The Equinox is a beautiful ship with superior service & and a wonderful, smooth ride. The ship has fantastic stabilizers and you can hardly feel the motion while on board. We loved the cruise, but feel that the itinerary should include more nights in Israel & only one stop in Egypt. The ports in Egypt are very far ((over 3 hours away) from Cairo and thus require very, very long trips to see the sights. One day is more than enough. The food in the main dining areas is just OK, but the food in the specialty restaurants is great! The desserts are easy to walk away from, so don't worry about eating too much chocolate on this cruise. We stayed overnight Rome one night prior to embarkation in a hotel purchased through Celebrity. They picked up our luggage at 7:30 AM the next morning & our luggage was waiting for us at our cabins when we boarded the ship. We have cruised with Celebrity before & loved the new no smoking policy. Congrats on that change!!! My only suggestion to Celebrity for improvement is on their shore excursions. They are quick to sell you their product, but give guests little information on how to navigate the ports on their own All their handouts give a brief map with a description of where to shop. They give very little info on the public transportation in the ports. When I asked about taking the hydrofoil in Naples, I was told by the shore excursion desk that they no idea of schedules or costs.The shopping desk was able to give me a little more information, but not enough to feel secure that the info was accurate. Celebrity needs to rethink their excursions in Alexandra, Egypt. The $175 excursion to the pyramids & sphinx required a 3 hour ride in each direction. The guide on the bus spent at least 1 1/2 hours trying to sell us tee shirts & gold cartouches(necklaces).When we arrived at the destinations she just dropped us off the bus and disappeared. She did not spend any time helping us navigate through the sights or directing us to important areas. We had great difficulty finding the bus in the maze of tour buses. Our tour did not cruise the Nile as described in the brochure. We were allotted 30 minutes to visit the Sphinx, and 40 minutes to SHOP in the Papyrus store.Something was wrong with that picture. Celebrity refunded us $25 as a measure of good faith. For the rest of the cruise, I did not book any more excursions through CELEBRITY. I went on the Internet & booked my own private guides. That was the best solution.