My review of our Equinox cruise from May 5 - 15....

[klfhngr]

Thanks for the great review of your cruise. Felt like I was on the cruise with you; oh, I was :).

 

We have cruised the Caribbean for the past +40 years and never seen such great weather in each port. We were blessed with the excellent weather in all the ports. Only rained as we were ready to leave Key West and all other ports mostly sunny. Great for us beach folks.

 

Also it was a miracle that we were only cruise ship in Grand Cayman and also Bonaire, Curacao and Key West.

 

Another great cruise on Celebrity!

 

lol, thanks! The weather was great!

[klfhngr]

As promised, I posted my X vs Princess comparison on the Princess site.....

 

Wow, I just read this review and realize how much we loved X and how we're looking forward to doing her again. It was day and night compared to Princess....

 

I might as well post the comparison, save you all some time:

 

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This is my personal review and comparison to the X cruise that we took in May on the Equinox.

 

Embarkation/Debarkation: We were shocked as to how quick we got on the Ruby! We arrived at about 11:00 AM (were told to be there at 1:30 PM) and were literally on within 10 minutes! Debarkation was just as fast and efficient on the Ruby.

 

X was terrible since they could not locate 2 passengers to get off of the ship! Because of that, it took longer than usual.

 

Hands down, the Ruby wins!

 

Staff: I don’t know how else to say this, but workers on the Ruby rarely smiled. Most seemed tired or not happy to be there. May (from Japan) in one of the bars was AWESOME! Her peers definitely need to work with her. Also, our cabin steward Darios was great and loved to chat (briefly). Also, we heard things that we’ve never heard before on any of our cruises. One worker in the International Café said to my friend ‘You’re rude’ when my friend KINDLY let him know that he was next (and not the person after him). We were SHOCKED and have never heard this before. In the dining room, time and time again we kept hearing ‘we can’t do that’ or ‘I’ll come back to you’, without them coming back or remembering what we said or requested. When we did have a question for someone on the ship, they didn’t seem like they wanted to help.

 

X was the TOTAL opposite! We never heard a no, everyone was always smiling and ready to assist. We felt wanted and pampered from ALL of the staff.

 

Hands down, X wins!!!!!

 

Food: Food is very subjective, so this is my opinion only. We’re not foodies, but tend to enjoy good food while on a cruise. The menu was ‘boring’. Some of the foods were bland and just ok. Wait staff would tell us to wait when we had a request and would never follow up. We had a large group with 5 different tables. We were free to sit at any table. One of the waitresses was INCREDIBLE! She was fast, polite and accurate! Whoever sat at her tables were fed at least 15 minutes before the other tables. Everyone rushed to sit at her tables, lol! We were all in the same area and could not figure out why she was so efficient and quick compared to the other waiter. My timing is not exaggerated. We’d be finishing dinner while our friends at other table(s) were just getting their entrée….

Food by the pools was very good! Pizza and burgers, etc. International Café was our nightly place to eat, since the pizza place closed early! Who would close a pizza place early!?! The Cuban sandwiches were very good as were some of the pastries.

Buffet food was ok, simple as that. Same ole thing. Got crowded too. Service was fair. Nothing popped, just ok……

 

On X, the food was very good.. I wouldn’t say great, but very good. Wait staff was attentive but I wouldn’t say fast. Food by pools was very good. Pizza place open very late! Great pizza and pasta. Buffet was very good and very efficient, easy to navigate. Never seemed overcrowded. Service was good.

 

For food, X wins hands down. For Service in dining room, X wins! Our waitress on the Ruby should work for X!

 

Activities: I expected so much more from the Ruby. The pool area was BORING! The band rarely played. The pool DJ was not that great! Volleyball was fun though! Everything seemed to die down by 10ish.. The night club was the only real happening place after hours. We/our kids usually shut it down. We karaoke’d and had a blast.

 

On X, I felt that there was more to do, even though I was expecting a ‘dead’ ship! Seemed to close down later. More options, livelier. This really surprised my wife and I being that we expected an older crowd and less activity. Music and band by pool was good. Things were happening throughout the ship.

 

Again, X wins!

 

Fellow passengers: We noted that many of the passengers were a little older than us (60+). There’s nothing wrong with that, but we were expecting a younger crowd, being that it was Princess.

 

Comparing to X, I think that the crowd might have been a little younger than on the Ruby, which again surprised me. I enjoy associating with people of all ages, so don’t slam me for my comments.

 

Overall, X wins again!

 

Ship/Cabin: We knew going in that the Ruby is an older ship. She has held up though. Ship is in really good shape, however the colors and the ‘feel’ are not up to date. Seems outdated. Sort of easy to navigate. I think that if the staff was nicer and smiling, it would’ve made the ship feel nicer (if you know what I mean)….. We had an aft cabin, D735. Cabin seemed a bit tight but balcony was awesome!

 

Equinox was very nice, up to date. I can’t really say much more, but great ship! I can’t compare the cabins to the Ruby because it’s equivalent to a mini suite. Our friends did stay in a mini suite and it was very comparable to X

 

In regards to the ship, X wins!

 

Specialty Dining: We only visited the Crown Grill. Food was good. Porterhouse was a very generous cut and mashed potatoes were the bomb! Service was blah, no emotions/feelings from the staff. Felt like they were just going thru the motions! Come on guys, SMILE!!!!!! We also had the English lunch at the Wheelhouse. Our party of 3 was seated next to the service entrance. After being seated, we were blatantly ignored! People next to us were ordering drinks, while we just sat and sat. This is not an exaggeration! We finally got up and left. As we headed out, an officer asked how it was. I explained to him that NO ONE ever stopped by our table and that we were leaving! He apologized and asked us to please stay. We told him no kindly and that we’d be going somewhere else. He insisted that we stay. We gave in and he seated us in a ‘VIP’ area. He deeply apologized and wanted to know where we were seated so that he could talk to his staff. He had a waiter take our order. Within FIVE minutes, we received our food! Others in the same section were looking at us wondering how/why we got our food so fast. While we ate, he spoke to his staff. A few came over to apologize. We felt bad because we didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. He said that he needed to know so that this does not happen again.

 

On X, we visited 3 specialty dining’s. The food was very good, but again, it was the SERVICE that made the difference! We were treated special and treated like it was a special night on the town. We didn’t get that feeling at all on the Ruby! It felt like we were intruding on their evening!

 

X wins, without a doubt!

 

Final Comments: I went with a group of 30, friends and family. I can honestly say that they made our trip! If it was just my wife and I, I think I would’ve either jumped off the ship or flew home from Puerto Vallarta! It really was that boring and DEAD! Being that we’ve been on many cruises, I kept my comments to myself so that I could get an honest opinion from others. From the ones that rarely cruised, they said that it was slightly boring. They said that the food was ok and that the ship was ok. They too noticed the crew and how they seemed ‘not interested’. For those that have cruise several times, a few said that the food ‘sucked’ and that the ship was boring and that there was nothing to do! All agreed that if it wasn’t for our group, that this cruise would’ve been a failure! The kids, aged 19 – 24 enjoyed the company of one another. They too said that it was BORING! My two boy, who have cruised about 7 or 8 times said that it was boring and that the food was terrible! For those 60 and older, they said that they had a great time and would’ve loved to do a B2B! So there you go, lol! Again, I kept my comments to myself and wanted to know what everyone thought.

 

We have another Princess cruised booked and we are now seriously considering if we should cancel. It’s on a newer ship, the Royal, so we have hopes that maybe it will be better. I really think that X spoiled us and set the notch/bar high. I’m trying to be open minded and fair, but honestly think that X is what we’re looking for. Also, just to show you how Princess left a bad taste in our mouth, we’re actually considering cruising on the Carnival Horizon in Sept. of 2018! I never thought that we would go back to CCL, however I think that this might even be a step up from the Ruby! Please don’t hate or slam, this is my sincere review. I had HIGH expectations for the Ruby and came back feeling like a total downer! The funny thing is that the only ones to really have a smile were the Princess employees that worked at debarkation! Even those that were sending us off were robotic, my friend told them, ‘Smile! Say bye or say something, sheesh’!!! So that basically summarizes our cruise!

 

Feel free to ask questions… Feel free to slam away ;)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[klfhngr]

Thanks for the review.

 

My pleasure!

[music]

Hi! I just got off the Grand and I agree that I like X better. John and I are booked on the same Princess one you are on with Carol's group.

[klfhngr]

Hi! I just got off the Grand and I agree that I like X better. John and I are booked on the same Princess one you are on with Carol's group.

 

Oh cool!! We booked NCL Escape for 10/18. If it really wows us, we might have to rethink the 2019 on Princess!