Live Equinox 2/16/19

[h20cruzer]

Well I have debated about doing a live blog, traveling with my daughter her boyfriend and 2 grand kid 9, 13. The way the evening has gone made my mind up to do it. We are flying Out of San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale. We decided we should make a dinner reservation since it’s Valentine’s Day. We decided on outback steakhouse and sits on our way to the airport. We had a reservation for 7 PM we pulled into the parking lot at 6:45 just as phone rang.  It was the restaurant saying They had a problem in the kitchen and we’re closing the restaurant. No where do we go to eat on Valentine’s Day so, so we headed to the airport .  So $150 later we had a chicken quesadilla, chicken nachos a bread bowl of clam chowder and 2 breakfast sandwiches. Oh and 3 cocktails for the adults.

Tmorrow we have a day room st the Sheraton and the moving to the Cambria Suites. I have never stayed there but since we are a party of 5 it seemed to make sense.

still another 2 hours till we board, time is certainly moving slowly....

[FlorenceItaly]

Looking forward to you LIVE report.  Thank you and have a wonderful cruise.

[Pier290]

Following!! 🛳️😎🌴🍹🍾

[RealDeal]

We just stayed at the Cambria & it was fine. Shaq is the manager & he was great, so see him if you have any issues.

[jsfein]

Following.  Particularly interested as to the grandkids' experience as I will be traveling with a 12 year old over the summer.

[Pier290]

23 minutes ago, jsfein said:

Following.  Particularly interested as to the grandkids' experience as I will be traveling with a 12 year old over the summer.

We took our 11 and 8 year olds on Equinox over Easter break on a 10 day and THEY LOVED IT!!!...WHY DID THEY LOVE IT....the crew and staff treated them like royalty, it wasn't packed with tons of kids but just enough where they made a few friends from all over the world, they loved eating in the main dining room ordering off of the adult menus, they LOVED the attention they received in the Kids Club....we went on MSC Seaside with them and zero comparison......they both preferred Celebrity!!😎

[garyl62]

Hope your trip is nothing but great after that first night! We leave 5 weeks from today to sail on the Equinox and can't wait

[Jim_Iain]

Looking forward to follow your wonderful adventure.   Sorry to hear that it started out with a disappointing reservation but can see you rolled with the punches and had a lovely though expensive substation.

[CruisinRoxy]

Following!  We just got off the lovely Equinox last Saturday.  We had a marvelous time!  However, we ran into one similar snafu regarding pre-cruise hotel.  I booked the Marriott Biscayne Bay, 5 minutes from port so we could open our eyes on Saturday am and see our ship.  Not to be. The morning we left home, I got an email in the airport stating, "we have canceled your reservation, you are being relocated"  WHAT? Now this was credit card guaranteed, booked last August.  They relocated us to a hotel on South Beach, which turned out to be very nice, but the room was basically a closet.  I still can't get over this - WHAT hotel does that?  They said overbooking.  When most hotels are booked solid, you can't even get a late checkout, let alone an extra day!  What is the point of a guaranteed reservation?   Will not ever go back to a Marriott again! 

Anyway - have a fantastic cruise!  Wish we were back on!

[h20cruzer]

Ok, not  terrible not good you know what it’s like to sleep on the plane during a night flight not something anyone wants to do. We left about 20 minutes late but then sat on the runway for probably at least 30 minutes longer, we arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 7:45 AM picked up a rental car and went to our room at the Sheraton after a breakfast stop at Mo’s bagels and deli in Adventura. We were able to check in right away we had a room with two beds everybody went to bed and took a nap.  Somehow I awoke and went to the pool bar which was beautiful and had a Brazilian aviator With vodka instead of Cachaca it  was delicious. Then I found out it was happy hour and switch to something cheaper had an order of Asian chicken wings with plum sauce they were excellent. It was now time to move on to our hotel called the Cambria suites. It was 5 PM when we walked in the door in at 5:45 they finally checked us in they were apparently having computer issues it was very annoying standing in line with three people in front of you and the line not moving. They give you either 250 points or they give you buy one get one free drinks since I stood in line so long I said can’t you give me another coupon for a buy one get one since I’ve waited 45 minutes to check in and the check and gal was very kind and gave me a second trip so we can get another buy one get one free. I’m still tired the grandkids don’t want to go anywhere so we’re ordering from the room service menu would you have to go and pick up from the lobby and my daughter and her boyfriend are going to a mall to buy a pair shoes and a cane since I forgot my cane and they’re going to eat out at a restaurant somewhere. once we are  done with dinner the grand kids are  going to the pool.  In the morning we will return the rental car and take Uber to the pier. The only thing I had to say about Miami today is the traffic is terrible,  but I already knew that. The weather’s been nice and we’re looking forward to boarding the Equinox tomorrow morning .

As a rule I usually travel with friends or solo but this time there are five of us going and it’s a little hectic. My grandkids could not go anytime during the holidays at Christmas when my birthday was so we’re now celebrating again my 70th birthday.  I’m looking forward to the world-class bar since I know Santos is bartending there. If anyone has any questions or wants to know anything please ask I’m more than happy to help I’m really attributing Doing a live blog because of Jim and Ian and Chicago Paul and there are a couple others as well. A friend of mine that blogs on RCCL all the time,  trainman Passed away last month. Not sure if anyone on the Celebrity site ever followed him but he did many cruise reviews live and also did like a daily blog of his life and so many people were touched by his spirit I just had to mention him on this blog.

SO HERE’S TO YOU TRAINMAN.!!!!

[sleepless]

1 hour ago, h20cruzer said:

Ok, not  terrible not good you know what it’s like to sleep on the plane during a night flight not something anyone wants to do. We left about 20 minutes late but then sat on the runway for probably at least 30 minutes longer, we arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 7:45 AM picked up a rental car and went to our room at the Sheraton after a breakfast stop at Mo’s bagels and deli in Adventura. We were able to check in right away we had a room with two beds everybody went to bed and took a nap.  Somehow I awoke and went to the pool bar which was beautiful and had a Brazilian aviator With vodka instead of Cachaca it  was delicious. Then I found out it was happy hour and switch to something cheaper had an order of Asian chicken wings with plum sauce they were excellent. It was now time to move on to our hotel called the Cambria suites. It was 5 PM when we walked in the door in at 5:45 they finally checked us in they were apparently having computer issues it was very annoying standing in line with three people in front of you and the line not moving. They give you either 250 points or they give you buy one get one free drinks since I stood in line so long I said can’t you give me another coupon for a buy one get one since I’ve waited 45 minutes to check in and the check and gal was very kind and gave me a second trip so we can get another buy one get one free. I’m still tired the grandkids don’t want to go anywhere so we’re ordering from the room service menu would you have to go and pick up from the lobby and my daughter and her boyfriend are going to a mall to buy a pair shoes and a cane since I forgot my cane and they’re going to eat out at a restaurant somewhere. once we are  done with dinner the grand kids are  going to the pool.  In the morning we will return the rental car and take Uber to the pier. The only thing I had to say about Miami today is the traffic is terrible,  but I already knew that. The weather’s been nice and we’re looking forward to boarding the Equinox tomorrow morning .

As a rule I usually travel with friends or solo but this time there are five of us going and it’s a little hectic. My grandkids could not go anytime during the holidays at Christmas when my birthday was so we’re now celebrating again my 70th birthday.  I’m looking forward to the world-class bar since I know Santos is bartending there. If anyone has any questions or wants to know anything please ask I’m more than happy to help I’m really attributing Doing a live blog because of Jim and Ian and Chicago Paul and there are a couple others as well. A friend of mine that blogs on RCCL all the time,  trainman Passed away last month. Not sure if anyone on the Celebrity site ever followed him but he did many cruise reviews live and also did like a daily blog of his life and so many people were touched by his spirit I just had to mention him on this blog.

SO HERE’S TO YOU TRAINMAN.!!!!

I did follow Trainman on the Royal boards.  He is missed.

 

DH and I will be on the Equinox in June.  Looking forward to your review.

[3happykids!]

looking forward to your review. we will be on the equinox for the first time in march. thank you!

 

Edited February 16, 2019 by 3happykids!

[amscene1]

Not live anymore?

[h20cruzer]

Sorry for taking so long to post. From the time we left the hotel with Uber $33.46, it has been a whirlwind.

 I was able to get a wheelchair right away he will diss through security through check-in and we’re on the ship in less than 15 minutes with her nice glass of bubbly we then proceeded to the Oceanview for our buffet lunch before it got too crowded and this was about 11:20 AM . Luckily they were not that busy but we were unable to find anybody to order a cocktail from (poor us) so we actually had to get up and walk to The Sunset bar to get a drink. 

 After lunch we went up to sign Lola up for the kids club and then we move on to the Martini Bar while the kids went back up to get ice cream.

And it was time for the dreadful fire girl showing us how to put a life jacket on his great showing the movie is painful but we managed to sit through it and off we went to explore a little bit before I ship sailed.

 And send me a note on my last live review on the eclipse in November for some reason I was not able to post daily programs they were going to take like 15 minutes a page to load so I’m going to attempt to post the dailies and then I will go on to talk about the evening activities. 

[Pier290]

14 minutes ago, h20cruzer said:

Sorry for taking so long to post. From the time we left the hotel with Uber $33.46, it has been a whirlwind.

 I was able to get a wheelchair right away he will diss through security through check-in and we’re on the ship in less than 15 minutes with her nice glass of bubbly we then proceeded to the Oceanview for our buffet lunch before it got too crowded and this was about 11:20 AM . Luckily they were not that busy but we were unable to find anybody to order a cocktail from (poor us) so we actually had to get up and walk to The Sunset bar to get a drink. 

 After lunch we went up to sign Lola up for the kids club and then we move on to the Martini Bar while the kids went back up to get ice cream.

And it was time for the dreadful fire girl showing us how to put a life jacket on his great showing the movie is painful but we managed to sit through it and off we went to explore a little bit before I ship sailed.

 And send me a note on my last live review on the eclipse in November for some reason I was not able to post daily programs they were going to take like 15 minutes a page to load so I’m going to attempt to post the dailies and then I will go on to talk about the evening activities. 

Love the Martini bar!!💗🍸

[h20cruzer]

 I really need to apologize because I usually dictate most of my post and I am a bad girl for not rereading it so AutoCorrect changes words doesn’t spell what I’ve said correctly and I hope you all understand that. 

Back to last night, we had reservations in them run a restaurant for 8 PM so Kim took the kids to the buffet for dinner and then drop them off at the kids club and we met up at the Murano at 8 o’clock with a reservation. It took them 1/2 hour to seat us. Since we had a cocktail in our hands,  so we were not upset but I have never waited a half an hour to be seated when I had a reservation. They also seated 3 other couples who arrived after we did. Not going to let that spoil our evening.

Dinner was excellent I had the Dover sole, Matt had the lamb chops and my daughter had the lobster.

This really has nothing to do with us but there was a table next to us where the wine steward spent 45 minutes with them,  it did not appear that whatever he did was making them happy, I did feel bad for the wine steward, he finally had to get someone rlse to help them.

 We had to be back at the kids club at 10 o’clock to pick the kids up that we had not had dessert or coffee yet, So if you don’t show up on time they charge you six dollars an hour so we just let it go have dessert pick the kids up went back to the cabin and went to bed and next thing I knew they were ringing room service for breakfast at 8:30am

 

[h20cruzer]

Now for some dinner pictures.

[CruisinRoxy]

Oh that looks so yummy! We loved Murano and the table side cooking!  I am reliving, thru you, our cruise exactly 2 weeks ago! Thanks for posting. 

[mfs2k]

On 2/15/2019 at 4:03 PM, CruisinRoxy said:

Following!  We just got off the lovely Equinox last Saturday.  We had a marvelous time!  However, we ran into one similar snafu regarding pre-cruise hotel.  I booked the Marriott Biscayne Bay, 5 minutes from port so we could open our eyes on Saturday am and see our ship.  Not to be. The morning we left home, I got an email in the airport stating, "we have canceled your reservation, you are being relocated"  WHAT? Now this was credit card guaranteed, booked last August.  They relocated us to a hotel on South Beach, which turned out to be very nice, but the room was basically a closet.  I still can't get over this - WHAT hotel does that?  They said overbooking.  When most hotels are booked solid, you can't even get a late checkout, let alone an extra day!  What is the point of a guaranteed reservation?   Will not ever go back to a Marriott again! 

Anyway - have a fantastic cruise!  Wish we were back on!

They should have paid for your room at the other hotel. That’s what most hotels do when you’re “walked” since it’s so inconvenient for you.

[amscene1]

6 hours ago, CruisinRoxy said:

Oh that looks so yummy! We loved Murano and the table side cooking!  I am reliving, thru you, our cruise exactly 2 weeks ago! Thanks for posting. 

 On your recent cruise, how was debarkation ? Did they have the facial recognition scanners in place?

[like2cruise]

Thank you so much H20cruzer for your live post especially the copies of your dailies and food pictures.  We are sailing on Equinox in March to the Eastern Caribbean and this will help me finalize my plans!  Enjoy every moment with your family and Happy 70th Birthday!!

[CruisinRoxy]

1 hour ago, amscene1 said:

 On your recent cruise, how was debarkation ? Did they have the facial recognition scanners in place?

Debarkation was not great.  We waited from 8:30 til 9:30 in the MDR to be called.  Then the line to get off took another half hour or so.  We had a shuttle bus to get to Fort Lauderdale airport which was very disorganized.  The saving grace was the Luggage Valet where you pay $25 pp and you don’t see your luggage until your destination.  That was easy breezy.  Oh, and Captain Kate personally said goodbye to each passenger as we got off the ship! That was awesome!   No scanners noted.  

[3happykids!]

thank you for the updates. looking forward to reading more

 

[h20skibum]

Thanks for your review.  We have a cruise booked on Equinox, and look forward to your experience.

 

Do you know if they have texting available on the app yet?   It doesn’t appear so, but maybe it will be added after the dry dock.   Not a problem for us, since we have the internet as part of the go best package for our cruise, but someone on another thread said Celebrity told them it was available.

 

By the way, I see you are from Novato.  We have been spending summers in San Rafael, and venture up that way to Wildfox and to Sushi Tri for some different dining options.

[registrar]

Happy Happy 70th !

You are making a beautiful memory for your family to remember!