Picking up the cruise on the Equinox at Civitavecchia was something I was looking forward to for a long time. Having studied in Rome many years ago, I always thought of Civitavecchia as an exotic port. Last year, on a port stop-over, I learned that the town was like any other seaport: gritty and a tourist trap. However, it was a transit point, and not a destination. I kept that in mind while experiencing the 2-3/4 hour endurance test called "embarkation". The port facilities are not traveller-friendly, to say the least, and the Roman port workers reinforce that. Fortunately, the Celebrity staff was friendly, hard-working, and determined to make our embarkation as easy as possible, despite the external chaos out in the port facilities. To be fair, we came 3 hours early, as apparently many other people did as well. So the staff easily had several hundred people to deal with all at once. My suggestion is to come earlier, if possible, or come much later (which I would almost never opt to do).

Once on board the ship, we were welcomed with refreshments and friendly faces -We ate - including the now-obligatory staff members bearing large containers of hand sanitizer solution. Knowing how disease can easily spread among 3000 people, I was not about to say no.

Meals on board the ship: Celebrity Equinox boasts 10 restaurants, covering all genres from French to Asian-fusion but we only ate in the main dining room, the Silhouette, whose look is primarily white, with a lot of reflective silver metallic surfaces. It's very sleek, but will probably look a bit dated within a few years. But it's very stylish right now and elegant: no heavy wood or fabrics to interfere with the look. The two-deck restaurant is open daily for waiter-service breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner is offered in two seatings -- one at 6:15 p.m. and another at 8:45 p.m., but there is also the select seating option, which worked very well for my party, as we tended to eat later before the second show. Read more