Team Stag

My choice would be the Equinox. First, you seem excited about Aqua; so go do it. Also, being a holiday cruise, you should expect it to be full. I find the S-Class ships have more smaller venues which makes the ship not feel as full to me vs the E-Class where you just have a giant martini bar & eden bar.

Ultimately, you need to try to figure out what kind of cruise you want to have. We are doing a 3 day Reflection Cruise in a couple weeks & we know we are going to party. We have steam to blow off and that's going to happen. So for us - MDR and more likely the OVC or Room Service will be our dinners of choice. The idea of sitting down for a large delicious meal after being in the sun all day after too many adult beverages would be a waste of money for us. We love the specialty restaurants & the great selection they have of them on the Reflection. As you can see from this post, there are multiple different opinions on their favorite (ours is Murano followed by LPC based on the show / menu). Now, if you are celebrating a special occasion - a specialty restaurant is a GREAT way to do that. Speciality restaurants also tend to have excellent service & a step up in food from the MDR as well (although we find great service lots of places with Celebrity). As others mentioned, you need to pick a time for check in. If you go to your cruise planner, you will see when Check In opens. If you want an early boarding time, I strongly advise you check in on that first day. Especially with a 3 day cruise, most fellow passengers will want to maximize time on the ship. Enjoy the cruise!

I'm sorry - this was not intended to be directed at you. It was a simple observation of things that I read on the internet (especially between here and the book). We see it regularly that people can have complete opposite experiences on the same cruise.

Now that's a 100% accurate truth bomb. I read some postings & just wonder if they are paid by other cruise lines to spread misinformation. 😂

I agree. Although my take is things were never as bad as some made it out to be. Some became hyper focused on one element and allowed it to influence their trip or they were convinced of shortcoming without actually stepping on ship. I also believe that things in some areas are not as great as others claim. Reality is hanging out somewhere in the middle. Everybody cruises a little differently; so things important to one may not even make the next person's radar etc. It's been interesting to see some posters who swore they were done with Celebrity forever continuing to hang around. Either going out somewhere different wasn't as glamorous as they thought or all the new opinions of positivity brought them back.

I thought the Equinox had one of those little step down areas off the Sunset Bar.

So the butlers are back. But still have way too many rooms to efficiently handle all their rooms effectively. So they will end up focused on some rooms that either are the loudest, the neediest or the best tippers. But no way that 26 rooms are getting the full butler treatment as many claim on this board. So basically the same as before the change. One overworked person with the butler title….time for the new complaining to start (I barely saw my butler, my room service took 90 mins due my butler busy with other duties, etc etc)

Is it possible your TA is confused Aqua with Aqua Suite? That would explain the pricing difference the TA sees.

As far as the classics, they have them available from the Luminae kitchen. On our last Apex cruise, my wife had French Onion soup and I had Escargot at least 5 of the 7 nights. Caesar salad and steak was always an option as well. Or simple chicken breast too. Now if you are looking to order a specific dish (like Beef Wellington - if they even still do that) from the MDR menu; that would be more of a special request.

We dove with Neal Watson in September. I agree with you that their outfit is professional and provides a fun low stress experience. My only warning would be - look over your equipment closely. Since this was a short cruise for us; we only brought regs and mask. My BCD tank strap came undone twice and I saw several other tanks floating due to bad tank straps. One person had some problems with their reg and needed replacement mid dive. Some of their equipment has seen a lot of action.

I agree with @RichYak. You will have one Chiq Night on Day 2 (sea day). I will almost guarantee that. No way that they give you your other Chiq Night 2 nights later on an 8 night cruise. I'd wait until you get much closer to the cruise to allow the App to update itself.

They will also have the location, time and date on the app for your cruise as well. Look under the heading of "Loyalty and Suites". Under my recent cruise it was offered from 12:30 to 2 and did include the Short Rib (but no burger - I love a burger 😁). As others have mentioned, we find it a very relaxing way to start the cruise. We also find the bar service much easier than waiting at other places around the ship as everyone is rushing on.

We have always gotten a table for two in Luminae. Now be warned, they tend to be very close to other tables of 2 due to the space constraints.

On our upcoming cruise it is listed at $169.99 (although currently priced at 157.99 - 6% off)

Technically they removed the balconies on most of the rooms on the E-Class 😂