Equinox Review Western Caribbean 8-13-17

On the long ride back to NY and I thought I'd try my hand at this review thing. My wife and I are both 55 and this was our first cruise on Celebrity and 4th overall. The short review is that this was a great cruise with fantastic weather. The long review will be in pieces.

We decided to drive to Florida to spend a few days with family first and the drive was uneventful. Just long and dull.

The night before we stayed in Miami at the Hilton Downtown which was very nice and really close to the port. The Equinox was outside when we got up on Sunday Morning.

We headed over to the port just before 10. After dropping off the bags and parking the car we got through security, checked in and were in the waiting room around 10:40. Boarding was just after 11:00.

We booked stateroom 1044 which is concierage class on the front bump out slant. After taking advantage of the welcome aboard lunch in the MDR we headed up to the lawn for a drink before the cabins were ready.

Next up: Sail Away and some cabin pics.

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Very excited to read more. Thank you for this!

I've got the mirror cabin on the port side, 1075, in November. Aside from being on the opposite side of the ship, the other difference is the room configuration, with couch (pullout) next to the window, while I believe your regular couch is closer to the bathroom. Looking forward to your review.

Thanks for posting this - I have 1044 on the reflection December 22. I hope that you have pictures of the room and balcony! Also, did the balcony have footstools?

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My Daughter and I are on the Equinox in April Concierge class. What was on the menu for lunch? Thank You!

Nice start with beautiful photos.:)

Equinox is our favorite ship, sailing in November on her for the fourth time.

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Enjoying your review including photos.

Keith

The lawn appears to be enjoying the Summer heat and humidity of the Caribbean :)

Great start and will look forward to the rest of your review and pictures!

My Daughter and I are on the Equinox in April Concierge class. What was on the menu for lunch? Thank You!

Salmon, chicken or grilled veggies. It was ok but much more comfortable than the buffet.

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The lawn appears to be enjoying the Summer heat and humidity of the Caribbean :)

 

Great start and will look forward to the rest of your review and pictures!

It was a little more work by the end of the cruise with no rain for a week.

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Leaving on the Equinox one week from today...August 27....your review will tide me over until I can experience the real thing once again.

Thank you!

On the Equinox 4th September for our first ever cruise. Looking forward to reading your report. Thank you in advance :)

Enjoying your review. Very nice photos!

Looking forward to your review - I am in 1044 on the Equinox in January!

Ok so we are almost through GA...yippie! Awful rain in FLA on the drive this morning so the going was a little slow.

We were allowed to the cabins sometime after 1:30. 1044 is a starboard expanded balcony which was AWESOME!

The balcony was really deep and the extra room was so great to have. Most of the time you could put the chairs and stools in the sun or in the shade.

Our steward Wayman was great. Everything was always just so and he always managed to pop in while we were gone. We had a few technical glitches that were remidied quickly. Overall the cabin was great. It was also very quiet with respect to ship noise but you could always hear the wind and sea outside which was not at all unpleasant. Celebrity wins over Carnival with sliders instead of regular doors to the balcony.

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Here are a few shots of Miami during sailaway. The drill was at 2:45 and we left right around 3:30.

Next Up: Food and Drink

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Home on Long Island...finally. The previous posts were from yesterday. I couldn't post it as one from my phone so I split it up today.

No food porn pics but here are some of my thoughts on food and drink.

We had the premium beverage package which was part of our deal. We only paid $330 for all 4 perks so we were already ahead of the game. We definitely had a few each day and the drinks were good. Beer choices also decent. Anytime we got a soda it was in cans for those who asked in other threads. In fact I always saw soda served in cans wherever I was.

We were in the MDR all but one night and chose select seating. We ended up with a window table for two each night (just different tables). The food was good but not great as expected. Service was fairly fast and each night we were done in about 1:20. Eating at 7:15 we were able to make any 9:00 show.

I do think select dining diminished the feel we got on other cruises as a result of different waiters. Not bad service, just a little impersonal.

Silk Harvest was our one night in a specialty restaurant and it was pretty good. A ton of food.

The Mast Grill Burgers weren't bad at all and made for a nice pool side lunch on sea days.

The buffet at lunch was meh (also expected) but was pretty good for breakfast.

Overall food was 3/5 for us. Drinks were good so no complaints. We did notice that all of the bars with the exception of the Martini Bar were never very crowded which was a bit of surprise considering that there were 3100 people on board.

Next Up: Key West

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DW also is ticked that they never did souffles on any night which we always had on previous cruises at least once.

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All of my pictures were taken with my Galaxy S8+ for those who are interested. It is definitely an improvement over my S6.

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DW also is ticked that they never did souffles on any night which we always had on previous cruises at least once.

 

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I think on our cruise, the week before, they did a Souffle in the MDR (we had fixed seating). One guy at our table decided to take it out of the ramekin. Not a good idea. It collapsed.

DW also is ticked that they never did souffles on any night which we always had on previous cruises at least once.

 

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I was on the same cruise as you and had a Grand Marnier soufflé one night - it must have been the night you went to the specialty restaurant.

We were on the July 30th cruise and they had Grand Marnier Soufflés one night. It was not on the menu but it was an addition told to us by the waiter. Perhaps the night you went to the speciality or your waiter missed it?

We were on the July 30th cruise and they had Grand Marnier Soufflés one night. It was not on the menu but it was an addition told to us by the waiter. Perhaps the night you went to the speciality or your waiter missed it?

Entirely possible.

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Thanks for the review.