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

[Skip2MySue]

Being that this will be our first Celebrity/Equinox cruise I'm anxious to see pictures of Lumanie restaurant.  Thanks for all your efforts on this review.

Edited January 18, 2019 by Skip2MySue

[mafig]

Question about the Anytime Dining on Princess.  One of reasons we stopped cruising with them is that we prefer a table for two.  On all of our Princess cruises we would ask for a table for two and were constantly asked "don't you want to share?"  A couple of times even after we said "no" they still brought us to a large table.  Also, the Traditional diners were allowed to go back and forth and by the end of the cruise the traditional dining room was empty and there was a long line for Anytime.

 

Loving your review.  One of the best I've read in a while.

[MikeyA53]

2 hours ago, mafig said:

Question about the Anytime Dining on Princess.  One of reasons we stopped cruising with them is that we prefer a table for two.  On all of our Princess cruises we would ask for a table for two and were constantly asked "don't you want to share?"  A couple of times even after we said "no" they still brought us to a large table.  Also, the Traditional diners were allowed to go back and forth and by the end of the cruise the traditional dining room was empty and there was a long line for Anytime.

 

Loving your review.  One of the best I've read in a while.

 

Thank you, we had Anytime dining and had the same table for 2 for all our three meals. I don't know if it made a difference that we usually arrived within 5 to 20 minutes after the restaurant's opened.

 

 

[MikeyA53]

We had pre-purchased the Trio Specialty Dining plan for $89 per person. The three restaurants included in this plan were Ocean Cay, Asian Market and Butcher’s Cut. The price onboard for the Trio package was higher than the pre-purchase cost. They had a fourth specialty restaurant called Teppanyaki which could only be booked onboard. If you booked Teppanyaki you had three different choices of a 3 course meal to pick from and if I remember correctly, the cost of a three course meal ranged between $30 and $60 per person.

The trio package purchased before or during the cruise had a smaller menu of items to pick from. I found the choices were not much better than what you can get in the regular dining room. If you did not like the choices offered on this smaller menu you could trade your appetizer, entrée or dessert for an a la carte choice on a larger menu for half its price. The prices seemed inflated on this menu. I ended up choosing a dry-aged porterhouse 22oz steak which was $50 and got it for half price. It was very good but I ended up paying a total of $30 for the package plus $25 for the steak for a total of $55. On Princess everything is included in the menu except the surf and turf which I paid an extra $10 for a lobster tail.

I also made a change at the Asian Market restaurant that cost me an additional $21.85. Then at Ocean Cay I made the mistake of ordering a second appetizer thinking I would pay half price for it but since it was not an exchange but rather a second appetizer I paid the full $16 for an appetizer not worth more than $12 in most land base restaurants. In addition with the dining plan you can only have one appetizer, one entrée and one dessert. On Princess and Celebrity you can have several appetizers and desserts. All the food was very good but I don’t like how they had this two menu system.

All 4 restaurants are conveniently located together on deck 16.

 

Butcher’s Cut

 

 

 

 

 

Our meal at Butcher’s cut  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

Ocean Cay 

 

 

 

 

Our meal at Ocean Cay 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asian Market 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our meal at Asian Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bar amongst the restaurants

 

[MisterBill99]

29 minutes ago, MikeyA53 said:

We had pre-purchased the Trio Specialty Dining plan for $89 per person. The three restaurants included in this plan were Ocean Cay, Asian Market and Butcher’s Cut. The price onboard for the Trio package was higher than the pre-purchase cost. They had a fourth specialty restaurant called Teppanyaki which could only be booked onboard. If you booked Teppanyaki you had three different choices of a 3 course meal to pick from and if I remember correctly, the cost of a three course meal ranged between $30 and $60 per person.

 

Did you try doing the status match on MSC before you left? If you have any sort of status on another cruise line, you might have been able to get it matched at MSC and gotten a free meal in a specialty dining restaurant, and not have to deal with the limited menu (although I think I did have to pay extra for something that I ordered).

 

BTW in the MDR, did you have fixed dining or anytime? I'm guessing it was fixed since I think anytime is only offered to people who book the Aurea package.

Edited January 19, 2019 by MisterBill99

[MikeyA53]

11 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Did you try doing the status match on MSC before you left? If you have any sort of status on another cruise line, you might have been able to get it matched at MSC and gotten a free meal in a specialty dining restaurant, and not have to deal with the limited menu (although I think I did have to pay extra for something that I ordered).

 

BTW in the MDR, did you have fixed dining or anytime? I'm guessing it was fixed since I think anytime is only offered to people who book the Aurea package.

 

 

 

Yes I got a status match to Gold which does include a specialty meal and you are right,  even with a free meal you are limited to the smaller menu. In addition you are also right about only Aurea package includes anytime dining. We had the fantastica package.

[MisterBill99]

2 minutes ago, MikeyA53 said:

Yes I got a status match to Gold which does include a specialty meal and you are right,  even with a free meal you are limited to the smaller menu. In addition you are also right about only Aurea package includes anytime dining. We had the fantastica package.

 

We were also Fantastica. The lack of anytime dining was one of many things that annoyed me about MSC. But the worst was that they quietly changed the rules for the free Black Card (which we qualified for) specialty dining from two per person to two per cabin (and one per person) right before our cruise. They refused to honor what was being offered when we booked the cruise and I refused to pay for a second meal on principal so we only ate at the Asian place.

 

Someone else on our sailing who had been on Seaside previously and were apparently friends of the maitre'd managed to get their 2nd meal for free. They were in Aurea so they got to eat whenever they wanted.

[philamyc]

Great and helpful review. Following.

[MikeyA53]

Teppanyaki 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were engaged in a conversation with people we met at our meal and I forgot to take photos of our meal.

 

 

One other dining venue we tried was Venchi Cioccogelateria-Coffee Bar which had specialty coffees, chocolates and ice cream. The ice cream sundaes where smaller and more expensive than on Princess. I think I paid between $6 and $7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeyA53]

4 minutes ago, philamyc said:

Great and helpful review. Following.

 

 

Thank you

[sailco]

Loving your comparitive review. Thank you.

[BettyPC]

OMG!!!  So excited to see this as I was cruising the Celebrity board!

Betty

[MikeyA53]

8 hours ago, sailco said:

Loving your comparitive review. Thank you.

 

 

Thank you

[MikeyA53]

54 minutes ago, BettyPC said:

OMG!!!  So excited to see this as I was cruising the Celebrity board!

Betty

 

Thanks Betty

[MikeyA53]

Celebrity Equinox

The buffet was very good overall with lots of different items to choose from each day. I believe they had a different theme each day such as British, Mexican, American, etc. They even had an ice cream station with a nice variety of gourmet ice cream flavours. One complaint I had was the difficulty of finding a table some of the times. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bar service

 

 

 

Desserts on last sea day 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gkbiiii]

When I was in Yacht Club on Seaside late last year, I really liked my meal at Roy's and found their sushi to be outstanding.  When i went, all the Italian gelato & drinks were included: sadly this has changes, so sad!

Edited January 19, 2019 by gkbiiii

[MikeyA53]

We had Select Dining and ate at the Silhouette restaurant 3 nights. The food was also very good, definitely better than Seaside and slightly better than Princess for both the buffet and restaurant.

 

 

Silhouette Dining Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first Chic Dinner 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our second Chic Dinner

 

Tonight menu

 

 

 

Scallops Rockefeller

 

 

 

Double Baked Blue Cheese Soufflé

 

 

 

Slow Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb

 

 

 

 

Beef Wellington

 

 

 

Tracy’s two desserts 

 

 

 

My two desserts 

 

[MikeyA53]

We had pre-purchased a 4 meal package for $125 per person, saving some money compared to buying them individually. We ate at Tuscan Grill (Italian) Silk Harvest (Asian), Murano (French) and Sushi on Five. We also had a lunch at Murano for $25 per person. Again we really enjoyed all the restaurants. At one sitting I had ordered a steak for my entrée and asked the waiter a question about the lobster tail entrée and he asked me if I would to have one on the side at no cost. Quite a contrast to how we were treated on Seaside. I only wish Equinox had a steakhouse restaurant with a variety of steak cuts to choose from. 

 

Silk Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our waiter at Silk suggested we order several entrees and share them 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ch175]

This has been really interesting - thanks for all the time and effort you've put into it!

 

I don't know that I could do B2B2B. By the 4th day I'm usually seriously looking for a few light meals at the salad bar.

[George C]

Thanks for comparison, we are really looking forward to our seaside cruise in yacht club at end of the year. Great pictures.

[MikeyA53]

Murano

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our dinner at Murano

 

Warm Goat Cheese Soufflé  

 

 

 

 

Diver Scallop Wellington Style

 

 

 

Our waiter cutting our Chateaubriand for Two 

 

 

 

 

 

Our lunch at Murano Menu

 

Seared Scallops

 

 

 

Roasted Filet Mignon

 

 

 

 

Ivory Caramel Tart 

 

 

 

Gianduja Soufflé   

 

[MisterBill99]

3 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

When I was in Yacht Club on Seaside late last year, I really liked my meal at Roy's and found their sushi to be outstanding.  When i went, all the Italian gelato & drinks were included: sadly this has changes, so sad!

 

Gelato is no longer included with YC? That is unfortunate.

 

I was not in YC when I was on Seaside and had to complain to the F&B manager (who I met at the CC event) when they would not take my Fantastica package drink coupons for milk shakes. It got straightened out, but the Venchi manager had not bothered to tell the employees to accept them when I tried to use them, even after she had been told to accept them.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Thanks for the extensive review and comparison!  So far I'm intrigued by MSC decor and entertainment, but not the food. Maybe a better option in the Yacht Club, but it would have to be an exciting itinerary to justify the price.  Princess food looks better than I expected.

[MikeyA53]

On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 5:28 PM, Stateroom_Sailor said:

Thanks for the extensive review and comparison!  So far I'm intrigued by MSC decor and entertainment, but not the food. Maybe a better option in the Yacht Club, but it would have to be an exciting itinerary to justify the price.  Princess food looks better than I expected.

 

On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 5:28 PM, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Glad you are enjoying it.