Celebrity to home port Equinox in Port Canaveral

[orville99]

Starting in fall 2024. Just heard the announcement on local NBC affiliate.

Edited August 15, 2023 by orville99

[simon.hed]

that might change a few things for us.

[orville99]

From Florida Today:

A Celebrity Cruises ship will begin sailing out of Port Canaveral late next year, as Celebrity will become the seventh cruise brand at the port.

The Celebrity Equinox will begin Caribbean sailings from Port Canaveral on Dec. 3, 2024, the cruise line announced Tuesday. It said it will have 20 cruises from Port Canaveral, running through April 19, 2025.

 

According to the article, booking will open up on 8/22.

[orville99]

39 minutes ago, simon.hed said:

that might change a few things for us.

We may have to find a week that we can slot one into our schedule.

[molly361]

Stolen from the Celebrity board

Bermuda & Portugal Tranatlantic	12	Portugal: Lisbon; Portugal: Porto (Leixoes); At Sea; Azores: Ponta Delgada; At Sea; At Sea; At Sea; At Sea; Bermuda: Royal Naval Dockyard; At Sea; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2024 Nov 21
Bahamas Getaway	4	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); Bahamas: Bimini; At Sea; Bahamas: Nassau; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2024 Dec 3
Belize, Honduras & Mexico	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Mexico: Costa Maya; Belize: Belize City; Honduras: Roatan; Mexico: Cozumel; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2024 Dec 14
Eastern Caribbean Holiday	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Dominican Rep: Puerto Plata; Puerto Rico: San Juan; St. Kitts & Nevis: Basseterre; At Sea; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2024 Dec 21
St. Maarten, San Juan & Labadee Holiday	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; At Sea; St. Maarten: Philipsburg; Puerto Rico: San Juan; Haiti: Labadee; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2024 Dec 28
Puerto Plata, San Juan & St. Kitts	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Dominican Rep: Puerto Plata; Puerto Rico: San Juan; St. Kitts & Nevis: Basseterre; At Sea; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Jan 4 Feb 15
Key West, Puerto Plata & Labadee	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); Florida: Key West; At Sea; At Sea; Dominican Rep: Puerto Plata; Haiti: Labadee; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Jan 11, 25
Puerto Plata, San Juan & St. Maarten	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Dominican Rep: Puerto Plata; Puerto Rico: San Juan; St. Maarten: Philipsburg; At Sea; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Jan 18 Mar 29
Grand Cayman, Jamaica & Labadee	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Grand Cayman: George Town; Jamaica: Falmouth; Haiti: Labadee; At Sea; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Feb 22
Key West, Jamaica & Grand Cayman	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); Florida: Key West; At Sea; Jamaica: Falmouth; Grand Cayman: George Town; At Sea; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Mar 8
Bahamas, Labadee & Puerto Plata	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); Bahamas: Nassau; At Sea; At Sea; Haiti: Labadee; Dominican Rep: Puerto Plata; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Mar 22
Puerto Plata, Labadee & Bahamas	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Haiti: Labadee; At Sea; Dominican Rep: Puerto Plata; At Sea; Bahamas: Bimini; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Apr 5
Bimini, Belize & Mexico	7	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; Bahamas: Bimini; At Sea; Belize: Belize City; Mexico: Cozumel; At Sea; Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral)	2025 Apr 12
Bermuda & Portugal Transatlantic	15	Florida: Orlando (Port Canaveral); At Sea; At Sea; Bermuda: Royal Naval Dockyard; At Sea; At Sea; At Sea; At Sea; At Sea; Portugal: Madeira (Funchal); At Sea; Portugal: Lisbon; At Sea; Spain: Cartagena; Spain: Palma De Mallorca; Spain: Barcelona

[SECdawg]

Great news for us living close to Port Canaveral! 

[cruise47]

That is excellence news IMHO.

[Ret MP]

Well, that might be a game-changer for us.  I'm loyal to Royal.  But, mostly loyal because of the C & A points.  So, because the vast majority of RCCL's cruises, departing from the east coast, go to CocoCay and the C & A points follow us to X, AND it looks like X will be going to Labadee instead of CocoCay and it doesn't look like X will be going to Cozumel, I may have to switch my loyalty.  My concern is the size or lack thereof of X's ships.  

 

This is potentially good news for us.

[BecT]

Hmmm.....  I'm happy about the move to Port Canaveral but we are booked on Equinox in January 2025 for our cruise to Antarctica out of Buenos Aires.  Something doesn't seem right. I guess more changes are coming if this is correct. 

[2chiefs]

Deleted. 

Edited August 15, 2023 by 2chiefs

[2chiefs]

26 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

Well, that might be a game-changer for us.  I'm loyal to Royal.  But, mostly loyal because of the C & A points.  So, because the vast majority of RCCL's cruises, departing from the east coast, go to CocoCay and the C & A points follow us to X, AND it looks like X will be going to Labadee instead of CocoCay and it doesn't look like X will be going to Cozumel, I may have to switch my loyalty.  My concern is the size or lack thereof of X's ships.  

 

This is potentially good news for us.

Absolutely agree. We love sailing out of Port Canaveral but lately we've been loving Celebrity Cruises which is a much longer drive for us to Ft Lauderdale. 

[Shiba_Lover]

19 minutes ago, BecT said:

Hmmm.....  I'm happy about the move to Port Canaveral but we are booked on Equinox in January 2025 for our cruise to Antarctica out of Buenos Aires.  Something doesn't seem right. I guess more changes are coming if this is correct. 

You might check your email.  Many of us scheduled on Equinox in early 2025 already received emails saying we are cancelled.

[BecT]

57 minutes ago, Shiba_Lover said:

You might check your email.  Many of us scheduled on Equinox in early 2025 already received emails saying we are cancelled.

I was at the doctor's office waiting on my SIL when I read about the change. I'm not sure if we got the email or not. But, I let my husband know and he was able to get it changed to one in February of 2024. We're retired so it didn't impact us too much but my brother is going with us and now he's trying to switch things up with his work to make it happen. 🤞

 

Other than that, we're still excited about the move to Port Canaveral too!

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, Ret MP said:

Well, that might be a game-changer for us.  I'm loyal to Royal.  But, mostly loyal because of the C & A points.  So, because the vast majority of RCCL's cruises, departing from the east coast, go to CocoCay and the C & A points follow us to X, AND it looks like X will be going to Labadee instead of CocoCay and it doesn't look like X will be going to Cozumel, I may have to switch my loyalty.  My concern is the size or lack thereof of X's ships.  

 

This is potentially good news for us.

Your C&A points do not follow you to Celebrity. You get reciprocal benefits at some tier levels. The points stay separate. You will have zero points if you never cruised on Celebrity but if you are for example Diamond on Royal Caribbean you will get their Elite Benifits. Points earned on Celebrity will not add to Royal points. Royal points do not add to Celebrity points. Royal's loyalty program is better than Celebrity's, you won't  get the same benefits but on the other hand Celebrity is a somewhat better cruise line. 

[Corriegr]

2 hours ago, cruise47 said:

That is excellence news IMHO.

Not if you booked a once in a lifetime cruise to Antarctica and find your plans in tatters....

[C4HCG]

Hope they sail out of Port Canaveral in the summer too, will save us the drive down to FL from Orlando. 

[hcat]

Eq is a great ship.

.Maybe  they are trying to pull families from the Disney vacation crowd .

 

. I think some one of the itins include the Coco Cay  fun park.. We would pass on Labadee..been there, done that and too close to Haiti proper..

[Charles4515]

2 minutes ago, Corriegr said:

Not if you booked a once in a lifetime cruise to Antarctica and find your plans in tatters....

Celebrity is dumbing down their itineraries more with this move but I don't think Celebrity is the best cruise line for lifetime cruise to Antarctica. One of the Expedition type cruise lines where you land on the continent in a zodiac would be a lot better. 

[canadianjovigirl]

9 minutes ago, Corriegr said:

Not if you booked a once in a lifetime cruise to Antarctica and find your plans in tatters....

Very disappointing as was to be our first Celebrity cruise celebrating our 25th anniversary.  

[paylady]

I’m thrilled!

[Charles4515]

12 minutes ago, hcat said:

Eq is a great ship.

.Maybe  they are trying to pull families from the Disney vacation crowd .

 

. I think some one of the itins include the Coco Cay  fun park.. We would pass on Labadee..been there, done that and too close to Haiti proper..

I agree Equinox is a great ship but in my opinion is another bean ounter move by the new CEO. First adding itineraries that do Coco Cay and now Equinox doing Labadee. 

[aml3679]

Great news?

 

we live about 3 hours away.

[hcat]

seems a popular choice but a longer drive for us than Port Ev.... it might be fun to see the Space Center!

 

We are waiting to see what happens from TPA..can't be a bigger ship than Connie..wish it would be upgraded

[almaalum]

1 hour ago, Corriegr said:

Not if you booked a once in a lifetime cruise to Antarctica and find your plans in tatters....

Ditto.

[Ret MP]

4 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Your C&A points do not follow you to Celebrity. You get reciprocal benefits at some tier levels. The points stay separate. You will have zero points if you never cruised on Celebrity but if you are for example Diamond on Royal Caribbean you will get their Elite Benifits. Points earned on Celebrity will not add to Royal points. Royal points do not add to Celebrity points. Royal's loyalty program is better than Celebrity's, you won't  get the same benefits but on the other hand Celebrity is a somewhat better cruise line. 

Hummm, if true, that sucks.   Thanks for the information.

 

BTW, I thought you were ignoring me.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate this info.  I must have misunderstood those that kept telling me/us, here, that RCCL and X were the same company, which they are both a part of the same mothership and share each other's points.  I've got to remember, "Trust but verify".