First Time Cruising With Celebrity - We'll Be Back!

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 8

Helpful Votes: 263

Review summary

Celebrity Equinox September 15 – September 25, 2017 Miami – Grand Cayman – Aruba – Bonaire – Curaçao - Falmouth Cabin 9204 Introduction This was our 21st cruise and 1st time sailing Celebrity. We’re long-time Royal Caribbean cruisers and liked the Southern Caribbean itinerary. Hurricane Irma had struck Florida and Georgia five days earlier and Hurricane Maria was several days east of the Lesser Antilles. More on Maria later. Key West was the final stop and was swapped with Falmouth, Jamaica as Hurricane Irma had effectively closed the Keys. My wife, Joanne, and I are Diamond Members with Royal Caribbean with garners you Elite status which is the comparable level on Celebrity. Embarkation Day We scrambled at the last minute to make plane reservations versus driving from Atlanta. The hotel we booked for the night before the cruise, in Coconut Grove, was still closed due to Irma. We rebooked at the Hampton Garden Inn, just south of the airport. I think half of Miami was still without power. Boarding was smooth and quick and we were aboard by eleven. The crew offered everyone a complimentary glass of champagne as you entered the ship. It was a bit early so we just headed to the Oceanview Café for some coffee. At our muster drill in the Equinox Theater, there were lots of cabin numbers called out for guests that hadn’t checked in. The ship’s rumor mill, during the week, thought between 200 to 500 people missed the cruise due to the recent storm. I don’t know if it was true. We watched the departure from Miami from the Sky View Lounge forward on deck 14. Glass on three sides affords a great view. I also discovered my favorite spot on the ship. The Martini Ice Bar on deck 4. I had Joanne try a Cosmopolitan and she was hooked as well. They serve up a wonderful selection of adult refreshments. After dinner we headed to the Equinox Theater for the biggest disappointment of the cruise. Comedian Brent Pella was the headliner and he simply was not funny. I think he must have been a last minute fill-in for an act that couldn’t make the cruise because I doubt seriously that he was working elsewhere. Quite a few people walked out. Despite the entertainment flop, my first-day impression of Celebrity, the Equinox, its crew, dining, the ship’s bartenders, etc. is overwhelmingly, “I’m doing this again!” Dining I thought the dining on board was generally excellent. We had breakfast on three or four mornings in the Silhouette dining room on deck 3. It was very nice. The Oceanview Café serves up a huge variety of selections for breakfast or lunch. We didn’t try it for dinner. It’s roomy and easy to get a seat and hanging signs mark what’s being served at a particular station. Walk your plate aft and you can dine outside. One lunch time, they would slice off a fresh tuna steak for you and custom grill it to your liking. I said: “just walk it through the kitchen” and my chef seared it for a few seconds each side and seasoned it. Perfect! The Equinox makes all of its ice cream aboard and there is an ice cream station scooping up all your favorites. Sadly, it’s closed for breakfast. For the cruise, we opted for the flexibility of ‘select’ dining on deck 4 in the Silhouette dining room. We were seated for dinner each evening by hostess Maria. She is the cutest Russian smoke-show you can imagine. (Hope Joanne doesn’t read this.) She seated us every evening in the same section so we developed a rapport with our waiter, Jorge, assistant waiter, Riordan and wine steward, Belinda. There are several specialty restaurants on the Equinox but we didn’t try them, we liked the Russian smoke-show staff and food in the Silhouette. Just a small footnote on breakfast, if you order OJ in the Oceanview Café, there is a drink charge. Down in the Silhouette dining room you can get all the juice you want with no charge. I found this odd. Entertainment The Equinox served up a nice variety of entertainment for the cruise. We had the ship’s own singers and dancers put on several shows. One evening there were four singers who put on a Jersey Boys, Frankie Valli, Four Seasons revue. They were very good. Another evening was the excellent magician Trigg Watson, who had appeared on Penn and Teller’s “Fool Us” TV show. Singer/Impressionist James Stephenson had a good show and did an encore show in the afternoon on our last sea day. Several times during the cruise, a couple of the ship’s dancers would conduct dance lessons in the lobby on deck 3. If your cha-cha isn’t as smooth as your instructor’s, catch them on stage at some point and you will understand why. The Corning Glass Museum puts on daily glass blowing demonstrations and it is so different, I would make a point of catching a show or two. A guest lecturer on the cruise gave talks each day about the history and settlement of the Caribbean. He phrased it “The Spanish Invasion.” If you missed the live talk, one of the ship’s TV channels would replay it later. Joanne attended a Galley tour of the kitchens on our first sea day and found it very interesting. The ship had several musical entertainment groups that played at the pool and other of the public lounges and watering holes around the ship. They were very good as well. Miscellany As Equinox was sailing east to the A,B,C islands from Grand Cayman, Hurricane Maria was shredding Dominica on its way to make a bull’s eye hit on San Juan as a Cat. 4 storm. Our weather for the entire cruise was excellent. Captain Costas Nestoroudis, in addition to his daily 10 a.m. update, kept passenger informed on Maria and we were generally 500 miles south of the hurricane while in the Caribbean. We actually closed in on the storm as we sailed north to Miami. Cruise Director, Rich Spacey, must have clones and doesn’t sleep. He was everywhere aboard. He also introduced every show on board had two TV channels to himself and was funnier than any hired gun comedian aboard for the cruise. Vegas Baby, could be his next gig. By “excellent” cruise weather mentioned earlier, I am including the electrical storm we sailed through on the short jaunt between Aruba and Bonaire at 4 a.m. We awoke to the thunder and watched lightning bolts blast a mile from a cloud to the sea below, lighting up the ocean. We watched out our balcony window and Joanne was tempted to dress and head up to the Sky View Lounge in the middle of the night to watch the fireworks. Electrical storms at sea are a cruise bonus in my book. As a side note: we observed a tiny little bird on our balcony hitching a free ride to Bonaire during the storm. It kept its head under its wing catching zzz’s during all the light and noise outside. Cuteness overload. As we docked in Aruba, there were 16 idle oil tankers and 3 oil drilling platforms anchored a bit off shore to the south of us. There is a sand bar out there to anchor on. Aruba is 17 miles off the coast of Venezuela and I’ve read recent articles that the government of Venezuela won’t or can’t pay the shipping companies for crude oil shipments leaving the country or refined gasoline and diesel fuels being shipped back. It’s a sad situation if you are stuck living in Venezuela or happen to own an idled oil tanker. I can’t help but notice the differences between Royal Caribbean cruises and our first time with Celebrity. I would rate the quality of the dining experience to be a notch higher on the Equinox. This includes the food preparation and variety as well as the glassware and china used. I would judge that the entertainment is generally better on Royal Caribbean ships. The average age of the guests on the Equinox was older, with fewer young couples and almost no children aboard. I think we had six kids aboard and I personally, only saw two young children. Royal Caribbean would be more family oriented. As Diamond members on Royal Caribbean we each received one day of free Wi-Fi during the cruise. With Celebrity, we each received 90 minutes of free Wi-Fi. This is a more practical deal as you can download your email, take a peek at the news, confirm airline reservations and spread this out over the entire cruise, not just one day. In summary we were delighted with out first experience with Celebrity Cruise Lines and specifically the Equinox. We’ll be back. See you there. Austin Kearney Dunwoody, GA pepperdog@mindspring.com

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

George Town, Grand Cayman

Oranjestad, Aruba

Kralendijk, Bonaire

Willemstad, Curacao

Key West, Florida Did not visit port

Disembarkation

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