Equinox - Fresh out of dry dock/refurb June 1-8, 2019 _First time Celebrity cruisers_

[Highpeaklad]

Re the silverware in the spa cafe. Perhaps he was new and didn’t know the word. As a native English speaker I had never heard the term before I went to the US so perhaps he hasn’t understood it yet. I would ask for a knife and fork, or for cutlery. 

[upwarduk]

On 6/9/2019 at 1:57 AM, poncho1973 said:

but man this ship had virtually no excitement going on!  There just wasn't much to do and it was a good thing there were only 2 sea days because there wasn't much at all to do.

Strikes me that the CD was not up to much.

I have never been lost for something to do on either Eclipse or Silhouette on Sea Days. Mind, Sue Denning was CD on our last 3 sailings.

Unfortunately, last summer we had 2 extra sea days as we were unable to get into St Petersburg due to wind. An extensive programme of activities was quickly arranged, which included screenings of World Cup matches, together with an extensive finger buffet.

Also extra ‘Beyond the Podium’ lectures. I also attend the very informative IT lectures where I always pick up extra tips or work arounds.I believe Celebrity are unique in providing these Apple at Sea lectures. 

[Cyber Kat]

@poncho1973 thanks so much for your review!  We will be first time X and Equinox cruisers next spring.

 

Though we have never set foot in an Arthur Murray studio, nor butt in a hover round (shudder) and both of us are retired computer geeks, we were born quite awhile ago and our bodies don’t work as well as we’d like  - but we are not OLD 😝. I never heard the term “olden” before, except in combination with the word days, either. I thought it was a typo. 

 

We like rock music - both contemporary and classic - so we are hoping for a decent cover band. That’s our after dinner activity. We don’t much care for shows, although the arrangement with ABT is intriguing. During the day we’re happy if we can find a challenging trivia game. We don’t need all the other bells and whistles like rock climbing or bumper cars. 

 

We have done Carnival - mostly for short get aways and when traveling with family - 1 RCL, 1 Azamara and several on Viking.

 

We love Viking. It might have a high percentage of “oldens” but they cater to a more active crowd. You might see a cane or a walker or 2, but no hover rounds. I have had several incidents with bad scooter drivers, so maybe on the Equinox, I’ll bring a cane (that I don’t need - yet) just to fend them off!  That photo of the “parking lot” was scary!  I suppose there may come a time when we might need one, but hopefully the technology will improve and we can take driving lessons 😜. I was more concerned with a high amount of kids. 

 

We picked this cruise because it was in mid May so hopefully no spring breakers and I think most schools are still in session, the itinerary includes all new ports for us and because even in a Sky Suite it was cheaper than Viking. We need to break up those higher price cruises. 

 

I’m thinking X will be better than Carnival - though we really don’t mind Carnival - but we have set our expectations lower than Viking.  The ship is bigger than we’d like, but it seems to be around the same capacity as the Carnival Spirit class ships and we like those. We are hoping it will be a decent fit. 

 

I’m so glad to hear that there are lots of shady areas. I love the sun, but it does age your skin. It’s how I keep my youthful appearance 😜

 

I’m interested in the lawn. It seems kind of a cool idea. Are there chairs other than the cabana things or do you just grab a towel and sit on that?  Are there activities like lawn bowling or bocce. I thought I saw an ad where people were playing croquet - which should be interesting on a moving ship. 

 

We don’t need to feel special. We think we’re pretty special, so validation isn’t needed. I know a lot of people do look for that. It was one of the things we had heard about Azamara, but we didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. So we’re good with that. 

 

I hope we have better luck at getting reservations in the specialty restaurants. We are in Luminae with the suite, but we like to break things up a bit. Guess we will make our butler earn his keep!

 

Thanks again for the review. I’m looking forward to our cruise, and to finding a comfy fit in Celebrity 

[Arzeena]

On 6/8/2019 at 10:07 PM, hcat said:

From your review it appears you have correctly  concluded that Celeb is not a good fit for you .

 

 Btw...Someday you will likely  be  one of the  "oldens" you ridiculed in your review. It may  just be your writing style but it did not come across as  respectful of older cruisers.

Exactly my thoughts!

Oldens are goldens and it is always a pleasure for DH and I to see them enjoying life and ask ourselves, will be be doing that when we get to their age.

[PTC DAWG]

 

Did the OP give his age, or did I miss it? 

 

Any drink package or bar comments? 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by PTC DAWG

[cynbar]

Apparently the OP has concluded that Celebrity is not a good fit for him, and that's fine. NCL and Royal are definitely livelier, with more activities and active options. Celebrity is more sedate and dignified, quieter, a place to relax and enjoy good conversation/service/food/ cocktails in pleasant surroundings. That is exactly why my husband and I like it. Nothing wrong with that, if everyone wanted the same things, the world would be a pretty dull place.

 

I also have to add that while I wasn't surprised by the comments on demographics, I have found that it can vary quite a but from sailing to sailing. Celebrity doesn't get large amounts of kids or extended families, true, but it does not always skew as "old" as the OP describes. At least, that has been my experience.

[hiccups]

1 hour ago, Cyber Kat said:

 

I’m interested in the lawn. It seems kind of a cool idea. Are there chairs other than the cabana things or do you just grab a towel and sit on that?  Are there activities like lawn bowling or bocce. I thought I saw an ad where people were playing croquet - which should be interesting on a moving ship. 

There isn't any seating on the lawn other than the cabanas, although when they showed movies on the big screen there were some lounger-type seats--basically cushions with back rests.  There are benches for the Hot Glass studio in that same area, so you could sit there and watch the movie, too.  They ask that you "be kind" to the lawn and don't walk on it with high heels.  I assume there are no chairs or loungers because the feet would like "sink in" as heels would.

I walked on the deck frequently and only once saw someone in one of the cabanas.  The rental price is $99 for port days and $249 for sea days.

There are areas for bocce by the Sunset bar with seating nearby.  One side is a smoking area, though.

[poncho1973]

21 hours ago, hcat said:

 

  Aegism  is alive and well in this thread.  More so than I imagined.  Use of the term "oldens" is also a new one on me.... 

 

 

No it isn't. You aren't being persecuted in any way.  It's just a little ribbing AND a solid dose of things we legitimately encountered.  You'll be fine.

[poncho1973]

16 hours ago, upwarduk said:

Strikes me that the CD was not up to much.

I have never been lost for something to do on either Eclipse or Silhouette on Sea Days. Mind, Sue Denning was CD on our last 3 sailings.

Unfortunately, last summer we had 2 extra sea days as we were unable to get into St Petersburg due to wind. An extensive programme of activities was quickly arranged, which included screenings of World Cup matches, together with an extensive finger buffet.

Also extra ‘Beyond the Podium’ lectures. I also attend the very informative IT lectures where I always pick up extra tips or work arounds.I believe Celebrity are unique in providing these Apple at Sea lectures. 

 

The CD was Martin and he was a bit odd, but seemed like he was around a lot.  His pants were about 5 sizes too small and he spoke like a cartoon character, likely because of said pants.  I saw some English spelling, so I mean TROUSERS, not underpants.  I didn't inspect his underpants.

 

I can't say that we were interested in any lectures at sea, so we didn't really count those as activities.  I wouldn't really need any IT lectures, unless they were done on a professional level, so that's a moot point.

[poncho1973]

19 hours ago, tallyho8 said:

My wife drives a very small scooter that we bring with us on flights and cruises. She uses it at various places we go and is pretty efficient with it since she is used to it. However, there are companies that rent scooters to people on cruise ships who have never even driven a scooter before. Driving a scooter for the first time on a crowded cruise ship is not a very good idea in my opinion.

 

I don't know if I would recommend special scooter licenses for people to be able to rent these scooters but as the population ages and the scooters get more popular and plentiful, I feel it is only a matter of time before an inexperienced or incapacitated driver, goes down a flight of steps on one of them. Some people who use them would be much safer and less risk to others in a wheelchair or transport chair.

 

Someone on our cruise saw someone pull a table for about 20' or so.  They were telling us about it on the boat out to Stingray City.  I agree with what you said.  Great comment.

[poncho1973]

19 hours ago, hiccups said:

We were also on this sailing, and it was our first cruise on X.  We've sailed on Carnival, HAL, RCI, Oceania and Azamara.

Your assessment of the theater performances was spot on, especially about Kristen.  In fact, without the wacky aunt comment, that was pretty much what I said to my husband after the show (he didn't attend).  The sound board person did need some work.  We enjoyed both of the comedians, but preferred Fred.  We also really like the solo guitarist, Sashi, that played in the bars a few times a day.  Very talented guitarist and singer.  We felt the other live performers (usually playing in the foyer) were a little too loud.

I didn't notice as many scooters as you did, and didn't think the cruise was overrun with seniors.  Based on your parents' ages I'm older than you, though, so that might skew my opinion.  We were more often on the elevator with people that had kids in strollers rather than scooters or wheelchairs.

I think because we've most recently sailed with Azamara, in comparison, X has way more activities than we were used to seeing.  We did a few of them--trivia, hot glass class, putting competition.  There were others I was interested in attending but never got around to it.

I did eat at the Spa Cafe a few times and liked it, especially the quinoa salad and soba noodles.  I discovered on Friday morning that it was also open for breakfast, and they had some snack/granola bars that I really liked.

We booked under a promo that included Go Best, so we were scrounging around trying to find something to spend our $300 OBC on.  We had dinner at Murano, but probably wouldn't do that again because it took so much longer than the MDR, and we were generally fine with its food.  My husband had wings at Craft Social (he liked them... said the sauce was good), and then we wandered the shops on Friday to spend the rest of it.  We also watched a PPV movie.  I wish they had more included movies, or that the PPV price was lower than $14.99, because we like watching a movie if we aren't interested in the show.

I agree with you on the service.  Our needs were met, and the service was fine, but nothing special.   Everyone worked hard, though!  We feel that way about the service on Azamara, though, too, and it supposedly has outstanding service.

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise and will keep X on our list.

 

It's funny that we felt the same about the singing during the ABT show.  That ballerina was SOOOO TINY!!!  You could just put her in your pocket!

 

We saw a couple of strollers, but really not many.

 

Sashi was pretty good. 

 

The band with the female Filipino singer, what were your thoughts?  We liked a few songs and then the wheels seemed to fall off.  We saw them probably 15x throughout the cruise (poolside, Captain's Club, foyer, etc) and it seemed like they'd just nail one song or two and then it was like "have they ever played together?" and then they'd nail another song.  We found it a bit confusing.  They COULD be good and the COULD be bad.  I told my wife I was convinced the drummer was a theme park animatronic.  A couple of times he just stopped drumming during a song, looked down at the floor like he shut down, then he rebooted back to life and BOOM was back on beat!

 

 

[cruisingnewtoit]

OP I agree with you about X having bland food.

[poncho1973]

10 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

@poncho1973 thanks so much for your review!  We will be first time X and Equinox cruisers next spring.

 

Though we have never set foot in an Arthur Murray studio, nor butt in a hover round (shudder) and both of us are retired computer geeks, we were born quite awhile ago and our bodies don’t work as well as we’d like  - but we are not OLD 😝. I never heard the term “olden” before, except in combination with the word days, either. I thought it was a typo. 

 

We like rock music - both contemporary and classic - so we are hoping for a decent cover band. That’s our after dinner activity. We don’t much care for shows, although the arrangement with ABT is intriguing. During the day we’re happy if we can find a challenging trivia game. We don’t need all the other bells and whistles like rock climbing or bumper cars. 

 

 

I think you might be able to see what I mean when I say olden by now.  I'm not just making a blanket statement about older folks, although, it does seem like it has been taken that way by at least 1 poster in this thread.  It's a state of mind.  My dad was just at a blues concert the other week, sitting on the barricade until the wee hours of the morning, rocking out.  One of my buddy's dad is 67 years old and just hiked some random mountain in Italy just to try some funky bottle of wine that smells like Orange Dreamsicles or something.  That sounds a lot like what you're describing.  My mom messed her knee up in a car accident and sometimes busts out a cane for support, but her and that cane wanted to climb Chimney Rock and so she did.

 

10 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

I’m so glad to hear that there are lots of shady areas. I love the sun, but it does age your skin. It’s how I keep my youthful appearance 😜

 

I’m interested in the lawn. It seems kind of a cool idea. Are there chairs other than the cabana things or do you just grab a towel and sit on that?  Are there activities like lawn bowling or bocce. I thought I saw an ad where people were playing croquet - which should be interesting on a moving ship.

 

On the actual lawn part of the lawn (AKA behind the 1st funnel) it is exactly as the other poster described.  No chairs except those insanely expensive cabana domes which were almost never used.  Although, two younger Russian dudes were in one by themselves on one day and they were trying to convince random people to buy them bottles of booze to join them in their cabana dome.  They definitely cost money to use.

 

I will add something important.  There were PLENTY of chairs further forward and still plenty of grass up there.  The chair were on the pavement, but you could play bocci or croquet up there.  The grass was long and skinny. 

 

 

 

ETA:

I wanted to add that my special comment wasn't about making me feel special... my favorite saying is that "you can't spell awesome without ME" because I'm pretty cool.  It's just that feeling you get on a cruise where you feel like it is reaching inside you and like the cruise (despite the thousands of other people) is really all about you.  You know... without all the legitimately crappy Veruca Salt attitude of it being all about you!  Maybe?  Does that make sense?

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by poncho1973

[poncho1973]

9 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

 

Did the OP give his age, or did I miss it? 

 

Any drink package or bar comments? 

 

 

 

It's directly in my name.  I'm 45, although, I'm generally told that I look (and act) younger.  My wife just turned 35.  She is more mature than I am, as some wives tend to be.  We're extremely active people and make our own fun.

 

We never get the drink package on Royal and now X because I can drink all I need in the DL or CC Happy Hour.  If I need or want more, it certainly wouldn't be enough to justify an entire package.  So I can't comment on it.  Not having that luxury on NCL, I did get it.

 

We got a few drinks at a few bars, though.  I liked Craft and the wings were TINY, but tasty.  The bar with the ice top was too crowded most of the time.  They were mostly nondescript cruise ship bars, though.

 

 

[hcat]

definition of OLDEN....Merriam Webster Dictionary

 adjective

old·en | \ ˈōl-dən  \

: of or relating to a bygone era

 

Not a Noun!....there are better  words to decribe older adults or seniors

[poncho1973]

I'm going to stick with Oldens.  It's got a good ring to it.

 

I appreciate the definition, though.  Thanks!

[hiccups]

1 hour ago, poncho1973 said:

 

It's funny that we felt the same about the singing during the ABT show.  That ballerina was SOOOO TINY!!!  You could just put her in your pocket!

 

We saw a couple of strollers, but really not many.

 

Sashi was pretty good. 

 

The band with the female Filipino singer, what were your thoughts?  We liked a few songs and then the wheels seemed to fall off.  We saw them probably 15x throughout the cruise (poolside, Captain's Club, foyer, etc) and it seemed like they'd just nail one song or two and then it was like "have they ever played together?" and then they'd nail another song.  We found it a bit confusing.  They COULD be good and the COULD be bad.  I told my wife I was convinced the drummer was a theme park animatronic.  A couple of times he just stopped drumming during a song, looked down at the floor like he shut down, then he rebooted back to life and BOOM was back on beat!

 

 

We didn't catch them for more than a song or two.  The night they were at the CC senior officers party, though, they were WAY too loud.  I thought the singer had a nice voice but I didn't pay a lot of attention to the band.  Overall, the musicians that played in the foyer (that band and then the "orchestra") were average, I thought.  Not quite as good as I would have expected for a cruise line as large as X.

[azureblue50]

Poncho1973

I was drawn to read your post.  Like you, we have mostly sailed RC with a few on Princess and this will be our first sailing on Celebrity Equinox in Sept. 2019.   I busted out laughing when I got to the less then good section and had to get my husband’s attention. I read most of your post to him as he was sitting across the room.  After I was done, we looked at each other and he said I’m a little worried, should we be going on this cruise?  I think I get your humor and certainly don’t take personal offence.  I too am an “olden” but think this post is hilarious, entertaining and informative.  Thank you for taking the time to post.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Thanks for your review!

 

Just reading about the perfume gave me a headache.  I loved my Grandmother  - but boy I could smell her before I could see and it caused an immediate headache.  

[mahdnc]

Thanks for your review.  I very much enjoyed reading it and it sure made me smile.

[the_dylaness]

On 6/9/2019 at 9:16 PM, poncho1973 said:

 

I wonder the same thing.  If the ship needs to be evacuated, who on board is going to get these people off????? 

 

I don't want anyone on this forum beating the crew member up so I'm being vague, but we had a chat with one officer who basically said what you are talking about.  They as a company looked around and realized a lot of their passengers likely aren't going to be sailing anymore in the next 10-20 years and need to up their game to make sure the ships still sail full.  They think this upgrade series and the Edge-class ships will eventually skew a little younger and they need it.  They made a comment that BASICALLY (paraphrasing) was saying they aren't looking to nail the 18-34 bracket, they are looking to rope in the 35-55 bracket.  I know some of the olden cruisers will be annoyed by that, but if they look honestly, they themselves were probably in that bracket somewhere when they first started sailing with X.  The officer told me to make my next X cruise on an Edge-class ship and see if I'm not much, much more impressed.

 

This is interesting.

 

I'm in my mid 30s and DH in his early 50s.  We have our 5th and 6th X cruises booked for Jan 2020 and Feb 2020, and our first X cruise was May 2009.  So, we are the "target audience", I suppose (with a decade of history with the company.)  With some exceptions, we book because we like the current product.  Sure, I have complaints/concerns/things I don't like (why is it so hard to find premium wine when you have a premium package!?) but overall X meets our needs very well.  Our kids will take their 2nd X cruise in Feb (age 5 and 8 at time of sailing) and of all the ships we have been on we felt that Reflection met their needs the best (and yes we did Disney.)

 

When I cruise, I am looking for a relaxing vacation.  If I want adventure, thrills, cultural immersion, etc., I'll find a different trip.  I want someone to cook, clean, make drinks, (and drive the boat so I can drink the drinks), and if my kids are with me, provide some entertainment options for them.

 

I almost never go to a production show and when I do I rarely stay.

I like live music a lot, I can't dance very well but if they gave out gold stars for enthusiasm...

 

X seems to be trying to be "all things to all people" and frankly some of their recent moves feel alienating to us.  We are "mid range" cruisers- we sail somewhere between Concierge and Sky Suite depending on price, kids, etc.  I hate the installation of the alcoves on the grass on Reflection.  (Which were almost always empty.)  

 

Maybe X should try to do what it does very, very well instead of trying to change tactics and attract a crowd more likely to enjoy Virgin Cruises' "Scarlet Lady" (no qualms with this ship- just not the X demographic.)

 

If X isn't careful it will lose loyalish cruisers like our family.  We have many cruising years ahead of us and if X can keep it on track I think it's likely they will remain our "most sailed" line.

[chemmo]

Thank you for your review.

 

We are D+ on RC and E+ on Celebrity so know both lines well. Some of your observations really don’t match our experiences!

 

Firstly the speciality restaurants I don’t understand your booking issues. Whilst occasionally Murano’s can be fully booked you can usually get offers for the other restaurants and even if you can’t get a discount you can invariably get in. Booking is easy, there are stands outside the buffet, there are waiters outside the restaurants, your MDR waiter will make a booking for you...

 

Food quality across both lines we definitely  find Celebrity better. This is including buffet, speciality restaurants and suite restaurants. In addition to food quality we have also found the ambience when we have used the MDR much nicer on Celebrity.

 

Evening cocktail events...We have always met interesting fellow cruisers at the Elite events. I would not describe them as lively but I would never describe them as dead! The drinks menu might be more limited but we prefer the atmosphere  to the often overcrowded Diamond events. On Allure and Oasis we struggled to get seats and on Freedom we visited once and then didn’t bother again, just not pleasant....

 

Re fellow cruisers. On RC we have experienced really different mixes of population (January very senior, August full of children). On Celebrity world wide and at different times of year we have always found a nice mix of a few families, quite a few younger couples, lots in the 50-75 range and some seniors. We have always enjoyed meeting with more senior cruisers. They have a wealth of wisdom and experience and are invariably fun people to be with. Whilst on both cruise lines we have experienced an odd poor scooter driver we have also experienced bad manners by other guests in relation to them, for example trying to jump the queue at lifts. I am not condoning poor scooter drivers but most of the guests needing them are usually careful and are suffering considerable pain on a daily bases and deserve compassion. 

 

In terms of strengths of RC their entertainment and activities programmes are definitely livelier. We cruise on RC when we want to be busy and on Celebrity when we want rest and relaxation. Whilst there are similarities between the two lines there are definitely differences too...One is not better or worse than the other but they do have a different focus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by chemmo

[hcat]

10 hours ago, poncho1973 said:

I'm going to stick with Oldens.  It's got a good ring to it.

 

I appreciate the definition, though.  Thanks!

You are welcome...a synonym is " ancient! "....like  buildings and civilizations..

 

[TheCount]

Like the OP we are D+ on Royal, traveled now about 4 times on Celebrity, while having mostly a relaxed time, we find live evening music entertainment lacking, great experience in Blu restaurant, Sunset bar a great evening end. Good relax on the lawn club area.  Caribbean vacations are about R&R for us with a few favourite island spots.

 

Definitely a a more mature PAX on Celeb ( Silhouette & Equinox).  Things tend to roll up and shut down by 1130p in most/many cases.

 

We have both Celeb & Royal booked over the next 6 months, and strongly considering a Caribbean all inclusive adult as a comparison. They end up around the same cost when factoring travel and flights.

 

[hiccups]

22 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

 

Any drink package or bar comments? 

 

 

We had the premium drinks package and it was great--we didn't pay anything extra for drinks.  The coffee bar and Slush (frozen drinks bar by the pool) were the two places I usually saw people signing for drinks (at Slush, with a classic package you pay the upcharge, which I think is $3 plus the 20% gratuity).  We probably would have been all right with the classic package, but it was very nice not to have to worry if something was included.

My husband is a Scotch drinker and so liked to stop at the World Class bar; he also frequented the Martini Bar.  I stopped once at the Casino Bar, and asked the bartender for a Fuzzy Navel (probably showing my age with that one).  He had to ask the other bartender what it was  🙂

Edited June 11, 2019 by hiccups