B2B2B on Royal Princess, MSC Seaside and Celebrity Equinox. A comparison review.

[MikeyA53]

Celebrity Equinox

 

Compared to Royal Princess and especially Seaside, the production shows on Equinox were boring. We saw two of them throughout the week, during the first one I was falling asleep and I couldn’t wait for the second show to end, vowing I would not return. However the comedians were good and we also attended the game show Majority Rules and several trivia games which was fun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One new form of entertainment recommended by our friends who came with us on this cruise was ‘Silent Disco’. Everyone is given a pair of headphones and you can switch between 4 different channels for your music preference. As a consequence not everybody in the crowd is grooving and dancing to the same songs. It’s fun to see other people moving to a different beat than yourself and others. We also took part in Karaoke since Tracy and her friend love to sing.

 

The headphone glow different colours depending on what channel you have it on. 

 

 

 

Karaoke 

 

 

 

 

 

We found that the ship did not have much in term of activities. They did have Bocce Ball and Lawn Bowling on deck 15 which was mostly covered with real grass and a basketball court also on deck 15 . One unusual activity was the Hot Glass Show where one passenger at a time could make their own glass art piece for a fee. I believe the prices started at $45. Our cabin had a good size TV and we had 6 free recently released movies at our disposal, all other movies cost $15.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jokare]

Keep it coming, excellent job.  I didn't realize MSC had so much going on.

[MisterBill99]

Looking forward to seeing your food comments, especially about MSC.

[nicstress]

We boarded the MSC Seaside in Miami in October. How did you get on in Fort Lauderdale? I think you must have gone to Miami for Seaside and Equinox. 🤔 We had an aft South Beach Condo suite on the Seaside. Highly recommend!

[MikeyA53]

21 hours ago, hcat said:

Enjoying the review and photos.Thank you for doing it.  Hope to hear about the gyms,  spas and pools.

 

So far however,  it confirms  we will stick with Celebrity as it best fits our style  and we have good loyalty perks The ..new EDGE may be  very different but we  look forward to Celebrity's newest !

 

 

Glad you are enjoying it.

[MikeyA53]

19 hours ago, Jokare said:

Keep it coming, excellent job.  I didn't realize MSC had so much going on.

 

 

Thank you

[MikeyA53]

13 hours ago, nicstress said:

We boarded the MSC Seaside in Miami in October. How did you get on in Fort Lauderdale? I think you must have gone to Miami for Seaside and Equinox. 🤔 We had an aft South Beach Condo suite on the Seaside. Highly recommend!

 

 

You are right, stupid mistake. Too bad I can't go back and correct it.

[MikeyA53]

Dining

Royal Princess

The buffet food was good overall, we usually had breakfast and lunch at the Horizon Court. Many of the selections were repeated each day but we always found new dishes to try out. It was easy to get a table and I liked that they had the utensils at the table rather than collecting them at the food stations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pastry area which includes a speciality coffee bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plates have been decorated but the desserts are not on the plates yet.

 

[MikeyA53]

They did have a chocolate buffet toward the end of the week which we unfortunately missed and on the last sea day they had all you can eat lobster tails, shrimps and mussels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

In addition they had cake fest, 10 different cakes of which we tried 5 of them. Yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

We ate at the Symphony Anytime Dining room 3 times during the week. The food was very good overall. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first meal

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

Our second meal

 

No photos of our entrees, we love our deserts and many times throughout our three cruises we would share 3 and a couple of times 4 desserts

 

 

 

 

 

Our Third Meal

 

 

 

Second lobster

 

 

 

He was preparing cherry jubilee and it was fun to watch him. He would leave at times to get ingredients and someone else would come along and add something to the bowl. When he would return he would get annoyed with them for messing with his recipe

 

 

 

 

 

[Fogfog]

Nice to read the head to head comparisons.

Thank you!

[healthworker]

this is a fabulous comparison. One thing I found on princess was that the dining rooms did not look "fancy". your pictures confirm this

[MikeyA53]

We dined at the Crown Grill twice and once at Sabatini’s. The cover charge was $29 per person and well worth it. The cost is the same if you pre-book before the cruise or wait until you are on the cruise. In addition we did the Super Tuscan Wine Dinner in Sabatini’s. Cover charge was $60 per person. Overall it was a good experience with nice wines and delicious food. We wanted to do the Chef’s Table Lumière but could not get reservations. The only thing missing on Royal Princess was an Asian restaurant.

 

Crown Grill

 

 

 

 

An area you can relax and have a drink before your reservation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our meal at Crown Grill 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

Sabatini’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our meal at  Super Tuscan Wine Dinner in Sabatini’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

The International Café was also a great spot for specialty coffees, gourmet sandwiches and sweets. They had different sandwiches each day and you could get it grilled. Across from the International Café was Gelato which served ice cream and gelato. I indulged myself several times during the week with ice cream sundaes made to my specifications (lots of different topping and sauces to choose from) for only $3. The only places we didn’t try was Alfredo’s Pizzeria and Trident Grill.

 

 

International Café 

 

 

 

 

The morning display, the sandwiches are displayed starting at lunch

 

 

 

 

Gelato 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alfredo’s 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trident Grill 

 

[swigso]

This is a fantastic review thanks very much you have a great style of putting things down. Can you give an indication as to the smoking policy on the non Celebrity ships please.

the one thing that keeps us loyal to Celebrity is their smoking policy which as you know does not allow smoking anywhere inside the ship

thanks

 

[MisterBill99]

9 hours ago, swigso said:

This is a fantastic review thanks very much you have a great style of putting things down. Can you give an indication as to the smoking policy on the non Celebrity ships please.

the one thing that keeps us loyal to Celebrity is their smoking policy which as you know does not allow smoking anywhere inside the ship

thanks

 

 

MSC has much more smoking because they get a lot of European travelers. In fact, half of the South Beach pool in the back of the ship on Seaside (deck 7) was smoking, making it pretty useless for anyone who did not smoke.

Edited January 18, 2019 by MisterBill99

[MikeyA53]

9 hours ago, swigso said:

This is a fantastic review thanks very much you have a great style of putting things down. Can you give an indication as to the smoking policy on the non Celebrity ships please.

the one thing that keeps us loyal to Celebrity is their smoking policy which as you know does not allow smoking anywhere inside the ship

thanks

 

 

I don't know their policies but I did notice that Royal Princess had the Churchill's room, the door appeared to be closed all the time and you could only smell the smoke if you went inside. Besides that we did not noticed any area or were affected by smoke while inside.

[MikeyA53]

MSC Seaside

 

The ship has 2 buffet restaurants, the larger one on deck 8 and the smaller on deck 16. We usually had breakfast and lunch in the larger one. Overall the food was good but they practically had the same menu all week. I had difficulty finding something new to try each day. We had the Mealtime Restaurant Drink Package included in our cruise fare. This meant unlimited beer, wine, bottled water and soft drinks in the buffet and dining room during lunch and dinner but not in the specialty restaurants. I believe they had 2 types of beer, two red wines, two white wines and one rosé wine to pick from. They had coke products for soft drinks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

They had self serve machines in the buffet for all three types of drinks, however the machines only had one type of beer ( Heineken), one red and white wine (no rosé) which was convenient. They also had a bar in the buffet where you could also get your drinks and they had waiters serving at tables. Whenever I needed a beer or soda outside meal time I would bring a empty coke bottle and fill it up for takeout. They had self serve machines in the buffet for all three types of drinks, however the machines only had one type of beer ( Heineken), one red and white wine (no rosé) which was convenient. They also had a bar in the buffet where you could also get your drinks and they had waiters serving at tables. Whenever I needed a beer or soda outside meal time I would bring a empty coke bottle and fill it up for takeout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

We ate in the dining room twice, the food was good. The portions were a bit smaller than on Princess and Celebrity so big eaters like us had to order multiple dishes. When Tracy ordered a glass of wine on our drink plan they brought the bottle and kept it near our table. The waiter kept re-filling her glass throughout the meal

 

Ipanema Restaurant 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first meal, forgot the entrees

 

 

 

 

Our second meal, Thanksgiving dinner 

 

 

 

 

[micheleata]

Loving this review!   

[MikeyA53]

17 minutes ago, micheleata said:

Loving this review!   

 

 

Thank you.