Gracie115

Interesting...... we sailed on Vista in December and had a MUCH different experience in many areas than you did. First.... Water... The Big Blue bottles are left in the room, we told our butler we drink a lot of water there was NEVER less than 5 of them in the room, usually more like 8 as we had 3 in the mini frig getting cold. I do wish I thought about drinking a Power Ade, rinsing it out and then using it for shore excursions, as I really didn't like the large metal containter they provide. We never had an issue with bar service. Yes, they were busy but we never waited more then 5 minutes for a server to come to us, get our order and deliver back to us within 5 minutes. We both commented on how much better this was than our experience on the Apex. Specialty Restaurants. We LOVED Toscano, the italian one, food was better than anything we had in Luminae or any restaurant on our last couple X cruises. We also loved Polo Grill. Ember was a miss for us. We did not have in room dining and you SHOULD have had course by course service, as it is advertised. I would have been unhappy too if they had just dumped the whole dinner at once. Something to speak to a Supervisor about for sure. Waves, their sandwich/pizza place outside the buffet area was great, and nothing like it offered on X. We LOVED our PH1 room, far better than any SS on Celebrity. Felt much roomier, elegantly furnished and our balcony on deck 11 was a partially extended one which had 2 chairs, table and one lounge. It was lovely. Something you didn't mention was the TV. The number of movies and shows available are at least 10 times what is offered on X.... with a LARGE variety of music choices, something X forgot completely about on the E class ships....no music available at all. Big fail for us. O falls short in the night time entertainment in many ways, especially in the theatre. The 4 person violinists though were superb and we enjoyed them every evening. We went on Vista knowing it was going to be a much different experience, but we found food and service across the ship far superior to our recent X trips. We loved the Vista, booked another O cruise before leaving. That doesn't mean we'll never sail X again, in fact I have been heartened by some positive things apparently that have happened recently according to what I am reading on these boards.

Because those 4 rooms are being "sold" as Horizon Suites on the X website and everywhere else after May 15, 2024.

Has anyone heard anymore about what will be done during the 3 week dry dock for Equinox? I know that the now "Ultimate Verandas" at the front of the ship will be renovated into "Horizon Suites" but are any other staterooms/suites also being renovated?

We actually liked it so much we booked the same room again on the Allura for a cruise in 2025. The balcony is actually only half extended, which we really liked. We had 2 chairs, a table and a lounge on it. The half extension gives you wonderful views forward that you don't get with the fully extended balconies (unless you hang your head over the railing). Great location. There is a staff work room across from the room but the amount of noise from it was minimal and never bothered us. I would book this room over a fully extended balcony every time.

It was not in ours. We were in PH1 11071.

Here: https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports

Our last TA stopped in Gibralter....very interesting port, as are the Azores, too bad you didn't get there. We have been looking at a TA on Equinox out of Lisbon for this fall. We also like S class a lot and don't like E class at all. Have been reading some good things about Celebrity recently so think might take a chance on the Equinox. We also like Lisbon and would like to spend a few days there pre cruise.

I wouldn't have walked off the ship in Nassau.... What kind of condition is Connie in? We have always loved the M class ships, but it's been a long time since we've been on one.

That's not an answer, you can find out what ships are due in ports so you plan accordingly. In ports that have 4,5,6,7 ships we always plan some kind of private tour that is away from the crowds. But I agree with @Ex-Airbalancer that Caribbean ports are all very much the same and not worth booking cruises anymore... our last one had 5 ships in Belize...horrible.

We were on Vista in December never heard a sound from either of our neighbors.

I can't imagine Mykonos that way...... and just have to believe the people living there must hate it. That just sounds awful.

Not on Oceania. It was one of the lovely things about our sailing on the Vista in December. Royal? Absolutely right...even worse.

All the E class ships seem have to this problem. The canned music in the martini bar was so loud on our 2 Apex cruises that we never stayed in the area more than a few minutes. When it's so loud you can't hear each other talk without yelling it's not enjoyable at all. Loud does not mean better....someone at X should realize this.

Too large. My purse will hold a smaller (plastic) bottle in it's front pocket, impossible with this big bottle. Now in search of something smaller, non plastic, I can bring with me. Didn't like these at all and left them in room when we debarked.

We found all those issues too in our Apex CS

And yet for those of us fed up with Celebrity and having just tried our first Oceania cruise we are completely happy with the product. Simply More works for us as we do drink some wine on cruises and can make the shore excursions work because we would be booking as soon as available. We had a credit left from the shore excursion credit which wound up being reducing our final bill by the same amount. I understand this is not "supposed" to happen, but it happened. Oceania service outshines Celebrity on every level.....

Sorry but I think this is just wrong. Why be patient to have what was always there and has been taken away and charged more for less? I'm glad some like the "new" Celebrity, after all if they didn't the line wouldn't survive. But it's going to survive without a large group of long time Celebrity people that have moved on to lines that are offering what Celebrity once did.

I did not mean to insult anyone. If you like what you get in Celebrity then that's fine. It does not take away from the fact you are reacting to X now and not what the line has been in the past, as many others besides myself have stated. Obviously they have to be making someone happy since they keep filling ships, just fewer and fewer long time Celebrity guests are among those persons.

You hit the nail on the head. Those who have never cruised Celebrity have no way of knowing how much the product has slipped in the last few years. Also have no way of knowing how excessive it has become to book a Celebrity cruise. Celebrity, IMHO, is banking on this to acquire a new clientele who are willing to pay high prices for lesser service and quality since they know no better. They don't give a rat's xxx about the long time X cruiser. We are "expendable" at this point.....

The fish & chips were the best item when we ate there in December. The pork chop was so tough you couldn't cut it. So obviously not consistent at all.

Interesting on our visit the only item we thought was great WAS the fish & chips.......

Agree, it was VERY loud for us too. Depending on the item the food was fair to very good. My pork chop was tough and almost impossible to cut. On the other hand my DH's fish and chips were excellent. We will go back but will be more careful about what we order and try to get seated in the quieter areas, if there are any.

@Jim_Iain Which cruise did you book with Oceania? I believe having booked an Owner's Suite that you will have more Specialty Restaurants that you can make reservations for about 90 days in advance. Also believe you should have no problem with an 8:30 reservation or so, the 6-7:00 times seem to book very quickly. We loved Toscano, our favorite and if given the opportunity to book more than once I would do that. We are the same as far as not needing to be entertained while on board, Oceania should be a good fit for you. Service was wonderful (think Celebrity 10-15 years ago.) Butler was outstanding and am sure in an Owner's Suite even better. One of the things that we found and liked was that if we had questions ahead of time we weren't forced to go through our TA, the O staff answered happily and in fact when we first booked (before transferring to our TA) were told, "please call anytime you have questions." Very refreshing. Enjoy planning. We also booked another O cruise on the Allura but that's not till 2025. May have to find something in between.😀

I didn't know that... thanks for correcting. Still learning a lot about Oceania.

We just did our first O cruise last month too. We found that the Terrace Cafe matched the GDR menu each night, with other additional items too. Don't know ship you are on but depending on that you will either have 2 or 4 Specialty restaurants to choose from. They all have Toscano & Polo Grill which we thought were great. We were on Vista which had Ember (a replacement for Jacque's on Marina & Rivera). We thought Ember was good but not even close to as good as Toscano or Polo Grill. Red Ginger, the 4th on those ships was good but I think next time we will just tell wait staff to have the chef choose for us as we ordered and ate WAY too much food. We ate in the GDR the remaining nights which were good but not as good as the Specialties. The service was great. I don't remember any nights that were more special than the others. Lobster, inone form or anther, was available in at least a couple of the Specialties every night. We are also "Celebrity refugees" having been very underwhelmed in our last couple cruises, I'm sure you will enjoy O, we sure did and booked our next cruise with them before debarking.