Had a superb Mediterranean cruise last summer on the Reflection and looked forward to a similar experience. In many cases it was but there were several areas where the Equinox comes up far short of the Reflection. Let's start from the beginning and work through the week.

Originally we had reserved a parking space near the port with a shuttle. After doing a satellite map view I saw cars stacked bumper to bumper and realized when we got out we'd probably be stuck for awhile waiting for our car to get pulled out of that mess. We opted instead to park at the port. For $152, I parked right across the street from the ship. When we got off, we were on the road in just a matter of minutes. If you can afford it, port parking is a wonderful way to go.

Bars are crowded on the first day and I expected a wait but I never expected to run into guys like Donovan at the Mast bar. 3 times he asked me what I wanted and everytime I said Heineken Light draft and pointed to the tap. I eventually got regular in a bottle. When I said that wasn't what I ordered I got a lot of attitude from Donovan. Later in the week with the bar less than half full, he walked right by me to serve others that had walked up minutes after I had. I didn't get served until I said something, even though I was standing right in front of 2 other bartenders that were washing glasses. Read more