Just back from Equinox 1/2/15 sailing

[Fredric22]

Just returned from a wonderful 10 night trip on the Equinox. Overall, the cruise was great. We have been on Celebrity multiple times including the Silhouette and Reflection. The Equinox was obviously very similar and very well maintained. She looked almost brand new.

 

The service all week was very good. Drink service by the pool has improved considerably from last year. Every few minutes someone would come around and ask us if we needed a drink.

 

The itinerary was also wonderful. Highlights included an open air train tour in St. Kitts and river tubing in Dominica.

 

There were some areas for improvement, of course. The most noticeable is that I feel that the quality of food in Blu has declined since last year. I'd say about half of the dinners were very good, and the rest just very mediocre. I am honestly questioning whether or not Blu is worth it anymore. The service in Blu was perfectly fine, but it was missing the extra friendliness that we have grown accustomed to there.

 

The desserts in both the Ocean View Cafe and Blu was absolutely terrible. From the curdled creme brule to the warm cheesecakes... just really bad. With that said, lunches at the Ocean View Cafe were delicious.

 

They also seemed to run out of a lot of things on this cruise. For example, ran out of Pelligrino, ran out of ingredients on day 3 for molecular bar drinks, ran out of many beers in Gastro Pub (food there is amazing!! try the bone marrow!!), ran out of many wines (or it would be out in one bar, and not the other), etc. It became a bit irritating.. shouldn't they know how much supply they need?

 

All and all, a great trip. We are going on the Constellation in a few weeks, so I am curious to see how the Blu experience there will compare. Perhaps Blu at Equinox is just an anomaly.

 

Please feel free to ask me any questions!

[Heather35]

Glad to hear that you had a good time. We'll be sailing the Equinox on Jan 23. We just enjoyed a great sailing on the Reflection last month. While on the Reflection, they had great musical entertainment throughout the ship. Did you experience the various musical duos/groups/DJ?

Also, we heard from another passenger that Celebrity was modifying the cellar into the GastroPub. We'll be on the ship when the SuperBowl is played. Is the Gastropub a good venue to watch the game?

Thanks

Edited January 13, 2015 by Heather35

[TeaBag]

Sorry to hear the food in Blu is going downhill. We are booked in Blu for our next 4 cruises, none on Equinox.

Which meals did you think were mediocre? How was the Lobster on formal night?

Edited January 13, 2015 by TeaBag

[Fredric22]

Glad to hear that you had a good time. We'll be sailing the Equinox on Jan 23. We just enjoyed a great sailing on the Reflection last month. While on the Reflection, they had great musical entertainment throughout the ship. Did you experience the various musical duos/groups/DJ?

Also, we heard from another passenger that Celebrity was modifying the cellar into the GastroPub. We'll be on the ship when the SuperBowl is played. Is the Gastropub a good venue to watch the game?

Thanks

 

There were numerous groups around the ship. There was a jazz band, classical duo, party band (never really saw them), guitar player, and 2 DJs (one with a drum player). I thought they were all fine. None blew me away, but they provided nice music if you were just sitting in the lounge and enjoying a drink.

 

The Gastropub will be a great place to watch the superbowl.. however, I imagine it will be PACKED. It was extremely crowded when we were there for the football games this weekend. My advice would be to go very early and secure your spot.

 

As far as Blu meals, there were a few in particular which were very bad. The lobster was so tough and dry.. it was hard to eat. However, my partner's lobster was cooked better than mine. The Osso Bucco (veal shank) was really really bad. The crab risotto was also particularly bad and very bland. We were putting salt on almost everything, especially the soups. The chocolate lava cake was more like a chocolate brownie that was the size of a small egg. Highlights included the veal tenderloin, stuffed shells with beef, beef carpaccio, mushroom risotto, fettuccine in clam sauce (AMAZING), bananas foster, and the apple tart.

[cruisehome]

will look forward to your review

[CruzeBoozer]

We're there any notable waitstaff in Blu? How about any standout bartenders anywhere?

[wallie5446]

. Is the Gastropub a good venue to watch the game?

Thanks

 

We were on in Nov, get there early if you want a seat, it was packed to the walls on our sailing, with people watching College on Sat, & NFL on Sunday. The only draw back was it did not open till 4:00!:eek: so we had to go and fetch a drink and munchies elsewhere and bring it back till then.

 

They normally set up in the main showroom with a big screen and a small buffet for everyone to watch the Super Bowl.

Edited January 13, 2015 by wallie5446

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review.

[Fredric22]

We're there any notable waitstaff in Blu? How about any standout bartenders anywhere?

 

The bar tenders in the Molecular Bar were great! Barbara, Luca, and Yelena were all fantastic and very accommodating. We really enjoyed having drinks there. I just wish it wasnt in

such a dead part of the ship! It deserves a better location, IMHO.

 

One thing that seemed odd to me is that all of the bars closed very early. The Martini Bar hosted a party one night, and at 12:30am the bar was packed (DJ was playing there) and people were dancing. They closed down the bar as people were still trying to order drinks. The ice was melting as I was sitting there. They then raised the lights up very bright so everyone would get the clue to leave. This was at 12:30 on a sea day evening! I think at least 1am would be appropriate.. especially if the bar is packed and the DJ is still there! If you wanted a drink after midnight on most days, you would have to go to Quasar. I remember the Martini Bar closing much later on the Reflection.

 

The waiters in Blu were fine. But, they did not go the extra mile to really develop a rapport with us. I would say that the service was probably no better/different than what would be received in the main dining room. Our friends who ate in the dining room said they had good service and enjoyed the food.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Fredric22

[cruza]

The bar tenders in the Molecular Bar were great! Barbara, Luca, and Yelena were all fantastic and very accommodating. We really enjoyed having drinks there. I just wish it wasnt in

such a dead part of the ship! It deserves a better location, IMHO.

 

The waiters in Blu were fine. But, they did not go the extra mile to really develop a rapport with us. I would say that the service was probably no better/different than what would be received in the main dining room. Our friends who ate in the dining room said they had good service and enjoyed the food.

 

We sailed on Equinox in December and we very happy with service of waiter Mansur and Erich in Aqua. Very friendly and helpful team and metr'd Adrian was great.

I agree that deserts everywhere on the ship (Aqua, MDR and cafe)were the worth we experienced on X. It's surprised us because french chef Rudolph responsible for bakery came from Silhouette which had exellent bakery and deserts...

[miched]

We sailed in AQ on the Eclipse in Nov. and a cruise that we sailed on many times before in AQ.

 

The food in Blu for us seems to be going south. We know many of the servers from the past and they were still as friendly but really didn't have the extra minute to spend probably due to cutbacks in the staff.

 

As I posted in other threads we canceled the same cruise in Mar 2015 because it just seemed to be losing the appeal to do again so soon. The little something that made it special or really enjoyable seems to be missing and not making me wanting to deplete my bank account on.

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

[CruzeBoozer]

The bar tenders in the Molecular Bar were great! Barbara, Luca, and Yelena were all fantastic and very accommodating. We really enjoyed having drinks there. I just wish it wasnt in

such a dead part of the ship! It deserves a better location, IMHO.

 

One thing that seemed odd to me is that all of the bars closed very early. The Martini Bar hosted a party one night, and at 12:30am the bar was packed (DJ was playing there) and people were dancing. They closed down the bar as people were still trying to order drinks. The ice was melting as I was sitting there. They then raised the lights up very bright so everyone would get the clue to leave. This was at 12:30 on a sea day evening! I think at least 1am would be appropriate.. especially if the bar is packed and the DJ is still there! If you wanted a drink after midnight on most days, you would have to go to Quasar. I remember the Martini Bar closing much later on the Reflection.

 

The waiters in Blu were fine. But, they did not go the extra mile to really develop a rapport with us. I would say that the service was probably no better/different than what would be received in the main dining room. Our friends who ate in the dining room said they had good service and enjoyed the food.

 

Thanks!

[CruzeBoozer]

We sailed on Equinox in December and we very happy with service of waiter Mansur and Erich in Aqua. Very friendly and helpful team and metr'd Adrian was great.

I agree that deserts everywhere on the ship (Aqua, MDR and cafe)were the worth we experienced on X. It's surprised us because french chef Rudolph responsible for bakery came from Silhouette which had exellent bakery and deserts...

 

Thanks. I hope Adrian the maitre d is the same one that was on Equinox last February he was great and took really good care of us? I will know in three weeks

[Andy]

Just returned from a wonderful 10 night trip on the Equinox. Overall, the cruise was great. We have been on Celebrity multiple times including the Silhouette and Reflection. The Equinox was obviously very similar and very well maintained. She looked almost brand new.

 

The service all week was very good. Drink service by the pool has improved considerably from last year. Every few minutes someone would come around and ask us if we needed a drink.

 

The itinerary was also wonderful. Highlights included an open air train tour in St. Kitts and river tubing in Dominica.

 

There were some areas for improvement, of course. The most noticeable is that I feel that the quality of food in Blu has declined since last year. I'd say about half of the dinners were very good, and the rest just very mediocre. I am honestly questioning whether or not Blu is worth it anymore. The service in Blu was perfectly fine, but it was missing the extra friendliness that we have grown accustomed to there.

 

The desserts in both the Ocean View Cafe and Blu was absolutely terrible. From the curdled creme brule to the warm cheesecakes... just really bad. With that said, lunches at the Ocean View Cafe were delicious.

 

They also seemed to run out of a lot of things on this cruise. For example, ran out of Pelligrino, ran out of ingredients on day 3 for molecular bar drinks, ran out of many beers in Gastro Pub (food there is amazing!! try the bone marrow!!), ran out of many wines (or it would be out in one bar, and not the other), etc. It became a bit irritating.. shouldn't they know how much supply they need?

 

All and all, a great trip. We are going on the Constellation in a few weeks, so I am curious to see how the Blu experience there will compare. Perhaps Blu at Equinox is just an anomaly.

 

Please feel free to ask me any questions!

 

Hi Fredric22,

 

Thanks for your insights. Glad you had a nice time on Equinox. We're onboard in 10 days. We are not sailing in Aqua Class, so Blu is not a concern for us. Hopefully, the MDR and perhaps a visit or two, to Tuscan Grille, will be very enjoyable.

 

Welcome Home !

[capecodder2]

This was our 2nd cruise on the Equinox and we enjoyed it very much. We just had a verandah cabin, so can't comment on BLU. We had excellent service and meals in Murano and Tuscan Grill. I was looking forward to Silk Harvest as we do not have good Asian restaurants where we live, but neither of us liked our meals, service was very good though. We had Select Dining and enjoyed that - each night we ate at Silhouette, we were seated in a rather private area of the Silhouette Dining room which was nice and enjoyed the same servers. We ate many breakfasts and some lunches in Silhouette as well and found the meals to be very good (we are not fussy eaters and give some leeway to the fact that they are serving thousands of people and do an amazing job - the food could be far more institutional than it is). Oceanview Café was okay - best for lunches on port days when it wasn't so crowded. I was amazed at the people who took far more food than they could eat and wasted it. Since we chose not to do formal, we also ate there on the 2 formal nights - lovely and quiet.

 

We did not attend any of the shows. I thought the 2 cello players were awful, usually we love to sit and listen to classical music on other cruise lines, maybe it was their choice of boring music. My husband went to Celebrity Central to watch the football game on Saturday - there were about 12 people there - so I was surprised that the Gastropub was crowded. It was also shown on the cabin TVs.

 

We did one ship excursion in Barbados which was fun and enjoyable. Otherwise, we just walked the towns or took a taxi to the beach. We had been to all the ports many times. We were just looking to relax and enjoy the sun and warm weather - we did just that. The seas were boringly calm - no excitement there.

 

There was a wonderful lecturer - Dr. Denny Whitford - each of his four lectures were full. The titles of his 4 lectures were "Waves"; "Whales", "Hurricanes", and "Sea Legends & Lore". We also enjoyed the lecture by the Chief Navigation Officer who explained the planning and work involved in navigating each cruise.

 

We also took advantage of Celebrity's offer of their Luggage Valet service for $20 each. Great deal, we loved not having to pick up our luggage and transport it to the airport.

Excellent cruise.

[MarKay525]

<snip>We also took advantage of Celebrity's offer of their Luggage Valet service for $20 each. Great deal, we loved not having to pick up our luggage and transport it to the airport.

Excellent cruise.

 

Hi - thanks for your comments on the ship - we just booked a cruise for April.

 

I see you are from MA also - JetBlue is currently our carrier of choice out of Logan airport - would you know if they participate in the Luggage Valet program? Would love to not have to deal with out bags in Ft. Lauderdale!

[Sapphire723]

I hope Blu was just off in that one instance. I hope it doesn't decline fleetwide!

 

Sorry to hear you had a disappointing time!

[RickT]

Thanks for the quick review. Just curious to know how lively the atrium area was at night. We've been on a couple S-Class cruises where the atrium is the focul point of the whole evening with bands/entertainers most nights and have also been on a couple where it wasn't.

 

Also, assume they had a deck party at least one night and perhaps a wine/cheese event on the lawn.

 

On the Equinox for the first time in March, looking forward to it very much.

[phynny]

We are going on equinox in April for 11 days and we rethinking about booking speciality restaurant at some point. How much do they cost ?? Was thinking about the murano

[oneputt18]

Hi Fredric22,

 

Thanks for your insights. Glad you had a nice time on Equinox. We're onboard in 10 days. We are not sailing in Aqua Class, so Blu is not a concern for us. Hopefully, the MDR and perhaps a visit or two, to Tuscan Grille, will be very enjoyable.

 

Welcome Home !

 

Andy, we dined in Tuscan Grille this past November, food and service were excellent. One night I had the rib eye, best steak I have had on a cruise ship.

[chajec]

Hi Frederick, glad to hear you enjoyed equinox for the most part. We were on the Equinox in the Mediterranean in 2013 and really enjoyed the fun at the martini bar ice bar in the atrium. I hope there are some good entertainers on the equinox when we go on our trip in February. Do you by chance have any of the cruise dailies that you may have saved and if so is there anyway that you could possibly get those to me somehow? I'm particularly interested in hearing the entertainment options and shows that they have on board. We have cruised many times and it's interesting to see the different show and entertainment options that they provide. We really enjoyed the "Miami DJs" with the drum, and a guitarist by the name of Nestor that was a Spanish guitarist that were on our Equinox sailing in the Mediterranean and hope that they are also in the Caribbean sailing when we go in February. I am also very surprised to hear that the bars are closing at 12:30 AM that seems very early for a Caribbean cruise.

Any other information you can give on entertainment would be appreciated. If you have your cruise dailies you might be able to provide the names of the entertainers that were on your most recent sailing.

 

Thank you

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ORV]

Thanks for the quick review. Just curious to know how lively the atrium area was at night. We've been on a couple S-Class cruises where the atrium is the focul point of the whole evening with bands/entertainers most nights and have also been on a couple where it wasn't.

 

Also, assume they had a deck party at least one night and perhaps a wine/cheese event on the lawn.

 

On the Equinox for the first time in March, looking forward to it very much.

 

I was on the same cruise, I really don't remember any deck or lawn party events in the evening. I could missed them though.

 

There was usually something going on in the atrium most evenings.

 

We really enjoyed this cruise. Thought all food was great, but didn't eat much dessert. Did use my gelato coupon and felt the choices and quality of the gelato were pretty blah. And I do like this stuff, I had it almost everyday(in ports) on a med cruise this past summer.

 

We ate in Select and had Varun for a waiter, he did an excellent job.

 

We've approached our last two Celebrity cruises, Summit & Equinox from the standpoint of trying to see if the "sky is falling" mentality and postings we've seen on this forum for the last year or so have any merit. My experience and perception is that Celebrity is as good or better than it has been in the last 5 years we've been cruising with them. Of course I never did cruise with them back in the "glory days" that we see so many posters aggrandizing about.

[runnerswife]

Glad to hear that you had a good time. We'll be sailing the Equinox on Jan 23. We just enjoyed a great sailing on the Reflection last month. While on the Reflection, they had great musical entertainment throughout the ship. Did you experience the various musical duos/groups/DJ?

Also, we heard from another passenger that Celebrity was modifying the cellar into the GastroPub. We'll be on the ship when the SuperBowl is played. Is the Gastropub a good venue to watch the game?

Thanks

 

We were on the Equinox for the super bowl last year and Celebrity did a fantastic job. They showed it in the theater and actually had the theater split in two with one side for Seattle all decorated with balloons and the other side all decorated for Denver. Unfortunately the game was blow out so we left at half time. Also, they had "football" food at the rear of the theater (hot dogs and other things). Hope they do the same for you on your cruise. Enjoy, Mary

[johnandtina]

Hi ORV, we are going on our first 10 day cruise on the Equinox in March. I think there are 2 formal nights in the Siloute. Just a ?. I am not big on formal nights. So I take it we can skip these and have supper in the Bistro or another included restaurant, and not a speciality one?

Thank You

[ORV]

Hi ORV, we are going on our first 10 day cruise on the Equinox in March. I think there are 2 formal nights in the Siloute. Just a ?. I am not big on formal nights. So I take it we can skip these and have supper in the Bistro or another included restaurant, and not a speciality one?

Thank You

 

Yes, you can eat in Bistro, but there is a $7 per person charge to eat there. The buffet is included.