Celebrity Equinox Review – Is the Ship Right for You?

We just wrapped up our second cruise aboard Celebrity Equinox on a 9 Day Western Mediterranean cruise. We loved our first experience on Celebrity Equinox, but trip number two wasn’t as exceptional. Still, we were pretty darn happy.

We have a robust video up on our Youtube channel if you’d prefer a video version of this review, including loads of photos and snippets. Check out that Youtube video here:

For this journey, we decided to save some money and book an interior room. We were a bit concerned since it was nine days onboard but we rolled the dice. The room was fine. Plenty of storage, a comfortable place to sleep and a serviceable, if not tiny bathroom. At the end of the trip, Jackie was tired of the windowless room (and maybe a bit claustrophobic). Bob had no issues with it. In gull transparency, the decision saved us a total of about $1,000.

We invested the room savings in a Premium Drink Package. More to come on that topic later…

The ship itself is a Solstice class ship built in 2009. Equinox is not brand new, but she looks great. Everywhere we visited on board (which was EVERYWHERE), the ship was pristine. Immaculately clean and well-maintained. The Equinox doesn’t have many bells and whistles, but it’s a pretty ship that’s comfortable and functional.

On our first Equinox voyage, we were blown away by exceptional service. This time around, the service was fine, but certainly not exceptional. We did end up bumping into a familiar face, when Animesh served us at dinner mid-trip. He again was stellar, and we ate with him every remaining night. We visited every bar and lounge and interacted with numerous other employees. There were zero issues, but no other service really stood out.

The food on Equinox was very good. We are too cheap to purchase premium dining experiences, so every meal we consumed was in the included venues. And, we were pleased with almost every meal. Dinners in Silhouette, the main dining room (MDR) were excellent. The food was tasty, prepared as desired and creative and diverse. Basically, a damn good job for a venue serving a thousand meals per night. Breakfast and lunch in the MDR were stellar, as well.

The Oceanview Cafe offered a fantastic lunch and dinner buffet every time we visited. The dishes changed daily, and there were a handful of fun theme menus. Seafood Day was fantastic! The only disappointment at the Oceanview were the breakfasts. The food was mediocre, and the menu rarely changed.

We also visited a few other included food venues. Cafe al Bacio had fantastic pastries and desserts. The Spa Cafe had smoothies, juices and snacks, but much of their menu required a drink package. The final place we visited was the Mast Grill – don’t waste your time there. Incredibly unimpressive.

The bars and lounges were excellent. There’s a slew of options with 13 venues serving alcohol, including three outdoor bars. Our favorite was the Martini Bar which features an ice-coated bar, stellar (and entertaining) service and killer drinks. However, it was not the only bar we loved. Craft Social, The Sunset Bar and Ensemble Lounge were other favorites. We recorded a video on all 13 if you want to see the highlights.

Entertainment was a mixed bag. The performers in the Main Theatre were universally okay. Nothing stood out from a positive side and we were there eight different nights. We did enjoy Manuel, the cruise director. He was funny and informative throughout. The Activities team, led by John O, was fantastic. They entertained the hell out of us every night and offered a slew of fun activities.

The Western Med itinerary was great. Sailing from Barcelona, we visited Lisbon (2 days), Porto, Cadiz and Tangier, Morocco. Some diverse and interesting ports. We will have a post summarizing the itinerary in the future, but the short version is that it was awesome.

Finally, if you are cruising soon, here are three items we found to be incredibly useful. We bought all three on Amazon before the trip, and each was important to our happiness. If you click one of the links and purchase the item, we will receive a small commission from Amazon.

• USB Hub Extender: There are only two US outlets in the room. This extender provided six places to plug in phones, Go Pros, Ear buds, etc… Invaluable to us. USB Hub
• Euro to US Adaptor: This small adaptor gave us one extra outlet in the room as it converted the one Euro outlet to a US one. Adaptor
• Metallic Hooks: The walls onboard are metal. Having this pack of hooks gave us a bunch of extra places to hang things like bags, belts and light jackets. Metallic Hooks

Let us know your thoughts if you’ve ever sailed Equinox, and Follow Us on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram to see more videos and photos.