AUPilot14

Does it include today? Boarding the Equinox in about two days 🙂 

7 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Yes.  When using non-refundable OBC to buy chips they give you special promo chips which can't be redeemed for cash, they have to be bet.  Any winnings are paid in regular chips which can be cashed out.  If you look in your cruise planner there is a way to buy chips ahead of time and get a 10% bonus, these work the same way even if you don't use OBC to buy them.

Was going to post this exact thing. I'd encourage you buy ahead of time, we did and it was an nice perk. 

I haven't cruised Royal recently, but did the Celebrity Equinox this past summer (Western) and going again for Thanksgiving (Eastern), and we have Freedom booked for summer 2020. We can't find a decent deal on the Edge since my wife is a teacher we have to cruise during peak summer times (the edge is in Europe for summer).

We had similar experiences on the Equinox. I felt it was a lot more relaxation and less (frills?) than Royal. The show quality was definitely lacking, but we enjoyed the comedians. Both of us are in our (late) 20's, and we did get a little bored towards the end of the cruise. Most of the ship seemed to be in bed by 10:30. However, the food and service was excellent. Our waiter in the MDR remembered us every day and the our som always had a new bottle of Cab or Pinot for us to try every night. Murano (specialty dining) was probably the best I've had at sea. Chops is a close 2nd for me. We'll keep cruising both until we're given a reason not to 🙂 ! 

On 4/1/2019 at 12:26 PM, graphicguy said:

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

On behalf of Delta airlines, I apologize 😀

P.S: I've had my crew bag lost once if it makes you feel any better. Not my roller bag, but my other usual carry on. Flight was tight on space, so I volunteered space in the closet since it was a short haul and generally can go get my own from below. Poof..... got left in ATL. At least I had clean underwear.

Oh, and don't use the luggage tracker on the app. It stresses me out.

On 3/17/2019 at 8:11 AM, PompeySailor said:

We completed our first MSC cruise yesterday on Seaside in YC

After 18 years exclusively sailing on Royal Caribbean.

 

Why I really liked MSC.

Price✅

Yacht Club overall with Lounge and Restaurant✅

Mini Bar✅

Casino Program (Transparent and rewarding) Already have a comped Suite which I can book within the next year, yes 1 year to choose, not 30 days like Royal.✅

In addition 30% off any other cruise.✅

Thermal Spa, so many options, and FREE if in YC.✅

FREE gelato✅

FREE crepes (Daughter had one every day)✅

Pool deck, quietness, food availability and Cabana✅

Waterslides, Fun Pass ✅

Food Subjective, we ate well, not the best, not the worst.

Beds and linen, most comfortable compared to any other ship we have been on, and just slept so well all week✅

Disembarkation✅

 

There were a few negatives, but not deal breakers for us.

 

I have toyed with the idea of doing a review, comparing MSC to Royal, but I’ll just leave it at MSC in my opinion is leading the way for our future cruise choice.

They know what they are doing in a very competitive market.

We will still sail Royal, but MSC will probably be our go to cruise line for the future.

 

Happy Days!

This makes me happy. We booked a somewhat distant cruise on the Seaside for Summer 2020. I've only sailed Royal and Celebrity, and we are doing another Celebrity in November. We're excited to try MSC, the value and status match were quite attractive. We're doing Aurea Experience to see if it compares to our experience on Celebrity. 

We booked yesterday for 2020, and our Travel Agent was able to apply it after our Gold match discount. 

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

 

 

4 night cruise is way to short..............

We have a 7 planned for November on Celebrity, and stay a few nights in the area with family on shorter voyages. I will agree the value is better for longer cruises, but my work obligations in the summer can be quite a challenge for longer vacations. My crew schedulers keep me quite busy in the summer months being so close to ATL. Unfortunately, my wife is an elementary teacher and off all summer, so we have to get away at off times for her calendar. 

Great pictures. We're debating a short 4 night cruise this summer on the Mariner. I love the Voyager Class ships. 

We never do the cruise line excursions. We venture on our own and it has usually (always) been a good decision.

In Cozumel, I highly recommend Nochi Cocom. It's our favorite thing to do in Cozumel and get away from the crowds. Definitely pre-reserve. Taxi's are abundant and affordable. All inclusive booze and food, and limited to less than 200 people daily. 

http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/

Loved the Equinox sans the entertainment, maybe we've just been spoiled by traveling productions at the Fox in Atlanta too much. 

Definitely will check out your YouTube channel, we are anxiously awaiting our next cruise on the Equinox in July. 

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

I have visited Labadee on a Celebrity ship before but agree that those stops are too few and far between.  It was a great time!

I always enjoy the private islands when we stop (on previous RCCL cruises). A lazy day on the beach is always a must! 

A stop at the RCCL owned private islands would be nice. Labadee or CocoCay. Preferably during the summer Caribbean offerings.

Also my favorite ship I've been on, though I'm not exactly a seasoned cruiser. We enjoyed Equinox so much, we booked again for the other route next summer! 

We are newbies on Celebrity as we've been RCCL cruiser's for most of our cruising lives together staying in various cabins from OS, GS, JrS and balcony. We booked an S2 Sky Suite aft #1665 on The Equinox for June 1, 2019. We know nothing about the ins and outs of a Celebrity cruise especially regarding the suite life and all the good stuff we're hoping for. Any and all info that you experienced cruiser's can provide will be greatly appreciated such as embarkation, disembarkation, restaurants, this particular suite, shows, sauna's, pools, solarium. Thanks in advance for any and all info.

Skip

The wife and I cruised Equinox in July (our first Celebrity). However, I've been on few RCCL ship before I was married. This was the first time my wife has ever cruised, and well.... she's been spoiled by the luxury of Celebrity. Don't get me wrong, I still like RCCL, but for young married couple (or older) without Kids.... It was great. The glass of champagne when boarding was a great start to the cruise. We just had a standard balcony veranda room, and it was fine for us. We booked Concierge Class for next summer for the Eastern Route.

Food: Overall, better than RCCL. Your experience may vary, but we enjoy the MDR immensely. We ate at Tuscan one night, and didn't feel it was worth the surcharge. We probably won't eat again. However, we may try Murano next summer. Oceanview Cafe very similar to WindJammer on RCCL.

Entertainment: It's a lot more mellow than most RCCL ships IMO. At night, there are the typical shows, but we skipped many of them in favor of an extra (or two) drinks at the Martini Bar. Band were good, we enjoyed the Sky(I forget the real name) Bar for late night dancing and booze with a few younger couples (we're in our twenties).

Happy and answer any questions in particular, but we're hooked on Celebrity for the future.

Hi

DH will be celebrating his retirement/birthday next year whilst on Equinox. He thinks he would like to purchase Tag Huer any thoughts on prices and selection.

I was watch shopping on our July cruise for a Tag as well. I actually got a good offer on-board and the gentleman in the shop threw in a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label. Diamonds International in Mexico is a better deal though with the kickbacks from the Mexican government.

If you can't figure out Uber due to lack of smart phone, there are plenty of cabs downtown. I know they were waiting outside our Hilton on the Saturday we were heading to the Equinox, we took Uber though.

Like others said, it really depends on your sommelier. We made friends with ours (shoutout to King Richard) and he never charged us. He also left us a full bottle of Wente Cab on nights we didn't bring our own from the room.

Does Celebrity have a daily planner, like the Cruise Compass on RCCL? If so, what is it called and is there anywhere online to see examples?

Also, what are generally the outdoor areas where smoking is allowed? I want to be sure our veranda is not near them. Thanks!

You can download the Celebrity Cruises app on IOS or Android and they have the daily plans on there as well (select ships only right now). The Equinox is on the app.

Another Hilton Honors guy here. I'd recommend the Hilton Downtown. We stayed the night before our sailing on Equinox, and our room was oceanside. We woke up to the Equinox outside our window, it was pretty neat.

We had classic and we are also big wine drinkers, we venture to Napa or Sonoma annually. Our go to wine (in the classic package) was the Wente Cab, Livermore Valley. I personally don’t think it was worth it to upgrade. Our sommelier (King Richard) dropped off a bottle most nights!

Also: if you are a fan of wine tastings, I’d avoid the one on board in Tuscan. It was underwhelming and the best wine they had was Petite Petite by Michael David, which we can find at our local Publix.

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Ha, Ha. Good one. And to answer AU pilot, yes, it was that cruise. I would think that anyone with blood sugar sensitivities would be able to tell when they need a boost. without a dog to sense it. Or am I just misinformed about this?

Hey, at least it had some grass to relieve itself. But yea, it was strange to say the least. My wife wanted to try to bring our 60 pound lab in a stroller next time.

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Great! Last month on Equinox a couple pushed a dog around in a baby stroller. Ridiculous! Saw this in a dining venue to boot.

Was this on July 14-21 with the Yorkie in a stroller? If so, I saw it to. Apparently, it could sense when the owners blood sugar was dropping..... And she said she self trained it. I might have struck up a conversation with her in the Oceanview one morning before I was curious.

The Celebrity App is pretty useful. We used it almost exclusively over the paper guides left in rooms. Shows day outlooks/restaurant menus/etc. I wish it had a chat feature with others in your party, but I'm just thankful Celebrity has an app.

We loved Equinox. So much so we booked it for next summer going Eastern. I never felt cramped except for sea days at the pool. Typical chair hogs.

We sailed Equinox about a month ago, and we noticed the same issues on sea days with finding chairs near the pool. The chair hogs were out in full effect.