the dining rooms for dinner except for the specialty restaurants. And even then, they were hit or miss. But they were available by the bottle. Gee, what a surprise! Quite disappointed. If you care more about wine than drinks you too will be disappointed.

Thank you so much for this!!

Just loving your report. We do this cruise in March of 2025. Supposed to have done it in 2021 and then booked it for 2024 but they cancelled one of our B2B's and we convinced them to Lift and Shift to 2025.

We did a B2B this year on the Edge in cabin 3182. On the map it is behind Guest Services, below is the Basement on Deck 2 and it is below the Celebrity Shops on Deck 4. We loved the location. Short walk to the restaurants on Deck 3 towards the stern. Short walk to the Grand Plaza and Martini Bar on Deck 3 towards the bow. Elevators were just around the corner. Very quiet. I would not have chosen one closer to the bow behind the Martini Bar and under Cafe Al Bacio.

I also agree - the Schwab debit card is my go to. I have a checking account with them with a small amount of money that I just use for travel purposes.

TRUE!!

My TA said that I cannot use my OBC ahead of time to prepay tips. My OBC was not really promotional - I got it because of an issue I had on a prior cruise and from my stockholder benefit. I will be getting additional promotional OBC from my TA. But they will deduct the tips from my OBC once I am on board. So on my 11 night cruise - with the cost of the increase - I am out $44 dollars. Basically they just shot themselves in the foot because I now have $44 dollars less to spend on board.

We were on the Edge last February/March and we had the premium package. However, I often found that they did not have the premium wines available in the dining rooms. They SOMETIMES had them in the specialty restaurants. They cried supply chain issues. That is getting old.

Going on the Anthem in January and would like to make MTD reservations. What are the usual show times? We haven't been on the Anthem since pre-Covid. Thanks in Advance for your help!

We did this last February. Lovely resort, nice quiet day. Mambo is a lot more lively and touristy and crowded. We like both. We had no issue getting a cab from the port to Avila. We had an issue getting a cab back. The front desk did call us a cab but they took forever to get there. Keep that in mind timewise. Cabs were about $25.

We've done both many times. Mambo is big and a lot more touristy and crowded. It is a strip of shops and bars and beach clubs to get loungers and umbrellas. They do have some okay snorkeling from the shore along the sea wall. Avila is very much more upscale and quiet. They have two sides to their beach - one open to the ocean and the other protected by a cove.

Where did you find out about this? Did you go to their Maitre D?

Sorry to hear about the shows. Don't get your hopes up about shows on the E-class ships aside from the amazing production shows. We've seen Legacy three times already - twice on the Edge and once on the Apex. I agree that their shows are repetitive and fall short.