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Fantastic Equinox 10/15 Sailing (review)

sbsmutoni

By sbsmutoni,
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sbsmutoni

sbsmutoni

Posted
Posted

So, although I have been on Cruise Critic for a long time, I have yet to add a review. So, I thought I'd try to provide a review of our recent Equinox sailing out of Barcelona on 10/15.

 

I will categorize topics of the review to hopefully ease the read.

 

Who we are:

We are a couple in our late 40's. I have cruised 16 times over a number of years, with this only being my third Celebrity (one of which was a Med. cruise on the Equinox four years ago), and it's my 6th Europe cruise.

 

Over the years, I have "graduated" to balcony staterooms at the very least (once I had my first balcony, I decided I just could not sail anymore without one!), and if I can manage the extra expense for a suite on a long cruise, I'll spend it.

 

On this cruise, we were in an aft Sky Suite on the 12th deck.

 

Beginning the trip:

We went to Paris and then on to Barcelona for a few days before the cruise. On boarding day, we showed up at the port at around noon. Despite my tendencies to over-organize, I failed to put my tags on my luggage before arrival, so that was our first miss.

 

At the port, there was a LONG line of people waiting to check bags. As we approached the port building, anyone who had tags handed the luggage off to a porter, and people like me had to go up and get tags and then hand the luggage off. Despite the long line, we moved through it pretty quickly.

 

After handing off luggage, we were moved to the line to get into the port. Again, this was a really long line, which snaked to the back of the port building, then turned around and came back inside. Once you got back to the port building, we were directed to a much shorter line designated for Suite and priority passengers (loyalty members, Aqua, suites and concierge level) to go into security and on the check in. Again, despite the very long line, it moved pretty quickly....we were inside within 30 minutes.

 

Our only disappointment (which didn't affect us, but we thought was unfortunate), was that there were several elderly and disabled passengers in these long lines. It seems they should find a better, faster way to handle these passengers, rather than them having to stand in line, go over and around curbs, etc.

 

Anyway, once we got through security, we were directed to the last line, with a red carpet entry for suite passengers (nice touch!), and there was no one in line. Within 10 minutes, we had our cards and were headed on board.

 

No lines, no waiting to get onboard. We were handed our chilled bubbly, then headed up to deck 12. When we got up there, we asked if our cabin might be ready. The room stewards nearby said they were sure it was, and welcomed us to go to our cabin.

 

Our Suite:

We were in Sky Suite 2155. When we walked in, we were SO pleased. In all my cruises, including other suites, this was far and away the best one yet! It was large, the décor was very nice, and the layout was fantastic. There was an enormous amount of storage in the cabin (two closets, 8 large, deep drawers, and a couple of overhead cabinets). The bathroom was very large, with a big soaking tub (with a great showerhead, although my husband was too tall to use it so he had to use the shower handle), a big vanity and a great amount of storage. The balcony was large, with two chairs with ottomans, and a good sized table.

 

We got luggage before the muster drill, but didn't have time to unpack until after the drill. The drill was well organized and painless.

 

Service:

Because we were in a suite, we had both a butler and a room steward. The room steward, Karen, was very nice, and tended to our needs very well. Our butler, Izzy, was outstanding! Though we did not ask for much, he was on the spot remembering things we liked, like two pitchers of coffee in the morning. They bring afternoon tea, and when he offered me some snacks the first day, I asked if he had fruit. He said no, but he could get me some. I told him that was okay, but sure enough, he showed up a few minutes later with a beautiful tray of fruit. Every day after that, I got a nice tray of fruit. :)

 

Unfortunately, Izzy had a family emergency about 2/3 of the way through the cruise, and we got a different butler. Robert did a good job, but it just was not the same as Izzy.

 

Everyone else on the ship was outstanding. From Café Al Bocio to the bartenders to guest services, we had nothing but great service!!

 

Dining:

Because we were in a suite, we dined in Luminae. It was really nice! The food, the service, the attention to detail was flawless. I've seen some comments about people having to wait for seating. We never had reservations, and we never had to wait to be seated (in fact, we got the same table - which came to be known as "our table" each night). I was amazed at how quickly they came to know us. From the sommelier to the maître d' to the servers, all knew us by name. They knew what foods we favored, our favorite cocktails and wine, and what pace we liked to dine, and they catered to us in those regards.

 

We had two specialty restaurant dinners free of charge, so we selected Silk Harvest and Tuscan Grille. Silk Harvest's service was very good, but the food was just okay. What should have had a lot of spice and flavor was a little bland for us. Tuscan Grille was outstanding. The apps, the fish main, the pasta and steaks....all very nice.

 

We took most breakfasts in the buffet, just because the time was flexible, and we liked the simplicity of grabbing a bowl of cereal, some fruit or yogurt, etc. We did have breakfast a couple of times in Luminae, and it was very good. The blueberry pancakes were to DIE for!!

 

Most days we were in port, we ate lunch in port. But we had a couple of lunches at the Mast Grill (yummy burgers, chicken sandwiches, and fries!), and a couple of quick salad lunches in the buffet.

 

We also used room service twice. It was okay, but the food was mostly cold.

 

The rest of the ship:

We did not go to any of the shows, so I cannot comment on those....they're just not "our thing".

 

We loved the glass shows, and went to several. I remembered doing that on Equinox before, and I am still amazed by it.

 

The only bars we really spent much time at was the Sunset bar, the Martini bar, and a couple of stops at the bar in the casino. The Sunset bar became our favorite. We had fantastic weather, and the evenings at the bar and on the lawn, having a cocktail, and letting my husband smoke a cigar were amazing.

 

We poked around the shops, but they seemed the same as most ships. We stopped at the casino a time or two, but just for a little while. And we spent a little time at Café Al Bacio sipping tea or having a really nice coffee.

 

Ports:

I'm not going to detail the ports. But I will say that the itinerary and the pace of the ports was good.

 

We've been to Rome a number of times, so we stayed in the charming town of Civitevecchia at that stop. From Solerno, we hired a private driver, who took us to Pompeii and along the coast. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive and a great day....I'd do that again in a second!!

 

In Santorini, we took advantage of priority tendering, rented a car, spent the morning in Oia, then went to the black sand beaches on the southeast coast.

 

In Mykonos, we rented a Jeep and went all over the island. In Kasadusi, since we had been to Ephasus, we just wondered around town and shopped (taking advantage of the shops guaranteed by Celebrity!).

 

Athens was the only day we had bad weather. We took a hop on hop off bus from the port to the Acropolis. We had a great time at the Acropolis despite the rain. However, when we got back on the bus to go on along the route, we found out that the president of France was in town, so many roads were closed, and the HOHO bus could not take us on the route. It was a bummer, but we've been to Athens before, so we had lunch and grabbed the metro back to the ship.

 

Valletta, Malta was our biggest surprise. Knowing little about the place, we just got off the ship, went up into the town and wondered around. It is a BEAUTIFUL place!! We enjoyed it immensely and would love to go back some time.

 

Summary:

We did have pre-paid gratuities, but we tipped a little more for those who gave us great service. We also had a Premium drink package. This was paid for by our TA, and we loved having it, just because we didn't have to sign paper and worry about our drinks. Even just for bottled water and coffees, it was so easy!! Whether or not it would be worth paying for if I were paying it myself, I'm not sure. I guess I should have kept up with what it would have cost if I'd have been paying for all those drinks to decide that!

 

I have to say, Celebrity knocked this one out of the park for us. We loved the ship, the service, the food and the itinerary. The Equinox is a beautiful ship (she was headed to the Caribbean immediately after our cruise).

 

I would love to say that I will be loyal to Celebrity because of my experiences with them, but they are priced higher than many cruises. for this reason, for shorter, closer to home cruises like the Caribbean, I will likely shop other lines. That said, I will try Celebrity first!

 

I hope this review helps for anyone going on a Celebrity (or more specifically the Equinox) cruise. If anyone has any questions, let me know.

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Wj420

Wj420

Posted
Posted

We also very on this trip and the itinerary was amazing! First time on Equinox, only s class we hadn't sailed on. Just like the solstice but with the gastropub instead of caller masters. We thought this was a big improvement. Much livelier with sports on the tv's. Slush, a newer pool bar was also fun. Great crew, great ship.

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villauk

villauk

Posted
Posted
We are on this cruise too, really looking forward to it.

 

You've done the opposite to us: in April we sailed the 11 night Ultimate on Equinox and then the August cruise with you :). You'll love the itinerary ;). So many of the staff remembered us from the April sailing, I'm sure it will be the same for you too :). Glad to hear the virus appears to have been finally eradicated. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Thanks for the review, sbsmutoni :).

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SWFL Cruisers

SWFL Cruisers

Posted
Posted
Question, did you hear how the seating was in BLU? We are trying Aqua for the first time and wondered if Luminae had helped eased the crowding in BLU.

Thanks again,

EW

 

Please let us know about it when you return. We too are in Aqua (1630 & 1632) and are going on November 30th. Any info is appreciated.

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wallie5446

wallie5446

Posted
Posted (edited)
Please let us know about it when you return. We too are in Aqua (1630 & 1632) and are going on November 30th. Any info is appreciated.

 

Celebrity will be dragkng us out of terminal so they can let ya'll in on Nov 30th!

Nice route, we did the 11 day last Nov.

We can't get into our Hotel till 2:00. I will try and post before you get out to sea.

EW

Edited by wallie5446
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The Shutterbug

The Shutterbug

Posted
Posted

We were on this sailing also... WOW! We absolutely loved it. Totally agree with the OP, everything from cabin to staff to food to service to ports of call etc - everything was perfect.

 

We didn't want to leave the ship and return to normality! LOL

 

We were told the long queues at Barcelona port check in was due to an incident on the (road) bridge leading to the port that morning backing up all the traffic. So most people were arriving at the same time to check in. We have went through this port before she checked in within minutes so something has definitely happened earlier in the day. Though this did not impact out holiday at all. It was a good opportunity to chat to others in the queues :)

 

Enjoy if you are sailing on the Equinox :)

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sbsmutoni

sbsmutoni

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Question, did you hear how the seating was in BLU? We are trying Aqua for the first time and wondered if Luminae had helped eased the crowding in BLU.

Thanks again,

EW

 

I didn't hear about the seating in BLU. We considered going one night, but we were so happy with Luminae we stayed the course.

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  • 3 months later...
wanderlust_yenny

wanderlust_yenny

Posted
Posted

Thank you so much for your review!

My Boyfriend and I are saliling this exact itinerary on the equinox on October 3 and its always nice to find reviews to get better insight.

Are there any tips you could probably give me? In Salerno, is it a good port to DIY? I would like to take an excursion to capri most likely but would also like to take in salerno on its own/ have lunch look around perhaps. This seems to be the one port Iam having most issues researching on lol. Athens is another one that has me reading all over the place lol:confused:

I visited spain/france/Italy 2 years ago on a two week land vacation but this will be his first European experience and we are soo excited, it will be our first time sailing on celebrity so it double the excitement! we will also be spending 3 nights in paris pre cruise:D

 

once again thank you for the nice review!

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kayjaystrip

kayjaystrip

Posted
Posted
So, although I have been on Cruise Critic for a long time, I have yet to add a review. So, I thought I'd try to provide a review of our recent Equinox sailing out of Barcelona on 10/15.

 

I will categorize topics of the review to hopefully ease the read.

 

Who we are:

We are a couple in our late 40's. I have cruised 16 times over a number of years, with this only being my third Celebrity (one of which was a Med. cruise on the Equinox four years ago), and it's my 6th Europe cruise.

 

Over the years, I have "graduated" to balcony staterooms at the very least (once I had my first balcony, I decided I just could not sail anymore without one!), and if I can manage the extra expense for a suite on a long cruise, I'll spend it.

 

On this cruise, we were in an aft Sky Suite on the 12th deck.

 

Beginning the trip:

We went to Paris and then on to Barcelona for a few days before the cruise. On boarding day, we showed up at the port at around noon. Despite my tendencies to over-organize, I failed to put my tags on my luggage before arrival, so that was our first miss.

 

At the port, there was a LONG line of people waiting to check bags. As we approached the port building, anyone who had tags handed the luggage off to a porter, and people like me had to go up and get tags and then hand the luggage off. Despite the long line, we moved through it pretty quickly.

 

After handing off luggage, we were moved to the line to get into the port. Again, this was a really long line, which snaked to the back of the port building, then turned around and came back inside. Once you got back to the port building, we were directed to a much shorter line designated for Suite and priority passengers (loyalty members, Aqua, suites and concierge level) to go into security and on the check in. Again, despite the very long line, it moved pretty quickly....we were inside within 30 minutes.

 

Our only disappointment (which didn't affect us, but we thought was unfortunate), was that there were several elderly and disabled passengers in these long lines. It seems they should find a better, faster way to handle these passengers, rather than them having to stand in line, go over and around curbs, etc.

 

Anyway, once we got through security, we were directed to the last line, with a red carpet entry for suite passengers (nice touch!), and there was no one in line. Within 10 minutes, we had our cards and were headed on board.

 

No lines, no waiting to get onboard. We were handed our chilled bubbly, then headed up to deck 12. When we got up there, we asked if our cabin might be ready. The room stewards nearby said they were sure it was, and welcomed us to go to our cabin.

 

Our Suite:

We were in Sky Suite 2155. When we walked in, we were SO pleased. In all my cruises, including other suites, this was far and away the best one yet! It was large, the décor was very nice, and the layout was fantastic. There was an enormous amount of storage in the cabin (two closets, 8 large, deep drawers, and a couple of overhead cabinets). The bathroom was very large, with a big soaking tub (with a great showerhead, although my husband was too tall to use it so he had to use the shower handle), a big vanity and a great amount of storage. The balcony was large, with two chairs with ottomans, and a good sized table.

 

We got luggage before the muster drill, but didn't have time to unpack until after the drill. The drill was well organized and painless.

 

Service:

Because we were in a suite, we had both a butler and a room steward. The room steward, Karen, was very nice, and tended to our needs very well. Our butler, Izzy, was outstanding! Though we did not ask for much, he was on the spot remembering things we liked, like two pitchers of coffee in the morning. They bring afternoon tea, and when he offered me some snacks the first day, I asked if he had fruit. He said no, but he could get me some. I told him that was okay, but sure enough, he showed up a few minutes later with a beautiful tray of fruit. Every day after that, I got a nice tray of fruit. :)

 

Unfortunately, Izzy had a family emergency about 2/3 of the way through the cruise, and we got a different butler. Robert did a good job, but it just was not the same as Izzy.

 

Everyone else on the ship was outstanding. From Café Al Bocio to the bartenders to guest services, we had nothing but great service!!

 

Dining:

Because we were in a suite, we dined in Luminae. It was really nice! The food, the service, the attention to detail was flawless. I've seen some comments about people having to wait for seating. We never had reservations, and we never had to wait to be seated (in fact, we got the same table - which came to be known as "our table" each night). I was amazed at how quickly they came to know us. From the sommelier to the maître d' to the servers, all knew us by name. They knew what foods we favored, our favorite cocktails and wine, and what pace we liked to dine, and they catered to us in those regards.

 

We had two specialty restaurant dinners free of charge, so we selected Silk Harvest and Tuscan Grille. Silk Harvest's service was very good, but the food was just okay. What should have had a lot of spice and flavor was a little bland for us. Tuscan Grille was outstanding. The apps, the fish main, the pasta and steaks....all very nice.

 

We took most breakfasts in the buffet, just because the time was flexible, and we liked the simplicity of grabbing a bowl of cereal, some fruit or yogurt, etc. We did have breakfast a couple of times in Luminae, and it was very good. The blueberry pancakes were to DIE for!!

 

Most days we were in port, we ate lunch in port. But we had a couple of lunches at the Mast Grill (yummy burgers, chicken sandwiches, and fries!), and a couple of quick salad lunches in the buffet.

 

We also used room service twice. It was okay, but the food was mostly cold.

 

The rest of the ship:

We did not go to any of the shows, so I cannot comment on those....they're just not "our thing".

 

We loved the glass shows, and went to several. I remembered doing that on Equinox before, and I am still amazed by it.

 

The only bars we really spent much time at was the Sunset bar, the Martini bar, and a couple of stops at the bar in the casino. The Sunset bar became our favorite. We had fantastic weather, and the evenings at the bar and on the lawn, having a cocktail, and letting my husband smoke a cigar were amazing.

 

We poked around the shops, but they seemed the same as most ships. We stopped at the casino a time or two, but just for a little while. And we spent a little time at Café Al Bacio sipping tea or having a really nice coffee.

 

Ports:

I'm not going to detail the ports. But I will say that the itinerary and the pace of the ports was good.

 

We've been to Rome a number of times, so we stayed in the charming town of Civitevecchia at that stop. From Solerno, we hired a private driver, who took us to Pompeii and along the coast. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive and a great day....I'd do that again in a second!!

 

In Santorini, we took advantage of priority tendering, rented a car, spent the morning in Oia, then went to the black sand beaches on the southeast coast.

 

In Mykonos, we rented a Jeep and went all over the island. In Kasadusi, since we had been to Ephasus, we just wondered around town and shopped (taking advantage of the shops guaranteed by Celebrity!).

 

Athens was the only day we had bad weather. We took a hop on hop off bus from the port to the Acropolis. We had a great time at the Acropolis despite the rain. However, when we got back on the bus to go on along the route, we found out that the president of France was in town, so many roads were closed, and the HOHO bus could not take us on the route. It was a bummer, but we've been to Athens before, so we had lunch and grabbed the metro back to the ship.

 

Valletta, Malta was our biggest surprise. Knowing little about the place, we just got off the ship, went up into the town and wondered around. It is a BEAUTIFUL place!! We enjoyed it immensely and would love to go back some time.

 

Summary:

We did have pre-paid gratuities, but we tipped a little more for those who gave us great service. We also had a Premium drink package. This was paid for by our TA, and we loved having it, just because we didn't have to sign paper and worry about our drinks. Even just for bottled water and coffees, it was so easy!! Whether or not it would be worth paying for if I were paying it myself, I'm not sure. I guess I should have kept up with what it would have cost if I'd have been paying for all those drinks to decide that!

 

I have to say, Celebrity knocked this one out of the park for us. We loved the ship, the service, the food and the itinerary. The Equinox is a beautiful ship (she was headed to the Caribbean immediately after our cruise).

 

I would love to say that I will be loyal to Celebrity because of my experiences with them, but they are priced higher than many cruises. for this reason, for shorter, closer to home cruises like the Caribbean, I will likely shop other lines. That said, I will try Celebrity first!

 

I hope this review helps for anyone going on a Celebrity (or more specifically the Equinox) cruise. If anyone has any questions, let me know.

 

Hi We are booked on October 15 2016 on a West Mediterranean itinerary. Our cruising history is similar in that this will be our 3rd Celebrity cruise. We too are pondering whether upgrading to a Sky suite will be worth it for the 10 day cruise with 8 ports. We have been in Aqua before and loved the Blu restaurant. Do you think that Luminae is worth the extra? Presently we are booked in 2B, with the Classic Beverage Package, $300 OBC and gratuities included. Right now Celebrity has special Seniors Rates at a significant discount to the regular fare, but it does not include the Go Better perks. Do you recall whether Michaels Club included free happy hour drinks, because that would suffice for us. I would be grateful for any advice you can provide. You can contact me on kayjayrobinson at gmail dot com. Kay

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