Equinox Dec 9th sailing reports?

[ColleenFL]

has anyone heard of any reports of how this sailing is going, weather, etc... Just curious my daughter (crusinggatorgirl) and son in law are aboard on there honeymoon. :D

[Cruzinram]

We are elite plus members, and so far we have more problems on this sailing than any other in the 27 cruises we have had with Celebrity. Major problem with the priority tendering in Grand Cayman. We had to find the Capts Club rep to get us on board the tender. Bistro on Five did not open until 2:30 on embark day. The lunch buffet was a mad house. We had to eat standing up. Passengers savings seats, and we are seeing more and more passengers sitting in Ocean View cafe during serving hours playing cards and holding tables. DO NOT

take the Canal ride on the ferry through the locks. Our six hour tour turned into 12 hours due to the way the vessels are allowed through the canal. Rained on us for six of the 12 hours. Per the tour guide, the delay through the canal is common. Celebrity needs to drop this excursion. Our Costa Rica tour was canceled and we were not notified. Luckily I noticed the credit on my account and called to confirm. I discovered this after returning from our disastrous canal trip. This has been our worse experience in 19 years of sailing with Celebrity. something is really off on the sailing.

[A Sixth?]

We are elite plus members, and so far we have more problems on this sailing than any other in the 27 cruises we have had with Celebrity. Major problem with the priority tendering in Grand Cayman. We had to find the Capts Club rep to get us on board the tender. Bistro on Five did not open until 2:30 on embark day. The lunch buffet was a mad house. We had to eat standing up. Passengers savings seats, and we are seeing more and more passengers sitting in Ocean View cafe during serving hours playing cards and holding tables. DO NOT

take the Canal ride on the ferry through the locks. Our six hour tour turned into 12 hours due to the way the vessels are allowed through the canal. Rained on us for six of the 12 hours. Per the tour guide, the delay through the canal is common. Celebrity needs to drop this excursion. Our Costa Rica tour was canceled and we were not notified. Luckily I noticed the credit on my account and called to confirm. I discovered this after returning from our disastrous canal trip. This has been our worse experience in 19 years of sailing with Celebrity. something is really off on the sailing.

 

While i sympathize with Cruzinram that no one wants rainy weather on any tour it's a bit beyond Celebrity's control. Bad weather often will make ports inaccessible... again beyond Celebrity's control.

 

And as to the Canal Tour delay, the tour description clearly states just that it too is something that does happen...

 

We have done the Dome train tour (with a now defunct British Line) and it was one of the best tours we ever have done... maybe we were in just the right state of mind... :D

 

Panama Canal Tour CO26

Colón, Panama

 

After a 1-hour narrated drive to Balboa, the ferry will travel through the Miraflores Locks, along Miraflores Lake, through the Pedro Miguel Locks and through the Gaylard Cut. Your canal experience concludes at the pier in Gamboa for a 1 hour bus ride back to the ship. Lunch buffet included. Special note: Tour duration may vary as unexpected delays in crossing the canal may occur, based on advise by local canal authorities that is beyond our control.

Edited December 15, 2013 by A Sixth?

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Bistro on 5 is usually open earlier than 2:30. I wonder if the delay was due to Equinox just returning to the states. We'll know in 2 weeks + 1 day.

 

Mary Lou

[Cruzinram]

Idon't think our state mind affected the trip. It was a three hour wait in one of the chambers and heavy, and I mean heavy rain for six hours coming down on us. I do not blame Celebrity for either of these events, however, we were told by the tour guide that the delay is a common event. With that in mind, Celebrity might want to reconsider not offering this excursion, as this situation is a common occurence. I was not sorry that we had a chance to see the locks and we made the best out of bad situation.The Equinox was delayed two hours waiting for us to return. This evented added to a poor tender process in Grand Cayman, and our excursion in Puerto Limon being cancled and the excursion office not notifying us, has added to an overall bad expeerience eon this sailing. State room attendants, MDR food, buffet food and service in these areas has been more than excellent. This sailing is just a little off.

[eesenior]

Idon't think our state mind affected the trip. It was a three hour wait in one of the chambers and heavy, and I mean heavy rain for six hours coming down on us. I do not blame Celebrity for either of these events, however, we were told by the tour guide that the delay is a common event. With that in mind, Celebrity might want to reconsider not offering this excursion, as this situation is a common occurence. I was not sorry that we had a chance to see the locks and we made the best out of bad situation.The Equinox was delayed two hours waiting for us to return. This evented added to a poor tender process in Grand Cayman, and our excursion in Puerto Limon being cancled and the excursion office not notifying us, has added to an overall bad expeerience eon this sailing. State room attendants, MDR food, buffet food and service in these areas has been more than excellent. This sailing is just a little off.

Thanks for your honest comments. We will be on Equinox on March 14th and hope that Bistro on 5 is open for lunch earlier, as we like to relax and have a nice lunch on our first day!

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Idon't think our state mind affected the trip. It was a three hour wait in one of the chambers and heavy, and I mean heavy rain for six hours coming down on us. I do not blame Celebrity for either of these events, however, we were told by the tour guide that the delay is a common event. With that in mind, Celebrity might want to reconsider not offering this excursion, as this situation is a common occurence. I was not sorry that we had a chance to see the locks and we made the best out of bad situation.The Equinox was delayed two hours waiting for us to return. This evented added to a poor tender process in Grand Cayman, and our excursion in Puerto Limon being cancled and the excursion office not notifying us, has added to an overall bad expeerience eon this sailing. State room attendants, MDR food, buffet food and service in these areas has been more than excellent. This sailing is just a little off.

 

Glad to hear that the staff and food has been more than excellent.

2 question,

Who are some of the staff on board?

 

What excursion was cancelled?

Mary Lou

[DebbieMacG]

Sorry you aren't having a good cruise Cruzinram we got off the Equinox on 25th November and had had a fantastic time :)

 

I must say though we didn't enjoy Bistro as much as usual and although it was open for lunch on embarkation day there was another day when it didn't open until 2.30pm which seemed very odd as its usually open on breakfast right throughout the day.

 

 

OP I'm sure your daughter and son in law will be having a great honeymoon :)

Edited December 16, 2013 by DebbieMacG

[ken_ll]

Sorry you aren't having a good cruise Cruzinram we got off the Equinox on 25th November and had had a fantastic time :)

 

Have to second this, we got off on Dec 9 from the TA, staff, entertainment, food and the drink package from the 1, 2, 3 promo were great and without concerns.

[Archer0749]

That we will! Can't wait.

 

Bistro on 5 is usually open earlier than 2:30. I wonder if the delay was due to Equinox just returning to the states. We'll know in 2 weeks + 1 day.

 

Mary Lou

[celebrity]

So sorry to hear this. We sailed on her in the Med in Sept and fell in love with everything about the ship. We are booked again in April and looking forward to it.

Edited December 16, 2013 by celebrity

[lovemylab]

Idon't think our state mind affected the trip. It was a three hour wait in one of the chambers and heavy, and I mean heavy rain for six hours coming down on us. I do not blame Celebrity for either of these events, however, we were told by the tour guide that the delay is a common event. With that in mind, Celebrity might want to reconsider not offering this excursion, as this situation is a common occurence. I was not sorry that we had a chance to see the locks and we made the best out of bad situation.The Equinox was delayed two hours waiting for us to return. This evented added to a poor tender process in Grand Cayman, and our excursion in Puerto Limon being cancled and the excursion office not notifying us, has added to an overall bad expeerience eon this sailing. State room attendants, MDR food, buffet food and service in these areas has been more than excellent. This sailing is just a little off.

 

I was on the same sailing as you and disagree. While the Canal Excursion was delayed, if Celebrity was to drop this as an excursion I would have booked a different cruise. Like a lot of people, we booked this cruise for the Panama Canal. Yes, the delay sucked. Yes, the rain sucked. But to suggest they should drop this excursion is foolish. The ship is prepared for how to handle the potential delay.

 

As for Grand Cayman, we had zero problems with the tender process.

 

The only issues I had on this sailing were with other passengers. There was a lot of people onboard with a sense of entitlement (thinking they could push to the front of a line without waiting, being rude to the staff, complaining about everything, etc.). My personal favorite was the older passengers this morning that were mooing like cattle as they were leaving the ship (they didn't like that the ship wasn't yet cleared and therefore they couldn't leave at 7:15am like their walk off time stated). I then saw another older lady have a temper tantrum because the line next to her was moving more quickly through homeland security.

 

Overall, this was an enjoyable cruise. The weather wasn't the best but 11 days on a ship beats work, cooking and cleaning!

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Overall, this was an enjoyable cruise. The weather wasn't the best but 11 days on a ship beats work, cooking and cleaning!

 

So agree & are looking forward to boarding on the 30th.

 

Mary Lou

[CruisingGatorGirl]

I agree this sailing had kind of a rocky start. We also went straight to bistro on 5 and had to wait for it to open.

 

To the person who asked what excursions were canceled- A LOT! In Belize I think there were only 4 we could choose from after ours was canceled. We ended up REALLY liking our back up excursions.

 

The rains caused a lot of road and bridge closings.

 

We did find lots of line cutting in the buffet that was rather annoying. Tyler says his only complaint was the buffet rudeness. Patience pays :)

 

Also the meet and mingle was at an off time- 9:30am? We didn't get to meet as many CC people as we hoped :( but we did meet some awesome people!

 

Overall we had a great time- it just had a slow start. I will post a very detailed review later.

 

Like our last cruise, a highlight was the hot glass show and the staff! Any day on X will always be a good day! I just enjoy the break from technology and dishes :)

 

We are still in the car driving home.

 

We met a lot of great people! I hope to a see some of them joining cc :) or coming out of lurking ;) hi Rob and Bob!

 

Ashley and Tyler

Edited December 21, 2013 by CruisingGatorGirl

[youwash]

Would really like to hear about your excursions. We are still looking at them (for peace of mind we like to take ship excursions) hard to decide what to do especially in Belize and Costa Rica.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

You wash,

 

I'm on my phone in the car, tomorrow once I get the laptop up ill post all the excursions :)

 

We used Celebrity for Belize and I'm glad we did because we also were late and they had to save a tender for us. The flooding caused bridges to close so we had to use alternate routes. We also had a late start- because of the cancellations the excursion desk was chaos. They only had 1 person working the desk at 9am when most were to leave at 10am. Our excursions didn't leave until 11:15 I think so we were already an hour behind in Belize.

 

The rains really caused some chaos and scrambling. It poured and poured a lot. I'll post more details tomorrow :)

[Christine Frances]

Ashley and Tyler!

Congratulations on your wedding and I hope the honeymoon was wonderful. I followed along for your engagement and so happy you are both doing well. We went to Paris this June and I had so much wonderful help from your "live from" thread that helped us plan our days.

Have a wonderful life together!

Best wishes

Christine

[Bellfree Bat]

We are also just back from this sailing. We also had a rocky start but none due to Celebrity. Our Sunday flight was cancelled by the weather in DC and alternative flights that were offered got us to port in time but with no luggage. We opted to fly to Cayman and meet up with the ship there. We tendered to the ship all of our luggage with the help of another passenger and tender staff, embarked and got our sea passes and started our cruise. The documentation officer was so nice and made the process seemless.

 

The ship, staff and the majority of the passengers were great. There are always an few people that complain more, and act poorly and thankful that they are in the minority.

 

We cannot comment on the excursions as we booked independent tours, a couple not so great ones this trip...

 

All in all, it was a great cruise in spite of the weather!

Edited December 21, 2013 by Bellfree Bat

[Bobby Dee]

Linda and I were also on this sailing and we had a great time. Sure the weather was lousy at least until the last few days, but who ever said that anyone could control that?

 

I didn't go ashore in Grand Cayman but tendering in Belize was also reported as being slow. That is something that I've heard at EVERY tendered port on EVERY cruise. No, I'm not going to ask that tendered ports be eliminated.

 

Our hearts went out to those of you who were on that excursion. Delays are common, and there was one time when the Coral Princess was stuck in the canal caused by a problem with a freighter in front of her. This is an experience and a story that those who were stuck in the canal will retell over and over. And there is a bright side, this was an official Celebrity excursion and the ship waited for the passengers. I was on a ship doing the Greek isles where the Captain bragged about leaving passengers behind at one port.

 

Yes, I also went to Bistro on 5 upon boarding, and I was told that it wasn't going to be open for lunch at all. Yes, it was because of the inspections and immigration procedures having come back from Europe. We had a good friend who was on the TA and we got a call from them that they were still on the ship at 10 minutes to 11:00. Boarding was delayed but we'd been warned, so no problem.

 

Who was on board? Damien was the Cruise Director, and Daniel was his assistant. Bruce was the Captain's Club host. We are elite and found no differences from previous cruises in regards to our benefits. We only went to one evening function, since we had the premium package. One disappointment was no coffee or doughnuts at the elite lounge for disembarkation. The excuse used was a refusal by US health department to allow food out in the open. I personally found that to be a lame excuse that was hard to believe, but at that point, I didn't need more food.

 

We had a great cruise. The food in Blu was great, much better than our most recent Blu experience. I had poached salmon twice for lunch at the Aqua Spa Cafe, but it's not available every day. Maybe because of the lack of sun, maybe because of the pool butlers, but we were able to find chairs in the solarium. The music at the Martini bar was still too loud at times, but the bar was always crowded, so apparently it wasn't bothering everyone. The entertainment was average, or perhaps it's just that we've seen very similar type entertainment on other cruises. I missed it, but DW told me about a great bit by the comedian, changing the words to Santa Claus is coming to town for our more kosher friends. The casino did not raise the table limits at night, most tables were $5. They had a couple of Black Jack tournaments ($25), and regularly scheduled sit and go hold 'em tournaments ($60). The staff was very friendly, and I contributed to their bottom line for certain. There was a "first day" 2 for 1 special for the specialty restaurants for Aqua Class passengers, but you had to ask for it. For everyone else it was 20% off if booked on the first day. We went to Murano twice on the trip and enjoyed it without question. We also had lunch twice at Bistro, and were very happy with the food and service.

 

I think you can have as good a time as you want to. No one ever likes disembarkation and the lines for customs and immigration. We were off the ship about half an hour later than they said, and through customs about an hour after that. There seemed to be about ten agents processing us. Finding the luggage was pretty easy.

 

I hope all this helps.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Bobby Dee

[CruiserRoyalHighlands]

We just returned from the Dec 9th sailing of Equinox. We were really disappointed the music in the Ensemble Lounge didn't start until 8:00. We missed having music before dinner. The last 2 trips on Eclipse the music started at 5 or 5:30 and it was nice to have a drink there before dinner. They also had a fantastic string quartet called Belle Canto I think is the name. The music in the lounge was only OK this trip.

 

Joel

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Ashley and Tyler!

Congratulations on your wedding and I hope the honeymoon was wonderful. I followed along for your engagement and so happy you are both doing well. We went to Paris this June and I had so much wonderful help from your "live from" thread that helped us plan our days.

Have a wonderful life together!

Best wishes

Christine

 

Thank you so much! I hope you had a great time in Paris! I am going to do another report from this trip :)

[youwash]

We are also just back from this sailing. We also had a rocky start but none due to Celebrity. Our Sunday flight was cancelled by the weather in DC and alternative flights that were offered got us to port in time but with no luggage. We opted to fly to Cayman and meet up with the ship there. We tendered to the ship all of our luggage with the help of another passenger and tender staff, embarked and got our sea passes and started our cruise. The documentation officer was so nice and made the process seemless.

 

The ship, staff and the majority of the passengers were great. There are always an few people that complain more, and act poorly and thankful that they are in the minority.

 

We cannot comment on the excursions as we booked independent tours, a couple not so great ones this trip...

 

All in all, it was a great cruise in spite of the weather!

Glad to hear that all went well after your original flight problems. I was certainly waiting to hear that all went well for you. Especially since you were joining the ship at Grand Cayman-a tender port.