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Soft serve and hard homemade ice cream at all times. Ice cream was delicious.

 

Pizza was really, really good too. (Royal Caribbean can take a lesson from Celebrity on pizza.)

 

Plenty of fresh fruit, cold cuts, yogurt, yummy cookies too. Their bakery items (rolls, croissants) were also really good.

 

Your kids will find plenty of good stuff there!

Croissants with chocolate filling-ordered them every morning from room service with my pot of coffee.

At lunch there is always bread pudding or rice pudding and the oatmeal raisen cookies were really good. The specialty breads were good too. My sister made me try it, a nutty, sunflower seed thing I think. Then I ate it every day.

I think I would upgrade for the shower panel alone!

Ok, I also love Blu. We have crossed over and will have a hard time ever going back.

I guess I misunderstood . I thought Muranos was more a steak and seafood type restaurant.

 

 

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In my opinion if you want steak- go to Tuscan Grill. The filet is absolutely wonderful. Start with steak tartar, buffalo mozzarella. French onion soup and the filet--a menu to die for.

I pre-booked our Alcove. I think it really depends on if you want a Sea day or a Port day. On our cruise, all Sea days were booked before we boarded. But I think if you wanted to book a Port day you would not have had a problem.

We have booked our Alcove for the entire cruise and can't wait. It seems either you hate them or you love them. We had booked them for only sea days on Silhouette and really enjoyed them so went for the whole trip this time.

Thank you for taking the time to write your review, I know that it takes a long time to do.

I enjoy reading about others experiences.

Music was the only complaint that I had on our 11 night on Equinox. In fact I went to customer relations about it. As we came out of Blu, from dinner, we noticed the music coming from Tuscan Grill and it was a beautiful Italian duet. The next night we ate at Tuscan Grill and they had rock music BLARING LOUD. No it wasn't rap or anything like it but it was NOT appropriate music for the venue. In Café el Brico they were playing Adele and I felt that was appropriate.

I am not a music prude (I even like Blurred Lines) but the right music for the right setting is important.

We felt safe at all times. Actually until you asked, I had never even given it a thought.

Cartagena City, La Popa Hill, Folkloric Show

Cartagena, Columbia CA01 Cartagena City, La Popa Hill, Folkloric Show

All of our tours met in the theater where you go up on stage and they give you a sticker corresponding to your tour and designates you to the correct group and bus. Only one person has to go up if you are on the same tour. Then you are seated until they call your sticker color and number and you go to the gangway. Then on to the designated bus which was very nice with a very informative guide.

The first stop is at the Fort just for pictures. All of the vendors, people selling stuff, are VERY AGGRESSIVE! You have to be firm in your NO and keep walking. The only thing I could mention about the Fort is that if you are on a tour in it there must be an awful lot of strenuous walking-it is huge—and hot. The drive up the hill to La Popa took us past a very poor part of the city (slums). We walked through the chapel and had a bathroom break.

Next stop was a shopping area the “dungeons” Just all small rooms with people selling things. My sister and I did buy very nice tablecloths . Then it was the Folkloric show which was only about 20 min of singing and dancing. A beverage was included water-soda and I think beer. The stairs and walkway to this were long and very steep. Then we did a walking tour of some of the streets in the Walled City. There was another bathroom stop in a emerald jewelry store. Then back to the ship. Friends of ours did the horse carriage ride and were happy with it. We enjoyed the tour and felt it gave a good cross section visit to Cartagena. On some of the side streets we did see some donkeys with the little 2 wheel cart (like Juan Valdez from the old coffee commercials) these were working as I saw one hauling windows.

I really enjoy writing this as it takes me back there.

The highlight of the cruise, in our opinion was Colon, Panama. In preparation for our visit to the Canal I ordered 2 books from Amazon. Cruising the Panama Canal by Richard Detrich and The Path Between The Seas by David McCollough. Richard’s book is very informative and easy to read. He is from the travel industry and now lives in Panama and sometimes serves as a guide on cruise ships going through the Canal. The Path Between the Seas is more intense reading (I am still at it) but gives a step by step history of the Canal.

Panama Canal Tour CO26

Most important way to start this excursion is too take along a really big dose of PATIENCE. Our tour was not quite 9 hours. There is a very nice lunch included, make sure you have enough as it gets to be a long day. There is water and soda (no diet). Beer for purchase. They sell souveniers on board.

This is the only tour that is on a ferry. After getting our stickers in the theatre and waiting to be called we exited to the gangway and boarded a very nice bus and had a very good guide whose name was Jill. Very informative, but couldn’t help notice the little “digs” aimed at the USA, in relation to the Canal.

It was about a 1 hour bus ride to the ferry. You join it at a point on the way to the Pacific. It is a 3 level ferry and there were probably 250 people on it. We had a great spot to sit on the middle level all the way forward. There were 3 tables with chairs, inside. There was a good narrative by another guide but was hard to follow because fellow passengers WOULDN’T STOP TALKING.

You do really get a full experience of the locks. We had to wait in the lock for a big tanker to come in with us and he moved realllllly slow. But it was all part of it to see him attached to the “mules” and hardly any clearance on the sides. We exited the locks into the Pacific where the ferry docked and the buses were waiting. Then another ride of about an hour back to the ship.

There wasn’t much walking but the ramp onto the ferry was short but steep and when we got off the ferry the ramp from the dock up to the buses was really long and really steep.

Again, we enjoyed the tour. We thought it was well organized and they always were trying to see to the guests comfort. My only addition would be is that they should have a snack later on. People start to get crabby. After all they haven’t eaten for 3or 4 hours.

Could you please let me know how room 1625 was. We have that one booked for an upcoming back to back cruise. Thank you for your posts! Please be careful we went from 7 day cruises to 10 or 11 day cruises, our last two have been 21 days. It is very addicting!

For our rooms 1623 and 1625 we had a wonderful room steward named Noreen. My sister called her the mouse because she was so quiet and you knew she had always been there but you never saw her. We did have a towel animal one night. We did not receive the lip balm or face spritzer spray and when I asked her about it she said they were for suites only. I asked her if I could please have a lip balm and she brought me one.

We did have an issue with our on-demand movies and she got it fixed for us right away.

I was impressed with everyone on the ship. They were all friendly and smiling and always said hello or good morning.

The in- room bottle of sparkling wine was pretty good to me--and it got better with every glass I drank.

We all had the premium beverage package, and I would say our experience was pretty positive. During the day we got most of our drinks at either the bar in Ocean View Buffet or the bar on that level at the very back. Usually it was very fast service with maybe 1 or 2 people ahead of me. We did eat lunch in there most days and there were bars servers waiting on us at the tables.

I also used the pool bar a number of times with no waiting at all. I guess our experience would be that we were going to the bar and not waiting for a server to come to us. We are not -sit by the pool type people-so we were just stopping at whatever bar was closest.

In the evening our bar of choice was the Ensemble Bar on 5. We always met there for before dinner drinks. The Raspberry Ricki is fantastic, and usually had one at least one a night, and then maybe a martini. The table service was very good except for the first formal night when they were swamped. We got our drinks ok but had to wait to have him run our cards.

We had dinner in all 3 of the specialty restaurants and in Blu. We couldn't have had better drink and wine service. The wine service was fast and all we could have hoped for in all of those restaurants. Two years ago on Solstice, we were not Aqua and had select in the MDR and we were VERY disappointed with the wine service. You shouldn't have to move up to Blu to get better service but it seems that may be the case.

The last formal night my sister ordered the suggested red wine and it was $17.50 and she was charged the extra amount ( as she was expecting) She thought it was a very inexpensive way to try an expensive wine.

We went to the Martini Bar one night but it was very busy. We sat at the little bar area next and had a server right away. This is the only night that I don't remember what I had for dessert! I had a Cosmo and then a dirty martini and then we went to Ensemble Bar and I had a Raspberry Ricki and then champagne with dinner. OH BOY! But I had a good time and no hangover the next morning.

I agree about the majority of the people on board being of over retirement age. I only said I saw as many strollers as I saw scooters. I went into the cruise thinking everyone would have "one foot in the grave" the way people talk.

The passenger taken off at Grand Cayman was on the other side of my sister. Just before we left there she overheard talking at the open door that he was having what they hoped was an anxiety attack and was going to see the doctor. Next thing she knew we were turning back and they were hauling luggage out of their room.

There was another passenger taken off to an ambulance in Cartagena (I think) He came off on a stretcher just as we were reboarding.

1623 the bed is nearest the balcony.

Glad you asked about Blu. The dinners we had there were all very good. We asked for, and were able to get escargot, shrimp cocktail, French onion soup and ceasar salad. Your experience may be different.

You go through the single lock at Pedro Miguel and the 2 locks at Miraflores

Just to repeat what others have posted: You have to call to book The Alcoves.

Loved them on our sea days last year on Silhouette

The highlight of the cruise, in our opinion was Colon, Panama. In preparation for our visit to the Canal I ordered 2 books from Amazon. Cruising the Panama Canal by Richard Detrich and The Path Between The Seas by David McCollough. Richard’s book is very informative and easy to read. He is from the travel industry and now lives in Panama and sometimes serves as a guide on cruise ships going through the Canal. The Path Between the Seas is more intense reading (I am still at it) but gives a step by step history of the Canal.

Panama Canal Tour CO26

Most important way to start this excursion is too take along a really big dose of PATIENCE. Our tour was not quite 9 hours. There is a very nice lunch included, make sure you have enough as it gets to be a long day. There is water and soda (no diet). Beer for purchase. They sell souveniers on board.

This is the only tour that is on a ferry.After getting our stickers in the theatre and waiting to be called we exited to the gangway and boarded a very nice bus and had a very good guide whose name was Jill. Very informative, but couldn’t help notice the little “digs” aimed at the USA, in relation to the Canal.

It was about a 1 hour bus ride to the ferry. You join it at a point on the way to the Pacific. It is a 3 level ferry and there were probably 250 people on it. We had a great spot to sit on the middle level all the way forward. There were 3 tables with chairs, inside. There was a good narrative by another guide but was hard to follow because fellow passengers WOULDN’T STOP TALKING.

You do really get a full experience of the locks. We had to wait in the lock for a big tanker to come in with us and he moved realllllly slow. But it was all part of it to see him attached to the “mules” and hardly any clearance on the sides. We exited the locks into the Pacific where the ferry docked and the busses were waiting. Then another ride of about an hour back to the ship.

There wasn’t much walking but the ramp onto the ferry was short but steep and when we got off the ferry the ramp from the dock up to the busses was really long and really steep.

Again, we enjoyed the tour. We thought it was well organized and they always were trying to see to the guests comfort. My only addition would be is that they should have a snack later on. People start to get crabby. After all they haven’t eaten for 3 or 4 hours.

Equinox will be our FIRST longer than 7 :D sailing in Nov! It has always been a bucket list item, and like you, a fear that going back to just a week will be hard to do ;)

Could you please let me know how room 1625 was. We have that one booked for an upcoming back to back cruise. Thank you for your posts! Please be careful we went from 7 day cruises to 10 or 11 day cruises, our last two have been 21 days. It is very addicting!

Room 1625 was very nice. The bed is next to/nearest the closet and bathroom. The room was very quiet. We never heard anything -up, down or sideways. The hallway was also very quiet.

Just a short walk to the elevators. The beds were great and the pillows too.

On the balcony between rooms, at the divider between 1623 and1625 is that diagonal post with just a small glass divider. We were happy and suprised to find that they could open the divider. The post was still in the way at the bottom that one would have to crawl over (which my sister did when she locked herself out) But we didn't have to hang over the railing to talk.

Have been busy thinking since Friday--Someone else is in MY ROOM and sleeping in MY BED. LOL

I am going to share our experiences on our excursions, as before we went I was looking and could find little info on them.

We took only Celebrity excursions because that is what we are comfortable with and I could have them all arranged and paid for ahead of time. The first day at sea the line at the shore excursion desk was 30 people long.

Cartagena, Columbia CA01 Cartagena City, La Popa Hill, Folkloric Show

All of our tours met in the theater where you go up on stage and they give you a sticker corresponding to your tour and designates you to the correct group and bus. Only one person has to go up if you are on the same tour. Then you are seated until they call your sticker color and number and you go to the gangway. Then on to the designated bus which was very nice with a very informative guide.

The first stop is at the Fort just for pictures. All of the vendors, people selling stuff, are VERY AGGRESSIVE! You have to be firm in your NO and keep walking. The only thing I could mention about the Fort is that if you are on a tour in it there must be an awful lot of strenuous walking-it is huge—and hot. The drive up the hill to La Popa took us past a very poor part of the city (slums). We walked through the chapel and had a bathroom break.

Next stop was a shopping area the “dungeons” Just all small rooms with people selling things. My sister and I did buy very nice tablecloths . Then it was the Folkloric show which was only about 20 min of singing and dancing. A beverage was included water-soda and I think beer. The stairs and walkway to this were long and very steep. Then we did a walking tour of some of the streets in the Walled City. There was another bathroom stop in a emerald jewelry store. Then back to the ship. Friends of ours did the horse carriage ride and were happy with it. We enjoyed the tour and felt it gave a good cross section visit to Cartagena. On some of the side streets we did see some donkeys with the little 2 wheel cart (like Juan Valdez from the old coffee commercials) these were working as I saw one hauling windows.

I really enjoy writing this as it takes me back there.

We had kind of whirlwind end to vacation. Got home in Wisc. at 10PM Friday unpacked, did 2 loads of laundry, repacked and left at 10 AM Saturday ,driving to Roanoke, VA to be here for work Monday

On other threads about Equinox there was discussion about the age demographics. I actually thought I saw as many baby strollers as I did adult scooters. I can’t think of any time that scooters, wheelchairs or people with canes negatively impacted our cruise. I think there were more scooters on Silhouette last year.

When we stopped in Grand Cayman the seas were a little rough. The other ships in port went to the other side of the island to tender but our Captain decided to tender in the usual spot. This meant that the gangway was moving pretty good. 1 to 2 feet side to side and up and down. At this time my opinion would be that IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE A WALKER OR WHEELCHAIR TO AND FROM THE GANGWAY –PLEASE STAY ON THE SHIP! It was hard enough for us youngsters. It took an hour from getting on the tender to getting off of it. Thought I was going to get sea sick. Just going back and forth was 2 hours so we cancelled our plan for the beach and just picked up the required Jimmy Buffets t-shirt and Rum Cake and went back.

Equinox will be our FIRST longer than 7 :D sailing in Nov! It has always been a bucket list item, and like you, a fear that going back to just a week will be hard to do ;)

The 11 nights was wonderful. At the time it even felt like it was longer.

Well, 2 suitcases for me and 2 for him. 2 big and 2 small carry-on size. He packs cowboy boots and they take up a lot of room-not that my 2 formals and 7 cocktail dresses didn't

Trying to continue review. Just spent 2 hours composing and typing all excursions and went to post and my internet connection failed and I lost the whole thing. will try tomorrow again

Forgot to mention the biggest news/change to us.... In Cozumel, Mexico YOU CAN NO LONGER BUY ANTIBIOTICS WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION. Every time we have been there in the last 15 years we have always brought amoxicillin home with us, but sadly no more.

will I be satisfied with only a 7 night cruise. or maybe I will, I find out in 20 days when I sail on the Reflection!!

We had a "wonnerful, wonnerful" time (for those old enough, that is Lawrence Welk)

It was great to have 11 nights, even longer would be great. The weather was perfect and the only problem was that we had to come home. The whole cruise couldn't have been better. I can't even think of anything to complain about. Oh, wait--I did think of something---card players taking up tables in Café al Brico and Aqua Spa Café (café did ask them to leave when tables were needed at lunch)

I hope to write a lot but in small posts as my husband thinks I am addicted to cruise critic and try not to spend to long on it at a time. Plus I still have my vacation fake nails on and they are really long and make it hard to type. All that I will want to share with you are our observations and opinions and could be different for others.

We are 2 sisters traveling with our husbands and are in our late 50's. We were in Aqua Class 1623 and 1625. We had the 123 Go beverage package that we had upgraded ahead of time to premium.

We flew in a day ahead and stayed at the Sheraton Airport (FLL) There is a free shuttle airport to hotel. They have a fantastic Ruben sandwich in the bar where we watched Seattle beat San Fran (anybody but San Fran). They have a shuttle that you pay $10 PP to get to the ship and we went on the 10 AM. There were others on it going to Princess so we got to the ship a little after 10:30 walked right up to the Aqua check in line and right to the counter to check in. We went upstairs to the seating area and at 11:00 they announced we could board and were among the first 25 people on board.

We did not get a welcome aboard sparkling wine-I think they were not set up yet as we saw others with glasses later. By the time it got busy in the buffet we had already had our first drink-at 11:15, I might add--and were done with lunch just as they announced rooms were ready at 1:00.

For the first night they were offering a 50% discount for the specialty resturants so we booked Murano.

I think all our luggage was there by about 3:00. I don't remember as I was in a state of " I am on a cruise ship and I don't care" I packed too much clothes as usual, as I said to my husband "but Honey, it's 11 nights" Using the cabinets above the bed there was enough room to empty our 4 suitcases. Hey, it was Southwest and they are free!!

More tomorrow---

I have pre-purchased OBC for us for our 11 night sail on the Equinox. I did $400.00 for the 2 of us. My basic reason was that the credit card that we use for our on board account has a VERY low line of credit. We have upgraded to premium beverage package, our gratuities are paid and all our excursions are reserved and paid for. I picked this amount for specialty dining and the casino.