Aldeya

Look at other threads; World cruises, Oceania rollcalls, Oceania and Oceania member reviews.Its early.

Thank you.

It's actually few days from today. The WC 2016 cruise starts on January 4, 2016:)

I have to check the boards you mentioned again.

If anyone knows the blog about this cruise I'd appreciate the link.

It would be so neat to follow this incredible adventure.

"Any of you would like to follow my travel you can do so by connecting to my FB. Marie Ross"

 

Saw this on page 9 of this thread

I saw it too. My search for Marie Ross brought hundreds of accounts of Marie Ross". None of them was "our" Marie:)

Her 6-month World Cruise is an incredible adventure. It would be so interesting to follow it because I'm sure the majority will never be able to go on such cruise themselves.

Have a great time! I'd love to follow you but I can't figure out how to find you on Facebook. :(

Same here. Can you please post your FB name so we can follow your great adventure and keep admiring your amazing outfits?:)

Bon Voyage!

I am blogging the WC on the Crystal Serenity: http://pacrimtrip.blogspot.com

Thank for taking the time out of your cruise to blog!Will definitely follow:) Enjoy your WC and don't forget about us who will patiently wait for your blog posts.

As for us.. One day...hopefully... on WC... :)

Fair enough, but rather than telling us what doesn't work for you, RC and X, why don't you tell us what cruise line does work for you. Being positive is much more productive than being negative and it improves our outlook on life.

Fair enough :) An honest answer would be that we are still looking for that cruise line. You know, the lucky middle between NCL and Crystal :D

We'll keep trying new cruise lines and experiences.

We absolutely love cruising so we'll keep looking. Wish us luck :)

The reason why people complain here is because Celebrity monitors these boards. Personally, I think posting a complaint on social media (facebook, twitter or a public message board) is far more effective than sending an email to a customer service department.

 

A few years ago when chocolates were taken away a lot of people complained repetitively. As a result, Celebrity started offering chocolates again. Likewise, last year Celebrity introduced boarding based on what deck you were on. A lot of people complained and that practice has since been discontinued on most sailings.

Another great example is the outcome of one of the recent NCL changes (I'm not comparing two cruise lines, just an observation).

Someone in NCL HQ decided to implement a new rule :no more taking food from the buffet area to your cabin. Period. You want food in your cabin, pay for the room service.

The social media exploded. Long story short NCL cancelled the new obviously not well thought out decision. The CEO sent out an e-mail informing their patrons about the cancellation and apologized "for inconvenience" :)

By the way I do not consider chocolates on the pillow to be a major consideration for booking a cruise :) but it were those little touches that made a cruise special.

Sounds like you are difficult to please with unrealistic expectations on any cruise line, maybe cruising is just not for you anymore :confused:. I mean that with no rancor. I am difficult to please with unrealistic expectations with respect to how my eggs are scrambled. So I don't order scrambled eggs anymore because I am difficult to please. Happy New Year Aldeya

No offense taken. Actually we are quite easy to please. It's just after 26 cruises we pretty much know what works for US and prefer to spend our money accordingly.That's all.

Happy New Year to you too :)

And when they don't. :D

 

Many say they are leaving, few ever do, then have no backbone to eat crow.;)

You can't be more mistaken. Many people DO switch the lines.

After being very Loyal to Royal for a long time we decided that RCL's overall experience was not working for us anymore. We left in 2009 and didn't cruise with them since. Will we try this line again? I'm sure we will, someday.

In meantime we tried new to us cruise lines including Celebrity. We just came back from our 10-days Celebrity Equinox cruise. I think our expectations for "modern luxury" advertised by Celebrity were too high and the whole experience was not as we expected. We are still thinking about our future bookings with Celebrity.

We will consider what works for US. But make no mistake, people DO vote with their wallets. All the time.They are just not very vocal about it on CC boards.

Thank you for a detailed and very informative review. I have to agree with the most of your negative points (except vegetarian, not applicable and all that :)

We just returned from our first Celebrity cruise on Equinox. After 24 cruises on other cruise lines (mostly Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Princess, Norwegian, etc) we decided to try Celebrity as a step up for us in service and ambiance. So we thought.

I'm convinced now that there is a LOT more hype about Celebrity as an upscale and more ambient cruise line that it is in reality. OR our expectations were too high.

I don't think we will return. I'm sure it will be no loss to Celebrity :)

IMO, if you spend more than 25% of your cruise in your cabin, then you're doing it wrong ;)

 

Not really :) I think by booking balcony cabin we are doing it right :)

Tried inside cabins, loved the savings but nothing can beat sitting on your balcony with a glass of wine watching the world go by :)

For US it's worth it :)

We just celebrated our 35th cruise anniversary. I'm feeling old

I need a cruise

My feelings exactly :D

In February 2004 we decided just to TRY a cruise: the timing was right, the cost of the cruise was right, etc. After we disambarked our then 12 y.o. daughter declared that cruise "the best vacation EVAR!" :)

The rest is history. We are going on our 26th cruise. The memories we created for all these years of cruising together as a family are priceless.

I am pretty paranoid. I view a 4k passengers/1.7staff as a floating city. I think of the other people on board as strangers. I've read enough stories of bad things happening on cruise lines.

 

I don't let my son wander all around our (safe) town - no way would I let him roam a city with 5700 strangers with unlimited drink packages from Lord Knows Where.

 

My son is in 7th grade/12 years old and I would consider maybe allowing him to go from the kids club to the room since it is on the same deck but no way would he have free run of the ship, even with checking in or iConcierge. I still haven't decided if I feel comfortable with letting him sign himself out for this single purpose.

 

Again, I'm paranoid and there are really no protections for him on a ship in the middle of the ocean.

 

I read a fascinating very broad sampling study of kids ages 6-12 who were repeatedly taught for 3 months the dangers of strangers and various scenarios that are commonly used by strangers luring kids. Over 95% of the kids in the study were lured by a person away from an open area to "help find his puppy" shortly after the conclusion of the daily lessons.

 

Good behavior and maturity are very different things. I just don't think most kids have the maturity to not fall for manipulative bad people - it is the beauty of their innocence.

I feel the same. Just a little observation from our recent cruise. There was a group of teenagers at 1am sitting on the stairs between the floors. They were all loud but one particular girl who looked 13-14 was swearing like an old sailor. F this, F that...

We were waiting for the elevator and just happened to see,I assume, the girl's mother running to them furious that her child is still out. Well, what do you know... the moment the woman approached the kids that girl instantly transformed into a little caring angel who was so apologetic and so sweet. You wouldn't think this was the same child.

My point is sometimes even we, the parents, don't know our kids well enough, especially teenagers. We just think we know....

I knew about this cruise before and decided to check if we can book any cabin (3 weeks before the cruise :). I can not find this cruise on NCL website. I've decided to check a roll call for this cruise and see that there is no posts since 2/15.

If anyone check this thread can someone tell me what happened?

New "normal", nothing to see here, keep moving /s

Just got off the Equinox. We had an A1 cabin which came with two chairs, two footstools and a table. I think Concierge class has footstools as well (don't bet the house on that).

Same ship, same cabin category. No footstools. I wish I knew about it, could ask the attendant to get them for us.

Just came back from 10-day Equinox, cat.1a, no cotton, no Q-tips which is not a big deal, I always bring some with me.

There were shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, bar soap. All of them had a such unpleasant "fishy" smell (yeah, I get it, we are in the middle of the ocean. LOL) that no one in a cabin used them. I was really glad that we brought our own shampoo, etc.

This is our first cruise with Celebrity so I'm not sure if this kind of amenities are a standard for balcony cabins.

You are on a value vacation, eating very mid- grade food, with a1000 people you don't know, so it isn't really an formal occasion. You may like to believe you are on the Queen Mary in the era of elegant cruising but you are not.

So what? For many of us it's the only occasion to really dress up. Majority can't afford Queen Mary but it doesn't mean people should come to the restaurant in tee-shirts and flip-flops.

What's wrong with making a little effort to look presentable?

My motto is any day on a ship is better than a day at work....no matter what the person next to me is wearing to dinner.

This is one of the reasons that I don't understand. Doesn't it diminish the whole ambience and the whole atmosphere of the special night in the nice dining avenue?

My husband does not wear tux and I don't wear long gowns to the formal night, we do make an effort to dress nicely.

We were on NCL Breakaway on our last cruise (I know, it a freestyle "do-what-you-please" line). At Formal night MANY people were dressed very nice and it was a delight to see many children dressed to the "nines" :) There was a 10-12people big table stuck between the tables for 3-4. All of the people sitting at this table were wearing t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, sleeveless tanks, etc. You got the idea.

Yes, it's their vacation and they can wear what they want. At the same time if you don't want to make any efforts to look presentable on a formal night you have a choice to go to another available dining venue.

To me it shows no respect for other people dining in this place (I know, they don't care) and DOES diminish the whole atmosphere of a special night.

We are booked with My Sister Tours on November 26. This company was recommended on CruiseCritic and has very good reviews.

I just got an e-mail from Helen from My Sister Tours.

She offers a special tour of Dominica on November 26. The air conditioned spacious van can hold up to 10 guests.

The tour includes:

Trafalgar Falls,

Botanic Gardens, Morne Bruce view point,

the Scotts Head view ((you will be walking between the Atlantic Ocean & the Caribbean Sea)

Champagne Reef,

Screws Spa,

Titou gorge (Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed there and you swim to see two beautiful waterfalls)

and Historic City highlights.

Complimentary local beers, soda, shandy and water.

The special price (The more people sign up the less is the cost and you pay on arrival)

8 people - $300 (less than $40 per person)

6 people = $270 USD ($45 per person)

4 people = $240 USD ($60 per person)

If anyone is interested in a group tour on November 26, 2015 you can contact Helen at mysistertours@hotmail.com. She responds very quickly.

For the past seven year following a lot of research we started using Neem oil.

It is originally from India and the Neem tree is the only tree a plague of locusts will not go near.

We have used it extensively in Central and South America, the Far East, India and the Mediterranean and not once in seven years have we been bitten by a bug.

If you buy it in its raw state it does need thinned with other oils.

You can also buy Neem cream which is better for applying to the face.

Thanks a lot. I never heard of Neem oil before. Will definitely look into it.

There are much better products available other than Deet.

I'd love to get more information on this. Will the other products as effective as deet? We are going on the Caribbean cruise very soon and I'd love to be prepared as much as I can.

We always like to go to Bistro on Five on embarkation day. Its usually pretty quiet and very pleasant!

Thank you.

If I'm not mistaken Bistro on Five is not complimentary? Still catching up on information about Equinox :)

Our first Celebrity cruise, Equinox,November.

On embarcation day what woud you recommend as a dining option? We don't want to battle the crowds in the buffet after getting on the ship.

Thanks.

 

 

Another busy pool day on Deck 15

 

 

 

 

.

I just can't get over how small is the pool. The same was on Breakaway. With so many people onboard the size of this pool is laughable.