REVIEW: Celebrity Equinox 9-23-19 Southern Caribbean 11 nights.

[SleepingUgly]

Great review, thanks for sharing!  My husband would absolutely, completely agree with you about the World Class Bar.  He found that place on our third or fourth day of our 12-night cruise last year on the Silhouette and that became THE spot for him.  He loved the Old Fashioned they would serve him (he would get at least one every night before dinner) and has been replicating it at home as well (including the giant ice cube!) and everyone he's been serving it to has converted to this new format.  Definitely agree that we enjoyed that bar - and its environs - much more than the Martini Bar.

 

Glad you had a fantastic trip, and thanks again for a richly detailed review!

 

Linda

     

[bestestboss]

what a review- it helps our group of 10 a lot for our jan2020 cruise on this ship.

thanks so  much!!!!!

[h20cruzer]

Enjoyed your review, I like that you gave your honest opinion about some things. I don't want a sugar coated review only to find out when I board the ship to find out it's not true. 

Glad you were honest.

Norma

[Mira28]

Informative and insightful review. Thanks from a first time cruiser on Celebrity. (Not until January ‘21).😎

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, Mira28 said:

Informative and insightful review. Thanks from a first time cruiser on Celebrity. (Not until January ‘21).😎

 

My pleasure, glad it was helpful!

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, h20cruzer said:

Enjoyed your review, I like that you gave your honest opinion about some things. I don't want a sugar coated review only to find out when I board the ship to find out it's not true. 

Glad you were honest.

Norma

 

Thanks so much. I try to be honest about what we experience on board. No cruise is perfect. As I said in the review, it's really hard to have a bad cruise. Celebrity crew is still among best at sea so any shortcomings are balanced out by the stellar service.  Have an awesome day!

[CruisingWalter]

3 hours ago, bestestboss said:

what a review- it helps our group of 10 a lot for our jan2020 cruise on this ship.

thanks so  much!!!!!

 

Wow, sounds like a fun group.  Have a great cruise!!

[CruisingWalter]

On 10/10/2019 at 8:57 AM, SleepingUgly said:

Great review, thanks for sharing!  My husband would absolutely, completely agree with you about the World Class Bar.  He found that place on our third or fourth day of our 12-night cruise last year on the Silhouette and that became THE spot for him.  He loved the Old Fashioned they would serve him (he would get at least one every night before dinner) and has been replicating it at home as well (including the giant ice cube!) and everyone he's been serving it to has converted to this new format.  Definitely agree that we enjoyed that bar - and its environs - much more than the Martini Bar.

 

Glad you had a fantastic trip, and thanks again for a richly detailed review!

 

Linda

     

 

That Zacapa Old Fashioned is wonderful.  I'm getting a smoker so I can make the Zacapa under the clouds and other smoked drinks.

 

I make many variants of Old Fashioned at home, but here's the three I make the most.

 

Traditional Bourbon Old Fashioned:

2oz Jefferson's Small Batch Bourbon

1oz Panela Simple Syrup (unrefined brown sugar, I make the syrup myself)

- OR - 

1oz 1818 Bitters Old Fashioned Mix.

5 dashes orange bitters

Orange peel to rim the glass.

 

Aztec Chocolate Old Fashioned

2oz Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum

1oz 1818 Bitters Old Fashioned Mix

- OR - 

1 oz Panela Simple Syrup

5 dashes Aztec Chocolate Bitters

 

Island Old Fashioned (I learned this on the Mariner of the Seas)

1oz Zacapa Rum

1oz Selvaray Cacao Rum

1/2 oz Spiced Brown Sugar Syrup

3 dashes orange bitters

1 dash Angasturo Bitters

 

These round sphere ice cube molds are awesome too.  I have both the large square and these round ones, folks love them at parties.  https://www.amazon.com/Tovolo-Leak-Free-Sphere-Molds-Silicone/dp/B007ACTN54/ref=sxin_3_ac_d_pm?ac_md=1-0-VW5kZXIgJDEw-ac_d_pm&keywords=round+ice+cubes&pd_rd_i=B007ACTN54&pd_rd_r=c7bca50c-3064-4991-a761-26d0bfd624af&pd_rd_w=6xFAt&pd_rd_wg=ySOpT&pf_rd_p=24d053a8-30a1-4822-a2ff-4d1ab2b984fc&pf_rd_r=B2V1GPG3AQBPM2TK1VHJ&psc=1&qid=1571175952

 

Thanks for the kind words on the review!

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by creativegenius

[homeatlast]

Really well done Sir.  Sad to hear about the coffee.  This will be our first time on Celebrity, we will be in aqua class and looking forward to a nice cruise. 

[bigdogag]

Absolutely the best complete review I have ever read on CC. Thank you very much. Have been on Summit twice, January will be first time on Equinox. Deck 10 around mid-deck.

[h20skibum]

On 10/6/2019 at 5:39 PM, creativegenius said:

Immediately after boarding we were able to drop off our carry-ons in our cabin which was awesome so we could explore the ship without lugging anything around. Our cabin cards (keys) were waiting outside the cabin. A great improvement over waiting until 1pm just to be able to drop stuff off

Enjoyed your review.  
 

Are you saying you were able to drop your carry on bags in your cabin, and pick up your sea pass before 1:00?   We have an 11:30 express boarding, and it would be great to drop ours and enjoy a drink and lunch without lugging them around. 

[CruisingWalter]

49 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Enjoyed your review.  
 

Are you saying you were able to drop your carry on bags in your cabin, and pick up your sea pass before 1:00?   We have an 11:30 express boarding, and it would be great to drop ours and enjoy a drink and lunch without lugging them around. 

 

That's exactly what I'm saying, isn't it awesome!  The cabins are open for dropoff only.  When you board the ship, go directly to your cabin, your Sea Pass cards will be waiting outside the cabin.  Drop off your stuff, use the restroom and go explore the ship.  enjoy!  The cabins will be fully ready for your return after 1 or 1:30.

[CruisingWalter]

3 hours ago, bigdogag said:

Absolutely the best complete review I have ever read on CC. Thank you very much. Have been on Summit twice, January will be first time on Equinox. Deck 10 around mid-deck.

 

Wow, thank you very much!  I like to write. 🙂  I have a few other reviews here in CC for the NCL Getaway, the Disney Fantasy and I believe the Celebrity Silhouette.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

On 10/15/2019 at 2:58 PM, h20cruzer said:

Enjoyed your review, I like that you gave your honest opinion about some things. I don't want a sugar coated review only to find out when I board the ship to find out it's not true. 

Glad you were honest.

Norma

Yes, it was a great review. But to be fair, just because your experience does not match someone else’s does not mean they are lying or sugar coating with their review. I have read reviews of things (cruises or shows or other things) where I have been at the exact same thing and had a totally different experience compared to what someone else did. Unless the reviewer was provided the services for free in exchange for a review (which they generally have to reveal now), I always take a person at their word. After all, people standing on opposite sides of 9 written on the ground will see a different number.

[CruisingWalter]

17 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Yes, it was a great review. But to be fair, just because your experience does not match someone else’s does not mean they are lying or sugar coating with their review.

 

So true. We met folks on board who LOVED some of the shows in the theater that we had to walk out on and who LOVED LPC. Every person is different and all I can do is present our honest feedback on the cruise.  Enjoy your next sail! 

Edited October 24, 2019 by creativegenius

[edknn]

We were on the same cruise and stayed on for the next week also. Embarkation was a mess for us. We arrived before it started with expedited boarding with facial recognition. They told us we would board first because of it but actually it was very slow. They even stopped our line because the facial scans took so long compared to the lines where just the bar codes were being scanned. Slowest embarkation we ever had with Celebrity. Also, you didn't mention that they ran out of all light beers and most others 5 days in the cruise. Also, all diet sodas at the same time. They had numerous ports to resupply but kept saying supplies would be available at the next port. Never did fix the situation until our cruise the next week. They even refunded our drink package cost if that helps show the extent of the shortages. People were complaining every where. As for the cruise, aside from the drink problem and messed up embarkation, it was great. We always sail Celebrity and these problems were a first. Second cruise was event free. As for rooms, our rooms on both sailings were partially updated. Both of ours were without new carpeting, the 2nd had only new bedding and curtains so long the curled up 2 inches on the floor. As a foot note, will we sail with Celebrity again?  Definitely. Only line to go with.

Edited October 27, 2019 by edknn

[CruisingWalter]

1 hour ago, edknn said:

We were on the same cruise and stayed on for the next week also. Embarkation was a mess for us. We arrived before it started with expedited boarding with facial recognition. They told us we would board first because of it but actually it was very slow. They even stopped our line because the facial scans took so long compared to the lines where just the bar codes were being scanned. Slowest embarkation we ever had with Celebrity. Also, you didn't mention that they ran out of all light beers and most others 5 days in the cruise. Also, all diet sodas at the same time. They had numerous ports to resupply but kept saying supplies would be available at the next port. Never did fix the situation until our cruise the next week. They even refunded our drink package cost if that helps show the extent of the shortages. People were complaining every where. As for the cruise, aside from the drink problem and messed up embarkation, it was great.

 

I didn't mention the beer or soft drink issues because I never heard about them. I rarely drink beer and neither my wife nor I drink soda. With everyone we met on board not a single person mentioned an issue with beer or sodas during the entire 11 nights. That's a very strange issue to have on a ship. Glad the following 10 night cruise was a good one for you. 

[PTC DAWG]

I was on this cruise. They brought on some local beer in St Lucia, and restocked diet sodas in St Martin...

 

Always had zero calorie Sprite...that goes well with Hendricks..

 

No complaints from me..I can’t imagine complaining about a few missing diet drinks or light beers...

[edknn]

Only had Diet Coke at Bacio. At St Maartan they only got a very limited amount of it. Even the beverage manager said to just go bar to bar and hopefully find some. He even had our room steward search the products people had taken out of the room fridges and bring some to our room.The Pinton from St. Lucia was good but not Coors light and other beers that were supposed to be stocked. like a lot of people wanted. The had Pinton, Mic Ultra light and Heinekin  beer at the bar. As for complaining, we paid an awful lot for our drink package. It was NOT a free perk. As my wife is a diabetic, who hates Sprite Zero, that didn't help. They missed a container of product at Ft Lauderdale , they knew well ahead of time they would be short of supplies. Seems like a company this size would have pull with their suppliers to make sure of resupply at one of the ports of the missing products. 

[EmeraldCruiser19]

Thank you for the very detailed reviewed.

 

I will be doing this cruise, same ship, same itinerary in May 2020. Very first cruise also. Looking forward to it! 

[edknn]

2 hours ago, creativegenius said:

 

I didn't mention the beer or soft drink issues because I never heard about them. I rarely drink beer and neither my wife nor I drink soda. With everyone we met on board not a single person mentioned an issue with beer or sodas during the entire 11 nights. That's a very strange issue to have on a ship. Glad the following 10 night cruise was a good one for you. 

They were missing a shipping container being loaded before we sailed. Seems like they could have done better at a resupply at one of the ports. They knew they would run out. As far as not hearing complaints, the beverage manager told me he was going nuts with complaints. At our meeting for passengers sailing back to back, the first question was would there be a correct load delivered before we cruised again. As far as your review, it was very true. What happened with the missing container of product will probably never happen again. Glad embarkation went better for you.

Edited October 27, 2019 by edknn

[aml3679]

Thanks for your very honest and detailed review and pictures.  The Equinox is our favorite ship.  We are sailing in February 2020 and then again in February 2021 with the same itiniary for my 60th birthday.  There are definite things that we love and a few disappointments.

 

We love:  The service, the variety of food options, our balcony.

 

We are disappointed with them taking away the footstools and replacing Silk Harvest with Le Petit Chef - Silk Harvest was our favorite specialty restaurant.

 

I would rather use the Solarium pool than the outdoor pool - air conditioned with padded loungers and there were usually plenty.  My husband likes to spend his time smoking cigars and socializing.

 

We loved Murano and Tuscan Grill.  We will miss Silk Harvest but are looking forward to Le Petit Chef - that being said, I think you could only do Le Petit Chef once.