Celebrity Equinox

The holiday was good, the facilities on the ship were also very good, BUT beware of the hidden extras and be prepared to queue! We boarded the ship at Barcelona after spending a couple of days in the city, the taxi arrived at our hotel on time got us to the ship, the check in was smooth and organised well. The cabin was very nice, well appointed with a balcony, so no issues there, we were very pleased. The issues we have with hidden costs started before we got on board, if you do not ask the ship to remove gratuities then you will have $400 added to your final bill, and this will not be removed if you dispute it at the end. Now i'm sorry but as far as I'm concerned gratuities are at our discretion and not to be inforced to make up wages!! If this is the case then charge more for the initial ticket, do not sneak it on at the end. We had it removed and tipped all the waiting staff that gave good service (and to be fair that was most, service was very good, but not from all!) Our room cleaner was excellent, she got a good tip, dining room staff that were pleasant and always helped, they got tips, but I hate having it enforced. The drinks package was a rip off for us, if you are in the same room then you both have to have a drinks package, now I do not drink alchohol so this was very expensive for me, but my wife does, so I'm paying a lot of money for drinks i'm not having!! And if we ordered 2 drinks (a soft drink and an alchoholic drink), then both cards were needed to allocate the drinks to our room, so why did we have to have the same packages when they are added individually? Very annoying. We booked through Iglu Cruises and bought a drinks and wifi package, but when we got the ship we were told we could only get very basic, very slow wifi (which was free to everyone, so I'm not sure what we paid for?), so we had to pay an extra $99 per person for wifi, which again was very annoying. We bought the cruise company excursions, which were organised ok, but with so many people going on the same excursions it was a little chaotic and sometimes directions were lacking and people were walking to the wrong car parks to collect buses etc, because the staff were not directing properly. It turns an excursion into a stressful day, NOT what holidays are about. The costs of the excursions as well are high, as upon talking to seasoned travellers (on cruises), they organise local taxis and guides and get a far better experience (going to the same tourist sites and getting a smaller party and better experience) at a far lower price! The other experience that was a pain is dining, as the main eating hall was not large enough for the amount of people and finding seating was such a pain it made the experience painful at times. Many people left the dining room in disgust and left food sitting on the side as they had nowhere to eat, and that was wasting food. The food itself was very good, the selection was great, many favourites there all the time, but changing specials appropriate to where we were at that time (Greek night, Turkish night etc). I cannot fault the food, staff, entertainment and general service BUT the behind the scenes constant money grabbing by the company was a bit much. The only thing I do like to drink is a latte, there was a nice cafe on deck 5, which was also very busy and finding a seat was very hard and again stressfull when all you want to do is relax. Because they were so busy they got my order wrong or just plain forgot it several times, no proper queuing system making customers order from all places, making the staff stressed and forgetful. There needs to be another cafe elsewhere as with 2500 passengers 1 cafe is not enough. So to conclude, the cruise was good most of the time, but stressful at times when this is the last thing you want after saving all year to relax. The food was good, a lot of the staff were very pleasant and very hard working, the ship in general is well appointed BUT the money grabbing and Disney style of "if you pay loads extra, we'll give what we should be giving you anyway", a rip of company in the background. . . . just state the correct price for the service at the start, don't keep coming out with hidden costs and false promisses.

Beautiful ship, great staff and good food too.

excellent service and staff

Great as usual staff wonderful