EQUINOX - 10 Day Ultimate Caribbean - Picture Trip Report 3/14/14...

[mpace58]

Hi, David - I can take a shot at a few of your questions.

hello kevin,

i really appreciate your willingness to pass on equinox information. since this will be my first celebrity cruise, it seems like everyday i have new questions.

 

first of all, i'm in a quandry. when i sail on princess, i always like a cabin on the starboard side and the very last cabin on the emerald deck. this cabin has a larger balcony and also allows me almost a 180 degree view which includes the wake and i love it. so, i think cabin 1664 on deck 11 would be as close to that as possible. i'm wary of the aft decks because the balconies don't appear to be covered and they don't appear to have much privacy from the decks above. am i right about that?

On the S class ships (Equinox being one) about half of the aft balcony is uncovered, if you go to the rail of your balcony you can be seen from above.

but......i really would like to try an aqua cabin but none of them are near the aft of the ship, but it seems like cabins 1647 and/or 1650 would be good cabins. do you know anything about them? chosing an aqua cabin would offer me the benefit of "blu" restaurant which is an attractive benefit. if i'm in an aqua cabin, do have to have all my dinners in blu? am i allowed to eat in the main dining room if i want? can i still eat in the specialty dining rooms? would you suggest buying a dining package for three dining rooms a good alternative? i'm not really a spa person, but would i enjoy the persian gardens?

Most all of the aqua cabins are more forward. we stayed in 16xx on the port side of Solstice, a sister to Equinox. Great cabin. Love the shower! How often do you hear that in cabin? Blu is loved by many and tolerated by a few. I personally do not care for Blu, my wife loved it. Yes you can certainly eat in the Specialty restaurants, and it's highly recommended. Our favorite is the Tuscan Grill. You get real mixed messages about eating in the MDR if you are in Aqua. I was told I could not come back to Blu if we went the MDR one night. Others have reported they were even given MDR menus in Blu if they asked. :confused: Persian Gardens is another mixed reaction.

the mini-suite cabins on princess all have a bath/shower combination. i see that celebrity only offers baths in their suites. are the showers a decent size in the aqua cabins?

They're really not any bigger than a regular cabin, but they have a great shower head and body spray bar.

thank you for supplying any answers for me. i'm really looking forward to sailing on the equinox.

I think you are going to love it. :)

[mpace58]

I created a new Vimeo Plus account which has no annoying ads. Slight change to the Sky Safari Zip Lining - edit/removed the time lapse of truck trip to run# 2 and edit/removed time lapse of walk to Run #5. Vimeo gives more freedom than You Tube.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Hey, Kevin - love the new edit. I have a question. The first 30 seconds - did you shoot that a time lapse on the GoPro, or did you shoot normal video and speed it up in production? Going to get a Hero3+ Black before our next cruise and I've been looking a bunch of hints and tips.

[Guest USC Traveler]

thank you, mpace58. i appreciate your input. so i guess i'll have to decide between cabin 1664 concierge or 1650 aqua. i'll have to give it more thought and see if i really need the benefits of aqua. i do love a good shower head. would you book aqua again? so, if i wasn't happy with the blu menu, i could ask for a mdr menu? that sounds like a good benefit. is blu anytime dining or do they offer traditional dining times?

 

thanks again.

[mpace58]

I've heard you can get an MDR menu in Blu, i could not, but or last aqua cruise was 5 years ago. We did not think we got enough value from aqua to book or again. We go concierge now. Blu is anytime dining.

[travelplus]

Rough Seas First Evening

 

Forgot to mention from the first evening how rough the sailing was. I have to give Kudos to DW, Donna, for hanging in there with us at Silk Harvest.

 

 

The next morning while I was taking pictures of the sunset stuck up a conversation with a crew member and he even commented on how rough it was last night. He said that he works on deck 2 and normally feels no motion down there but, was actually feeling the motion that first evening.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

I would avoid Chinese food at all costs. The MSG and other additives to make you feel sick. I was lied to time and time again by many Chinese restaurants"Oh we don't use MSG or additives" then I would get sick and very lethargic. And no I don't have any food allergies. I would much rather spend my 50 percent off at the steakhouse where I know I will feel full longer. Chinese food is a true scam as you feel hungry soon after. The Soy Sauce is the worst sauce in the world so salty etc. Now at an Italian restaurant that is night and day compared to Asian food.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Truman Junior]

Great Trip Report Kevin. Of course you had Fantastic Travel Companions.

 

Ken

[Seapoint]

Best review I have read on CC! Thanks so much. We have the same trip planned for March.

 

By the way, how loud was the music on board? We had a very bad experience with deafening Miami DJs at the pool and in the lobby on Reflection in February.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Seapoint

[FRMPEI]

Hey, Kevin - love the new edit. I have a question. The first 30 seconds - did you shoot that a time lapse on the GoPro, or did you shoot normal video and speed it up in production? Going to get a Hero3+ Black before our next cruise and I've been looking a bunch of hints and tips.

 

Hi Mark,

 

Congrats on the new Go Pro. All of the time lapse clips that I have added to these Equinox videos were all video clips not photos and were sped up in post production. (post that sounds so professional LOL!) As you know I am a heavy Apple user and I use Final Cut Pro X as my video editing software.

 

This summer I tested my Go Pro's time lapse feature by taking one picture every second for one hour. I used the Go Pro free software and created one hour of cloud roll from my front deck in 30 seconds. Below is a link to that You Tube video. You Tube is such a great resource especially for Go pro stuff. I ordered a bunch of Go Pro stuff Last week for Christmas.

 

[YOUTUBE]OjHNboRvYH8[/YOUTUBE]

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Best review I have read on CC! Thanks so much. We have the same trip planned for March.

 

By the way, how loud was the music on board? We had a very bad experience with deafening Miami DJs at the pool and in the lobby on Reflection in February.

 

Thank you so much for your kind comments.

 

Music? I do not dare open that can of worms on this thread. In My Opinion loud music was not a issue for us this past March. Even though I am "older" I am still a fan of "that Techno Music" as they call it here on the Celebrity forum. If you might of clicked on any of my videos that is the type of music i picked for my videos. I do believe a few of the folks who were with us on this cruise and following this Trip Report would agree that loud music was a non issue.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid.

[mpace58]

Hi Mark,

 

Congrats on the new Go Pro. All of the time lapse clips that I have added to these Equinox videos were all video clips not photos and were sped up in post production. (post that sounds so professional LOL!) As you know I am a heavy Apple user and I use Final Cut Pro X as my video editing software.

 

This summer I tested my Go Pro's time lapse feature by taking one picture every second for one hour. I used the Go Pro free software and created one hour of cloud roll from my front deck in 30 seconds. Below is a link to that You Tube video. You Tube is such a great resource especially for Go pro stuff. I ordered a bunch of Go Pro stuff Last week for Christmas.

 

OjHNboRvYH8

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Well I waited to long after the Hero4 was announced and could not find a Hero3+ Black locally. So I went with the Hero4 Silver. I did a similar test of time lapse by shooting a hour or so of my back yard as the soon moved through the sky and all the light and shadows as it moved through the tress.

[FRMPEI]

Are you like me where your better half say something like this to you, " You take all those pictures but, I never get to see them." or "Why don't you make one of those photo books?" So for Christmas 2012 I did make one of those photo books for the first time. It was a pretty big Surprise on Christmas Day when Donna opened up here first Photo Books of our March 2012 Solstice Cruise. I did the same thing for our B2B 2013 March Silhouette Cruise. For 2013 I did two separate Photo Books one for the East and a second one for the West. Donna helped pick out the photos for the East because we purchased two copies of that one so we could give it as present to our travel partners. For the 2013 West I left that as a surprise for Donna. So why be any different for 2014, right? Again this year we are purchasing two copies of the Photo Book so we can give one as present to our Travel partners. I hope Ken is not reading this because he will ruining the surprise. (Ken is not much for the CC world)

 

So if you have been following this thread you know that I love my tech and my Apple products. Of course Photo Books can be purchased from many sources but, I like and will stick with the Apple product. I use Apple's Photo app Aperture for my Photo Books. For those who have not spent the $90 on Aperture the iPhoto app will also do the same thing. I have not used the iPhoto one so I can't really comment on that one.

 

I think the most difficult thing about a Photo Book is deciding on the pictures to use. This is where Aperture can really help you. Here are a few tips:

1) First assumption is that one already has their specific cruise photo already organized in a project or folder in Aperture.

2) Start going through the photos and flag "i.e: I used one colour." the ones you like or might want to use. For me I started with like 4000 Photo and tagged almost 500 photos. This doesn't mean you are going use them all It just saves you looking at all of them again.

3) From these tagged photo create a "Smart" folder and voila you have a neat folder of those purged photo.

4)Then you create your book from any of the given templates. It is easy as dragging and dropping from your smart folder to your Photo Book.

 

The Template that I have used since 2012 is called "Modern Lines". I purchase a Extra Large (10 x 13) Hard Cover. The default is 20 pages plus a cover, a back and a paper jacket. The Paper Jacket uses your Cover and Back Photo while you are able to add items to the inside and back flaps of the Jacket. The price of the Photo Book is $49.99 Cdn plus Shipping and Tax. The total this year for two books was $125 Cdn. You can pay extra if you would like to add extra pages. But, I have never added extra pages. You have lots of flexibility with the layout and picture sizes. You can text boxes but, I generally don't. I only added text on the cover and Jacket Flaps.

 

I would like to share with you this year's 2014 creation which I simply called "Celebrity Equinox 2014". So from the smart folder of just under 500 photos 2014's book contains just over 100 photos. The book is setup chronological from Day 0 thru Day 10. Here goes:

 

COVER (also front of Jacket)

 

 

INSIDE JACKET FRONT FLAP - Photo - Docked at Roseau, Dominica

 

 

PAGE 1 - Day 0 Charlottetown to Ft Lauderdale

 

 

Stay tuned more pages to come.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

To be continued....

Edited December 4, 2014 by FRMPEI

[FRMPEI]

APPLE PHOTO BOOK CON'T

 

PAGES 2 & 3 - Day 1 - Embarkation

 

 

PAGES 4 & 5 - Day 1 - Leaving FLL & Evening

 

 

PAGES 6 & 7 - Day 2 & 3 - at Sea

 

 

Stay tuned more pages to come.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

APPLE PHOTO BOOK CON'T

 

PAGES 8 & 9 Day 4 - USVI

 

 

PAGES 10 & 11 Day 5 - St Kitts

 

 

PAGES 12 & 13 Day 6 - Barbados

 

 

Stay tuned more pages to come.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

APPLE PHOTO BOOK CON'T

 

PAGES 14 & 15 Day 7 - Dominica

 

 

PAGES 16 & 17 Day 8 - St. Maarten

 

 

PAGES 18 & 19 Day 9 - at Sea

 

 

Stayed tuned almost there.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

APPLE PHOTO BOOK CON'T

 

PAGE 20 (last page) Day 10 - Last Sea Day

 

 

INSIDE JACKET BACK FLAP

 

 

BACK COVER (and back Jacket) My Favourite photos from the entire cruise.

 

 

BACK & FRONT HARD COVER Book opened

 

 

ENTIRE PAPER JACKET

 

 

That is it folks the Entire 2014 Photo Book.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[mpace58]

Very nice!

[Luckynana]

Great job on your book, Kevin...I'm jealous! I am not computer nor camera savvy; developing the pictures and putting them in the album is as close to a photo book as I could ever come..LOL!:D

 

Just curious..what did you do in Dominica? We will be there for the first time next March.:confused:

 

 

 

 

 

Maryann

[FRMPEI]

Great job on your book, Kevin...I'm jealous! I am not computer nor camera savvy; developing the pictures and putting them in the album is as close to a photo book as I could ever come..LOL!:D

 

Just curious..what did you do in Dominica? We will be there for the first time next March.:confused:

Maryann

 

Hi Maryann,

 

That is the trick with a mac it just looks it is hard. Very easy to use.

 

Dominica we did our own thing just hired a taxi and did a tour of the tourist sites. Basically the same thing we did back in 2010. Check back in this thread for more details and pictures. My Vimeo Video Album has some footage of Dominica in it. (Vimeo album link in my signature).

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

I ordered theses photo books late on Sunday Evening Nov 30 and received via courier yesterday Monday Dec 8/14. That is a pretty fast turn a round time. (TAT)

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[wallie5446]

Okie Dokie Kevin!

So we are just off the 11 day and while on board booked the 10 day for Nov 2015! Time to re-read your report!

EW

[still-learning]

Very nice job Kevin! :)

 

Mark it looks like we did not make the final cut and ended up on the digital floor of the editing room. Lol ;):p:D

Edited December 10, 2014 by still-learning

[mpace58]

Very nice job Kevin! :)

 

Mark it looks like we did not make the final cut and ended up on the digital floor of the editing room. Lol ;):p:D

So sad..... :( ;)

[FRMPEI]

So sad..... :( ;)

 

Never happy. I gave you multiple cameo appearances in my videos and photos.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[mpace58]

Lol!