Just off Equinox today 10/8 - my experience

[cruisenfromstlouie]

On 10/8/2023 at 12:54 PM, Cruising Princess said:

After 45 cruises on Celebrity - I have a lot of experience sailing in all cabin categories from inside to suites.  So I hope you can appreciate my level of experience sailing with Celebrity. 
 

we disembarked today after 8 night sailing.
 

Here are my initial impressions of this sailing:

 

The ship is in need for some major maintenance.  Our balcony ceiling had a lot of rust and grime.  The railing had been sanded but never revarnished.  So you couldn’t lean on it for fear of splinters.  
 

Bar area on Deck 5 - sofas and chairs lost all their support.  When you sit you sink down very far.  Impossible to stand up when wearing heels without assistance.

 

Dinner in Murano was passable but nothing like previous years.  Quality declined from the salads to grade of meats.  Service was good but at $60 plus 20% tip it’s not worth the money.
 

2 nights in Tuscan - service very slow.  Food not much better than MDR.  A lot of misses.  Avoid ordering any pasta or Italian dishes. The lasagna and chicken parm tasted like they contained Indian spices. Pastas were overcooked and came out  cold.  
 

MDR - biggest let down. Quality of ingredients and proteins have dropped significantly. Some fishes totally overcooked, salads with no taste, and their seasonal vegetables were the same every night with beans and carrots until we got to night 6 when they switched everything to peas and carrots.   And of course the lack of options on menu didn’t surprise me to see more than half the people around me ordering French onion soup or escargot.  And don’t get me started on the ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes on almost every dish.  Finally on  night 7 I ordered a baked potato. It came out undercooked and hard as a rock.  
 

Outdoor pools have a lot of chipped paint in bottom - needing a lot of maintenance.  On port days there were no bar servers roaming around asking to take drink orders.  Bartenders worked hard and most were friendly.  
 

Entertainment was forced and lacked any spark.  One evening however they had silent disco and the DJ kept people on dance floor.  I’m in my sixties and even I was bored most of the time.

 

In summary this was the first time in over 60 total cruises where I said that I couldn’t wait to go home.  The cruise left such a bad taste in our mouths that we just cancelled our next cruise. 
 

 

 

 

[Cruise till you drop]

On 10/8/2023 at 2:44 PM, NMTraveller said:

 

What is new is the maintenance issues on the ships.  Equinox and Edge this week.

I see that Equinox has sailings on Oct 8th and 14th so are you saying it was having maintenance the beginning of October (before Oct 8th) ?

[cruisenfromstlouie]

Oh boy! Couldn’t agree more! Whew….we got off in September from ABC islands. We had the Sunset Veranda. Didn’t mind the walk at all but the room…. Ughhh.  The view was fantastic but could only be on balcony early morning or when the sun went down. Cabin steward asked us to keep drapes closed. The AC couldn’t keep up. The balcony was just sad! Dirty, rusty and grime.  The balcony ledge was split and didn’t come together- top over bottom but it was secure. When we looked over all we saw was rust and paint missing on the back end of the ship.

Food in MDR was disappointing. Exactly as poster described. Many repeats on menu items. We ate majority in the buffet which was OUTSTANDING!! Great job there. Employees were wonderful. Very professional and helpful and always smiling. A lot of games, dancing around pool area and in the evenings. Would love to have just listened to band but that wasn’t to be or we missed it. Went to a couple shows.  Hopefully, with the refurbished next year some of these issues will be resolved. 
 

 

[cluso]

1 hour ago, cruisenfromstlouie said:

Oh boy! Couldn’t agree more! Whew….we got off in September from ABC islands. We had the Sunset Veranda. Didn’t mind the walk at all but the room…. Ughhh.  The view was fantastic but could only be on balcony early morning or when the sun went down. Cabin steward asked us to keep drapes closed. The AC couldn’t keep up. The balcony was just sad! Dirty, rusty and grime.  T
 

 

What cabin were you in?  Doing Equinox Sunset Veranda in January.

[Cruise till you drop]

12 minutes ago, cluso said:

Doing Equinox Sunset Veranda in January.

We’re also doing Equinox SV in January (8th) .  Coincidence 

[cruisenfromstlouie]

18 minutes ago, cluso said:

What cabin were you in?  Doing Equinox Sunset Veranda in January.

8644

[bjahil47]

Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise.  We were on that cruise, plus the one before it.  It was best cruise ever!  We had Aquafina and iced tea in bottles.  I also posted a review.  

[Arzeena]

On 10/8/2023 at 7:13 PM, NMTraveller said:

Maybe everyone could bring a bucket of paint and a brush 🤣

Sea Day Activity: Paint by Buckets.😁

[sun bum]

22 hours ago, 1620rock said:

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed your Equinox cruise and were able to get the Premium NA items.  DH only drinks 1 -2 drinks with alcohol but he likes the teas and Vitamin Waters and will drink 4-5 a day and I like the premium juice smoothies and waters.   

 

We are on the Equinox in two weeks and getting a little worried about recent reviews.  We also have final payment for January Silhouette cruise due before we board and having second thoughts.

 

Were you able to order the premium water in the MDR , Pelligrino, AquaPanna or similar or did you have to bring it with you from the other bars?  We have never had a problem with that in the past and hope that hasn't changed.

 

 

We had no issues getting premium waters in the MDR or Tuscan. I like a nice sweet white wine sangria. I was able to get it every night in the main dining room. I did ask for a margarita with Patron Silver at the World Class Bar but they did not have it. No biggie, my husband got drink an we moved on to the Craft Bar to get mine.

[Stockjock]

On 10/8/2023 at 11:25 AM, jelayne said:

I hope you completed the post cruise survey.

On my recent sailing on Infinity, we spent 3 days post-cruise in Athens.  Upon returning, I saw the survey link but needed a few days to rest, do laundry & get my bearings.  When I clicked on it, after being home for a couple of days, it had already expired.

[Stockjock]

On 10/8/2023 at 4:01 PM, Cruising Princess said:

More thoughts….

 

we upgraded to Premium drink package. Many of the wines on the premium list were out of stock. So had to drink $9 and $10 value wines. Seemed interesting that they hadn’t run out of any of the cheap oops mean classic wines. 
 

I was unable to get any water besides a No named filtered water. No spring water. No Evian as stated on premium package. Also no Vitamin Water or bottled ice tea. 
 

the premium package was not worth the cost. 
 

Oceanview cafe was similar to past cruises but you can see how a lot of dishes were poorer quality or in some cases watered down like the refried beans at Mexican station. How sad since a can of beans is so cheap!

 

there were less options at lunch and dinner. They would repeat some dishes at different stations making you think there are more options than not.  Overall passable but disappointing value. 
 

Mass Grill was still good. Love their fries!

I had a similar experience on my NYE 2021 cruise on Summit.  We purchased the premium package, but the better wines we wanted seemed to not be available.  I also noticed that I ordered French Champagne, but I was given cheap Prosecco.

[kywildcatfanone]

17 hours ago, cruisenfromstlouie said:

We ate majority in the buffet which was OUTSTANDING!!

Glad to hear this.  We eat the majority of our meals there, and board this weekend.

[MISTER 67]

Some points in regards to the OP's comments.

We have sailed on the Equinox 5 times since the restart and thought for her age she is in fine shape.

We do agree on the condition of the verandas, some rust and in need of some paint and varnish.

Entertainment has been pretty good except for the production shows which have been the same for 4 years.

MDR has cut down on selections with main courses and dessert, food is good but not great, we sailed on the Equinox a couple of times right before the pandemic and had some memorable meals in the MDR with a great Beef Wellington, we had Beef Wellington in August on the Equinox and it was just OK.

We eat breakfast and lunch in the OVC and the selection is fantastic, why such a great selection in the OVC but not the MDR.

We have been cruising since 1980 and refuse to eat in specialty restaurants, we feel that we shouldn't have to pay extra to get a great meal on a cruise but the OP wasn't raving about the specialty restaurants which is not good, I've read this on other threads also.

Service continues to be great with twice a day cabin service and mints on the pillows.

[NMTraveller]

22 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

I see that Equinox has sailings on Oct 8th and 14th so are you saying it was having maintenance the beginning of October (before Oct 8th) ?

I am saying that according to the OP and many other posts on this board,  the ships are starting to look tired and are in need of some basic maintenance. 

 

Small things like this are normally taken care of while in port.

[Cruise till you drop]

5 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I am saying that according to the OP and many other posts on this board,  the ships are starting to look tired and are in need of some basic maintenance. 

 

Small things like this are normally taken care of while in port.

Sorry I was confused by your post that said 

“What is new is the maintenance issues on the ships.  Equinox and Edge this week.”

I took this to mean you knew the maintenance schedule for Equinox and Edge were for this week

[AF-1]

On 10/9/2023 at 12:28 PM, cruise wizard said:

We will have our first cruises (B2B) on the Equinox in January of 2025 out of Port Canaveral. I hope that some / most of the issues will be addressed and corrected by this time. We have cruised on the Eclipse, Millennium, Summit, Infinity, Edge and this coming February on the Constellation.

out of all the ships you mention;  which was your favorite and why?

 

[Arzeena]

18 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Glad to hear this.  We eat the majority of our meals there, and board this weekend.

Us too.

[cruise wizard]

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

out of all the ships you mention;  which was your favorite and why?

 

 

We loved the Edge - the ship is beautiful, lots of open spaces to relax, the decor is "fresh" - simple elegance. Lots of food venues and MDR choices (try them all). We enjoy Cafe al Bacio a lot. Our cabin of choice is a full balcony - not the infinite verandas.

[AF-1]

On 10/11/2023 at 9:37 AM, cruise wizard said:

 

We loved the Edge - the ship is beautiful, lots of open spaces to relax, the decor is "fresh" - simple elegance. Lots of food venues and MDR choices (try them all). We enjoy Cafe al Bacio a lot. Our cabin of choice is a full balcony - not the infinite verandas.

Thanks for your feedback.  All the best. Cheers

[HopefulCruiser123]

On 10/8/2023 at 2:17 PM, ECCruise said:

Thanks for relating your experience, @Cruising Princess

 

Does not give warm and fuzzies by any stretch. 

Me neither.  I just put a hold on a 2025 transatlantic in a sky suite.  I have two days to reserve or look for a better option.  I've been reading reviews all day long and they are far and away very negative.  It's a really big expense when you considered that the chances it will be a big disappointment seem to have really gone up exponentially.  

[Chrisclaire]

On 10/10/2023 at 6:20 PM, Stockjock said:

I had a similar experience on my NYE 2021 cruise on Summit.  We purchased the premium package, but the better wines we wanted seemed to not be available.  I also noticed that I ordered French Champagne, but I was given cheap Prosecco.

Our latest cruise on Solstice,  I ordered Champagne and was served horrid Prosecco.

We were on the classic package, so I was paying $8 & for the privilege!

I ended up asking to see the bottle and have it poured in front of me.

This is disappointing as it causes unnecessary embarrassment on both parts.

 

[39august]

I don't believe there is any champagne priced for the classic package. If you want French champagne you will have to pay the upcharge. And you will have to ask for it. I have the premium package every time and sometimes I have to specify "real" or "French" champagne.. 

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, 39august said:

I don't believe there is any champagne priced for the classic package. If you want French champagne you will have to pay the upcharge. And you will have to ask for it. I have the premium package every time and sometimes I have to specify "real" or "French" champagne.. 

Unless I am misunderstanding her, I think she meant that she had the classic package and paid the $8 upcharge for "Champagne", but didn't get it.

As I mentioned, I was being served Prosecco rather than Champagne in the premium package, but worse for her if she was paying an $8 upcharge, for Prosecco, which should have been included in the classic package.

[Cruise till you drop]

5 hours ago, Chrisclaire said:

Our latest cruise on Solstice,  I ordered Champagne and was served horrid Prosecco.

We were on the classic package, so I was paying $8 & for the privilege!

I ended up asking to see the bottle and have it poured in front of me.

This is disappointing as it causes unnecessary embarrassment on both parts.

 

Did they pour it in front of you and did you see the bottle ?

[Chrisclaire]

13 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Did they pour it in front of you and did you see the bottle ?

They did & yes I saw the bottle.

Didn't recognise it and don't remember the name but it was a black bottle and was very good.

I also asked for a "nice" Champagne glass instead of the horrid thick prosecco glasses 😄 

#fussy 😉