Equinox 10 night E Med Review

[audrey2580]

Just returned on Monday 7/18 and wanted to post a review. Disclaimer - we loved our vacation and if I sometimes post things I disliked or wish Celebrity would change, it in no way ruined our trip. Just my opinion.

 

Travelers: Cabin 7344: Myself and my husband (mid/late 30's) and our son almost 7. Cabin 7342: My sister (late 30's) and her son 7

 

Previous Cruises: Disney Wonder and my sister has been on RC 2 other times

 

Equinox: Stunning ship that is obviously just 2 years old. They celebrated the anniversary of receiving the ship while we were on board. Areas are clean, open and bright.

 

Cabins: Rooms were awesome. They took down the balcony divider and we loved having the huge space outside. Bathrooms have so much cabinet space that we didn't even know what to put it in all. Suitcases fit under the bed easy. Oh and the beds were very comfy. I was worried my 6' husband would be bothered by the round edge but he said it was no problem. We had the beds pushed together and it was the size of a king bed. The hair dryer they provide is okay, but it doesn't work in the bathroom, just the little desk area. Sucks if you want to wake up earlier than your family and get ready.

 

Pools: Loved the pools with one being shallower and the other deeper for volleyball. Watched the pool butlers put notes on "reserved" sunbeds that the offender had 30 mins to remove the note or their stuff would be brought to customer relations. No sunbed hogging on this boat! Interesting that even on sea days there was no lifeguard on duty - ever.

 

Fun Factory: Sorry - hated it. The kids really weren't into it. I'll post the kids dailies tomorrow, but the 6-8 year old program had things like duck duck goose. Really? I asked and they had 450 or so kids on board ranging from infant to teen. Board games were missing pieces so even when we checked one out we were unable to play it. My son and nephew asked the counselor if they could skip a game and play a board game together instead. They were told "no the only other option is to sit and watch us play". My son swam and LOVED it and said he really didn't want to go back to the kids club. On the Disney cruise we couldn't tear them from the kids club. The only highlight for them was the family scavenger hunt and the pirate hunt. I recommend doing those. The loot you walk away with is awesome - beach towels, hats, rings, etc. It was like they were cleaning out the closets.

My other complaints is that they let 11 year olds check themselves in and out. Numerous times I saw kids 11-12 hanging out by the elevators or just running up the halls without any adults. Just a bad idea IMHO. The night after a long day in Athens I was woken up at 10:30 by 6 kids running up my hall and hitting the walls. I politely asked them to keep it down and they did. But I wonder what my son would be doing if he could check himself in/out.

There were no kids channels on the TV. There were a 4 kids shows on the on demand. But at 10 nights my son watched critter quest too many times to count. On sea days there was 1 movie and it was PG13 or up. I wish they had 1 family movie at some point. The game show we participated in, Family Feud had answers like "condoms". I did put this all on a comment card for celebrity.

 

Food: At the ocean view cafe: The ice cream changed daily and always included a sorbet. It was excellent. The waffles if you can grab one freshly made (by the ice cream) were outstanding. The scrambled eggs were too runny for my taste but I just had them make me an omelet instead. The breakfasts were always good and my son loved the tacos for lunch. They often had large soft pretzels that were yummy. The food at the mast bar was good too and always hot. They had burgers, hot dogs, nachos, chicken wings. Silhouette Dining Room: We did Select Dining and loved it. We had reservations each night and often arrived early and were seated quickly. We had the same awesome waiters every night and got a great table for 5 by the water. The food was a nice variety but was often over cooked. The desserts were hit and miss. We loved a lot of things we ate and were left disappointed with others. The kids menu sucked. Sorry Celebrity. It never changed and had 1 appetizer - a fruit cup. It was: chicken, pasta, hot dog, pizza. My son got to a point where he would order the chicken and my husband would run up to Ocean View Cafe and get him all the stuff to make a chicken taco. Disney has them beat on this. No chicken noodle soup, no kids salad. My nephew ordered steak from the adults menu every night. Yep steak for 10 nights since pizza and chicken strips were not at all interesting. Room Service: great, used as our wake up call and always arrived 10 mins early. Boys loved the cookies and milk every night.

 

 

Fellow Passengers: Best part about the Equinox. Lots of different ages and different countries. No one seemed annoyed that we had two crazy 6/7 year old boys dressed in pirate pjs heading for ice cream at 9pm. The boys wore fake mustaches to dinner one night and fellow passengers laughed and smiled.

 

Random: Cashed several Euro Travelers checks on board with no issue and no fees. Nice to not have to carry all that cash around.

 

I'll add some more about ports tomorrow if you're still reading :-)

[celebritydave]

Nice review. Can you tell me where you got your Euro traveler's checks??

 

Thanks.

Dave

[2theship]

In recent days I've read a number of negative comments about Celebrity's kids program. Our girls started cruising on Celebrity when they were 5 and 6 and absolutely loved it. The programming in the Fun Factory was always great for the little ones. As they got older, they found it a little lame but I attributed that to them turning into pre-teens and then teenagers. Our favorite part was the fact that the dining room menu was different every single night. Basically, they took the adult menu and removed some spicing and any alcohol from the dishes. Of course, that was back in the days of Michel Roux running the cuisine so maybe that was one of his concepts.

 

I hope Celebrity pays attention to these negative comments. Our daughters became life-long =X= fans because of the wonderful times they had as small children in the 90's.

 

Obviously, you and your sister's kids have great parents to keep them engaged and happy without a solid kids' program!

[audrey2580]

Nice review. Can you tell me where you got your Euro traveler's checks??

 

Thanks.

Dave

 

I got them from Bank of America since I'm a customer there. I ordered them online and it took just a few days. I think I paid $7 dollars for them.

[audrey2580]

2theship - thanks for the kind words. I think the kids are an after-thought on Equinox. The waiters were great and just made the kids day. Chocolate Milk served in wine glasses, Ketchup happy faces on the plates. They even hugged them good bye on our last night. :-)

[Kiwis Afloat]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.:)

[celebritydave]

I got them from Bank of America since I'm a customer there. I ordered them online and it took just a few days. I think I paid $7 dollars for them.

 

Thanks for the info. I will check with my bank.

[audrey2580]

A few other random things:

 

Main Dining Room Dress Code: On casual nights we saw jeans on adults and flip flops and shorts on kids. Fine by me. One night a barefoot 10 year old in athletic shorts was trailing behind their dad. Not a word said by anyone. LOL. On formal nights men were handed a dinner jacket to wear to the table. We laughed that the "code" was so lax on casual nights but super enforced on formal nights.

 

Bringing wine on board: We brought 1 bottle on with no issue. In Sicily we brought another bottle on with no issue. In Athens our 2 bottles were confiscated until the last night. In Naples (last night) we were allowed to bring on board 3 bottles of Lemoncello. Guess its hit or miss.

[baxterbean]

Hi Audrey,

 

We were on your same cruise! We had a great time. We had our three boys with us and the kids club was hit or miss. My sons are 9, 6 and 10 months. The older two liked the programs, but not as much as other cruises. I was also shocked that the 9-11 year olds are allowed to sign themselves in and out. I wouldn't let my 9 year old do it and the counselors kinda acted like I was crazy. I also saw a lot of this kids in the age range running around the ship and on the elevators. I didn't want my son to get into trouble, so I wouldn't let him.

 

I also saw the pool butlers putting lots of those notes on chairs, but the pool butler never did anything about it. I watched them sit there for hours, but the belongings were never removed from the chairs. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for the review!! Glad you had a nice trip!! We did as well and can't wait to go again someday.

 

Lisa