Celebrity Equinox Jazz Fest cruise 4/24-5/5 Photo Review

[miched]

Have a question about the bed. The high end suites are supposed to have Reverie beds. They are adjustable like a hospital bed by way of a remote. They also are made by using latex rubber coils that are color coded according to firm, medium and soft and can be arranged to different patterns in the bed to make the bed firm, medium or soft where you want it. The bed also has vibrators that you can turn on for different sections of the bed. There are also two preset adjustments for zero gravity and anti snoring on the remote that raises the head and foot positions.

 

We have one that we bought thru Costco and Celebrity was advertising them on their site and mentioned that they were in the higher suites and the Butler would adjust it according to your preference

 

I would like to know if the Butler offered to adjust the bed by rearranging the coils and if the remote was their to use the vibrators and bed adjustments

 

Thanks

[RRFPresident]

Have a question about the bed. The high end suites are supposed to have Reverie beds. They are adjustable like a hospital bed by way of a remote. They also are made by using latex rubber coils that are color coded according to firm, medium and soft and can be arranged to different patterns in the bed to make the bed firm, medium or soft where you want it. The bed also has vibrators that you can turn on for different sections of the bed. There are also two preset adjustments for zero gravity and anti snoring on the remote that raises the head and foot positions.

 

We have one that we bought thru Costco and Celebrity was advertising them on their site and mentioned that they were in the higher suites and the Butler would adjust it according to your preference

 

I would like to know if the Butler offered to adjust the bed by rearranging the coils and if the remote was their to use the vibrators and bed adjustments

 

Thanks

 

Our suite did not have the new adjustable bed but Dad says it was still comfortable.

[RRFPresident]

Wednesday, April26th

 

 

 

 

Well it turns out that if you're tired enough, you cansleep on any surface regardless of comfort. Climbed into my sofa bedlast night around 12:30AM, next thing I knew it was 6:30AM and this was my view:

 

 

 

Since Key West was our first US port after visiting theforeign port of Freeport, we were given a letter for each of us inour cabin yesterday assigning us a 9:15AM time for immigration. Sincewe are suite guests, the letter instructed us to meet at the MartiniBar to get priority in passing through the face to face immigration.

 

No clue why it lists our cabin as a Sky Suite:

 

We planned a time to get up that would allow us time tohave breakfast in Luminae. Things were slightly off in Luminae thismorning as Dad ordered bacon and got sausage. I ordered sausage andhash brown with my omelet and the hash brown looked so much like myomelet, I thought they'd forgotten that too! Even dad at firstquestioned why my plate looked like it had a weird open faced twopiled omelet. The hash brown though was super dry so I only took acouple bites.

 

 

 

One of the things I prefer when cruising is to get twocopies of the daily newsletter – one to keep clean for posterityand one to freely mark up and fold up for carrying around the ship.Usually asking the steward to leave two at turndown accomplishes thisbut that never was the case on this trip. Instead, we made dailypilgrimages to Michaels Club just to get a second copy. Guestservices also had extras in a little kiosk stand for those who wantone and aren't in suites. When stopping at Michaels this morning,Manuela asks if we'd done our immigration yet. We assure her that weplan to head down at our assigned time but she explains that shementioned it because they are running ahead of schedule and we canfeel free to run down now if we wanted.

 

 

We stop right outside Michaels for a quick restroombreak and what do we hear but an announcement over the ship's PAsystem declaring that immigration is going much faster thananticipated and now everyone and their brother and their secondcousin's mother's pet ferret can head down to get in line. I may havead libbed a bit on the announcement's exact wording. We made our waydown to the Martini Bar and Arsim (who had outright told us the daybefore that he'd be escorting us past the line) was nowhere to beseen and the line was now down the corridor past the shops. With noother foreseeable option, we just joined the end of the line andfollowed the crowd as we weaved through the airport security stylerope course set up to keep the line weaving through the casino ratherthan just straight down along the shops. The line moved relativelyquickly though with two crew members scanning cards, then you waitedfor the next available of two customs officers who sat on stools atthe stairwell who checked our cards against our passports. Then youcompleted the loop by following the line until you met one of theother crew members, in my case Ashley, who punched the little uniquehead and shoulders person in the middle of your cruise card as a signthat you'd completed the process. Add the lack of Arsim's escort tothe list of miscues on the whole above and beyond suite experiencebut the whole process moved smoothly enough that we were done inabout 10-15 minutes.

 

 

Some time left for views from our balcony:

[RRFPresident]

What's your pleasure for today? Biking? Jet Ski? Catamaran?

 

 

 

Being fans of the HOHO bus option, we had originallydecided to purchase Conch Tour Train tickets from the companydirectly at a cost of $53.77 for one adult ticket and one seniorticket. Then one of our roll call members noticed that Celebrity wasoffering tickets as one of the ship excursions for only $40 or $20per person so we changed gears and booked with the ship. The messedup excursion sale on Celebrity's website was during this time so Ican't say that this is the normal rate you might find today. Thetickets said to meet in the dining room at 9:45AM for the 10AM tourtime I picked. They also stated that you had until 11AM to meet theguy on the pier who you would trade your ship excursion ticket withto get the actual ticket for the train. We asked the crew membermanning the doorway if we could just go directly off the ship to meetthis guy rather than go and sit in the dining room until 10AM. Heinsisted that we had to go into the dining room and sit if we wantedto participate in the tour. We walked into the dining room, showedour tickets to the crew members manning the booth just inside thedoor. They gave us our tickets back plus two blue numbered stickersfrom their shore excursion identifying system and basically said whyare you here, just go out to the pier and give your ticket to thatguy who is waiting. I'm sure the world would have stopped revolvingif we hadn't also gotten two blue numbered stickers, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were following the crowd to ding our way off theship, an officer who had been walking by stopped the two ladies infront of us because one of them was carrying her morning coffee withthe intent of drinking it on the way to their planned activity. Heinstructed the woman to hand over the coffee and she thought he wasjoking because he wanted to drink it. He explained that coffee is anagricultural product and just like fruit, it's not allowed off theship. Sure enough, I noticed later in the newsletter a whole blurbabout how water was the only drink allowed to be taken off the shiptoday. We quickly found our guy once on the pier and he took ourtickets in exchange for new conch train tour stickers to wear. Wewere double fisting in tour stickers today! He directed us to headbehind the big red customs building to pick up the next train as theConch Tour Train office (apparently one of several we came to learn)was just beyond the big building size soldier kissing nurse statue.

 

 

This guy is going for the most epic upskirt photo:

 

 

 

We got to the office just as the current conch trainfilled up. Within a minute or two, another train pulled up and wehopped right on. Our train soon filled up and several not so happyfellow cruise passengers became vocal about having to sit and waitfor the next train. You'd think cruisers would be used to waiting inline by now!

 

 

Our perspective while sitting on the train waiting to leave:

 

 

 

I must add that if your intent is like ours for thisport day in that you wanted a true Hop On/Hop Off experience that wasbasically easy transportation with a little history to a destinationyou wanted to explore more on your own, then the Conch Train is notthe company for you. You'd be better off taking one of the severalother choices.

 

 

 

This company operates more like an actual bus tour ofthe city making a big spiel about how by law they can't let anyone onor off the train except at their per-arranged stops at the otherConch Train company offices, especially the one that conveniently hasa gift shop and ice cream stand. The tour is also fast moving. Ourdriver George was funny and informative but you'd better have thatcamera ready in anticipation because his stops at the major landmarkswere more of a drive by mention than a long look and enjoy.

 

 

This guy only gave the tour 1 finger or uhh toe? up:

 

 

 

Our intention for this port was to take the train untilit stopped at the southernmost point, the Hemingway House, andTruman's Little White House. Best this tour offered was getting offabout 6 blocks up from the southernmost point and Hemingway House attheir gift shop so we rode the train for the whole tour (about 45minutes) and then got off when it returned for a second time to thegift shop. We started backtracking on foot until we felt like weweren't really getting anywhere and stopped to ask one of theinformation booths on most corners how to get to the Southernmostpoint. Messed up with their directions ending up at the opposite endof the pier. Got directions from the next nearest information boothwe came across and finally found the buoy and its long line of peoplewaiting for their turn to take selfies.

 

 

Perhaps this guy had the right idea - just hang out on my Vespa while waiting in line:

[RRFPresident]

I snuck around to the backside of the buoy because I wasalways curious as to whether the other side is painted too. Turns outit's not but frankly they ought to so that the stupid selfie line cansplit up and move quicker. I waited for a moment when I wouldn't bephotobombing the next person in line and reached out to touch theback of the buoy just so I could say I'd been there and touched thesouthernmost point! Yeah, I'm a nerd like that. I then moved off tothe side and grabbed a few pics of the wording on the front best Icould in between selfie takers.

 

 

Best of the bunch:

 

Another greatly timed photo:

 

 

 

As we started to walk away, we spotted one of the freeroam chickens Key West is known for trying to get their little chickto follow them up and through the fence but the concrete curb beforethe fencing was too high for the little chick. A small group hadstopped to watch the exchange and after the chicken jumped through onher own, one of the human children in the group (with their parent'spermission) gently scooped up the baby chick and helped lift her uponto the concrete barrier. Little chick happily scurried off with itsmommy as the human children did the same.

 

 

 

Shake those tail feathers:

 

 

 

The Florida heat and humidity was alive and well todayand we were roasting as we made the walk from there to the HemingwayHouse. Also probably got a little lost in the process or frankly theheat just made it feel like the walk took forever. When we got toHemingway House, we saw a long line of people standing along theinfamous wall outside the entrance and figured it was the ticket lineso we hopped in at the end of the line. We are cruise passengersafter all, we see a long line and instinctively join the end of it.Thankfully after a while, a guy came out and explained that this linewas for an arranged group tour of the house and if you're not part ofit, you don't need to stand in line. We and about 6 other peoplestepped out of line and moved to stand in line at the ticket booth.The guy manning the ticket booth worked through our line so slowlythat the big line tour group got called in as we waited. We paid $28for two adults (no senior rate option) and we had read online aheadof time that they only accepted cash. By the time we made it to thefront door of the home (where no one even bothered to check whetherwe had tickets or not), there was tour groups left and right fillingup the small rooms. There are more grounds than there are rooms inthis house from what I could tell as I was growing more and moreuncomfortable at being sandwiched in to the first main living roomspace about as big as the average kitchen with about 20-30 tour groupmembers who had all been told to come in and wait for their guide.The only relief was the two large fans that had been set up in thecorner that the crowd forced me up against. One man in the crowd didprovide some comic relief as he got so up close and personal with oneof the fans in an attempt to be funny, I'm surprised there's not anew Law & Order: SVU Key West episode in the works.

 

 

 

 

I snapped a few pics best I could around people and DadI made record time moving through that house trying to stay one stepahead of the tour groups.

[RRFPresident]

Well preserved now old school style of kitchen:

 

Didn't everyone back then have a flat screen TV in their kitchen?

 

 

 

Another group had been touring the upstairs level and wedarted upstairs in between them coming back down and the first groupheading up. I think the only space we missed was the upstairs roomdedicated to the wives but I peeked in as we walked by and that wasenough for me. One of the main things this historic site is known foris the 6 toed cats roaming the property, something I cared more aboutthan just the concept of seeing a famous author's home. We'd seen acouple cats dart across the yard as we walked to the front door andnow found one sound asleep on the bed. Several people were gatheredaround the bed admiring the cat and probably the furniture in theroom too I suppose but this cat didn't care one bit. Probably so usedto visitors that it just wasn't worth interrupting their afternoonsiesta.

 

 

 

Why sleep in your specially constructed house when you can sleep under it?

 

 

 

With another tour group hot on our tails, we ducked outonto the upstairs terrace and walked around the side of the house. Itried to peek in the window to the wives room from the outside butall you could see was people's backsides. Everyone on the terracefiled single file down a set of rickety stairs (make sure you duck asthe wood above sits very low) to the backyard garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the garden which does have somebenches scattered throughout and checked out the various inscribedblocks lining the paths. It was like playing Where's Waldo or perhapsWhere's Garfield as we spotted random cats sunning themselves in thegarden or darting across the path. We checked out the wedding altarand the purposefully super shallow pool.

[RRFPresident]

I'm hiding, you can't see me!

 

A little taste of home:

 

 

 

The gift shop is on this bottom level right off the pooland we stepped through the super narrow door to check out itsofferings. Loads of trinket style things so if you're into collectingmagnets, postcards, etc than you've found your new happy place. Atthe back of the gardens are public restrooms and vending machines.Desperate for hydration, Dad and I decided to split a bottle ofwater. The machine would only take singles and cost us $2 for onebottle. Honestly, cheaper than I would have expected for a touristplace.

 

 

Here's what the conch train looks like from the outside:

 

By the time we had walked all the way back to the conchtrain gift shop, the train waiting there only had the smaller rearfacing seats available. We had to channel our inner contortionist toget onboard far enough in the row to tuck one leg under our body onthe seat just to have the space to turn around and sit down on thecushion. The rest of the ride back to Mallory Square I kept gettingconfused as the driver/conductor would point out something to hisleft and by the time I realized that meant to look to my right, wewere past the location. By the time we made it back to the top of theroute, I didn't have the strength left to bother going to Truman'sLittle White House. Instead we hopped off at Mallory Square andwalked the shops. Dad was also so hot and tired by this point that hegave up on the idea of finding a Key West T-shirt for his collection.Speaking of Dad's cruise port T-shirt collection, each time Dad worethe shirt from Alaska someone onboard the ship would notice it andremark “Wow, you came a long way for this cruise” because theythought we really lived in Alaska. Oddly enough, no such comment whenhe wore shirts from the British Isles and Grand Mediterraneancruises.

 

 

 

 

It was now around 3:30PM and even though we didn't haveto be back onboard until 5:30PM, we were ready to return to the worldof air conditioning. We started walking back toward the ship but Iwanted to stop at the famous Mattheesens shop on Duval Street as I'dbeen craving fudge since we couldn't find a spot to buy any duringour limited post excursion shopping time during the 2015 Alaskacruise. Dad had shipped some home during his solo Alaska cruise manyyears earlier and I had hoped to find it again. Picked out half aslab of each chocolate and peanut butter as the rest of the flavorshad physical chunks of nuts in some shape or form. With bag of fudgein hand, our main goal was to head back to the ship especially to getthis fudge into our cabin fridge.

[RRFPresident]

A little surprised Dad didn't go for these 1/2 lb cookies:

 

Can't go to Key West and not get a pic of this place:

 

 

 

I don't really know when we managed to lose our sense ofdirection when walking in port on the simplest routes but a word tothe wise – look up as well as down and into store windows. Wewalked back and forth trying to find our way back to the ship for afew blocks until I turned around and looked up to see the Equinoxsmokestacks towering over the red Customs building.

 

Good thing these guys don't mind the humidity:

We stopped just outside the gates to take exteriorpictures of the ship and then made our way through the securitycheckpoint which did require both sea pass card and photo ID.

 

 

Hey you two get a room, err cabin!

 

Cruise ships and palm trees - like bread and butter:

[RRFPresident]

If you count up 5 decks from the bottom balcony, that's our balcony:

 

I wonder if the guys on the bridge ever dabble in port building's roof inspections:

 

The holes along the side at the aft remind me of Connect Four:

 

 

 

While Princess has started offering the nice touch of cold towels and water to drink when you return to the ship in port,Celebrity does it well. We were so grateful to see those cold towelswaiting for us, especially since they were so cold they still had icechips clinging to them! I know it has been debated on CC in the pastbut we never saw any special suite/elite/zenith priority red carpetline for returning to the ship at any of these ports. At this time ofthe afternoon though there wasn't much of a line and we were able toboard quickly.

 

 

 

Once back in the cabin and fudge safely stored in thefridge, we took turns grabbing showers and fresh changes of clothesto feel human again. As I took my turn to shower, our cabin phonerang several times but no one spoke when Dad answered it. Wonder ifour older lady from the other night has become our new cabin stalker?After some more hydration, we headed up to the Sky Lounge for moviemusic themed trivia. This time we took the opposite outdoor route andfinally got some lunch at the Mast Grill on the way. Dad elected toskip the movie kisses themed video trivia in order to participate ingolf putting and bocce ball but I stayed. Thankfully, the crewfigured out how to set up the video to play on both the projectorscreen in the center of the lounge and on the little TV monitorsbehind the couch along the wall. Joined up with some new triviafriends and we earned a respectable 20 out of 25 identifying themovie title from still pictures of the romantic moments from themovies.

[RRFPresident]

I made it back to the cabin first and tried to relax on the balcony lounger while checking in online. No luck getting the internet to connect even though I picked up signals from half the town of Key West. Headed back inside the cabin where it worked fine.

 

Tried my first hard apple cider from the wine fridge/mini bar setup. Would have expected more of a sweeter apple taste but it tasted more like weak tea:

 

Our first delivery of the “daily” canapés and our requested snack plate of cheese and crackers got delivered.

 

The tortilla chips for the guacamole were stale:

 

Arsim confirmed that the plate of cookies we had requested was something we wanted every night and promised to bring it when he stopped by to refill the ice. Dad returned triumphant with more prize tickets for being on the winning bocce ball team.

 

 

 

At 5:35PM, I traded my flip flops for closed toesneakers and we made our way to deck 6 forward where a crew memberdirected us and everyone else gathered to head down the hall for ourinvitation only helipad sail away.

 

 

Oh look, they figured out we were in a Royal Suite again:

 

 

We were helped through the small opening which doesrequire a step up only to crouch down immediately after to getthrough the door. A red carpet had been set up marking the path fromthe doorway to the steps leading up to the helipad. CD Richard and acouple other officers stood by the turn in the carpet greetingeveryone as they passed by. There was one ship photographer workingthe crowd offering to take pictures of you with the rest of the shipin the background. Bar waiters wandered the crowd offering champagneand mimosas and collecting the empty glasses. A handful of other shipofficers stayed up on the helipad to mingle with the passengers. Witha group of at least 50 people also invited to this experience,railing space was at a premium so Dad and I quickly split up andgrabbed the couple remaining single spots to watch from the railing.It is definitely a great perspective to watch sail-away and anexperience just for that aspect that I hope everyone gets toexperience at some point.

[Orator]

I am really enjoying your review and look forward to your posts. They usually do some special events on themed cruises. What are they doing on this cruise? For example: Are there any special Jazz groups on board? I would suggest that you go online and check out the prices of any special music events in NO that are offered by Celebrity as tours. Found that we could see for free or a fraction of the cost from Celebrity events on the Mardi Gras Cruise. The Julia St Terminal is an easy walk from the French Quarter.

[RRFPresident]

Washy washy!

 

I'd be so tempted to photobomb these staged photos if I was on the other side of those windows:

 

The classic sailboats in the harbor picture:

 

Not the greatest pic but here you can see the small doorway. The area underneath the helipad is a crew bar and lounge so the rinsing shower and seating are for them to relax:

[RRFPresident]

 

Bye bye Key West!

 

A new spin off of the Tiny House movement is Tiny Offices!

 

 

 

We were also treated to the view of a Navy helicopterflying past the ship.

[RRFPresident]

Once we had officially pushed off from the dock andmoved into open water, the novelty wore off and several people left.We soon followed as well because it was already 6:15PM and we had6:30PM dinner reservations.

 

I apologize for the vertical video format but here's a little taste of the experience:FVNJASP0mT8

[RRFPresident]

Tonight was our first dinner at Silk Harvest and sinceour suite meant no budget on the per plate costs, we decided to gocrazy and order several appetizers or so called “small plates”and several so called “large plates” which honestly could haveprobably fit into your average large soup bowl rather than feeding acrowd. Our philosophy was why not try a little of everything wethought sounded appealing. When we first tried Silk Harvest back onthe Solstice, we each ordered a single entree and the waiter keptbringing us different things he thought we would like. Our waitressthis time, Donna, made what I felt was a bit of a rude remark afterwe ordered by insisting that she was going to put it in for us as allsmaller than usual portions because we had ordered so much food. I'msorry but what's it to you if we wanted to order 2 or 20 plates ofegg rolls? We don't normally order like we did this night, even whenwe've dined on other cruises with a dining package or the first nightwith the cover charge waived like having any suite gets you onPrincess. No we didn't expect to be able to eat every morsel both forappetite and whether we liked it taste wise but why should it matterwhen it is our dime being spent? As it was, our timely service weexperienced with ordering and delivery of our small plate items soondropped off to the point that we watched people who came in after usgetting their full meals, eating, and leaving before our large platesever arrived. Finally, with 30 minutes before I would have walked outin order to attend our desired evening activity, our large platesarrived. They did scan our card but did not require signing areceipt.

 

 

The small plates:

 

Cream cheese wontons:

 

Duo of Beef and Chicken Satay Peanut dipping sauce

 

Pork and Shrimp Pot Stickers Sambal vinegar sauce

 

The large plates:

 

Char Siu Pork* Boneless bbq pork loin & stir fried vegetables

[RRFPresident]

Silk Fried Rice Choice of chicken, shrimp, beef or vegetables. Dad got beef and I got shrimp:

 

Orange Chicken Crispy chicken, carrots, scallions & orange sauce

 

Hunan Beef Red & green peppers, oyster mushrooms, bamboo shoots & red Thai chilies

 

Chinese Pepper Steak Wok seared beef, green peppers & spicy bean sauce

 

 

 

Dad chose to go to the hot glass show while I headedback to the Entertainment Court for the 8PM Celebrity Life activitycalled Future Cruise Open House and Game Show. Ran into triviateammates Sue and Ron and we chatted while a video showing off thenew Celebrity Edge was played on a loop projected onto the screen asAshley got set up. Just like the other game, those wanting to playhad to run to a spot in the center first to have the chance to win.Part of the trivia was asking questions about Celebrity Cruiseseither relating to ship features (i.e. which ship has the magiccarpet) or about which ship would be going on specific routes. Forthe other questions, they used references to the ship sailingitineraries to give hints about a specific geographic location thatthe ship would be visiting and you had to guess the location. Ron wasable to answer one of the ship related questions and won a waterbottle. I answered a geography question about the Galapagos itineraryand won a bottle of champagne and a leather Celebrity Cruises totebag that they were giving out as a joint prize. Guess they wanted tooffer some way to carry the bottle back to your cabin.

[RRFPresident]

I headed back to the cabin to dump my prizes only tofind that Jose was only just now servicing our cabin for the evening.Wandered around lugging the items for a bit including checking outthe still going on glass show but still made it back to the cabinbefore Dad.

 

 

Found this left on our dining table and thought at first we might have gotten some cute gift basket. Nope, that's how they dropped off our clean underwear and socks with the shirts on hangers left draped across the bed:

 

 

 

When Dad returned and found out that we'd had ournightly ice refill but still had no cookie delivery, he wanted to gooff in search of some. We went up to the buffet first and arrivedjust before the ice cream counter closed so we each got a bowl of icecream. The ice cream was already melting as it was scooped out so weonly got a couple bites. Dad still wanted cookies so we headed downto Cafe al Bacio. With the loud music, Dad nor the crew membermanning the counter heard me add on a request for an eclair when Dadordered his cookies. By the time Dad got served his cookies, anotherguy had walked up to place a coffee order. The crew member asked whowas next and even though I said I was, he still helped the other man.In the meantime, another man walks up to request a beer and the crewmember skips over me again to wait on the second guy which meanthaving to go in the back. The guy couldn't have walked 10 more feetto an actual bar for his beer? I tried to speak up about beingskipped over but was ignored. With no one else besides me standing atthe counter now, he finally decided to wait on me and then proceededto laugh at me when all I wanted was an eclair.

 

 

A slight bit of randomness as I know people have asked. While we were always given either a cold can or a can with the glass of ice with our premium drink package, there was a regular fountain soda package available to purchase that showed up on our cabin TV about 4 days into the cruise:

 

 

We took our treats back to the cabin where thankfully wedidn't require any plates or cutlery to eat this time and discoveredthat our next day's newsletter advised changing the clocks back onehour so that we could acclimate ourselves and ship's time to be inthe Central Time Zone during the one sea day before our arrival inNew Orleans. It was a nice touch to also find a message on our cabinvoicemail from Concierge Manuela advising of the time change as well.

[musik07]

For those of us who have always wanted to "look under the hood":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since lots of people ask about types of sweetener and such on board:

 

This picture made me a happy girl! Due to a severe sensitivity I only use Truvia or or Splenda. While I don't see Truvia knowing they have actual Splenda and not just a yellow packet with some sort of sweetener that may or may not be Splenda (I have had this happen more than once when a packet was yellow but contained the same ingredients of equal or sweet-n-low). I don't use it often but if I make a mistake I can end up in bed with a migraine for a day or two so avoidance is key! Eases my mind a bit, although I will still bring a zip lock bag with them in my carry on just incase!

[riredsox]

I made it back to the cabin first and tried to relax on the balcony lounger while checking in online. No luck getting the internet to connect even though I picked up signals from half the town of Key West. Headed back inside the cabin where it worked fine.

 

Tried my first hard apple cider from the wine fridge/mini bar setup. Would have expected more of a sweeter apple taste but it tasted more like weak tea:

 

Our first delivery of the “daily” canapés and our requested snack plate of cheese and crackers got delivered.

 

The tortilla chips for the guacamole were stale:

 

Arsim confirmed that the plate of cookies we had requested was something we wanted every night and promised to bring it when he stopped by to refill the ice. Dad returned triumphant with more prize tickets for being on the winning bocce ball team.

 

 

 

At 5:35PM, I traded my flip flops for closed toesneakers and we made our way to deck 6 forward where a crew memberdirected us and everyone else gathered to head down the hall for ourinvitation only helipad sail away.

 

 

Oh look, they figured out we were in a Royal Suite again:

 

 

We were helped through the small opening which doesrequire a step up only to crouch down immediately after to getthrough the door. A red carpet had been set up marking the path fromthe doorway to the steps leading up to the helipad. CD Richard and acouple other officers stood by the turn in the carpet greetingeveryone as they passed by. There was one ship photographer workingthe crowd offering to take pictures of you with the rest of the shipin the background. Bar waiters wandered the crowd offering champagneand mimosas and collecting the empty glasses. A handful of other shipofficers stayed up on the helipad to mingle with the passengers. Witha group of at least 50 people also invited to this experience,railing space was at a premium so Dad and I quickly split up andgrabbed the couple remaining single spots to watch from the railing.It is definitely a great perspective to watch sail-away and anexperience just for that aspect that I hope everyone gets toexperience at some point.

A perfect picture of me in the blue white striped shirt and my husband, white shirt!

[Orator]

This is billed as a "Signature Cruise". What are the special Signature Events?

Thank you.

[bluecruisin]

Sorry for butting in and I hope RFFPresident will correct me. We are doing this jazz cruise next year and have been following every scrap of info on this cruise. All the other posters have reported no nod to Jazz or New Orleans with entertainment, cuisine or decor. I really hope they correct this before next year's Jazz cruise.

[Orator]

Sorry for butting in and I hope RFFPresident will correct me. We are doing this jazz cruise next year and have been following every scrap of info on this cruise. All the other posters have reported no nod to Jazz or New Orleans with entertainment, cuisine or decor. I really hope they correct this before next year's Jazz cruise.

I'm trying to decide if I should book this cruise for next year. If it's just another cruise that has NO as a Port of Call my answer is "no". If there are special events that highlight Jazz my answer is "yes". The Mardi Gras cruise had some special events that marked it as a Signature Cruise, although some wanted more. These included lectures and informational talks. The parade tickets were grossly overpriced, but events were available and labeled as "Signature Events".

[riredsox]

Sorry for butting in and I hope RFFPresident will correct me. We are doing this jazz cruise next year and have been following every scrap of info on this cruise. All the other posters have reported no nod to Jazz or New Orleans with entertainment, cuisine or decor. I really hope they correct this before next year's Jazz cruise.

I was on the Jazz cruise and it was great once we got to NOLA. Book your jazz fest tickets early thru the ship (same price) as the price goes up once on board. They did not have a jazz band on board but just the regular band that played jazz. They actually had a jazz concert one night without a single horn! The orchestra was better when they played but that was not very often. I put that in my comments. If you are doing a jazz cruise have a couple of jazz bands on board, at least one! They had a real one on one of the nights in NOLA but of course most people were off the ship! It is nothing like a real jazz cruise just a ride and hotel at the jazz fest. Still it was a very good cruise!

[Orator]

I was on the Jazz cruise and it was great once we got to NOLA. Book your jazz fest tickets early thru the ship (same price) as the price goes up once on board. They did not have a jazz band on board but just the regular band that played jazz. They actually had a jazz concert one night without a single horn! The orchestra was better when they played but that was not very often. I put that in my comments. If you are doing a jazz cruise have a couple of jazz bands on board, at least one! They had a real one on one of the nights in NOLA but of course most people were off the ship! It is nothing like a real jazz cruise just a ride and hotel at the jazz fest. Still it was a very good cruise!

 

Thank you for your comments.

[Rob the Cruiser]

There was a jazz band on board. They did one performance that lasted more than an hour.