One of the first things I wanted to see when I was on Celebrity Cruises' new ship Celebrity Equinox last week was how the grass was looking.
In June, when I was on the ship for the conveyance down the River Ems, it was looking very sorry indeed. More brown than green. Just you wait, I was told, mainly by Celebrity's president and chief executive officer Dan Hanrahan.
And he was right. Now it is a lovely green, just perfect for sitting on (well it would be if you were somewhere warm; in fact it was a little damp thanks to wonderful British summer) and for this game of boules I spotted. On one of the inaugural days they even had a crocquet match, which I believe Travel Weekly's team won.
Here's a sight I bet
you never thought you'd see on a cruise ship!
I did promise when I was on to report back on Blu, the healthy-eating restaurant reserved for passengers booked in AquaSpa cabins. Was it worth the extra to eat here, I wondered?
I have a confession to make here. I ate in Blu when I was on sister ship Celebrity Solstice and was not very impressed. There was nothing wrong with the food as such, but there wasn't much of it and the place lacked atmosphere.
Fast forward to Equinox and things have changed. Well not completely. The restaurant is in the same place and the decor is the same, but wow, the food was quite different. And the service, provided by Kristoff (except as he is Polish it's spelt with random s's and z's), was the best I experienced during my two nights on board. Charming but not obseqious, which is the perfect mix for me.
I still love the classy white decor in the main dining room and marvel at this wine rack each time I see it though. Here's it is again, this time full of bottles.
The one thing I didn't get was the molecular mixology they have brought new to the ship. We all sat there and basically watched this guy make a cocktail, which I've done a hundred times before while sitting at a bar on a cruise ship.
He then finished by putting dry ice on top. "It's liquid nitrogen," the lady with the microphone told us, clearly taking this mixology business all very seriously. "If you touch this you will be burned." So the point is?
Jane Archer
