My View: An Equinox Christmas, Naughty Room and All!

Christinefl · January 1, 2019

These posts are great! Thanks!

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

On 1/1/2019 at 2:16 AM, Mparis184 said:

Thanks for the nice tour of your cabin, what category was it?

Marion

Regular balcony (1A Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom Veranda)

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Hi, Everyone!

I don’t know if it was just me, but Cruise Critic pages did not want to load yesterday...

Coming right up, my summary of our experience... 🙂

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

My View: Debarkation

Tip: I definitely recommend breakfast in the Main Dining Room on debarkation morning. It is much more relaxing, and you don’t have to hunt down teaspoons or bowls. 😬

One of the staff members commented on how fast debarkation numbers were being called. We were waiting in Tuscan Gill for our projected 9:10 debarkation. Our number was called around 8:50. We walked straight off the ship, easily located our suitcases, and headed toward customs. We did not even pause in line. We kept walking pretty fast, and there was not the traditional roped snake of a line... Surprisingly, there were NO customs agents. I guess with the partial government shut down, they were not required. We walked straight past the empty customs booths to the parking garage!

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Royal Caribbean vs Celebrity

Most of my comments will be based on our experiences with Royal Caribbean, as that is the line we cruise the most. To us, this was the perfect Christmas cruise. We were able to really relax and not feel like we are missing out on something. There were not that many activities that appealed to us, so I relaxed a lot on the balcony 🙂

We were pleasantly surprised that the dress codes are similar for the Caribbean sailing. Evening Chic looked essentially the same as we have seen on Royal Caribbean elegant nights. This was definitely not the case on Celebrity Infinity in 2010... DH had to bring his jacket for that night.

Some of the things we loved:

Free breakfadt, lunch & dinner room service on Celebrity (almost 24 hours availability), with a few optional items to upgrade for paid meals.
Best Officers’ Reception for Captains’ Club members (“Welcome back” loyalty party) in 30 cruises!
Excellence of service by officers and staff!
Large angled balcony upgrade.
Prices for the Christmas sailing - about half of what it would have been on Royal or Norwegian! I LOVE that Celebrity still does last minute price drops on longer cruises.
Food was overall very good, and a nice change from menus we got used to on Royal. MDR food was very similar in quality to Royal, in my opinion. However, buffet food on Celebrity was far better than Royal, and quite a bit better than Norwegian.
The coffee in the buffet is MUCH better than on Royal!
Christmas decorations were beautiful and more extensive than other ships (Royal and Norwegian).
Fun Christmas related activities, like the gingerbread decoration demonstration and the caroling.

Some things we did not like:

Surprisingly, the ship felt more crowded than Oasis class and even Freedom class on Royal. It seems like a lot of public space have become paid venues for meals or special venues for suites. Tip for those who do not get a balcony, the Sky lounge was a more quiet venue with beautiful views!
This cruise also had more people staying on the ship in port than I had ever seen. It may have been due to the demographics of the Christmas Cruise...
We missed the great entertainment from Royal, especially the ice skating shows and the public venue entertainment. There is much more variety on Royal for entertainment.
The ship was very dusty. We saw people clean all the time, and our room steward did a very good job! However, we would go to bed with a clean iPad screen and wake up with dust on it. It really seems to me like they do not clean out the air conditioning filters. Our son had constant allergies from all the dust. We have experienced some of this on a couple of Royal Caribbean ships too.

Overall, we loved our cruise and would do it again if the price is right. It seems like Celebrity is consistently the best financial choice for Christmas. However, Royal and Norwegian remain in the top two spots for cruise lines we prefer as a family. Celebrity is a strong third, and a GREAT option for last minute deals.

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Captain’s Club vs. Crown & Anchor

Captains Club Pros:

We love the Tuscan Grille breakfast options, including free cappuccino and other drinks!
Different variety of options for free drinks... love those Appletini’s! (Although we missed Baileys and Strongbow that are on the Royal Caribbean list)
Beautiful and LARGE Sky Lounge for happy hour - not crowded at all! (However, I heard Elite events were much more quiet than usual for this Christmas cruise.)
Cheaper wifi with 90 minutes free for Elite (log on, log off to use few minutes at a time... not continuous 24 hours for one day only, like Royal). With this perk, we could have survived for the week without purchasing a package. However, due to it being Christmas, we wanted to be in contact with my family. The social media package was only $67 for the week with our discount. Although it seems to be similar to “surf” on Royal according to the description, the “surf” speeds on Royal are MUCH better. On Royal surf, we were able to do wifi video calls, but not on Equinox. The cheap package is VERY slow.
Love the free dry cleaning option, even though we did not need it this time.

Captain’s Club cons on Celebrity:

Shorter hours for free drinks than on Royal
Cannot redeem 3 drink vouchers in MDR on Celebrity, where you can do this on Royal.
No free photo 😢
We missed our all day cappuccino machine from the diamond lounge.
No balcony discount for Elite.

It is easier and overall cheaper for us to earn diamond on Royal (~10 cruises) than elite on Celebrity (>14 cruises) in regular balcony or lower cabin.

My recommendation: Cruise cheap on Royal until diamond status is obtained, then enjoy Elite on Celebrity. 😁

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 1 in Miami

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 2 - At Sea

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 3 - San Juan

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 4 - Sint Maarten

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 5 - Saint Thomas

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 6 - At Sea

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Celebrity Today: Day 7 - At Sea

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

Hopefully, Cruise Critic will cooperate tomorrow so that I can post ship pictures. 🙂

awhfy · January 2, 2019

APDMOM. Thank you for taking the time to post the wonderful pictures (& menus) from your vacation. Thank you especially for the St John & St Thomas pictures.

I believe your cabin, 8197, is one of the sweet 16 1A cabins (I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong). Great space on that balcony.

Im sitting here in -5 (F) snowy Colorado wishing I was on Equinox again.

davekathy · January 2, 2019

6 hours ago, APDMOM said:

Captain’s Club vs. Crown & Anchor...

...and the free scoop of gelato. 🍨

APDMOM · January 2, 2019

3 hours ago, davekathy said:

...and the free scoop of gelato. 🍨

True! That was a very nice treat. 😁

davekathy · January 2, 2019

20 minutes ago, APDMOM said:

True! That was a very nice treat. 😁

When we were the Infinity the server gave us both two scoops. That was the first time for that.

Edited January 2, 2019 by davekathy

APDMOM · January 3, 2019

Finally, pictures of the ship!

Deck 3: One of my favorite views:

Activities on Community Board:

Tip: If you do not receive an invitation for the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle, just look here for the day, location, and time:

APDMOM · January 3, 2019

Deck 4 Views:

Celebrity Central, where movies played:

Quasar: They sometimes moved the ping pong table here:

Gastro Bar: (I always have to chuckle when I hear any restaurant or bar called “Gastro”... where I grew up, it is not a pleasant word. It is what we used to describe the stomach bug. We would say, “She has Gastro” if someone came down with the bug. To now hear it associated with quisine just does not help my appetite along. 😂)