On 4/19/10, we registered to board. We were told we were missing a particular form. I had a folio from our travel agent which contained all of our paperwork, including paid vouchers for our transportation into Rome, our excursions there, our hotel and our transportation back to the airport to return home. I looked through the folio and could not find the required form. My husband then took over. No luck. The man who was registering us finally took the form, looked through, gave up and gave us a new form to fill out and sign. No problem. Only a moment and we were on our way.

Awhile later, literally as the ship left the dock, I realized that our folio, with the vouchers, had been left at the dock. To make a LONG story short, I will say that I contacted my agent and left an urgent message and then called the desk, who advised us to call the following morning. We ended up having to go down to the desk, where they contacted our agent with their telephone. He kept telling her he was calling from the Solstice and giving our names, until I informed him that we were on the Equinox. The bottom line was that she had gotten our message and had e-mailed copies to the ship earlier and it was already there for us. We were told by the staff that we could not get these papers until later that afternoon. Almost 48 hours later, we finally got them, despite all their calls to our room telling us they already sent it up. We didn't really care as long as we finally got them.

The ship is beautiful. Aside from Guest Relations, the staff is attentive and helpful at every turn. We ate at Silk Harvest and the Tuscan Grille, which were both excellent. The entertainment was good to excellent and although we ended up with 8 straight sea days, we were as busy as we wanted to be. Most of the time, it was too cool to sit outdoors to get some sun, but, rest assured, this did not stop the usual crowd of people who find it necessary to reserve lounges in the sun, in the shade, on the beds, name it. We were always able to find lounges upstairs when we wanted them. I don't think it would have been this easy if the weather had been warmer. Read more