Illinisue

Thanks so much for all your efforts on this board. I didn't find it until our second Celebrity cruise and it has made a world of difference in our experience.

I look forward to your next chapter!

We're getting ready to sail in 42 days on the Solstice to Alaska and looking forward to it. Just read a very recent...and wonderful...review and it appears that the production shows are still the same as our first cruise on Solstice in 2010. I thought they changed them every four years? Anyone know?

Thanks so much for your review. We will be on the same itinerary in August!

Thanks Lois! Which tour did you do?

Hi Lois!

We're on Solstice the last week of May and have never been to Alaska, though long time Celebrity. Any suggestions for excursions?

Thanks

Susan

Roz,

Thanks for your post. I was referred to your post earlier in this thread. I learned so much and appreciate your hard work on behalf of these amazing animals.

Susan

Thanks Chris! Your experience matches many of my friends and it's no small feat to obtain a service dog and takes lots of work to continuously train. Bravo to you.

Thanks for all of the intelligent posts. As the OP, I've learned so much about traveling on a cruise ship with a service animal.

Hi all. We recently returned from the 4 April 2014 sailing of the Equinox. While in line one day at Guest Services, I overheard a man - with his shih tsu - asking if they would be able to take the dog ashore. I never saw the dog again, but people on my roll call saw the dog many times. The owners said that it was a service animal and had saved their life at one time. It did not wear a vest, as I have seen on most service animals in public. And it "relieved" itself in the casino, hallway and Oceanview Cafe. This is not the behavior of a true service animal. And the owners made no attempt to clean it up.

Wish I had asked Guest Services, but didn't think about it at the time. Any idea how they got the dog on the ship?

Susan

Thanks for the trip report. It's been a fun preview of our cruise that leaves on Friday! Last trip for Equinox in the Caribbean for the season!

Thanks Prim8keeper! As always, you are so helpful. Thanks for putting them on Dropbox. We embark in April for a return to the Equinox and can't wait!

Yes it is cruisenut. I noticed new equinox dailies being published on a thread, maybe more updates?

Yes, it says that Paul Baya is the cruise director for the cruise that departed 10 January. Drew was supposed to be on vacation for several months after he left the Reflection after Thanksgiving. Don't know what's going on here yet!

We are on the 4 April Equinox cruise and would love to continue to hear Equinox news :)

OK - yes, smoking is unhealthy. So is overeating and drinking alcohol. My DH enjoys the occasional cigar (I don't smoke) and we don't mind being sent to the "leper colony" of the port side of the Sunset Bar on the S class ships. We've met some nice people over the years. I don't know what the percentages are of smokers/nonsmokers, but we both appreciate the efforts of Celebrity to designate smoking areas, so people can choose the areas they would like to frequent. We love that we can be on the balcony with no smoke and in the indoor common areas with no smoke. 10-12 feet or so at the Sunset Bar doesn't seem like too much of an inconvenience to non smokers.

Hi:

 

Does anyone have an update on "made to order items" in Aqua Spa Cafe and/or the menus?

 

Does anyone have the room service menu (breakfast) for suite guests?

 

Does anyone know who the cruise director is or will be on January 11th and also who the entertainers will be?

 

Finally, how have the volume levels been by the pool?

 

Many thanks.

Just off the Reflection!

Made to order items was Arctic Char and Shrimp.

Did not stay in a suite, so I can't say.

It was the cruise director Drew's last sailing prior to vacation. Did not ask who was replacing him. The current cast has two months left, so singers and dancers and specialty acts will be the same. We found them to be better than any other Celebrity Cruise we've been on. The other entertainers will likely not still be on ship. The only possibility is the illusionist and we don't really enjoy that type of show.

Volume levels were much improved.

Susan

Anyone get an email about the Nov 23rd sailing of Reflection? We just got one about delayed boarding and not to arrive at the port until 12:45pm. The reason being was slow customs and a Coast Guard inspection.

The 23rd is not the first cruise after the TA. They left Miami on the 16th, but I haven't heard anything about their experience yet.

Susan

Yes, but we're not interested in touring the Everglades or the HOHO bus of Miami, since we have been to Miami and will be there for a day pre-cruise.

We've stayed there as well. Yes, you can walk to restaurants...mostly across the street in a strip mall and there are place to buy wine, if you're allowed to bring it onboard. Cruise lines vary. Rooms were nice, elevators were really slow. We were there in February, so it was high cruise season. Work out room was small, but OK, and no one else was there but us!

We found that the guy who was in charge of the shuttle to the port was a big bully. He said that he couldn't take us to the ship for two hours because there were so many people who had already signed up. When we said we would take a taxi, he told us that a taxi would be so expensive and would take a long time. We knew this information was incorrect (from this board). If you go out the front doors, there taxis waiting for you. Easy, inexpensive drive to the port!

Enjoy!

We will arrive in Miami off the Celebrity Reflection on Saturday, November 30 and have a 4:30pm flight from Fort Lauderdale. The Delta terminal at FLL is not well equipped and you usually can not check luggage until two hours prior to your flight. Suggestions on what we should do with our day until we can arrive at the airport at 2:30? Renting a car this time is more expensive than before, so while it's an option, it's not my first option this time.

Thanks

Susan

I wish you were on our cruise leaving on Saturday! It sounds like fun!

Our daughter has had great luck with a certain airline by posting problems on Twitter. They responded to her travel delay problems within an hour. It's not the same kind of issue for you, but social media may be an additional way to proceed. Celebrity is on Facebook and Twitter.

It is an air intake. We were in AQ in April on Solstice Class and asked the Engineering Officer about it at an event. He did not know, but found out and left us a message on our phone. We didn't notice sound, but my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to know what it was.

Tom...sorry for going off post. Hollywoodtraveler, could you email me at susanlevey at gmail dot com. We'll be staying in Hollywood pre-cruise and would love to talk to you about restaurants.

Day #5: St. Kitts & Nevis

 

Before I start my review for our day in St. Kitts I would like to get out my soap box for a moment if you don't mind. As you can probably tell by my sn I work with primates and have for my entire career. I've worked in zoo's, sanctuaries, and currently in cognitive research. I've been lucky enough to have some of the most amazing experiences in my line of work so I completely understand why people are drawn to them.

 

I bring this up because the island of St. Kitts is home to green vervet monkeys. They were brought to the islands during colonial times and now live naturally all over the island since they have no natural predators there. One thing that you will commonly see either at the port or in areas where a lot of tourist stop are guys with baby monkeys who for a small fee, usually around $5, you can have you picture taken with. This is a picture I found on google.

 

 

I would please ask you NOT to do this. These monkeys are babies that are taken from their mothers for the sole purpose of making money. They have to use the babies because once the monkeys get larger they will easily bit people and lash out. Often to prevent this they will pull or saw their k-9 teeth. They will tell you that the monkeys are "trained," but the reality is you can never train a wild animal. The harsh reality is that the monkey has probably been hit so that it listens. Then once it gets too big it will be sold as a pet or possibly just "released" where it will most likely die. The mothers are used as a breeding factory to produce more babies which will repeat the cycle.

 

While this is specifically about St. Kitts this most likely holds true anywhere you go and there are primates you can interact with. So I urge to either go observe them in their natural habitat or visit a good zoo if you want to see them up close.

 

Thank you! I promise I'm now putting my soap box away.

And a "huzzah" from me. (Really, how often do you get to use that word?) Thanks for your review, we will be on the same cruise 5 April!

You can find it, usually, in the binder in your room. It gives you several options that you can request a different pillow: down, synthetic, body, and a couple of others. Your cabin attendant can get one for you.

Susan

One of the things DH and I enjoyed the most in CC class was the fresh squeezed orange juice and grapefruit juice for breakfast. Such a treat.