Based upon previous cruises with Celebrity we decided to book a last minute cruise on the Equinox. We were guaranteed an ocean view but were upgraded to concierge class. So we were quite happy with that. We had Champagne in the room upon arrival and fruit (three granny smiths). However the overall impression is that the quality and attention to detail had gone downhill quite a bit. The food was ok but nothing like as good as previous trips. We were very lucky to have a really friendly table for dinner during the evening and made some nice friends. This helped us enjoy our dinners quite a lot. However we felt the rip off prices for drinks in the restaurants and bars was very excessive, then an 18% gratuity added on afterwards was quite obscene. We were plagued with staff trying to sell us drinks and specialist restaurant packages at extortionate prices too. The best thing to say about the cruise were the shows, they were all quite superb, but a little short. We booked three excursions and found them mostly overpriced and a bit boring, especially as the guides we had spoke poor English, they droned on and on and were really hard to understand. I thought the passenger standard of dress on board was far to casual bordering on quite scruffy sometimes and gave the cruise a poor ambience.

Most of the staff were really friendly, but the bar staff were grossly inefficient, miserable and in need of some proper training. I have been put off a bit now as its certainly not as good as it was, so we may well look for something better. I am checking out Siverseas cruises reviews now.