Semi-LIVE Equinox January 2, 2023

[Colorado_Ag]

Thanks for taking us along on your trip! We are getting on Equinox in a few hours. Safe travels home!

[Betsynh]

10 minutes ago, chamima said:

What did you think of the Balata Gardens in Martinique? I'd love to go there but the taxi fare is high .

The gardens were beautiful but the paths were really steep. We had about 45-60 minutes to walk around. It was more than enough for me. I sent hubby off to find the suspension bridge on his own as I needed a break. 

[Betsynh]

2 minutes ago, Colorado_Ag said:

Thanks for taking us along on your trip! We are getting on Equinox in a few hours. Safe travels home!

You’re going to have a great time!! Enjoy! 

[TeeRick]

On 1/3/2023 at 12:27 PM, tarps said:

Sailing the Equinox 9 day on Jan 21, so I will enjoy following your report…..thank you!

We will be with you!

[hcat]

great review.. very much enjoyed the photos... ship is aging but seemed workable. 

 

Your itin included some of our fav stops esp Martinique  where we did a historic walking tour with a great guide and shopping & lunch on our own..

 

We enjoyed similar excursions on  St Lucia to the Pitons/ lunch  etc. travel on water better than the winding  mountain roads...eek!

 

We will be careful with St Kitts on our next cruise..We booked an excursion to Nevis thst includes lunch..have to re read the specs! thanks for the heads up!

 thanks again for sharing

[chamima]

There is  a gentleman named Thenford Gray who does wonderful tours of St. Kitts. We toured the island with him several times and the last time we did his Nevis tour. Try that - it was great!

http://www.thenfordgreytours.com/

[countess5]

6 minutes ago, chamima said:

There is  a gentleman named Thenford Gray who does wonderful tours of St. Kitts. We toured the island with him several times and the last time we did his Nevis tour. Try that - it was great!

http://www.thenfordgreytours.com/

I will second Thenford Gray! Fantastic and informative tour.

 

Cheers! 

[jean87510]

On 1/12/2023 at 9:57 AM, Betsynh said:

I do NOT recommend our St Kitts shore excursion and let Celebrity know. We booked a Coastal Cruise, Beach and Steel Drum Cruise with the specific goal of enjoying a beach in Nevis, as specified on the description. It was more like a booze cruise and took us to a beach in St Kitts. We rented chairs and umbrella for $15 and the people next to us said they took a cab from the ship. How’d you do that? Aren’t we in Nevis? Nope. It felt like the boat was bringing us to their friend’s rental area to make extra $$. Misleading and a little sketchy. We’d been to that same beach a few years ago by cab. Ugh. Pick an excursion with Nevis in the title. Hope it’s rectified. 

I can't stand Cockleshell Beach.  What a shame you didn't get to Nevis.  Although, some of the beaches the tours bring you to there aren't that great.

[chamima]

1 minute ago, jean87510 said:

I can't stand Cockleshell Beach.  What a shame you didn't get to Nevis.  Although, some of the beaches the tours bring you to there aren't that great.

 

I don't remember the beach on Nevis being all that great. We were next to a really nice resort and we walked over to walk around there.

However, there were some really interesting places they took us to on the Island before we went to the beach.

[jean87510]

5 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

I don't remember the beach on Nevis being all that great. We were next to a really nice resort and we walked over to walk around there.

However, there were some really interesting places they took us to on the Island before we went to the beach.

Yes, that is true.  I wish the cruise ships offered a hiking tour or historical tour rather than plop you on the beach.  Nevis is really pretty.

[Betsynh]

On 1/4/2023 at 4:05 PM, bjahil47 said:

Sounds like you are having a great time!  We have been on Equinox 6 times, with a B2B scheduled in September.  I have to eat gluten free, too.  I’m surprised you enjoyed the pizza as the last time I had it, it was terrible and last cruise I did not try it.  I will give it another chance!  The pasta, sauce and meatballs are very good!  Also, go to the Spa Cafe for some gluten free breakfast/lunch choices and their GF Apple Cookies are good.  Last two cruises the gf cakes were horrible - like a wet sponge cake.  I have always eaten the gelato but last cruise I was told none of them are gluten free.  I could not get an official answer so I stayed away from it.  
 

Enjoy your cruise!

Here’s a pic! It’s pretty much the same crust I get at my local pizza place, but cooked properly and the toppings to sauce ratio was good. 

[jean87510]

33 minutes ago, Betsynh said:

Here’s a pic! It’s pretty much the same crust I get at my local pizza place, but cooked properly and the toppings to sauce ratio was good. 

Did they have any plain or can you ask for it?  We are going to be onboard during Ash Wednesday and the first Friday of Lent so unfortunately I may be limited with dining that day as I don't eat any type of seafood, nuts or eggs. I can always have a vegan type day which I like but wouldn't mind a slice or 2 of plain pizza.

 

Edited:  Sorry, just realized I'm in AquaClass so i can get a beyond burger!

Edited January 14, 2023 by jean87510

[Arubamoose]

Looks like you had a great time!

 

What tour operator did you book your Ladera VIP tour with?  The ones I found on line (Trip Advisor and Expedia) did not include a catamaran back to the ship.

 

TIA!!!

[bjahil47]

1 hour ago, Betsynh said:

Here’s a pic! It’s pretty much the same crust I get at my local pizza place, but cooked properly and the toppings to sauce ratio was good. 

Oh, my!  That looks delicious!  I will try it again on my next cruise in a few months!  Thanks!

[Snowey88]

Thanks for the review.  We were on the same time as you.

My favorite excursion was with "Sandy Hoofs" in St. Lucia.  Operator sent us a driver at $20 pp.  We had a 2 hour horseback ride.  I was able to go bareback and swim w the horse for about 20 seconds.  It was awesome.  The charge was $99 pp.  Not a ship excursion.  Facility was about a 30 min. drive.  You have to be able to walk up a steep rutted hill with rocks to get to stables.  Scenery was wonderful!  Got to ride on 2 smaller deserted beaches.   I did a roll call on another site with ship, title and date of cruise.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Snowey88
add picture. coming out of water

[quicklabs]

On 1/6/2023 at 6:55 PM, phoenix_dream said:

Curious - have any of the Sky Suites been updated?  Last we sailed in a corner S1 a few years ago post-refurb ours was not.  Wondering if any of them were?

We were on the Equinox in December.  The Royal suite was refreshed, but not in the blue/grey color scheme Edge class and and the other extensively refurbed ships, like the Summit.  Still no USB ports anywhere, and a dearth of outlets.  We had to have an extension cord from the desk to the nightstand taped down to the floor in the bedroom for my husband's CPAP.  

Edited January 14, 2023 by quicklabs

[Betsynh]

16 hours ago, Arubamoose said:

Looks like you had a great time!

 

What tour operator did you book your Ladera VIP tour with?  The ones I found on line (Trip Advisor and Expedia) did not include a catamaran back to the ship.

 

TIA!!!

It was a Celebrity excursion booked long before we sailed (and sold out early). A bus in both directions would’ve been miserable for me with the twisty, hilly roads. 

[Betsynh]

I forgot to mention that we made a starfish at the Hot Glass studio on deck 15. We could take turns so we each got to help! So fun and a nice memento to bring home. 

[chamima]

1 hour ago, Betsynh said:

I forgot to mention that we made a starfish at the Hot Glass studio on deck 15. We could take turns so we each got to help! So fun and a nice memento to bring home. 

 

 

Cute!!!!

Can I ask if you got to choose your color and/or your time?

And how much was it?

[dbub]

We too were also on this cruise and agree with the original posters opinions.

 

A few points: Yes!! The Equinox staff is fantastic and friendly!! The ship is in good shape with no areas I would avoid. We were in a veranda with an extended balcony (on the slant of the hump). Only chairs, no lounger. Entertainment was very enjoyable. We felt the comedy venue (4 forward) was too small for a non-repeating show and chose to leave one time when it was shoulder-to-shoulder standing-room only.

 

We had late seating (8:30 PM) which was < 50% full. Our table for 6 was just the 2 of us. We found another partially full table the next night and found some great people to eat with. Wife is also GF and enjoyed the pizzas and pastas at lunch. Our dinning room head waiter offered the "next-night's" menu to allow for GF preparation in a timely manner. Didn't need specialty restaurants and they seemed a bit more pricey than before the pandemic.

 

My wife also did the "Hollywood Glass." Reservations every 20 minutes and seemed to be available 6-8+ hours a day. Emmie is a fantastic teacher and very patient. Prices are $120-175. I would recommend observing others before partaking so that you can be ready to do as much as possible without getting behind.

 

The 5-7 Elite "Happy Hour" was less timely for us with late seating. We did figure out to get some unopened beers, water and soda with a few shots "neat" to enjoy after resting and before dinner. We found a few bartenders to be "helpful" regarding the limited Elite Bar menu ... 😉😉

 

Finally, the itinerary worked great for me as I have a relatively intense job. Enjoying 2 sea days initially and 2 more before returning to work the day after the cruise was perfect. We were very lucky to arrive to FLL early the night before the cruise on Southwest Airlines just 6 days after their problems occurred and returned home only 3 hours late connecting in Atlanta after their shutdown due to tornado warnings.

[Betsynh]

11 hours ago, chamima said:

 

 

Cute!!!!

Can I ask if you got to choose your color and/or your time?

And how much was it?

Yes! There were several options to choose from and we liked the starfish. I think there was a bowl, vase, fish, jellyfish and a couple of others. We were able to choose colors and decide if we wanted a wavier pattern (thinner lines/colors) or more blotchy (my word not theirs) with the chunks of glass. Ours was about $120 and we tipped on top of that, but not sure if our Elite discount was taken into consideration. I didn’t realize there was a discount (5% maybe). A great keepsake!

[Betsynh]

12 minutes ago, dbub said:

We too were also on this cruise and agree with the original posters opinions.

 

A few points: Yes!! The Equinox staff is fantastic and friendly!! The ship is in good shape with no areas I would avoid. We were in a veranda with an extended balcony (on the slant of the hump). Only chairs, no lounger. Entertainment was very enjoyable. We felt the comedy venue (4 forward) was too small for a non-repeating show and chose to leave one time when it was shoulder-to-shoulder standing-room only.

 

We had late seating (8:30 PM) which was < 50% full. Our table for 6 was just the 2 of us. We found another partially full table the next night and found some great people to eat with. Wife is also GF and enjoyed the pizzas and pastas at lunch. Our dinning room head waiter offered the "next-night's" menu to allow for GF preparation in a timely manner. Didn't need specialty restaurants and they seemed a bit more pricey than before the pandemic.

 

My wife also did the "Hollywood Glass." Reservations every 20 minutes and seemed to be available 6-8+ hours a day. Emmie is a fantastic teacher and very patient. Prices are $120-175. I would recommend observing others before partaking so that you can be ready to do as much as possible without getting behind.

 

The 5-7 Elite "Happy Hour" was less timely for us with late seating. We did figure out to get some unopened beers, water and soda with a few shots "neat" to enjoy after resting and before dinner. We found a few bartenders to be "helpful" regarding the limited Elite Bar menu ... 😉😉

 

Finally, the itinerary worked great for me as I have a relatively intense job. Enjoying 2 sea days initially and 2 more before returning to work the day after the cruise was perfect. We were very lucky to arrive to FLL early the night before the cruise on Southwest Airlines just 6 days after their problems occurred and returned home only 3 hours late connecting in Atlanta after their shutdown due to tornado warnings.

Sorry we didn't get to meet while on board. I chatted with a couple of different folks while waiting for GF pizza! Maybe one of them was you!

 

Glad you made it home safely. I’d definitely sail her again, but also want to explore river cruises in Europe! Haven’t done one of those…

[topside2]

On 1/7/2023 at 8:52 PM, Betsynh said:

I responded to a couple posts but didn’t come through. 
 

chic night is on 3 and 9. Tonight (day 6) is white party. 

Thanks for sharing the Semi- Live blog. We are on the same cruise in March, any more information on the "white party"? DW wants to be prepared before boarding.

[CruisinShips]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:55 PM, toddmanka said:

Top 2 decks have been refurbished 

Meaning decks 11 and 12?

[onyourmark]

18 hours ago, Betsynh said:

Yes! There were several options to choose from and we liked the starfish. I think there was a bowl, vase, fish, jellyfish and a couple of others. We were able to choose colors and decide if we wanted a wavier pattern (thinner lines/colors) or more blotchy (my word not theirs) with the chunks of glass. Ours was about $120 and we tipped on top of that, but not sure if our Elite discount was taken into consideration. I didn’t realize there was a discount (5% maybe). A great keepsake!

This might help!  Also on the cruise, have to mention that Captain Theo was incredibly visible and approachable, even with his wife and young kids in tow.