A quick review of Equinox Ancient Empires cruise 26 September 09

[iandjm]

REVIEW OF CRUISE ON CELEBRITY EQUINOX ANCIENT EMPIRES CRUISE SEPTEMBER 26TH – OCTOBER 10TH

STATEROOM

We were in Sky suite 6305, right at the stern of the ship, portside corner. It was larger than other Sky Suites and had both patio doors, and a side window. The balcony was massive, and had great views. On many evenings we were sat on the balcony at midnight. The bathroom was lovely; it had a large bath, and shower, with 2 shower heads. We really liked the suite.
The location of the suite was not so good. We found there was a lot of vibration from the propellers. In anything but smooth seas there was a strange motion. It was as if the stern was swinging around unsupported, on the rear of the ship. I do not normally suffer from any form of sea sickness, but I did find the motion made me feel bit queasy at times. We loved the interactive tv, although it failed on at least 4 occasions, leaving us with just sound and no picture. We enjoyed the lovely afternoon tea that our butler brought along every afternoon.

Sky suite 10/10

The big disadvantage of being on deck 6, at the stern, was the pressure washing of the Tuscan Grill windows. This rendered our balcony unusable in the mornings, as there always seemed to be over spray. We also noticed that on most mornings the balcony was covered in small pieces of soot. I imagine from the ships incinerator.

Location 7/10

CAPTAINS CLUB

We used the Elite lounge on most evenings, and really enjoyed meeting fellow members. The drinks were really nice along with nice canapés. Due to the large number of Elite members on our cruise the Elite lounge was re-located in part of the Ocenview Café in the evenings. This was closed off from the main area, with its own bar. The Elite breakfasts were served in Michaels Club. A nice selection of continental breakfast items were available, along with lovely Café Latté’s. Many thanks to Ria, the Captains Club host.

DINING

SILHOUETTE RESTAURANT

A superb dining venue, the food quality and service was as good, if not better then I have experienced on Celebrity before. Waiters had time to converse and always made sure we were happy with our selection. I am still puzzled why snails are on the ‘always available’ menu. I thought the idea of ‘always available’ was to allow the less adventurous of us to select something familiar to eat.

10/10

BISTRO ON 5

We had a lovely lunch here. We started with a nice salad and then had a crepe, and desert. This is a great venue and the $5 charge is fine for an occasional visit.

9/10



OCEANVIEW CAFE

A massive selection of food is available here. Loved the pasta station, where pasta is prepared with whatever you want in it. Nice fresh sandwich area too, sandwiches made to order, although seems strange that no butter/mayo is offered/available when your sandwiches are made to order. The selections of fresh fruit were lovely. Deserts… well need I say more. Fantastic! Oh and of course the fantastic almost always available ice cream here as better than ever.

9/10

MAST GRILL

A nice venue but burgers are not prepared freshly, they are already cooked and simply served to you with the ‘disgusting’ rubber cheese. Bring back the freshly grilled, with proper melted cheese burgers found on ‘M’ class ships.

5/10

AQUA SPA CAFÉ

As lovely as ever! Really nice dishes are available form the friendly staff here. I am so pleased this area is included on Solstice class ships.

10/10

ROOM SERVICE

This always arrived within 30 minutes. If you order breakfast for later than 9 am (it can be ordered up to 10am) it is not prepared by the room service line, and is sourced from the Ocenview café. Ours arrived stone cold on 2 occasions.

5/10

MURANO RESTAURANT

We dined here once and really enjoyed it. The service was a little less stuffy than the Olympic Restaurant on Millennium (Which I really really like). The service was excellent and menu choices great. I was pleased to see the goats cheese soufflé on the menu.

9/10

TUSCAN GRIL RESTAURANT

We dined here on the evening we were transiting the straights of Messina and thought it was brilliant. The service was great and the menu varied. The view from the stern of the ship was fantastic. The waiters were attentive, and friendly.

10/10

THEATRE

The theatre is really well laid out, with comfortable seats, and plenty of room for people to pass by in front of you when seated.

10/10

PRODUCTION SHOWS

Really enjoyed these. ‘Equinox’ was a brilliant show. The second production show, featuring songs from the musicals was good, but had a very slow start featuring little known songs. Remix was a great show.

9/10

OTHER SHOWS

David Meyer

A total genius. He played a type of electronic xylophone.

10/10

Nick Weir

Nick did his own one man show. It was brilliant. He is wasted on cruise ships. Here in the UK we have and veteran entertainer called Bruce Forsythe. Nick could in my opinion be the next Bruce!

10/10

Juggler

Very entertaining. Really enjoyed this show.

9/10

Magician – Neil Austin

A magical entertainer from the UK. Really fun and completely mad! A must see.

10/10

ENTERTAINMENTS STAFF

A great team, led by Nick Weir, who really is the best in the industry. All events were well organised and the staff enthusiastic and enjoying themselves. Ok the stargazing was a little lame, but then trying to spot stars on a lit deck was never going to work well!

9/10

BARS

The Equinox has so many really nice bars. I loved them all. The ensemble lounge was lovely. One observation here is, why is it always so dark during the day? The curtains were left drawn when it was daylight outside, making the area seem a little gloomy. I really liked the Oceanview bar area, along with the sunset bar on the deck above. The lighting at night was superb too. With lovely yellow lamps on the bar, and tables with underlighting.

10/10

SHOPS

A nice varied selection of shops are available onboard, items seemed reasonably priced and a varied range from gifts right up to very expensive jewellery was available.

10/10

RESORT DECK

A very nice area, well laid out, with plenty of loungers and nice deck furniture. The Solarium area was beautiful. Nicely air conditioned for hot weather. I loved the little fountain show in the solarium area.

10/10


GUEST RELATIONS

Nice area although the staff do not always seem to understand what you are saying. When calling guest relations I had to repeat my request many times to be understood.
We had a few account problems, wrongly billed items, and refunds made to wrong account, despite clearly saying where the refund should be made.

7/10

LAWN CLUB/GLASS SHOW

Superb!! What a lovely area, with beautiful deck furniture. I loved the sunset bar… what a venue, especially at night with the subtle lighting. I really enjoyed the glass show. I watched this on several occasions.

10/10

PORTS

Haifa

We did our own thing here, took the free shuttle and had a good walk around.

Ashdod

Stayed onboard here.

Alexandria

We did the 6 hour Alexandria tour here. What a fascinating place. So poor and dirty in parts, yet other areas contained big modern shopping malls.

Santorini

My favourite!! Did our own thing here, and loved it

Athens

We caught the metro into the city, from the port, and explored Athens on foot. Be careful of pickpockets, one member of our group lost his wallet here!
Kusadasi

Explored on own. I like Kusadasi, lots to explore and it’s always sunny!

Mykonos

Explored on own. We arrived here at midnight having raced from Kusadasi to get the only berth in port (it was that or we were tendering all day!) What a fantastic decision the captain made doing this. It would have been horrible tendering here, as it was really windy on the day we were in port.

Naples

Did the explorations of Pompeii tour. I have done this tour before, but as we had first time cruisers in our group, I went along.

CONCLUSION

Overall we had a fantastic time on Equinox and thoroughly recommend this cruise to everyone. All the crew from the captain, right down to the deck hands were all friendly, nice people, and are a credit to Celebrity Cruises.

Overall rating 9/10

[Dunmore2]

Thank you for the thorough review. We appreciate hearing all about the Equinox as there is not much info out there yet. I would like to know about some of your fav dishes in Silhouette. Thanks

[Fblack]

We were on the same cruise and had a great time. Ria was the best Captains Club Hostess we have met. She did invite us to dine at the Captains Table.

We had an aft cabin too. But on deck 8. We only felt a little vibration when they turned the azipods when docking. We also had black soot. It's from the engines. They don't use gas turbines like Millennium class ships.

[Texed]

Thanks for posting.

[Herb44]

Thanks for the info. We leave this afternoon for this cruise, our first in several years on Celebrity. Our cruise (depart Rome Oct 23) has a couple of different ports (Rhodes instead of Santorini). You made it sound like fun, relieving some of my anxiety about the formality of Celebrity. We'll let you know in a couple of weeks.

[dzcruisers]

SILHOUETTE RESTAURANT

A superb dining venue, the food quality and service was as good, if not better then I have experienced on Celebrity before. Waiters had time to converse and always made sure we were happy with our selection. I am still puzzled why snails are on the ‘always available’ menu. I thought the idea of ‘always available’ was to allow the less adventurous of us to select something familiar to eat.


Escargot was enjoyed by 5 of the 7 people at our table so maybe it's more accepted than you think. Referring to it as snails is like saying they have cow and pig on the menu.

[nps001]

Thanks for the review. I remember others writing about soot on the aft decks on Solstice when it came out and likewise remember they made some change and it seemed to stop. Maybe someone can help refresh my memory as to what they did.

In any case, we have been twice on Solstice on the SS aft cabins. Once we were on 6 and once on 8 and never had a soot problem. Perhaps this will be corrected on Equinox also.

[vino100]

I just booked the 9/9/10 Holy Land cruise on the Equinox. Did you try the Blu dining room? We booked an Aqua Class room and wondered if you saw those rooms?

[elevin9925]

Originally Posted by dzcruisers

SILHOUETTE RESTAURANT

A superb dining venue, the food quality and service was as good, if not better then I have experienced on Celebrity before. Waiters had time to converse and always made sure we were happy with our selection. I am still puzzled why snails are on the ‘always available’ menu. I thought the idea of ‘always available’ was to allow the less adventurous of us to select something familiar to eat.


Escargot was enjoyed by 5 of the 7 people at our table so maybe it's more accepted than you think. Referring to it as snails is like saying they have cow and pig on the menu.

I was also on this cruise and probably ate the escargot 10 out of 14 nights....I was thrilled to see it on the menu...but was surprised.

Ellen