soccercrazy

Only 1 line. I have experienced 2 lines on RCL Serenade 2020 but not here on the Equinox.

Most we have waited is 5 mins this week 

Currently on the Equinox.

Over the last 9 nights I have seen may being give a beeper and told to go the Martini Bar. Waits of up to 30 minutes around 7pm. Couldn't give us a sharing table as they had too many large groups so have have had a table for 2 with minimal wait. However I booked all my dining for 7pm months in advance. 

From what I have heard those who were planning to eat at the Buffett discovered there is very little choice and had to come to the MDR.

Strongly suggest booing before the cruise to avoid wait times.

Thanks that gives me ore room in the suitcase 🙂

Sailing mid January and this will be our first cruise with Celebrity. We have sailed RC and enjoy the 70s and silent disco parties. Are there any on Equinox?

70s/80s nights, silent disco, white nights?? I want to go prepared 🙂 

Sailing mid January and our first for Celebrity. We have sailed RC and enjoy the theme parties. Are there any on Equinox?

70s/80s nights, silent disco, white nights?? What to go prepared 🙂

Thanks for the quick responses 🙂

I will leave my bottles at home and have more weight allowance for items I have bought on my trip.

Sailing on Silhouette balcony cabin and wondering if I need to pack shampoo/conditioner and body wash?  We are flying and if I can eliminate the extra weight that would be fantastic.  If they are provided are they individual bottles or a dispenser?

Sailed on SOS a few weeks ago. Serenade was our first cruise and then we cruised Freedom and Adventure and decided to go back to Serenade because of the ports of call. We are a couple in our late 40s and found that the age of the cruiser on the Serenade was much older (65+) and many told us that was because it was a smaller ship (can't get lost). We Loved the ports of call, enjoyed the ship and met great people. We found the food on some nights to be better in the Windjammer than the MDR. Food is one of those very subjective things so take my comments with a grain of salt :) Found that MDR average time for dining was 1.5 hours doing the My Time Dining at 7pm.

We found that the shows, music, trivia catered to an older group of cruisers. As many have mentioned the shopping area was very cramped as they had tables set up outside of each store and in the middle of the walkway. Centrium very crowded, not many seats and most were camped there for the evening, which is a positive that the entertainment was geared to the age of the cruiser (unfortunately just not our age).

The 70s night was a lot of fun in the Centrium but needed to get there early to get a seat or piece of the railing to be able to see. We did smell the smoke from the casino when in the Centrium area for the 70s nights.

The casino and theatre is much smaller than the Freedom and Adventure - if that's somewhere you might visit :)

No Coke machines which we knew ahead of time and found that we missed them :(

Don't get me wrong we had a wonderful cruise but we did notice how much smaller the ship was compared to the others. We would sail SOS again for the ports but would choose Adventure or Freedom for the ships.

Try Westjet out of Toronto. Buffalo for us is not an option in the winter, if there is snow delays in Toronto you are pretty much guaranteed there will be snow in Buffalo. I have done the same day flight and flight was delayed due to weather in Toronto, then luggage delay at the airport upon arrival, got on board 20 minutes before all-aboard. Trust me when I say that the entire trip down and to the ship was stressful to say the least. We have never flown same day since even if it means a higher flight cost because the cost would be significantly higher if we had to catch the ship in a different port.

When trying to plan March Break or Christmas or avoid those times i always find going on the School Board website for there up coming year calendar an excellent resource.

Sailed a few weeks ago. Most 7 & 9 pm however a few nights 9 & 10:25 pm. The first and last night was one show only at 7:45 pm.

Just got off the ship 2 days ago. We did self checkout and found that it was indeed a long walk for the ship to the terminal. We waited 10 minutes for an elevator leaving our room at 7:20 am so i would suggest as others have that you arrive in your designated meeting place plenty early so you can be one of the first ones off.

We noticed from our balcony that people were already leaving the ship at 7:15am as we were in port early and cleared early. They have gone to a "quiet" disembarkation so there are no ship wide announcements anymore.

There were plenty of taxis waiting but indeed plenty of traffic back to the hotel and even got stuck waiting (10mins) for a train to pass. Leave yourself plenty of extra time and you will be fine.

Being from the DC area, rush hour doesn't scare me! :-)

 

May have to explore that route. I still haven't quite figured out all the border crossings. We have nexus, and I know there's a crossing just for us (in niagara), but there's something about adding toll money to our card that has just scared me away.

There is a Nexus lane at the crossing in Ganaoque (also referred to as Thousand Island/Hill Island).

If you are referring to the 407 toll since it is electronic and they take a photo of your license plate, you may or may not get a bill for the toll. It all depends if the 407 has an agreement with the state which your plate is from. I can say that friends from PA use the 407 when coming here and have yet to receive a bill, just saying :)

The 407 is probably similar to the DC toll in that the rates change depending on day and time and a transponder for the 407 is not mandatory, they just charge an extra fee if you don't have one.

More power to those of you that make that drive! DD lives 2 hours west of Toronto and in 2015 we did a sailing out of Ft Lauderdale. I had her fly to me (DC suburbs) and then we hit the road. We've done the 13 hour drive from DC to Port Canaveral MANY times, but this is only the second time we drove all the way to South Florida. We actually stopped for the night in PC and watched the ships leaving port. Took ALL day to drive down the coast taking the beach road. So much longer, but beautiful (especially in a convertible). Don't think we will make that drive again. Might take the train. Don't like flying because I like the freedom of a flexible schedule, and no baggage limits other than what my poor beetle will hold.

 

My question - going east from Toronto, as opposed to heading west/south down the QEW and through Niagara/Buffalo... how much time did it save you? I'm in the Toronto area a fair amount and have never explored the option of going the other way...

Well lets just say there isn't a rush hour(s) :)

Easy drive 3 lanes from Oshawa to Cobourg, 2 lanes from there to Gananoque crossing. There are trucks of course but nothing like 401/QEW and really no slow down. There had been some 401 construction through Kingston this past summer but again nothing like TO.

Enroute in Trenton, and again just before Kingston with plenty of McDons/Tims off the 401. For us even if it means a slightly longer trip so much easier than 401/QEW we do use the 407 to QEW if crossing at Fort Erie.

Crossing is easy and never too busy and you are straight onto I81.

I81 is a great drive through NY and once into PA it gets hilly but not WV hilly.

407 now comes out to east to Oshawa so depending on where you are in TO can even eliminate 401 east through TO. Take 407 to 412 which now links to 401 and straight through from there.

We did the ship excursion Best of Aruba AR71. Love every moment and was well worth it.

We always book ship excursions no worries about ship leaving and can pay in Canadian dollars before we leave.

We live east of Toronto in Durham Region and are frequent visitors to Myrtle Beach SC and Gettysburg PA so have done both routes dozens of times however won't drive them in late Nov/Dec/Jan or Feb and even March break can be ify. We tend to leave at 2am to start the drive having had a 3-4hrs sleep first.

We sail on Jan 23 out of FLL and are flying. Air Canada on a pretty big seat sale is still costing $820 for 2 adults, plus hotel near Pearson night before flying which includes parking for 14 days and then a hotel in FLL night before we sail.

Flying out of Buffalo same issues with snow and terrible exchange rate. Flying from Canada to cruise ports is expensive however depending on time of year and time off work dictates how we Canadians get to the sunny destinations in the cold snowy winter.:)

Its been a number of years since i have been on the Serenade.

Does the ship have the Coke machines like the Freedom does or is it simply soda guns at the bar?

Thanks everyone for the info. I will head to the casino cashier :D

I have just purchased some OBC's for an upcoming cruise and I wanted to confirm how to go about cashing them out on board. Do you just go to the Cashier at the Casino and ask for the cash?

 

Thanks

Jai

I also have the same question. I am cruising in June and want to maximize the $1.07 exchange rate from my booking back in Jan 2015.:D

Thanks for all the info.

We have OBC not limited to shore excursions so we plan to use it towards purchases on the ship rather than shore excursions now we have found out sooo much cheaper to arrange before hand.

After further investigation it seems much better to book through the crusie line now in Canadian Dollars since I booked over a year ago the rate is much better than the current on board rate or paying cash in port for a private tour.

Thanks for the help.

Hi

I haven't sailed with NCL for many years. I am planning to book my excursions through NCL and cannot remember if those excursions are added to On Board Credit or are they paid for up front before sailing?

RCL charges credit card as soon as they are booked as opposed to putting them on the OBC account.

Thanks

RCCL will be releasing more Europe Spring/Summer 2016 itineraries next week (26th I believe). We typically cruise with Royal but the 12 Med itinerary is exactly what we were looking for so we went ahead and booked the Spirit about 2 months ago and have been waiting to see what Royal itineraries would be for May/June 2016.

Princess also did the exact same itinerary as the Spirit however they have discontinued it for 2016. Prices do seem high but didn't want to wait as we will be celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

I plan on taking Euros with me(cash) to use while in port. I know most Canadian banks now have Euro bank accounts. This might be an idea so that you can withdraw from an ATM in port directly from your Euro account. Check with your Canadian bank to see if they offer this.

I know Scotiabank offers a Euro bank account :D

I recently booked NCL 12 night Med cruise for May 2016. It is the identical itinerary to the Princess Grand Med which appears to be discontinued for 2016.

Although I am a RCCL cruiser this itinerary is exactly what we were looking for so have decided that although the NCL ship is older that it is simply a vehicle of transportation for us as there are only 2 sea days and it really is about the ports. I had hope Princess would continue this itinerary then we had an option.

Check out NCL if the Grand Med was the itnerary you wanted they do have some really good deals and lots of extra - OBC, Drinks packages, specialty restaurants, included gratuities.

Sailed last month(Feb 2015) on Adventure. We arrived at 10:50 am by taxi. We dropped our luggage and went straight into the terminal and there was no line-up for Gold Members :) however there was a short line for higher level C&A members. We did our paperwork and got our sea passes in 5 mins. We were then directed to sit in the waiting/holding area and the doors opened at 11:30 for embarkation.

We saw lots of people arriving at the same time we arrived and dropping their luggage off and hoping back into a taxi. I assume to tour San Juan for the day and would board later but didn't have to worry about their luggage as they had already dropped it off.

We also received an email stating our embarkation time was 3pm. I had read that they do not enforce embarkation times in North America so we decided to do as most people were suggesting and ignore the embarkation time.