Detailed Photo Review of 3/14/16 Celebrity Equinox 11 Night Cruise

[deladane]

Nagasaki Sara Udon

 

We were pleased to see our balcony was in the shade by the time we returned from lunch, so we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the lovely breeze and warm but comfortable temperatures.

 

 

 

 

At around 3pm, we ventured out to pick up drinks from the Slush Bar and brought them back to drink on the balcony. The Mint Cookie drink is seriously amazing!!

 

 

[RickCanada]

Wow, you must be a fast reader as I know my reviews are a bit long-winded!! So glad you found the info helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions :) One bit of advice I will offer you is that you may want to see how many ships are in port the day you go to Grand Cayman. I had a lot of trouble finding excursions that weren't sold out when I started planning for this cruise last May. We had 7 ships and over 21,000 passengers in port the day we were there, so I hope you don't experience that kind of crowding, but you may want to book something now (if you didn't already book it) given that you are also sailing in March (spring break season!).

 

 

If you have been to Cayman before may I suggest that you rent a car and go to Queen Elizabeth botanical Park on the other side of the island. It is magnificent and most tours don't go there.

[bgomes]

Hi Barb. We are on the same cruise. Have you joined the roll call yet ?

 

We are on the roll call. It's pretty quiet there right now. This review along with Cindy's is raising the excitement level. Can't wait to see all this (except the mud baths)

[mrsgoggins]

If you have been to Cayman before may I suggest that you rent a car and go to Queen Elizabeth botanical Park on the other side of the island. It is magnificent and most tours don't go there.

 

We also did this and enjoyed the park visit - a real little oasis of tranquility, also we were able to stop off at a beach on the way back.

 

Dana, loving your photos especially. We are on the Equinox next month :)

[deladane]

Tonight was the second and final Elegant Chic night for dinner. We got dressed up and made our way up to the Oceanview Cafe for a quick pre-dinner snack. I noticed they had these cute little dishes with various salads and a seafood ceviche that was calling my name!

 

 

Each of the elevator banks has this list of the public spaces on each of the decks, and a mini model of the ship showing where the venues are located (forward, mid-ship, or aft). It was especially helpful in the beginning of the cruise when we were still learning our way around the ship.

 

 

 

As always, we had a few drinks at the Martini Bar before going to dinner. This is the Sapphire London Club and the Pomegranate Martini.

 

[deladane]

Tonight's dinner menu featured the one and only time we saw lobster in the MDR.

 

Escargots (they look a little bit burnt but they still tasted great!)

 

The Creamy Salmon Rillette was amazing! It tasted like lox cream cheese- we were tempted to bring some back to the cabin to spread on a bagel for breakfast tomorrow haha

 

Arsapha hooked me up with 2 lobster tails on the same plate as I didn't need double the side dishes.

 

We skipped dessert tonight, likely because we weren't that hungry, and went back to the martini bar to try the black forest chocolate martini. I don't have a photo of it, but it was very sweet and acted like a dessert! We listened to the band play in the lobby for a few minutes, then went to the theater for the final production show: Elysium.

 

[YOUTUBE]p_DRvjVW_SU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[deladane]

This show had a similar format to the other production shows and again featured modern top 40 songs, but they only featured the aerialists and acrobats in 2 of the songs and instead had a lot of dancing performances. I liked it, but thought the other shows earlier in the week were better.

 

 

 

 

 

After the show, we went to Quasar for karaoke, but it was a poor turn out yet again. The karaoke host, Crystal, asked J to sing a duet to Love Shack in hopes of getting people to come participate and sing other songs, but we didn't stick around long after their song to find out if it worked.

 

 

We went up to the Sky Lounge for 70's music trivia and it was PACKED! After a bit of searching, we found a seat up by the front windows and did our best to participate. Cruise director John came out dressed up in a 70's outfit and asked the questions for the trivia. He played a little bit of a song, then asked 3 or 4 questions about it- title, song writer, what album it was on, and also some more obscure questions to which we seldom knew the answers. In the end, we only got about 25% correct... oh well! It was definitely a fun way to spend an hour of our evening, and then we went back to our cabin to get some sleep.

 

Up Next: Grand Cayman

[Diane Rose]

Dana,

 

Absolutely, loved reading your review. It is probably one of the best I have ever read.

 

I just booked this cruise for November 2016, except our overnight will be in Cozumel. You really helped to create anticipation for this cruise for me. We haven't done the Caribbean in awhile, but have visited most of these ports already. Cruising out of Ft Lauderdale became convenient as we will be visiting our daughter in Florida for Thanksgiving. So your review has me really looking forward to this cruise now. Thank you!

 

Diane

[deladane]

Dana,

 

Absolutely, loved reading your review. It is probably one of the best I have ever read.

 

I just booked this cruise for November 2016, except our overnight will be in Cozumel. You really helped to create anticipation for this cruise for me. We haven't done the Caribbean in awhile, but have visited most of these ports already. Cruising out of Ft Lauderdale became convenient as we will be visiting our daughter in Florida for Thanksgiving. So your review has me really looking forward to this cruise now. Thank you!

 

Diane

 

Thanks for reading along! I'm so glad you found the review helpful in planning for your cruise :) That's so interesting that Celebrity chose to use Cozumel as your overnight port- I wonder if the ship will stay overnight in a different port every time they do the itinerary? Or if they'll just alternate between Cozumel and Cartagena? Either way, there are a million things to do in Cozumel as it is such a frequently-visited cruise stop, so I'm sure you won't have any trouble filling 2 days of activities!! Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the ports or the ship :)

[deladane]

Wednesday, March 23 ~ Grand Cayman

 

I know many frequent cruisers have been to Grand Cayman so many times that they don't even bother to get off the ship at this port, but I was super excited to come here as it was a brand new port to me! After years of reading other peoples reviews, I knew there was one place I HAD to go when I finally got to Grand Cayman... Sting Ray City!! The idea of standing out there on a sand bar in waist-deep crystal clear blue water while sting rays swim around my legs, and getting to touch and hold the sting rays sounded so incredible that I knew I wanted to experience it first hand. There are many private companies offering boat tours to Sting Ray City plus one or two snorkel stops, so I sent out a few emails to see if anyone had space for us. Unfortunately, I got many replies saying they were already booked that day! As popular of a port as Grand Cayman is, the day we would be there was one for the record books as there would be over 21,000 cruise ship passengers on 7 ships in port that day! After contacting a few more companies, I was finally able to book us on a tour with Captain Marvin's, going to 2 snorkel stops plus Sting Ray City, for $45 per person. This is the description of the tour from their website:

 

Captain Marvin Three-Stop Stingray/Snorkel Tours: Our three-stop stingray/snorkel tour lasts three hours, dock to dock. The three-stop stingray/snorkel trip goes to the Stingray City sandbar plus TWO snorkel stops, both the Barrier Reef AND the Coral Gardens. The cost of this tour is US$45/person for ages 12 and over, US$30/person for ages 4-11, and free for children under age 4. We strongly recommend that you bring flotation devices for children under age 4, as our snorkel gear is for ages 4 and over. We provide snorkel vests, life vests, mask, snorkel and fins for everyone ages 4 and over. You are welcome to bring your own gear if you like. We offer complimentary shuttle service from your hotel or condo on Seven Mile Beach. It is also strongly recommended that you know how to swim in order to be safe for the snorkeling stop. Our three-stop stingray/snorkel tour is available every day of the week. The schedule from Monday through Friday is 10 AM until 1 PM, and 2:30 until 5:30 PM. On weekends, the schedule is from 9 AM until 12 noon, and from 1:00 until 4:00 PM.

 

Our original plan was to go to Seven Mile Beach after the tour as it is said to be a beautiful beach, and they said they could drop us off there free of charge. In addition to this being my first time in Grand Cayman, it would also be my first time at a tender port. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of not being able to come and go from the ship whenever we wanted to, and I was unsure of how the ticket process worked. Since we weren't booked in a suite and don't have elite status, I was afraid we might have a long wait before we could get off the ship. Our tour started at 10am, but we needed to check in at Captain Marvin's office by 9:15am. With the first tender starting around 8am, we knew we had to be on one of the first tenders to be on time for our tour. We spoke to someone at guest services the day before to find out the logistics of how the tendering process works. She said that they will have tickets available for pick up from the Gastrobar starting at 8am on a first come, first served basis. Our plan was to be there promptly at 8am in hopes of getting one of the lower tender numbers so we could get off the ship ASAP.

 

Knowing it would be another early morning, we put our room service breakfast door tag out last night and requested the 7-7:30am time slot. We were still fast asleep when the phone rang at 6:42am to tell us our food was on the way. I guess I can't really complain because I would rather it be delivered early than late, but geez! We weren't ready to eat THAT early! On the bright side, we were able to eat breakfast outside on the balcony as we watched the ships sailing into port.

 

 

 

 

 

The local tenders were much bigger than I expected, with 2 levels that held hundreds of people.

 

The weather was so beautiful for the entire cruise, but those dark grey clouds didn't look promising for today's forecast!

[deladane]

I was on my way down to the Gastrobar at 8am to get our tender tickets when John came on the overhead to announce that the first tender was ready and we could get on now with no wait. I did an about-face in the hallway and went back to the cabin to get J, and we went down to deck 2 to board the tender. Having never done this before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the whole process was fairly painless. We walked down a few stairs to a platform where crew members were waiting to help us climb onto the tender.

 

 

The tender was only about half full when we got there so we waited for 5 minutes while the rest of the boat filled up. We found seats on the upstairs deck hoping for a pretty view of the Equinox as we sailed to shore.

 

 

 

Once enough people were onboard, they took in the ropes and we were on our way.

 

 

[deladane]

 

Remember those scary dark clouds hovering above our ship all morning? Well they decided to open up and rain down on us while we were on the 10 minute tender ride! So much for the pretty views from the top deck!! I went downstairs to seek cover as the rain was cold and uncomfortable while on a moving boat. We reached the pier on shore by 8:15am and filed out of the boat, down the short pier, and into the port.

 

 

Since we were still very early for our tour, we spent a few minutes walking around the port area and checking out the stores. It was already getting crowded because some of the other ships started running their tenders earlier than us.

 

 

 

Captain Marvin's store was located 1 block to the left of the port area, and it was very easy to find with this huge sign out front.

 

 

There were already tons of people waiting around, so we got in line and tried to figure out what to do next. They passed around a clipboard with a waiver we had to sign... you know, the usual stuff- if we die, we can't sue them! haha Once we got to the front of the line, the lady asked us to pay our $45 per person in US dollars, gave us a receipt, and told us to come back at 9:30am for our bus to the boat. It was only 8:45 so we spent some time at the nearby stores and walking around the port area.

 

[4774Papa]

Great review, I enjoyed it as well as the photos.

[deladane]

Great review, I enjoyed it as well as the photos.

 

Thank you!!

[deladane]

We went back to check in again at Captain Marvin's store at 9:15am (15 minutes before we were told to return), and the lady organizing everyone to get on the buses, Anna, was very upset with us. She said she was looking for us and yelling our name, but that our bus left without us at 9am. I said the lady in the store told us to return at 9:30, but Anna said we should have been back by 9am. We wouldn't have left the area had we known we only had 15 minutes to wait!! What's more, the tour details that came with our original confirmation email stated we needed to check in by 9:15am so why would we need to be back to their office by 9am?? Had the tender not worked out so easily, it is possible that we would still be trying to get ashore at 9am!!

 

Anyway, Anna found space for us on a different boat, and a bus came within 2 minutes so we hopped on and headed off to the boat dock. Our bus driver's name was Dennis, and he spent the entire 30 minute ride giving us a very entertaining speech about Grand Cayman. Did you know that the rental cars in Grand Cayman have white license plates whereas the locals have yellow license plates? They drive on the left side of the road, so the white plates help the locals identify the tourists so they can stay a safe distance away because most tourists aren't used to driving on the left side of the road! haha!

 

Our boat for the tour was 2 stories tall, and we had 3 guides and 40 people on the tour. When we booked the tour, I was told we would have a maximum of 20 people on our tour, and the guides said they hadn't had 40 people on a tour in many months, but with over 21,000 people in port, I guess they allowed more people to book the tour. There was enough seating for everyone on one of the two decks, but I doubt we could have comfortably fit anyone else! J and I sat upstairs and enjoyed a 30 minute ride to Sting Ray City.

 

 

 

Today was extremely windy and the water was very choppy. At 10:30, we arrived at Sting Ray City and it was already very crowded.

 

 

The guides tried to park our boat between the other boats, but the winds were tossing us around a lot. There was so little space that he gave up and said we would go snorkeling first and come back here later when it was less crowded. I doubted his logic, knowing that popular tour destinations tend to get more crowded as the day goes on, not less crowded! I had also read that many of the sting rays leave the sand bar after they get fed by the first few tourists in the morning so I was really bummed to have to come back later.

 

 

We motored away from Sting Ray City to a reef about 5 minutes away (we could still see Sting Ray City from the reef). The guides said we could borrow snorkels, masks, and fins if we wanted to, and we could spend 30 minutes snorkeling at the reef. The waves were pretty rough, but it wasn't that hard to snorkel because you could just float and let the current take you around. There was excellent snorkeling at this site with so many interesting fish to see. This is just a handful of the many photos I took while snorkeling...

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

 

[loeb]

thanks so much for your report and pictures. I feel that I'm there taking the cruise.

[deladane]

I got tired pretty quickly so I swam back to the boat after about 20 minutes. Once everyone else was on board, we motored back to Sting Ray City, and of course, it was even more crowded than it was an hour ago!

 

 

The winds were still very high so I wished we had stayed here before. It was scary to watch them attempt to park the boat as we came close to hitting our neighbors many times. Eventually they were able to squeeze into a small spot and drop the anchor so we could climb out into the water.

 

 

 

Sting Ray City is a sand bar in the middle of the sea where it is shallow enough to stand and it is usually fairly calm waters, but today with the high winds and rough current, we were getting knocked around a lot. It was very hard to keep our balance as the waves kept crashing over us. Once all 40 people from our boat were in the water, we all crowded around one guide with one sting ray. In my research prior to the cruise, all the photos I had seen of Sting Ray City showed tons of Sting Rays swimming around, but we did not experience that at all today. All 40 of us had to 'share' this one sting ray so we had very limited time to really play with it.

 

The guide told us we could touch the sting ray

 

 

Then the guide held up the sting ray so we could see the bottom... I took this photo at exactly the right second as he was spitting out water!

[deladane]

 

Then the guide told us it was time for us to hold the sting rays. We all took turns taking our photos and holding the sting rays, and we were able to find one of the other tourists on our boat to take photos for us.

 

 

 

 

 

They say you get 7 years of good luck if you kiss a sting ray...

[deladane]

The guide pushed the sting ray up onto our back for a back massage!

 

 

 

 

Some people had a chance to feed the sting rays but I didn't know where to get the food and I was tired of being tossed around and bumping into people so I just got back on the boat. Sting Ray City has the potential to be lots of fun, but we hit a double whammy with rougher than normal seas and winds, and a more crowded than normal port day. Hopefully I get a chance to take this tour again some day with better conditions!

 

I was glad our boat wasn't as crowded as their boat!!

 

Once we were all back on the boat, we motored about 10 minutes to another reef for some more snorkeling. There were 2 stingrays who frequently swim around this reef- one without a tail, so they called him Frisbee! haha

 

[deladane]

There was a lot of coral at this reef, but I thought the fish were better at the first stop. The real highlight was swimming with the sting rays! Unlike at Sting Ray City, we had plenty of space to spread out and explore and have one-on-one time with the sting rays. They are so elegant as they glide across through the water, and it was amazing that they were totally unthreatened by us swimming in their waters.

 

 

 

 

This was Frisbee haha

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

 

It was very hard to swim back to the boat when I was ready to stop snorkeling as I was swimming against the current. Once everyone was back on board, we spent 30 minutes motoring back to the dock. On the way, the guides served us water and fruit juice.

 

[deladane]

 

Apparently in Grand Cayman, they steer motorized vehicles with their feet! haha

 

Here is a little video of our snorkel stop and time at Sting Ray City...

[YOUTUBE]hxZylcYp13k[/YOUTUBE]

 

We had exactly 3 hours on the boat, plus 30-40 minutes on the bus each way. Overall, I thought Captain Marvin offered good value at $45 per person, but they could use better organization with the buses. Only one bus came to pick us up after we got off the boat, but that bus only holds 25 people and we had 40 people on our tour. I'm sure the 25 person bus is normally big enough, but they knew we had 40 people on this tour and they should have sent 2 buses to get us. We were lucky enough to fit on the bus, but there were 15 people left waiting at the dock when we pulled away. I am sure another bus came to pick them up, but I don't know how long they had to wait.

 

We got back to the Captain Marvin store near the cruise port at 1:45pm. J and I originally considered going to Seven Mile Beach after our tour, and the bus driver was willing to drop us off there if we so desired, but dark rain clouds were rolling back in and we were tired from all that time in the water, so we just wanted to go back to the ship. Also, I had a feeling that the beach would be a mob scene by this time of the day with all these ships in port and I didn't feel like fighting the crowds.

 

There is a little stand-alone cigar shop directly across the street from Captain Marvin's store (unfortunately, I don't remember the store name). J was curious so we went in for a few minutes and ended up having a really great shopping experience. Giuliano was the guy working behind the counter and he gave helpful advice and was very knowledgeable about the different types of cigars sold in his store.

 

After that, we went back through the port area to find a long line at the tender dock. Luckily, a tender pulled up just after we got there and everyone on line was able to fit on this boat. Once we were back on the Equinox, we went straight up to the Oceanview Cafe for a late lunch. J had a burger and I had the stir fry. Again, it seemed like no one knew about the stir fry station and there was no line to place my order.

 

 

We grabbed a table outside and ordered a round of frozen cocktails to cool off as we enjoyed our lunch with a view.

 

 

After lunch, we went back to the cabin to spend some time relaxing on the balcony and watching the tenders return to our ship and other ships leave port.

 

[Texed]

I noticed you are going on Paul Gauguin. You could have waited to swim with the sting rays/sharks then. Only 10 or 12 folks compared to hundreds. :D