Help! 1st time Celebrity Equinox long time Royal cruisers

[denamo]

Background: We are long time Royal cruisers who have wanted to try Celebrity and the right ship and itinerary presented itself. Now we have some questions.

 

1. Our Royal loyalty level will reciprocate, so we are boarding being Elite in the Captain's Club. Is there an evening lounge that offers complimentary before dinner drinks like on Royal ships?

2. Royal has begun to load up Sea Passes of specific loyalty club levels with three evening complimentary drinks available at most bars on board. Is Celebrity following this practice?

3. What time are cabins available upon boarding?

4. What specialty restaurants should we not miss?

5. Recommend booking excursions prior to cruise or once on board will be fine?

 

 

Our cruise isn't until November 2015, so we have time to research and anticipate a new cruising experience! :)

Thank you to all who will provide answers. So appreciated.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Background: We are long time Royal cruisers who have wanted to try Celebrity and the right ship and itinerary presented itself. Now we have some questions.

 

1. Our Royal loyalty level will reciprocate, so we are boarding being Elite in the Captain's Club. Is there an evening lounge that offers complimentary before dinner drinks like on Royal ships?

2. Royal has begun to load up Sea Passes of specific loyalty club levels with three evening complimentary drinks available at most bars on board. Is Celebrity following this practice?

3. What time are cabins available upon boarding?

4. What specialty restaurants should we not miss?

5. Recommend booking excursions prior to cruise or once on board will be fine?

 

 

Our cruise isn't until November 2015, so we have time to research and anticipate a new cruising experience! :)

Thank you to all who will provide answers. So appreciated.

 

1. Yes.

2. No.

3. Generally 1:00-1:30 p.m.

4. They're OK, but not worth $100 upcharge.

5. I rarely book Celebrity excursions. You should be fine waiting to book on board unless the excursion is extremely popular.

 

[wwcruisers]

On X, they are transitioning from a dedicated "Elite Lounge" to a voucher system. It sounds similar to what RC is doing, but you have to keep up with paper vouchers, instead of having the complimentary drinks pre-loaded on your SeaPass card.

[ClaudiaB]

We love Equinox and I hope y'all do as well.

 

We're also Elite (soon to be elite plus!) and the evening cocktails are available with vouchers that are given to your room. They are dated and have to be used that day only between the hours of 5:00 and 7:00 or whatever is designated on them. They're useable at most bars and lounges and if you go to the Sky Lounge (which I recommend because it's a beautiful place to up in the front of the ship) not only will you have the drinks but you will have passed around hors d'oeuvres. On our last two cruises the little bites have gotten better than in past cruises. The ship's staff is often up there circulating and we've had some very enjoyable conversations with them. Not just superficial stuff, but actual sit down and get-to-know-you stuff.

 

We always eat at the specialty restaurants on board, every single one, because we just feel it's part of the whole cruise experience for us.

 

Upon embarkation we go straight to Bistro on Five which is a crepe/salad/sandwich type place and for $7 pp you can avoid the madhouse at the buffet and relax and get waited on as you wait for your cabin to open. It's becoming a tradition for lots of people. We usually get there about 11:30.

 

Tuscan Grill is our favorite specialty. It's at the very aft of the ship and has the best staff. We eat there the first night. Another tradition. Typically we have gotten a group of about 8 right here on our Cruise Critic roll call and started the cruise off meeting new friends over dinner. The best filet on the ship is there, the best breads, and some wonderful sides and salads, and desserts. We love it. Best caesar salad and onion soup, and panna cotta dessert. Mmm.

Murano is the fancy French type restaurant and is excellent. One can overeat on very rich food here and sometimes the service is too slow and a bit over the top, but it's a lovely place to eat.

We also like Silk Harvest. The small plates are better than the main dishes, but the staff is very good and it's also a fun place to go with a group and share entrees.

 

I hope you have a great cruise. We'll be on a sister ship in November and we'll be trying for the first time the suite restaurant. But we'll still likely eat in the specialties as well.

[Iluvcruising2]

Background: We are long time Royal cruisers who have wanted to try Celebrity and the right ship and itinerary presented itself. Now we have some questions.

 

1. Our Royal loyalty level will reciprocate, so we are boarding being Elite in the Captain's Club. Is there an evening lounge that offers complimentary before dinner drinks like on Royal ships?

 

Like you, we were avid Royal cruisers but tried Celebrity Silhouette once back in Dec 13.

 

As Royal Diamonds, we were given reciprocal benefits as Celebrity Elite. This was very nice. I blogged more on the Elite cocktail hour and morning coffee on the Silhouette here -

http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2013/12/celebrity-silhouette-elite-social.html

 

I can't comment on the Equinox but the Silhouette was a beautiful ship.

 

The Oceanview cafe buffet dinner was really good! See the video I made.

[YOUTUBE]Ceq2U8CtNPk[/YOUTUBE]

[motherchic]

For some years we only sailed Celebrity but the last 6 years or so we have sailed Royal. We are sailing on the Equinox this week. Very much looking forward to it.

I know we are looking forward to "reuniting with an old friend"

I hope you enjoy her as well

[denamo]

Thank you so much Happy Cruiser6143, WWCruisers, ClaudiaB, Iluvcruising2, and Motherchic for sharing all of your experiences and knowledge.

 

Happy Cruiser6143, we too rarely do ship excursions any more as well. The ports we're going to are new for us, so I have some research to do.

 

I will definitely need to go on a pre-cruise diet after looking at all of the variety of foods in your video, Iluvcruising2. ;) Thanks for the video link.

 

ClaudiaB thanks for the detailed information on the specialty restaurants. Still supporting my pre-cruise weight loss efforts. :)

 

Motherchic, I hope you have a great time on your upcoming Equinox cruise.

 

Having cruised exclusively on Royal, we are looking forward to the Equinox and all that Celebrity has to offer.

[wwcruisers]

Thank you so much Happy Cruiser6143, WWCruisers, ClaudiaB, Iluvcruising2, and Motherchic for sharing all of your experiences and knowledge.

 

Happy Cruiser6143, we too rarely do ship excursions any more as well. The ports we're going to are new for us, so I have some research to do.

 

I will definitely need to go on a pre-cruise diet after looking at all of the variety of foods in your video, Iluvcruising2. ;) Thanks for the video link.

 

ClaudiaB thanks for the detailed information on the specialty restaurants. Still supporting my pre-cruise weight loss efforts. :)

 

Motherchic, I hope you have a great time on your upcoming Equinox cruise.

 

Having cruised exclusively on Royal, we are looking forward to the Equinox and all that Celebrity has to offer.

 

Have a great cruise! We're former exclusive RC'er's who decided to try X (Solstice) five years ago -- the rest is history! ;)

Hope you like X as much as we do. :cool:

[denamo]

Have a great cruise! We're former exclusive RC'er's who decided to try X (Solstice) five years ago -- the rest is history! ;)

Hope you like X as much as we do. :cool:

 

So good to hear. And thanks for the voucher info. Really hoping X will follow RCCL model and put the vouchers on the SeaPass. It really is convenient.

[Cindy]

Background: We are long time Royal cruisers who have wanted to try Celebrity and the right ship and itinerary presented itself. Now we have some questions.

 

1. Our Royal loyalty level will reciprocate, so we are boarding being Elite in the Captain's Club. Is there an evening lounge that offers complimentary before dinner drinks like on Royal ships?

2. Royal has begun to load up Sea Passes of specific loyalty club levels with three evening complimentary drinks available at most bars on board. Is Celebrity following this practice?

3. What time are cabins available upon boarding?

4. What specialty restaurants should we not miss?

5. Recommend booking excursions prior to cruise or once on board will be fine?

 

 

Our cruise isn't until November 2015, so we have time to research and anticipate a new cruising experience! :)

Thank you to all who will provide answers. So appreciated.

 

Most of your questions have already been answered, but I'll chime in with a few thoughts.

 

*There are a couple Elite Perks that you will appreciate because they're not part of the package on RCI...one is the complimentary internet minutes (I believe on our Celebrity cruise it was 90 minutes per person), and the complimentary laundry.

*We found we never touched the drink coupons, since we had beverage packages.

*Don't miss the "Connections" party -- I thought it was much nicer than the M&M.

*We were on a smaller ship (Constellation), and ate at Ocean Liners, Tuscan Grill, and Bistro on 5...all were wonderful.

*For our next Celebrity, I already booked an excursion, because it's an experience that's very important to us (Ferry trip through the Panama Canal). Other than that, we probably won't do many/any cruise line excursions. If we choose to take another one, we're hoping to wait until we're on board to reserve it so we can use some of our OBC.

 

Have a great cruise! We're former exclusive RC'er's who decided to try X (Solstice) five years ago -- the rest is history! ;)

Hope you like X as much as we do. :cool:

 

Ditto! If I had the same availability of Celebrity from Galveston/Houston as I do other lines, I'd probably never venture too far. Celebrity was a perfect fit for our cruise style and preferences. I can't wait until the next one!

Edited February 10, 2015 by Cindy

[drarill]

So good to hear. And thanks for the voucher info. Really hoping X will follow RCCL model and put the vouchers on the SeaPass. It really is convenient.

 

Hi!! do you have a drink package?? because if you do, you won't need any vouchers. BTW, Celebrity's drink packages are much, much better than Royal's IMHO. I'm a non drinker and was really disappointed with Royal's Replenish package on our last cruise.

We are D+ RCCL cruisers and also made the change to Celebrity looking for a better smoking policy back then and now we are having a hard time going back to Royal.

We think that Celebrity's food is much better than Royal's. We like to try specialty restaurants. On the Equinox I will suggest Tuscan Grill and Murano's. We also enjoy lunch @ Bistro on Five on embarkation day.

As an Elite you will enjoy great coupons. We like the 90 minutes of free internet (multiplied by two), the free bag of laundry (x2), and other laundry coupons, which are useful when we go to Europe.

Hope you enjoy Celebrity as much as we do. To us is a step up from Royal, better food, better service and overall experience. Can you believe that even our teenage children prefer Celebrity? We are looking forward to our next cruise on the Equinox, can't wait to try the new suites dining room. Like you I need to start my pre-cruise diet. Enjoy the planning and happy cruising!!:)

[phoenix_dream]

One point to be aware - unlike RCI, the Elite drinks are not every day. They are not applicable embarkation day, as well as the date of the Captains party (or something like that - don't recall the exact title). Why they can't be like RCI and have them everyday I don't know. Also, not sure if Celebrity is really 'transitioning' to a voucher program or not. It really depends on how many Elite or higher are on a particular cruise. I also wish they would just add the drinks to the sea pass card like they do now on RCI - much more convenient and more practical as well with the inclusion of liquor packages on so many fares anyway.

[wallie5446]

 

Our cruise isn't until November 2015, so we have time to research and anticipate a new cruising experience! :)

Thank you to all who will provide answers. So appreciated.

Which sailing in Nov? We have a nice little Roll Call going for the Thanksgiving cruise starting on the 20th. We sailed the Southern 11 day route last yr on the Equinox.

 

We went to Murano & Tuscan 2x ea, both were wonderful. They were close, but Chops is still our favorite steak resturant at sea.

The one not to miss, is Silk Harvest! Nothing like it, period. we plan on going to it 2x this cruise.

 

If you are on the 11 day, the Panama Canal tour is a must do, if you have never been.

Edited February 10, 2015 by wallie5446

[motherchic]

Great info thank you

[GaCruiser53]

Folks, these are all great info about RCI to Celebrity. My wife and I are looking at booking a cruise on the Equinox in October to go into the Med. We are Diamond C&A members in RCI. I fully understand the conversion to Elite in X. One comment had me confused... Someone mentioned a drink package on Equinox. What does this include?

 

We really enjoyed the Diamond Concierge lounge on our last RCI cruise (New England last October). If I had realized all of the flowing booze that we were going to get, I would have not spent the money on the wine package (5 bottles over 7 nites)! Is there something similar to the Diamond Lounge on the Equinox?

 

One more thing... what stateroom is equivalent to the Junior Suites?

 

Thanks

 

Ed

[wwcruisers]

One more thing... what stateroom is equivalent to the Junior Suites?

 

Thanks

 

Ed

 

Ed, I'm not completely sure, but I'd say that a SkySuite is the closest comparison to R/C's "Junior" Suite. We used to book those, when we cruised with RC, and making the transition to X was easy in a SkySuite. Like a Junior Suite, you have more space in the room, and a slightly larger balcony. You do have more storage than a standard veranda cabin -- although, sadly, no walk-in closet. Like the JS, there is a shower/tub combo in the bathroom, and upgraded shower/bath products. Oh, and in addition to your room steward and assistant, you'll have a butler, too! :cool:

Edited February 26, 2015 by wwcruisers