TwoBeAtSea

Internet was unreliable. It would work for a few hours then I had to disconnect/reconnect to get it back. When it was up, streaming was not a problem. Also outside of my cabin Internet was stable.

I'm back home, my overall impression of the cruise is primarily negative. Celebrity is a solid "No thanks" to any future cruise. From stranding me at the airport on embarkation day, to unreliable Internet to the main issue: Food quality. The food was as bad as dozens of threads here warned me about. The Orange Juice was like water with a drop of orange coloring. I took to adding orange slices from the buffet to give it some flavor. Most everything was low end, like I would expect from a Golden Corral restaurant. Not the "high end" they promote. "Sushi on five" was the exception, even allowing for the extra cost it was wonderful. I ended up there a couple of times. Murano and Tuscan Grill both served the quality of food I expected from the main dining room but fell short of what I expected from a premium price restaurant. Hower ever I will note service across the board was excellent.

They did a show the first day of the cruise, you can watch other people making items during the cruise. I watched several people make items before my time so I had some idea of what to expect.

$200 For the turtle. I did the Turtle. I have not done it before, it was a unique experience that I very much enjoyed. 5 - Stars.

I'm on Equinox right now using Starlink and Watching YoutubeTV. My IP address shows as "Miami". I have installed OpenVPN on my phone to my home LAN. Once I am connected to the ships WiFi I enable the OpenVPN connection (Full tunnel configuration) and then use my phone as a hotspot and use that to connect my latptop to the Internet. A that point websites like Netflix or YouTubeTV see me as sitting at home and work normally. Note I was not able to use my phone by itself, at least for YouTubeTV. It looks at the location data from the phone and blocks me. If I disable location data it also blocks me which is why I am using the laptop. The Wifi has been spotty. Yesterday it froze quite a bit and I had to disconnect and reconnect Wifi to get it back online. Today it's been stable in the 3mb range. Note: the disconnects have only happened in my cabin (9th floor). Wandering the rest of the ship inside and out as been solid.

Day 2 & 3 We had our first port day today. I’m doing a solo sabbatical cruise so I do not plan to go ashore and did not in Grand Cayman. I will note the tenders pulled up outside my balcony window about every 20min. So that’s about what you can expect if you are using them. The ship was more crowded than I expected for a port day. For the first time I had issues finding a place to sit at the buffet. I visited Sushi on Five for lunch. Wow! That was some good food. I plan to return to try other things, probably several times. I have yet to make it to the main dining room for a meal. I read so many tepid reviews that I just haven’t bothered. I played in the blackjack tournament, that was a fiasco. They had one (grumpy) table/dealer for the event so all we had so sit around for four other rounds. Made it a waste of time in my opinion. I also played the Texas Holdum tournament, that was run very well. A great dealer that really knew his job. I got robbed with AJ vs A4 but that’s poker. I took the “Behind the Scenes” tour of the ship. That is great fun. I did not expect to see a living room set that looks like it came from the set of Bewitched in the middle of the bridge but there it is. I came away with a better appreciation of how much work it takes to make cruise easy for us guests. Bravo to the entire crew. The main dining room still alludes me. I read such tepid reviews of it that I have not made the effort to visit it yet. Perhaps I’ll try it for lunch tomorrow. Although sushi might be calling to me…. Housekeeping has been like an efficient ghost. I know she’s been coming but I never see her…. I griped about the food on day-1, I will note it’s improved on day 2/3. Still nothing to write home about (expect for the Sushi) but worth noting. For the most part the ship does not seem overcrowded, I haven’t had to wait more than 5min for a drink and the buffet (Other than early today) has not been crazy busy. We have been through two thunderstorms so far, amazing to watch from the balcony. As an experiment I placed my toothbrush (a small electric one) up on it’s end and so far it has not fallen over despite some whitecaps outside. Tomorrow is my turn at glass blowing and the Tuscan Grill.

That was NOT my experience. There was no one from any cruise line in the baggage area.

The prices range up to $200. If you zoom in I think you can see all the current prices I have this on my schedule for tomorrow so if you have any other questions, now's the time to ask.

Testing! Is this thing on? OK, at least the Starlink Internet is working... Hello from the Equinox. Day-1 (so far): I used "Flights by celebrity" to get here. Huge mistake. My docs said "Someone will meet you at baggage claim." That did not happen. I talked to the airports transportaiton aid desk, after I woke her up, she seemed surprised to hear there are cruise ships in Florida. No help there. So I called the help line, After 15 minutes of on hold music I gave up an grabbed a waitibng cab. $20 and 5min later I arrived at the port. They did eventually answer and explained I was supposed to get a bus that ran every half hour but were not clear where I should have gone to find it. Check-in and boarding could not have gone smoother. In the door to on the ship 5-min tops. On a side note, I used my spanking new "Passport Card" at both the airport and the terminal with no issues, my passport book never left my bag. At my room, the envelope with my keycard had been opened, I seemed to be the only one along my hallway (that sill had a card) that happened to. Is there supposed to be something in the envelope other than the card? I have checked my account and there were no charges, I'll keep an eye out. Very impressed with my room steward (Is that the right term?) she is very helpful. I'm allergic to down pillows and she had them replaced in no time, I also requested she empty the mini-fridge and that happened while I was doing my initial walk about. Setting up the WiFi was a breeze, I was getting a very sad 0.3mb speed to start but now it seems to be up to a comfortable 3-6mb. I can stream so that's all I need. If anyone is interested, I did get around YoutubeTV (and other sites) geofencing. I setup premium WiFi on my Android. I have an OpenVPN config on the Android back to my home LAN, (Setup as a full tunnel) I then used the Android as a hotspot that the laptop connects to and as far as websites can tell I'm still sitting at home. I did an initial "tasting" tour of the open fast food spots, the Grill hot dog was cold, the pizza grocery store frozen pizza quality. I had a couple of Pina coladas, There was a noticeable difference in quality between bars. More on that later. I have dinner at Morano tonight so I'm looking forward to that,,,,

Are we supposed to get reminders pushed to us ahead of events on my calendar? If Outlook did not give me reminders I'd miss 90% of my meetings. Day-1 here on the Equinoix I missed an event because I assumed I would get a reminder. Did I miss a setup option or is this a missing feature?

What? I don't know that!

1. Have you had a fever in the past 24 hours 2. Have you been exposed to anyone with covid or covid like symptoms in the last 48 hours 3. What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?

According to reports I have seen, If you gave MGM your SSN for their loyalty program it was compromised.

I'd definitely watch "The Abyss" if it was showing.

Celebrity used their left hand to remove the cookie fee, What is their right hand up to? Waiting for the shoe to drop....