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Quick Review: Oct 15th Equinox Sailing

TMaine

By TMaine,
in Celebrity Cruises

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TMaine Great Review Rare

TMaine

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I thought I'd post up a quick review our recent cruise. It was the October 15th, 12 night RT Barcelona cruise.

 

Barcelona: We spent two nights pre-cruise at the Atrium Palace in the Eixample area of the city about two blocks from Placa de Catalunya. Great location, hotel and price. Our second time there and highly recommended. Barcelona is very easy to get around and lots to do. We went to Montserrat and had a great day there.

 

Embarkation: Everything seemed to move pretty well during embarkation through the port and check in. We have sailed out of Barcelona before and it is a great embarkation point.

 

Equinox: Beautiful ship, clean and didn't notice a thing in disrepair. Service throughout the ship was excellent. We decided to try a 1A Veranda cabin with the larger veranda to see what all the talk was about. We were in 7161 which is a very nice cabin and probably the quietest room we have ever been in. The veranda was larger than normal but I am not sure it was worth several hundred dollars more for it. I wouldn't pay much extra for it again unless it was a fantastic deal.

 

Ports: This itinerary is one of the best in the Med as far as I am concerned.

- Civitavecchia, took the train to Rome for the day. Very easy and inexpensive. Got off at San Pietro (Vatican) and walked across the city hitting attractions along the way and picked up the return train at Termini.

- Salerno, we walked around town here, our tour got cancelled but had a good day. The town is really trying to cater to cruise ships more it seems.

- Santorini, a beautiful island and one of the highlights of the cruise. We took the "fast" boat to Oia from the tender dock which included a bus ride back to Fira. Had a fantastic lunch in Oia and walked around Fira before taking the funicular back down to the tender dock.

- Kusadasi, been here before so didn't go back to Ephesus (which is a must see) so we walked around a bit. Not the greatest port area to walk around.

- Mykonos, another highlight of the cruise, nice quiet small town to walk around, had a great lunch and did some shopping. We were hoping to go back to Kalafatis beach but there were no tours there for October.

- Athens, the city is very dirty and congested. We went to the Acropolis and Acropolis museum via the HOHO bus. That and the National Archaeological museums are excellent.

- Malta, one of the best stops in the med. Again used the HOHO bus to get to Mdina and around the island.

 

Dining: Food is very subjective but we had excellent meals and service at every venue we ate at.

- MDR, excellent food and service for breakfast, lunch and dinner although I did leave one meal still hungry.

- Bistro on Five, one of our favorite places, very good food, quiet and great service. Worth the $10 cover charge.

- Oceanview Cafe, very good food but the setup of the buffet is an absolute cluster (feel free to insert your descriptor of choice) the same as it was on Solstice. For instance, the salad bar line has the bowls at the end of the line where the dressings are so you have to go get a bowl and then go all the way back around to where you would start building your salad. Its this way on many of the stations. Also, lines that converge on each other. There is also not enough seating, we had to take our meals to our room several times. The waffles were excellent!

- Silk Harvest, we got a package for 1 Silk Harvest and 2 Tuscan Grill dinners. Silk Harvest was fantastic and well worth the extra $$.

- Tuscan Grill, food was good but not worth $45pp extra by any stretch.

- Murano, didn't go this time as it doesn't appeal to us but heard it is going away anyway.

- Cafe al Bacio, good coffee.

- Gelateria, good gelato but was melted by the end of the day, the freezer here and for the ice cream in Oceanview couldn't keep it cold enough.

 

Drinks: A little disappointed in the mixed drinks, I had two where I would swear there as no alcohol in them. I don't drink very much at all so I can feel 1 drink or beer. We did not have a drink package as there is no way we would drink $55pp/per day worth of coffee and alcohol.

 

Entertainment: Another very subjective topic but overall I would give it a "good", I was entertained.

 

Disembarkation: We had one of the last disembarkation times as our flight left at 12:25pm. No problems at all getting our luggage and getting out of the building. There was about a 1/2 hour wait for a cab though which we hadn't experienced in the past but I would assume was due to our late disembarkation time and maybe that there were 3 other ships in as well. It was no big deal, we had plenty of time to get to the airport.

 

Let me know if anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer.

Edited by TMaine
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TMaine Great Review Rare

TMaine

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How long would you say your average dinner in the MDR was?

 

I would say about an hour but we did not get coffee or dessert at the end of our meals. The service was very good and meals were delivered fairly quickly. We were originally traditional, late seating but switched to select after the second night. The dining times were comparable.

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Texed Holiday Sharing Rare

Texed

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Murano is going away?

 

I do not know the timing on this but it sounds like Murano will be phased out. I have no idea what it may be replaced with if this is truly sound information.

 

I believe the specialty restaurants on the "M" class ships are being converted to Tuscan Grill. The "S" class ships already have Tuscan. So, it looks as if Murano will stay as it is for now. :)

Edited by Texed
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gimletgal

gimletgal

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Only The Normandie (Summit), SS United States (Infinity) and Olympic (Millennium) are being converted to Tuscan Grille. Constellation already has a Tuscan Grille on Deck 11. Not sure if they plan to convert Ocean Liners (Constellation) to something else or move Tuscan to where Ocean Liners is and maybe turn Tuscan into Qsine? :confused:

 

I have not heard that Murano is going anywhere as they are only on S-Class.

Edited by gimletgal
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LzyCruiser_NWA

LzyCruiser_NWA

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I would say about an hour but we did not get coffee or dessert at the end of our meals. The service was very good and meals were delivered fairly quickly. We were originally traditional, late seating but switched to select after the second night. The dining times were comparable.

 

Thank you for answering, let's hope the service stays that way.

 

Last march we were on the summit with select dining and each night, dinner was a 2.5 hr event!

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florisdekort

florisdekort

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I've heard elsewhere that the "Murano" style restaurants are going away on all M and S class ships over time as the concept is being phased out. If confirmed, I won't be back on X, as we feel it's the only excellent donor venue and tend to have dinner there every evening.

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The Shutterbug

The Shutterbug

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We were on this sailing also... WOW! We absolutely loved it. Totally agree with the OP, everything from cabin to staff to food to service to ports of call etc - everything was perfect.

 

We didn't want to leave the ship and return to normality! LOL

 

Enjoy your time on Equinox :)

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TMaine Great Review Rare

TMaine

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Our first Celebrity cruise, Equinox,November.

 

On embarcation day what woud you recommend as a dining option? We don't want to battle the crowds in the buffet after getting on the ship.

 

Thanks.

 

We always like to go to Bistro on Five on embarkation day. Its usually pretty quiet and very pleasant!

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Aldeya

Aldeya

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We always like to go to Bistro on Five on embarkation day. Its usually pretty quiet and very pleasant!

 

Thank you.

 

If I'm not mistaken Bistro on Five is not complimentary? Still catching up on information about Equinox :)

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hcat "Live from...." Rare

hcat

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Thanks for you review. We are looking for a pre- cruise hotel in Barcelona for next summer. Will check out Atrium Palace for our short list.

 

Great choice...we enjoyed it...good location, excellent service, breakfast, tapas, internet...etc.

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Northern Aurora

Northern Aurora

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We were also on the October 15th cruise. It was the middle leg of a B2B2B so we left the Equinox today following the TA from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

I didn't observe any evidence of a recurrence of noro on either the October 15th or 27th cruises, but staff were still vigilant. When we boarded on October 2nd there were still some noro protocols in place (ie, no salt and pepper shakers on the tables in the buffet, but instead paper packets of salt and pepper were rolled in the cloth napkins with the cutlery).

 

We were in Blu for the first two legs and then switched to a Sky Suite to try Luninae. Due to a surprising number of groups (with several wanting to be seated promptly at 7:30 PM every night) Blu was particularly busy during the October 15th cruise, but I spoke to Blu mate d' Mihaela several times during the October 27th cruise and she said there weren't the number of groups on the TA sailing and the busy-ness in Blu had calmed down.

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