lovestx

Thanks for the review, Darkwolfe. Interested to hear and see your impressions of your first Celebrity cruise. Plus it will be a great reminder of the fun time we also had on this cruise!

I think this probably applies to those who man the tables around the ship where they try to sell the specialty restaurants.

I'm sure that's true but the person who told us was Blu waiter.

Do they have to make the reservation for you to get credit? Or do you just mention their name when reserving?

I regret that I didn't ask that question. Perhaps others will know.

Perhaps others already knew this but we learned from a Blu waiter last night that the waiters get "points" for referring guests to specialty restaurants. We and our friends had eaten at Tuscan, silk harvest and bistro on 5 and when our favorite waiter learned that we had gone there, he was disappointed that we hadn't let him get credit for referring us.

Thought others who were unaware of this policy would want to know. We are very fond of the Celebrity staff and want to do anything to help them out.

We never felt unsafe in Cartagena.

I mispoke, however, about the tour company we used. We used thumbs up in Costa Rica.

We visited Cartagena off Celebrity Equinox last week. Went with a group from our roll call. Used Thumbs Up tour company and had Manuel as our guide. He was great and the bus was brand new. We visited La Popa monastery, the fort, old town and drove around the beach/residential area. If I went back, I'd arrange for a private ride to the old town area and wander around as it was lovely.

It was unbelievably hot so dress accordingly and bring lots of water.

We stayed a night in the hotel Miramare in Civitavecchia in June 2014 after a pre cruise stay in Venice and before embarking on the Silhouette for our second family Eastern Med cruise. We found Civi to be just meh...did the trick for our needs but I wouldn't rush to go back there. And we weren't impressed by the beach as the one near the Miramare seemed to be populated by teens congregating and smoking. Maybe if we had stayed at the San Georgio we might have felt differently.

Loved cruising the Eastern Med!

We loved Malta when we visited off the Silhouette in June 2014. Kevin, I don't remember seeing evidence of the bombings but we found the tour of the Lascari War Rooms fascinating.

Mdina wa so quaint and clean and perfect that we almost thought we were in. Disney World city!!

Loving all of the pictures. Thanks!

Music and others,

Have you booked something with Jorge? I am looking for a tour in November 2015. I will contact him directly but just wondering if others have recent experience.

Thanks for sharing your photos and impressions. We look forward to returning to Equinox in November as she was our first ship :) And I loved seeing some of your early ports as we have considered them before (have done two Eastern Med cruises but would like to do the Western Med someday).

We had a reservation with Dollar in Cozumel, turns out they were not at the Carnival pier(my fault) but were closed due to no ships in their port. A taxi to the airport wasn't feasible so we rented from Alamo, at the port. Car I rented had no fuel, so they upgraded us, no problem there. We had a ball, as always. In Grand Cayman, we rented from Avis airport, which picked us up in a courtesy van. The company, car and manger were all good, but the service rep we had, Donna, was condescending and rude. Good experience in GC. Beware! Full insurance in both, taxes and fees increased that $25. car to $85.00 !

Hoping to rent a car in GC. How far was the drive to and from the airport (twice) with Avis?

I am about to book on the equinox november 9 cruise and will probably book a Balcony Guarantee and ask to be on the wait list for Aqua Class.

Currently, it appears that there are only three balcony cabins available.

Is there a magic window time (e.g. Three weeks out) where Celebrity will open up more cabins that they've been holding or that TAs have been holding? Or should I just book now?

I can't comment on the weather questions as we did this trip in November 2015. However, I would just like to add that we, too, did Cusco/Lima/MP on our own after the Xpedition cruise using Escaped to Latin America as our travel agent. It was much cheaper and we had more control over our itinerary. Their arrangements were flawless.

Thanks all. We are going to pick our own 1C cabin having gotten great advice from all of you.

Thanks!

Thanks for the helpful comments. Just what I was looking for. And concierge may be the way to go as they aren't more than $50 more per cabin. Would hate to babe bothered by smoke....forgot about that possibility!!

I have tried searching for the answer to this question on the board with no luck so hope some folks might help me out.

We learned yesterday that friends we met cruising the Galapagos last November would like us to join them on a november sailing of the equinox. We usually sail AQ but our friends have booked a veranda so we will do the same (so we can dine together many nights). There are good deals to be had in booking a veranda guarantee. And using the not-to-be-named website, I see there are many veranda cabins available in all veranda categories.

We don't care about location in the ship but would not want an obstructed view or noise issue. Are there any veranda staterooms that should be avoided? We will pay extra money to ensure that we have a decent cabin but if there aren't many bad veranda cabins we might chance it. I know that an AQ guarantee is a bad idea due to gym and Aqua spa cafe and pool noise issues. But I'm I wrong in guessing that there aren't many bad verandas?

Both days were perfect sea days, great anticipation on the first and relaxing, with good weather the last, no issues whatsoever..

Thanks!! Very helpful:):)

We are considering booking this cruise for 2016. Curious how the weather was on the first and last sea days. We did a western Caribbean cruise a few years ago that went to key west and Cozumel in December and it was very cold and windy (the ship actually got stuck in KW dipped to wind). Don't want a repeat of that if possible.

We did the Eastern Med in June '12 on the Equinox (the Reflection had not yet been launched) but I think the itineraries were similar. You can see my long review in my signature below.

With one exception (the kids going to Pompeii), we did private tours for our excursions and were pleased with all with some tweaks.

In June '14, we did another cruise of the Med on Silhouette and had another fabulous time. This time we made it to Mykonos and spent the bulk of the day at the St. Johns resort mentioned in another post and again went to Santorini. The second trip we took the boat to Oia and spent the morning wandering around before returning to Fira. We arrived in the early morning so it was a different experience. We had some challenges with the boat to Oia (long wait before it took off and then limited time in Oia before the scheduled return--which we 'fought' and they accommodated us with a later taxi) but I might suggest giving that a try.

I envy you!!!

P.S. In June '14, we spent the night in Civitavecchia before our cruise and arrived at the terminal around 11:30 a.m. It was MUCH less crowded than when we arrived at 12 noon in June '12. Be sure to have your hotel reserve a cab for you the night BEFORE you need it. Ours did not and we had a bit of a frustrating wait for it to come.

We love Aqua Class because we love the more intimate experience of dining in Blu. Breakfasts there are particularly lovely with the huge windows in S Class Blu restaurants.

I agree that an A2 guarantee could land you directly under the treadmills or other gym equipment. Personally, I'd spend the extra money to get a room under the spa itself.

One tip: one embarkation day, you will most likely be given a discount to dine in the one of the specialty restaurants instead of Blu. If you know you want to try one of them (we really like Murano and Tuscan Grill), then you might want to give this a try.

We were in Oia last June and enjoyed lunch at Pelekanos. They have a rooftop view of all of Oia and its spectacular. If memory serves me correctly, the food was quite good. But the view was incredible!

In November 2014, my husband and I did a 7 day celebrity xPedition cruise of the Galápagos Islands and then spent additional time visiting Peru. We loved both parts of the trip and had no difficulty with Altitude sickness (and we chose not to take Diamox fearing trouble from side effects). We are in our mid 50s and in decent shape.

Here's our itinerary:

Day 1: Boston to quito, late arrival, stayed at Hilton Colon

Day 2: toured Quito

Day 3: flew from Quito to Guayaquil to Baltra, overnight in Santa Cruz

Days 4 to 10: cruise

Day 11: VERY long travel day. Baltra to Guayaquil to Quito to Lima. Overnight Doubletree Pardo

Day 12: touring Lima

Day 13: Lima to Cusco, transfer to SV via Maras and Salineras , overnight Sol Y Luna, Urubamba

Day 14: Vistadome to Aguas Calientes, afternoon in MP, overnight SUMAQ

Day 15: morning in MP, afternoon train to Poroy, transfer to Cusco, overnight El Mercado Tunqui

Day 16&17: touring Cusco and surrounding area

day 18: Morning flight to Lima, afternoon walking around Lima, late flight home to Boston

We used escaped to Latin america/Peru for the Peru portion and would highly recommend them. Transfers were seamless and very helpful (and we have always traveled independently before

Glad we had afternoon no morning on separate days in MP; didn't want to risk bad weather so had a better chance of at least one good day

We did not need to return to Quito. If I did it again, I would have flown to Guayaquil and then on to the galapagos.

We really enjoyed Lima--great food, very walkable, right on Pacific

Happy to answer any questions. And if you want to see my hotel and restaurant reviews on Tripadvisor, my screen name there is luvstx.

I'm pretty sure that the only thing different between half and full day is that full day sails back to a beach on st. Croix for a beach barbecue.

All half day trips will do an hour of snorkeling and an hour of Turtle Beach time.