cruisin4thedeepblue

Good morning. We used to sail HAL back 20 years ago but they did away with venues for dancing like the Ocean Bar etc. We are considering the Rotterdam in November. Can anyone tell me if there is any ballroom type of dancing on her?

Thanks

21 hours ago, BklynBoy8 said:

 

Dear cruisin4ththedeepblue,

Do you have a email on file with Cunard for any communications and updates to your sailing?

 

We are going on a March 15th 2025 sailing to the Caribbean on the QM2 from Brooklyn and have already received a "IMPORTANT UPDATE APPLIED TO YOUR VOYAGE" this far out. It was to make us aware of notifying Cunard of any Mobility Problems from the Terminal to boarding the ship and needs needed on board during the sailing. It was quite long and detailed for those needs we should need if applied to us.It also stated that any needs not brought to their attention prior to the sailing could affect any needs while on board during the cruise.

 

I agree to calling Cunard Contact Center.  1-800-728-6273 is the number stated in email.

 

I hope you were not excluded from this type of email to your sailing.

 

I believe we got that email. I have called and notified them she might need assistance possibly boarding and disembarking and at ports with long walks from the ship to the port entry.Normally ports have assistance available for just that reason.

I will call again today. I do like the Cunard's customer service reps they are very nice, and helpful, and I usually do not have to wait long to speak to one

Thanks!!

 

 

 

12 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

It's been a year since I embarked in Brooklyn, but I remember that there was a row of chairs near the entrance to the terminal where people could wait for wheelchair assistance. There was one VERY unhappy couple who had assumed that all they had to do was turn up and ask and a wheelchair would arrive asap. Instead, they had to wait until someone was available to help them. 

 

@cruisin4thedeepblue, does your wife expect to need a wheelchair on board, or just to deal with standing in line for embarkation? If it's only for embarkation, you don't need to rent anything, but you should contact Cunard and ask how to arrange help with embarkation. 

Hey thanks, No she can walk and believe it or not we ballroom dance ( Not as much as we used too tho! ) which her doctor said she needs to be active but standing too long or walking distances causes a burning pain and numbness to her feet. I will contact Cunard again for additional information. She can always sit down on the carry - on luggage which she has done before. Not ideal but it basically worked. One way or the other we are getting on the ship!!

Thanks. I had contacted Cunard about the possibility of wheelchair assistance and they said there would be someone to assist if needed.They have our information. It might be difficult to get there any later than 12 - 12;30 but will try and work it out. We never had this kind of issue on our 39 other cruises. We cruised on the QM2 in 2009 and did not have boarding times then. But, thanks for all the responses. I guess Covid changed a lot of things...not for the better. But, understand

H, I am just looking for information on embarkation times and terminal in Brooklyn. We have a 2:15 boarding time but we probably will be at the port around 12:00.

My wife can't stand for any long periods. Will we be in a long line and is there a chance we can board earlier? I am pretty sure Cunard can supply a wheel chair so she doesn't have to stand long if they do put us in a long line

Thanks

Hi, glad you are having a good time!

How are the different house bands? We love to dance (ballroom) but also just like to hear good music too. All in all how is the entertainment? You mentioned the crooners bar. How is the piano player?

We haven't been able to cruise for 3 years so we are excited to get back to sea. 

Thanks!

That is so disappointing!

Any more problems on board with the noro?

On 4/17/2023 at 8:58 AM, Cinerama said:

Having a great time! If you have any questions, let me know.

Hi, Just curious how the cruise went with the Noro virus outbreak and I love to wear a tux on formal nights as I have for over 30 cruises but times have changed. Did you see any men in tuxes on this cruise? We sail on 4/29. First time since 2019

Thanks

How was the weather? Never cruised in Jan

Thanks

Yes, all Concierge Class staterooms receive a bottle of sparkling wine; sometimes it is in your room upon boarding, sometimes you need to request it from your cabin steward. All Concierge Class staterooms also receive afternoon canapes; sometimes you need to be present for them to be dropped off, other times they will be left for you even if you are away from the room (you can also request other items, such as a cheese plate or shrimp cocktail from your steward if the standard canapes are not to your liking).[/quote

 

Thanks!! We sail next sat.

The MDR lunch is basically an abbreviated dinner menu and the lunch does take as long to eat as dinner. If you like a long, leisure lunch and what's on the menu, that's great. Last cruise, the entrees were a choice of salmon or lamb. One definite nice thing about the C class lunch is that you drop your bags at a special area near the door of the MDR and don't have to worry about them until you're cabin's ready.

 

If your itinerary includes tender ports, the priority disembarkation perk is really nice as you go to the front of the line.

 

We did not find the afternoon savories appealing and asked our steward not to bring them.

 

The fruit is apples. Three apples. Three green apples.

 

What we do like about C class on the Solstice class ships is that they are well located. Everything you want to do on the ship, you can get to quickly and not feel like you need your hiking boots.

 

Hope the info helps. Good luck and have fun on your trip!

One question does all cabins in the concierge class come with the wine and afternoon snacks or is it just in the suites? On the Celebrity web site in my check - in page when I click on view for my cabin it brings up the perks for a concierge class cabin but it mentions all standard cabins and all suites. The extras are all under the suites.

Just curious

Thanks

I can guarentee that under no circumstances will you go home hungry. For example, in the Oceanview Cafe alone you have the following food rotations on a daily basis: early coffee and tea, breakfast which includes eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, ham, eggs benedict, smoked salmon. eggs and omelettes to order, fruit of all kind, yogurt, pastries, muffins followed by lunch (amazing assortment of hot and cold foods and made to order sandwiches, pasta, pizza, carving meat, all sorts of desert, more fruit assortment. DW loves the salad bar.

Plus ice cream, Then there is a late afternoon food display of things like finger sandwiches, scones and accompaniments. Dinner has all the dishes that the MDR has with the advantage that you can go very casual. One night they grill meats to order for you.

 

So just with that one venue alone you should be satisfied, and that's without thinking of the MDR.

 

Now what is a must do thing on the Equinox?

 

You go to the Sunset Bar on deck 15 in the rear of the ship when the ship is leaving port, have a drink and enjoy the passing scenery. If you don't like the backward view you go to the front of the ship up to deck 15 (not everybody knows about that), relax on a big lounger and enjoy the forward view.

 

You go to the Solarium early in the morning and enjoy having the place to yourself.

 

I enjoy having a cappucino (charge) and some chocolate cake later in the morning in Cafe al Bacio.

 

Relax and enjoy your cruise without having a negative attitude about anything. We've been on Equinox for 3 10 day trips and loved every minute. What a great crew.

Sounds wonderful!!! We will be on her in a couple of weeks and will do exactly that. RELAX! HAVE FUN!, EAT and DRINK!!. We have not been on a cruise yet where we did not have a good time. Beats Ohio in December! (Well the Caribbean beats Ohio most of the time!)LOL

Except football season that is! GO BUCKS!:p

I like the sail away options. Will try both of course!

Neither had strict tempo ballroom. Up and Up were Danish or Scandinavian? Up beat pop music, ok for a boogie. Dancing Town were the Phillipino Party Band. They did play some Cha Cha and Rhumba and you could pick out an odd Foxtrot but as for Waltz and Quickstep not strictly the proper beat.

 

We went to the Atrium on the evening that the Big Band Orchestra from the theatre played pre dinner. They were outstanding but again apart from a Foxtrot and ChaCha, the tempo not good enough for ballroom dancing.

OK thanks, will have to make due. We love fox trots, rumba, cha cha and swing. Should be able to dance to something during the week

We were on the same sailing the House band Up and up were not that good in my opinion. Dancing Town were a good party band,however we rarely found them playing at a time to suit us.

If anyone is interested, I posted a daily blog on a uk forum similar to this one, if anyone wants go look for it.

(Not sure what the rules are for posting links on here)

Was Up & Up more a band you could Ball room dance too? And was Dancing Town not? Do they do party music and maybe some fox trots, swing, rumba and such at times?

Thanks

Can you tell me how the dance bands are? Not sure if anyone has asked that yet. Up and Up and Dancetown.

Thanks

This may be best perk of sailing cc. You can park your carry-ons and enjoy a relaxing meal far from the maddening crowd at the buffet. By the time you finish cabin should be ready.

We totally agree. When we first started cruising I wanted to eat eat eat so the buffet was great. But always very hectic. So the relaxed quiet MDR for lunch to start the cruise is really a great!. But not sure why Celebrity does not allow all passengers to have that choice. Most people usually go to the buffet.

Glad to hear that they will hopefully have salmon!!

Thanks

Enjoy your cruise. We were concerned we wouldn't like the larger ships with larger passenger loads on our first S-class voyage. We were pleasantly surprised and found that it felt less crowded than the M-class ships we were used to sailing. We did miss the mirror on the bedroom wall opposite from the bed since it made the cabin feel larger and missed the drawer an cabinet space in the desk, night stands and closet. We prefer that storage to the cabinet above the bed. But loved the storage in the bathroom much more on S class. The luncheon in the MDR on embarkation day was a lovely and relaxing way to start the cruise. Although there were only a few choices it certainly was better for us than fighting the crowds in the OVB. Have a wonderful cruise!

Thanks. We have cruised on Holland and Princess quite a few times and have really enjoyed the relaxed lunch in the main dining room on embarcation day. Glad I was able to get into this concierge cabin and this is one of the perks. By chance is was one of the selections salmon?:cool:

Yes it does

Thanks. I was hoping!😀

Have not been on an S class ship or in a consierge class cabin

Looking forward to it

Hi. We just got upgraded to a cabin in the concierge classDoes that get us embarkation lunch in the MDR?

We were also on this sailing. I agree with most of what your review said except for the wine selection. I found it to be OK. They have a nice red called Ellegance that I had every night and quite enjoyed it. I would agree that it isn't the best wine selections but it served its purpose for me. For anyone wanting more of a wine selection you may want to bring your own to the table. You're allowed 1 bottle per person when you embark. If you bring it to the dining room there is a $25 corkage fees but for some that may be worth it. I never had any wine left at the bottom of the glass at the end of a meal so it couldn't have been that bad.

We went to the festival on the Friday and it was fabulous. Bring a stool or chair to sit on. We have a stool/backpack thingy and it worked out great. Lots of people had those collapsable chairs. The food there was very good. The Crawfish Monica is not to be missed. There are lots of places that sell beer and if you can't find one there are a bunch of people walking around with wagons that carry a large chest full of ice and cold beverages. We never went thirsty. There is a tram that you can take to Sanchez dock that costs $1.25 or if you are a senior it is only 40 cents. From there we took a bus that put us in the fair grounds and it was $20 a person that included the return ride back to Sanchez.

Saturday morning we did a four hour tour of New Orleans we got through "Viator". Highly recommend this tour. They take you to a number of places that includes a cemetery, a mansion and a very informative historical tour of the city and a stop where you can , and should, buy some binietes. (sp?) Sunday (the day of the storm) we went to the World War II museum. Wow. The place is huge and you should be prepared to stay for a few hours. If you are a WW II buff this is not to be missed. They have it separated into 3 areas. The war in Europe, the war in the Phillipines and a separate building that has a number of planes hanging from the ceiling.

As stated already the ship is immaculate. This was the third time we were on the Equinox and the service is second to none. We did select dining but ended up at the same table at the same time every time we ate in the Main Dining room. Roger was the head waiter and he and his staff were amazing. They were friendly, attentive, funny and all in all just a pleasure to have them serve us every night. We also had a dining package for 3 nights and went to all three of the specialty restaurants. They were all very good.

The only really negative about the cruise was that our room (8337) was noisy. We mentioned this at Guest Relations and they did investigate. It seems that our room is in a position where the toilets flushing from other rooms (don't know what rooms) were very loud in our room. Our cruise companions were in the next room to us and they never heard anything. We never had this problem on any of the other cruises. I suppose if we put up a fuss they would have moved us but we decided to just stay there.

Freeport was a disappointment. They still haven't recovered from the hurricane they experienced a few years ago. Sad really because we were there in 1988 and it was great. Here's hoping they can recover soon. I can't imagine the hurt they are going through.

At Cozumel we did the Nachi Cocum beach again. It is our favourite beach destination. They only allow 100 people a day at the resort that includes food, all beverages, chairs and a palapa umbrella for $55 a person. Can't go wrong.

 

Key West is a lot of fun. Lots to do and see here. We went to Hemingway House (very interesting) and then did a little bar hopping. We also did the hop on hop off tour.

Costa Maya has a brand new port and dock and it really is quite beautiful. It was at the end of the cruise and we did't do anything here except go to the port, have a look around and couple of drinks. Lots of bars to choose from. There are a few beach resorts here that you can get a taxi and visit them if you like. Originally we had figured to get to one but change our minds and just goofed around at the port.

 

• All in all I would do this cruise again in a heart beat. It's just that there are so many more to choose from and we want to visit them all!! However, the budget doesn't allow for that. If you do choose to sail on the Equinox you won't be disappointed.

Hi,question on the anytime dining. We usually book the fixed 2nd seating but on our upcoming cruise that is waitlisted. We love having the same staff and table every night. How did you arrange the same table?

There has been 'some' going on in diff areas. One night we danced till the cows came home to a Beatles tribute band, Rock n Roll! No glidein across the dance floor, lots of shakin :eek: going on.

 

In the Ensemble Lounge there is no dance floor, but this is where they have the baby grand and normally a smooth jazz group. We had Ray Brown Jr one cruise. People did move the chairs and slowly sway between the folks going n coming from the speciality restaurants?

 

The main Atrium on deck 3 will have something different happening every night that people are dancing to before and after a pop up show by the entertainment staff.

Thanks. We aren't "Dancing with the Stars" dancers but we do enjoy a foxtrot and such. As long as we can dance some during the cruise before and after dinner is fine

Funny. We don't expect that but there was some dancing? Glad it's not like the Titanic..we don't want to sink while we are dancing!

We have been on the QM2 and they know how to ball room dance. Live orchestra and a huge dance floor. We plan on getting on Cunard again when get a pretty good deal on her. :)

Thanks. My wife especially wants to be on a ship where we can dance some before dinner and possibly after too. We just came off the Oosterdam which we had sailed before and really enjoyed the ocean bar and crows nest for dancing, but that is all gone. The BB King band is very good, (loud tho) but you won't get any fox trots or rumbas. So we did not dance at all on the cruise and my wife was really disappointed. Heck, they really had no entertainment between 7 and 8! They lost our lounge dollars for sure!

We probably would be fine in the atrium. Just as long as the band is decent we will have fun. Is there a pool band? Holland had no band or really hardly ever had anything at all at the pools. The cruise staff was non existent

Hi Diane,

 

I'm currently on board Equinox as a musician in the orchestra. Yes, the grand foyer is definitely where ballroom dancing happens. If you've been on a Solstice-class ship (or seen photos), you can see the grand foyer - it's not huge, but you can fit a surprising number of dancers on there. We've had it packed a few times. The orchestra (7 piece) will play big band sets there - how often depends on when we are needed in the theatre for the guest entertainer that night. Usually it's 2 sets, once or twice a cruise. But there is always music in the grand foyer every evening - several sets by either us, the house band (5 musicians), the jazz quartet (usually 4 musicians). We also have two duos and a solo guitarist. Bands come and go and guests definitely have their preferences as to which groups they prefer. Not to toot my own horn (pun intended), but the musicians currently here are quite strong - very positive feedback from guests.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.. thanks!!

Hi, we are looking at booking the Equinox. We are ballroom dancers and was very disapointed on our last Hal cruise as there was no ballroom type dancing at all. Are you still on board the Equinox and is there still good dance music played?

Thanks