*** Live from the Celebrity Equinox" June 4-13, 2024 - Western Mediterranean

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

It's the morning of Day 2 and we're in Naples, Italy today. 

 

I'm currently sitting in the Retreat Lounge waiting to get off the ship. We were supposed to be off at 7am and we have an excursion that's supposed to leave at 7:30am but we're still awaiting local clearance. 

 

Frustrating, but that's cruising... We've cruised enough that we know it's just part of the experience so we'll roll with it! 

 

More to come...

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Good news - shortly after making this post they cleared us to get off the ship. 

 

We're now in our van via Rome In Limos for a tour of Positano and Sorrento this morning and then Pompeii this afternoon. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

We are in an Aqua Sky Suite on Deck 12.

 

The room itself is fairly basic but plenty spacious with a nice sized balcony (though with an overhang directly above the balcony).

 

We like the location as it's relatively close to an elevator (without being too close) and not far from the main pool and the other features on Deck 12.

 

 

 

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

The Retreat Lounge is a quiet space without any live music or window views, but it's a nice spot to grab a drink or a quick bite as you wait for the ship to be cleared at a dock. 

 

We boarded the Equinox at 11am yesterday and after stopping by a couple times without a Concierge being in the area, we finally were able to make reservations with the Concierge shortly after Noon. 

 

---

 

I know not all of you are interested, but we sailed in the Yacht Club on both the MSC Seascape and Seashore last month so this is top of mind for us. If this isn't of interest to you, consider this your queue to skip the rest of this post.

 

The Retreat Lounge lacks the lovely music in the evenings we enjoyed in the Top Sail Lounge in the Yacht Club, and also lacks the great views, large open space, and a 24/7 Concierge (I'm not sure what the hours are for the Concierge in the Retreat but it definitely wasn't 24/7 in our experience from what we've seen so far (the Concierge was missing more often than they were in the Retreat Lounge). The bar is also quite a bit smaller with less comfortable seating. 

 

The Top Sail Lounge was our absolute favorite space on MSC but I don't see us spending much time here on the Equinox.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

The first show in the Equinox Theater was Rebel: A Classic Rock Experience, and they did not disappoint. 

 

These guys were extremely talented and entertaining. I even took a moment to grab a photo following the show and they were kind enough to take part in a twist on the classic rock hand gesture - Horns Down!

 

The Cruise Director, Drew (unsure of last name), did a great job of getting people excited and ready for the show (and the rest of the cruise).

 

Celebrity definitely does entertainment right! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

The Equinox did not have a traditional Sail Away Party but they still had a band playing out on the Lido Deck.

 

One of the big surprises so far has been how few people are hanging out at the pool or laying in the loungers. 

 

Yesterday wasn't super warm (though also not cold) so that may have contributed to things, but so far the ship has not felt very crowded (a very nice change of pace after being on MSC over Spring Break).

 

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

Lady Luck was not kind to us on night 1 aboard the Equinox, but we will enjoyed our time in the casino. 

 

The casino is a really good size for a ship the size of the Equinox with more than 200 slot machines + plenty of table games. 

 

I ran into a small issue where after I waited several minutes for the pit boss to come bring me cash (he was chatting with coworkers) but I just took that as my queue to call it an evening, which was probably the right call anyways. 

 

One of the things we truly appreciate about Celebrity casinos is that they're 100% smoke-free, something we wish all the cruise lines would go to.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5 by FamilyAtSea.travel

[Gracie115]

The pictures are great.  Thanks for taking the time to post them and your experience on the Equinox.  I do have a question about the recent drydock that hopefully one of the concierge's or the butler can answer.  Were the 4 new Horizon suites at the front of the ship on decks 7 & 8 renovated as the website has indicated the last few months? Would love to know as we are booked in one later this year.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise, we love the S class ships. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

4 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

The pictures are great.  Thanks for taking the time to post them and your experience on the Equinox.  I do have a question about the recent drydock that hopefully one of the concierge's or the butler can answer.  Were the 4 new Horizon suites at the front of the ship on decks 7 & 8 renovated as the website has indicated the last few months? Would love to know as we are booked in one later this year.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise, we love the S class ships. 

Yes, I can confirm the Horizon Suites were built based on a conversation with the Retreat Director yesterday!

[Gracie115]

3 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Yes, I can confirm the Horizon Suites were built based on a conversation with the Retreat Director yesterday!

Thanks!!!!

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

I posted this in the Dry Dock thread but one of the very few visible changes from this was they removed the grassy areas from the aft of the ship (but not the mid by the alcoves and glass blowing).

 

Pictures of these changes are below: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I dont think it is all that usually usually that there wasn’t that many people by the pool on a Med cruise , 

passengers aren’t going there to veg in the sun 

besides that I find lounges uncomfortable 😉

 

What do other cruises do for Sailway ?

as we’re always by the sunset bar for sailways meeting up with friends? 
 

We’re not on the Equinox until the November TA 

Edited June 5 by Ex-Airbalancer

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

29 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I dont think it is all that usually usually that there wasn’t that many people by the pool on a Med cruise , 

passengers aren’t going there to veg in the sun 

besides that I find lounges uncomfortable 😉

 

What do other cruises do for Sailway ?

as we’re always by the sunset bar for sailways meeting up with friends? 
 

We’re not on the Equinox until the November TA 

Sail Away on other cruise lines is just a bigger party. 

 

In addition to a band, the Cruise Director will be MCing things, they'll have other performers (i.e. acrobatics, magic, etc), they'll have things like limbo and congo lines, etc.

 

It doesn't bother me that Celebrity doesn't have that at all, simply an observation. 

 

They sold 95% of rooms on this sailing but it still feels half empty, which is very nice.

[39august]

Many people were waiting for the dry dock to see if a bar was added to the Retreat Sun Deck. So, was it? 

[Gracie115]

Pictures look great.  Grass was nice but this is much better.

[Gracie115]

1 minute ago, 39august said:

Many people were waiting for the dry dock to see if a bar was added to the Retreat Sun Deck. So, was it? 

I have read elsewhere that this did not happen.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

7 minutes ago, 39august said:

Many people were waiting for the dry dock to see if a bar was added to the Retreat Sun Deck. So, was it? 

No, a bar was not added and from what I can tell, nothing was done on the Retreat Sun Deck. 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

I'll share more specific thoughts later but one odd thing - the new Daniel Boulud Signature dishes are the same exact thing every night.

 

Luminae has a very limited menu, BUT the Veal Cannelloni I had for dinner tonight is hands down one of the best dishes I've ever had on a cruise ship. 

 

Well done Celebrity, very well done. 

 

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

We experienced an issue with a reservation we made with the Retreat Concierge that wasn't actually booked and when I called both the Concierge and our Butler about this, our phone simply said, "Invalid Extension."

 

I ended up reaching our butler by calling the general Guest Services number who had her call me and she said it's a known issue... When in dry dock they changed from satellite phones to some new phones that use the Internet but the connectivity is very inconsistent and has led to a lot of upset guests who can't reach her (for what it's worth, I was kind and not rude).

 

I asked about the new Retreat benefit that is supposed to allow us to reach them via chat since the phone calls aren't working and she said those also aren't working on the Equinox due to IT issues. 

 

She said IT is aware of the issues with the phones and the Hotel Director is as well, but there's unlikely to be a resolution in the immediate future. 

 

Not the end of the world for us as we don't need much from our butler but I'm sure there's some very upset Retreat guests as a result.

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

We did a spin class this morning that was 40 minutes long, with warm up and cool down/stretching at the end.

 

It wasn't the best group fitness class I've ever taken but it's included with our Aqua Sky Suite and it got our heart rates elevated, so that's a win... Hopefully worked off a drink or two for later this afternoon! 

 

The Equinox has a nice variety of equipment: cardio machines, weight machines, and dumbbell.

 

Even today, on a sea day, it wasn't overly crowded which was nice as we've definitely done some cruises where you have to wait extended periods to use a piece of equipment. 

 

Their gym is very suitably sized based on the size of the ship. 

 

 

 

 

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

For those of you who prefer to stay connected while you cruise - the internet on the Celebrity Equinox is pretty awful. 

 

It has Starlink but whatever they've done to throttle connectivity or just the WiFi infrastructure in general is extremely disappointing. 

 

We cruise often (6-8x/year) and this is the worst internet I can remember coming across in many years. 

 

The network drops entirely about 40% of the time, and the times when it does work, it only has speeds like you see below: 

 

 

For comparison's sake, below is a speed test I did aboard the MSC Seashore last month: 

 

 

As you can see, the Seashore has 20x faster download and upload speeds despite having more than twice as many people onboard the ship. 

 

Do better Celebrity. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

For those of you who prefer to stay connected while you cruise - the internet on the Celebrity Equinox is pretty awful. 

 

It has Starlink but whatever they've done to throttle connectivity or just the WiFi infrastructure in general is extremely disappointing. 

 

We cruise often (6-8x/year) and this is the worst internet I can remember coming across in many years. 

 

The network drops entirely about 40% of the time, and the times when it does work, it only has speeds like you see below: 

 

 

For comparison's sake, below is a speed test I did aboard the MSC Seashore last month: 

 

 

As you can see, the Seashore has 20x faster download and upload speeds despite having more than twice as many people onboard the ship. 

 

Do better Celebrity. 

That has the speed for premium wifi since  Starlink has been install except for the first week when it was reported it was above 100 Mbps 

I hope you reported your disappointment on Celebrity daily feedback form 😉

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

4 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

That has the speed for premium wifi since  Starlink has been install except for the first week when it was reported it was above 100 Mbps 

I hope you reported your disappointment on Celebrity daily feedback form 😉

I definitely wish it was as advertised. 

 

I haven't come across the daily feedback form... Is that in the app?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

10 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

I definitely wish it was as advertised. 

 

I haven't come across the daily feedback form... Is that in the app?

In the daily paper, there should be a QR code , that code takes you to the form ,

the one time I filled in code , I did get a call from Hotel Director the same day 😉

[Gracie115]

9 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

For those of you who prefer to stay connected while you cruise - the internet on the Celebrity Equinox is pretty awful. 

 

It has Starlink but whatever they've done to throttle connectivity or just the WiFi infrastructure in general is extremely disappointing. 

 

We cruise often (6-8x/year) and this is the worst internet I can remember coming across in many years. 

 

The network drops entirely about 40% of the time, and the times when it does work, it only has speeds like you see below: 

 

 

For comparison's sake, below is a speed test I did aboard the MSC Seashore last month: 

 

 

As you can see, the Seashore has 20x faster download and upload speeds despite having more than twice as many people onboard the ship. 

 

Do better Celebrity. 

 

That's horrible!  Starlink on the Apex was excellent, something's very wrong here.  Hope you found the link that @Ex-Airbalancer mentioned.