Currently on the Celebrity Equinox

[wangel]

Cruise Critic People

 

I’m currently on the Celebrity Equinox day 10 of a 12 day southern Caribbean cruise. We did Aruba yesterday and will be doing Curacao today and then two days at sea back at Fort Lauderdale. I will now give you the Pro’s and Con’s of this cruise. Just to let you know I’ve done 14 cruises (about 1 a year) of which 10 were with Celebrity. I’m currently on the 11^th floor in AquaClass.

PRO’s

1.    Getting on the ship – Much faster. I had a 2:30 get on and got to the dock at 1pm. I was on the ship before 1:25.

2.   Staff is as exceptionally friendly. Really not much different than before.

3.   The ship is very very clean. Even more so due to covid. You can see them at all hours of the day and night deep cleaning and sanitizing.

4.   You can never get rid of chair hogs at the pool, but due to the population on this ship around half; the pool and pool chairs are much more readily accessible.

5.   Ship is designed for cell phone usage. You will need your cell phone so that you can make appointments for dinner or the spa. Much more convenient and quicker. Yes you can still do it the old way too.

6.   Room TV’s now compatible for USB. Yes, I’m a TV addict and will often bring a jump drive full of movies or TV shows that I want to binge watch. Now you can plug right into the USB port of the TV and get a directory of your movies. It appears only AVI movies work. MKZ does not work. Also, I have been known to bring my own TV remote, but didn’t really need it this time. My TV is a Samsung model HG43NF690GFXZA. I brought a 256 gb jump drive full of movies.

7.   Room steward is fantastic! Aren’t they always! Great room steward.

8.   Evening entertainment has been very good. Notice I didn’t say excellent?! Think of a very cheap casino on the Vegas Strip. That is how the entertainment is.  

9.   Internet speed. You have your choice of slow and fast. I can only comment on the fast. Price was around $399, but if you are Elite you get 30% off which brought the price down to around $240 for one user. Yes, only one user, but can be switched from one device to another at no charge.

 

OK, now for the bad news.

 

CON’s

1.    Food quality and selection (even in the buffet) is terrible. Golden Corral or Denny’s quality at best. You will get sick of it quickly. Fruit under-ripe for the first few days. Same menus day after day. No midnight buffets, no big parades of food anymore either. I go on cruises for the food and now, what should be so simple, they ruined. Even at the fancy restaurants, they are just taking their regular food and just making it look fancy. I ordered Salmon Sushi rolls and the salmon inside the rolls was the same smoked salmon from breakfast. Really!

2.   Lack of bar attendants so you can’t order (All Inclusive) drinks. I had the AI and before shows no drink attendants. Up at the buffet no drink attendants, by the pool no drink attendants: most areas – no drink attendants. OK, if you look hard, sometimes you can find one. Often times I just gave up. Stop at one of the bars on the ship to get your drink before dinner or a show.

3.   Very difficult to tell what is covered on the regular drink package and the better one. I have the regular one. Much too often the bar attendant would tell me that there would be an upcharge for what I wanted like a strawberry slushee or something else. It’s not real clear what is included in each drink package. Keep in mind that you glass of wine will likely be part of your AI, but if you want to purchase the entire bottle, you only get 15% off the price of the bottle. So it pays to get drinks by the glass.

4.   Celebrity has set the schedules of all the restaurants, so that around lunch time you are forced to eat at Golden Corral on deck 14. They want everyone to eat there. Deck 14 is called Silhouette (buffet) and it is cheap slop.

5.   Stopping at the various islands and the ship won’t let you off (due to covid) – forcing us to book a Celebrity tour to get off the ship.

6.   Sushi use to be free every night. Now it is pay only. I use to love the sushi before dinner. Nope, not any more. Not only that, but the Sushi on 5 restaurant opens at 3pm. Can’t even have it for lunch anymore. The prices are like a high end sushi restaurant. The restaurant is normally empty.

7.   Qsine specialty restaurant at $55 / person – Quality and Quantity lacking. (I had to go up to the buffet after dinner to get more food. Small quantities do not always mean better!). On the other hand if you are traveling with an 8 year old and they want to see a 3D cartoon on their plate, then by all means go to this restaurant.

8.   Food quality is poor to mediocre. Steaks are tasteless or too tough. Things are overcooked or undercooked. Overall, there is nothing REALLY good at any time.

9.   If you paid extra for AquaClass and Persian Gardens – it is now by appointment only. They only book 8 people at a time. Even with the boat half full, appointments book up quick. My suggestion is to book all your days quickly.

10.               The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor this and will not let you in if you try and put 4 people in the hot tub. Overall, AquaClass is not worth it any more. You don’t get all the benefits and the food in Blu is pretty much the same as in the main dining room.

11. Activities are minimal and often downright silly waste of time. If you like going to Trivia or playing silly games, then by all means go ahead. Most of their activities are a silly waste of time.

12.               When a show or activity is over, there is no control of allow people to leave without clustering together. In other words, no social distancing.

13.               They use the same rag to clean every table instead of using a new cloth or paper. I remember some restaurants where I live using a new clean paper towel for each table so as not to spread covid. Not here, they use the same rag from table to table.

14.               The Persian Garden sounds good on paper, but keep in mind with only two saunas, what happens when one sauna is down for repairs for two days or a group reserves all the good times? Not good.

15.               Passengers are supposed to wear masks when off the boat. Many did not and nobody said anything.

16.               Many of the tours like Aruba were more trying to sell us Aloa Vera than showing us the island.  

17.               Many of the on-ship activities now cost! Yes, going to the Deal or No Deal game show on the boat or some other activities now costs.

18.               Water – yes water! They are now serving water in aluminum cans instead of plastic water bottles. The water from the aluminum cans tastes “tinny”. I’ve been ordering more Coke and drinking less water due to this tinny taste.

 

SIDE NOTE 1: There is a router in each room. For those who are computer literate: They are Aruba brand routers, model AP-303H-US. If you slide the front up, you then have access to four RJ45 ports on the bottom and 1 more inside the router. I have not played with them yet, but might. They appear functional.

 

SIDE NOTE 2: You can use a Travelmate Titan (Google it if you don’t know what it is) to divide your internet among up to four users. A very handy device: Ex:  if you brought two laptops and two cell phones as I did and you want to connect them all at the same time? It works fine. Just keep in mind that if your speed is 400 mbps, when you connect four devices all using the Internet it divides it by 4, which means 100 mbps for each user. The speed of the Internet varies. In the middle of the night is the fastest speeds. Morning, Late afternoon or early evening is the busiest and consequently the slowest. Expect to see speeds change from 400 mbps to as slow as 0.50 mbps.

 

Hope some of the above helps you.

 

[lv2cruisgrl]

Nope, sorry didn't help me at all. 

[zitsky]

I found it interesting.  Wondering if Sushi on 5 opening is 3pm on all ships?  And did not know about booking times at Persian Garden.

 

Sorry that OP didn't enjoy their experience.

[PTC DAWG]

Wow, sailed on Equinox Aug 1...had a great trip...no issues with service, drinks etc AT ALL.

 

I had all the Evian, Perrier etc I could drink.  Tej around the pool never let me or my Bride run dry of anything during the day..and Amar and crew at the Sunset Bar were always on point.

 

The food, it was fine...but I will admit that is subjective.  

[Ken the cruiser]

On 8/23/2021 at 11:52 PM, wangel said:

Cruise Critic People

 

I’m currently on the Celebrity Equinox day 10 of a 12 day southern Caribbean cruise. We did Aruba yesterday and will be doing Curacao today and then two days at sea back at Fort Lauderdale. I will now give you the Pro’s and Con’s of this cruise. Just to let you know I’ve done 14 cruises (about 1 a year) of which 10 were with Celebrity. I’m currently on the 11^th floor in AquaClass.

PRO’s

1.    Getting on the ship – Much faster. I had a 2:30 get on and got to the dock at 1pm. I was on the ship before 1:25.

2.   Staff is as exceptionally friendly. Really not much different than before.

3.   The ship is very very clean. Even more so due to covid. You can see them at all hours of the day and night deep cleaning and sanitizing.

4.   You can never get rid of chair hogs at the pool, but due to the population on this ship around half; the pool and pool chairs are much more readily accessible.

5.   Ship is designed for cell phone usage. You will need your cell phone so that you can make appointments for dinner or the spa. Much more convenient and quicker. Yes you can still do it the old way too.

6.   Room TV’s now compatible for USB. Yes, I’m a TV addict and will often bring a jump drive full of movies or TV shows that I want to binge watch. Now you can plug right into the USB port of the TV and get a directory of your movies. It appears only AVI movies work. MKZ does not work. Also, I have been known to bring my own TV remote, but didn’t really need it this time. My TV is a Samsung model HG43NF690GFXZA. I brought a 256 gb jump drive full of movies.

7.   Room steward is fantastic! Aren’t they always! Great room steward.

8.   Evening entertainment has been very good. Notice I didn’t say excellent?! Think of a very cheap casino on the Vegas Strip. That is how the entertainment is.  

9.   Internet speed. You have your choice of slow and fast. I can only comment on the fast. Price was around $399, but if you are Elite you get 30% off which brought the price down to around $240 for one user. Yes, only one user, but can be switched from one device to another at no charge.

 

OK, now for the bad news.

 

CON’s

1.    Food quality and selection (even in the buffet) is terrible. Golden Corral or Denny’s quality at best. You will get sick of it quickly. Fruit under-ripe for the first few days. Same menus day after day. No midnight buffets, no big parades of food anymore either. I go on cruises for the food and now, what should be so simple, they ruined. Even at the fancy restaurants, they are just taking their regular food and just making it look fancy. I ordered Salmon Sushi rolls and the salmon inside the rolls was the same smoked salmon from breakfast. Really!

2.   Lack of bar attendants so you can’t order (All Inclusive) drinks. I had the AI and before shows no drink attendants. Up at the buffet no drink attendants, by the pool no drink attendants: most areas – no drink attendants. OK, if you look hard, sometimes you can find one. Often times I just gave up. Stop at one of the bars on the ship to get your drink before dinner or a show.

3.   Very difficult to tell what is covered on the regular drink package and the better one. I have the regular one. Much too often the bar attendant would tell me that there would be an upcharge for what I wanted like a strawberry slushee or something else. It’s not real clear what is included in each drink package. Keep in mind that you glass of wine will likely be part of your AI, but if you want to purchase the entire bottle, you only get 15% off the price of the bottle. So it pays to get drinks by the glass.

4.   Celebrity has set the schedules of all the restaurants, so that around lunch time you are forced to eat at Golden Corral on deck 14. They want everyone to eat there. Deck 14 is called Silhouette (buffet) and it is cheap slop.

5.   Stopping at the various islands and the ship won’t let you off (due to covid) – forcing us to book a Celebrity tour to get off the ship.

6.   Sushi use to be free every night. Now it is pay only. I use to love the sushi before dinner. Nope, not any more. Not only that, but the Sushi on 5 restaurant opens at 3pm. Can’t even have it for lunch anymore. The prices are like a high end sushi restaurant. The restaurant is normally empty.

7.   Qsine specialty restaurant at $55 / person – Quality and Quantity lacking. (I had to go up to the buffet after dinner to get more food. Small quantities do not always mean better!). On the other hand if you are traveling with an 8 year old and they want to see a 3D cartoon on their plate, then by all means go to this restaurant.

8.   Food quality is poor to mediocre. Steaks are tasteless or too tough. Things are overcooked or undercooked. Overall, there is nothing REALLY good at any time.

9.   If you paid extra for AquaClass and Persian Gardens – it is now by appointment only. They only book 8 people at a time. Even with the boat half full, appointments book up quick. My suggestion is to book all your days quickly.

10.               The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor this and will not let you in if you try and put 4 people in the hot tub. Overall, AquaClass is not worth it any more. You don’t get all the benefits and the food in Blu is pretty much the same as in the main dining room.

11. Activities are minimal and often downright silly waste of time. If you like going to Trivia or playing silly games, then by all means go ahead. Most of their activities are a silly waste of time.

12.               When a show or activity is over, there is no control of allow people to leave without clustering together. In other words, no social distancing.

13.               They use the same rag to clean every table instead of using a new cloth or paper. I remember some restaurants where I live using a new clean paper towel for each table so as not to spread covid. Not here, they use the same rag from table to table.

14.               The Persian Garden sounds good on paper, but keep in mind with only two saunas, what happens when one sauna is down for repairs for two days or a group reserves all the good times? Not good.

15.               Passengers are supposed to wear masks when off the boat. Many did not and nobody said anything.

16.               Many of the tours like Aruba were more trying to sell us Aloa Vera than showing us the island.  

17.               Many of the on-ship activities now cost! Yes, going to the Deal or No Deal game show on the boat or some other activities now costs.

18.               Water – yes water! They are now serving water in aluminum cans instead of plastic water bottles. The water from the aluminum cans tastes “tinny”. I’ve been ordering more Coke and drinking less water due to this tinny taste.

 

SIDE NOTE 1: There is a router in each room. For those who are computer literate: They are Aruba brand routers, model AP-303H-US. If you slide the front up, you then have access to four RJ45 ports on the bottom and 1 more inside the router. I have not played with them yet, but might. They appear functional.

 

SIDE NOTE 2: You can use a Travelmate Titan (Google it if you don’t know what it is) to divide your internet among up to four users. A very handy device: Ex:  if you brought two laptops and two cell phones as I did and you want to connect them all at the same time? It works fine. Just keep in mind that if your speed is 400 mbps, when you connect four devices all using the Internet it divides it by 4, which means 100 mbps for each user. The speed of the Internet varies. In the middle of the night is the fastest speeds. Morning, Late afternoon or early evening is the busiest and consequently the slowest. Expect to see speeds change from 400 mbps to as slow as 0.50 mbps.

 

Hope some of the above helps you.

 

If you at some point could do a speed test on your iPhone and tell us the download mbps rate, that would be very helpful. Thanks!

[Team Stag]

7 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I found it interesting.  Wondering if Sushi on 5 opening is 3pm on all ships?  And did not know about booking times at Persian Garden.

We were on the Edge in July.  Raw on 5 was open during sea days from 12-1:30 p.m. and then 6-10 p.m. nightly.

[PTC DAWG]

1 minute ago, Team Stag said:

We were on the Edge in July.  Raw on 5 was open during sea days from 12-1:30 p.m. and then 6-10 p.m. nightly.

That sounds like the hours on the Equinox earlier this month, I found the food there to be on point.  

[Fouremco]

On 8/23/2021 at 11:52 PM, wangel said:

        The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor this and will not let you in if you try and put 4 people in the hot tub. 

Wow, what an attitude. Rules are there to help keep people healthy during a pandemic, yet you criticize those who try to protect themselves from oafs who simply don't get it and try to barge their way in. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

I’m also currently on the Equinox.  I’ve done a couple of speed tests an the speeds are between 1.7 to 1.9 Mbps download and around 0.8 Mbps upload.  I also don’t see any router in my cabin.  I went the I lounge to complain about slow speeds and the rep told me it would be slower in my cabin because the signal was blocked by all of the walls.  She also said see “it works in the I lounge”.   I told her I was glad it worked for her but it didn’t work for me.  I thanked her and left.  About an hour later a tech showed up and installed a temp router in my cabin.  Performance improved dramatically.  I think the routers are in the hallway.    I see some in the hallway ceiling .

Edited August 26, 2021 by Ipeeinthepools

[MarkWiltonM]

I appreciate the post. You said what, in your estimation, is good and what is not good. Of course we are all different.

 

I'll be on the Equinox in November. I hope the food is up to its usual acceptable if not great standards by then. In the past it's always been way better than a Golden Corral-type restaurant, if not as good as more upscale land-based restaurants. In my opinion the quality of specialty restaurants has declined even as the prices have gone up. I don't bother with them anymore because I don't want to be disappointed. I was on Silhouette last year and the food was hit or miss in the main dining room but not terrible. If we didn't like the food we were served in the dining room we ate a little and then went up to the buffet. Good to have options.

 

Since you've been on multiple Celebrity cruises, can you say whether you've enjoyed the food in the past, and this is really different, or have you always found it lacking?

 

I wonder if, because of special circumstances (i.e., the pandemic), there is a smaller kitchen staff, and/or if there are procurement issues.

 

[frakkles]

Wangel,

Thank you for taking the time to list the pros and cons of your trip.

[rjrpar]

Thanks for the review.  I think the food on Celebrity hasn’t been good for several years.  We’ve been on 3 different cruise lines in the last 5 years and all have similar quality food - all very average

[stunned]

Sorry, your cruise isn’t up to your liking, however for us that have been pretty much shut in for over a year, I’m anxious to cruise with an open mind and accept whatever changes there are.  I’ve  never felt hungry on a cruise and am always amazed at those that complain about the food.

[Stick93]

Was on the July 25th cruise. 

some of your cons were correct but I think you are embellishing a bit. It’s okay - you spent good money  and that how you feel. 

12 days seems like it may have been too long for you. 

[LGW59]

On 8/23/2021 at 11:52 PM, wangel said:

Cruise Critic People

 

I’m currently on the Celebrity Equinox day 10 of a 12 day southern Caribbean cruise. We did Aruba yesterday and will be doing Curacao today and then two days at sea back at Fort Lauderdale. I will now give you the Pro’s and Con’s of this cruise. Just to let you know I’ve done 14 cruises (about 1 a year) of which 10 were with Celebrity. I’m currently on the 11^th floor in AquaClass.

PRO’s

1.    Getting on the ship – Much faster. I had a 2:30 get on and got to the dock at 1pm. I was on the ship before 1:25.

2.   Staff is as exceptionally friendly. Really not much different than before.

3.   The ship is very very clean. Even more so due to covid. You can see them at all hours of the day and night deep cleaning and sanitizing.

4.   You can never get rid of chair hogs at the pool, but due to the population on this ship around half; the pool and pool chairs are much more readily accessible.

5.   Ship is designed for cell phone usage. You will need your cell phone so that you can make appointments for dinner or the spa. Much more convenient and quicker. Yes you can still do it the old way too.

6.   Room TV’s now compatible for USB. Yes, I’m a TV addict and will often bring a jump drive full of movies or TV shows that I want to binge watch. Now you can plug right into the USB port of the TV and get a directory of your movies. It appears only AVI movies work. MKZ does not work. Also, I have been known to bring my own TV remote, but didn’t really need it this time. My TV is a Samsung model HG43NF690GFXZA. I brought a 256 gb jump drive full of movies.

7.   Room steward is fantastic! Aren’t they always! Great room steward.

8.   Evening entertainment has been very good. Notice I didn’t say excellent?! Think of a very cheap casino on the Vegas Strip. That is how the entertainment is.  

9.   Internet speed. You have your choice of slow and fast. I can only comment on the fast. Price was around $399, but if you are Elite you get 30% off which brought the price down to around $240 for one user. Yes, only one user, but can be switched from one device to another at no charge.

 

OK, now for the bad news.

 

CON’s

1.    Food quality and selection (even in the buffet) is terrible. Golden Corral or Denny’s quality at best. You will get sick of it quickly. Fruit under-ripe for the first few days. Same menus day after day. No midnight buffets, no big parades of food anymore either. I go on cruises for the food and now, what should be so simple, they ruined. Even at the fancy restaurants, they are just taking their regular food and just making it look fancy. I ordered Salmon Sushi rolls and the salmon inside the rolls was the same smoked salmon from breakfast. Really!

2.   Lack of bar attendants so you can’t order (All Inclusive) drinks. I had the AI and before shows no drink attendants. Up at the buffet no drink attendants, by the pool no drink attendants: most areas – no drink attendants. OK, if you look hard, sometimes you can find one. Often times I just gave up. Stop at one of the bars on the ship to get your drink before dinner or a show.

3.   Very difficult to tell what is covered on the regular drink package and the better one. I have the regular one. Much too often the bar attendant would tell me that there would be an upcharge for what I wanted like a strawberry slushee or something else. It’s not real clear what is included in each drink package. Keep in mind that you glass of wine will likely be part of your AI, but if you want to purchase the entire bottle, you only get 15% off the price of the bottle. So it pays to get drinks by the glass.

4.   Celebrity has set the schedules of all the restaurants, so that around lunch time you are forced to eat at Golden Corral on deck 14. They want everyone to eat there. Deck 14 is called Silhouette (buffet) and it is cheap slop.

5.   Stopping at the various islands and the ship won’t let you off (due to covid) – forcing us to book a Celebrity tour to get off the ship.

6.   Sushi use to be free every night. Now it is pay only. I use to love the sushi before dinner. Nope, not any more. Not only that, but the Sushi on 5 restaurant opens at 3pm. Can’t even have it for lunch anymore. The prices are like a high end sushi restaurant. The restaurant is normally empty.

7.   Qsine specialty restaurant at $55 / person – Quality and Quantity lacking. (I had to go up to the buffet after dinner to get more food. Small quantities do not always mean better!). On the other hand if you are traveling with an 8 year old and they want to see a 3D cartoon on their plate, then by all means go to this restaurant.

8.   Food quality is poor to mediocre. Steaks are tasteless or too tough. Things are overcooked or undercooked. Overall, there is nothing REALLY good at any time.

9.   If you paid extra for AquaClass and Persian Gardens – it is now by appointment only. They only book 8 people at a time. Even with the boat half full, appointments book up quick. My suggestion is to book all your days quickly.

10.               The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor this and will not let you in if you try and put 4 people in the hot tub. Overall, AquaClass is not worth it any more. You don’t get all the benefits and the food in Blu is pretty much the same as in the main dining room.

11. Activities are minimal and often downright silly waste of time. If you like going to Trivia or playing silly games, then by all means go ahead. Most of their activities are a silly waste of time.

12.               When a show or activity is over, there is no control of allow people to leave without clustering together. In other words, no social distancing.

13.               They use the same rag to clean every table instead of using a new cloth or paper. I remember some restaurants where I live using a new clean paper towel for each table so as not to spread covid. Not here, they use the same rag from table to table.

14.               The Persian Garden sounds good on paper, but keep in mind with only two saunas, what happens when one sauna is down for repairs for two days or a group reserves all the good times? Not good.

15.               Passengers are supposed to wear masks when off the boat. Many did not and nobody said anything.

16.               Many of the tours like Aruba were more trying to sell us Aloa Vera than showing us the island.  

17.               Many of the on-ship activities now cost! Yes, going to the Deal or No Deal game show on the boat or some other activities now costs.

18.               Water – yes water! They are now serving water in aluminum cans instead of plastic water bottles. The water from the aluminum cans tastes “tinny”. I’ve been ordering more Coke and drinking less water due to this tinny taste.

 

SIDE NOTE 1: There is a router in each room. For those who are computer literate: They are Aruba brand routers, model AP-303H-US. If you slide the front up, you then have access to four RJ45 ports on the bottom and 1 more inside the router. I have not played with them yet, but might. They appear functional.

 

SIDE NOTE 2: You can use a Travelmate Titan (Google it if you don’t know what it is) to divide your internet among up to four users. A very handy device: Ex:  if you brought two laptops and two cell phones as I did and you want to connect them all at the same time? It works fine. Just keep in mind that if your speed is 400 mbps, when you connect four devices all using the Internet it divides it by 4, which means 100 mbps for each user. The speed of the Internet varies. In the middle of the night is the fastest speeds. Morning, Late afternoon or early evening is the busiest and consequently the slowest. Expect to see speeds change from 400 mbps to as slow as 0.50 mbps.

 

Hope some of the above helps you.

 

Other than items 1-18 and side notes 1&2, seems like you are having a blast!

[closecruiser]

Was on 7/25 sailing.  Thought all was great.  I guess to each their own.   Sorry the OP felt this way.   We did not and am looking forward to our 9/17 sailing on Equinox.

[jelayne]

Seems it has been awhile since the OP has been on Celebrity the midnight buffet has been gone for many years,  the grand buffet and free sushi  about 4-5 years ago &  big parades?   
 

It seems that the poster didn’t have a clear understanding of what AI included as they purchased a Stream Internet package  vs just upgrading the surf package.  That is unfortunate. 

[hcat]

Big parades never a feature of X cruising.  

Royal C has the mall like area where parades are held..lots of crowds!

 

Sorry OP did not care for the food and dining schedules

Persian Gardens on M class are dank interiors.,some are upgraded recently.

Maybe OP should try Royal C or Edge Class on X

[TommyD3]

I was onboard Aug 1 - 15. Had the free Zenith stream internet. Ran many speed tests. The fastest was about 4 mbps download. One day my phone had 11 app updates. Took 45 minutes !!! Took 5 hours to download a 2 hour movie on HBO Max. Fine for email but not for the advertised movie streaming. Just wait until the ship is at 100% occupancy.

I had no problem with the food quality. I did have a problem with the number of guests our waiter was required to wait on. Dinner started at 5:30 and people kept coming in until about 6:30. By 6:30 our waiter had at least 20 guests to wait on. Took 15-30 minutes just to take their order !!! Will be even worse when at full capacity !!!!

Edited August 27, 2021 by TommyD3

[hcat]

2 minutes ago, hcat said:

Big parades never a feature of X cruising.  

Royal C has the mall like area where parades are held..lots of crowds!

 

Sorry OP did not care for the food and dining schedules

Persian Gardens on M class are dank interiors.,some are upgraded recently.

Maybe OP should try Royal C or Edge Class on X

 

"

"10.       The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor... karen is a  negative term afaik,"

[ROYALBOY]

On 8/23/2021 at 11:52 PM, wangel said:

Hope some of the above helps you.

Sounds like you should try Carnival…should be just right for you.

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

 

"

"10.       The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor... karen is a  negative term afaik,"

 

I think they know what Karen means.

 

Can anyone confirm this?  Only 3 people in a hot tub?  How many people in the spa?  ex. Persian Garden

[Altamar]

We were on the July 25 equinox sailing. Had a wonderful cruise. Only complaint was we had to get off on Sunday august 1😫

[BillfromWV]

We were on the 8/8 sailing which we enjoyed. I would note there are only 50% passengers but also about half the crew .  Not many bar servers around.  We went to passport bar tipped well and had great service.  Looking forward to our 9/17 southern cruise. 

[ILgirl]

I was on my first solo cruise on the 8/1 Equinox.  I can’t say enough positive things about all aspects of the cruise, i.e. food (including Oceanview), crew, bar service etc.  I never had to wait for drink service and actually felt totally spoiled and pampered by all crew, many of whom knew me by name and my preferences by the end of the week.  I think another thing that made this cruise a stand out of my last 20 plus cruises was the overall friendliness and positive attitude of all of the passengers.  Everyone I met was so happy to be sailing again that it added to my great experience.  I have three more Celebrity cruises booked in the next six months, two of which were made after disembarking the Equinox.  Enjoy!!