A great trip with a few glitches.
Celebrity Equinox Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
14 Night Italy & Greek Isles (Barcelona Roundtrip)
Sail date: August 12, 2014
Ship: Celebrity Equinox
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 10 years ago
Review summary
Itinerary - be aware that this is a packed itinerary. The first 6 days are ports without a sea day. By Day 5 people were getting tired. Everyone slept in our first sea day from exhaustion.
On Board Activities - if you have been on board the Solstice class ships you know what to expect. I'm not sure why but we didn't have the ship band playing for sail offs from the many ports we visited. They hardly ever played near the pool where crowds congregate. Zumba , a poolside regular event, was relegated to the fitness centre except for one day when over 30 people participated at the pool.
Food
was very good as usual.
The pools,
This was the one big problem. The lower wading pool was full of kids as expected during a cruise in the summer months. However, the deeper pool which has 2 signs stating that it is reserved for people over 16 years of age often had kids in it. Security guards would often ignore these kids and it was the DJ would reminded parents that their kids needed to be out of this pool. The adult pool rule was ignored on many occasions and resulted in problems and conflicts. . Guests were forced to enforce the rules as security did nothing. There were several conficts between guests who thought they did not have to dicipline their kids and other guests. I had a "trailer trash" couple threaten me when their kid was ignoring security requests to leave the pool.
I find this odd as Celebrity is trying to gain market share in the 50+ crowd who cruise all year round. If this keeps up many will start to move over to Princess and other competitors.
Final note - In July 2014 Celebrity changed their turn down policy. While beds are still turned down, the traditional chocolate on the pillow every night was reduced to one chocolate per cruise on the first formal evening. Several guests commented to me that they saw this as an unnecessary cut back.
I gave this cruise 4 stars because the ports were excellent, the food as well and the amenities were first rate. I would have given it 5 stars if it were not for the pool and events issues.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Starboard side is best on this cruise as you can almost always see the a joining coastline.
Ports of call
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy
Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy Did not visit port