Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Equinox Dec 1, 2018 review

ASell

By ASell,
in Celebrity Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

ASell

ASell

Posted
Posted

I had a fantastic time on the Equinox. It was as laid back as I had hoped for and I met some great people, both Crew and fellow cruisers.

 

Embarkation: Very smooth. I got to the terminal about 11am. I zipped thru the terminal and was on board picking up my glass of sparkly as I boarded to kick things off by 11:20.  After a quick walk around, I headed to the MDR and enjoyed a nice lunch with some veteran cruisers. This is included in concierge cabins. The food was very good. And the conversation was engaging; a very nice start to the week.

 

Got into my cabin on deck 10 right at 1pm. I quickly unpacked. There was plenty of storage and hangers. However, I will note, I was traveling alone. So if there are 2 of you, you may need more hangers, but I hung everything up, including my t-shirts, which I had enough for every day plus a few extras and shirts for dinner with pants to go with them.

 

For sail away, I headed up to the sunset bar and met a lovely fellow cruise-critic traveler and had a really nice sail away with a great beverage ( thank you Mario from the Sunset bar, you made me great drinks ALL cruise. ). And thanks Mary Beth for hanging with me and chatting as we started our vacation.

 

Dining:

The first night, I ate in Silk Harvest. This was the only specialty dining I did. The food was very good. I am embarrassed that I forget how to spell my server’s name, but Rodel ( yikes) was great at helping me select things to try.   I learned that you can try many dishes.  I had the Miso Soup and Satay from the small plates. Both were very good. From the large plates I tried Orange chicken, chicken silk fried rice and Chinese pepper steak.  This sounds like a lot of food and it was, but, each individual portion ( other than the fried rice ) wasn’t huge. I actually got a 2nd orange chicken and asked for it to be much more spicy. And they fired it up. It was great ! I was too full for desert.

 

Throughout the week I ate in both MDR and in the Ocean View Cafe. MDR was really really good. Bi thanks to Orly and Resa; they were a fantastic team making really good suggestions for dinner and sometimes bringing a 2nd desert along with what I ordered because they thought it was so good it just had to be tried. They were right!  MDR was so good, I didn’t see a reason to pay extra and go to the specialty places. I think this is appropriate too. I am glad the MDR is very good. The specialties should, in my mind, be for special treats, not somewhere you need to go to get excellent food on a cruise.

 

Ocean View was a very nice surprise. I had planned on getting room service for breakfast and eat on my balcony every morning. But I went to OVC the first morning just to try it. I never considered room service for breakfast after that. There is every thing on the buffet. I had eggs Benedict every morning and they were REALLY good. They have several variations on that theme that you can get at the station along with all the standards and a few other surprises each morning around the buffet.

 

Lunch and Dinner in OVC was really good too. They had themes but also items that were always available. Their Indian fare was quite good. The Biryani was awesome. Another surprise was the pizza. I snuck back for a mid afternoon pizza slice most every afternoon around 2:30 and several nights after 10.  Another treat was the Jamaican Chicken Patties, a little bite to them and darn good !  But there is a lot of variety on the OVC and most of it was tasty.

 

 

Entertainment:

I will admit, the only production show I saw was the Broadway Review, and cast singers have some great voices. I enjoyed that show on the last sea day. It was a matinee.

 

I saw all the guest entertainers.

Phil Tag - comedian - very funny and fun

Andrew John Diessner - singer - he has an amazing voice, and well worth spending the time to see

Rich Aronovitch - comedian - Absolutely hysterical both is primetime show and his adult show. See him.

Uptown - 3 man music show - see it.  Enough said.  They are high energy, funny and hella good singers

 

I want to add, the Equinox Orchestra is fantastic. They are musically tight and honestly a lot of fun to watch. Their drummer just bops and you can tell he is having fun. The same goes for their trumpet player; you can tell he is really enjoying playing with this great group. I was very impressed by this group of musicians.

 

 

Disembarkation:

This wasn’t as smooth. The announcements in the waiting lounges weren’t always announced so you could hear thru the whole area. I almost missed my call.

Once we started down the gangway, we ended up standing on the gangway for almost 20 minutes. The lounges are pretty comfy, but standing on the gangway isn’t. There were some more elderly folks that were a bit uncomfortable standing on the gangway for this time frame.

Make sure you take note of what your tag number is when you get your luggage tags. Looking for those tag numbers is the only way you will know which of the 3 carousels to go to and pick up your luggage to go thru customs.

On a side note: the lounges ( I was in the MDR ) are comfortable. Head to your waiting lounge as soon as you can; give your hard working room stewards a little extra time to turn the rooms for the oncoming guests.

 

Things to do

I have to say one of the true highlights of this cruise was the Hollywood Hot Glass glass blowing. Torie and Mandie are really talented artists. But, they are also very patient instructors. I spent hours sitting up on the deck watching these two very personable and genuinely positive and happy folks guide people thru making some very very nice glass pieces. There was one couple that made 7 pieces, all as Christmas gifts; those pieces were beautiful.  I can’t recommend giving this a try strongly enough. AND, I met some really nice fellow cruisers up there and we always warmly greeted and chatted all over the ship throughout the cruise after first meeting at the glass studio.

If you book this online, the base price is for the paper weight or the flower. They have much more you can make, but each is a different price. If you choose one of the other cool object d’art you will just pay the difference if you booked online. Also, some folks didn’t realize you actually get to make the item with the considerable help and guidance of these awesome artists/professionals. You get to actually make the item, choose the colors you use…. It’s awesome.  You need to book a time slot , even if you booked online;  just  go see them and book your time slot at the studio. There were people coming up to book slots fri morning only to find out that all the slots had been booked.  Book early.  Also, if you book and decide to NOT use your slot, please call and let them know.  I know on Friday there were 3 people that didn’t show up for their time slot and there were people there who hadn’t gotten a time slot and didn’t get to experience glass blowing because some folks signed up and then didn’t show up.

 

Mixology 101.  The World Class Bar makes some of the best drinks on the ship. They have a unique list of drinks.  The two master bartenders at this bar, Pedro and ( I am so embarrassed cause I can’t spell her name ) Latla share some of their great knowledge of mixing drinks in this Mixology class. Its a limited signup, but I recommend it.  I tasted things I never thought I would like, and really enjoyed what they presented. PLUS, these two are so friendly and all smiles they make just hanging at the bar a very fun time any evening you swing by.

 

Trivia - yeah yeah yeah I know, trivia.  I enjoyed it. Rachel, one of the activity staff was awesome. Her trivia was always a great mix of ‘oh I know that’ to ‘dang, where dd she come up with that’. Add to that how personable she is;nanytime I saw her around ship, she always had a few minutes to chat, AND she was a wealth of info on the odd trivia questions I had about the ship.

 

 

Things I learned

I booked concierge class solely for the points, and I cruised alone, so I got double. But, I did send a question to my concierge and never heard anything back from him.  I don’t think concierge is worth the extra cost over a balcony unless you are trying to build status points OR you want a specific location on board.

 

Valet Luggage - I didn’t read closely and so I wasted some time on disembarkation. If you use the Luggage Valet service, don’t look for your luggage on the carousels. You won’t seen your luggage again, after you set it outside your cabin, until you get to your final flight destination.  Also, very importantly: look at your luggage tags and the boarding passes you get. Make SURE they accurately show your final destination. Mine didn’t include my final destination. The airline tags I got would have left my luggage in Atlanta and not sent it the rest of the way home.  Now, Guest Relations was great about this. I called them and they reprinted everything for me, for expediency, I picked the tags up myself, I wanted to go see Uptown 🙂 But, check that, and if you get a new luggage tag, even though it may LOOK the same, replace it with the new one they give you, the barcode will change to get your luggage home

 

Transfer to airport - I sailed from Miami but the flights out of FLL were much cheaper for me, so I flew in and out of there. I decided to spend the $30 to just have it taken care of.  What I wasn’t told when I purchased the transfer - keep your transfer receipt and have it in hand when you go out to the busses.  They don’t have a list that is easily at hand to check and Celebrity doesn’t take you out to the transfer busses as a group.  The transfer company was great about getting me on board. But, it would have been far simpler had I known to keep that transfer receipt with me.

 

I loved this cruise. The Equinox is a darn nice ship. The staff and crew were incredible. Yes, it’s their job, but you can tell when someone likes their job. From the folks at embarkation, to my room steward, to the dining staff, to the activities and glass studio; everyone was genuinely happy, helpful and interested in making sure this was a great experience. Oh and by the way, Jill, the hotel director,  just exudes genuine fun, happiness and kindness.

 

I will cruise with Celebrity again, and I will return to Equinox when I can. It’s a great ship.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zoey1 "Live from...." Rare

Zoey1

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thank you for sharing your experience, sounds like a great cruise!

we are sailing on her in March, we have done about 10 Celebrity cruises but this will be our first time in the Equinox.

Edited by Zoey1
Needed to add alert for other notices
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ASell

ASell

Posted
  • Author
Posted
12 hours ago, mmmongo said:

Glad you had a great trip.  But I am sure you are glad you made it back for this snow!

 

Chuckle...... uh.   I was thinking I picked to wrong week to be away 🙂

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
helen haywood

helen haywood

Posted
Posted

We were on the Silhouette’s November 18 cruise and on the 19th Christmas decorations appeared overnight and kept coming for several days until she was completely decorated stem to stern.  We then sailed on this Equinox sailing so it was very strange to see not a single holiday decoration of any kind!  Oh, wait, there was holiday music playing in the hallways and at the Sunset Bar...for one day and then it went back to regular music.  I guess it varies ship to ship!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
swcruise

swcruise

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the share, am mid way through packing and getting excited.. Do hope for some Christmas decorations as it is getting close now.

Did you board according to the schedule they mailed ? Am select and was planning on boarding at my discretion but it seems that for this cruise it is for suites and Zenith members only.

 

Tks

Link to comment
Share on other sites
helen haywood

helen haywood

Posted
Posted

Pay no attention to what times Celebrity suggests you board.  If you arrive at the port earlier than 10 it may be busy still with debarking passengers....and I've had to wait in line inside the terminal for the security scan to begin at 10....again you may have a wait in the terminal...but you can arrive whenever you want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ASell

ASell

Posted
  • Author
Posted
48 minutes ago, m8zenblue said:

Did you happen to save your Celebrity Today newsletters ?

I did save them.  I was planning on scanning them to PDF and uploading today.... but the wonderful (ack) snow here had me working remote from the office.  I hope to get them scanned tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
m8zenblue

m8zenblue

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, ASell said:

I did save them.  I was planning on scanning them to PDF and uploading today.... but the wonderful (ack) snow here had me working remote from the office.  I hope to get them scanned tomorrow.

Thank you !!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ASell

ASell

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I never got in the pool.  I know there were people in them, but I also know during the Passenger vs Officer volleyball game, one of the officers fussed about cold water.

 

For concierge lunch on departure day I enjoyed my meal. I don't remember everything on the menu. But I had pumpkin bisque soup ( I think that is what it was,   it was a nice pureed squash ). I had a chicken with a light sauce, greens and fries, and apple pie a la mode.  There was also a salmon selection and I believe a pasta selection.  I also know there was a chocolate cake on there for desert.  

 

There were 3 apps, 3 entrees and 3 deserts.

 

Sorry about my memory on that meal. But I did enjoy it and the other folks seemed to enjoy as well.  They brought you in and filled the tables up and staff then came to get your order.  I was at a table for 10 and there were 9 seated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
joyce&bob

joyce&bob

Posted
Posted
On 12/9/2018 at 11:45 AM, ASell said:

I had a fantastic time on the Equinox. It was as laid back as I had hoped for and I met some great people, both Crew and fellow cruisers.

 

Embarkation: Very smooth. I got to the terminal about 11am. I zipped thru the terminal and was on board picking up my glass of sparkly as I boarded to kick things off by 11:20.  After a quick walk around, I headed to the MDR and enjoyed a nice lunch with some veteran cruisers. This is included in concierge cabins. The food was very good. And the conversation was engaging; a very nice start to the week.

 

Got into my cabin on deck 10 right at 1pm. I quickly unpacked. There was plenty of storage and hangers. However, I will note, I was traveling alone. So if there are 2 of you, you may need more hangers, but I hung everything up, including my t-shirts, which I had enough for every day plus a few extras and shirts for dinner with pants to go with them.

 

For sail away, I headed up to the sunset bar and met a lovely fellow cruise-critic traveler and had a really nice sail away with a great beverage ( thank you Mario from the Sunset bar, you made me great drinks ALL cruise. ). And thanks Mary Beth for hanging with me and chatting as we started our vacation.

 

Dining:

The first night, I ate in Silk Harvest. This was the only specialty dining I did. The food was very good. I am embarrassed that I forget how to spell my server’s name, but Rodel ( yikes) was great at helping me select things to try.   I learned that you can try many dishes.  I had the Miso Soup and Satay from the small plates. Both were very good. From the large plates I tried Orange chicken, chicken silk fried rice and Chinese pepper steak.  This sounds like a lot of food and it was, but, each individual portion ( other than the fried rice ) wasn’t huge. I actually got a 2nd orange chicken and asked for it to be much more spicy. And they fired it up. It was great ! I was too full for desert.

 

Throughout the week I ate in both MDR and in the Ocean View Cafe. MDR was really really good. Bi thanks to Orly and Resa; they were a fantastic team making really good suggestions for dinner and sometimes bringing a 2nd desert along with what I ordered because they thought it was so good it just had to be tried. They were right!  MDR was so good, I didn’t see a reason to pay extra and go to the specialty places. I think this is appropriate too. I am glad the MDR is very good. The specialties should, in my mind, be for special treats, not somewhere you need to go to get excellent food on a cruise.

 

Ocean View was a very nice surprise. I had planned on getting room service for breakfast and eat on my balcony every morning. But I went to OVC the first morning just to try it. I never considered room service for breakfast after that. There is every thing on the buffet. I had eggs Benedict every morning and they were REALLY good. They have several variations on that theme that you can get at the station along with all the standards and a few other surprises each morning around the buffet.

 

Lunch and Dinner in OVC was really good too. They had themes but also items that were always available. Their Indian fare was quite good. The Biryani was awesome. Another surprise was the pizza. I snuck back for a mid afternoon pizza slice most every afternoon around 2:30 and several nights after 10.  Another treat was the Jamaican Chicken Patties, a little bite to them and darn good !  But there is a lot of variety on the OVC and most of it was tasty.

 

 

Entertainment:

I will admit, the only production show I saw was the Broadway Review, and cast singers have some great voices. I enjoyed that show on the last sea day. It was a matinee.

 

I saw all the guest entertainers.

Phil Tag - comedian - very funny and fun

Andrew John Diessner - singer - he has an amazing voice, and well worth spending the time to see

Rich Aronovitch - comedian - Absolutely hysterical both is primetime show and his adult show. See him.

Uptown - 3 man music show - see it.  Enough said.  They are high energy, funny and hella good singers

 

I want to add, the Equinox Orchestra is fantastic. They are musically tight and honestly a lot of fun to watch. Their drummer just bops and you can tell he is having fun. The same goes for their trumpet player; you can tell he is really enjoying playing with this great group. I was very impressed by this group of musicians.

 

 

Disembarkation:

This wasn’t as smooth. The announcements in the waiting lounges weren’t always announced so you could hear thru the whole area. I almost missed my call.

Once we started down the gangway, we ended up standing on the gangway for almost 20 minutes. The lounges are pretty comfy, but standing on the gangway isn’t. There were some more elderly folks that were a bit uncomfortable standing on the gangway for this time frame.

Make sure you take note of what your tag number is when you get your luggage tags. Looking for those tag numbers is the only way you will know which of the 3 carousels to go to and pick up your luggage to go thru customs.

On a side note: the lounges ( I was in the MDR ) are comfortable. Head to your waiting lounge as soon as you can; give your hard working room stewards a little extra time to turn the rooms for the oncoming guests.

 

Things to do

I have to say one of the true highlights of this cruise was the Hollywood Hot Glass glass blowing. Torie and Mandie are really talented artists. But, they are also very patient instructors. I spent hours sitting up on the deck watching these two very personable and genuinely positive and happy folks guide people thru making some very very nice glass pieces. There was one couple that made 7 pieces, all as Christmas gifts; those pieces were beautiful.  I can’t recommend giving this a try strongly enough. AND, I met some really nice fellow cruisers up there and we always warmly greeted and chatted all over the ship throughout the cruise after first meeting at the glass studio.

If you book this online, the base price is for the paper weight or the flower. They have much more you can make, but each is a different price. If you choose one of the other cool object d’art you will just pay the difference if you booked online. Also, some folks didn’t realize you actually get to make the item with the considerable help and guidance of these awesome artists/professionals. You get to actually make the item, choose the colors you use…. It’s awesome.  You need to book a time slot , even if you booked online;  just  go see them and book your time slot at the studio. There were people coming up to book slots fri morning only to find out that all the slots had been booked.  Book early.  Also, if you book and decide to NOT use your slot, please call and let them know.  I know on Friday there were 3 people that didn’t show up for their time slot and there were people there who hadn’t gotten a time slot and didn’t get to experience glass blowing because some folks signed up and then didn’t show up.

 

Mixology 101.  The World Class Bar makes some of the best drinks on the ship. They have a unique list of drinks.  The two master bartenders at this bar, Pedro and ( I am so embarrassed cause I can’t spell her name ) Latla share some of their great knowledge of mixing drinks in this Mixology class. Its a limited signup, but I recommend it.  I tasted things I never thought I would like, and really enjoyed what they presented. PLUS, these two are so friendly and all smiles they make just hanging at the bar a very fun time any evening you swing by.

 

Trivia - yeah yeah yeah I know, trivia.  I enjoyed it. Rachel, one of the activity staff was awesome. Her trivia was always a great mix of ‘oh I know that’ to ‘dang, where dd she come up with that’. Add to that how personable she is;nanytime I saw her around ship, she always had a few minutes to chat, AND she was a wealth of info on the odd trivia questions I had about the ship.

 

 

Things I learned

I booked concierge class solely for the points, and I cruised alone, so I got double. But, I did send a question to my concierge and never heard anything back from him.  I don’t think concierge is worth the extra cost over a balcony unless you are trying to build status points OR you want a specific location on board.

 

Valet Luggage - I didn’t read closely and so I wasted some time on disembarkation. If you use the Luggage Valet service, don’t look for your luggage on the carousels. You won’t seen your luggage again, after you set it outside your cabin, until you get to your final flight destination.  Also, very importantly: look at your luggage tags and the boarding passes you get. Make SURE they accurately show your final destination. Mine didn’t include my final destination. The airline tags I got would have left my luggage in Atlanta and not sent it the rest of the way home.  Now, Guest Relations was great about this. I called them and they reprinted everything for me, for expediency, I picked the tags up myself, I wanted to go see Uptown 🙂 But, check that, and if you get a new luggage tag, even though it may LOOK the same, replace it with the new one they give you, the barcode will change to get your luggage home

 

Transfer to airport - I sailed from Miami but the flights out of FLL were much cheaper for me, so I flew in and out of there. I decided to spend the $30 to just have it taken care of.  What I wasn’t told when I purchased the transfer - keep your transfer receipt and have it in hand when you go out to the busses.  They don’t have a list that is easily at hand to check and Celebrity doesn’t take you out to the transfer busses as a group.  The transfer company was great about getting me on board. But, it would have been far simpler had I known to keep that transfer receipt with me.

 

I loved this cruise. The Equinox is a darn nice ship. The staff and crew were incredible. Yes, it’s their job, but you can tell when someone likes their job. From the folks at embarkation, to my room steward, to the dining staff, to the activities and glass studio; everyone was genuinely happy, helpful and interested in making sure this was a great experience. Oh and by the way, Jill, the hotel director,  just exudes genuine fun, happiness and kindness.

 

I will cruise with Celebrity again, and I will return to Equinox when I can. It’s a great ship.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ASell

ASell

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, joyce&bob said:

Leaving 12/15 on the Equinox - Thanks for your review.

 

Any tips on what type of Trivia questions? We are a group of 4 in our 70's - love the trivia.... 

 

Rachels are fun,  a good mix of hard and doable

There is a gentleman that has some really really hard trivia.  Interesting in how he does it, like for music, he plays a song, you give artist and title, then next is a question about the song.

 

on general trivia, its all over the place.....

hey, what is defenestration 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...