Equinox Review - March 15-25, 2013 - My experience & opinion!

[mizLORInj]

We arrived one day early and stayed at the Embassy Suites on 17th Street. Nice place. Ate at Carlos & Pepe’s and the food was good and margaritas fantastic.

 

In the morning we went to Publix for a few items. Others from my family arrived at FLL at 9am and headed right to the port. They were among the first few in line. Finally let into the port and after another wait they were able to be checked in. At 11:30am no one was boarding yet. My bro said they were being told it was an immigration issue. Finally I got a call at 1:30 that boarding had begun. Shortly after this call, my friend and I headed in a taxi from the hotel to the port. No line at security, quickly got through and they checked my bottles to make sure they weren’t hard liquor (seltzer was in some—unopened, and 2 bottles of champagne). No line for check in either! Woohoo. Meanwhile we asked why embarkation was so delayed and we were told there were passengers who would not get off the ship from the previous cruise! Pretty amazing, but it explained why as we arrived at the port a group of people were outside the cruise terminal getting into taxis with their luggage.

 

Boarded the ship and got our glass of sparkling wine. Headed right to our 2B cabin on deck 7 and dropped off our stuff. The cabin was larger than I expected. The balcony was large too. There is very limited storage space, and if there were 3 in the cabin there is definitely not enough storage space. Did not like that there were lifeboats and a big ugly blue platform just below us. Our bathroom fan was not working; I only know this because my bro’s cabins did. Towels were ratty. No towel animals during this cruise. Be aware that walls are quite thin and we heard the person in the next cabin coughing at all hours. We could also hear neighbors’ phone conversations through the wall. I was glad there were cotton balls in the bathroom as I used them as earplugs.

 

Attended the muster drill which was way too long at 30 minutes. NCL has muster drills down to a science and they’re less than 15 minutes getting the same info across.

 

The Molecular Bar was really cool and we tried various drinks throughout the ten days. The rose one was my favorite I think. The 2 bartenders were great too. There were many bars on the ship and they had peak and quite dead times. Martini bar was cool but we didn’t spend any time there. Quasar lounge near the theater was funky but I didn’t see anyone in there ever.

 

The tv channels were very limited and too many of the few available were news channels. There was also the Cartoon network and TNT along with Celebrity channels. “Classic” movies were from the 90s. There were a few movies on demand too. Menus need to be on the tv. Onboard account is visible on the tv but OBC took a day or two to show, and the system showed a balance of $0 the day before the cruise was over. Nav system channel could be better; shows where you are and speed and degrees; that’s about it. Oh, temperature. Nice that you can order room service through the tv and we did this once or twice.

Demographics on this cruise I would estimate at 75% over 60. Many Europeans too. I heard others talking about how it was not the most friendly bunch of passengers, and this was even noted by one of the comedians.

 

The 3 Production shows were good; we also saw the juggler, pianist and comedian and they were all good too.

 

Food everywhere was fabulous. Dining room service and food was superb. We ate there 6 of the 10 nights. Sometimes 2 hours for dinner is a bit much for me. The dinner buffet seemed to be the same every night, and service was quite lacking. There were not a lot of people in the buffet for dinner. Dirty dishes stayed on tables for way too long every time we were in the buffet regardless of time of day. Indian food was good, Asian stir-fry or hot station, pizza, pasta station, breads, sushi at dinnertime, fruit, desserts. I love that ice cream/sorbet is available from ~12 noon-11pm. They had great flavors and most were delicious. I ate more ice cream in 10 days than I do in a year! Guava sorbet was my favorite. The no-charge coffee was hideous; we bought at The Daily Grind a few times. Sad you have to pay for decent coffee. The burgers at the grill by the pool were quite good as were their fries. Brunch one of the sea days was really good; next time we will arrive 45 minutes after it starts so the lines are gone. I thought shrimp cocktail belonged there but there was none.

 

The ship wasn’t as clean as I’d expect. Even our cabin balcony had garbage and finger or toenail clippings (not ours) and there were prior cruisers’ lotions, etc. in the bathroom drawer. I had to ask for the balcony to be cleaned on the second day which I don’t feel I should have had to do. Need more attention to detail. Towels and bath mat was sometimes quite ratty and frayed. Thinking room stewards may have too many cabins for which they’re responsible.

 

Why does this ship have only two banks of elevators? For 3,000 people that is not enough. I heard people complaining about how far our walk from aft was to the nearest elevator; we viewed it as exercise!

 

Yes, there were chair hogs by the pool.

 

Photographers were set up a few of the nights, not just on formal nights. Many nice photos were on display for purchase at a decent cruise-level price. Then the usual embarkation and various in-port photos (I like and buy the ones of us with the actual ship in the background only!). My bro got some nice family portraits in some type of package. There is also another photographer set up sometimes with whom the ship contracts for special photos; his cost more than the regular Celebrity photos but he does a nice job.

 

There was a mixology demo poolside the first sea day and they gave out a few cocktails. I got the mojito. You just have to be vocal when they ask who wants the cocktail! (I’m not a quiet one!).

 

There are two pools outside, one is shallow, one deeper. The other is in a solarium and is for adults only. My nephew loved the outside pool and actually swam distance for the first time. It was exciting.

 

Corning Hot glass show was very cool. The lawn area is nice but I think is mostly wasted space.

 

The live musicians were good for the most part. I thought their performances and the recorded music that played poolside was too loud.

 

Around 10am each day the captain would give an announcement with the ship’s position, ETA for next port, weather report, etc.

 

We really liked: the brunch, larger than expected cabin and balcony, décor, library, Molecular Bar, Guest Relations: my bro and SIL had an issue in their cabin and it was resolved, and the person at GR even followed up which is rare. We were impressed!

 

Didn’t care for:

lifeboat location (obstructing views), long muster drill, ratio of pools to passengers, no final bill delivered to room day of debarkation, paper comment cards (all other major lines do this electronically). This ship does not have a deck that goes all the way around the ship for walkers or just a nice view. Missed that.

 

PORTS: St Thomas we did a daysail. St. Kitts we took the ferry to Nevis and then a taxi to a close beach and hung out there awhile. Lime I think the place was called. Drank a few Killer Bees. Barbados we did a catamaran sail with Silver Moon with some roll call people. Was great except for the sea lice that were biting. Dominica we toured with Woody which was great, and St. Maarten we went to Maho Beach via taxi.

 

We got back to Port Everglades around 6am, and we had #19 with a 9am meet-up in the Silhouette restaurant. Our # was called around 9:40am and it took about 45 minutes to get through the very long customs/immigration line. Only 3 agents were processing everyone (no separating US citizens from non-US citizens).

 

Was it a fun cruise? Of course. Will I cruise with Celebrity again? Probably, as the not-so-positives I've mentioned don't ruin my cruise. The ship was lovely and if I had to compare it to another mass market line, I think it’s closest to Princess.

 

Cheers!!

[El_aurens]

Great review, thanks for sharing! We'll be sailing on Equinox next January.

[Lois R]

Thanks for the review. The elevators? All the S class have only

2 sets of them.

[cazzi]

Great review, we were on this ship on the 15 as well. I did notice that the towels were kind of ratty. This surprised me as a upper scale cruise line this should not happen. I agree with you on the TV channels as they were horrible only news and movies with a couple of kid channels. I have had better selection on other cruise lines

[Shippy]

I agree with some of whtat you say....not all.

While we were waiting to board, we were given a letter saying the delay was due to customs. not as many workers as there used to be. OK for us as we had a nice seat but some people wound up standing quite awhile whilst we waited to board.

I had actually mentioned to my husband how nice the bath towels and thick bath mat were.

We did have a mini suite, though. It is a shame if you have to get that category to get decent towels.

I TOTALLY AGREE about the muster drill....what a mess. You could not hear anything and even though we were checked in at the drill, we received a letter in our cabin saying we missed it !

Thought there were actually more TV channels than on most other cruises we have been on.

We left the tag on the door every night for coffee to be delivered at 7 am the next morning. always good, hot and on time.

We mostly had breakfast in the main dining room and thought the coffe was great there,also.

We had a dining table for 8 people and always asked for a shared table at breakfast and lunch .The people we encountered on the ship were very friendly.

The glass show was fantastic. We went to the night show and got there a half hour early to get a front row seat. I do agree about most of the grass area being a waste of space. It also was not in the best condition.

THERE IS A CUTBACK IN CUSTOMS PERSONNEL.

We carried our own luggage off and were at the airport by 8 am. We actually were able to get on a 9:30 am flight instead of our original one at noon. I would never recommend booking a flight that early.....we just got lucky. There were only 3 customs agents so you could tell the backup would be inevitable if you got off the boat later.

[shavdog]

We were also on that cruise...I agree with your observations...Just a couple of comments...I thought a lnumber of staff weren't all that friendly..I tried to make eye contact and no one was home or they kind of looked the other way...oh well...we chose select dining....we don't like eating at 6pm or 8:30pm...we had hit and miss experiences with other cruisers...also with select dining the service isn't as personal...we ended up eating in the boofet area on three nights because my wife loves sushi...actually I was impressed with the food there at night...the pasta was hot along with other dishes I tried...I liked the asian noodles and had duck one night...If you don't want to deal with other people I highly suggest going up there...the staff was more than friendly everytime we showed up...and there weren't alot of people around...we had breakfast the second day in the dining room and were not impressed..never went back...slow service,my eggs were cold and the woman next to us waited 30 minutes for an omlette..they said they had to get it from another dining room...anyway, I thought the ship is very nice, new looking, and a joy to cruise on..we had a balcony that was larger than past ones with two very comfortable chairs and a nice size table..we spent a fair amount of time on the deck...the pool area when at sea was too full of people for my taste...we walked thru that area several times but never stayed..we loved the glass blowers and it was a real hit for us...overall this was one of our nicer cruises(14)...after being home for two days we both are still rocking...I would encourage you to book this ship...I would in a minute...have fun...I third the ratty looking bath towels...also my bath robe must have been one for a woman...I put it on and got one big laugh from my wife...one last comment on disembarcation...we were told to be on deck five in the theatre at 7:15am for first off...we got there and everyone is mobbed in the stair well and no celebrity personnel around...this went on for about a half hour...people that wanted to use the stairs were mad and the whole thing was a joke...that was dissappointing to everyone...

[Germancruiser]

Thanks for your report- I totaly agree with elevator situation, same goes for the almost total lack of prommenade deck- I know most passengers don´t care about that- I do!

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[mizLORInj]

We were also on that cruise...I agree with your observations...Just a couple of comments...I thought a lnumber of staff weren't all that friendly..I tried to make eye contact and no one was home or they kind of looked the other way...

YES, so agree and forgot to mention that. Another person on a tour with us said the same thing too. The crew had its friendly ones and not-so-friendly. One buffet employee even made a rude comment the last day to my SIL about my nephew and "watching him" in the buffet area. . . he was right next to her and I always made sure we held his hand so I don't know what their beef was. I had explained to the little cutie (nephew--not crew- LOL) that people have food in their hands and you need to be right next to us so we don't bump into anyone.

Other:

We thought it odd that the buffet closed promptly at 8:30 day of debarkation. As in all food cleared by about 8:35! Fortunately we got there earlier. ( I realize this timing was in the debarkation newsletter which we did not read closely. . .:rolleyes: )

A ship with this many pax needs more pools too.

 

Don't understand why an extra beach towel was such a hardship to get. I wanted one for drying off and one to be able to put on the chair to lie on at the beach. Room steward gave me a song and a dance about getting another one to use. I have never lost a beach towel on any cruise and I would not take one of their used beach towels home either. I suppose that's their fear though--missing beach towels.

 

ahhhhhh but the sweet memory of being on my balcony reclining . . .

[CruiseAwayWithMe]

Hey, we were on the cruise too. I agree about the lifeboat drill being way too long! People were trying to leave and one crew member would not let us leave, but we finally found a crew member that let us leave, even then we couldn't go back to our rooms. I saw people getting angry at the lifeboat drill, embarkation, and debarkation. On previous Celebrity cruises, it has gone very smoothly. Last year, we just walked off the ship and didn't have to wait to disembark. The elevators and stairs were severely backed up. People couldn't even get out of the elevators! I heard people complaining in French and trying to move up further to leave.

 

I never had a problem with the paper thin walls next door. I wasn't woken up during the night at all and no smoking problems next door this time. Our next door neighbor put out his do not disturb sign very often and we met him, he was very very nice! We thought we were disturbing him and he said we were not at all.

 

I agree that 75% were over 60. I'm in the minority and afraid to take a longer Celebrity cruise.

[Kevnzworld]

Thanks for the review, I board the Equinox in a week!

[gelo7]

Thanks, for sharing your thoughts.

[grtar]

We were on the March 4-15 sailing of the Equinox. Our meeting time was 9:35 in the Silhouette Dining Room. Passengers left the ship when their numbers were called. Believe me, no one that I saw or heard wanted to stand around waiting to leave the ship. Announcements were made that it was a Customs issue and beyond Celebritys control. We finally got to the Customs booths and there were many agents on duty. People went through that stage very fast with little or no questions being asked. We got to Park N' Go at 1:35 to begin a long day of driving north. I loved the cruise and was sad that it was over but reluctant debarking passengers was not what delayed the March 15th people from getting on board. Just saying.

[Maligator]

While I understand not everyone can handle stairs, during peak times, we just used them. It serves a dual purpose of helping to burn off some of those calories we acquired at dinner.

 

The lifeboat view I think could have been avoided with some research before booking.

 

I agree about the buffet tables not being cleared fast enough. We always try to "pre-bus" to help out the crew by stacking our dishes and throwing away our disposables ourselves.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[BamaD]

The muster drills do need work. They can be okay or horrible depending on where you are assigned. I arrived early once and kept getting "smashed" against the photo sales board (under the hot lights) and was pinned there! Came close to fainting... and I'm no wimp!

 

MIL and daughter were in the theater and thought things went "really well:rolleyes:."

 

Tip: Protect yourself. Never show up early - be on the "late" side of prompt.

 

Also, use the stairs whenever you can. There is a whole "secret society" of stair users that you'll get to know. You can give each other that "Hey, aren't we superior?" acknowledgment on each passing!!!

[mizLORInj]

The muster drills do need work. They can be okay or horrible depending on where you are assigned. . .

 

Tip: . . . be on the "late" side of prompt.

 

Also, use the stairs whenever you can. There is a whole "secret society" of stair users that you'll get to know. . .

shhhhhh, don't give away our secrets! LOL :p

[kkorman]

We were on the March 4-15 sailing of the Equinox. Our meeting time was 9:35 in the Silhouette Dining Room. Passengers left the ship when their numbers were called. Believe me, no one that I saw or heard wanted to stand around waiting to leave the ship. Announcements were made that it was a Customs issue and beyond Celebritys control. We finally got to the Customs booths and there were many agents on duty. People went through that stage very fast with little or no questions being asked. We got to Park N' Go at 1:35 to begin a long day of driving north. I loved the cruise and was sad that it was over but reluctant debarking passengers was not what delayed the March 15th people from getting on board. Just saying.

 

We arrived at noon and there were still people going through immigration from your cruise.

 

And from how the 3/25 lines were and the letters already sent to the 4/5, I would say debarkation is an issue right now with immigration.

 

We waited 35 minutes at 7:45ish with 2 immigration agents. At 9:45 they had 3-5 agents. My father waited over an hour at 9:45 to get through the line at immigration.

 

Fun times.

[jowalker777]

My husband and I were also on the cruise as part of the "biker" group and had a fantastic time but I must admit there were a lot of things I found dissappointing about this Celebrity Cruise. Last year we did a similar trip with ETA Cruises and were on the Freedom of the Seas (Royal Caribbean).

 

The food... Dinner was for the most part really great if a little unimaginative. Never had a problem with a beef dish and our waiter always managed to find me horseradish even if it wasnt automatically offered with that dish. The service was very very slow. We had 10 people at our table and our waiter only had one helper which he seemed to be sharing with another waiter. One night it was 11:20 before we got out of dinner and most nights we were one of the last tables to leave. The beef wellington second formal night was to die for and some of the soups were fantastic. OMG the french onion soup.... delicious. Ordered iced tea the first night and never got it but did towards end of dinner the second night. By the 3rd night we got the tea almost right away and by the 4th the guy was there with a pitcher when we sat down.

 

The breakfast buffet for me was great but then I am originally from England. English bacon, fried tomatoes, mushrooms, english sausages etc. My poor husband spent 10 minutes the first day looking for gravy. lol. Never did find any. By the end of the week tho the sliced bread was very dry around the edges and made a pretty crappy bacon sandwich unless you cut all the edges off. They had a variety of tea flavors available but no "real" tea like a good old regular tetley teabag until the end of the cruise when supplies seemed to be running out. I liked that you could get a pot tho and make your own pot of tea.

 

Afternoon tea was lovely. Scones with cream and jam and some pretty interesting mini sandwich combinations. Pizza was always available and was very good and ice cream was always available.

 

One night we were so tired and napped late and missed dinner. We went to the buffet at 9pm and basically there was nothing available even tho dinner was over at 10. Most of the stations had empty trays and the food was of less quality than even Golden Corral.

 

The funniest part of this cruise was the age of the people on board. I actually heard this lady who had to have been at least mid 70's complaining about how many old people were on the ship. So many people in wheel chairs with canes and walkers and absolutely no respect for people who were not impaired. They would stop in the middle of corridors, block exits, block areas at the buffet waiting for something and even if you were in a hurry and asked politely to get by you would get a very dirty look and very few would move.

 

As part of the biker group we were first off and last on most days and so had a lot of hurry times to get where we needed to be for a meeting point, or group activity and found it hard to get where we needed to be. We skipped the elevator use for 98% of the trip becuase stairs were faster and made us feel better about all we ate.

 

Amazingly we made it to the gym twice this trip and the gym was great. Attendants wiped down machines constantly even tho users were asked to and kept things very clean.

 

As for the staff being friendly. OMG sometimes they were overly so. Our room attendants were soooo chatty always making sure we had what we needed and were enjoying ourselves but NO towel animals. The young English girl "ie the Dominican Chicken" in the photolab was great fun. Talked to us a lot about the pictures, always helping us find what we were looking for and generally cutting up and joking around with us all. Miss Annie our event co-orinator was AMAZING. She was very involved with our group and always there to make sure everything ran smoothly and we were thrilled when she got to ride with us in St Maarten. The only somewhat unfriendly person we found on the ship was the cruise director. Compared to the one we had on the Freedom last year this guy was as entertaining as the announcer at KMart announcing a blue light special. I guess a live cruise tv shot of the RC guy in a buzz light year costume making prank phone calls to ship personnel spoiled us a little. So many of the crew even the Capatin made it a point to meet us and even had a group shot with many of the officers but never did meet him.

 

Activities. Hmmmm never made a show. After a long day we tended to nap through the first show and dinner took so long there was no time to do anything after dinner since most of our shore days started at 6am. I did rush up to the pool at noon one day for the line dancing activity. OMG 1 song. yep I repeat 1 song and even then it was an English band we had never heard of. I dont think 30 minutes of line dancing would have hurt. There were about 25 of us out there all excited and ready to go.

 

Beach towels we never had issue with. just ran up and grabbed a few on the pool deck from under the tarp. Our room steward always made sure they got back at the end of the day. Last day I think we found the towels in the room in a cabinet over the bed we never really noticed. Towels in our room were great quality and replaced every time we used them even if we hang them back up to dry. RC asked us to cut down on wash by only getting towels replaced if they were on the floor. The robes were very useful too.

 

Lifeboat drill was too long and too many people per group. Couldnt hear anything and were cramped in Michaels bar. The paper thin walls werent my problem and we were on an inside room, tiny little cabin. I had issues with the fact that I think something was living in my ceiling. The ship creaked a lot and the ceiling did too. A worker came and screwed everything back in towards end after my husband got tired of me awake all night but as soon as the lights went out for bed there was all this scurrying around. When the ship pitched it sounded like the critter slid and then scurried to get his footing. Yeah maybe an over active imagination but kept me awake almost 2 full nights. Luckily I found the cotton in the bathroom and 2 tylenol pm and finally got some sleep.

 

As for late boarding I was told it was a crew immigration problem. A spot check was ordered and every crew member had to physically present themselves to immigration on the ship with their documents. No-one was able to board until they were cleared. It made everything the first day behind scedule. Bars didnt have supplies etc, no Coke zero which is all my husband drinks.

 

On the whole the trip was fantastic and a lot of that had to do with the group we were with, riding our motorcycles on the islands and the fact that our fearless leader handles these trip 10-15 times a year and knows what he is doing. This was only the 3rd trip he has done with Celebrity so still working some details out but I found the crew to be very accomadating, eay to work with and very friendly.

 

One last thing. The soda and juice package. Towards the end of the cruise we had to go to 4-5 bars to find a coke zero and juice was readily available 24hrs a day in the buffet. If I had known that I probably wouldn't have paid for the drink package. It was no trouble to take a Celebrity cup we bought on board and fill it with lemonade, juice or tea in the buffet area. It was great that we were able to take our own bottles of water on board but we didnt really need it since bottled water was included in our plan, along with the premium coffees at the coffee bar which were very good. If we get to go again next year which I really want to do, (14 day this time) we will only get one drink package since so much time is spent ashore and I can easily drink juices and stuff from the buffet.

 

Celebrity does need to handle supplies better. Fresh sliced bread throughout the cruise. A bar should never be out of soda's and have to send you somewhere else but towards the end this was the case. No coke zero's and no regular bottled water. They were having to give out evian instead even tho we hadn't paid for the upgrade waters