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Equinox Review

Islander500

By Islander500,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Islander500

Islander500

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Just returned from a Celebrity Equinox cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Here are some things I loved:

 

1. Our one cabin steward Marcus was phenomenal. Asked for what we wanted on the first day and never had to ask again for 11 days. BTW, I preferred having only one person instead of two in charge of the cabin. Yes, no towel animals, but we did have fresh beach towels every night before port days.

 

2. Over the last several cruises, I'd noticed that the Sommeliers seemed stretched thin. Not on this cruise. We loved Dwayne in Select Dining. Only once was he a just a tiny bit delayed in refilling our wine glasses at dinner and he apologized profusely. We had to convince him that we had just drained our glasses extra fast because we loved the wine he recommended. By the middle of the cruise, we just ordered what he suggested.

 

3. We are picky about our after dinner coffees. A combination of decaf, high-test, skinny, almond milk, latte, cappuccino, white chocolate mocha, and always Kahlua with ice cream, tiramisu and many other dessert options. After a few nights, our wait staff knew and just told us what we wanted.

 

4. The afternoons at the pool after excursions were always fun. Not too crowded, good music, great bar service. Once I asked my husband to get me a drink at the bar with a special añejo rum and he returned after having been intercepted by a server who assured him that he would take care of getting me my special drink. He did.

 

5. We had unlimited internet. Loved that option and it worked better than ever.

 

6. We love Cafe Al Bacio. They were efficient, pleasant and had almond croissants every morning.

 

7. The Gastro Bar was a fun place to watch basketball games and have drinks before dinner. Our family met there every night and the server seemed to have our pre-dinner cocktails ready as soon as we sat down.

 

8. We loved the new islands we visited for the first time - Tortola, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados. We visited Jost Van Dyke and Sandy Spit in the BVIs. Antigua's Valley Church Beach was stunning. The trip to Sugar Beach in St Lucia was so much fun. And Barbados' Carlyle Beach had the finest most powdery sand anywhere.

 

9. Embarkation and disembarkation were both a breeze.

 

10. Great bar service in Oceanview Cafe and wonderful variety of choices for lunch. Loved the salad options. We never got bored.

 

11. The best ever future cruise consultant. Wish I could recall his name.

 

Now for what I didn't love.

 

1. Dinner choices were a little tired and not as tasty as I'd remembered. Maybe because I've cruised Celebrity so many times. Nevertheless, they need to have a bit more variety in their menus. Change it up more often. Even though it's clearly better than cooking and cleaning up at home, it does appear that at least on this cruise, the food was bland. Our waiter was very candid in his recommendations about choices which had been returned repeatedly. Fish options in particular. The menus really need a refresher.

 

2. Entertainment was not that great. I like jazz and small ensembles and there was none of that. The Ensemble Lounge was empty most nights. The guitarist that was there one night was really awful, in my opinion. I don't like to go to the shows in the theatre so there was really nowhere else to go. Luckily, we had great weather and our balcony became the "go to" place after dinner on most evenings.

 

3. I know change is hard. But the World Class bar is just not as good as the Molecular Bar. It just isn't. I loved 90% percent of the drinks on the menu at the Molecular Bar. I really, really missed them. And the 25th anniversary martini is not nearly as wonderful as the 20th anniversary martini. Sorry!

 

So overall, I had a wonderful vacation. I was pampered, visited great places and met lovely people, read books, relaxed and spent quality time with my family. What's not to like? Like a lady I met on gorgeous Mullet Bay beach in St Martin said to me, "I feel sorry for anyone that isn't me today."

 

Maria

Edited by Islander500
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Silvery Seas Cruiser

Silvery Seas Cruiser

Posted
Posted

Thank you so much for your review.

 

We have cruised on Equinox twice this year and will again in August. I totally agree with you about the small jazz combos Celebrity used to have usually in the Ensemble Lounge (the piano bar.) I so looked forward to them and they were gone on both of the cruises we took this spring. A dude playing classic pop selections on an acoustic guitar is just no substitute for me.

 

Also Celebrity dropped the string trios and quartets they used to have until May. We had a lovely string trio in April, but they were gone in May. The men's vocal quartet has been gone a couple of years now. I really notice live music cutbacks because live music is one of the things I love about cruising.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your port calls. Evidently you had pretty good weather. I saw on a web cam that it was raining really hard in ST Martin today.

 

I loved the lady who was loving her beach day so much that she pities anyone who wasn't her. I really like her and I haven't even met her!

 

Again, many thanks for your informative review.

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2Fltravelers

2Fltravelers

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Thanks for the review. Your pros and cons are spot on. Having been on the Equinox 4 times, I am sorry that there has not been the same quality of after dinner entertainment. We found that disappointing ,too, but still love our Celebrity cruises.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Islander500

Islander500

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Hey all,

 

Thanks so much for the feedback. I'd never done a review and clearly did not follow the typical format so I'm glad you found it useful.

 

I also loved that quote. The lady, Carol, told me she just loves being at the beach. What was really funny is that she was always in the water alone because although her husband was with her, she said he never ever goes in the water. He enjoys the beach while reading under an umbrella. :cool:

 

In St Lucia, we went to Sugar Beach with Spencer Ambrose and enjoyed the excursion very much. Really a great value and they were lovely people, many family members are part of his team including his brother and daughter. It's quite far even by boat so I wouldn't try that on your own. Met many people who were repeat customers.

 

Maria

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miched

miched

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We were on the Equinox in April and it must have been same guitarist. He is terrible and we noted that in our questionnaire that Celebrity emails. We made a comment about how bad the entertainment is and he tops that list. I guess with all the cruise ships it is getting tough to find anyone wil any talent that they can sign.

 

It could also be a plot by X to have bad enterstainment in the Ensemble so people don't congregate there as it always was empty except during Elite Happy hour and before dining times. Or it could be so that the rest of the entertainment appear to be better than what they are.

 

Thanks for giving a honest review that almost reflects our opinion and observations.

 

happy cruisng 🚢🌊🇺🇸🌞

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marshabear

marshabear

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Posted

we recently took a cruise on the Eclipse and loved it but our only complaint about the entertainment was that there is very little seating to enjoy the bands, singers etc where they were playing...everytime we found a good group we wanted to listen to, there were no seats to be found and we can only stand so long.....

 

we are booked on a B2B on the Equinox in September and hope they have a good group/band in the Ensemble Lounge so we might get a seat...

 

thanks for your review!

 

 

 

Marsha

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