Just disembarked Equinox today. April 15th.

[zanderblue]

a short review of our 8 day ABC cruise this last week.

Embarkation was very efficient. We arrived at terminal at 11:05 and were onboard with bubbles in hand by 11:30.

We were in concierge and took advantage of lunch in MDR. Unfortunately, no short ribs on menu, but the chicken i had was very good.

Cabins were made available around1:20pm and we headed for ours then.

We were in 1253 which is midships port side, just aft of hump. Got to unpacking and discovered dirty underwear from previous guest in 2 of the drawers in the unit. Pretty disgusting and a bit smelly when drawers opened.

I called the cabin attendant who showed up quite quickly and removed items and sanitised the drawers. He was highly apologetic, but clearly he nor his supervisor were on the case. Later that night, I opened cabin mini bar and found a couple of half empty water bottles, again I assume from previous guest. This oversight troubled me somewhat more. If it had been missing items, I am sure I would have been charged for them. In any case, I reported to attendant again next morning and he removed the half empty bottles.

All in all pretty poor cabin preparation by the attendant, I thought.

He managed to compound this later in trip with canapés not being delivered on one day and even more bizarrely, he delivered canapés on Thursday, just before we left the cabin. We went for a walk and came back to cabin about an hour later and he had taken it upon himself to take them away again. Other than these oversights, everything else was just fine.

We ate in MDR every evening. Food quality was pretty good and service both food and wine were first class.

Entertainment was a bit of a mixed bag. We had seen 2 of the production shows on earlier cruise and gave them a miss. The other “Life”, was okay but probably not as good as the others. The impressionist and singing act Uptown were both very good.

I didn’t really like the band (badness), but several other folks we talked to gave them rave reviews.

There was a total of 4 sea days and we were always able to get a sun bed without too much hassle, although we did notice a bit of chair hogging going on, this was despite notes being displayed on the beds that reserving beds was not permitted.

In summary, we had a very enjoyable cruise and didn’t let the minor glitches with the cabin attendant spoil it.

One further thought I had whilst driving home........

We had prepaid our tips, so the cabin attendant will have had his full share, despite having underperformed somewhat. Food for thought for future perhaps.

[jelayne]

We always prepay our tips and have never had a less than very good stateroom attendant service. You may had gotten a new one or one that had something going on back home on his mind.

 

Glad you didn’t let it stop you from enjoying your cruise.

[flatcircle]

Thanks for your review. We'll be on Equinox June 2; also in concierge. Do you remember what was available for breakfast from room service? There's been conflicting info on the boards on whether or not concierge still offers an extended menu.

Thanks in advance for any info you might have!

[davekathy]

Thanks for posting. Bummer concerning your cabin and the attendant. Unacceptable and not a good first impression.

[zanderblue]

Thanks for your review. We'll be on Equinox June 2; also in concierge. Do you remember what was available for breakfast from room service? There's been conflicting info on the boards on whether or not concierge still offers an extended menu.

Thanks in advance for any info you might have!

 

We did have in cabin breakfast on one day.

It was an extensive menu, included, continental and cooked. Only item I recall was at cost was the steak.

[phoenix_dream]

Just some FYI:

 

If you pre-pay your tips you can adjust/remove them by talking with Guest Relations. Not sure you can do this if they are considered a perk, and not sure I would do it at all unless the service was absolutely horrible as their salaries are so low to begin with (and anyway in that case, I would have reported it to the Hotel Manager early in the cruise).

 

In our experience, the canapés have usually been delivered by an entirely different person than your stateroom attendant so not sure that issue can be attributed to him.

[zanderblue]

I appreciate these folks are poorly paid and I doubt that I would not have tipped him. More a case of my late realisation that I didn’t really have that choice without some effort on my behalf.

It most definitely was the cabin attendant who delivered the canapé. We met him several times as he brought them in.

[helen haywood]

If you don't pre-pay the gratuities, then they will be charged to your sea pass account onboard on a daily basis automatically. To remove them would require a trip to Guest Services and a reasonable explanation.

[Xport]

It most definitely was the cabin attendant who delivered the canapé. We met him several times as he brought them in.

 

Which is not to say that it was definitely your cabin attendant who was scheduled to deliver them on the day your delivery was missed... They do get time off with other crew members from the hotel staff providing relief coverage during those periods...

Edited April 16, 2018 by Xport

[keesar]

We always prepay our tips and have never had a less than very good stateroom attendant service. You may had gotten a new one or one that had something going on back home on his mind.

.

 

Our recent cruise was the only one we have had which I wished I had not prepaid tips. I usually leave an extra tip in cash at the end for our stateroom attendant but that was never considered. Overall, our cruise was excellent.

 

He did leave the canapés every day but one when he had a day off. His replacement was excellent.

[evanderm]

Which is not to say that it was definitely your cabin attendant who was scheduled to deliver them on the day your delivery was missed... They do get time off with other crew members from the hotel staff providing relief coverage during those periods...

Either way, whoever was responsible for delivering the canapés that day apparently failed to do so... Whom to assign blame for that is another issue.

 

As a listed perk, no matter how poor the perk actually is, it's still a failure to deliver on a product for which a premium was paid. If it's an issue, then in my mind it should be fed back to the company through the appropriate channels.

[Xport]

Either way, whoever was responsible for delivering the canapés that day apparently failed to do so... Whom to assign blame for that is another issue.

 

As a listed perk, no matter how poor the perk actually is, it's still a failure to deliver on a product for which a premium was paid. If it's an issue, then in my mind it should be fed back to the company through the appropriate channels.

 

In no way did I intend to imply that the missed delivery was acceptable... I was merely addressing the original poster's categorical statement that "It most definitely was the cabin attendant who delivered the canapé. We met him several times as he brought them in." Just because the assigned room steward typically made the canapé delivery based upon the original poster's direct observation on other days does not mean that their usual steward was scheduled to do so on the day of the lapse...

 

If so inclined such matters are worthy of feedback to management but, in this case, the time for doing so was while aboard ship so that the matter can be assessed factually--and not by inference--based upon work schedules and that the proper crew member responsible for the lapse--it may have been the usual steward; it may have been a substitute--can be coached toward performance improvement...

[flatcircle]

We did have in cabin breakfast on one day.

It was an extensive menu, included, continental and cooked. Only item I recall was at cost was the steak.

 

Fantastic!

thanks again for taking the time to answer our question.

[villauk]

I’d say none of the drawers had been checked then if 2 of them contained dirty underwear - not as if one had been missed by mistake :eek:. I wonder if your cabin had been missed in total with you also finding empty bottles. Was your bathroom clean?

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[Captain and Commodore]

We too got off this cruise and had a good time. Our canapes were delivered at a random time between 330 and 400 and not always by our attendant. A couple years ago they were fairly emphatic that canapes would not be left in an empty cabin and they even went as far as to leave a "deliver tomorrow at..." form to be completed. This is no longer the case. Personally I find the canapes to be a bit blah and not always conducive to sharing lol. All in all a good trip and Wayan our attendant was top notch. Not sure we will choose Concierge next time as not seeing a tangible value...your mileage may vary.

[villauk]

We too got off this cruise and had a good time. Our canapes were delivered at a random time between 330 and 400 and not always by our attendant. A couple years ago they were fairly emphatic that canapes would not be left in an empty cabin and they even went as far as to leave a "deliver tomorrow at..." form to be completed. This is no longer the case. Personally I find the canapes to be a bit blah and not always conducive to sharing lol. All in all a good trip and Wayan our attendant was top notch. Not sure we will choose Concierge next time as not seeing a tangible value...your mileage may vary.

 

Personally, Concierge Class is only worth paying extra for on M class ships.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[bye-seaya]

We too were on this cruise in a CC cabin aft deck 9.

We had an awesome cabin steward who kept our room spotless. Thank you Hector if you see this post!

We requested cheese plates instead of the afternoon canapés and these were delivered daily by a different person.

We asked to have the sparkling wine delivered to the dining room - no prob which we trade in on for wine. And we asked to have the fridge emptied to hold our water & seltzer - again, no prob.

Our experience exceeded expectations.

[Blockschip]

Also was on this cruise. Down on Deck 3. Our steward, Ricky, was outstanding!!

 

 

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[ilbcnuxxoo]

We too were on this cruise in a CC cabin aft deck 9.

We had an awesome cabin steward who kept our room spotless. Thank you Hector if you see this post!

We requested cheese plates instead of the afternoon canapés and these were delivered daily by a different person.

We asked to have the sparkling wine delivered to the dining room - no prob which we trade in on for wine. And we asked to have the fridge emptied to hold our water & seltzer - again, no prob.

Our experience exceeded expectations.

 

 

Does Celebrity allow you to bring your own seltzer on board with you? I saw that they allow 2 bottles of wine....