EQUINOX - SIMPLY THE BEST SHIP THAT WE HAVE EVERY CRUISED ON.

Our 10/23/09 Ancient Empires Cruise was our 13th ... and our best because of this new and beautiful ship --- and with all of its crew well trained to make guests fully welcomed. The only downer for this trip is that it rained nearly every day of our cruise. If you can believe it, we brought rain to Israel (which hadn't had rain since April, and to Egypt - Cairo which is as dry as a bone). We flew out of Philly direct to Rome on the excruciatingly tight US Airways Airbus. They must add many extra rows to economy class to eek out the most revenue. Food stinks as well. The flight home was even more tortuous .... At 10 hours plus for a direct flight back to Philadelphia. We started our trip with a three day pre-cruise stay in Rome at the cozy and upscale Best Western Hotel Canada, not 10 minutes direct walk from the Termini. Although rated as a 3-star hotel, it really should be a 4-star, as it comes with an absolutely fabulous full buffet breakfast that had prosciutto, soppressata salami, several other hams, large selection of cheeses, wonderful quiche, best eggs my husband ever had and dozens of fruit and baked items including a Napoleon Loaf ... the real thing. The breakfast room is run by a beautiful Senora, Dragica, from Slovenia, and what a job she and her staff do. Great Cappuccino, Cafe Latte to boot. Our room, a small Junior Suite with a balcony overlooking a courtyard was just 142 Euros/night, a bargain by Euro Standards. The hotel also manages to serve many different snacks in the lounge from 5 pm to 9pm each night. Thoroughly recommend this hotel which gets great reviews on TripAdvisor.com. One word of caution about a particular restaurant in Rome that absolutely burned us. Da Vicenzo ( Via Castalfidardo), not far from the termini. One of our party innocently asked the waiter to bring us some antipasto, and what appeared were 10 different plates of "cold fish" appetizers which were not appreciated by our group of six. For these appetizers we were charged over $100 and had very mediocre entrees at stiff additional cost. The waiter "saw us coming". Avoid this tourist trap! We pre-booked all transportation from FCO to hotel, hotel to Civitavecchia, Civitavecchia to FCO with Marco from Italycabs (Italycab@hotmail.il). This service was always early to pick us up, and very reasonably priced (e.g. 150 Euros for six people from the ship to FCO vs. $90 US pp Celebrity charges for its one-way transportation to/from FCO). We embarked in about 20 minutes and saw a beautiful contemporary- decorated ship (gone are the crazy tropical, eclectic designs). Our balcony room, 7293, port side, aft was large, cream colored and lighter wood tones with upscale bedding, cream leather couch and muted taupe and coral plaid carpeting. The standard-sized balcony has two wooden chairs and a small table. HDLCD TV mounted on the wall, granite countertops were a plus. The bathroom has a full, curved shower door, and nicely appointed cabinetry and ultra modern sink. Storage space is just ample (There should be more drawer space). Note: We were originally assigned a sixth floor room, but balconies on this floor (except for hump rooms) have obstructed views as the life boats are directly underneath. The seventh floor gave us a better direct view of the ocean. While the ship is 122,000 tons, we couldn't help but notice that it is shorter than similar sized ships but much wider. This makes for a relatively easy jaunt from the back to the front and a very comfortable, roomy Equinox theatre in the front of the ship. Deck 15 has an actual lawn for bocce and croquet, next to which is a glass blowing (show) venue. There is also a track for walking/running on Deck 14. There is also an outside burger/fries/hot dog venue on this floor. Not sure why this wouldn't be located on the pool deck? Also the Oceanview Cafe (breakfast/lunch buffet) on Deck 14 is not located on the same deck as the pools (deck 12). The cafe served the usual fare with separate cuisine stations as is on many other ships. There are no trays, just plates for guest's food. What did set the cafe apart from other ships is the ice cream/sorbet station with at least 8 different flavors, each day. The pizza station is a regular part of the cafe as is a made to order pasta station. With over 2800 passengers on the ship, finding tables to eat breakfast or lunch was a challenge. This seems to be a problem that every ship has. The food at the cafe is rated fair to good, depending on what you picked. On one day they had roast suckling pig, which is unusual fare for a lunch buffet. They also had a different carved meat each day. They also included a few different fruit punches each day. There is one large dining room (Silhouettes), on decks three and four. Compared to other ships' menus, there is a much larger selection of all items, including standard items available each night (shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, fabulous baked onion soup [table favorite], strip steak, cheesecake, crème Brule) and changing items each night. Unlike any other ship we have been on, fish was a highlight, along with terrific breads, and very good desserts (a first for us as no ships thus far had acceptable desserts). The Pastry Chef deserves four hats! Other entrEe selections varied from lamb, chicken, beef, lobster (third formal night), veal. Not too many pasta selections on this ship. Overall, we would rate the food in the main dining room as good ... not very good. But better than most ships we have been on lately. Soups (except for the great onion soup) are a very weak point and there simply was not enough veggies served. Our table mates requested peas, family style, every night. Salads were also not a strong point ... although they offered a great variety of salad dressings. All food was beautifully presented. A highlight on this ship is that they do not escort you but let you walk directly to your table, avoiding the long lines that so many other ships (NCL) create. A particular highlight on two of the four sea days was a buffet brunch (10 am to 1 pm) held in the main dining room, which included a much enhanced selection over the Oceanview Cafe's venue. Beautiful ice carvings, upscale hors d'oeuvres (snow crab claws) and a huge selection of hot/cold dishes, with expansive desserts made you feel like you were in a lovely upscale restaurant. Unlike other ships, there was no midnight buffet, which was ok by us.

Pools/Gym: Because of the poor weather, the two outdoor pools did not get much use. However. just a few dozen feet beyond is the Solarium, with a nice square (not heated) indoor pool, which came in handy on all the rainy sea days. Next to this pool is an indoor mini cafe that has serves sort of "spa" breakfast and lunch items. Definitely "light" fare. The gym is large and well equipped and with several weight training machines, which are usually absent from most ships. Unlike most ships, Equinox charges for a lot of its exercise classes. Entertainment is a particular strong point of the ship and its shows were really very good. Celebrity spent big bucks to have professionally produced shows ... and it paid off. There were three major shows Equinox (a Cirque De Soleil knock off with terrific aerialists), Broadway Show Review and Remix (another great review of song and dance). The ship's band ... very large in number ... is the best we have ever experienced. There were also at least a dozen other singular performers (the very funny Uber Rossi --- comic cum acrobatist; a concert pianist, a female violinist, a xylophonist, Sound Decision (acapella group .... Just great), a falsetto operatic singer and many other great combo acts that performed through-out the ship. The ever present ship's cruise director, Nick Weir, a Brit, also gave a singing performance one night and he was superb. A great Cruise Director as well. The ship gets high marks for presenting very good maps and historic review of each of the major ports. Even more astounding is that they did not interfere with guests who booked private tours from getting off the ship as early as possible. This is a first for us. Always, those guests who did not buy ships' tours were asked to wait and allow those who did, first exit privileges. The ship had scheduled a number of interesting speakers on a variety of subjects, beyond touring. This made for something to do on the rainy colder sea days. Bingo is not a predominant money making activity, with only three or four sessions in the whole 13 days. While there are some interesting shops, we found the selections lacking and simply did not spend much. Prices for watches and jewelry were at full retail. Photos were pretty pricey at $19.95 a pop. We only bought two. Ports of Call: Thanks to Cruise Critic.com, we met a number of different groups on line and joined private tours that had been booked, at a great discount to the ship's tours. Here is a review of each tour: Athens: Nikos Loukas ($45 Euro pp) 10 person tour with Billy ... tour guide to see the changing of the guards at the palace, and the Acropolis and well as a general tour of Athens. This was the only tour that was mediocre, partially because our guide really didn't say much throughout the trip. The new Mercedes bus was very comfortable and roomy. A restaurant that Billy recommended for lunch was poor. Rhodes: This is a walk-off the ship site with the old town lined with shops, behind a city wall just ¼ mile from the ship. We spent a few hours walking around the old city before returning to the ship with a few souvenirs. Ephesus Turkey: We booked a six person private tour with Ekol Travel, with Ebru (April) as our guide and Sami as our driver ($45 pp). This was a full day tour and a very good one, a great value compared to the ship's tour, which was shorter and more expensive. We drove about 45 minutes to what remains of the Temple of Artemis and onto Ephesus which was an important cultural center and former capital of Turkey. We saw the Library of Celsius, Temple of Hadrian, Theatre and Odeon. Ephesus ... where only 25% of the artifacts have been excavated and where much more it to be found, is very reminiscent of Pompeii. Mercifully, the tour bus dropped us off at the highpoint and we gradually walked down to the culmination of the city. We also visited the house of the Virgin Mary (to where she was whisked away after Jesus' crucifixion by John to protect her and where she spent her last 13 years). It is beautifully preserved and quite moving to do a short walkthrough, given its small size. Israel: We booked two single day tours (not an overnight stay) with Guided Tours of Israel (Svika was our guide). We docked in Haifa the first day and were picked up early for our drive to Nazareth. Note: While Svika gave an excellent tour and was so happy the whole time because we brought much needed rain the area, the van he used was pretty substandard and terribly uncomfortable, a minus for the tour. Each tour was $99 per person and each was a very full day of touring from 8 am to 8 pm each day. Haifa/Nazareth: We went to the church of the Annunciation which was built over the house where Mary, Joseph and Jesus lived. Svika was upfront with us and said that while Christians agree that this is the very house, apparently the Greeks feel it is further away. It turns out that most sites in Israel are subject to some speculation that they may be in a different spot. We drove out to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee and them onto Yardent Baptismal site on the River Jordan, and watched as many donned white robes and dunked themselves in the River. This tour also included the Mount of Beatitudes and Tabgha.We ended up just before going back to the ship driving up a very steep hill to the Baha'i Gardens, an absolutely beautiful , "sequestered" area where people of Baha'i faith live ( a fourth faith in the land of Judaism and where some Muslims and Christians also live). We stopped at a nice lunch place .... Magdalena by the Sea and had a choice of whole fish or grilled chicken breast which included various salads on the table, all of which were quite good. For some strange reason our waiter charged some people $13 for their meal and others $20, even though we were all seated together at the same table and could hear the prices quoted. Our guide tried to resolve this, but failed. This was the only downer of the trip. Ashdod/Bethlehem/Jerusalem: After another early start we drove directly to Bethlehem, about an hour's drive. In order to enter the Muslim- occupied city, we had to wait for a Muslim guide as Svika, being an Israeli, was not allowed past the border. We linked up with several other small groups and waited for a large bus and guide to appear, losing a good 45 minutes. We finally made our way to the site of the Nativity Square and the adjacent church which has three different ethnic sections and is built over the "cave" where Jesus was born. Unfortunately, it was so crowded that we were not able to go down into the cave, but were able to see the back end of the cave, where there is a small room that contains a marker stone that can be kissed if you bend down and go on your knees. We then had a compulsory 45 minute tour of a factory in Bethlehem which infuriated some, especially since our temporary guide for Bethlehem was part of the family who owned the factory. Everything was inflated and overpriced. Most bought nothing. Then onto the Via Dolorosa (the streets on which Jesus carried the cross), to view the Stations of the Cross. The street path is original, however the hundreds of commercial tourist shops that line the street are not. It sort of takes away from the spirituality of this once sacred area. We had a brief lunch at a restaurant and had a wrap made of veggies and minced lamb with soda for 6 Euros. Read more