Detailed review of Celebrity Equinox with photos, Rome-Barcelona, June 25 – July 2

[Lunastella]

As the fort is location on a hill, there are great views over Palma from the top of the fort, we could see the Equinox in the distance. It looks massive from here. An Oceania cruise ship was also in dock. The fort itself is home to the city museum, and it had a photography exhibition while we were there. It also looked like they hold concerts or plays in the evening as there was a stage and seats set-up. It would be a wonderful location for a concert, pity we didn’t know in advance, we could have bought tickets. We spent a good while wandering through the rooms, and admiring the views from the top.

But now that we were up here how would be get back down??? This was a much trickier affair, no taxis lining up, no buses, no nothing, help! And help soon came to the rescue. The kind ticket collector called a taxi for us and we waited and waited some more, and no taxi arrived. Two phone calls and an hour later, one eventually arrived. We were saved!

 

Images from Castell de Bellver

 

And views from the top

 

Cruise ships in the distance

 

We had planned on going to the contemporary art museum in Palma, but it was almost 5pm at this stage so straight back to the ship we went, via a slight detour as the taxi driver thought we wanted Oceania instead of Celebrity, maybe someday. Back on ship, I went to the gym for a quick run then some review writing in the solarium, then back to cabin to get changed for dinner. We considered heading back into Palma after dinner for a walk around the city, but the last shuttle bus was leaving at 9pm, so we wouldn’t make it in time given dinner in the MDR was at 8.30. Ah well, plenty more time tomorrow (the ship was docked overnight in Palma tonight).

 

DM's $$ requests for her outfit posts were getting out of hand, we had to drop her. We wore black.

 

Before dinner, we sat out on deck 5 for a while, watching the sun going down, and then headed in for dinner. The sommelier came over to our table straight away tonight, typical, the one night I’m not drinking he comes over! As I still wasn’t feeling the best, I went for ‘light’ choices tonight, salad, pork loin, but I wasn’t too sick for dessert of course, tarte tatin. So overall I was somewhat successful, no alcohol today, but couldn’t resist the call of dessert. That was one step too far for holidays. The MDR seemed empty tonight, I guess people went into Palma for dinner. But earlier that day we tried to book Murano for tonight and it was fully booked, so maybe everyone was there. After dinner DM suggested going to the pool party, I suggested going to bed, we went to bed…the earliest night so far.

 

I can't resist any apple related desserts

[Lunastella]

Day 8 – Palma de Mallorca II

 

No gym for me today as we wanted to get into Palma early to have a beach day (any excuse…legs still a little wobbly). We decided to order room service and have an alfresco breakfast on our balcony (for the first time on this cruise actually). I recommend you try it at least once, it feels very decadent for some reason. It arrived right on time, the phone call notifying us of its imminent arrival woke me up. The breakfast was very good, everything we ordered was there, but I think we got the portions wrong when we filled out the order form. We ordered 3 portions of melon…or so we thought…we ended up with a mountain of melon.

 

Breakfast on our cabin balcony

 

After making our way through the melon mountain we got the shuttle bus into Palma and headed to the tourist office again. I had found a beach club online (Nassau Club) which was within walking distance to the city, but when I rang it that morning to reserve some sun loungers they said that they were already booked up for the day. Ah well no trendy beach club for us so. We needed to find an alternative hence the detour to the tourist office for some advice, plus the free wifi. They recommended taking a bus to Playa de Palma, which was about a 25 minute bus ride away. It has 8km of long sandy beaches with lots of facilities. Sounds good. The bus stop was just outside the tourist office and the fare was only a euro or so. We had spent a lot of time looking at the Mediterranean on this trip, so about time we actually got in! So off to the beach we went.

 

As I may have already mentioned, I love the sun, I love the heat, but it really hates me, heat rashes, swollen hands, you name it I get it, so beach umbrellas are a must for extended periods in the sun. Rather than rent the fancy bamboo umbrellas and sun loungers which lined the beach, we bought 2 umbrellas in one of the many shops along the seafront. We did try to rent the fancy ones, but finding out how/who to pay required way too much effort. We quickly gave up. Anyway, it was almost the same price to buy the umbrellas as to rent them. It was already pretty busy on the beach but it was easy enough to find a good spot close to the sea.

 

Beach life

 

Bargain umbrellas

 

We stayed long enough to experience a taster of beach life with a few dips in and out of the sea (cold at first but soon warmed up), but to be honest we are not really beach people so after an hour or so we had enough and we ready to head back into Palma for some lunch and to visit to the cathedral, which we had yet to do. Ah...now I remember why I don’t like beaches…sand everywhere… Luckily there are outdoor showers at the edge of the beach for washing off the sand….although days, weeks, months, years later I am still finding sand. Note to self, you don't actually like beaches, the idea, great, the reality, sandy.

 

We got the local bus back to Palma and walked through the old town until we stumbled upon a really nice restaurant called ‘Las Olas’. There were only a handful of tables outside which were already full, so we sat indoors. I had the most colourful and lovely looking meal of red peppers stuffed with cod and salad with edible flowers. So pretty. We skipped dessert as we were sure gelato would feature at some point in the afternoon.

 

 

The most colourful plate of food...ever

 

After lunch we visited the cathedral which was close to the restaurant. With the help of an audioguide we learned everything we ever needed to know about the site, it was a very long audioguide. The cathedral has beautiful stained glass windows and some Gaudi features, as the great Spanish master helped with the renovations of the cathedral in the last century. This was the first of many Gaudi related sites we saw…we were on our way Gaudi central tomorrow. The cathedral has a long history, but don’t worry you can learn all about it in the audioguide. The ship was leaving about Palma late afternoon so after picking up some obligatory gelato, I may have had some form of nut, we headed for the shuttle bus.

 

Cathedral

[matondo]

You asked about the Eastern or Western Caribbean. My vote is for the Eastern Caribbean. I love visiting the islands.

[Lunastella]

Once back on-board after our beach/cathedral adventures in Palma I realised it was my last chance to enjoy cruise life as tomorrow we would arrive in Barcelona, marking the end of our cruise. I spent some time packing up my luggage. While DS very graciously unpacked for me when we boarded, she didn’t extend the same offer regarding re-packing. Boo. After packing, I did my usual late afternoon drill, gym for a run, solarium to write, and whirlpool with a beer (I’ve learned my lesson, don’t order wine in the pool bar). While I was busy at work, DM and DS when to the hot glass show – there was no commentary today, just music while the staff worked on one large piece together. I forgot to mention that the day before DM and DS went to the hot glass auction and they were surprised by the relatively low prices for some amazing pieces of work, including the watermelon vase. They didn’t buy anything though as a) DM doesn’t do ornaments, and b) we were travelling home with Ryanair…enough said.

 

Last time in here!

 

Beer...safer than wine methinks

 

We decided to go to the 7pm show in the theatre tonight as it was dancing and I love dancing. I got ready in record time, met DM and DS at the lawn club, and headed to the theatre. The show was really very good, the best yet I would say. While the singing wasn’t my style (a bit too Disney for me), the dancers and acrobats were very great and the costumes were beautiful. Before dinner we headed up to desk 14 to sit outside and enjoy our final evening on-board and reflect our cruise experience. We all agreed that we had really enjoyed this cruise and that the Equinox was almost as good as Reflection. But we also agreed that we preferred the ports of call last year (Istanbul, Mykonos, Kusadasi, Athens) – they were much more interesting and historic than this year’s ports and we really felt that we did some proper sightseeing last year, less so on this trip. That said, we had a fantastic time. DS thought the food was better last year, DM thought it was pretty similar, as did I.

 

Last evening on-deck

 

Last sunset...well not ever but you know what I mean

 

Unfortunately our last meal in MDR that night, was not great. And we were not the only ones who thought so. So many tables around us were sending back dishes. I was going to order the butternut farotti, but our waiter asked me if I really wanted to order it (hint hint….don’t go there, thanks for the tip), so I had the veal instead, although that wasn’t great either. Fordessert I went for the old reliable as I knew it would be good - crème brulee, you can’t beat brulee, it was great. After thanking and tipping our two waiters we went straight back to the cabin after dinner to pack up our final bits.

 

Tonight's menu

 

Possibly spinach turnover

 

Similar to last year we were self-disembarking in the morning, so we didn’t have to put our suitcases out the night before. It also meant we could get off the ship at any time without waiting for our number to be called. Plus we wouldn’t have to wait at the baggage carousels (which they have in Barcelona port). My family seem to travel very light compared to most people on cruises, maybe because we are only coming from Ireland... I am surprised that more people do not choose self-disembarkation as its much quicker and your luggage can’t go missing! Speaking of missing luggage, 2 days ago I was at guest relations inquiring about the shuttle bus, and I heard one couple saying that they still hadn’t received their luggage. I felt so sorry for them, the cruise was almost over at that stage, and understandably they were very upset. I don’t know if it was the airlines fault or Celebrity’s fault, but I got the impression they were not happy with Celebrity at all.

[drychi]

My wife and I will be on this ship on May 5, 2017 in the Caribbean. We have enjoyed seeing this great ship through your eyes. We can hardly wait to board her! Thanks for posting your comments and pictures. Happy Cruising! Bob and Linda

[Luckynana]

I thoroughly enjoyed following your review and wonderful pictures. Thank you for taking us along!:)

 

We'll be boarding the Silhouette in Civitavecchia in nine weeks! So excited!:D

 

Thank you again!!

[Lunastella]

Day 9 – Disembarkment and Barcelona I

 

We were up and out early today as we had to leave our staterooms by 8am. So no gym for me this morning, actually I am not even sure if the gym opens on disembarkment day. As usual we went to Oceanview for breakfast, why change at this stage! We even snagged an outdoor table to enjoy the view of Barcelona in the distance. The buffet was the busiest I have seen it yet…important to get those final pieces of banana bread! After breakfast we back to the cabin to collect our bags, and 10 minutes later we were off the ship. Just like that, cruise over, boo, but two more days of holiday in Barcelona, hurray. Unlike DS who has been to Barcelona 6 or 7 times before, it was my and DM’s first time here. Barcelona is one of the few major Europeans cities I had yet to visit - I’ve been saving some cities for my old age. Guess I’m old aged now.

 

Sunrise for the first time from cabin balcony, benefits of getting up early

 

Our plan was to get a taxi to the hotel, drop off our bags and go exploring. There were plenty of taxis outside the port and we only had to wait a few minutes. It was a little sad to leave the ship, but I was excited to see Barcelona. Our hotel, Praktik Ramblas, was located on Rambla de Catalunya which is in the L’Eixmple area - basically around the corner from Casa Batllo and just a couple of blocks from the top of La Ramblas. I am not sure how or why I chose this hotel, possibly based on TripAdvisor reviews. There are so so many hotels in Barcelona that it can be impossible to select one, DS and I spent a lot time looking for one. But thankfully, we were really pleased with our choice. I guess you would call it a ‘boutique’ hotel, it’s based in a beautiful old building but the rooms are very modern and, luckily for us after spending time in a ship’s cabin, very large. We also had a great balcony overlooking the lively street below. The hotel does not serve a full breakfast, but every morning there are freshly baked croissants and pain au chocolates and coffee/tea available to take to your room or on to their beautiful outdoor terrace. I would definitely recommend this hotel for the location, interiors, and the staff who were really friendly. So friendly in fact that they let us check into the hotel when we arrived –and it wasn’t even 9am in the morning yet. Score!! This must be the earliest I have ever been able to check in to a hotel room.

 

Hotel medley

 

Hotel balcony

 

We went to our room to unpack the required essentially for the next 2 days, covered ourselves in sunscreen (well me anyway) and picked up some croissants (second breakfast anyone??), and headed out to the outdoor terrace to plan our day. I had the Rick Steve’s port guide for Barcelona and a lonely planet guidebook, plus the excellent DS, so we were well armed. As it was still so early in the morning, it was the perfect time to do some of Rick’s self-guided walking tours as the streets were still quite empty and it wasn’t too hot yet.

 

Planning our day

 

Hotel common room

[Lunastella]

We did the La Ramblas tour and the Barri Gothic tour, stopping off mid-way for a detox juice, which was much needed at this stage of the holiday, although one juice didn’t quite hit the mark, a few weeks of healthy eating might be needed on return.

 

Detox juice

 

The walking tours were great for getting a sense of the city. Obviously 2 days is not enough time to spend in a city as big and rich in culture and architecture as Barcelona, but it would have to do for now. The most important piece of advice I can give you for Barcelona is to look up, just keep looking up and you will see the most amazing and random sites….be careful crossing roads obviously. You could also do the hop-on hop-off bus tour, but you would miss the intimacy of the narrow side streets in the Gothic quarter and the small squares dotted here and there.

 

Entrance into one of those small squares

 

In one of the (large) squares

 

We particular enjoyed the La Boqueria market which is just off La Ramblas. I even bought some smoked paprika…possibly my only purchase on this entire holiday…amazing. It was interesting to walk the whole stretch of La Ramblas from Placa de Catalunya to the port and see the change styles along the way. While on the Barri Gothic tour we tried to enter the Cathedral, but my shorts were too short. Mental note, wear longer shorts tomorrow.

 

The market

 

Prawns anyone?

 

 

By 12 o clock we had already achieved quite a lot, so an early lunch was calling despite the two breakfasts! I had made note of a blog recommendation for Alcoma Café and Tapas Bar which was in the Barri Gothic area just off La Ramblas. That would suit nicely so. They have an outdoor courtyard at the back of the restaurant, so it was good to sit down in the shade and rest our weary leg after all those walking tours. Also, the city was to starting to get busy…the tourists (like us) were descending. We ordered a selection of tapas to share, everything from patatas bravas to green peppers. I love going for tapas at home, but (and I hate to admit this), but I generally find the tapas in Spain to be much greasier and generally unhealthier than the tapas in Dublin- everything is fried! Well almost everything. And indeed all the deep frying makes things very tasty.

 

Lunch after 2, possibly 3, breakfasts if you count the juice

 

Feeling fully restored after the tapas and glass of rose, we were ready for the Picasso Museum. It was a toss-up between the Picasso Museum or the Museum of Contemporary Art. Picasso won, mainly because it was nearer. We were getting very lazy at this stage. We hadn’t booked tickets in advance, but we didn’t have to queue for long (ha maybe because everyone else booked tickets in advance!). All the Barcelona guidebooks recommend booking all sites in advance due to large queues. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona houses much of his earlier work which he did during the time he lived in Barcelona and also Paris, rather than his later more well-known material. It was interesting to see the evolution of his work and the museum is located in a beautiful building (3 interconnecting houses). You can also rent an audioguide, but we were all audioguided out at that stage so we just wandered through the rooms. Re-confirmed my suspicions that I’m not sure a Picasso fan. After that we were all done in…. back to the hotel for a rest methinks…decided to walk…it was kind of a long way, wouldn’t make that mistake again.

[Lunastella]

Thanks for following along Luckynana, not quite finished yet...2 days in Barcelona to go...and then I am done!

[Lunastella]

Day 9 –Barcelona II

 

After our busy morning & afternoon in Barcelona we had time for a couple of hours rest back at the hotel before our plans for the evening would kick in. While researching things to do in Barcelona, I saw that Casa Batllo (one of the Gaudi designed houses), held ‘Magic Nights’ during the summer months. This basically includes entry into the house at 8pm with an audio guide tour, then a concert on the rooftop with drinks included. Sitting on a rooftop designed by Gaudi in Barcelona on a summer’s night sounded like a perfect evening, so I had already booked the tickets well in advance. But first dinner.

 

Actually first outfit posts

 

Where has her foot gone??

 

I had read about the restaurant Condal Cuitdal from Bimmer09, (aka Norris, aka a great cc contributor). As it turned out it was almost right across the street from our hotel. What luck! Apparently they don’t take reservations on Saturday nights (I called across earlier in the afternoon to check), so we headed across at about 6pm, and scored a table (well an indoor table as all the outdoor ones were taken). We ordered a range of tapas between us and a bottle of chilled catalunya wine (white obviously given the chilledness). The food was very good, but I think having tapa twice in one day is a bit much, or maybe all this food is just catching up on me….

 

We were still too early to go to Casa Batllo, so we went to a coffee shop just 2 doors up from it - the ticket man in Casa Batllo recommended it as it’s in the same style Gaudi style. You enter the coffee shop through a beautiful entrance, leading to a very trendy coffee shop complete with an outdoor terrace with swings as chairs. I had a coffee and we shared a dessert as we didn’t have any in Condal (shock), and indeed we didn’t even have any ice-cream today, what was wrong with us…ah I see we just came off a cruise ship.

 

Trendy coffee shop

 

Casa Batllo before concert

 

Casa Batllo after concert

[Lunastella]

By the time we got back to Casa Batllo there was a massive queue, everyone had pre-booked tickets like us, I guess everyone thinks an evening on a Barcelona rooftop is a good idea. Fair enough. However as a consequence this meant that when we actually entered the house and got our interactive audioguide it was difficult to fully enjoy the whole experience. While the house is very innovative (no straight walls) and beautiful, it was also very crowded. It also didn’t help that everything seemed very unorganised - we hadn’t even finished the audioguide tour when we were called up to the roof for the concert. We was initially told that we could do the rest of the tour later, but once we went up to the roof, we were told we had to bring the audioguide back downstairs…very annoying, so ended up missing the last few rooms. Plus the concert didn’t start for another 15-20 mins or so.

 

Just look at them, so attentive

 

Medley of our night

 

Fancy cava

 

That said, it was very beautiful up there. They were handing out white flutes of cava and bowls of sweets. There were no chairs, so a standing concert it would have to be. After all the walking we did today, DM and DS were none too pleased, and some people even resorted to sitting on the floor.

 

I won't name anyone in particular

 

There was a female singer and guitar player, I didn’t catch their names, and they played what I would call ‘easy listening’ music which was pleasant enough. The light was beautiful as the sun was setting and I guess it was magically, the staff just need to be more organised and possibly get some chairs….

 

The night's entertainment

 

We stayed about 45 minutes and then left before the concert finished, which was actually a really good move as we got to enjoy the beautiful stairway and atrium sans people! The rooms were closed off at that point though. I would recommend visiting Casa Batllo if you get a chance, it is a privately owned house, but the ticket sales go towards its restoration so it’s a worthy cause despite the high prices. That’s one thing I noticed about Barcelona compared to many of the other cities I have visited – the tickets for all the major tourist sites were really expensive, more than +€20 as the basic fee. The cost of living in Spain is generally lower than much of Europe, so this was something I did not expect. It can make Barcelona an expensive trip. For example, it was €24 to get into the Sagrada Familia basilica. Again, the ticket sales are used to pay for the continued building work, but €24 to enter a church is a lot of money, even if (as you will see tomorrow) it is a spectacular church…..but I certainly couldn’t have afforded it in my backpacker days. Luckily those days are long gone! No smelly hostels for me. Next stop…bed…at last.

 

A big door

[Lunastella]

Day 10 – Barcelona III

 

Second, and last, day in Barcelona today. The hotel we were staying in didn’t have a gym, so I considered going for a run, but that would have involved some route planning and getting up early…. so that didn’t happen! We had tickets booked for entry into Parc Guell for 9.30, so after a quick coffee and croissant on the terrace we headed to the nearby Placa de Catalunya to get bus 24 to Parc Guell – which is another Gaudi designed park/uncompleted residential complex. It’s located a couple of miles outside the city centre on a hill. We waited and waited, and waited some more for the bus, but the queue grew and no bus appeared. So instead we hopped in a taxi. Taxis ended up being our preferred mode of transportation in Barcelona as they are reliable, fast and cheap, well at least compared to Dublin. The trip to the Parc was less than €10 for the 3 of us. Today was very cloudy and rain was threatening for most of the day. It surely couldn’t rain on the last day of our holiday!!! It did. Ah well it will help us reacclimatize to Ireland.

 

Clouds!!!

 

There was two parts to Parc Guell - the monumental zone which you have to pay to gain access to (€7), and the public park which is open to everyone. The Parc also houses the Gaudi House Museum which was the original showhouse for the new residential estate and where Gaudi lived almost 20 years from 1906 until 1925. Our ticket for Sagrada Familia (which we would be going to later that day) included entry into this museum. The Parc contains beautiful mosaic work in classic Gaudi style. The estate was supposed to have 60 residential homes but only 2 were ever built due to escalating costs and a lack of interest in living on the estate. We enjoyed walking around, but like all the Barcelona sites it was quite crowded. The Gaudi House Museum was the only place not crowded, so that was a nice relief. They also had a good gift shop…Gaudi mug for DH so.

 

More curves at Parc Guell

 

More jumping at Parc Guell

 

Quick snap no people!

 

This is my type of recycling

 

DM keeping me warm

[Lunastella]

The next couple of hours were a bit miserable, it was cold, it started raining, and we walked from Parc Guell to Sagrada Familia (a long way!) and then had the worst lunch ever…so bad I won’t even go into it. But then things improved - we had bought tickets in advance to Gaudi’s, as yet unfinished, Basilica – the great Sagrada Familia. It is spectacular both inside and out and it’s not even finished yet. Personally I preferred the style of the interior than the exterior….the windows, the light, beautiful, a very modern cathedral. If Carlsberg did Cathedrals, they would do Sagrada Familia type Cathedrals. We spent a long time there, with yet another audio guide. If another audio guide features in my near future I won’t be responsible for my actions.

 

There it is so

 

Can't imagine what this would be like on a sunny day

 

Or this

 

No words

 

And then you have Richard Branson on the outside....

 

We got a taxi back to the hotel for a few hours rest and relaxation, we didn’t make the same mistake again, no more walking those long Barcelona streets. We had no plans for our last evening in Barcelona and indeed the last evening of our holidays. Both DS and I had peaked in terms of ideas, so DM took over and suggested we go to see the sea for the last time (…have you forgotten we live on an island DM….). Anyway, the beach it was. We using our new mode of transport we headed down to Barceloneta – the beachfront - by taxi. Barcelona is unique in that you can have both a city break and beach break in one holiday. We strolled along the water front for a while, the sun even started shining for us. We stopped for a final aperitif in one of the bars on the beach. The beach was packed even though it was close to 7pm. We didn’t have any definite dinner plans, just to find somewhere beside the sea. While availing of the free wifi in the beach bar I found a nearby Italian restaurant which had good reviews on trip advisor – Vicino’s. I know, I know, why were we having Italian food in Spain, but anything but tapa remember, had enough tapas the previous day. We had pizzettes (small light pizzas) and some salad, it all tasted so fresh and most importantly not fried! We sat on the outdoor terrace and enjoyed the sun setting over Barcelona. Overall, a lovely end for our last evening.

 

DM enjoying the sea for the last time....well not ever. exactly...

 

 

Only one post left….and it will be short I promise!

[sml3]

Why can't I see any photos??:confused:

[Lunastella]

Day 11 – Homeward bound

 

This will be short. Up early, bus to the airport (€5.90 from Playa de Catalunya), and flight at 10.20 back to Dublin. Arrived home to grey skies and drizzle, ah good to be home.

 

Overall, it was an excellent cruise and an excellent holiday. I loved having a few days in Rome and Barcelona at the beginning and end and I will always try to do that on future cruises. The Equinox is a great ship, and once again, we really enjoyed the Celebrity experience. As mentioned, Reflection has the edge, but only marginally. The passengers were a mix of every nationality and every age group - US, Australian, South American, UK, and Europeans. I didn’t notice any one particular country dominate. Everyone was well behaved, not too many kids running around and very few rowdy drunkards (unless that was me...). Apart from one or two nights in MDR, the food was very good, particularly Tuscan Grille. I even enjoyed the buffet, shock. The gym was great, as was the solarium, my usual hangout. Having breakfast every morning on the outside terrace was lovely, highly recommended, as well as trying out breakfast on your balcony at least once. We didn’t do any of the ship’s excursions, so can’t comment on those. We enjoyed the ports, but not as much as last year...I’m a classical rather than beach kind of girl. Cabin was almost identical to Reflection, no complaints there, extra-large balcony was great. Will I go on another Celebrity cruise, absolutely. But not yet. First I am going to branch out and try a different cruise line….just for comparison purposes and to ensure I don’t get bored. Equinox and Reflection were so similar, so a different cruise experience is now needed.

 

I would like to thank you all for reading this review and for your comments throughout. But I especially want to thank DS and DM for being the best travel companions in the world. May we have lots more adventures together.

 

 

 

After all this writing I need a holiday...Italy is that you I hear...ok so see you tomorrow

[lola2013]

Wonderful review...thank you for taking us along. I have travelled on Equinox twice, once on Solstice and will be on Reflection next March. You have me looking forward to Reflection even more.

Going forward, happy travels!

Susan

[voyager90265]

Thank you for taking the time to create such a lovely review. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

May your future travels be many, safe and filled with adventure!

 

Cheers...Michael

[Hocus]

Thx for your review, we'll be sailing for the first time on the Equinox in december

[Baatman]

Once we got through passport control and retrieved our luggage, we made our way to meet our driver. There were literally hundreds of drivers with name signs, I’ve never seen so many in any airport before, all a bit hectic. Took us a while to find our driver, but eventually we found him and soon we were in the car and on our way to Rome. The driver was great, pointing out lots of sites along the way, including the newly restored Pyramid of Cestius which I had never seen before. It is the only surviving pyramid left following ancient Rome’s conquest of Egypt...apparently.

 

A pyramid in rome:

 

By 11.45 we were at the hotel and by 12.15 we had checked in. Early check-in, score! Quick change of clothes, doused ourselves with the SPF (factor 50 of course, remember Irish skin), and off to lunch. OK so I got us a little lost trying to find La Tavernetta, so many windy narrow streets, so hot, so many people. But eventually we found it with the help of google maps. It’s a good little restaurant, right in the middle of the historic city, yet on a quiet side street with no traffic. Plus is has an outdoor terrace. They have a set lunch for €15 which includes a starter, main course, water and wine. Bargain. I had linguine with prawns, followed by meatballs, and chilled white wine of course…wine at lunchtime is a must on our first day. Um…and maybe the second…we’ll see how we get on. The pasta was great, so great that I had trouble restraining myself. As we were heading out for a big dinner that night, I didn’t want to eat too much. Generally I minimise carbohydrates on a day to day basis, and I wanted to avoid carb loading on my first day, a cruise is a marathon not a sprint, ah well, that didn’t quite work out. As you will realise over the course of this review, I like food a lot! While enjoying food and the wine a flock of priests joined us, so there you go, a clerical seal of approval, it must be good. Sensibly they ate indoors.

 

The restaurant:

 

After lunch we planned to have ice-cream at Gelateria del Teatro, which is apparently one of the best places for ice-cream in Rome. It’s located on Via Coronari, where I had an apartment during a previous trip with friends. It is a lovely little street filled with antique shops and indeed the infamous ice-cream shop. Even though it wasn’t too far away from La Tavernetta, it was now close to 38 degrees, DM was melting, indeed I was melting, so we gave up trying to find it (I got lost again) and dived into a random place called - Gelateria Delle Palme. With 150 flavours it was going to be taxing. I’m not sure who told me this but when ice-cream is piled high in the display, it’s indicative of lower quality, style over substance, (always look for ice-cream you cannot see i.e. deep in the churns). Nevertheless, piled high or not, at this stage I didn’t care, and the ice-cream was actual quite epic. Apparently €3.50 gets you 3 scoops, not the one scoop we assumed (you have to pay for the ice-cream at the cash register, then you get a ticket which you bring to the counter), so we ended up with a lot more ice-cream than anticipated. But what an ice-cream it was - great flavours, profiterole, tiramisu and apricot. We had the ice-cream in the shop while staring at giant lollipops with pictures of Pope Francis on them. I said we should buy some for our nieces and nephews, but DM said their parents (i.e. our brothers) would not approve, ah I said, because they wouldn’t approve of lollies with the Pope’s face, no she said, think of the sugar, rot their teeth…so apparently it’s ok to lick the Pope’s face.

 

Given the early start, the heat, the food, we headed back to the hotel for a short siesta, which ended up being a long siesta. Then at about 4pm we headed out again (well DS and I did), DM slept. We did some shopping via the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. This time the Trevi was open, having been closed for renovations for what seemed like ages. The renovated Trevi is truly beautiful, worth the wait. The renovations were funded by the fashion house Fendi, who I noticed held a fashion show over the fountain a few weeks ago. Apparently about €3000 is tossed into the fountain every day in the hope of returning to Rome. OK so I know it’s touristy, but the money funds a low cost supermarket run by Caritas Charity, so I don’t mind tossing a coin or two in there. Back to the hotel to get ready for cocktails on the rooftop terrace and then dinner.

 

The restored Trevi:

 

After sipping a negroni on the terrace (while being freaked out by the huge seagulls waiting to swipe our nuts at any moment), we wandered to the restaurant via the Pantheon. The restaurant has no outdoor terrace and a very unassuming façade, so you really need to know where you are going. It had only opened and was already filling up. Dinner was beautiful, we shared an antipasto misto including fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta. Then my sister and I shared a primi and secondi - pasta (also with zucchini and lots of cheese) and shredding beef marinade in wine with walnuts and pears. Note to self, don’t order a heavy beef dish in sweltering heat. Save for cosy winter nights. To finish we shared tiramisu, have to have tiramisu in Rome. Well have to have tiramisu any time really. For the first few days DS and I were really good at sharing food in an attempt to at least try to minimisie food intake, but as you will see, as the days rolled on so did our stomachs. With a bottle of Montepulciano our meal was complete. All this for €100 in total! Bargain (I’m an economist, I’m in to bargains). Feeling truly stuffed, we walked back to the hotel enjoying the balmy night, and we slept very well.

 

Cocktails on the hotel rooftop watching the sun go down. They are not looking too happy, a bad nut?

 

Antipasti:

 

An overview of our first day. Me typing up our first post...I seem to be concentrating very hard...

 

Obviously I have now figured out how to embed photos....

 

Very creative - how did you get the pictures to post side by side?

[Bimmer09]

Thanks for a great, absorbing read and for so many excellent photos!

 

I noticed at one point you said you might like to try another cruise line- there's a Princess/Celebrity comparison in my signature that you might find interesting.

 

Norris

[mrsgoggins]

I really enjoyed your review. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it :)

[photabitha]

Thank you. I have really enjoyed your review. Stunning photographs, a good insight to places and the ship and, of course, the Irish craic! So enjoyable.

[Celia66]

Thank you for such a detailed and entertaining post, a great read! I'm on the Celebrity Equinox as I type this (our first cruise) and my trip will be exactly the same as yours but with Cartegena and Valencia tagged on the end. We've just left Livorno having had a fabulous day in Florence and I was wondering what to do tomorrow on the Cote d'Azur as I have 'done' Nice and Monanco several times. I've read your post and problem solved! We'll head to Efrussi de Rothschild and maybe end up in Eze. Thank you for taking the time to post your experiences, it's a great help to the rest of us! ......I also agree with your opinion of the Equinox, an all-round great ship.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Celia66

[MariahJ]

Wow, what an amazing review! Thank you for all of the details.

 

I have a question about the Solarium. I will be on the Equinox in just over 2 weeks and hope to actually swim laps (training for a triathlon a few days after my return). Do you think that is feasible or was the Solarium generally too busy? And is it a full-length lap pool? I'm thinking I may have to get up early on lap swimming day.

[easyboy]

Thank you for the review and photos. Memorable indeed!