bessinfl

Thanks so much to all of you on the Equinox who shared your experiences. My sister and I were due to sail on Jan. 9, but we decided yesterday (once I read your thread) to cancel. I hate to do that but think it’s the wisest decision. I hope all of you are able to kick this thing quickly and that your loved ones stay healthy. I can’t wait to board the Equinox when all of this is in the past. 

6 hours ago, EatonDoolittle said:

FYI: On Celebrity Equinox now (29 Nov, 2021).

Shore Ex manager just told us we are the first Celebrity ship to stop here of the season. 
Not “free form” , cannot wander on your own, but will report back next week on  gov’t approved availability. 

Please do report back if you can. We’ll be there on the Equinox in January. 

Thanks from me, too,, for posting the photo of the Botero sculpture in the Solarium. My sister and I were on that ship years ago and loved that sculpture. Then, on a later cruise, we went to Cartagena and saw Boteros all over the place. They’re so great. 
 

Your blog is making me wonder if I can wait until January, when we board the Equinox.  I want to be in Cafe al Bacio RIGHT NOW. 

Wow. So there’s no knowing what they’ll do. 

I’ve never been to Roatan either. I live in Florida, so, while I like Key West, I don’t have to go there on a cruise. 

Thanks. I could do without Nassau ( but we’re happy to stay on the ship and enjoy a deserted solarium). I guess I should look into Costa Maya. Never been there.  

I know that ships aren’t calling at Key West right now and may not in the foreseeable future. Does anyone know where Celebrity is going instead? I’m looking at an Equinox sailing for May 2022, which also goes to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. It’s just a six-day, so it seems the likely other port to replace Key West would be Nassau. Are there any other obvious choices?

And I’m following because we’ll be on the Equinox in January. It’s hard to believe the date is finally getting near.  Have a wonderful trip!

I think you can take a public bus to Bathsheba. Does anyone know if that’s the case?

I’m so sorry. I was about to write you and comment on your beautiful cat. (We have two similar black-and-white tuxedo cats.) It’s really hard to lose your animal friends. 

Yes, we always get select dining and almost always wind up at the same table with the same waitstaff every night. You can actually make a reservation for select dining before your cruise begins (or while you’re on it). We ask for the same time every night. If we decide to eat elsewhere, we just cancel it. 

Yes, Miched is right. We have select dining for our upcoming Equinox cruise, and I just made 6:45 p.m. reservations for every night of the cruise by going to Cruise Planner and then to specialty dining.  If we decide not to go on any given night, we just tell the maitre d’ earlier in the afternoon. 

One. Ore question: if we don’t use the OBC that we get from our travel agent, is it refunded to us at the end of the cruise?

Thanks for your help. 

Thanks, Jim_Iain. So if we want to reserve a specialty restaurant before the cruise, we have to go ahead and pay for it? 
 

By the way, I’ve enjoyed your life cruise accounts. 

Forgive me for asking what may be an obvious question. We only sail every couple of years and so don’t know everything.
 

We have some OBC from our online travel agent. It hasn't shown up yet attached to our reservation, but our cruise isn’t for three more months. Is there any way we can use it before we sail to purchase excursions or to reserve in the specialty restaurants?

Thanks for all your good advice over the years. 

We recently stayed at the Hampton Inn Coconut Grove the night before our cruise and took an Uber (less than $20) to and from the pier. (They have a shuttle but it went too late in the morning for us.) We had a 7-day park-and-cruise package, but the hotel let us leave our car for 11 days without charging us extra. It worked out well.

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We have enjoyed listening to the bands and solo players in the various lounges at night. (We just got off the Equinox last week.) There were a couple of bands we liked a lot, who played (blues, Motown, old rock) mostly in the Grand Foyer. A lot of people danced to them; we saw the same people most nights. We also saw a couple of solo or duo acts who were fairly entertaining. Most of them play until 10 or so in the lounges and then play either in the Sky Lounge or on the Pool Deck.

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I’ve never been to Antigua, but your photos make me feel as if I have (and your writing is equally beautiful). Thank you!

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My sisters and I took a terrific tour in 2016 with a group called Friends for Colombia, a nonprofit whose goal is to introduce visitors to the good works they can help with in Cartagena. We toured a poor part of town, where the foundation is working, visited a day-care center and a senior center and called at a house where the owner has learned to support his family by raising vegetables for high-end restaurants. The foundation seems to do great work, and we were very pleased to see a side of the city most tourists never glimpse. Clearly not all cruise passengers would enjoy such a thing, but the three of us learned a huge amount and found it really rewarding. Here’s the TripAdvisor site:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297476-d5505083-Reviews-Friends_For_Colombia_Tours-Cartagena_Cartagena_District_Bolivar_Department.html

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When we first booked our May 2018 cruise, a year ago, we requested Select and were assigned to late dining. It showed up that way online for months, even though our travel agent assured us it was a mistake. Eventually she got it changed. I suspect it was all a website error because I couldn’t imagine that Select would be filled up more than a year before the sail date. In any case, we’re good. If you have a TA, I’d recommend you put him or her on it. Otherwise, I’d plead health issues — and keep at it. Good luck!

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Are you on the southern Caribbean itinerary? If so, I’d love to hear about that because we go May 4. I’d also love to know the names (and maybe a little description) of the shows and lounge acts on the Equinox. Thanks for taking your valuable cruise time to fill us in.

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In Florida, spring break is much earlier. Many of the colleges here took the second week in March.

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Cats, the musical, would be enough to keep me off a cruise line. Cats, the cats, would have me on there in a heartbeat.

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I’m always amused when I see that people think there’s nothing for teens to do on Celebrity. Not all teenagers want rock-climbing walls and water slides. When I was that age, I jut wanted to read and spend time by the pool. That’s pretty much what we do now!

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