Celebrity equinox 5/2/11

[JonAlone]

sugar and processed food lifestyle again. You should give it a peek.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/

P.S. Be sure you have signed up the the Cruise Critic gathering. (That goes for everyone else reading this as well) On our last two cruise Celebrity has made the Cruise critic party, complimentary alcohol, fingerfood and send 3 officers) They are finally taking us seriously.

 

 

Is there a FOD Cruise Critic gathering???

[DenvCruiser]

Eight weeks from today three of us should be flying from all part of the country to FLL! We are spending two nights at the Grand before the cruise. Our Canadian friend likes to live life on the edge and is not arriving until Sunday night.

 

I love the Equinox and can't wait to get back onboard.

 

Three of us are Celebrity Elite and the other gets it because he is sharing a cabin with me.

 

I am looking forward to meeting all of you, but especially Jon. Hopefully, the volcano in Iceland will stay dormant this year. Unlike last year on the Ruby Princess.

 

Greg

[JonAlone]

Eight weeks from today three of us should be flying from all part of the country to FLL! We are spending two nights at the Grand before the cruise. Our Canadian friend likes to live life on the edge and is not arriving until Sunday night.

 

I love the Equinox and can't wait to get back onboard.

 

Three of us are Celebrity Elite and the other gets it because he is sharing a cabin with me.

 

I am looking forward to meeting all of you, but especially Jon. Hopefully, the volcano in Iceland will stay dormant this year. Unlike last year on the Ruby Princess.

 

Greg

 

 

If that volcano goes off again I will swim to FL if I have to!!!!!!!!!

 

I wonder if I would get much on Ebay for the RubyFlames t-shirts I bought last year? :confused:

 

Will Celebrity do a FOD Roll Call party ?? If so, how do I sign on? I have joined the CruiseCritic regular meet&greet thing ..

[howndder]

Jonalone, I doubt that celebrity will give us anything much. They will make lounges available as long as they do not displace any other group that wants it. I do know from experience on Celebrity, that most gay folk head to the "Martini Bar", for meeting. They used to announce in their daily letters where the "FOD", would be held, so there is always that. But, most guys like the "Martini Bar". We'll have to wait and see how many show up at the FOD. There is usally at least 50 to 100 at most of the "Trans-Atlantic" sailings I've been on.

Howard

[JonAlone]

Jonalone, I doubt that celebrity will give us anything much. They will make lounges available as long as they do not displace any other group that wants it. I do know from experience on Celebrity, that most gay folk head to the "Martini Bar", for meeting. They used to announce in their daily letters where the "FOD", would be held, so there is always that. But, most guys like the "Martini Bar". We'll have to wait and see how many show up at the FOD. There is usally at least 50 to 100 at most of the "Trans-Atlantic" sailings I've been on.

 

Howard

 

Excellent.. thanks for the info...

 

Now, how do I avoid that first couple of nights on an assigned table of FOD-NOTs ?? I have Select dining, but not having been on Celebrity before I dont know quite how that works...

Do we just turn up at Martini Bar around 7.30, and then make up a table ??

Or can we set up a couple of table for the first night, with the obvious ability to make friends and move around perhaps later??

On Adventure of the Seas I had a couple of dreadful nights with FOD-NOTs and thankfully some of the guys invited me to join them on the third night... From then on it was plain sailing .. But being on the original table I had to listen to stories of how these str8 guys in their 60s were "going to pull chicks" and questions about who I had my eye on... when I told them I thought the waiter was cute, it did shut them up for a bit...:p

[howndder]

Jonalone, you are more than welcome to join our table until you find others, but must warn you we are 2 single gay men in our 60's and my friends mom, who is 92 and we eat on the early side, due to her. I break away whenever I want to and would like to join others as well. Why don't we wait and see how many people you meet from the other board, as I believe that you are becoming quite popular with thhat group. Besides, some of my best friends are straight.

Howard

[JonAlone]

Jonalone, you are more than welcome to join our table until you find others, but must warn you we are 2 single gay men in our 60's and my friends mom, who is 92 and we eat on the early side, due to her. I break away whenever I want to and would like to join others as well. Why don't we wait and see how many people you meet from the other board, as I believe that you are becoming quite popular with thhat group. Besides, some of my best friends are straight.

 

Howard

 

i) Other board??

 

ii) Many thanks for the offer, but as you say, eating early wouldn't be my first choice either... I'd get too hungry later ...:o

Many thanks for the offer though....and I look forward to dining together at some point of the holiday..... and certainly look forward to meeting you all...

 

iii) Many of my closest friends are straight, the problem I had was with the guys I shared a table with at the start of my last cruise.... not straight people in general...:)

[YYZTOOL]

OK JonAlone.

Dave and I posted our picture on the TA Picture board.

http://*******/eS9YVq

 

replace those stars with bit . ly

 

Though we do not think it will be hard to spot us, out and about. We are not ones to hide in the room. I leave for the Equinox tomorrow for a bit of Caribbean R&R.

I have heard Celebrity has changed the hours for the evening social from 4-6 to 5-7.

When we were late seating this would have been better becuase we hated dressing up so early to hit the 4PM bar bell...

 

With so many Elite members on a TA, I wonder how we will all fit in Michael's club. FYI: The role call from Cruise critic now represents about 10% of the ship.

[JonAlone]

I wonder how many gay guys will be on the ship for the TA.. I did notice the Solstice TA has a very active thread.. but the ports of call are nowhere near as interesting as Equinox..

 

Freezing cold here still in London at night, 0 degrees but sunny days reaching the heady peaks of 11 degrees tomorrow...

[cruisingourmet]

It looks like the PDF that is posted has better than a dozen of us.

 

I also noticed the mention of a cruise critic party is that ALL 1000 or so of people who are on this blog, because there are a ton of heteros on their Equinox May 2nd thread?

 

Would it just be those on this thread, roughly a dozen or so people?

[JonAlone]

19 on the thread last year (Adventure of the Seas) equated to 65+ on the ship.... + the quiet ones...

 

 

The 1000 at the cruise critic roll call party thingy will be from all the threads for this sailing... certainly unlikely to be 1000 gay guys on the ship..

[etobicokemark]

Mark and Jim, Paul and Allan.

 

See you all there!:)

Mark

[t_write]

Hi all,

 

Two more forty-something FODs on this cruise! We're from Kingston, ON, staying on Deck 9 and hoping to make our first cruise a memorable experience. We'll be watching for a meet and greet.

 

Cheers!

[howndder]

Well wowie wow, 6 more FOD's. Welcome on board this nicely shaping up transatantic. Celebrity is quite good about posting FOD meetings. I've never had a problem with them over that. My brother and his wife just got back from an 11 day Carribbean cruise and loved the Equinox. They especially liked the main dining room and had "Dining Select" and usually ate at around 7PM without ever having a single wait, My S-I-L mentioned she loved the "Tuscan Grill" but not Silk Harvest. She also enjoyed "Muranos". Since she and my brother go to just about anything, they were very busy. They loved having lots of activities, but she whispered to me that having the sea days were really really nice.

See you all sooner, now,

Howard

[Flying-Dragon]

Welcome on board to our new folks. Here is the FOD list so far - please feel free to let me know of any missing FOD names.

 

Regards ....... Adrian

FOD List - Equinox Transatlantic.PDF

[t_write]

Oopsy, forgot to add that my name is Donald, and hubby's is Terric. Much preferable to going by my member name for the trip!

 

Cheers,

D.

[etobicokemark]

So many....

 

Looking forward to talking to you about your cruise experiences. (Especially those to have cruised the South Pacific)

Most of our gang (4) are in our early 50's and looking forward to retirement. I envy those who have retired already!

Mark

[dingoboy]

Hi James and Jack 40 somethings, from Melbourne Australia.

 

(Jack is actually a tad more exotic considering I stole him from Hawaii which is where he grew up).

 

Very keen to sign up for this cruise.

 

I've got 4 weeks leave already, and we're just waiting on Jack's leave to be approved which could be anytime the next 3 weeks.

 

Hopefully there will still be a cabin left for us!

 

We're only recent converts to cruising. Having done a TA and Transpacific (syd-hawaii) with Royal Caribbean. Which we loved but this ship looks super swish.

 

Any tips on cabin selection or Celebrity would be greatly appreciated.

 

We normally do late dinner, can we change to free style dinner once onboard?

 

Like many here don't want to get stuck with hetros from hell. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Hetros in general, that is. LOL.

 

Any tips re alcohol would be good. I see we can bring on two bottles each at start of the cruise. I guess that doesn't apply to mid cruise ports?

 

very excited and toey. Just want to book and sail away.

[downundermatt]

Welcome James and Jack and G'day....

 

We are Matt and Juan from Sydney (Aussie/Mexican) couple undertaking our third Celebrity Cruise - we are big Celebrity Fans. We are travelling with another couple from Sydney (and possibly all work in the same field as you)

 

Yes you can bring on two bottles on embarkation, and am considering the alchohol packages on board. They seem reasonable.

 

Am busy planning shore excursions - look forward to meeting you both.

 

Matt (and Juan)

 

PS - I stole Juan from Mexico hehehehe

[dingoboy]

Welcome James and Jack and G'day....

 

We are Matt and Juan from Sydney (Aussie/Mexican) couple undertaking our third Celebrity Cruise - we are big Celebrity Fans. We are travelling with another couple from Sydney (and possibly all work in the same field as you)

 

Yes you can bring on two bottles on embarkation, and am considering the alchohol packages on board. They seem reasonable.

 

Am busy planning shore excursions - look forward to meeting you both.

 

Matt (and Juan)

 

PS - I stole Juan from Mexico hehehehe

 

Cool.

 

We're in travel! LOL.

 

The packages alcohol packages do look pretty good.

[cruisingourmet]

Just a few weeks ago the Verandas were going for $999us/pp

now it has swung in the opposite direction to $1350+ for same verandas or even obstructed ones

 

How odd:confused:

[JonAlone]

so who is on Select Dining??

 

Thinking if we set up a couple of tables at least, we can move around a bit too??

 

Just trying to avoid the first day or two on a Celebrity planned table of lovely (i am sure :p) people...

 

Jonathan

 

ps .. nowhere near retiring... you just can't do that and live in London.. our pensions got screwed by some property crash over the pond somewhere...

[dingoboy]

so who is on Select Dining??

 

Thinking if we set up a couple of tables at least, we can move around a bit too??

 

Just trying to avoid the first day or two on a Celebrity planned table of lovely (i am sure :p) people...

 

Jonathan

 

ps .. nowhere near retiring... you just can't do that and live in London.. our pensions got screwed by some property crash over the pond somewhere...

 

Hi Jon, may be interested but we have to have our holidays confirmed first before we can book. That should happen in the next week or two.

 

See you've done lots of cruising on Royal Caribbean. We've done Rhapsody and Navigator, both of which were fantastic. Hence we have lots of questions re Celebrity, but again many can wait until we confirm we can go.

[JonAlone]

Hi Jon, may be interested but we have to have our holidays confirmed first before we can book. That should happen in the next week or two.

 

See you've done lots of cruising on Royal Caribbean. We've done Rhapsody and Navigator, both of which were fantastic. Hence we have lots of questions re Celebrity, but again many can wait until we confirm we can go.

 

Rhapsody is getting old now and so is Navigator.. I find RC is not as good as it was.. too much penny pinching.. I am hoping Celebrity will be better even if not as "fun" a crowd...and perhaps a little older..

[howndder]

Hello to our possible new cruisers. I would like to point out that the 2 bottle rule applies only to "Wine", not alcohol, like Vodka or similiar. There are of course other ways to bring on "liqour", but that is akin to breaking the rules and I for one would never do such a thing, BUT, I never go anywhere without my water bottles;).

Howard