Equinox 5/4-5/14 review

Just off Equinox 10 day Southern carribean Cruise,Grand Cayman,Aruba,Curacao,Bonaire,Key West. The itinerary was fantastic the abc islands are beautiful and the locals are so nice. As far as the ship goes it was absolutely amazing ! Crew was so great all around. All the officers were at every event,Capt Kate was all over the ship and she thanked and shook everyone’s hand as they left the ship at the end of the cruise.We got an upgrade to aqua through the move up program ended up with a handicap room which was twice the size,we ate at blu every night the food and service was first rate,the blu staff bent over backwards to make you happy. This was one of our best cruises,we are going back to Equinox in September.

If I had one criticism it would be the deck chair situation. Trying to find one on a sea day can be a challenge. Lots of chair saving going on,maybe the need some pool attendants that can help you find a chair,maybe.

Anyway Equinox was great,can’t wait to go back.

Thank you! We will be on her in December and can't wait! Your review has me even more excited !

Glad you had a great cruise. Was there any mention of who the Captain will be when Kate is on vacation? We are on the June 9 sailing and disappointed she will not be onboard.

Glad you had a great cruise. Was there any mention of who the Captain will be when Kate is on vacation? We are on the June 9 sailing and disappointed she will not be onboard.

Sorry it was never brought up

I continue to be amazed that pool chair hogs still exist...

Thanks for posting about your cruise.

Just off Equinox 10 day Southern carribean Cruise,Grand Cayman,Aruba,Curacao,Bonaire,Key West. The itinerary was fantastic the abc islands are beautiful and the locals are so nice. As far as the ship goes it was absolutely amazing ! Crew was so great all around. All the officers were at every event,Capt Kate was all over the ship and she thanked and shook everyone’s hand as they left the ship at the end of the cruise.We got an upgrade to aqua through the move up program ended up with a handicap room which was twice the size,we ate at blu every night the food and service was first rate,the blu staff bent over backwards to make you happy. This was one of our best cruises,we are going back to Equinox in September.

If I had one criticism it would be the deck chair situation. Trying to find one on a sea day can be a challenge. Lots of chair saving going on,maybe the need some pool attendants that can help you find a chair,maybe.

Anyway Equinox was great,can’t wait to go back.

Hi! We were also on this cruise with you and going back in September also. Love Equinox and the itinerary. We have been on over 20 cruises and have NEVER seen the chair hog situation so bad! We just planned around it and unfortunately were not able to go to the pools until after 3pm. It's so frustrating to see so many towels on chairs and no one in them. This is the first S class cruise we have been on where the grass area of the ship was covered with sunbathers on sea days. A crew member at the Sunset Bar said he had never seen anything like it.

Our only complaint was that the bar servers at most of the bars were very cranky and seemed almost annoyed to have to wait on you.

Glad you had a great cruise. Was there any mention of who the Captain will be when Kate is on vacation? We are on the June 9 sailing and disappointed she will not be onboard.

She said in the Q&A session that she will be on holiday for the end of May to end of August!

Thanks for your review. Really like the Equinox but do not like sailing out of Miami. Can't wait until it returns to PE.

Just off Equinox 10 day Southern carribean Cruise,Grand Cayman,Aruba,Curacao,Bonaire,Key West. The itinerary was fantastic the abc islands are beautiful and the locals are so nice. As far as the ship goes it was absolutely amazing ! Crew was so great all around. All the officers were at every event,Capt Kate was all over the ship and she thanked and shook everyone’s hand as they left the ship at the end of the cruise.We got an upgrade to aqua through the move up program ended up with a handicap room which was twice the size,we ate at blu every night the food and service was first rate,the blu staff bent over backwards to make you happy. This was one of our best cruises,we are going back to Equinox in September.

If I had one criticism it would be the deck chair situation. Trying to find one on a sea day can be a challenge. Lots of chair saving going on,maybe the need some pool attendants that can help you find a chair,maybe.

Anyway Equinox was great,can’t wait to go back.

Thanks for the review - we are sailing the same itinerary in October. It will be our first time on Celebrity, as well as our first visit to the ABC's. Great to know you had such a positive experience overall - we can't wait for October to get here!

Going on this Itinerary Oct 5. Great review

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I was also on this cruise and could not get a lounger on deck for any sea day:((((.

A possible resolution would be to provide each guest a non-transferable number (not stateroom number) which is attached to a lounger when occupied. This would prevent selfish "Chair Hogs" from reserving a chair in the sun and the shade at the same time.

At the end of the day, Celebrity has shown no effort to address this long standing concern. It is rather obvious the ratio of lounger/guest is much less on S class's ships:(

I was also on this cruise and could not get a lounger on deck for any sea day:((((.

 

A possible resolution would be to provide each guest a non-transferable number (not stateroom number) which is attached to a lounger when occupied. This would prevent selfish "Chair Hogs" from reserving a chair in the sun and the shade at the same time.

 

At the end of the day, Celebrity has shown no effort to address this long standing concern. It is rather obvious the ratio of lounger/guest is much less on S class's ships:(

I agree it would be nice if they did something to help. We spent a lot of time in the solarium and were always able to find either a chair or lounger when we wanted,sometimes we had to wait, but we always found something. Maybe celebrity could encourage folks be better about sharing,but I don’t see them really doing anything. I can’t sit around doing nothing for too long anyway.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review. We have this itinerary booked for October 15. After reading, I'm concerned about the deck chair situation, and I'm wondering if you could ask an attendant to move belongings which are obviously not used for a while or just move them yourself?

If someone came up to me and said where are my things, I would say they were moved because you can't save chairs.

I have little tolerance for abuse of public space on a cruise. What's the rule for saving?

Thanks for the review. We have this itinerary booked for October 15. After reading, I'm concerned about the deck chair situation, and I'm wondering if you could ask an attendant to move belongings which are obviously not used for a while or just move them yourself?

 

If someone came up to me and said where are my things, I would say they were moved because you can't save chairs.

 

I have little tolerance for abuse of public space on a cruise. What's the rule for saving?

Not sure what the rules are,but we were always able to find some loungers when we wanted them,but it was a challenge sometimes,but that is to be expected during prime time on a sea day. Didn’t let it ruin my day,lots of other stuff to do,hot tub,pools,when all else failed we spent some nice time on our beautiful balcony,great view and all to ourselves! It was a great cruise!

Going on this Itinerary Oct 5. Great review

 

 

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Hello! so are we cant wait!

I continue to be amazed that pool chair hogs still exist...

Why does that amaze you? I'd be more amazed if the numbers started to drop!!!

Why does that amaze you? I'd be more amazed if the numbers started to drop!!!

You probably are right, but I want to remain hopeful that someday... somehow the cruise lines will address this problem.

You probably are right, but I want to remain hopeful that someday... somehow the cruise lines will address this problem.

Yeah. Some are trying... I was reading Jamman54's review of one of the Carnival ships recently (I think it may have been the Fantasy?) and they have a sign up saying they reserve the right to move your stuff if you are away from your pool chair for more than 40 minutes.

Not positive how they (attempt to) enforce this, but I've seen others saying that the employees on the Lido deck will come around and put a little placard next to unattended chairs with the current time, and if they come back and the time has elapsed (40 minutes or whatever), they'll move the person's stuff to the towel hut and free up that chair for a hopefully-non-chair-hog to take.

I was on this cruise also. We spend our time in the Solarium so it's not an issue for us but I did see a large clear plastic box by the pool with a couple of items in it -- a tube of sunscreen and maybe a paperback book. I'm guessing that this is where your stuff would end up if the pool attendants decided to enforce the rules.

Just off Equinox 10 day Southern carribean Cruise,Grand Cayman,Aruba,Curacao,Bonaire,Key West. The itinerary was fantastic the abc islands are beautiful and the locals are so nice. As far as the ship goes it was absolutely amazing ! Crew was so great all around. All the officers were at every event,Capt Kate was all over the ship and she thanked and shook everyone’s hand as they left the ship at the end of the cruise.We got an upgrade to aqua through the move up program ended up with a handicap room which was twice the size,we ate at blu every night the food and service was first rate,the blu staff bent over backwards to make you happy. This was one of our best cruises,we are going back to Equinox in September.

If I had one criticism it would be the deck chair situation. Trying to find one on a sea day can be a challenge. Lots of chair saving going on,maybe the need some pool attendants that can help you find a chair,maybe.

Anyway Equinox was great,can’t wait to go back.

We were on this one also, second time on this ship for us. All was very good except "Carols Kings" entertainers...not so good.

We were also on this sailing, I agree the chair situation on sea days was crazy. We were up at 8.30am and couldn't find chairs upstairs/downstairs and in Solarium on one of the days. We had to get up at 7am to get seats on the final sea day.

I really enjoyed this cruise, as I do all my cruises. The ports were great, even despite the poor weather in Key West! My favourite was probably Grand Cayman.

I agree with the above poster, the staff were very hit or miss, however on average they were friendly and helpful.

The food was very hit or miss in the MDR. I got the Steak Diane on the first night and I think this might have been the worst meal I have ever had at sea. We found the food to be terrible on the first couple of days, however improved a lot towards the end.

We also dined twice in Murano and twice in Tuscan. These meals were very good, would definitely recommend. Buffet was very good, however got a bit repetitive towards the end, however there's not much you can do with this on a 10 night cruise.

I found this cruse to be slightly 'mellow' in terms of entertainment. The ship overall seemed very quiet. I was very surprised and in fact dissappointed on the lack of sail away 'party' from Miami on our first day. There was next to nothing on the sail away. This contrasted massively to us passing the NCL/Carnival and Disney ships as we left Miami. I felt this kind of set the tone for the rest of the cruise.

We had to do some sort of immigration on our penultimate day prior to getting off at Key West. I believe this was the first time this was done, and as such the process was not the best for us. Being non-US citizens we had to queue for 1hr30 on deck 4 before being seen by the immigration officials in the MDR. Again, we cant really blame Celebrity for this one, it seemed to be out of their hands.

Embarkation/Disembarkation on first/final day and at each port was brilliant, probably the best i've seen.

Captain Kate was brilliant. The communication and engagement between her and the guests has to be the best I have ever seen.

Overall a great cruise, just a few negatives that didn't really affect our overall experience.

My favorite entertainment was Ms. Carol dancing everyday with the bands. She was such an inspiration and loved how all members of the pool band danced with her and would sing to her. It was the best the music has been in my past 4 Equinox sailings.

Thanks for the feedback.