Fourteen days. That was the upside or the downside – depending on just how well our first cruise went. First impression? We steeled ourselves to face a crowd and long lines at check-in, but, within fifteen minutes of arrival dockside, we were whisked through and found ourselves with champagne glasses in our hands in the ship’s lounge. That was unexpectedly good.

The Celebrity Equinox, docked in Barcelona
The rooms were still being readied for the passengers, so we wandered around the ship trying to discover all the places we’d want to spend time (or avoid) during our cruise.
The fitness center appealed to us as well as the Solarium, a warm enclosed area with pool and hot tubs. The library was a big disappointment, with very few books and nothing of interest. How did we miss that casinos and specialty stores took up so much space on lower decks? We knew we’d avoid them.
We came up to the Oceanview Café – Deck 14 – at lunchtime. Guests wandered the serving islands and grazed the choices. For the most part the food quality, serving sizes, and healthful choices were better than we expected. For travelers like us who’d been away from home for a long time, the ship offered foods we’d not had for some time. How yummy to have a baked potato with dinner, Mexican food for lunch, and sushi for a late afternoon snack?
When we booked the repositioning cruise, we chose a room in the least expensive category – an inside stateroom with no window. We figured we’d be out of the room a lot so we’d make do. We held our breaths as we unlocked our stateroom for the first time. Our room turned out to be much larger and nicer than we’d expected – a great place to call home for 2 weeks.
First impressions moved the Celebrity Equinox up a notch in our estimations, but we still had 13 more days to cruise. The test had just begun.
November 2014
Looks promising! 🙂
Hope so!
I was eager to read this report, Like the others I wait in suspense for the next chapter.
We had read a lot of travel commentary about everything exceptmthe cruise experience. So, our cruise experience filled a gap, surprising us at times.
This is a great start. I am looking forward to reading more.
Wow this is going to be interesting to follow. Always wondered about repositioning cruises.
The ship looks great! I’ve only taken shorter cruises but I’ve always wanted to do a transatlantic. I look forward to your updates!
The suspense is too much for me! Can’t wait to know what you really thought of the repositioning cruise!