I have to agree, We did a cruise last month on Equinox, our first post Covid cruise. Our last cruise in 2019 was fantastic and unfortunately were left disappointed on our 2023 cruise. We have no problem with older/smaller ships as we find the staff and service is better. Equinox was different, the food was very disappointing and very salty some nights in the MDR and we made a complaint on a few nights. The variety is not there and yes a lot of items being repeated, some nights there was 3 soups as starter choices!!! MDR is normally our favourite place to eat as on past ships the staff and food were brill and added hugely to our experience, however we were constantly being seated in different areas so never got to know any staff fully, we tried to reserve but the hostess told us we could not. We did find out from guests at the end of the cruise if you went down after 5:30pm you could reserve a table!!! We ate in Tuscan Grill on one night, the staff and food was lovely.
We are not theatre people however we love the live music and found the entertainment at sunset bar, and other bars/areas extremely disappointing. We noted all this in the survey and also mentioned it to our TA who advised we were not the first to mention about the disappointing food and entertainment. We normally give extra tips to staff who we love and often have a long list but this is the first cruise our list was very small. Definitely a big difference between pre and post Covid.
Also noticed in comparison to previous cruises a lot of smoking areas, always thought there was just one area but not on equinox.
On a positive note,There was 4 guys at the Sunset bar who were fantastic we made sure to mention this to their manager and also score them highly in the survey.