Tuscan on Equinox

[bandp407]

Can anyone who is on or recently sailed on the Equinox comment on their experience, particularly quality of the meats & fish in Tuscan. DH and I have always preferred Murano, but are sailing on Equinox in July with family & I am on the fence on whether or not to have them experience it. We have booked Murano but one night but they are meat eaters, the reason for possibly Tuscan. 
 

Hard to believe, but I checked the App & lobster night is night 6 . It’s a 6 night sailing, so I found that odd?? 
 

Many thanks in advance! 

[xamsx]

Was on the Equinox in March and went to both Tuscan and Murano. My husband and I were with my mother and my aunt. The four of us felt the food, service, and overall experience were far superior in the Tuscan Grille to Murano.

 

I was on the Connie in October and December and hubby and I went to the Tuscan Grille on that ship several times. IMO, the Tuscan was better on the Equinox. 

 

[bandp407]

15 minutes ago, xamsx said:

Was on the Equinox in March and went to both Tuscan and Murano. My husband and I were with my mother and my aunt. The four of us felt the food, service, and overall experience were far superior in the Tuscan Grille to Murano.

 

I was on the Connie in October and December and hubby and I went to the Tuscan Grille on that ship several times. IMO, the Tuscan was better on the Equinox. 

 

Very interesting - thank you very much for your feedback. We actually stopped going to Tuscan after some not so good experiences pre pandemic. I will try to book. Thanks again!

[lola2013]

23 minutes ago, bandp407 said:

Very interesting - thank you very much for your feedback. We actually stopped going to Tuscan after some not so good experiences pre pandemic. I will try to book. Thanks again!

Our group of five ate in Tuscan on our first night on Equinox in February.  It was outstanding…from the charcuterie board to the meatball app to the garlic mashed potatoes to the filet…there may have been some veggies involved, but I can’t comment on those.  So good that we went back on the last night!  

[NutsAboutGolf]

45 minutes ago, bandp407 said:

Can anyone who is on or recently sailed on the Equinox comment on their experience, particularly quality of the meats & fish in Tuscan. DH and I have always preferred Murano, but are sailing on Equinox in July with family & I am on the fence on whether or not to have them experience it. We have booked Murano but one night but they are meat eaters, the reason for possibly Tuscan. 
 

Hard to believe, but I checked the App & lobster night is night 6 . It’s a 6 night sailing, so I found that odd?? 
 

Many thanks in advance! 

 

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is X intentionally does this to save money as they know the last night is the least visited night.  Many do not want to get dressed up, go to a 90mins-2 hour dinner or potentially get anxiety about not yet being packed.  Lastly, its well-known that many staff members including the waitstaff could fish for tips on the last night and some want to avoid that.  In my experience they're not bad, they can be a bit more friendly and try to have longer conversations but it isn't bad; its nothing compared to some of the bad porters I've experienced...Example of one of the worst porters, something like: "We a team baby <puts out fist to fist bump>...You take good care of me and I'll take good care of your bags...Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!"

[SusieAV8R]

1 hour ago, bandp407 said:

Very interesting - thank you very much for your feedback. We actually stopped going to Tuscan after some not so good experiences pre pandemic. I will try to book. Thanks again!

Very interesting also.  We experienced Tuscan on Summit on 2 separate cruises post covid and the experiences were very negative.  We have an Equinox cruise booked in Sept. and will try Tuscan on Equinox.  Thank you 🙂

[bandp407]

2 hours ago, lola2013 said:

Our group of five ate in Tuscan on our first night on Equinox in February.  It was outstanding…from the charcuterie board to the meatball app to the garlic mashed potatoes to the filet…there may have been some veggies involved, but I can’t comment on those.  So good that we went back on the last night!  

Great to hear! 

[bandp407]

49 minutes ago, SusieAV8R said:

Very interesting also.  We experienced Tuscan on Summit on 2 separate cruises post covid and the experiences were very negative.  We have an Equinox cruise booked in Sept. and will try Tuscan on Equinox.  Thank you 🙂

I just booked it for the 4 of us and will report back. My brother and SIL will be with us . They rarely cruise or vacation, so I am hoping it will be special! 

[bandp407]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is X intentionally does this to save money as they know the last night is the least visited night.  Many do not want to get dressed up, go to a 90mins-2 hour dinner or potentially get anxiety about not yet being packed.  Lastly, its well-known that many staff members including the waitstaff could fish for tips on the last night and some want to avoid that.  In my experience they're not bad, they can be a bit more friendly and try to have longer conversations but it isn't bad; its nothing compared to some of the bad porters I've experienced...Example of one of the worst porters, something like: "We a team baby <puts out fist to fist bump>...You take good care of me and I'll take good care of your bags...Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!"

 

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is X intentionally does this to save money as they know the last night is the least visited night.  Many do not want to get dressed up, go to a 90mins-2 hour dinner or potentially get anxiety about not yet being packed.  Lastly, its well-known that many staff members including the waitstaff could fish for tips on the last night and some want to avoid that.  In my experience they're not bad, they can be a bit more friendly and try to have longer conversations but it isn't bad; its nothing compared to some of the bad porters I've experienced...Example of one of the worst porters, something like: "We a team baby <puts out fist to fist bump>...You take good care of me and I'll take good care of your bags...Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!"

Very possibly you are correct - interesting theory! 

[countess5]

We sailed on Equinox this past winter for 19 nights and Reflection for 14 nights. We never eat in the MDR, Tuscan has always been our MDR.

We have sailed these ships many times and have to say that the quality of Tuscan and I will include Murano have gone down. With that said I alway say that food is subjective. What works for one doesn’t always work for the other.

I would say go for the experience and make your personal judgement. 

 

I would make one suggestion, it those with you are meat eaters, I would pay the $15 up charge for the better New York Strip. It was well worth it. We were with friends from Texas ( meat Eaters) that didn’t upgrade and wished they did. 

 

Cheers! 

[Mystictraveler]

DW and I were on the Equinox in March and ate at the Tuscan Grill once. The calamari to start can best be described as a "Mrs. Paul's" frozen product. I commented to the maitre d' at the end of the evening about the quality and he totally agree with me. He said that was what Celebrity provides. The rest of the meal was just OK at best. The service started out poorly but improved over the 2.5 hour dinner. And in many seats, it is just too dark. So my overall rating is it is not worth the premium charge. Unfortunately, we came to the same conclusion on the Apex the year before.

 

[bandp407]

1 hour ago, countess5 said:

We sailed on Equinox this past winter for 19 nights and Reflection for 14 nights. We never eat in the MDR, Tuscan has always been our MDR.

We have sailed these ships many times and have to say that the quality of Tuscan and I will include Murano have gone down. With that said I alway say that food is subjective. What works for one doesn’t always work for the other.

I would say go for the experience and make your personal judgement. 

 

I would make one suggestion, it those with you are meat eaters, I would pay the $15 up charge for the better New York Strip. It was well worth it. We were with friends from Texas ( meat Eaters) that didn’t upgrade and wished they did. 

 

Cheers! 

Thank you much - this is great information, particularly about the upgrade for the strip. My brother and SIL are meat eaters. DH and I are fish eaters so hopefully they qualify of the various fish items will be good. As you say- go for the experience! They don’t cruise often at all so 🤞🤞🤞THANK YOU AGAIN!! 

[jelayne]

17 hours ago, bandp407 said:

Can anyone who is on or recently sailed on the Equinox comment on their experience, particularly quality of the meats & fish in Tuscan. DH and I have always preferred Murano, but are sailing on Equinox in July with family & I am on the fence on whether or not to have them experience it. We have booked Murano but one night but they are meat eaters, the reason for possibly Tuscan. 
 

Hard to believe, but I checked the App & lobster night is night 6 . It’s a 6 night sailing, so I found that odd?? 
 

Many thanks in advance! 

The order of the menus is not set this far out.  If the Equinox is currently doing a 7 night itinerary that may be why you are seeing lobster on night 6.

[bandp407]

18 minutes ago, Mystictraveler said:

DW and I were on the Equinox in March and ate at the Tuscan Grill once. The calamari to start can best be described as a "Mrs. Paul's" frozen product. I commented to the maitre d' at the end of the evening about the quality and he totally agree with me. He said that was what Celebrity provides. The rest of the meal was just OK at best. The service started out poorly but improved over the 2.5 hour dinner. And in many seats, it is just too dark. So my overall rating is it is not worth the premium charge. Unfortunately, we came to the same conclusion on the Apex the year before.

 

Oh boy well we won’t be ordering the calamari unless the Maitre d’ can tell us the quality has improved. We are of Italian decent and know our calamari! We will be going for the experience for them! 
 

DH and I have been on 6 sailings ( Caribbean) since the start up and while the food is good for the most part, it’s not what it used to be. Thanks for your feedback! 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Unfortunately for X, which used to be known as a foodie brand, NOTHING has improved food quality-wise since the restart and in many cases has decreased.  This is from the lowly mast grill-Specialties.  When both RCI and Carnival introduced the $16.95 additional lobster tail fee, they changed from a spiny lobster tail to the better and more expensive Maine lobster tails, X added the same fee and keep the lesser Spiny lobster

[bandp407]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

The order of the menus is not set this far out.  If the Equinox is currently doing a 7 night itinerary that may be why you are seeing lobster on night 6.

Possibly- they are doing a series of 7 & 6 night. 

[bjahil47]

We have eaten a few times in Tuscan on Equinox, most recently in October.  It was mediocre at best.  Murano is top notch and so is Sushi on 5.

[RRFPresident]

We were just on Equinox last week and had both Tuscan and Murano. No contest - book Murano over Tuscan. I'm also Italian descent and have tried calamari on every cruise we've sailed. This was some of the worst I've had. Also tried the meatball appetizer and it was bad. Weird thing is that the same meatballs were in the spaghetti and meatballs entree and were much better! We also were put in this corner where the window shade got stuck and the overhead light bulbs were out so it was like dining in a power outage. I think being in the dark didn't help the crew remember we were there because service was either super slow or ignored completely. 

 

Murano we did the chateaubriand for two and it was delightful! Service was also top notch. We've also had the venison and lobster in there on prior cruises and all have been great. 

[SusieAV8R]

23 hours ago, bandp407 said:

I just booked it for the 4 of us and will report back. My brother and SIL will be with us . They rarely cruise or vacation, so I am hoping it will be special! 

I would appreciate any comments.  Enjoy your cruise!

[SusieAV8R]

3 hours ago, RRFPresident said:

We were just on Equinox last week and had both Tuscan and Murano. No contest - book Murano over Tuscan. I'm also Italian descent and have tried calamari on every cruise we've sailed. This was some of the worst I've had. Also tried the meatball appetizer and it was bad. Weird thing is that the same meatballs were in the spaghetti and meatballs entree and were much better! We also were put in this corner where the window shade got stuck and the overhead light bulbs were out so it was like dining in a power outage. I think being in the dark didn't help the crew remember we were there because service was either super slow or ignored completely. 

 

Murano we did the chateaubriand for two and it was delightful! Service was also top notch. We've also had the venison and lobster in there on prior cruises and all have been great. 

I've read very positive postings re the chateaubriand in Murano and it seems to be unanimously wonderful.  Strangely, we have never tried it in all our cruises, but are planning to for our September Equinox cruise.  So thanks.  🙂

[SusieAV8R]

5 hours ago, bjahil47 said:

We have eaten a few times in Tuscan on Equinox, most recently in October.  It was mediocre at best.  Murano is top notch and so is Sushi on 5.

 

5 hours ago, bjahil47 said:

We have eaten a few times in Tuscan on Equinox, most recently in October.  It was mediocre at best.  Murano is top notch and so is Sushi on 5.

I am not a sushi fan, although DH is,  I continually lamented the loss of Bistro on 5. But I "broke the code" on our cruise last month and I had 2 or 3 of the appetizers on the Sushi on 5 menu (which I love) for a main course.  The service is consistently outstanding there. Now Sushi on 5 has become a fave restaurant for both DH and me.  🙂

[TeeRick]

22 hours ago, Mystictraveler said:

DW and I were on the Equinox in March and ate at the Tuscan Grill once. The calamari to start can best be described as a "Mrs. Paul's" frozen product. I commented to the maitre d' at the end of the evening about the quality and he totally agree with me. He said that was what Celebrity provides. The rest of the meal was just OK at best. The service started out poorly but improved over the 2.5 hour dinner. And in many seats, it is just too dark. So my overall rating is it is not worth the premium charge. Unfortunately, we came to the same conclusion on the Apex the year before.

 

We were on Equinox in January.  Dined in both Murano and Tuscan.  Both were very good experiences.  But I do agree that the calamari in Tuscan was terrible.  It should have been called inedible rubber on the menu.  But everything else was delicious.

[Piaa]

On 5/16/2023 at 5:58 PM, bandp407 said:

Can anyone who is on or recently sailed on the Equinox comment on their experience, particularly quality of the meats & fish in Tuscan. DH and I have always preferred Murano, but are sailing on Equinox in July with family & I am on the fence on whether or not to have them experience it. We have booked Murano but one night but they are meat eaters, the reason for possibly Tuscan. 
 

Hard to believe, but I checked the App & lobster night is night 6 . It’s a 6 night sailing, so I found that odd?? 
 

Many thanks in advance! 

 

@bandp407 where on the Celebrity app do you see the menu for each night please.

 

Thank you 

[bandp407]

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences! DH & I love Murano too and have 1 night booked on our July sailing. I have Tuscan booked & will report back if we keep it. Getting another night in Murano is not an option at this point other than 930pm. 
 

Enjoy all the wonderful days & nights we experience on our cruises!! 

[bandp407]

7 minutes ago, Piaa said:

 

@bandp407 where on the Celebrity app do you see the menu for each night please.

 

Thank you 

Go to the Celebrity app- dining -main dining Silhoutte DR- menu- . Then click for each day