Equinox TA Nov. 5 Review

[AJD]

We have never had a bad cruise and this one on the Equinox was no exception there were lots of things we thoroughly enjoyed and some things not so much. I suppose a Trans Atlantic cruise always seems like an adventure but this, our fourth, more so as it was the first Trans Atlantic of a new ship, the Equinox, only the second in her class. To add to this sense of adventure an excellent lecture series on the voyage by marine historian David Perry focused around the Titanic, a ship lost on her first Trans Atlantic crossing. Till these lectures we never knew so many movies had been made about the Titanic, something like fourteen, I think, including “A Night To Remember”, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and most recently “Titanic”. Happily, there was no such drama on this voyage on a very southerly crossing far away from any possibility of icebergs; to the contrary it was smooth sailing, calm sea and fair weather all the way. However it made some of us pause, when on the last day of the cruise, the Captain in his noon announcement from “the ships navigational bridge” wished us “A Night To Remember”!

 

We arrived in Rome by air the day before the cruise and had arranged for Rome Cabs to pick us up and take us to the port of Civitavecchia, this was our second time using this company and again the service was faultless. Our hotel, the Traiano was full with people sailing on the Equinox and one of our Cruise Critic group had arranged for them to provide a cocktail party for us which they did free of charge even though there were a number of fellow cruisers there who were staying at other local hotels. We were greatly impressed by the Traiano especially when, after the ship sailed, I realized I was missing some important documents. After searching everything again and again I e-mailed the hotel and they responded immediately that they had found my stuff and would mail it to our home. I thanked them profusely and offered to pay any cost but they wouldn’t hear of it, the documents got home before we did. Hotel Traiano stands very high in our estimation and we would recommend it to anyone sailing from Civitavecchia.

 

The hotel’s free shuttle got us to the ship just on noon and we were on board with a glass of Champagne in hand before we knew it, our most efficient embarkation ever! By the time we had some lunch our cabin was ready and our luggage arrived shortly thereafter a good start and very efficient for such a big ship.

 

Our cabin in Aqua Class (1599) had one of the larger hump balconies equipped with a table and two very comfortable deck chairs with foot stools. We liked the cabin layout a lot and not having the wardrobe doors opposite the bathroom is great as it saves a lot of collisions. Also the little extra width is nice as two people can pass at the end of the bed, which was comfortable. The new bathroom layout with sliding glass shower doors and non fog mirror is a big improvement. Our only minuses for the cabin was the lack of drawer space and the above bed storage which is less than convenient also the nice big couch was rendered virtually useless by being the only place to store four of our six pillows, four cushions and the bed mat. Does anybody need all those pillows? By the end of the cruise we had finally got used to the outward opening cabin door so, on our next cruise in January on a non Solstice class ship we will have to get used to inward opening all over again! The interactive flat screen TV with its multitude of music channels, ability to check your bill, order room service or photos and display the ship’s position was nice. I believe news and on demand movies were also available but this is not a facility we use on vacation. Aqua Class comes with iced tea, bottled water, fruit basket and canapés provided daily, all nice touches, but after a few days we began to think that by the end of the cruise we wouldn’t be able to get in to the cabin as the bottles of water piled up! Interestingly the canapés omitted the stale bread that we had previously experienced in Concierge class, a definite improvement.

 

This first Aqua Class experience was chosen having enjoyed the Persian Gardens and the specialty restaurants on Millennium class ships and, equating Blu to a specialty restaurant, here was an opportunity to have both included in the price, sounded like a no brainer.

 

When we booked Blu was offered as fixed seating only which we have previously enjoyed with a large table of people you got to know during the cruise. However this cruise became the first where Blu swapped to all flexible dining, this worked very well, we turned up when it suited us and never had to wait for a table. Although we were not happy with the change in all honesty the flexible arrangement was better suited to Blu as it is laid out with only two of the big round tables for eight that we like and the rest are mostly tables for two that can be pushed together for fours or sixes. Most of the tables for two are very close together which does not provide the ambiance that would be expected in an up market restaurant. We enjoyed breakfast in Blu and the wait staff was excellent always very willing to please. However for us dinner was a big disappointment, firstly because it was a less leisurely service than we prefer (usually out in less than an hour and a half), hot dishes at times were served cold and we also found more dishes we simply didn’t like than ever before (very subjective, I know). Please understand there was never a problem having anything we didn’t like replaced promptly and with good grace, but cold food in that sort of restaurant I find inexcusable.

 

Our other disappointment was the Persian Gardens on this ship, none of the dim lighting and oriental atmosphere here rather very bright with big windows facing the front of the ship and very clinical blue and white tiles. The big windows worked in the main room which was equipped with sculpted individual heated loungers, unfortunately some passengers must not have had beds in their cabins as they chose to sleep there and the sound of multiple people snoring did impair the ambiance! The aroma therapy room and steam room also featured these big windows, to what end I am unsure, as they were constantly steamed up. A really nice feature that came with Aqua class or spa treatments was the relaxation room, with again big windows looking out the front of the ship, large very comfortable padded loungers hot and cold drinks and fruit. We are booked for the Eclipse maiden Trans Atlantic next year in a standard balcony cabin and thought our Aqua Class experience on this trip would spoil us for anything else but in fact, although there are attractive features, I now think we will be quite happy without them.

 

The Equinox theatre, like those on other Celebrity ships, is beautiful and we saw some very good shows there. If you are a fan of ballroom dancing the opportunities are not as good as on Celebrity’s smaller ships however it was available for periods in both the Sky lounge and the grand foyer and both the Celebrity orchestra and the party band (Top Secret) were good to dance to. Other live entertainment was available at multiple venues throughout the ship each evening and occasionally in the afternoon. This included an acapella group (Sound Decision), string quartet (Inspiration Strings), guitarist and pianist all of which were very good. Like on other Celebrity ships however our non dancing and late night venue immediately became Michael’s Club which featured as usual a pianist/singer (Lloyd Baskins).

 

Arguably the most impressive feature of the ship visually was the outsize “hole in the floor” with its six glass elevators, floating tree and view down multiple decks past the library, card room martini bar to the grand foyer, quite spectacular.

 

The ship is equipped with two pool areas, one glass sheltered and the other glass enclosed both very nice for relaxing on a lounger it was a pleasant surprise that it was never difficult to find a free lounger in these areas. There were also loungers available on higher decks but with less shelter and since the ship was traveling at 22 knots most of the time it was more of a challenge to get out of the breeze on these decks. The loungers were for the most part positioned right up against one and other, consequently getting on and off was a bit of a challenge, there was nowhere to put a drink and you were pretty intimate with the person on the neighboring ones.

 

Fourteen days was not long enough to let us try all the dining venues on the ship, we mostly ate breakfast and dinner in Blu, and did not try Bistro on Five, Murano or the Tuscan Grill. The Aqua Spa Café, a favorite of ours on other ships, on this ship was a big disappointment, tucked away in a corner of the solarium with far too few tables. We tried lunch in the main dining room which was good and had dinner at Silk Harvest, the Asian restaurant where the décor was very nice, the service excellent but the food unexceptional. The pool grill on this ship is on a deck above the buffet and although we didn’t try it had a pleasant outdoor café look to it. The buffet was our usual lunch venue and had a large variety of food each day, I usually chose the Indian section, not usually available every day on Celebrity and my wife the salad bar both of which were good. The buffet suffered from overcrowding at peak breakfast and lunch times making it difficult to find a table and again we had the cold hot food problem here. The multiple island layout of the buffet worked well it was seldom necessary to stand in line for food. No trays here so getting food and drinks involved two trips which was a nuisance.

 

The library was a nice area to relax and it had a better selection than we have seen previously, but get there early the good stuff goes fast! The lawn area was very pleasant with its own bar at the back of the ship, I didn’t notice the lawn being used a lot so I wonder if it will survive for long.

 

Service wherever we went on the ship was excellent and the usual smiles and friendly greetings were provided by all levels of staff from cleaners to captain.

 

I will not discuss the intermediate ports on this trip as they were not a priority for us but we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowd problems getting off and on the ship.

 

Debarking in Fort Lauderdale was the complete opposite from embarkation; an utter shambles which left a large number of us stuck in a hanger like building with no air conditioning or seats for the best part of an hour waiting our luggage. Apparently communications had broken down and passengers were debarked before their luggage.

 

In total, this was another very enjoyable cruise experience for us, even with a few things that we thought were less than perfect, Celebrity continues to offer a very good product on this new class of ships.

[keela1eva2]

Thank you for your excellent review. I take it you are booked on the 19th April T/A. I have also booked this cruise booking a 2B balcony which suits my needs perfectly. I am taking a friend and also paying for her room so it is quite expensive enough for me.

I sailed on the Solstice in October in the Med. I stayed at the San Giorgio Hotel which is an excellent 4* hotel and it was really wonderful with very friendly staff.

I had intended doing the QM2 T/A to take my friend but at over £4000 each with no Ports just too expensive X 2 so it was suggested that I do the Equinox instead. I loved the Solstice and felt that there was a huge improvement in the past 2 cruises I took with X in 2008 on the Summit in the Med in August and on the Millennium in NZ/OZ November/December 2008. I think the problem with the Millennium was that X had problems filling the Ship and sold a lot of rooms cheaply at the last minute. I think this resulted in cutting back generally on the Menu etc and other small areas. I certainly found the food on Solstice much improved and I enjoyed it very much.

I do agree that the hot food at the Ocean View Cafe was not as hot as I would have liked. Perhaps because I took too long to get to my table and also didn't have a great deal on the plates.

Room wise I loved it and whilst some had a problem with storage and hanging space etc travelling solo meant that this was not a problem for me.

I did watch one or two films and it was convenient that if you watched part of a film when you went back to it again it took you to where you had finished watching.

 

Today it is freezing here so good to have something to look forward after Christmas.

 

Sue

[WELSH WIZARDS]

A very fair and interesting revue of the TA we have just also sailed on John. I loved the ship, and have now sailed on her twice. I agree with you about most you have written , but seem to have had a better dinner experience in the main dining room, than you did in Blu. . I especially agree about The Triaino Hotel, and I too would not hesitate to stay there again.

I would have been MUCH more scathing than you about the shambles in the Debarkation Hanger though. :eek:.!!..... :D.

[jandiart]

WE were just off the elevator when they stopped everyone from going off the ship. That did not stop the elevators from coming down from the upper floors with more people. We were all squashed together as more and more people got out of the elevators and we were frightened at the prospect of someone being severly hurt by the crowd that was getting bigger and bigger. I felt like I was at a European soccer game gone bad. We kept screaming for someone to call upstairs and stop the flow of people but it didn't happen. We felt lucky to get off the ship in one piece . This was a terrible ending to a good cruise. The worst part of it is that Guest Relations on the ship denies that there was any problem and said that debarkation went smoothly. Who are they trying to protect?

[AJD]

Hi Jenny,

 

You're right,I could certainly have been more scathing about the debarking process. I look forward to trying the main dining room on the Eclipse.

 

John.

[gkm]

Thanks for the very nice review. It was a great cruise, wasn't it! The Equinox is one gorgeous ship.

 

I'm sorry so many of you had problems with disembarkation. Bob and I were in the lucky few that made it off the ship (low number) before they had to change the gangplank. In fact, we were the last ones off and a crew member had to help me down the impossibly sharp angled ramp. If they had not changed the gangplank, I think there would have been some terrible accidents and broken bones. It's a shame this disembarkation has left unhappy memories of such a wonderful cruise with so many wonderful passengers. I don't think we'll ever duplicate our fabulous roll call.

 

Garry

[WELSH WIZARDS]

Thanks for the very nice review. It was a great cruise, wasn't it! The Equinox is one gorgeous ship.

 

I'm sorry so many of you had problems with disembarkation. Bob and I were in the lucky few that made it off the ship (low number) before they had to change the gangplank. In fact, we were the last ones off and a crew member had to help me down the impossibly sharp angled ramp. If they had not changed the gangplank, I think there would have been some terrible accidents and broken bones. It's a shame this disembarkation has left unhappy memories of such a wonderful cruise with so many wonderful passengers. I don't think we'll ever duplicate our fabulous roll call.

Garry

Hi Gerry....some of us ....Mike and I, Sherry and Pat, John and Ann [ above ] Iian and Jim, David and his partner who's name I forget.. are all planning to do just that on the Eclipse next year. ! Well ...we have made a small start anyway. ;) I am sure we would love to have you and Bob, and many of the others join us for a reunion. :)

[gkm]

Thanks for the invite Jennie but Bob and I (and others from the Equinox) are booked for the TA on the Jewel of the Seas. We'll have 2 days in Iceland which is a place I've always wanted to visit. I do hope our paths cross again on a future cruise!

 

Garry

[Texed]

We have never had a bad cruise and this one on the Equinox was no exception there were lots of things we thoroughly enjoyed and some things not so much.

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[history316]

Thanks for a great review...

 

We were in a Celebrity Suite on this cruise...just want to ask all of you, since Celebrity has asked us....what do you think about the issue of water costin $4.00 in the cabin??? Yes, in the Celebrity suite this was the case. I'll be interested in your opinion on this issue. We are Elite and more...yet while we get free cocktails 4 hr. per day in the Sky Lounge was must pay for decent WATER!! I'd love your thoughts on this to let Celebrity know your feelings. Thanks for reading....

[WELSH WIZARDS]

Thanks for a great review...

 

We were in a Celebrity Suite on this cruise...just want to ask all of you, since Celebrity has asked us....what do you think about the issue of water costin $4.00 in the cabin??? Yes, in the Celebrity suite this was the case. I'll be interested in your opinion on this issue. We are Elite and more...yet while we get free cocktails 4 hr. per day in the Sky Lounge was must pay for decent WATER!! I'd love your thoughts on this to let Celebrity know your feelings. Thanks for reading....

History316....don't get me started on my hobby horse, which is a wee bit similar . :D I have a bee in my bonnet about only being able to have coffee in Elite in the morning, but not in the afternoon , unless I pay for it. Since the issue is not therefore that it is unobtainable, but just not available " free " why will they give me as much alcohol as I can drink, but not one coffee ?

To maybe help a little on your water question, it is the case that the water from the ship's own taps on board modern ships is some of the purest available, so it is not at all nesesary to purchase your water. Indeed...its the bottled water that is the inferiour one. I hope this saves you some money. :D

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Thanks for a great review...

 

We were in a Celebrity Suite on this cruise...just want to ask all of you, since Celebrity has asked us....what do you think about the issue of water costin $4.00 in the cabin??? Yes, in the Celebrity suite this was the case. I'll be interested in your opinion on this issue. We are Elite and more...yet while we get free cocktails 4 hr. per day in the Sky Lounge was must pay for decent WATER!! I'd love your thoughts on this to let Celebrity know your feelings. Thanks for reading....

 

I've never had a problem with a ship's on-board water supply before. However, on the Equinox recently I found the water tasted horrible. If I put it in a bottle and let it sit for a few days it lost the horrible taste but right from the tap it was awful. So do give them the feedback about their tap water. When I talked to them about it they said it was the first time they heard the water didn't taste good.

[fb0075]

Thanks for the invite Jennie but Bob and I (and others from the Equinox) are booked for the TA on the Jewel of the Seas. We'll have 2 days in Iceland which is a place I've always wanted to visit. I do hope our paths cross again on a future cruise!

 

Garry

 

YEP US TOOOOOO--

 

Been waiting on the Jewel for a year but also, doing the april T/A on the Equinox

[AJD]

Don't like paying for water either, but have never had a problem with the tap water which I assume is what's in the carafes of iced water Celebrity provides. However if you must have bottled water without seeing a charge for it, try Aqua class, we got more than we could ever consume.