Just off the Equinox (June 3-11)

[TFLG]

Me and my family are just off the Equniox and had another great cruise. The itinerary was Key West, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I picked this one because other than Cozumel I had not been to the other stops. It was my wifes 50th Bday too so that was another excuse.

 

Day1 Embarkations was a breeze. This was the easiest embarkation I've ever had. We arrived at 11:30, dropped off our bags, walked in and were second in line. From drop off to setting foot on the ship was 20 minutes.

We headed straight to the Buffet and had some lunch since we skipped breakfast. No complaints, pretty standard stuff on the buffet. After that we showed our noobie friends around the ship.

After getting ready for dinner I made my usual pilgrimage to the World Class Bar to meet the bartenders. On this voyage they were Igor and Ram, neither of them I had met before. I started the evening off with a Zacapa old fashioned which was wonderful as usual. Since is was slow (dead actually) Igor was nice enough to make me an Agave Sunrise, usually only served in Sushi on 5. What a change from my Eclipse cruise where they wouldn't make anything other than the menu drinks. Ram and Igor were fantastic!

Day one we ate dinner in the MDR on the late seating. We encountered our first problem here. I had a party of 5 and out friends a party of 2 were supposed to have the same table. We didn't, so I called the head waiter who took our room numbers. He came back later with a new table number for the rest of the cruise. Problem solved! After dinner we went to the Sky Lounge for some evening fun. Can't say the band was great tho, but we had a wonderful time.

Day 2: Key West. We chose to just wander on our own since it's such a small island. We walked to Duval st, then down to the Hemingway house and finally to the Southern most point for a few pics. On the way back we hit a few bars for drinks and had some Conch fritters.

Back on ship I found that this was our Evening Chic night. First time for me to have it on a port day. No problem with late seating we were still able to make ti to the Sunset Bar for sail away. The sail away crowd at the sunset was very light this cruise. On our previous cruises this bar was always packed at sail away. After sail away it was time to clean up for dinner. Again I left my wife to "beautify" while hit the World Class Bar. Somehow the secret got out and it was very busy at the World Class bar most nights for the rest of the cruise.

Dinner time, and we found our new table all set up for the 7 of us. I must say for a formal night I found the menu kinda weak. I ordered the rack of Lamb which was good but my daughters said "not as good as I make":hearteyes:. it was also my wife's birthday so they brought her a little bd-cake.

After dinner we headed to the silent disco. Now to me this sounds totally stupid, but after reading the reviews here I talked the family into trying it. They also though it sounded stupid. The reviews are right, it's a blast!

Day 3 was a sea day. It was a typical sea day. A gazillion people at the pool, Chair hogs in full force, etc. My wife hit the Spa for a hot rock massage and I just wandered around like a lost kid. Went to the buffet for breakfast. I was a little disappointed in the breakfast buffet. I didn't feel it was as good as my previous cruises. It seemed to have less variety, not that I couldn't find anything to eat mind you. But I like to try new stuff and it seemed to be the same old standard stuff.

Most of the day I hung around the pool area. Pool music was good for me. I'm sure there are others that thought it too loud but I found it just right. Although again the one band was not very good (Indonesian or Filipino), the band with the black guys in it was much better, they do need to play longer tho. The pool bars were packed, and even in the pool was very busy. Too many pre-teens jumping, diving and splashing tho. I know the kids want to have fun too but the pool butlers or staff should have stopped them from jumping in off the railings and diving in from every which direction since there are multiple signs prohibiting this. I never saw a single one of the staff tell them to stop. Wait staff seemed better and it wasn't impossible to find some one to take a drink order. Much better than my last 3 X cruises. I tried the mast grill for lunch and was pleasantly surprised. I got a fabulous burger with grilled onions, mushrooms and bacon. My last experience here tasted like cardboard (on the Eclipse).

After getting cleaned up we hit the comedy show. It was very good. I wish I could say the same about this nights dinner menu. Pretty weak! I should have ordered the Steak from the everyday menu but I tried the beef cheeks....not good. oh well, live and learn. After dinner we went the Sky Lounge for a few drinks and a dance or two.

Day 4 Costa Maya. My kids (all young adults) decided they wanted to go to the Mayan Ruins so the 3 of them went of to do that. Us 4 "older" folks just took the shuttle to town and went to the beach. We got the most amazing platter of shrimp Ceviche for $20. This thing was HUGE! After getting thoroughly sun burned we headed back to the ship. Our daughters were the last ones on the ship. The excursion bus hit a tropical thunder storm and had to go very slow. Dinner and the evening was a repeat of the night before.

Day 5, Cozumel. Our entire group did the "Secret River" excursion. So we took the ferry to Playa del Carmen, then a bus to the site. Then you put on a wet suit, a life jacket, a miners hat and head under ground to explore the amazing caverns. This was a really amazing adventure. Well worth it, 5 stars from me. The only thing I didn't like was the way they got you there and back. You are passed off from tour guide to tour guide ( 4 of them in total) all of them expecting a tip. Oh the other thing I didn't like is they will not let you take a camera so if you want pics you have to buy the ones they take (yup another $100!). This time we were the last ones back on the ship. Our ferry docked about 10 minutes after the all aboard time.

I think this was our second Evening Chic night. The menu was typical for this night (lobster, beef wellignton etc). I had the lobster and it was probably the best lobster I've ever had on a ship ( I had two of them).

Day 6, Grand Cayman, this was a tender port and they use shore based tender boats that are large and take a long time to fill up and to empty. So it's not a quick process. Here we just decided to hit 7 mile beach and took a shuttle bus for $5 per person each way. The beach was nice enough but food and drinks here were not Mexico cheap. Prices were US or even higher if you wanted a beer or some food. I did like the Island though. It's clean, it has proper roads and I no one harassing us on the beach.

For dinner I booked Silk Harvest since it's the only specialty I had not tried. I saw the podium outside the buffet and asked what kinda deals you got. 30% of was the deal I was offered so I booked us. We showed up at 7:30 and were seated right away. The menu was explained as a typical family style. Just order a few apps and entrees and share. The food was good, I can't complain about the food. Everything we ordered was very tasty. But I will complain about the price. For $175 a party of 7 can eat like a king at pretty much any good Chinese place in my area and this food was no better than those places. For an extra $10pp I would do it again. No way in hell would I pay $35pp or even $25pp at 30% off to eat there again. After dinner there was a disco party in the Atrium. Very busy and very fun.

Day 7 sea day, another typical sea day. Pretty much a carbon copy of day 3 in the evening they had another silent disco in the Solarium. If was fun but way to hot in there. Hopefully they will re-think that venue.

 

Overall it was another fun cruise. We had a few hick ups, like my daughters having to call security on the cabin next door at 2 am due to a huge fight. They were worried the gal was going to do a swan dive into the sea.

 

The MDR good as pretty typical and similar to our last 3 or 4 Celebrity cruises. I am on the verge of getting bored with it tho. It seems to be the same menu on every ship I'm almost getting to the point of where I can guess the menu each night.

 

The Buffet, this trip the buffet seemed to be less creative. It might be because nearly the entire ship was US passengers.

 

Entertainment, again overall it was a fun cruise with good musical entertainment (other than the band with the female singer)

 

Show, I only went to the Comedian, my family went to a couple of others. We all liked the comedian they were not all that impressed with the other shows. One called Elysium or something they hated.

 

The ship was immaculate and the crew were great.

[davekathy]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise.

[Husky1987]

Good choice, our Equinox cruise next year is for my wife's 50th as well....thanks for the review!

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Thanks for your review. We have sailed on Equinox twice this year and will again in late August if (and only if) the weather behaves...no hurricanes.

 

It was interesting to see what excursions you and your family chose. I agree with you that some excursions do seem to pass guests off from tour guide to tour guide for different phases of the tour. I've grown to dislike excursions that involve many different phases such as ferry to bus to boat to back to bus to back to ferry, and so on.

 

Because we somehow have cruised Equinox often this year, I agree that one does begin to see a certain sameness in food selections. We do go to most of the shows in the auditorium, so the song-and-dance shows are the same. We get variety from the guest entertainers usually at least one comedian, a tribute band, a magician, and such.

 

The biggest, most obvious cuts I have seen on Celebrity over the last few tears have been in live music, both variety and the loss of a jazz combo on each cruise, a Caribbean music band and a classical string trio or duet.

 

Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed your cruise all-in-all, as did we. It does sound like your cruise had more children than we usually see on Celebrity probably because school is out.

 

Again, thank you for your interesting review and happy birthday to your wife.

[higgens]

Thanks for posting this review. We're leaving on the same cruise itinerary this Sunday for our honeymoon! Very excited!

[easyboy]

Thank you for your reviw.

 

 

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[Islander500]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We have been wanting to do a western Caribbean for awhile and I really liked your itinerary. Very much agree with you on the MDR menu. We cruised on Equinox to southern Caribbean and felt the same way about the MDR meals. The menus need an update and fast.

 

I think the bands on board are the same as we had in May. Agree completely with your assessment. Missed having other entertainment options throughout the ship.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[TFLG]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We have been wanting to do a western Caribbean for awhile and I really liked your itinerary. Very much agree with you on the MDR menu. We cruised on Equinox to southern Caribbean and felt the same way about the MDR meals. The menus need an update and fast.

 

I think the bands on board are the same as we had in May. Agree completely with your assessment. Missed having other entertainment options throughout the ship.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

We did a 14 day southern (exotic Caribbean) in Nov and the live entertainment on that one was dreadful. There was one decent live band, I think the were from Eastern Europe and they were not too bad when they played stuff they were good at. But they often tried popular songs that they did not have the right singers for. Same as the female singer on the Equinox. She might have been ok if she was singing stuff by female artists. But she was trying stuff mostly by male performers. Oh and she butchered the lyrics too. They really need to improve their selection of live bands. They can make or break your cruise if you are into the night life scene. I only ever saw one guy in the ensemble lounge. Granted I wasn't in there much so maybe there was more but every time I was in there in the evening it was the same guy. Not my cup of tea, but there is a slice of the passengers that like the mellow stuff and I didn't see much of it. There's nearly 3000 passengers on these ships, I think they need to have a few more options.

 

 

One of the things that did drive me nuts was the way they would just shut things down even if the party was really hopping. I don't understand why you turn off the DJ or Band when there are a couple of hundred people having a great time. The 70s night in the main artrium was packed yet come 10 oclock the cruise director says "thanks and head to the sky lounge to continue the party". Way to kill the vibe! If the party is kickin' keep the band playing!

[wallie5446]

Did any in your party try the GastroBar? The beer n food paring is wonderful and well worth the $20.

[pincak]

Thanks for the review. My daughter and I are taking this same cruise on the 18th. It will be my daughter's first X cruise, my third or fourth. She usually goes on RCL, I hope she isn't disappointed in X.

 

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[hcat]

Nice review..thanks for sharing, we like Equinox and that was a nice itin..typical western...We have not done a W Carib in quite awhile...

[miched]

We were on the Equinox in April. The entertainment is very weak. The shows are now to being equivalent to a the senior high school production. It use to be where the dancers were very professional and talented. Now it appears to be dancers from a dance school that practiced a routine for a recital.

 

The Guest performers were good and they could probably save a lot of money by doing away with the production shows and just using them.

 

Street performers are just as good or better than what we had on our cruise playing in the lounges

 

There are a lot of ships and I am sure that it is very difficult to obtain quiality entertainment willing to be on a cruise ship so the talent pool is getting shallow.

 

 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

[Alabaster Cruiser]

We did the silent disco on the Summit. I agree...it is a blast! Looking forward to it again on Equinox in September.

 

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[helen haywood]

OP, not meaning to bash Celebrity in any way, (they have been very good to me, love the Elite Plus perks!) but perhaps you might enjoy branching out on another line for a couple of cruises. We did this and loved having different menus (not saying the food was necessarily better, just something new!), loved different ship decor, different shows, etc. You get the point. Sometimes it just helps to break things up a bit.

[JaniceB]

Thank you for your report!

[JustinAllen]

Did any in your party try the GastroBar? The beer n food paring is wonderful and well worth the $20.

Don't mean to hijack but what exactly does the beer n food pairing consist of? We were on the Equinox in January and did see this listed (which means i overlooked it lol) so just curious as we'll be sailing on her again on 7/2. Thanks!

[musik07]

I am sailing with my parents this summer. I am 28 so I am wondering how your young adult children liked it? Did they find enough things to do? I am looking forward to enjoying my week and a half between teaching summer school and going back for the school year so relaxing with a book and a drink is my main objective but I am hoping for some fun activities as well.

 

Also, where did you go to the beach in Costa Maya, we are still looking for somewhere nice and quiet to spend the day with shade, possibly drinks and wifi and ocean without to much junk in it to go in to cool off.

[Lorey2007]

Me and my family are just off the Equniox and had another great cruise. The itinerary was Key West, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. waiter who took our room numbers. He came back later with a new table number for the rest of the cruise. Problem solved! After dinner we went to the Sky Lounge for some evening fun. Can't say the band was great tho, but we had a wonderful time.

Day 2

Back on ship I found that this was our Evening Chic night. First time for me to have it on a port day. make"

 

Day 5, Cozumel. I think this was our second Evening Chic night. The menu was typical for this night (lobster, beef wellignton etc). I had the lobster and it was probably the best lobster I've ever had on a ship ( I had two of them(y):D).

The MDR good as pretty typical and similar to our last 3 or 4 Celebrity cruises. I am on the verge of getting bored with it tho. It seems to be the same menu on every ship I'm almost getting to the point of where I can guess the menu each night.

The ship was immaculate and the crew were great.

 

We will be on this itinerary but not until February. Thanks for your review and for the tips on Evening Chic nights and lobster hopefully they will be the same nights. We have the 3 night specialty package to help with the boredom of the MDR.

 

OP, not meaning to bash Celebrity in any way, (they have been very good to me, love the Elite Plus perks!) but perhaps you might enjoy branching out on another line for a couple of cruises. We did this and loved having different menus (not saying the food was necessarily better, just something new!), loved different ship decor, different shows, etc. You get the point. Sometimes it just helps to break things up a bit.

This will be our first cruise on Celebrity for the reasons you posted above. After several cruises on RCCL and NCL the menus seemed a bit repetitive and boring we are due for a change. I'm sure we will enjoy the change.

[TFLG]

OP, not meaning to bash Celebrity in any way, (they have been very good to me, love the Elite Plus perks!) but perhaps you might enjoy branching out on another line for a couple of cruises. We did this and loved having different menus (not saying the food was necessarily better, just something new!), loved different ship decor, different shows, etc. You get the point. Sometimes it just helps to break things up a bit.

 

I've tried most of the lines and every cruise can be hit or miss. I've had great cruises on all the lines I've tried, and I've had a few clunkers here and there. Overall I prefer X, If I had one wish it would be for them to up their game in the entertainment dept though.

 

 

 

I am sailing with my parents this summer. I am 28 so I am wondering how your young adult children liked it? Did they find enough things to do? I am looking forward to enjoying my week and a half between teaching summer school and going back for the school year so relaxing with a book and a drink is my main objective but I am hoping for some fun activities as well.

 

Also, where did you go to the beach in Costa Maya, we are still looking for somewhere nice and quiet to spend the day with shade, possibly drinks and wifi and ocean without to much junk in it to go in to cool off.

 

My 3 "kids" are 31, 25 and 19. They are not really party animals and the older 2 are quite content to just lay on the deck and read. If you want music the pool deck is usually busy, if you want peace and quiet the front or back of the ship or the solarium are good spots. There's not a lot of activities on X during the day. And most of the ones they do have seem to revolve around selling you something. The younger one still had a good time and usually hit the night clubs with me and the wife.

 

 

We took the shuttle bus to Mahahual about a mile or two east of the port at Costa Maya. I think it's $4 each way. Beautiful beach, clear water with plenty of places to eat and drink. Food and beer is cheap most places offer free lounge chairs and umbrellas. The only problem is the continuous procession of locals trying to sell you crap.

[TFLG]

We will be on this itinerary but not until February. Thanks for your review and for the tips on Evening Chic nights and lobster hopefully they will be the same nights. We have the 3 night specialty package to help with the boredom of the MDR.

 

This will be our first cruise on Celebrity for the reasons you posted above. After several cruises on RCCL and NCL the menus seemed a bit repetitive and boring we are due for a change. I'm sure we will enjoy the change.

 

A three night specialty is perfect. You can always check the menu then decided if it's the MDR or the specialty that night. There was about 3 nights I found the MDR menu a little weak. Of course they always have steak, salmon and chicken if you can't find anything on the evenings menu. And the steak is usually pretty good. Personally I would do Murano twice and Tuscan once if I had the 3 night package.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[ME2FL]

I am headed out on this same itinerary on July 2nd and cannot wait. I'm a newbie to Celebrity. Thank you for your story.

[Sharkette76]

 

Also, where did you go to the beach in Costa Maya, we are still looking for somewhere nice and quiet to spend the day with shade, possibly drinks and wifi and ocean without to much junk in it to go in to cool off.

 

We were also on this cruise. Went to Maya Chan and I highly recommend it. Very relaxing, quiet, all inclusive with terrific food. Check the Costa Maya board for more info.

[musik07]

We were also on this cruise. Went to Maya Chan and I highly recommend it. Very relaxing, quiet, all inclusive with terrific food. Check the Costa Maya board for more info.

 

 

Thanks I have been through the Costa Maya board extensively. One in our party doesn't drink so the all inclusive aspect isn't appealing for her. I would rather pay as I go since I have the beverage package onboard. Just roam around, practice my Spanish, and then go back to the ship early and relax!

[ltng33k]

After dinner we headed to the silent disco. Now to me this sounds totally stupid, but after reading the reviews here I talked the family into trying it. They also though it sounded stupid. The reviews are right, it's a blast!.

 

Your comment about the silent disco made me laugh. We thought the same thing and I have to admit that it looks a little silly as an observer but once you put those headphones on and start dancing it's a great time. Thanks for sharing your review!