Celebrity Equinox Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,316 reviews

Disappointed.

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Celebrity Equinox
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Kisyulya06
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2012
Cabin: Ocean View 8

We booked this cruise because of the wonderful reviews and high rating. We were well prepared to have a blast and enjoy some great food. Ship looked gorgeous. We walked in to our cabin and right away noticed strange smell, like somebody in this room smoked before and the smell remained in everything, the walls the bed etc. I told our state room attendant and to ask him to deodorize. Also walking down the hallway I noticed smoke smell, like somebody in one of the rooms was smoking, which is strictly prohibited. I notifies guest relations and asked to follow up. How surprised I was when guest relations told me that nobody is smoking because it's not allowed and to call them in to my room when I smell smoke again. I asked if they also expect me to stay in the hallway all day long to catch the smoker? Or perhaps room attendants would smell the smoke when they clean up? I called some friends in to our room to make sure that we are not crazy and they also smelled the cigarette smoke. Our room attendant however smelled nothing, nor did his supervisor. But I am pretty sensitive to different odors and was waking up with the headache. I complained again and my stateroom attendant offered to clean the room for me again. After the cleaning room smelled pretty fresh and seemed like the smoke smell was gone. Next day after excursion I came in to our room take a nap before dinner and could smell something different, some very strong chemical odor. I could not understand where the smell is coming from, Within 15 minutes it triggered a migraine headache so bad that I could hardly get off the bed. I rolled over to the other side of the bed to get ibuprofen and realized that it does not smell so bad here. Right away I looked under my bed and found a plate with the towel soaked in a very strong, concentrated solution. I just took the plate in to the corridor and handed it to the room attendant. Without even asking me if it's OK to deodorize the room with such a strong smelling chemical, he put this concentrated solvent right under my bed. It's a good thing I found it. Never the less my day was ruined. This migraine can last up to 5 days and I was terrified that perhaps the rest of my cruise was ruined as well. The smell was still lurking in the room. I called reception and complained again and this time they send supervisor to clean and deodorize(with odorless deodorizer) my room again. The next day I woke up with the same terrible migraine, could not go on the excursion, lost the money we paid for it and spent entire day in bed. To sum it up: nobody bothered to offer us a different room, refund excursion money, nobody bothered so much as to apologize. All I've heard was we don't smell anything but we'll clean it for you.

Second problem was dining experience. Originally when we booked this cruise we asked to be seated at a table for 6. This way we get to meet new people and have more fun. We were assigned a table for 2. Asked head of the dining room and to move us to a table for 6 or 8. Got a table for 6 downstairs in the main dining room but not only it was so noisy that we could not hear each other, we were the only 2 people at the table :-) Went back and asked to be moved again upstairs where is allot quieter to a table for 6-8. No luck, there was only table for 4 and we were the only 2 people at it. So finally we gave up and took the table. Our waiter was not too friendly and not too communicative. Strictly business, take an order and go. Menu was not impressive. My husband ordered fish encrusted in crab which turned out to be baked fish with crab meat on top. Veal was too dry, my filet mignon was medium well and pretty dry. Steaks were tough and people were returning it. On formal night we were not offered lobsters. Escargot was not on the menu at all. So after couple of nights in the main dining room we gave up and started eating other places. Thank god for sushi station at the dinner buffet. 1 time we went to the specialty restaurant but even that was not as good as we remembered it from our cruise on Constellation so we canceled the rest of reservation and just ate sushi.

Breakfast buffet was ok. Omelets station was not offered every day. There was no lean breakfast meats like turkey bacon. It was the choice of bacon or Canadian bacon fried in bacon fat. Cheese blintzes were not too bad if they were fresh...allot of times they were from yesterday and from heating too many times cheese was getting brown. Caramelized apples were offered but most of the time they were bitter from sugar burning. I also found hair in potato hash which was disgusting. My husband found hair in chili. I saw other guests complaining about it as well. One time my husband got ice cream and it was spoiled, sour. I have no idea how that is possible. Deserts were terrible, mostly creams and mousses. Not a single normal cake. Not even during chocolate extravaganza. It was really disgraceful. The worst pastry experience ever. I think they really need to consider changing the pastry chef as well as head chef. I have never seen such a sloppy food handling as well as such bad food quality ever on any of the ships.

Cabin Review

Ocean View 8

Cabin 08

Our cabin was on the 3rd deck ocean view #3137. Room is pretty good size, bathroom is good size, shower is adequate. Closet is pretty small, few very shallow drawers and cupboards on top of the bed, have to climb on to bed to access. Stateroom doors slam when they are not closed accurately so we had doors slam all over the place at any time of day or night making our walls shake. Should be some sort of device on the doors that would allow for it to close quietly. Our room was very smelly of old cigarette smoke. I had to rewash everything when I came home as smell remained in all our clothes. There is a disco right above the room, so we could hear everything that was happening upstairs. Nothing a pair of ear plugs can't fix of course.

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