Help Deciding: 5 Night Infinity or 3 Night Equinox?

Hello Fellow Cruisers!

Myself and my spouse are currently having a tough time deciding between a 5 night Western Caribbean on the Celebrity Infinity and a 3 night Bahamas on the Celebrity Equinox. The 5 night is actually costing less and we are swaying towards this choice.

Background, my spouse had never been on a cruise until earlier this year and we had gone on a week long Western Caribbean on the Regal Princess. Based on all the reviews and so forth, we thought this would be just short of a "perfect cruise." People raved about the food, service, and the ship we thought, we could not go wrong! Oh... how we were wrong. Maybe we went into the cruise with too high expectations? Food was one of our driving factors, food was okay to bad, and overall just bland. We kept clear of the buffet during lunch and dinner as it just was not good. Main dining room had some very good points with some very bad. Service was overall okay but interacted with so many staff who just seemed depressed and worn out or were plain rude. I know working on a ship is hard work, but to that level of sadness?

So with that in mind, my spouse has needed coaxing in trying to get them to consider cruising again. Celebrity has had some good rates right now and is overall rated as one of the best (in this category of cruises).

I had originally put on hold the Equinox as it is rated by Cruise Critic as the best in 2018 for a bunch of different categories. However, the Infinity is priced less and is two nights longer.

Am I setting us for failure? The boat seems older and we cannot seem to find many "good" tours of the ship on YouTube. How is the food? How is the ship overall? The Equinox looks amazing but two nights extra for less is what my head is saying but my heart is saying the Equinox...

Help, please!

I love Infinity and would personally choose the 5 nighter. But if future cruising depended on making a great impression on your spouse, I would encourage you to go with Equinox. There you will have a better choice of restaurants. But 3 nights is awful short--guaranteed to "leaving you to wanting more", as they say. Maybe in this case, that's a good thing.

Another thought is to find a longer cruise on Equinox or one of her sisters that has better pricing.

I would do the 5 night on Infinity. A 3 night cruise is much too short, IMHO. We personally like Infinity and we're booked for a Med cruise in 2019. It is, however, a much different ship than Equinox. I'm surprised that you were disappointed in Regal Princess. We've sailed on her and her sister ship a total of 4 times and enjoyed it very much. Perhaps cruise food is just not up to your standards. Celebrity's food is quite good, but I would say it is very comparable to Princess.

Personally for me are short time both I prefer longer vacation, If you have opportunity look at Silhouette for a 9 or 12 night cruise

"How is the food"? Depends on who you talk to. Food is so subjective that it is almost impossible to get a answer that might satisfy your tastes.:) We have sailed Equinox and we don't eat in the MDR, too many other venues for us that we like.:)

If food is the concern, choose the Equinox and book the Murano specialty restaurant for one dinner. Well worth the additional money. Note that the Murano restaurant is not on the Infinity.

We usually book an Aqua Class Cabin so we can eat our dinners in BLU, a dining room specifically for this cabin category. We’ve found the food is vastly superior to Princess.

And, as everyone is saying, go for the longer cruise. Both the M and S class ships are great.

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I'm boarding Infinity on Sunday for 22 days. Got of Equinox about 3 weeks ago. If I were in your spot I'd choose 5 nights rather than 3. Good suggestion about dining in Murano, but you could try Tuscan Grille aboard Infinity.

Why is Equinox doing such a short itinerary? The shorter the cruise, the more likely it is to be much more of a booze cruise, party atmosphere, which isn't really a reflection of the standard experience.

We have never sailed on a 3 day or a 5 day, so maybe I have no right to answer your question. I have read enough on CC to know that short cruises differ from longer ones, particularly if they are on a weekend. That being said, I would go for the 5 day on Infinity as it gives you more time to settle in. As has been said, Equinox is a beautiful ship. We have sailed on her 3 times and really enjoyed ourselves. We, too usually eat in Blu and we enjoy our meals. However in 2 weeks we will sail on Solstice (a sister of Equinox) and we will eat in the MDR. Whatever you decide, remember you can also eat in the buffet area at dinner time and you can choose a selection of meats/fish which they will grill for you.

If there is any way you can go on a longer cruise on Celebrity, I think you would love it. I hope you both enjoy your Celebrity cruise.

I have to agree that a 3 or 5 night cruise will not be a typical Celebrity experience. Those short cruises tend to attract a party crowd, unlike the typical one week or longer cruise. You wouldn't really be getting the atmosphere that X is known for.

Infinity all the way. She's my favourite ship. Older, and smaller, but still lovely. The Celebrity crew is awesome, whichever you choose. I would take 5 days over 3 as well. More time to enjoy. The Equinox is bigger and newer. I've only been on her sister ship, the Eclipse. It was nice, but I still love the Infinity. I've also only been on one Princess cruise. It was my first, last, only. Actually, if it had been my first ever cruise I would probably not have tried cruising again. I'm sure you will enjoy Celebrity.

My first Celebrity cruise was a 5-night on Constellation, which is the same class of ship as Infinity. It was a wonderful cruise.

Thank you all for the help so far! Seems the CC Community are full of awesome people :)

Just some follow up items:

-I would LOVE to do a longer cruise but my vacation time is limited (the 5 night would eat up all my vacation time for quite some time and I need a vacation yesterday haha)

-My spouse has cruised once, I have cruised a few times

-I have cruised on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Princess. Multiple times on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, some may look down on me (but we all have our tastes) but I enjoyed the food immensely on Carnival and Royal. Can anyone say chocolate melting cake?

-I am always open to specialty dining but I believe the food should still be enjoyable in the MDR and buffet

I definitely feel given the circumstances I should do the Infinity... then I can start saving my vacation time for a longer cruise on the Solstice class of ships in the future.

If you enjoyed the food on Royal, I believe I can guarantee you will enjoy the food at least as much and probably more on Infinity. We are Pinnacle on RCI and have switched to cruising Celebrity most of our future cruises. We were sold after our first X cruise.

Would never go on a 3 day cruise.

We did 10 nights on Solstice ( MDR and. specialty restaurants) Murano was indeed an exceptional experience; however we also enjoyed food and experience in MDR. We also enjoyed the ship and crew. Did a 7 night on Infiniti. (AQ Blu). Absolutely loved Blu, the ship layout and atmosphere.

Our preferred cruise length is 10-12 nights. (Few ships near home, flying hours away for a 3 night cruise, does not seem too appealing to us). So in answer to your question OP, time permitting, I would choose the longer cruise, but believe both experiences would be enjoyable... much more than time at the office anyway. Enjoy!

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I would go on the five day, but with the possible exception of lousy food on a Greek line ship many years ago, the food on our last Infinity cruise was the worse we ever encountered at sea. But that was some years ago and that chef is long gone. Ya never know for sure. I always liked Princess' food better but times change. Cruise food in general is too bland for my taste, incidentally.

If food is your main reason for cruising, I think you are setting yourself up for failure unless you book a suite. Food is subjective, but on average there isn't a big difference in food quality between Princess and Celebrity. Some people like one, others like the other line. It's probably a coin flip which you would like better. For me food in the main dining room is just ok, somedays with very few things that interest me. 3 nights is too short, I probably wouldn't go. It also sound like you really don't like the ports on the 5-night. If that's the case, perhaps you should consider another type of vacation.

Good Luck

Yes, food is subjective, but when we were on Princess the only thing I enjoyed was the fettucini alfredo (and I never waste my time eating pasta on cruises). Hopefully it's not always like that, but on that cruise it was. I've been happy with Celebrity's food in the MDR 90% of the time. There is the occasional miss, of course, as there is with my local restaurants as well.

OP didn't say they didn't like the itinerary.

If food is your main reason for cruising, I think you are setting yourself up for failure unless you book a suite. Food is subjective, but on average there isn't a big difference in food quality between Princess and Celebrity. Some people like one, others like the other line. It's probably a coin flip which you would like better. For me food in the main dining room is just ok, somedays with very few things that interest me. 3 nights is too short, I probably wouldn't go. It also sound like you really don't like the ports on the 5-night. If that's the case, perhaps you should consider another type of vacation.

 

Good Luck

Not sure about the Celebrity MDR, but the food in BLU we found to be vastly superior to the MDR in Princess. This might be an apples and oranges kind of comparison, but BLU is a dining room, so it’s worth bringing up.

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OP didn't say they didn't like the itinerary.

Correct, my bad. I mis-read the statement "good tours of the ship" to just "good tours". The assumption was that the lack of good tours could be correlated with poor ports. Thanks for the correction. But I still suggest that even though you may see a huge difference in food quality between Princess and Celebrity there's someone else that feels the other way.

Not sure about the Celebrity MDR, but the food in BLU we found to be vastly superior to the MDR in Princess. This might be an apples and oranges kind of comparison, but BLU is a dining room, so it’s worth bringing up.

 

 

 

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Good clarification. Blu would be another option to the MDR. I think most people would like the smaller Blu dining room but I'm not sure what they would think Blu menu concept. It probably is an apples to oranges comparison to the regular menu on Princess or Celebrity.

5 nights western Caribbean vs 3 nt Bahamas? Why is this even a question? 5 nights, no matter where it goes, is always better than 3. And Mexico is better than the Bahamas; I don't care much for the Bahamas.

My first Celebrity cruise was a 5-night on Constellation, which is the same class of ship as Infinity. It was a wonderful cruise.

So was ours, hooked us on cruising from the time we boarded, to be greeted with champagne, and the sail away sealed the deal. We've since been on Caribbean Princess, Royal and Regal Princess, Celebrity Silhouette, and will be on the Equinox in October. We've done more 5 night, two 7 night, 8 night Med on the Silhouette, and upcoming 8 nt ABC islands. We've love every single ship and every single cruise, with the Silhouette and the Mediterranean being our favorite by far, although I do love the Royal class ships on Princess.