A Detailed Review of Our Cruise To The Lesser Antilles

Embarkation was fairly smooth.  This was our first time leaving from Port Everglades.  Since we drove to Ft. Lauderdale from our home in Florida, we searched online for the terminal information.  The online information was completely wrong.  Fortunately, when we arrived at Port Everglades, there were large digital displays that indicated the departure terminal for each ship.  The only unfortunate detail was that the parking garage was not close to the Terminal.  We dropped off our suitcases and then drove to the parking garage.  There were shuttle buses to take us back, but it was not as convenient as Miami and Port Canaveral.  Since we had filled all those documents online, it took less than 3 minutes to check us in.  After that, we walked onto the ship.  The actual check-in process was amazingly easy and quick.

Main Dining Room:  We ate every dinner (except one) in the Silhouette Restaurant Main Dining Room on Deck 3.  I enjoyed sitting at a table with 6 other people and having great discussions each night.  It was one of the highlights of the cruise for me.  The service was consistently good.  We were not rushed and spent almost two hours eating and talking each night.  Our waiter, Roberto, was attentive, professional, and helpful.  Service never dragged and was always nicely paced.  Our wine steward, Jerome, was friendly and amusing.  He never let our glasses go dry.  It was just a great experience.  We also felt that the quality of the food and the presentation of the dishes was noticeably better than we have experienced on recent cruises with NCL and Royal Caribbean.   Oceanview Café:  We ate almost all breakfasts and lunches in the Oceanview Café.  The reason for this was based on our time schedule and convenience.  My wife loved the Indian food choices and was fine with the service.  I found the cafe to be chaotic.  Every day we wasted time searching for a table.  On most days we could not get someone to take a drink order, so I ended up searching for a bar.  I could never quite get the flow of people moving from food station to food station.  People were constantly bumping into me.  Sometimes, I just stopped because there was too much traffic.  I found it stressful.  I really feel that they needed more tables and better organizational patterns of the food choices.  I wished we were able to eat in the dining rooms, but the scheduled times did not fit our schedule.  Mast Restaurant: I frequently ate burgers for lunch because they tasted really good and I did not have to face the chaos of the Oceanview Café.  I did have to walk back to the café across the 14th floor because my wife and the rest of my party were back there, but it was worth it to miss hunting down food in the cafe.  I did go up to the Oceanview Café a few times for a late-night slice of pizza and an extra dessert.  I found that Celebrity offered more after-hour and late-night food choices than other cruises we have been on.  They had fruits, salads, sandwich items, pasta, pizza, desserts, and ice cream until 1 am in the Oceanview Café.

The Cruise Director Pat and his team were terrific.  Pat was definitely one of the best cruise directors I have experienced on a cruise ship.  He was visible, entertaining, and humorous, and brought a great deal of excitement to the entertainment experience about the Equinox.  There was a good number of choices each night.  On most nights there was a show, numerous bands, a game show, comedy, and other options.  The other passengers on board seemed to enjoy the activities and they were very well attended.  I didn’t feel bored, but on most nights, I did not feel that there was anything exceptional that I had to see.  One standout of the cruise for me was the Beyond the Podium Lecture Series. A class was held each sea day at 11 am.  Jim Kennedy, a former director of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center spoke on various topics of space flight and exploration.  Each program was consistently interesting, informative, and professionally presented.  This was an outstanding series.  My wife played Texas Hold’em in the Casino each night.  The game started around 9 pm and was consistently well-attended.  During the day there were the normal pool games, entertainment, dance classes, fitness classes, etc.  I used the Exercise Room every day of our cruise.  It had a good selection of equipment all in good working order.  It was never overly crowded.  We received basic Internet service as part of our cruise package.  Celebrity uses the Star Link Network.  In general, the basic Internet service on the Equinox was better and more consistent than any basic Internet service we have had on other cruise lines.  Overall, it was not very fast and many phone apps would not work.  We were able to easily check email and use the Celebrity app.  We were also able to open up some other minor apps on our phones. We also used our T-Mobile and Verizon foreign data benefits to check emails and make simple phone downloads when we were on the islands. 

I always look forward to the entertainment portion of our cruises and try to do one or two things each evening.  On most nights, I usually saw only one show.  By far, in my opinion, the only must-see shows were the female singer impressionist, Karen Grainger, and the illusionist, James Cielen.  Below are my opinions of the performances I saw in the 1,115-seat Equinox Theatre each night.  Day 1: Matt & Lainie: Guitar music from all genres: Much better than I originally expected.  I really enjoyed their show and learned a lot about guitar musicians and their influence on music.  Day 2: Comic: Buddy Fitzpatrick: Buddy Fitzpatrick, performed on the second night and the fifth night. His first show was mildly funny, but his second show, an 18+ 10 pm set, was the funniest comedy show I have seen on a cruise line.  I laughed continuously throughout the entire hour.  If he is on your ship, don’t miss him.  Day 3: Holiday Spectacular: Variety Entertainment: An okay holiday show that had some outstanding performances by the acrobats and dancers.  Day 4: Gary Walker: Tribute to Stevie Wonder: Very mixed feelings about this one.  There was too much talk and not enough music.  Day 5: LIFE: Concert performed by the Celebrity performers: A lot of energy and movement.  Entertaining, but not memorable.  Day 6: CeCe Teneal: Celebration of the music of Aretha Franklin: A great performer who gave a solid 50 minutes of music.  Day 7: Karen Grainger: Female Singer Impressionist: A genuinely funny performance with great vocal impersonations.  I heard some people complain that her impersonations weren’t perfect.  I think that they missed the point that she was an impressionist, not an imitator.  She was a very talented performer with great vocals.  Day 8: Topper: This fantasy musical was a collection of pop songs loosely tied together with a thin storyline.  Much of it seemed like a mess to me, but there were some outstanding vocal performances, dances, and acrobatic routines. The second half of the show seemed much better than the first part.  Day 9: James Cielen: From the beginning of the show to the end, the illusionist, James Cielen had the audience captivated with his performance.  Usually, I am not a big fan of card tricks and up-close illusion acts, but I was amazed by every aspect of James Cielen’s performance.  Day 10: The New Year’s Eve show featured a Battle of the Divas theme.  It featured Karen Grainger and CeCe Teneal.  Since both were great singers, it was a terrific show.  Day 11: A musical/dance show called Elysium was presented by the Equinox singers and dancers.  It was described as a fairytale between the forces of good and evil and a journey of self-discovery.  The singing and dancing were great, but the story was confusing. The singers in the lounges were very good and we enjoyed some great music.  They performed a lot.   My absolute favorite was the classical String Duo: Sound Waves.  I made an effort to listen to them every day and I do not remember ever hearing the same piece played twice.  They were a pleasure to listen to over and over again.  Overall, we felt that the entertainment options were very good and enjoyable.  Almost every venue was used every night.  Everything was about 45 minutes long.  We did miss performances such as longer Broadway shows found on other cruise lines.  

We did not have any children under18 with us.

Our room attendant, Anak, was exceptional.  He continually greeted us each day and made us feel valued.  Anak quickly learned our movement patterns and worked around our schedule to keep our room very clean and organized.  His service was simply outstanding!  We also had excellent service in the main dining room by our server, Roberto, his assistant, and our wine steward, Jerome.  Their service was consistently well-paced and attentive.  For the most part, most of the staff at the Oceanview Café was helpful. Newer employees seemed to work really hard. I felt that more staff were needed to clean off tables during peak times.  Also, more drink servers were desperately needed.  Most days this eating venue was chaotic.  Our interaction with the rest of the staff was minimal.  I did notice that officers were visible around the ship and when leaving for excursions.  They did make an extra effort to greet passengers.  The ship was continually cleaned and the entertainment venues were well-staffed.  One of the things I like about this cruise on Celebrity is that I did not feel that the staff were continually trying to pressure us to buy something.  This was a very relaxing and friendly cruise.

The Equinox was state of the art when it was originally launched as part of Celebrity’s Solstice Class of ships in 2009, but passenger needs have changed over the past 13 years. Overall the ship feels elegant and it doesn’t seem old, but it does not have the Wow factor of many newer ships. Since the Equinox was recently refurbished in 2019, the carpets and interior all seem fresh. There was always plenty of room in the main theater, but many of the smaller venues needed more room to accommodate all the people who wanted to see the comedians and singers. The design was upscale, but not gaudy. It definitely felt like a luxury experience. I enjoyed the fact that I could always find a lounge chair and space in the hot tubs in the Solarium. Even though this was a holiday cruise, there seemed to be ample space on the pool deck for everyone. The entire ship was always clean and we could see the staff maintaining it every day.

Our travel agent had secured a good deal for us in a Concierge Class room on the 10th floor.  We loved the room and the services associated with the Concierge Class rooms.  The 10th floor was quiet and convenient to the Oceanview Café Dining Room on the 14th floor and the gym on the 12th.  The pools were also on the 12th floor.  Restaurants, theater, casino, and shops were down on floors 3, 4, and 5.  Our room felt fresh and the interior design was better than we have experienced on most cruise ships. The bathroom was a little larger and we felt that we had a little more space.  Since the Equinox was built over 13 years, we expected that it may not fully support the way we live today. One thing we found lacking was that the Equinox did not have much drawer space.  The closet was normal size, but we could have used more space for storing our folded clothing items.  Surprisingly, the bathroom did have adequate storage for all our items.  Charging our electronics was a challenge since there were only two 15-amp US standard wall sockets in the room.  I anticipated this and brought along a USB hub so that we had enough ports to charge our phones, earbuds, Kindles, laptops, etc.

Since we had large suitcases, we decided to pursue an early disembarkation time.  Originally, we had a 7:25 departure time, but it was changed the day before disembarkation to 7:50.  The boat docked before 7 AM, but it seemed that it took a while to clear immigration and customs.  We got up around 6 AM, ate breakfast, and headed down to the Silhouette Restaurant on the 4th floor to wait to be called.  We did not get called until around 8 PM.  After walking upstairs, we departed.  There were only small lines and we found our luggage quickly.  There were no lines to go through customs.  Outside we realized that even though we departed from Pier 18 we returned to Pier 19.  This was not a problem for us, because Pier 19 was actually a short walk to our car which was parked in the Palms garage.  We found our car quickly and were on the road by 8:30 AM  Since we live in Central Florida, we were home before 1 PM.