Originally selected to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday party on a ship with an awesome destination, few kids, no rowdy and lewd drunk guest, and various elegant accommodations. Although the elegancy was very well presented, there were very few small kids, and all the guests seemed to be mature and well behaved the ship's leadership itself is what spoiled the cruise. I don't feel that the Celebrity Equinox under its leadership of Captain Dimitrios Manetas is an honest ship. Very little empathy was given for cancelling a Marquee destination on my 7 days 3 destinations trip leaving me with 5 days at sea and only two stops. I understand natural disasters may change an itinerary but this Captain had very poor insight into making a decision early enough to plan empathic entertainment accommodations or a replacement port. The ship set sail on Saturday and the port (San Juan Puerto Rico) was cancelled in less than 48 hours after sailing with prior knowledge that a storm was in the area. The evenings entertainment was not reasonably boosted up to give an impression of being sorrowful that the port was closed. The Cruise Director Maarten Breuls offered the same schedule of entertainment as if nothing had changed with the exception of adding a glass blowing presentation that was previously offered and shown again in the days following the cancelled port. I do not believe that Captain Manetas understands that destination is an important point of consideration when picking a cruise. When a desirable destination is found most of the other stops along the way becomes least important. If the St. Maartin or St. Thomas ports were closed I don't feel it would have made as much of a difference as having the most desirable port, San Juan closed. There was also a medical emergency on the ship. The Captain and his Guest Relations Officer tried to use the excuse of "saving a passenger's life" as a reason the guests should be understanding of the San Juan destination being cancelled. The storm I can understand but it is the ship's responsibility to respond to medical emergencies while attempting to continue on with the ship's itinerary. The Captain repeatedly made it appear as the passengers chose to "save the life of another guest" and not go to San Juan. Although I would want the ship to respond to my family and friends' medical emergency I certainly would not want to interrupt the vacation of over a 1000 other passengers to the point that their itinerary is drastically changed as I know ships are trained and equipped to deal with these emergencies. The Captain did not even offer a substantial On Board Credit to make up for having an additional day at sea. Whatever the reason for cancelling the port stop rather it be weather or a medical emergency the Captain did not try to accommodate or refund the other passengers. It appears the when the destination port loses all the guests and their shopping money the Celebrity ship wins their shopping and entertainment funds. The Captain won more money for Equinox buy cancelling San Juan and not offering any On Board Credit refunds. This is a very dishonest practice that I would not want my family and friends exposed to if given another choice. As a former guest of various cruise ships Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. should be embarrassed by the poor mapping and weather foresight of Captain Manetas and the very limited entertainment offerings from Maarten Breuls on a day when a popular destination was cancelled.

I was able to enjoy the Specialty Dining options: The Tuscan restaurant was elegant and the food was great but to be honest I could not remember it as much as when I came from the Murano French restaurant. The Maitre D' at the Murano was fabulous! The five or maybe it was seven course meal kept coming. We were so full we wanted to run out. The food was so delicious we couldn't leave any behind. The Maitre D' in the Silk Harvest Asian restaurant was also very friendly and accommodating to our needs. We loved the way he suggested food items that we would have not chosen before he suggested them with no risk of having something else if we did not like them.

the entertainment on the ship in the Equinox theatre was good but not as great as I have seen on less expensive ships such as on mid level Carnival and NCL. The live entertainment was poor. They had a one act that was always seeming to be playing and the singer had some style with she sang the songs in an off tempo and pitch on purpose. Everyone I heard commenting were wondering if she thought that was cool. Unique isn't always creative. To be honest is was annoying. There was no R&B, Soul, or Pop live bands. If they think there was - shame on them. Again, I've seen better bands on least expensive ships. These acts were so mundane I thought they were for senior citizen home entertainment. Read more