Equinox - Need help

[Juliadlf]

I'm in the process of researching for a cruise on Equinox that makes a stop in Istanbul. Celebrity is one of the lines recommended to me. I've found that it does an overnight as well as a start/end itinerary there. We would most likely cruise in either September or October timeframe.

We have sailed before but on Princess and Carnival in the Med.

 

We've never sailed on Celebrity or familiar enough to know the ins and outs. If I'm to understand correctly, TA's are not allowed to discount and all pricing is the same from one agency to another, right? Celebrity has the right to add a fuel surcharge.

 

I've tried the search function but so much is coming up which has nothing to do with the Equinox.:o I have a few questions and hopefully some of you on this forum have sailed this ship and can give me some insight or post a link where I can get more info.

 

Cabins on Equinox - which ones not to book, ie too much noise. Or, ones we should look at.

 

Dining - what did you choose. Overall experience?

 

Laundry - I haven't seen any laundry rooms listed on the deck plans so assuming no self laundry service?

 

Appreciate the help.

 

Julia

[Orlandocruiser]

For info on the Equinox rooms look for the sticky at the top of the first page of threads which describes Solstice class cabins. There is a pdf in it (go to the last page of the thread and work backwards) that contains information reported by cruisers regarding their cabins. (they are all the same on Solstice class). We did a Med cruise last yeat on the Solstice and chose late seating. While the time seemed really late it gave us time to rest up after really long days on shore excursions. And you are correct there is no self service laundry (or clotheslines in the shower) on Solstice class. If you take some clothespins you can attach your wet things to the back of the lounge chairs on your balcony.

[Juliadlf]

Thank you Orlandocruiser for the response. The room pdf is very helpful.

 

I guess there are not too many folks on this forum who have sailed on the Equinox. Maybe a bad sign.:o

 

Julia

[JoePDX]

TA's are not allowed to directly discount over the published Celebrity fare, however, many agents - including the big on line agents regularly offer pre-paid gratuities or onboard credits (OBC's) as a booking incentive - so do shop around....

 

We love Celebrity....and Istanbul. It's a magical place. Try and spend as much time there as you can....

 

Joe

[JoePDX]

 

I guess there are not too many folks on this forum who have sailed on the Equinox. Maybe a bad sign.:o

 

Julia

 

Equinox is a sister ship to Solstice and Eclipse and the soon to be launched Sillouhette. If you are looking for general information about this class of ships - search on the other ships using the "search this forum" feature.

 

Joe

[cruise kitty]

Thank you Orlandocruiser for the response. The room pdf is very helpful.

 

I guess there are not too many folks on this forum who have sailed on the Equinox. Maybe a bad sign.:o

 

Julia

 

Hi Julia, I think I was one of those who recommended this cruise to you over on the Med:) board. We cruised the Solstice ( sister ship) last year.

 

Cabins: I would try and get a balcony cabin on the hump if you can. We had a forward facing hump cabin last year (concierge class) & booked the same type for next year.

 

Food: The MDR was hit & miss for us, not bad food, but not all outstanding either. Fantastic french onion soup & creme brule, nice salads too. Being that it was very port intensive the first week, we at at the bistro on 5 a few times (delicious, quieter, & always casual) Also ate the the buffet on lots of the late port days, we'd hit the sunset bar for the sailaway, & then eat in the buffet with DH still in his shorts, then shower & go to sleep so we could be up at 5 for the next day's port. The buffet was great for us, salads, curry station, stir fry station, usually some sort of carving station, pizza, made to order pastas with chicken, some nights there were small steaks or lamb chops.

 

Laundry: there is no self service, we brought one suitcase each, because we used a lot of public transport pre cruise & did not wish to be bogged down. We sent out laundry almost everyday, & used the coupons provided by captains club. I was pleased with the laundry service.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[cruise kitty]

Thank you Orlandocruiser for the response. The room pdf is very helpful.

 

I guess there are not too many folks on this forum who have sailed on the Equinox. Maybe a bad sign.:o

 

Julia

 

Hi Julia, I think I was one of those who recommended this cruise to you over on the Med:) board. We cruised the Solstice ( sister ship) last year.

 

Cabins: I would try and get a balcony cabin on the hump if you can. We had a forward facing hump cabin last year (concierge class) & booked the same type for next year.

 

Food: The MDR was hit & miss for us, not bad food, but not all outstanding either. Fantastic french onion soup & creme brule, nice salads too. Being that it was very port intensive the first week, we at at the bistro on 5 a few times (delicious, quieter, & always casual) Also ate the the buffet on lots of the late port days, we'd hit the sunset bar for the sailaway, & then eat in the buffet with DH still in his shorts, then shower & go to sleep so we could be up at 5 for the next day's port. The buffet was great for us, salads, curry station, stir fry station, usually some sort of carving station, pizza, made to order pastas with chicken, some nights there were small steaks or lamb chops.

 

Laundry: there is no self service, we brought one suitcase each, because we used a lot of public transport pre cruise & did not wish to be bogged down. We sent out laundry almost everyday, & used the coupons provided by captains club. I was pleased with the laundry service.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[rjscott]

Julia, we sailed on the Equinox this past March. I did a bit of hand-washing a couple of times and, although there is no clothesline, the fan in the shower runs continuously, so items hung on the hooks in the shower will dry fairly quickly.

 

We enjoyed the food in the MDR and in the Oceanview Cafe. The portions in the MDR were smaller than on some lines, but I was always satisfied with my portion. The variety of dishes available at the Oceanview Cafe both at breakfast and lunch was amazing. We also liked that iced tea and lemonade were available throughout the day in the Cafe; we haven't found that to be the case on other lines.

 

Hope this helps!

[Juliadlf]

Thank you all for the follow-up posts.

 

We are also looking at the Constellation itinerary so doing some research on that ship as well.

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

Julia

[ISABELLA]

Thank you Orlandocruiser for the response. The room pdf is very helpful.

 

I guess there are not too many folks on this forum who have sailed on the Equinox. Maybe a bad sign.:o

 

Julia

 

We have sailed on Equinox last March - loved the ship. We opted for room 6210 - mid ship, partially obstructed with large angled balcony. Central and very quiet location. By the way we booked the same room on Silhuette.

There are no self serve laundry on board.

We had traditional dining - enjoyed the food, service and the table location by the window.

Our favorite place for lunch was Bistro on 5 and cafe in the Solarium.

We didn't try specialty restaurants on that cruise, but have heard good things about them.

[alfiemom]

Have sailed both Equinox and Constellation (known as Connie). There are good things about each. You've gotten good advice about Equinox. Connie is an M-class rather than the new S-class and, as such, the cabins are different. (I LOVE the bathrooms on the S-class!) The concierge class cabins on Connie are larger than the non.

 

I do like the buffet layout on the S-class, however. More user-friendly, at least for me. The MDR food can be good or not so good. It also depends on your tastes. As for portions, I never was hungry and we could always get seconds on whatever we wanted.

 

So either ship will give you a great time. Hot glass show on S-class is amazing.

 

Bobbie

[Jdell]

Julia:

 

We did the med on the equinox this past summer. We were in 9294 which was a mid-forward location (but close to the forward elevators which was convenient). It was one of those rooms on the hump (the forward hump), so our deck was slightly bigger than the regular one.

 

We did the select dining which was perfect. Most nights we made a ressie, but there always seemed to be plenty of seating during the 7-9 time period.

 

We loved silk harvest and tuscgan grille--both were excellent.

 

Sadly, I spent lots of $ on the ship's laundy service. In the med, touring was so hot, you would come back all sweaty and we really needed our clothes cleaned. Luckily our TA gave us a coupon booklet that had the 'fill a bag for $29' special. We did that a few times.

 

Hope this helps.

[momzcruzing]

Just off Equinox on Monday, of my 27 cruises, this was my first on Celebrity and it was my favorite. Equinox is a beautiful ship! No self service laundry like on Princess, but very reasonable prices. I sent out 4 shirts for wash and press and it cost $12.

 

We ate in Blu and the food and service was amazing.

 

Enjoy your cruise. Wish I was back in my cabin, I think it misses me.:rolleyes:

[Juliadlf]

Thank you all for the info. It has been 3 years since we last cruised and never on Celebrity so I appreciate the feedback.

 

The members here on CC have always been so helpful and I am glad to see that hasn't changed:).

 

Whichever Celebrity ship we choose for the itinerary we are interested in doing, I know that we will have a good trip even if I have to send the laundry out. Med itineraries leave little time to do that anyway so I guess having someone do it for us isn't a deal breaker.;)

 

Julia

[Billden]

You might want to check the 11 night Equinox sailing out of Rome on August 29th, 2011 as the prices have just dropped about 20% this past week for that cruise.