LIVE - Equinox 8/15/21 - Ultimate Caribbean - It’s finally here!

[cltnccruisers]

5 minutes ago, aring75 said:

Just wanted to let you know that they have an omelet station and an eggs Benedict station in the buffet for breakfast. 

Speaking of stations, on Silhouette and Reflection there was a nice coffee/tea station near the atrium railing in the Hideaway.  I know Equinox has replaced the Hideaway with Team Earth but have you noticed anything like that?

[aring75]

1 minute ago, cltnccruisers said:

Speaking of stations, on Silhouette and Reflection there was a nice coffee/tea station near the atrium railing in the Hideaway.  I know Equinox has replaced the Hideaway with Team Earth but have you noticed anything like that?

Hmmm… no, but I’ll look next time we are taking the elevator down. I can see Team Earth, the Library, iLounge, etc on the way. 

[goofysmom99]

There were two of these in my Equinox balcony cabin Aug 1st.  They came in sealed brown logo'd envelopes.  I only took one. 

 

[weregoingcruising]

On 8/20/2021 at 2:58 PM, aring75 said:

I wasn’t going to mention this, but I thought on it and decided I should. 
 

I have overheard several people onboard complaining about this cruise. Mainly due to enhanced COVID protocols and the limited availability of port activities. 
 

You know what??

 

There are enhanced COVID protocols and limited availability of port activities!!

 

I know that as Cruise Critic members we get and share a lot of information. And I would probably consider the majority of people who frequent this site to be better informed than the average non-CC cruiser. 
 

But. 
 

Even without Cruise Critic. How many emails have you received from Celebrity prior to your cruise? How many news articles or social media posts have you seen with regard to mask requirements, travel restrictions, COVID testing, etc?

 

Does anyone expect this cruise to be exactly like cruises you’ve taken in the past? Who are these people who are surprised at port restrictions? Yes! It can be disappointing. And yes! Many people have decided it’s not worth it right now and are waiting for the health situation to improve before sailing again. I think this is a great idea! If you know you won’t enjoy your cruise with these adjusted rules in place, then it is absolutely in your best interest to wait. Do what’s best for you. 
 

BUT do not get onboard and grouse and complain about how there’s nothing to do, and nothing open in port.

 

I’m so sorry for the rant. But I’m finding these people (not many complainers, but enough) absolutely infuriating. 
 

 

 

Sigh. I feel better now. 
😁

It's possible theses are the same people that move to into a home with a HOA. Then complain about the rules to live there.

[cltnccruisers]

2 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

There were two of these in my Equinox balcony cabin Aug 1st.  They came in sealed brown logo'd envelopes.  I only took one. 

 

Looks to be of decent quality.  Not like those blue paper masks that seem to be everywhere.

[mkblinzler]

4 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

There were two of these in my Equinox balcony cabin Aug 1st.  They came in sealed brown logo'd envelopes.  I only took one. 

 

I was hoping they would give us one of these. If we have to wear them here at home, I like having different ones! 

[davekathy]

7 minutes ago, mkblinzler said:

I was hoping they would give us one of these. If we have to wear them here at home, I like having different ones! 

Give it time and you'll see them for sale on eBay. 😷

[cltnccruisers]

2 minutes ago, mkblinzler said:

I was hoping they would give us one of these. If we have to wear them here at home, I like having different ones! 

We go to garage sales nearly every Saturday.  Early on with this we hit a neighborhood where a lot of families had banded together to make masks with different themes.  Pretty crafty folks.  We bought several.

[terrydtx]

19 minutes ago, weregoingcruising said:

It's possible theses are the same people that move to into a home with a HOA. Then complain about the rules to live there.

I know all about this, I am VP of our HOA Board of Directors,  lol

 

People go online and call us terrible names for enforcement of the rules they agreed to when they bought their homes.

Edited August 22, 2021 by terrydtx

[mkblinzler]

3 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

We go to garage sales nearly every Saturday.  Early on with this we hit a neighborhood where a lot of families had banded together to make masks with different themes.  Pretty crafty folks.  We bought several.

I work in insurance so I have a bunch of free ones from my carriers. I’m not a fan of the disposable except in certain cases so I can throw away.

[luckybecky]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

My sister was in a Edge Villa, so maybe they are the only ones to get the Celebrity masks, or they  are only on the Edge.

 

We had two of them in our room on the Equinox three weeks ago. Nice good quality masks. And then my husband promptly lost his. 🙄 But I wear mine all the time now.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, weregoingcruising said:

It's possible theses are the same people that move to into a home with a HOA. Then complain about the rules to live there.

LOL --- you made me chuckle as the President of our HOA ====  I hear that very often. 

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, aring75 said:

We have not received any cloth “Celebrity” masks and I have only seen crew members wearing them. 
 

When we met up for our shore excursion a man behind me at the desk asked for a mask. They were handing out disposable ones. 

On the Summit we got a gray blue one in a sealed bag in our room (sky suite).  They also sold some in the gift shop.  Those had a different pattern.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

47 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

LOL --- you made me chuckle as the President of our HOA ====  I hear that very often. 

 

I must live in Nirvana.  Small HOA of which I am the treasurer.  We don't get those nit pickey complaints.  The gods must be smiling on us.

In my previous HOA (medium size) of which I was the president, we had someone move in and then get all huffy when he found out he couldn't have his huge motor home on the private road except to load and unload.  All clearly stated in the rules.  I think people buy in these communities without reading the rules & regs.  

Edited August 22, 2021 by Happy Cruiser 6143

[LMHSRN]

12 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

I must live in Nirvana.  Small HOA of which I am the treasurer.  We don't get those nit pickey complaints.  The gods must be smiling on us.

In my previous HOA (medium size) of which I was the president, we had someone move in and then get all huffy when he found out he couldn't have his huge motor home on the private road except to load and unload.  All clearly stated in the rules.  I think people buy in these communities without reading the rules & regs.  

Happy, We are also in Cape Coral - Are you near the Veterans Bridge and Del Prado?

[cltnccruisers]

9 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

I must live in Nirvana.  Small HOA of which I am the treasurer.  We don't get those nit pickey complaints.  The gods must be smiling on us.

In my previous HOA (medium size) of which I was the president, we had someone move in and then get all huffy when he found out he couldn't have his huge motor home on the private road except to load and unload.  All clearly stated in the rules.  I think people buy in these communities without reading the rules & regs.  

Our HOA is downright tiny - only 33 homes with no pool or tennis courts.  Just some signage and plants at the entrance so our annual fee goes towards that.  We are starting to see issues with too many cars and a couple of rentals with much more than the folks on the lease living in them.  But for now most of us put that down to Covid.

[FLCruiser97]

2 hours ago, aring75 said:

Just wanted to let you know that they have an omelet station and an eggs Benedict station in the buffet for breakfast. 

AWESOME! Have you guys gone to the Elite buffet yet?

[Ipeeinthepools]

2 hours ago, goofysmom99 said:

There were two of these in my Equinox balcony cabin Aug 1st.  They came in sealed brown logo'd envelopes.  I only took one. 

 

 

There were two of those in our cabin when we boarded but I haven’t seen a passenger wearing one.

[brockmom]

Any of you on board be going to the future cruise desk ? 
I wondered if you could please ask what the passenger count is

for the Nov 19/21 sailing ? Are they still planning on 40%…

I did read someone posted that was the plan …..but not sure how reliable 

it is. ( and that is a Thanksgiving sailing )

The future cruise desk might be a good source for this info.

thank you !

Brockmom

[aring75]

37 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

There were two of those in our cabin when we boarded but I haven’t seen a passenger wearing one.

Aww. We didn’t get any in our cabin. I think I’m feeling a little left out. 😩

 

Are you in a suite, pee?

[aring75]

3 hours ago, aring75 said:

Just a quick note about the alcoves/cabanas. When I booked, I saw that there were discounts offered if you booked multiple days. Also, we took advantage of this offer when we sailed Reflection in Dec 2017. 

 

 

 

In the online planner for this cruise, the cabana reservation was listed as an “alcove,” but a quick call to Celebrity assured me that these were different names for essentially the same thing. 
 

However, I have inquired about this discount twice now. I was told this morning that there will be NO discount offered onboard Equinox. 
 

We booked four sea days and three port days for this cruise and there will be no discount offered, so we chose to cancel our remaining bookings (two sea days & two port days).

 

 

The onboard discount we received on Reflection was approximately 20% for booking the entire cruise and around 15% for us (we had only booked 7 out of 10 days). It would have been fine if the discount wasn’t as high, but it didn’t sit right with me that they just said, “Nope. Sorry.”

 

I will mention, they did offer to give us lunch in Murano (which we had already booked at a discount).

 

 

I just wanted to make sure anyone reading along understands that the cabanas on Equinox DO NOT qualify for the discount listed on the website when you book. 

Okay. I really wanted to update this information. As I had said before, we have always been accustomed to a discount for booking multiple cabana days. I thought it was unusual that Equinox did not offer this even though it was on the website and just wanted to make sure anyone booking in the future was aware. 
 

However!!

 

I received a follow-up call from the Specialty Restaurant Maitre D’ (cabanas are run by the specialty dining department), and he wanted to apologize for the confusion and offer the discount and also an additional credit for the delay and the mixup. 
 

It was very generous and more than I was expecting, and I told him so. We weren’t looking to get anything more, we just wanted the normal discount which is usually applied. But he was insistent. He was extremely apologetic and seemed genuinely concerned that it wasn’t handled well in the beginning. 
 

I just wanted to let everyone know how well we were treated. I feel confident in saying that the service on this cruise has just been over-the-top amazing.

[aring75]

3 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

Speaking of stations, on Silhouette and Reflection there was a nice coffee/tea station near the atrium railing in the Hideaway.  I know Equinox has replaced the Hideaway with Team Earth but have you noticed anything like that?

So I checked the space and didn’t see a coffee station, but it was a little late (close to lunchtime). I’ll take another look tomorrow morning. 

[cltnccruisers]

1 minute ago, aring75 said:

So I checked the space and didn’t see a coffee station, but it was a little late (close to lunchtime). I’ll take another look tomorrow morning. 

Thanks for checking.  We'll find out Friday.

[aring75]

Found out today that all movie rentals on the stateroom TV are no charge. We’re not talking blockbusters or anything, but it’s definitely appreciated. 

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, aring75 said:

Found out today that all movie rentals on the stateroom TV are no charge. We’re not talking blockbusters or anything, but it’s definitely appreciated. 

Jeez, Celebrity has really handled their re-start so well, from what you, Ken and Graphic have been posting, good on them and good on you all for being the beneficiary of such stellar customer service!