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Friday, December 16, 2011

Eastern Mediterranean on Celebrity Equinox

Russell Forgham, KVI's agent in the UK, reports on his 10-day cruise in the Eastern Med on one of Celebrity's new Solstice class ships in November.

We thought we were going to see downfall of the Euro at first hand as most of the ports we were due to visit were in Italy and Greece, two of the four ailing economies of the Eurozone, so we christened it the Great Euro-Crisis Cruise. But on reflection we should have called it the Absolutely Fabulous Equinox Cruise.

During the entire cruise we didn’t seen anything resembling a crisis and the people in all the ports we visited all looked happy as they went about their daily business. And even the captain’s warning on our flight from London to Rome that we might be delayed for nearly two hours because of the general strike in Italy that day came to nothing, for as soon as our plane pushed back at Gatwick we were told that we had a slot and we arrived in Rome on time to find the buses and trains were all running and not a demonstration to be seen.

We stayed overnight at the four-star Hotel Artimide on the Via Nazionale right in the heart of Rome and it was delightful, if a little pricey. We were upgraded to a suite and, wonder of wonders, the minibar was complimentary. We’ll definitely be staying there again.

Check-in for the Equinox at Civitavecchia was the fastest and easiest we’ve ever had on any of our 20-plus cruises and we were on board the ship and in our cabin within 10 minutes of entering the terminal.

The Equinox is a very modern ship, with very modern décor, and all the crew we spoke to seemed to love her. And after 10 days on board so do I.

Our balcony cabin was very comfortable and spacious, with probably the biggest bathroom on any ship we’ve been on. The only downside was that the drawer space was a bit limited but there was plenty of storage space elsewhere.

We had Select (ie anytime) dining in the Silhouette Restaurant and apart from a couple of tough-ish steaks the food was excellent. The service was exceptional, especially from the sommeliers Dan and Fernando who seemed to know everything there is to know about wine.

The buffet (aka the Oceanview Café) has a no trays policy and plenty of serving stations, so the queues were always much shorter than on most other ships, even at breakfast, and the food quality was again excellent.

The entertainment was first class, especially hypnotist Christopher Caress and the acapella group Full Tilt, the lectures were very informative (thank you Professor Lisa Didier). And all the places we visited (Sicily; Malta; Crete; Rhodes; Kusadasi, Turkey; Athens and Naples) were full of history.

All in all it was a brilliant cruise on a brilliant ship and I only have one criticism: in their pre-cruise documentation, Celebrity are adamant about the dress code for dinner being “smart casual or above” on non-formal nights, yet there were people in old jeans in the restaurant every night – and even people in hoodies on some occasions. They should either enforce the dress code or scrap it.

This was our first cruise with Celebrity but it definitely won’t be the last and it’s now become our favourite cruise line, knocking Holland America and Cunard down into second and third places.

Russell Forgham
KVI Travel - UK
(+44) 845 165 1599