Review of b2b on Equinox

[CTSandy]

Just returned from my first b2b, greatly enjoyed it and would love to repeat the experience.  I would like to thank everyone on this forum who offered information on procedures for a b2b - made me feel more comfortable about the sailing.  I have sailed on Equinox several times and was happy to see the ship still looks beautiful and well maintained - observed cleaning and polishing going on everywhere at all times - hard working staff.  I sailed the first leg solo, then had friends that came for the second leg, one of which shared my cabin.

 

I was fortunate enough to have the same cabin for both legs so did not have to pack anything up at all.  I had a concierge cabin on deck 11 aft; the only negative was that it was almost at the end of the hall so it was a long walk back and forth to elevators or stairs!  Big shout out to the cabin steward I had on the first leg - Dickson - incredible service and a perfectionist cleaning the room.  Lots of cruises and he was the best I’ve ever had.  Sadly (for me) he was leaving at the end of the first leg to return home for four months for the birth of his first child and first grandchild for both families.  He’s heading to Reflection in July; I would be overjoyed to be lucky enough to have him as a steward again.  I did comment with the QR code on what a great representative he was for Celebrity.  The second steward was fine, but not exceptional.

 

Dining - I went to the Maitre’d a couple of days before the start of the second cruise - my cabin mate and I had a confirmation for 6 pm traditional dining; the person joining us in a different cabin had linked her sailing to ours but we didn’t have anything indicating she was dining with us and I wanted to confirm that three of us would be dining together.  I was given a card with a table number and thought it was resolved.  Unfortunately, the first night we came to the dining room there was someone seated at our table.  Lots of confusion and we got sent upstairs to deck 4.  We were seated and they told us we should just come to deck 4 the following night and we would be seated at one of the four tables there.  The next night we went to the hostess at deck 4 who wanted to know why we were there because we had an assigned table on deck 3 - she finally seated us, but told us to report to our regular table the following night.  Day 3 we show up to our assigned table and meet our wait staff - day 4 we get there and a party is seated at the table and again, mass confusion.  I am now up to three conversations with Webster, the maitre’d and finally they gave us a table that they assured us would be ours.  I understand that part of the problem was that they had a charter of approximately 700 people on board, but it was poor organization.

 

As others have mentioned, food in the MDR is not of the same quality as prior cruises.  A few dishes were very good (beef tournedos and lamb in phyllo) some were poor (beef bourguignon - toughest beef ever) - disappointing but I was not surprised.  Service was not as slow as I’ve been reading about, but it seems they may still be a little understaffed.  The night we dined on deck 4 our waiter apparently had no assistant and was visibly stressed.

 

Dined twice in Murano, once solo and once with my friends on the second cruise.  Very happy to report service and food was still excellent there, one of the reasons I love Solstice class.  One night I dined at Sushi on Five and enjoyed it - had dumplings and their very excellent udon soup; I thought it was very good value for the price and service was fine.  I also did the buffet for dinner a couple of nights.  I expected very little, based on reports, and was pleasantly surprised.  The pasta station was open, so was the grill station which offered cooked to order chicken, fish, and minute steaks.  Several assorted casserole type dishes were available (one night eggplant Parmesan, meatballs, a vegetable casserole with squash, onion, tomatoes), a decent salad bar.  It was not very busy but there were diners there.  Cafe al Bacio is still one of my favorite stops - by day 2 Jayson knew I liked an almond croissant with my cappuccino and had my order a couple of minutes after I sat down - he was another person that I submitted a positive comment card about.

 

Ports - first cruise included St. Kitts, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Antigua.  I had visited St. Kitts before so just walked around the port area.  Most enjoyable excursion was Karambola excursion on Martinique.  I discovered many positive reviews about this company on the Martinique forum and was very happy to confirm it’s as great as described - small group (16), comfortable vehicle, plenty of personal interaction.  Second cruise was Grand Cayman and the ABCs, this is the sixth time I’ve done this itinerary so I only did one excursion - a ship excursion that was a sunset sail on a schooner, which we all enjoyed.  Perfect weather, music that had recognizable lyrics, an open bar, a few snacks - a fun evening and it was beautiful out on the water.

 

There was a noro outbreak on the second cruise and my cabin mate unfortunately was a victim.  We took her down to the hospital facility because she was so sick, they gave her an IV and some meds, quarantined her for 36 hours, and called and checked on her frequently.  She was doing well two days later and I was impressed by how compassionate the medical staff was.  I just read today that there were 122 passengers diagnosed with noro.  They did switch to having staff serving at the buffet a day or so after the outbreak.  Happy that I wasn’t a victim, in spite of sharing a cabin with her.  I think it may have started on the earlier cruise because a woman warned me not to eat burgers at Mast Grill because she got “food poisoning “ after eating one.

The entertainment was similar to other Celebrity cruises - I skipped Elysium (saw it a few times before), ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the woman who did a tribute to Aretha Franklin but I enjoyed her performance very much.  Chloe in the Ensemble lounge did some great sets.  Loved Beyond the Podium and attended all of the sessions.  Spent a lot of time in the Solarium during the day and the casino at night.  Overall a very enjoyable and relaxing three weeks!

 

Did walk off at Port Everglades, off the ship by 7:30, and at FLL by 8:05.  I had a 10:55 flight and made it with plenty of time to spare.  Airport was a zoo with spring breakers coming and going but flight got off on time.  Flying out is the only thing I hate about cruising😁

I was surprised I never got a survey for either leg of the cruise but was happy I had submitted positive comments about the two staff members I found exceptional

 

 

 

 

[Texed]

CT,

Thanks for posting your review.  😊

[jelayne]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.  
I hope your friend was able to enjoy some of the cruise and has fully recovered.

[39august]

What were the topics of the Beyond the Podium presentations, please?

[wallysdtr]

12 hours ago, CTSandy said:

Just returned from my first b2b, greatly enjoyed it and would love to repeat the experience.  I would like to thank everyone on this forum who offered information on procedures for a b2b - made me feel more comfortable about the sailing.  I have sailed on Equinox several times and was happy to see the ship still looks beautiful and well maintained - observed cleaning and polishing going on everywhere at all times - hard working staff.  I sailed the first leg solo, then had friends that came for the second leg, one of which shared my cabin.

 

I was fortunate enough to have the same cabin for both legs so did not have to pack anything up at all.  I had a concierge cabin on deck 11 aft; the only negative was that it was almost at the end of the hall so it was a long walk back and forth to elevators or stairs!  Big shout out to the cabin steward I had on the first leg - Dickson - incredible service and a perfectionist cleaning the room.  Lots of cruises and he was the best I’ve ever had.  Sadly (for me) he was leaving at the end of the first leg to return home for four months for the birth of his first child and first grandchild for both families.  He’s heading to Reflection in July; I would be overjoyed to be lucky enough to have him as a steward again.  I did comment with the QR code on what a great representative he was for Celebrity.  The second steward was fine, but not exceptional.

 

Dining - I went to the Maitre’d a couple of days before the start of the second cruise - my cabin mate and I had a confirmation for 6 pm traditional dining; the person joining us in a different cabin had linked her sailing to ours but we didn’t have anything indicating she was dining with us and I wanted to confirm that three of us would be dining together.  I was given a card with a table number and thought it was resolved.  Unfortunately, the first night we came to the dining room there was someone seated at our table.  Lots of confusion and we got sent upstairs to deck 4.  We were seated and they told us we should just come to deck 4 the following night and we would be seated at one of the four tables there.  The next night we went to the hostess at deck 4 who wanted to know why we were there because we had an assigned table on deck 3 - she finally seated us, but told us to report to our regular table the following night.  Day 3 we show up to our assigned table and meet our wait staff - day 4 we get there and a party is seated at the table and again, mass confusion.  I am now up to three conversations with Webster, the maitre’d and finally they gave us a table that they assured us would be ours.  I understand that part of the problem was that they had a charter of approximately 700 people on board, but it was poor organization.

 

As others have mentioned, food in the MDR is not of the same quality as prior cruises.  A few dishes were very good (beef tournedos and lamb in phyllo) some were poor (beef bourguignon - toughest beef ever) - disappointing but I was not surprised.  Service was not as slow as I’ve been reading about, but it seems they may still be a little understaffed.  The night we dined on deck 4 our waiter apparently had no assistant and was visibly stressed.

 

Dined twice in Murano, once solo and once with my friends on the second cruise.  Very happy to report service and food was still excellent there, one of the reasons I love Solstice class.  One night I dined at Sushi on Five and enjoyed it - had dumplings and their very excellent udon soup; I thought it was very good value for the price and service was fine.  I also did the buffet for dinner a couple of nights.  I expected very little, based on reports, and was pleasantly surprised.  The pasta station was open, so was the grill station which offered cooked to order chicken, fish, and minute steaks.  Several assorted casserole type dishes were available (one night eggplant Parmesan, meatballs, a vegetable casserole with squash, onion, tomatoes), a decent salad bar.  It was not very busy but there were diners there.  Cafe al Bacio is still one of my favorite stops - by day 2 Jayson knew I liked an almond croissant with my cappuccino and had my order a couple of minutes after I sat down - he was another person that I submitted a positive comment card about.

 

Ports - first cruise included St. Kitts, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Antigua.  I had visited St. Kitts before so just walked around the port area.  Most enjoyable excursion was Karambola excursion on Martinique.  I discovered many positive reviews about this company on the Martinique forum and was very happy to confirm it’s as great as described - small group (16), comfortable vehicle, plenty of personal interaction.  Second cruise was Grand Cayman and the ABCs, this is the sixth time I’ve done this itinerary so I only did one excursion - a ship excursion that was a sunset sail on a schooner, which we all enjoyed.  Perfect weather, music that had recognizable lyrics, an open bar, a few snacks - a fun evening and it was beautiful out on the water.

 

There was a noro outbreak on the second cruise and my cabin mate unfortunately was a victim.  We took her down to the hospital facility because she was so sick, they gave her an IV and some meds, quarantined her for 36 hours, and called and checked on her frequently.  She was doing well two days later and I was impressed by how compassionate the medical staff was.  I just read today that there were 122 passengers diagnosed with noro.  They did switch to having staff serving at the buffet a day or so after the outbreak.  Happy that I wasn’t a victim, in spite of sharing a cabin with her.  I think it may have started on the earlier cruise because a woman warned me not to eat burgers at Mast Grill because she got “food poisoning “ after eating one.

The entertainment was similar to other Celebrity cruises - I skipped Elysium (saw it a few times before), ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the woman who did a tribute to Aretha Franklin but I enjoyed her performance very much.  Chloe in the Ensemble lounge did some great sets.  Loved Beyond the Podium and attended all of the sessions.  Spent a lot of time in the Solarium during the day and the casino at night.  Overall a very enjoyable and relaxing three weeks!

 

Did walk off at Port Everglades, off the ship by 7:30, and at FLL by 8:05.  I had a 10:55 flight and made it with plenty of time to spare.  Airport was a zoo with spring breakers coming and going but flight got off on time.  Flying out is the only thing I hate about cruising😁

I was surprised I never got a survey for either leg of the cruise but was happy I had submitted positive comments about the two staff members I found exceptional

 

 

 

 

thanks for the post.  This is very helpful as we will be on the ship on Monday.  We booked the same excursion in Martinique so it is good to know you had a great time.    We have an aquaspa cabin midship and hoping Blu is as good as it always has been in the past.

[C4HCG]

14 hours ago, CTSandy said:

Just returned from my first b2b, greatly enjoyed it and would love to repeat the experience.  I would like to thank everyone on this forum who offered information on procedures for a b2b - made me feel more comfortable about the sailing.  I have sailed on Equinox several times and was happy to see the ship still looks beautiful and well maintained - observed cleaning and polishing going on everywhere at all times - hard working staff.  I sailed the first leg solo, then had friends that came for the second leg, one of which shared my cabin.

 

I was fortunate enough to have the same cabin for both legs so did not have to pack anything up at all.  I had a concierge cabin on deck 11 aft; the only negative was that it was almost at the end of the hall so it was a long walk back and forth to elevators or stairs!  Big shout out to the cabin steward I had on the first leg - Dickson - incredible service and a perfectionist cleaning the room.  Lots of cruises and he was the best I’ve ever had.  Sadly (for me) he was leaving at the end of the first leg to return home for four months for the birth of his first child and first grandchild for both families.  He’s heading to Reflection in July; I would be overjoyed to be lucky enough to have him as a steward again.  I did comment with the QR code on what a great representative he was for Celebrity.  The second steward was fine, but not exceptional.

 

Dining - I went to the Maitre’d a couple of days before the start of the second cruise - my cabin mate and I had a confirmation for 6 pm traditional dining; the person joining us in a different cabin had linked her sailing to ours but we didn’t have anything indicating she was dining with us and I wanted to confirm that three of us would be dining together.  I was given a card with a table number and thought it was resolved.  Unfortunately, the first night we came to the dining room there was someone seated at our table.  Lots of confusion and we got sent upstairs to deck 4.  We were seated and they told us we should just come to deck 4 the following night and we would be seated at one of the four tables there.  The next night we went to the hostess at deck 4 who wanted to know why we were there because we had an assigned table on deck 3 - she finally seated us, but told us to report to our regular table the following night.  Day 3 we show up to our assigned table and meet our wait staff - day 4 we get there and a party is seated at the table and again, mass confusion.  I am now up to three conversations with Webster, the maitre’d and finally they gave us a table that they assured us would be ours.  I understand that part of the problem was that they had a charter of approximately 700 people on board, but it was poor organization.

 

As others have mentioned, food in the MDR is not of the same quality as prior cruises.  A few dishes were very good (beef tournedos and lamb in phyllo) some were poor (beef bourguignon - toughest beef ever) - disappointing but I was not surprised.  Service was not as slow as I’ve been reading about, but it seems they may still be a little understaffed.  The night we dined on deck 4 our waiter apparently had no assistant and was visibly stressed.

 

Dined twice in Murano, once solo and once with my friends on the second cruise.  Very happy to report service and food was still excellent there, one of the reasons I love Solstice class.  One night I dined at Sushi on Five and enjoyed it - had dumplings and their very excellent udon soup; I thought it was very good value for the price and service was fine.  I also did the buffet for dinner a couple of nights.  I expected very little, based on reports, and was pleasantly surprised.  The pasta station was open, so was the grill station which offered cooked to order chicken, fish, and minute steaks.  Several assorted casserole type dishes were available (one night eggplant Parmesan, meatballs, a vegetable casserole with squash, onion, tomatoes), a decent salad bar.  It was not very busy but there were diners there.  Cafe al Bacio is still one of my favorite stops - by day 2 Jayson knew I liked an almond croissant with my cappuccino and had my order a couple of minutes after I sat down - he was another person that I submitted a positive comment card about.

 

Ports - first cruise included St. Kitts, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Antigua.  I had visited St. Kitts before so just walked around the port area.  Most enjoyable excursion was Karambola excursion on Martinique.  I discovered many positive reviews about this company on the Martinique forum and was very happy to confirm it’s as great as described - small group (16), comfortable vehicle, plenty of personal interaction.  Second cruise was Grand Cayman and the ABCs, this is the sixth time I’ve done this itinerary so I only did one excursion - a ship excursion that was a sunset sail on a schooner, which we all enjoyed.  Perfect weather, music that had recognizable lyrics, an open bar, a few snacks - a fun evening and it was beautiful out on the water.

 

There was a noro outbreak on the second cruise and my cabin mate unfortunately was a victim.  We took her down to the hospital facility because she was so sick, they gave her an IV and some meds, quarantined her for 36 hours, and called and checked on her frequently.  She was doing well two days later and I was impressed by how compassionate the medical staff was.  I just read today that there were 122 passengers diagnosed with noro.  They did switch to having staff serving at the buffet a day or so after the outbreak.  Happy that I wasn’t a victim, in spite of sharing a cabin with her.  I think it may have started on the earlier cruise because a woman warned me not to eat burgers at Mast Grill because she got “food poisoning “ after eating one.

The entertainment was similar to other Celebrity cruises - I skipped Elysium (saw it a few times before), ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the woman who did a tribute to Aretha Franklin but I enjoyed her performance very much.  Chloe in the Ensemble lounge did some great sets.  Loved Beyond the Podium and attended all of the sessions.  Spent a lot of time in the Solarium during the day and the casino at night.  Overall a very enjoyable and relaxing three weeks!

 

Did walk off at Port Everglades, off the ship by 7:30, and at FLL by 8:05.  I had a 10:55 flight and made it with plenty of time to spare.  Airport was a zoo with spring breakers coming and going but flight got off on time.  Flying out is the only thing I hate about cruising😁

I was surprised I never got a survey for either leg of the cruise but was happy I had submitted positive comments about the two staff members I found exceptional

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the review, we sail equinox in September. You don’t happen to know who the house bands were do you. Last September we weren’t very impressed with either of the two that played by the pool of an afternoon so hoping that they have been replaced!

[MikeMary4449]

14 hours ago, CTSandy said:

 Second cruise was Grand Cayman and the ABCs, this is the sixth time I’ve done this itinerary so I only did one excursion - a ship excursion that was a sunset sail on a schooner, which we all enjoyed.  Perfect weather, music that had recognizable lyrics, an open bar, a few snacks - a fun evening and it was beautiful out on the water.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your detailed review!  We board the Equinox on April 6 and will be sure to visit Jason in Cafe Al Bacio.  As we also have been to these ports previously, we only booked the Sunset Sail on a Schooner.  We look forward to having as great a time as you did on that tour and on the cruise in general.

Mike and Mary

[Northern Aurora]

On 3/22/2023 at 5:57 PM, CTSandy said:

 

…….. I also did the buffet for dinner a couple of nights.  I expected very little, based on reports, and was pleasantly surprised.  The pasta station was open, so was the grill station which offered cooked to order chicken, fish, and minute steaks.  Several assorted casserole type dishes were available (one night eggplant Parmesan, meatballs, a vegetable casserole with squash, onion, tomatoes), a decent salad bar.  It was not very busy but there were diners there.  …..

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoyed your review.

 

I am posting from the Eclipse nearing the end of the second leg of a b2b2b2b.  While we are dining in either Luminae or specialty restaurants, we have checked the buffet several times.  After some of the dire reports posted on this forum we found the buffet to be very similar to this description.  No Indian food but decent choices.

[CTSandy]

19 hours ago, jelayne said:

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.  
I hope your friend was able to enjoy some of the cruise and has fully recovered.

She was feeling much better 48 hours later and able to enjoy the rest of the cruise.  Thanks for asking!

[CTSandy]

8 hours ago, 39august said:

What were the topics of the Beyond the Podium presentations, please?

First cruise had a psychologist on that spoke on communication  - she was very interesting, one of her topics was communicating with Y chromosome people🙂.  Peter, the cruise director did a few presentations - a very nice one about Queen Elizabeth, another one with orchestra director Jose about the Beatles, and an interesting summary of what it was like during Covid on the ships along with some funny stories about incidents on ships.  The second cruise featured David Fantle who did a four part session on the golden age of Hollywood.  I enjoyed all of the sessions on both cruises.

[CTSandy]

7 hours ago, C4HCG said:

Thanks for the review, we sail equinox in September. You don’t happen to know who the house bands were do you. Last September we weren’t very impressed with either of the two that played by the pool of an afternoon so hoping that they have been replaced!

I can’t remember the name of the house bands or singers - they were ok but not anything that I considered special.  I thought Chloe in the Ensemble Lounge was very enjoyable - she did some folk/country/Irish songs and I did make an effort to go to her performances.  The second cruise had Van do a classical piano presentation in Celebrity Central - he was excellent.  I also enjoyed Kyiv Strings in Ensemble.  The presentation of the production dancers on Deck 3 doing Queen was fun also.

[heffy2]

Thank you for the review! I sail on Equinox on my first Celebrity cruise in May, I can't wait!

 

[CTSandy]

10 minutes ago, heffy2 said:

Thank you for the review! I sail on Equinox on my first Celebrity cruise in May, I can't wait!

 

I’m jealous - won’t be back on Equinox until August!

[chamima]

9 hours ago, wallysdtr said:

thanks for the post.  This is very helpful as we will be on the ship on Monday.  We booked the same excursion in Martinique so it is good to know you had a great time.    We have an aquaspa cabin midship and hoping Blu is as good as it always has been in the past.

 

We were on the Equinox in Aqua for all of February and the beginning of March.

Blu is as wonderful as always - the service AND the food. Ask for Sabar and Bryan and you will be spoiled to death. (Although actually ALL of the waitstaff in Blu are wonderful!)

Also look for Lilian - an absolutely adorable junior waiter who we fell in love with. Tell them all that Karen and Allan miss them so much.

If you get a chance could you stop by the World Class Bar and see how Adrian is. We spent 6 weeks of evenings with him but the very last day of our last cruise he was iill. Hoping he's better! (He's a fabulous mixologist!!!)

And yes, Jayson and Ruth in al Bacio are also wonderful.

Edited March 23, 2023 by chamima

[3JCruiser]

Thanks for the review ! Cant wait to get back onboard.

Were doing a back to back in Europe in the summer..

 

Did they test you between the  B2B cruises ?

[CTSandy]

23 minutes ago, 3JCruiser said:

Thanks for the review ! Cant wait to get back onboard.

Were doing a back to back in Europe in the summer..

 

Did they test you between the  B2B cruises ?

No testing - just met in Celebrity Central for 9:30, walked off with Jonathan, did facial recognition in terminal, then walked back on the ship.

[wallysdtr]

12 hours ago, chamima said:

 

We were on the Equinox in Aqua for all of February and the beginning of March.

Blu is as wonderful as always - the service AND the food. Ask for Sabar and Bryan and you will be spoiled to death. (Although actually ALL of the waitstaff in Blu are wonderful!)

Also look for Lilian - an absolutely adorable junior waiter who we fell in love with. Tell them all that Karen and Allan miss them so much.

If you get a chance could you stop by the World Class Bar and see how Adrian is. We spent 6 weeks of evenings with him but the very last day of our last cruise he was iill. Hoping he's better! (He's a fabulous mixologist!!!)

And yes, Jayson and Ruth in al Bacio are also wonderful.

Your post is wonderful!   We did 21 days on the Constellation a year and a half ago.  the 6 weeks you spent on the Equinox had to be wonderful.    We will look for Lillian, Sabar and Bryan for sure and will mention you both to them.   

World class bar is our favorite!   We were on the Equinox in November and Adrian was fabulous.  He said he would be on the ship for this upcoming cruise.   

Several of the crew we met in November will be sailing with us.  I'm looking forward to re-connecting back with them.   

[chamima]

@wallysdtr The crew on the Equinox were the best!!!!

Adrian has a new partner, Armandt - you'll love him, too!!!

 

*

Edited March 24, 2023 by chamima

[horseymike]

Thanks for your review. Most helpful and informative as we will be on the Equinox in May .

[3JCruiser]

23 hours ago, CTSandy said:

No testing - just met in Celebrity Central for 9:30, walked off with Jonathan, did facial recognition in terminal, then walked back on the ship.

 

Thank You !

[terrydtx]

Thank you for your review, we will be on the Equinox in June with our 12-year-old granddaughter.