EQUINOX DEUX - 11 Night Ultimate Caribbean - PV Trip Report 3/13/17

[FRMPEI]

I AM IN SAIL AWAY HEAVEN cont'd

 

The fourth ship out this evening is HAL's Eurodam.

 

 

The fifth and final ship for me this evening is Celebrity Summit. Summit is leaving on a 70's Rock Cruise Charter which I would have loved to of sailed on. I looked this 70's Rock Charter up online and I was very impressed with the music line up.

 

 

 

 

I have been standing on this bridge for almost two hours capturing lots of photos and video. This never gets old for me... I love it. I know Donna would never of put up with this for two hours. Get back to the hotel grab a quick shower and down to the bar to meet up with our new best friends from Ottawa. They thank Donna for showing them where the TJ Maxx store was. We had dinner together in the hotel bar and shared conversation all evening. We made plans to meet up for breakfast the next morning. Off to our room to catch up on my cruise notes and remembered to move our watches ahead by one hour.

 

 

Stay with me only one more day to Equinox.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[pirategirl007]

Eeekkk! It made my night when I signed on and saw your trip report come up. I cant wait it read more. This should help pass the 30 days till our cruise on Equinox!

[poffles]

I love watching the ships come and go too. Not sure I could stand there for two hours but it beats sitting inside somewhere looking at four walls, and the great weather makes it so beautiful. Cannot wait for your big sail away.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[FRMPEI]

Time Lapse Sail Away - March 11, 2017

 

This next video is pretty neat. You can watch my two hours of standing on the 17th Street bridge in under 60 seconds. Five ships sail aways were captured in this time lapse. The blue skies cooperated this evening. Video links are available from both my Vimeo and YouTube accounts below.

Vimeo

YOUTUBE

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Kfoot]

WOW! Love the sail away video. Appreciate the time and effort you put into making this. Looking fwd to more of your report and videos.

We will be on this ship Sept 25. Different itinerary. We will be leaving out of Miami though. Not my favorite port. My aunt that lives in Toronto will be joining me on this trip. We did get all 4 perks included when we booked. So I'm

looking fwd to seeing pics of the ship and what the premium beverage package entails. Thanks

[OceansOfTravels]

Thank you for writing taking the time to write this review! I am considering a Celebrity cruise for 2018 on the Summit, so I am on the Boards reading through some reviews to get a feel as to what Celebrity is all about. I am also still trying to plan my days in Cozumel and Grand Cayman on my upcoming MSC Divina cruise, so I am excited to read your trip report. Quick question: What camera and editing tools do you use? You have some AMAZING shots! :D

[FRMPEI]

Eeekkk! It made my night when I signed on and saw your trip report come up. I cant wait it read more. This should help pass the 30 days till our cruise on Equinox!

 

Hello pirategirl007,

 

Glad you were able to find my Trip Report. If you want to cheat a bit and see some Equinox Photos you can click on my first Equinox Trip Report... link in my signature. Don't forget to also check out my videos I spend way more time on them than my photos.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

I love watching the ships come and go too. Not sure I could stand there for two hours but it beats sitting inside somewhere looking at four walls, and the great weather makes it so beautiful. Cannot wait for your big sail away.

 

Hi poffles,

 

I love this time of the year in my home port of Charlottetown the cruise ship season has just begun. We will have a Holland America Ship at least once a week until September then the real season starts. Sometimes we have up to three ships a day. I know it is no Saint Maarten's. :D I sometimes will travel about 30 minutes from Charlottetown over to Rocky Point just to watch the Ships leave Charlottetown Harbour. When the weather and skies are right it creates perfect picture taking conditions. Two hours is okay if I am by myself but there is no way Donna would go that long with me.

 

Here is a couple of picture I took last August from Rocky Point (Fort Amherst) in the evening when Holland America's Veendam was leaving the Charlottetown Harbour. The ships get real close to you here. Weather wasn't at its best this evening for photos.

 

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

WOW! Love the sail away video. Appreciate the time and effort you put into making this. Looking fwd to more of your report and videos.

We will be on this ship Sept 25. Different itinerary. We will be leaving out of Miami though. Not my favorite port. My aunt that lives in Toronto will be joining me on this trip. We did get all 4 perks included when we booked. So I'm

looking fwd to seeing pics of the ship and what the premium beverage package entails. Thanks

 

Hi Kfoot,

 

Thank you for your kind comments especially on my videos. I agree with you on your Miami comment. Even though we have only left from there once I prefer Fort Lauderdale. The Premium Alcohol Package is great not fussing over weather the drink you want is covered under your package or not. Enjoy your September cruise aboard Equinox.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

HEY YOU! Don't Skip this Post it is part the Trip Report

 

Thank you for writing taking the time to write this review! I am considering a Celebrity cruise for 2018 on the Summit, so I am on the Boards reading through some reviews to get a feel as to what Celebrity is all about. I am also still trying to plan my days in Cozumel and Grand Cayman on my upcoming MSC Divina cruise, so I am excited to read your trip report. Quick question: What camera and editing tools do you use? You have some AMAZING shots! :D

 

Hello OceansOfTravel,

 

Thank you for your kind comment and question. Finally someone has a tech question! In this response I will only talk about my photo gear and leave the video gear for another post.

 

The Photo Gear Tech Stuff

 

Back in July of 2015 I wanted to get a mirrorless camera for our up coming March 2016 Celebrity Eclipse two week cruise. Earlier in the Trip Report you read that we had to cancel that cruise but, I did get myself a new camera. Prior to this cruise I have always used a Sony Point and Shoot camera. Those Sony Point and Shoot cameras have served me well but, I wanted a mirrorless. Why Mirrorless? Mirrorless are still quite compact especially with the Kit lenses not much bigger than Point and Shoot. Mirrorless are much smaller and compact than Canon and Nikon DSLR's and quite a bit cheaper. I did quite a bit of research on the mirrorless camera and knew I wanted the Sony a6000. Keep in mind this was July 2015 and the a6300 and a6500 had not yet been released. If interested in mirrorless or making the switch to mirrorless check out Jason Lanier's YouTube channel.

 

July 2015 the CDN to USD FX exchange rate was still not to bad and Best Buy would occasionly offer a package of the Sony a6000 body, 16-50 Kit lenses, 55-210 zoom, Sony bag, and memory card for $899 CDN + Tax. Today two years later the same camera with just the 16-50 kit lenses is $829 and the newest a6500 body only is $1750. So I think you can see I think I got a pretty good deal on my Sony a6000.

 

I purchased two additional lenses and everything (plus 2 Sony Point & Shoots) fits into my Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 30i bag. From Left to right: 1)Sony 55-210 f4.5-6.3 OSS 2)Sony Ziess 16-70 f4 OSS 3)Sony Prime 50 f1.8 4)Sony a6000 with 16-50 f3.5-5.6 OSS

 

Not knowing any better I took all four lenses with me on this cruise. Did I use them all? No! Will I take them all again? Probably not. The work horse lenses for me, which probably took 95% of the 5000 photos, and my favourite lenses is the Sony Ziess 16-70. This was a present I bought for myself as a post surgery/recovery gift this time last year. I actually paid more for this lenses than I did for the original Sony a6000 package. But Heck! I am worth it. Right? The second lenses that I used quite a bit was the 55-210 zoom lenses which works really nice when you have the right amount of light coming into it. I could of left the other two lenses at home because they did not come out of the bag.

 

Sony a6000 with Ziess 16-70 OSS mounted - My go to everyday lenses. LOVE IT!

 

 

Besides a few photos taken with 5s iPhones the next picture is what I took virtually 100% of my photos with.

 

That little Sony Point & Shoot beside the a6000 is a Sony HX50V with a superzoom of 30X optical zoom. I used this quite a bit in the evenings to take photos of food and menus. Even though a mirrorless is quite compact still easier to carry this HX50V in my pocket in the evenings. This camera also takes excellent video and most of the video clips I used in the two sail away videos posted were captured on this little baby. This trip I used the HX50V more as a video camera than a photo camera.

 

I love taking photos and videos when I am cruising it probably my favourite thing to do besides eating. I am constantly learning and I have a very good childhood friend who has taken me under his wings and had been helping me learn more about my passion. I use a simple rule if it is a bad photo don't share it. Take 5000 photos you are bound to at least have a few good ones.

 

EDITING / ORGANIZATION SOFTWARE

 

Right now I have just over 75,000 photos stored on my iMac. Actually they are not on my iMac they are attached by an external Thunderbolt Drive. Yes! You bet I back this drive up. I have a minimum of two external drives backing up my photos. So how do I organize all these photo you ask? I subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography annual plan. This comes with Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC. I do not use the Photoshop CC software because quite simply I am not very good at it. I have grown to love Lightroom CC. So what is Lightroom CC you ask? Simply it is a way for you to import/organize/develop/and Publish your photos. I was a fan of Apple's Aperture but when Apple abandoned us Aperture users and left us with Photo we had had to find something else. Lightroom CC is the answer. The Photography Creative Cloud is about $10 USD + Tax per month.

 

It is amazing what Lightroom can do with a raw file. Take details out of shadows make the skies beautiful. I am far from an expert I like to use the "auto" buttons a lot. I do tweak each photo in Lightroom before I share here in this Trip Report.(No Photoshop) I even use Lightroom to add the text on photos. With 5000 photos to sort thru for this trip report organization is a must. With the creation of "collections" and "smart collections" I know exactly where to look. I also use Lightroom to publish all of my photos to my photo sharing web site - SmugMug. All my photos from the a6000 are shoot in "raw" but when published to SmugMug Lightroom coverts then to jpegs. I could go on for hours why I think my method of organizing photos is the best.

 

Had Enough? Thought so! Thanks for the question. I bet you guys can't wait for the video gear lecture I mean post?

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[OceansOfTravels]

Thank you so much for your response! You give so much detail in your responses, and it really adds to the character of the review. I hadn't even considered mirrorless cameras yet, so thank you for enlightening me. As much as I keep telling myself that I want a larger camera, I brought all of my gopro gear on one trip and complained, so I know that the best thing for me will be a newer and higher quality Point and Shoot. I had previously been considering the Canon Rebel EOS T6, as well as the NikonD3400 DSLR but it is kind of large and I imagine it comes with a lot of gear. But thank you so much for all of your help!

[FRMPEI]

Thank you so much for your response! You give so much detail in your responses, and it really adds to the character of the review. I hadn't even considered mirrorless cameras yet, so thank you for enlightening me. As much as I keep telling myself that I want a larger camera, I brought all of my gopro gear on one trip and complained, so I know that the best thing for me will be a newer and higher quality Point and Shoot. I had previously been considering the Canon Rebel EOS T6, as well as the NikonD3400 DSLR but it is kind of large and I imagine it comes with a lot of gear. But thank you so much for all of your help!

 

Thank you again for adding your comments. Please stayed tuned where I will show how I travel with my two GoPros and the mounts that are must haves for me. If the budget has room I personally would love to have this camera as my Point and Shot... The Sony Cybershot RX100 V. Pretty pricey at $1000 USD but NICE!

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1294926-REG/sony_cyber_shot_dsc_rx100_v_digital.html

 

The current replacement model for my Point & Shoot Sony HX50V is the Sony HX90V which is half the price of the RX100 V. More reasonable at under $450 USD.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1137175-REG/sony_dschx90v_b_cyber_shot_dsc_hx90v_digital_camera.html

 

The challenge for me on my cruise next year is to not travel with a carry on suitcase where I store my photo/video gear. I am hoping to get everything into my Think Tank bag and my one checked bag. That is a quite the challenge for me!

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[CruiserRob]

Hi CruiserRob,

 

Where do you live in Ontario? We lived in Newmarket for 10 years.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

Oshawa

[FRMPEI]

 

Sunday March 12, 2017 - One More Day!

 

I woke up about the same time as yesterday morning and gave a quick check outside the window to see what was stirring over at the cruise terminal. With the hour spring ahead with the clock it is still pretty dark out. Decided to lay in bed until the sun pouring in thru the curtains would wake me up. The sun thing did not happen because it was raining out. One time I looked out the window and did not see any ships because of the fog.

 

She is looking pretty dull this morning. Kinda of looks like the sun is trying its best to pop out?

 

Kevin's almost healthy breakfast.

 

We made plans to meet up for breakfast with our new best friends from Ottawa. The ladies wanted to take their newly arrived third member of their group over to TJ Maxx to check out the deals. Unfortunately TJ Maxx did not open until 11:00 AM. So I got the ladies to stand in front of Donna's favourite store for a picture.

 

 

Horrific Elevator Mishap

 

Before we went over to TJ Maxx let me recant a horrific scene that played out before me on one of the elevators. I previously mentioned about the elevator chaos that took place on the weekends from about 8:30 AM to about 11:00 AM. Before the TJ Maxx trip we were going to try to quickly go back upstairs to get our hats and sunglasses before we ventured outside. While on the main floor the elevator door opened and a horde of people piled into the elevator. No room for us. Then all of sudden I hear SCREAMING! the elevator opens and out pops a mother and she is carrying a SCREAMING little boy tearing his shirt off. The little boy looked maybe three or four years old. The mom rushes the little boy into the nearby washroom. Donna was actually in the washroom at the time and had no idea what had just happened and noticed the mom trying to get water onto the little boy's shoulder. Here is what happened... When the elevator door opened I notice a couple of coffee cups dumped onto the floor of the elevator. The hot coffee obviously fell and dumped onto the little boy standing near or underneath the coffee. I saw a man in the elevator holding a book with one coffee still resting on the book with horror on his face. I can't say for sure if the Hotel offered cardboard Coffee tray but, I am pretty sure one would have prevented this from happening. On our return from TJ Maxx we ran into the mom and little guy who had quite a blister on his shoulder. This was not a good thing to witness just left a terrible feeling in our guts all day.

 

Our new best friends were cruising on Regal Princess today and they wanted to get over to the terminal. We bid them farewell and invited them to join us on our 2018 Celebrity Reflection Cruise. I also told them to wave to me as they were leaving as I would be watching them from the 17th Street Bridge.

 

Until it was time for lunch we sat around the pool. Donna took a quick dip while I listened to some tunes and got caught up on my cruise notes. So around 1:00 PM we went back to Carrabba's for lunch and we both had their delicious Chicken Soup and Salad. It is kind of funny that we have been here since Friday noon have not really done anything but, time sure is flying by.

 

After lunch Donna really liked the spray sunscreen that I had picked up at Walgreens so she wanted to pick up a couple of extras for the cruise. When you get to Walgreens you are only a couple of minutes from the bridge and believe it or not Donna actually wanted to go down and see the ships that were in today.

 

Walk down to Walgreens we pass the Hotel we stayed at in 2014.

 

The bridge is up as Donna checks out Regal Princess.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Sunday March 12, 2017 - cont'd

 

The only problem with this walk down to the bridge is that I was unarmed. I did not have my Sony a6000 with me. Remember I am Canadian we don't do the hand gun thing. I did have my iPhone 5s so I snapped a couple of photos.

 

Twin Donnas. The "twin trick" the only good tip that I ever picked up from a Celebrity "i" class.

 

Donna checking out Regal Princess

 

Seven Ships in today:

 

1) Allure of the Seas - 2010 - 225K GT - 362M Long - 5400 Passengers

 

2) Carnival Conquest - 2002 - 110K GT - 291M Long - 2974 Passengers

 

3) Celebrity Silhouette - 2011 - 122K GT - 315M Long - 2886 Passengers

 

4) Freedom of the Seas - 2006 - 154K GT - 339M Long - 3782 Passengers

 

5) Regal Princess - 2014 - 143K GT - 330M Long - 3560 Passengers

 

6) HAL Koningsdam - 2016 - 100K GT - 292M Long - 2650 Passengers

 

7) HAL Niew Amsterdam - 2010 - 87K GT - 185M Long - 2106 Passengers

 

 

Celebrity Silhouette and HAL Koningsdam from balcony of hotel room.

 

Donna finds a use for my camera mounts other than holding onto cameras.

 

The afternoon turned out quite a bit better than what this early morning picture had in store for us.

 

Even though Donna had the Premium Alcohol Package she figured it would be a good idea to take two bottles of wine on broad with her tomorrow just to have in the stateroom fridge. This would save her a few trips to bar. Right? So on the way back from the causeway/bridge we stopped in again at the Total Wine store. I agreed to put one bottle in my carry on and she would carry on the second bottle.

 

Our Cruise partners were flying in from PEI today. I was not quite sure if Ken would arrive in time for this evening's sail aways. I was just getting my gear set up again on the balcony and the phone rings and it was Ken and Norma Jean and they had arrived and were just one floor down from us on ten. Not much time to waste so off Ken and I were to catch the sail aways which were scheduled to start at 4:00 PM. Ken is probably as big of a fan of the sail aways as I am. I got him hooked on the Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale web cam a few years back.

 

UP NEXT: KEEP TUNED

 

A rain shortened Sail Away

Complimentary Cocktail Hour

Outback Steak House

Equinox Embarkation

Edge Press Release Day & My opinion on the new Edge Class of ships

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[4cats4me]

Sunday March 12, 2017 - cont'd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donna checking out Regal Princess

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) Regal Princess - 2014 - 143K GT - 330M Long - 3560 Passengers

 

 

 

[

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[

 

Kevin Reid

 

 

 

We disembarked the Regal that morning around 10:00-11:00, probably as you were taking that picture. [emoji74]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[FRMPEI]

We disembarked the Regal that morning around 10:00-11:00, probably as you were taking that picture. [emoji74]

 

 

Hi 4cats4me,

 

If I remember correctly you followed pretty close behind us on Equinox back in 2014? It was unfortunate that the weather turned to dull for your Sail Away on Regal. I didn't get many nice photos from your sail away.

 

I was recently watching a YouTube video of a" normal" balcony cabin for Royal/Regal Princess and the balcony looked tiny. The Chairs were turned sideway because it looked like they would not fit the other way? Have you found the balcony to be smaller than compared to the "normal" non suite balcony of the "S" class Celebrity ships?

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[cmalagngl]

Kevin, thanks for the information on your cameras. I'm thinking about upgrading my camera before our Japan trip April of next year.

 

Thanks again,

 

Carl

[4cats4me]

Hi 4cats4me,

 

 

 

If I remember correctly you followed pretty close behind us on Equinox back in 2014? It was unfortunate that the weather turned to dull for your Sail Away on Regal. I didn't get many nice photos from your sail away.

 

 

 

I was recently watching a YouTube video of a" normal" balcony cabin for Royal/Regal Princess and the balcony looked tiny. The Chairs were turned sideway because it looked like they would not fit the other way? Have you found the balcony to be smaller than compared to the "normal" non suite balcony of the "S" class Celebrity ships?

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Kevin Reid

 

 

 

We were getting off the ship that morning, but we had a horrible sailaway with strong winds, two tugs to get us out and essentially rough seas the whole trip from 3/5-3/12, well, MOST of the trip was bad wind and or rough seas. You have a good memory, yes, we were last on Equinox in 2014 and due to go in October.

Regarding balcony size on the Regal, yes, very, very small, yet manageable. I'm not gonna lie, I would prefer a larger balcony, but it isn't a deal breaker. Regarding cabin size, not much smaller than the Equinox, especially if you get a deluxe cabin, which has a small sofa instead of chair. This last cruise we chose a regular cabin with no sofa and we have decided that in the future, we need that little sofa.

After having gone AQ twice, we had no problem with the Regal cabins, and we much prefer the fabulous buffet on the Regal to that on the Equinox. So much to choose from. However, before we discovered the Regal, we fell in love with the buffet on the Equinox.

 

We prefer the Solarium on Equinox, as Regal doesn't have one.

 

We like both ships equally for different reasons.

 

They are both beauties.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Arzeena]

Arzeena,

 

The links are there in Kevins signature, click on expand signature, you'll love them

 

Thank you. I am just seeing this post.

[Arzeena]

ITINERARY cont'd

 

 

Day 10 Cozumel. We come along side Equinox's younger sister Silhouette. We have a Segway excursion booked...maybe!

 

 

What beach is this in Cozumel? Looks really nice!

[FRMPEI]

Kevin, thanks for the information on your cameras. I'm thinking about upgrading my camera before our Japan trip April of next year.

Thanks again,

Carl

 

Hi Carl,

 

Regardless of what you purchase just give yourself some time to learn to "play" with it before you go.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

What beach is this in Cozumel? Looks really nice!

 

This beach I believe is part of the Grand Park Royal Resort. You actually have to cross a very busy street to get to it from the resort. I took the picture of the beach from the sidewalk. I also think they sell day passes to cruise ship passengers.

 

 

This next photo is the beach/resort taken from our stateroom.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Thank you. I am just seeing this post.

 

Arzeena,

 

I hope you have read both of them before finishing up with this one? :D

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Arzeena]

This beach I believe is part of the Grand Park Royal Resort. You actually have to cross a very busy street to get to it from the resort. I took the picture of the beach from the sidewalk. I also think they sell day passes to cruise ship passengers.

 

 

This next photo is the beach/resort taken from our stateroom.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

Thanks.