The Fun Researcher

I enjoy both solariums equally. I did not notice a major difference between the two. What was so negative about the Quantum class solarium?

We enjoyed the dining room far more than the wind jammer on the Anthem in March. However, we were comparing lunch in the WJ to dinner in the MDR. Pretty hard to compare apples to apples unless you go to both on the same night. However, I felt a lack overall of quality proteins, especially in the Windjammer for lunch. Everything just seemed to be “cost out”. It was not a bad lunch, but not what I was used to in the Windjammer. I also walked through the Windjammer on the second formal night. I was not very impressed. I went to the main dining room instead as usual.

You’ve cruised way more than we have, but every royal cruise we’ve done since 2012, and up until the Anthem in March 2023 had escargot every single night. I must have missed the cruises when they did not offer the escargot due to “shortages”. I do remember the risk of that but it never came to fruition for us. You can see my signature for cruises that we have done with Royal. Having escargot nightly is not a make or break cruise for us. It was nice while it lasted. 🙂 Our kids’ first cruise was in Nov 2014. My son was seven years old and over the course of a six night cruise ate around 9 appetizers of escargot believe it or not. Escargot and shrimp cocktail was his go to dinner lol. He was/is a healthy trim guy and it brings back fun memories thinking of he and his sisters enjoying all the adventurous and new food offerings.

Good to know! Maybe this was the evening we went to Wonderland because I certainly would have ordered the scallops as it's one of our fav's Edit to add: Looks like that menu is not on the 7 night Anthem cruise we did in March. The nights were: Welcome Aboard Taste of France Taste of Italy Taste of the Caribbean Taste of Mexico Royal Night Bon Voyage

We had the new menus on the Anthem in March, and I would say my main takeaways are: Food quality was the same. Good temperature, well prepared. I missed having the lamb chops, (my second favorite entrée behind the beef tenderloin) There were just enough occurrences of the escargot and French onion soup to keep us moderately satisfied. We did miss having those as daily offerings. I miss the little tiny scallop appetizer they used to serve in the same dishes they use for Escargot The "one lobster tail" restriction didn't bother us Overall, if we didn't know the previous menus so well, we would have considered the current MDR offerings to be excellent. I still think it's excellent, but there are a couple of things we each missed. As a side not, not sure what sauce they were putting on the pork bao buns but it was terrible. Not at all in line with the typical Asian flavor profile the other times we've had them. Used to LOVE those bao buns, but couldn't even finish one. Hopefully it was just a one off occurrence.

Loved your fun and snarky writing style! Thanks for the review. We had an amazing time on the Anthem out of Bayonne mid/late March.

Glad you had such an amazing time. 9 night cruise to the ABC's? Heaven. LOVE the ABC's and the fact that you normally get a good number of sea days sprinkled in (including two on the return leg which is great). We did a very similar 9n itinerary back in 2019 on the newly AMPED Royal Caribbean Navigator. (but swap Grand Cayman for Labadee). It is still our favorite cruise to this day. How is the Equinox holding up? Are furnishings and such in good shape? How's the wear and tear in common spaces? We'll be sailing on her again in December. We last sailed the Equinox summer 2017 and loved it.

I do love the Solstice class. Our second cruise on the Equinox is coming up in December

Ooh that’s nice!

Wow, that’s interesting. It’s exactly opposite of what I feel of the Freedom class. I think it has one of the best connections to the sea of all classes of Royal Caribbean. The helicopter pad, the deck four unobstructed wraparound promenade, the well laid out pool decks… I feel oasis class is inward focused where is freedom is outward focused..

Very very similar ship. Outdoor pool replaces the indoor pool. Add Playmakers. 1 grand dining hall instead of split into four.

Sounds like a great solution OP

You might be right, but I did not get to experience the alternate

Saw Spectra on the Anthem last month. Lack of a coherent storyline and I had a difficult time connecting to the show. Didn’t care for the drag queen lead. Liked the technology side of it but they can do better IMO.

I think you missed the fact that I said, including gratuity. However, to be fair, you are not wrong, cocktails can easily ring up at $14 before gratuity as well depending on how fancy you get . 🙂. . My cocktails were pretty simple. Most beers are consistently $7.49 to $7.99 before gratuity.

Correct, that is a center hallway, and the inside rooms face each other.

Maybe it fluctuated by ship, but last month on the Anthem simple mixed drinks were $14 including gratuity and beers around $9 including gratuity. I think there are two factors that come into play with the drink package: The straight up economics. Do I drink enough to at least recoup the total price paid? The stress free factor. It's paid for, I don't need to think about it. I can drink as much or as little as I want and don't need to fret about it. Personally we've never purchased the drink package on Royal. We are moderate to heavy drinkers on a cruise but we've always saved a lot by not getting it. We tend to ebb and flow with our consumption during a cruise. Hit it hard one day, then the next hungover day it's just not as appealing... 😄 Repeat.

Thank you. Haven't been on a Celebrity ship that has Eden yet.

I relate it to Wonderland on Royal ships. A fun gimmicky meal. We did Wonderland for the first time last month and loved it. Having said that, I don't need to do it again for a long time. We tried pretty much every dish and saw all the cool things that come along with the experience. I'm debating Le Petit Chef for our upcoming cruise on the Equinox in December as well. Problem is, Celebrity's food is so good in the MDR I don't feel as much of a need for specialty. If we do it, it will be for reasons of "you only live once". Maybe a special "Christmas treat"

My FIL and MIL both tested positive a couple of days after our March Anthem cruise. Both were fine on the ship. They are fine now. It is what it is. Not really news anymore. They only tested so that they knew to be careful about not spreading it. Dan

Those issues were resolved

Yeah that’s exactly what some people are saying LOL. Exaggerate much?

Correct. That indoor space was nice last month on the Anthem out of Bayonne. It was in the upper 30’s when we boarded.

Thank you. It’s a five night right before Christmas. Two sea days and a day in Cozumel and Nasssu.

We've sailed Equinox only once before and I don't remember if the specialty restaurants were open for lunch. I don't see anything I can prebook online before the cruise. I do remember Sushi on Five being open for lunch, but I'm particularly interested in Tuscan Grille. Thanks.