Just off Equinox today 10/8 - my experience

[SusieAV8R]

On 10/10/2023 at 1:20 PM, Stockjock said:

I had a similar experience on my NYE 2021 cruise on Summit.  We purchased the premium package, but the better wines we wanted seemed to not be available.  I also noticed that I ordered French Champagne, but I was given cheap Prosecco.

🥲

[Chrisclaire]

On 11/17/2023 at 3:24 AM, Stockjock said:

Unless I am misunderstanding her, I think she meant that she had the classic package and paid the $8 upcharge for "Champagne", but didn't get it.

As I mentioned, I was being served Prosecco rather than Champagne in the premium package, but worse for her if she was paying an $8 upcharge, for Prosecco, which should have been included in the classic package.

You are absolutely correct!

I had no problem paying the upcharge, but not for nasty Prosecco. 

Not sure if Celebrity are chancing their luck with this or if the bar staff just don't know the difference 🤔 

It is easy enough to watch them pour if sitting at the bar, but if it is table service then not so much.

In future I will always ask to see what I am being served!

The other annoying thing was they sometimes poured from a bottle that had been lying opened.....clearly for too long....no fizz.

That was rejected and I asked for a fresh bottle to be opened 😉

[Joker54]

We were on the Equinox in October and had a variety of experiences, some good, some bad.

 

Staffing shortages most everywhere. One morning Cafe Al Bacio had one waitress, I had been sitting waiting to have her take my drink order but she was busy helping others making coffee's for those standing in line. We were sitting with a double Zenith who tracked someone down and drink orders were finally taken. Every seat in Cafe Al Bacio was taken. Simply no excuse to only have one server working, not fair to her and not fair to guests.

 

We always go the late show, don't recall the particular show we were at but really had a great laugh when the recording played 15 minutes before the start of the show reminding everyone that they should place their drink orders. Problem was, there wasn't a single soul working bar service in the theater. One server finally showed up about 2 minutes prior to the start of the show.

 

We were in a SS so had the premium drink package, even though we would ask for Evian, the server would show up with regular ship ice water. This happened everywhere, not sure if X is trying to force that on us to save $$ or if there is a training issue. I am also sure that staff being assigned extra duties etc that moral may not be the best.

 

We ate at Murano twice and they had 1 less waiter than in all of our previous Murano experiences.

 

Those looking to book a SS - the only advantage is the slightly larger room, the Retreat Lounge and Luminae. So if you are hoping to get better service by being in that class of suite, save your money and get a Veranda room. For us, it wasn't worth the money and will not another SS with X.

 

We gave them a 5 on whether we would recommend X and in the comments I noted that we would never recommend any of our friends book into a suite until the Butler service is restored to pre-pandemic staffing and service levels. But noted that we would recommend Veranda rooms, otherwise they would have received a 1. Of course we complimented the crew that provided excellent service, but the rest of the very long commentary in that survey was far from positive.

 

Cheers