Just Returned from Equinox 3/2/2019 Sailing - Thoughts from First Time Cruisers

[newindysun]

Hi - just back from our Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Equinox and thought I would post a few thoughts.  As first-time cruisers we want to thank all of the experienced cruisers who have posted Cruise Critic.  That feedback and knowledge was so helpful to us in planning and preparing for our cruise.  We are husband and wife, in our 40's.  This was essentially a honeymoon for us.  We were married a little more than a year ago but were building a house at the same time so decided to delay a honeymoon until this year.  Our goals for this cruise were to escape the cold weather, eat some good food, and enjoy a combination of relaxation with occasional "bouts" of fun outdoor activities.  We chose Celebrity due to its high customer service and food ratings.

 

Embarkation

We stayed the night before the cruise at YVE Hotel in Miami.  It was nice to wake up to views of the bay and the Equinox.  The room was fairly small which was fine but the bathroom was downright miniscule. We would likely not stay there again.  Because we were excited first-time cruisers, we arrived to the port super early at 9:30.  We found the scene a bit confusing because there were still hundreds of disembarking guests out by the buses/transportation area and we did not initially see the porters.  I would suggest arriving after 10:00.  Once we figured out where to drop our checked bags the balance of embarkation went smoothly.  After checking in with were ushered to a Concierge class waiting area where we waited less than 30 minutes before boarding the ship.

 

Cabin

We were in Concierge cabin 1194 (C2) - the last cabin starboard on the deck 10 before the aft facing cabins.  We had originally booked a regular balcony cabin on deck 8 but were awarded the C2 cabin after winning a Move Up bid (we bid $130 each, which was considered a 'weak' bid).  The cabin itself was very well organized with plenty of space/organization for all of our clothing/shoes, toiletries, etc.  We did not want for space.  We really enjoyed the foot rests.  To me, the foot rests were worth the cost of the Move Up bid.  That may seem silly to some but we spent a lot of time on our balcony and appreciated this extra comfort.  I'm unsure if this is due to the cabin location but we did feel quite a bit of movement.  We never suffer from any sort of motion sickness but did need to wear patches on most days and take Bonine a couple of nights.  A quick note on the patches - we ordered them from Amazon.  They are called UZU and were only $7 for ten of them.  They worked well and we will take with us again on future cruises.  Savio, our cabin steward, truly provided exceptional service to us.  If he would see us coming down the hall he would go out of his way to open our cabin door for us.  While we made very few requests of him, those we did make were met with a smile and graciousness.  

 

Dining

The food was hit or miss for us.  At breakfast the buffet was always quite crowded and food lukewarm.  We preferred breakfast in the MDR.  We ate at Tuscan the first night.  The salads were decent and the pasta was very good.  My husband and I both ordered the filet and he had to send his back twice due to being undercooked and finally gave up and just asked for another order of lasagna which was very good.  My steak was cooked to order but the sauce/jus on top of it tasted like canned bouillon which kind of ruined the experience.  Though the service from the waitstaff was excellent, we would likely not dine there again.  We also ate at Silk Harvest.  We booked this online via the Celebrity app (more on that later).  When we were seated we discovered that they had a special event that night called Silk and Soul with a pre-set multi-course menu.  We were not able to order off of their regular menu and were not aware of this by reserving through the app.  The majority of the courses were seafood and my husband is highly allergic to most seafood.  The restaurant manager kindly allowed him to order off of the Blu menu.  I enjoyed the Silk dishes and my husband enjoyed his food from Blu.  We did not get a chance to dine at Murano but would like to in the future.  We did have one burger each from Mast Grill that was very tasty.  We ate our other 5 dinners in the MDR.  Overall, we thought the MDR dishes were just OK.  Some highlights for us included the beef wellington, turkey and dressing, and cheesecake.  The balance was certainly edible, but not memorable.  As with the specialty restaurants, the service was excellent.  We chose Celebrity Select dining and discovered that we had no wait if we reserved a table ahead of time via the app.  We very much enjoyed the tea, coffee and sweets from Café al Bacio.  

 

Ports

Our first top was Old San Juan.  We took a Celebrity sponsored excursion here (Old San Juan Food and Walking Tour) which was very good.  The guide, Angel, was very knowledgeable of Puerto Rican cultural and landmarks history.  We thought the city was beautiful.  I wish the tour had included a visit to the del Morro fort but was otherwise very enjoyable.  

 

Our next stop was St. Thomas where we did our own thing.  We rode the gondolas up to Paradise Point where we took some beautiful photos and shared a bushwhacker.  We strolled through vendors' plaza.  I had wanted to visit Nature Arts & Crafts Cooperative across from vendors' plaza to shop for some hand-made souvenirs but it was closed.  I believe there were 6 or 7 ships in port so it seemed quite crowded and we made several unsuccessful attempts before finally getting a taxi back to Crown Bay where Equinox was docked.  

 

Our next stop was scheduled to be Punta Cana, DR.  We had booked a non-Celebrity zip lining excursion here and were really looking forward to it.  I tried not to get my hopes up too much because I had read many posts on CC about Celebrity's inability to provide tender service at this port due to rough seas and sure enough, this was the case for us as well.  Still, we were disappointed but were able to connect with the excursion provider who issued us a full refund.

 

Last stop was Nassau which lives up to it's reputation of lots of vendors trying to sell their wares.  We never felt unsafe but also didn't venture far.  We booked the British Colonial Hilton through Resort for a Day.  We would probably have enjoyed a resort that was a little further away from the port but for our first time there wanted to stay fairly close to the ship.  We enjoyed our day there and found there were plenty of loungers, including those that offered some shade.  

 

Entertainment

We only attended one show on the ship - special guest singer Ashlie Amber Harris who was really, really good.  We also played bingo on the last day it was offered.  Neither of us have played bingo since were kids and kind of balked at the $50 we paid to do so.  Much to our surprise, we won $600!  A nice surprise that we certainly don't expect to ever happen again.

 

Celebrity App

The app certainly does not have a lot of bells and whistles but all of the daily menus posted for the MDR were correct, which we found helpful when deciding whether to eat there or do specialty dining.  We also liked that we could reserve a table at the MDR for specific times that worked for us which resulted in no wait times for a table.  All of the activities and times seemed to be accurate as well.  We liked that we could add the activities we were interested in doing to our personal calendar.  

 

Overall Impressions

Customer service certainly lived up to and exceeded our expectations.  Ship was very clean.  We certainly had a very relaxing week, and the extra sea day due to the no stop in Punta Cana added to that.  I would have preferred a little more activity and think that port day would have helped.  My husband's job is much more physically demanding than mine so he very much valued the down time.  We wish the food overall had been a bit better but understand that cooking for 2800 people creates some limits.  The average age of cruisers was younger than we anticipated - I would guess mid-forties.  We met a good number of Europeans on this cruise as well.

 

Will we cruise again?  Yes, but will pay more attention to itinerary and excursions available than just dates that work for us.  We may also experiment with other cruise lines.  We had the Classic beverage package and since we are not big drinkers it probably would not have been worth it had we not gotten it as a free perk when booking.  We purchased two days of internet service (at $55 per day) and found the internet speed was slower than land, but certainly adequate for our needs.  Overall, we had a very nice week and would recommend Celebrity.  

 

 

 

[micheleata]

Thanks for your review.

[like2cruise]

Thanks for the time you took to do your review.  Very helpful and seems right on point.  

[Stonewolf Cruiser]

I am also new to Celebrity.  Thanks for taking the time to post a review.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[craftymom914]

I was on the same sailing and agree with everything you said.  I was fine with Punta Cana being cancelled but really ticked off that they didn't do it the night before.  We had to be up, dressed, fed and in the Celebrity Theater at 7:45 only to wait to be cancelled.  It screwed up the vibe of the day for me.  Crew told us that they cancel more often than actually go to port.  Punta Cana will not build a dock so they have to tender.  Why does Celebrity even bother? 

 

I saw Ashlie Amber on an Alaska cruise and she was excellent.  You did miss 2 shows by December63, a Frankie Vallie cover group that was phenonemal - my second time seeing them!  But I am 20+ years older so it was more my style of music!   We did not enjoy the production shows. 

 

We don't do specialty dining and found the food in MDR to be good, if not spectacular - agree the turkey was excellent.  Hey, I didn't have to cook or clean so always a plus for me!  We love the burgers at the Mast Grill.  We also had the drink package and will do internet instead next time.  I found myself ordering drinks I didn't really want just because I had the package. 

 

Lastly - I used the app all the time.  I didn't have to drag the paper schedule around with me.  And, like you, used it to reserve dinner times in Select Dining.

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for your unbiased review.

 

[newindysun]

craftymom914 - we heard that December '63 was really good.  We had intentions of going to their performance on their last night but never made it.  Regarding Punta Cana, we got up super early that morning as well.  When we went to breakfast in the MDR one of the waiters told me the staff refer to it as "Punta Banana" and that they are able to actually tender there 50% or less of the time.  Ah well, considering that was the worst thing that happened on the cruise we will count ourselves fortunate.  

[mnocket]

Thanks for the review.  That sounds like a pretty accurate assessment of Celebrity.

[rjo_bc]

I will be on Equinox is a few weeks and want to book Silk Harvest; but, I too would have an issue with the set menu. Do you remember which day they had the set menu?

[Mike981]

Great to get another perspective from someone who enjoyed your help here at CC.
Thank you~

[newindysun]

Hi rjo_bc - I believe it was the 4th night of the cruise. 

[cazzi]

thanks for the review

 

[CleverUserNameHere]

I would say from  my limited experience of only two cruises that you should never pre-book specialty dining. They almost never book up completely and almost always offer discounts in order to fill them up. We've saved up to 40% by waiting until the day of to book specialty dining, or sometimes they offer lunch or a free bottle of wine on top of the price you pay for dinner. 

 

Also: Our last cruise was on the Equinox this past summer and we ate at Tuscan grille one night and found it to be good but not better than Blu. We wondered if the specialty restaurants are just an upgrade from the main dining room (which we never ate in), but if you're in Aqua class or Suite I don't think they are necessary. That being said, the Chef's Table was ABSOLUTELY worth the price. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by CleverUserNameHere

[Silkroad]

Thanks for your review. Thanks too for including information about your move up bid. It’s great that you were able to move up, and win at Bingo on your first cruise. Very nicely done!

Edited March 12, 2019 by Silkroad

[TheCount]

Great read and appreciated the info. Prepares us for next week on Equinox. Typically we sail Royal many many times and this is our 3rd Celebrity cruise. We hope this trip is a better experience than last year on Silhouette which was simple one challenge after another. GitHub be our last Celeb trip, if it goes anything different than planned. Further this is a replacement trip for  an Edge booking Celeb cancelled on us due to what we think is a charter booking on Edge.  Will have to wait and see.

[newindysun]

6 minutes ago, TheCount said:

Great read and appreciated the info. Prepares us for next week on Equinox. Typically we sail Royal many many times and this is our 3rd Celebrity cruise. We hope this trip is a better experience than last year on Silhouette which was simple one challenge after another. GitHub be our last Celeb trip, if it goes anything different than planned. Further this is a replacement trip for  an Edge booking Celeb cancelled on us due to what we think is a charter booking on Edge.  Will have to wait and see.

That's so frustrating about your Edge cancellation.  I hope you have a great time next week and it proves to be a vast improvement over your Silhouette experience.