Equinox March 14 11-Night Review with Lots of Pictures!

[Cindy]

Hi all! I love writing reviews (actually they're more like travelogues) and I thought I'd get this one started. I usually wait until the whole thing is written and all my pictures are ready to go so I can post the review more or less at once, but the last time I said I'd do that it never got written/posted:o so I thought I'd try a new tactic. I'll post this as I get parts written and pictures ready to go.

 

This was a FANTASTIC cruise, but it was a long and winding road to get here! One of our long time “Bucket List” trips has been to see the Panama Canal, and we knew the way to do that was get on a ship. I retired from my job as an elementary school principal in 2012, and was ecstatic about being able to travel while children are being educated.:D I booked a partial transit on the HAL Zuiderdam for our 25th anniversary in November of 2012. Unfortunately, not too long after we booked I started reading about REALLY BAD plumbing and air conditioning problems on that ship. We finally decided to shelve the Panama Canal and took a great cruise to the Southern Caribbean, but we still didn’t have anything crossed off our bucket list.

 

In April of 2014, when we were on the Navigator of the Seas we found the 15-night Infinity cruise through the canal and booked it. For some reason, something about that just didn’t sit right with me – probably that I couldn’t get any of my preferred AQ1 cabins on the aft of Deck 11. I went ahead and booked an AQ2 on Deck 9, and I was told it would be no problem to move if what I wanted opened up. Well, my preferred location did open up, but when I called I found out that because I hadn’t taken the free one category upgrade when I booked I would have to pay the increased price to slide from AQ2 to AQ1, and that was a considerable chunk of change. I don’t blame the agents…I should have just taken an AQ1 to start with and then it wouldn’t have been an issue, but I was nevertheless very disappointed and started looking around.

 

So…to make a long story short (who am I kidding, I don’t know how to make a story short!) I found a Panama sailing on the Caribbean Princess out of Houston and actually had that booked for a few days. I wasn’t crazy about that itinerary and couldn’t get a straight answer from Princess about excursions to see the canal so I kept looking. Lo and behold, what did I find but the Equinox? Why hadn’t I looked at this before? I found great prices, the 1,2,3, Go! “All Inclusive” offer, AND the ability to transfer $300 of OBC from the Infinity to add to the new OBC for the Equinox. SOLD! I transferred the Infinity booking to the Equinox, moved the Caribbean Princess to December, and started planning.

 

Aah…research and planning. I just love it! It’s almost as much fun as the event to me! We had a fairly active roll call which I like. I ended up doing a lot of organizing by keeping a roll call list and an excursion list, and I also planned a couple private tours which others joined (more on those later). I think an active roll call helps in meeting people and some of my best excursions have come about as a result of roll calls…this trip was no exception.

 

One of the first things that happened after I booked was our itinerary was changed. We dropped the port call in Costa Maya to add an overnight stay in Cartagena. I had no regrets at all about missing Costa Maya (we’ve been several times) and thought the overnight stay was fantastic. I know others were disappointed and apprehensive about Colombia, but my husband and I thought it was a wonderful, vibrant city and we would definitely choose a cruise stopping there again.

 

I guess it’s ironic that my first pictures of the Equinox were taken in Costa Maya in December, from my balcony on the Caribbean Princess. That was one of the last Equinox cruises with Costa Maya on the itinerary, and we happened to be in port together. So, here she is…my next ship from the balcony of my current ship!

 

 

 

 

[Clarea]

Thanks, enjoying!:)

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review and look forward to reading more.

 

Keith

[MR_T]

Looking forward to the review & pics... Love the equinox and all the amazing crew [emoji4]

[NemoCrownie]

Fantastic review, so far. 11 night Equinox next January for us. It will be our first Celebrity cruise. We were bummed that Belize was dropped for an overnight in Cozumel but still excited for a new experience. I can't wait to hear about your excursions as I am in full planning mode now.

[Bimmer09]

Cindy....settling in for a good long read!

 

Norris

[andrea2609]

I'll be booking my next cruise on Equinox tomorrow, so I can't wait to read your review...

I already have a question [emoji16]... Was the ship fully booked? If so, could you easily find lounge chairs by the pool, and/or enough room in the jacuzzi...?

Any queue to be seated for breakfast/dinner...?

Sorry, but this will be my third cruise only and the first with Celebrity...

 

 

Italian Cruiser

 

Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Tapatalk

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report. We will be going through the canal for the first time next year.

[lulurobby]

Our first cruise with celebrity will be on this ship in November, we have inside cabin booked on deck 7 but are currently debating as to upgrade to balcony.

[Texed]

Cindy, (Gig 'em)

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[bgomes]

So looking forward to the rest of your review. We are taking the same cruise, same time, next year. I am so excited about seeing the new ports (for us) of Cartagena, Puerto Limon and Colon. I have already been studying excursions.

 

Ready for the next installment....

[Cindy]

Cindy....settling in for a good long read!

 

Norris

 

I can promise you long...that seems to be the only way I know how to write!

 

I was inspired by your pictures and I took my 10-22mm wide angle lens this trip and used it for a lot of my ship shots. For some reason I haven't used that lens much, but it really is a good one for the spaces on a ship.

 

I'll be booking my next cruise on Equinox tomorrow, so I can't wait to read your review...

I already have a question [emoji16]... Was the ship fully booked? If so, could you easily find lounge chairs by the pool, and/or enough room in the jacuzzi...?

Any queue to be seated for breakfast/dinner...?

Sorry, but this will be my third cruise only and the first with Celebrity...

 

 

Italian Cruiser

 

Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Tapatalk

 

We were full, but it was mostly double occupancy. I don't think there were many 3rd and 4th berth taken.

 

I'm not the best person to ask about the other stuff. We spend very little time at the pools. They looked crowded when we walked by, but not unmanageable. We ate in BLU or one of the specialty restaurants and never had a wait of more than a minute or two. Hopefully someone else will come along and do a better job of answering your questions.

[Cindy]

Sunday, March 13

 

I woke up at 6:00, which is decent for me on a travel day, but alas my joy was short lived since we had “sprung forward” the night before. It was really only 6:00 according to the government people who insist on screwing with our internal and physical clocks twice a year. I quickly got ready and packed up the last of my important worldly goods (cosmetics), and by the time I was ready our driver was pulling up out front.

 

We had allowed plenty of time, but I had to scratch my head at TXDOT…both major toll roads to the airport were closed for construction. On the first weekend of Spring Break.:mad: Who makes these decisions?:confused: Nevertheless, there was literally no traffic. We got to the airport in no time and dropped our bags outside before we headed into the terminal. We walked into the airport, and realized the reason the roads were empty was because the entire population of Houston was already inside the airport.:eek:

 

Thank goodness for TSA Pre-Check! We had received an e-mail from United a few days before our flight warning us of extremely long lines at security, but I never dreamed they would snake around like they did…the lines were so long there were lines to get into the lines! Feeling a little guilty:o (not really) and steeling myself to the dirty looks, we zipped around the outside of the shuffling masses and were through security in no time. We get Pre-Check because we have Global Entry, and that’s proven time and time again to be some of the best travel money we’ve ever spent. It’s especially great coming back into Houston on an international flight (since this is a major hub for flights from Central and South America), but it also really comes in handy when one is dumb enough to fly to Florida at Spring Break when everyone is going to see the mouse and nobody flies enough to know how to navigate the airport security!

 

The rest of the travel was boring and uneventful…just the way I like it. Our flight was completely packed, and despite snagging 8C & 8D months ago, we somehow ended up in 8D & 12C. There was an equipment change that somehow resulted in one of our seats getting moved. It wasn’t too much of a problem…we both do our own thing on a plane anyway! The next 2.5 hours were spent with a movie (me) and some Sudoku (Jim).

 

Up next -- Fort Lauderdale, and finally some pictures!:D

[deladane]

You're off to a great start, Cindy! Looking forward to experiencing our cruise through your eyes :) It's always so interesting that two people can have two completely different experiences and totally different excursions on the same cruise!

[elliekate]

Everyone is in for a treat! We were so lucky to have Cindy onboard with us and she really got our roll call organized! I am thinking about going wherever she goes:D as you just have to show up!

[Cindy]

Everyone is in for a treat! We were so lucky to have Cindy onboard with us and she really got our roll call organized! I am thinking about going wherever she goes:D as you just have to show up!

 

...says the lady who made color BOOKS for everyone in her group!:D

[Shirley C]

Enjoying your review & pics. We are doing this same itinerary next January, so I'm excited to hear what you did in the ports. Thanks for taking to time to do it.

 

Shirley

[spammie]

Love the Equinox! Can't wait to read your review and see your pictures. Thanks for sharing! Wanda

[Cindy]

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale early and made our way past FLL’s version of the shuffling masses to baggage claim. I had hired a driver on that end too, because by that point I don’t want to wait for a taxi, or a shuttle van, or any other “mass” transit…I want somebody to whisk me and all my worldly goods (plus my husband) away from the airport as quickly as possible. Jeff from John’s Car Service got us and *ahem* a few bags over to the Embassy Suites in short order, but of course our room wasn’t ready. That was OK…we checked our bags and headed down to the bridge for my cruise ship fix.

 

About the Embassy Suites – it’s convenient and clean and noisy and BUSY…typical Embassy Suites. I thought it was fine staying there on a Sunday night, but I’m not sure I’d want to try a Friday or a Saturday. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures of the room. I’m sure it’s something you’ve seen before! I will say we upgraded to the Club Floor and that was a waste of money. There wasn’t a lounge as advertised. Instead, you got a code to get freebies from the vending machine. Those were mighty expensive bottles of water we took to the port with us on Monday!:p

 

 

 

Back to the bridge…there were 8 ships for me to feast my eyes on and photograph, but Mother Nature really wasn’t having any part of it. First of all, it was so windy I could barely hold my camera to my eye. Then I heard my meteorologist husband utter, “uh oh” while he was looking at the radar. Sure enough, there were clear skies to the east and storms moving in from the west. You can kind of see it in this panoramic:

 

 

 

 

 

As far as I remember, the ships that day were the Allure of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Royal Princess, Ruby Princess, Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Solstice (or Silhouette), and Carnival Conquest. That’s a lot of people and traffic! I was glad we were leaving on a Monday with only four ships, and even happier we would be returning on a Friday and would be the only ship that day!

 

[Cindy]

I did have a purpose other than just drooling over the ships. I wanted to get a good look at the Royal Princess and see if I could see how big the balconies in a certain location are. We unexpectedly booked a cruise on the Regal Princess, and I really haven’t kept up with the newest sisters in the Princess fleet.

 

We had some rather unfortunate things happen in our suite on the Caribbean Princess in December, and much to my surprise Princess offered us a future cruise credit as an apology. Not being one to turn down free money:o, I found a foliage cruise on the Regal for October 2017 and booked it. If nothing else, it’s an excuse to go home (NJ) for a few days. I haven’t seen the WTC Memorial since it was finished so we’re going to tack on a few days on either end and make a trip out of it!

 

 

 

Before we left, I took this picture of the Hyatt Pier 66. We stayed there the last time we cruised out of Ft. Lauderdale, and loved it! Unfortunately prices this time were sky high due to Spring Break so we went with something different. I had one of the large high-floor balconies that face the port, and I got some great shots of the ships arriving on the day of our cruise.

 

 

 

We could see that it was pouring off to the west, so I grabbed a couple more quick pictures and we scurried back to the hotel.

 

 

One thing that caught my eye on the walk back were the racks of rental bikes. I’ve seen lots of them in Europe, but this is the first time I remember seeing them in the U.S. These were noteworthy for the sayings on the baskets.

 

 

 

This is a terrible picture (please excuse the sweaty smudge in the middle), but the quote made me laugh. I thought of it a few times during the cruise, and I can tell you there was more than once my fat was SOBBING!

 

Edited March 31, 2016 by Cindy

[Shirley C]

Love the pics & your writing style. I'm enjoying this immensely. I like that it isn't all at once -- the anticipation of the next post is great!

 

Shirley

[deladane]

 

 

HAHAHAHA We saw some people riding tricycles along the beach boardwalk and thought at least they're getting exercise! The signs on those baskets are hysterical!! Loving your review so far :D

[vickykay]

We were on the March 4th sailing and had a wonderful cruise! Enjoy the Equinox!

[Cindy]

When we got back to the Embassy Suites we were able to get in our room, and as I said before it was clean and served its purpose. We did have a view of the port as requested, so I knew I’d be able to watch the ships arrive in the morning if (when) I couldn’t sleep. Unfortunately, there was a lot more real estate between me and the port than there had been when we stayed at the Hyatt. We also had a sliding glass door that did anything but slide…I think that thing was in need of some serious maintenance at the least and probably was overdue for replacement!

 

All settled in, or as much as one can settle for just one night, it was time for our next event…a roll call pre-cruise dinner at Southport Raw Bar. I had called several restaurants looking for a place that would take a reservation for our group, and Southport was very accommodating. It was also only a couple blocks from the Embassy Suites where it seemed like half the roll call was staying.

 

 

 

 

 

We were seated at a large table outside by the restaurant’s docks. At first, I thought we were in for a long evening because of the guitar player whose speakers were RIGHT next to the table, but he quit at 7:00 and things quieted down considerably.

 

 

 

 

All in all, this was a great evening and a nice way to meet some of the people I’d been “chatting” with for almost a year. Southport is a tiny place that was very crowded and uses two kitchens, depending on what is ordered. I thought the food was very good, and the service was about what I’d expect for 20 people at the same table…our waiter was hustling, but there is just no way to get all the food out at the same time when you’re serving such a large group. I should note that our waiter willingly gave everyone their own check, and they didn’t tack on an automatic gratuity, even for our very large group. It was a nice way to start the vacation!

 

 

[Cindy]

 

We had a leisurely dinner and enjoyed the sunset and beautiful weather (the rain had passed). We walked back to the hotel, stopping for some wine on the way. After a nightcap in one of our new friends’ rooms, it was off to bed to get ready to cruise in the morning!

 

Up next...will Cindy sleep? Will we like the ship? Will anybody show up for the sailaway party?

 

We have a busy weekend with company coming and tickets to the Final Four, so it may take me a couple days to get back to this!:)