LIVE 47 Days 3 Ships Caribbean Escape January 30th - March 20th!

[countess5]

OK, (sigh) let’s do this!

 

I say with a sigh because I have followed Live threads and I know they are a commitment. With that said however, I have been the beneficiary of many live threads that I enjoyed while not cruising and learning many things through them. They have gotten me through winter months when I was working and for that I say Thank You.

 

I also will give a huge shout out to those that have taken the time to take us on their individual adventures. You know the cast of characters………. Jim, Charla, (wink wink) to name just two of the big hitters! 

 

This will be a sharing of 47 days 3 ships sailing B2B side by side or whatever you want to call it. We start on Equinox for 19 days move to Beyond for 14 and then finish with Reflection ( I know one that is near and dear to some of us deep down) for 14 days. We will throw in there a prior nights stay before boarding Equinox and a one night stay on land between Equinox and Beyond ending with a nights stay the last debarkation day on Reflection, so a total of 50 nights. How we got here I will share a little later.  

 

Who will you be following? We are Kevin and Barbie from Pennsylvania, that end of the state where we say Go E A G L E S! Just a side note, big game this weekend. We are in our mid to later 60’s retired, actually 5 years ago on the same date as this up coming January 30th cruise. I walked out of the building in 2018 and flew to Ft Lauderdale the next day for a B2B on RCCL.. For those sports fans following, that’s the year the Eagles won the Super Bowl and we were on the back of Harmony of the Seas to watch it all happen, I digress….sorry. Anyway after our first B2B we said no more 7 day cruises. 

 

2019 we flew to Australia for a New Zealand/ South Pacific cruise. Between the two cruises we spent 10 days driving from Sydney to Melbourne flying back up to Sydney to board the South Pacific cruise. 2020 was another B2B on Equinox and then the “C” word showed up! All shut down for 2021 and learned during that winter we have to be somewhere warm!

Sooooo, in the Spring of 2021 we started looking in Florida for a place to rent for the winter of 2022. Friends and neighbors have homes down there so we flew down and searched. No luck, not for what we were looking for. 

 

That brings us to how did we get here. Winter 2022. We love cruising and you can see by my signature we have cruised a bit. We started talking about how we loved cruising and that the ships give us, accommodations, restaurants, bars, entertainment, warm weather, ever changing scenery, pools, someone else cooking and cleaning. What could be so bad?! Bingo, 49 nights 3 ships on Reflection, Apex and Silhouette. Challenge, that “C” word was still going on with a lot, I mean a lot of testing being involved. Jim, you know what I mean. We were tested before we left and then at the end of every week we were tested. If positive, well that was it. I have to say the stress at the end of each week was a bit overwhelming, but we passed every time. Every ship had there own way of notifying you. Some better than others. 

 

Friends of ours that we cruised on the Equinox with in 2020 from England surprised us and joined us for the last 21 days. A 10 day then 11 day on Silhouette. Short story after 10 days he had the “C” word and then 5 days letter she also got the “C” word. Isolation for them and that was sad. How we never got it, we still wonder today and as of today never have had it. Ok, did I just jinks myself? 

 

So with that I set the stage for what I hope to be a fun and informative Live. More details on what I will be sharing, accommodations ( let’s say for 47 nights no suites will be in the picture!) dining and other notes.

 

Cheers! 

[Swordfish1949]

Looking forward to your posts and thanks in advance for taking the time away from your vacation. Bon voyage!

[countess5]

2 minutes ago, Swordfish1949 said:

Looking forward to your posts and thanks in advance for taking the time away from your vacation. Bon voyage!

Thanks for following, going to do my best. by the way my hometown is Asheville NC! 

 

Cheers! 

[Swordfish1949]

1 minute ago, countess5 said:

Thanks for following, going to do my best. by the way my hometown is Asheville NC! 

 

Cheers! 

Great town - we love Asheville. . I'm from Greenville, SC and mainly because of friends we have in PA we'll be cheering on your Eagles too. Have fun.

[2B A VTer]

Looking forward to your review.  When does your cruise start?  We're sailing on the Equinox on Feb 18th.  

[breezer]

I will be happily following along.  Hope you have a wonderful trip.  I'll be cheering for the Eagles also since Philly is my hometown.  I'm closer to your hometown now in Simpsonville SC.  Bon Voyage and thanks for taking us along with you.

[countess5]

3 hours ago, 2B A VTer said:

Looking forward to your review.  When does your cruise start?  We're sailing on the Equinox on Feb 18th.  

We board on January 30th for the first 10 days then stay on board for the next 9 nights. We will be gone and on Beyond when you cruise. Enjoy your cruise! 

Cheers

[countess5]

1 hour ago, breezer said:

I will be happily following along.  Hope you have a wonderful trip.  I'll be cheering for the Eagles also since Philly is my hometown.  I'm closer to your hometown now in Simpsonville SC.  Bon Voyage and thanks for taking us along with you.

E A G L E L S ! Very concerned but let’s hope. 🙏🏻🤞🏻

[hildacloake]

Looking forward to this so much!  Thank you! 🙏

[M&JfromSDL]

It sounds like you have an incredible trip planned.  I hope you both enjoy every minute of it!

 

47 days... this may end up being one of the longest live threads on CC!  😀 Can't wait to follow along.  

[vickykay]

Sounds amazing.   Looking forward to following along.  

[Cruising89143]

Following along and looking forward to your reports.

[Bo1953]

Ohhh, how I long to be on any group of sailings for 15+ days...

 

Alas, my spouse would veto it as unsustainable!!! LOL

 

Enjoy and I will be following along, as well... day dreaming of the time!!!

 

YET, Mafia Nation (Buffalo Bills) will win the VL Trophy this year, sorry!!! LOL

 

Thank you and bon voyage

[mahdnc]

19 hours ago, countess5 said:

OK, (sigh) let’s do this!

 

I say with a sigh because I have followed Live threads and I know they are a commitment. With that said however, I have been the beneficiary of many live threads that I enjoyed while not cruising and learning many things through them. They have gotten me through winter months when I was working and for that I say Thank You.

 

I also will give a huge shout out to those that have taken the time to take us on their individual adventures. You know the cast of characters………. Jim, Charla, (wink wink) to name just two of the big hitters! 

 

This will be a sharing of 47 days 3 ships sailing B2B side by side or whatever you want to call it. We start on Equinox for 19 days move to Beyond for 14 and then finish with Reflection ( I know one that is near and dear to some of us deep down) for 14 days. We will throw in there a prior nights stay before boarding Equinox and a one night stay on land between Equinox and Beyond ending with a nights stay the last debarkation day on Reflection, so a total of 50 nights. How we got here I will share a little later.  

 

Who will you be following? We are Kevin and Barbie from Pennsylvania, that end of the state where we say Go E A G L E S! Just a side note, big game this weekend. We are in our mid to later 60’s retired, actually 5 years ago on the same date as this up coming January 30th cruise. I walked out of the building in 2018 and flew to Ft Lauderdale the next day for a B2B on RCCL.. For those sports fans following, that’s the year the Eagles won the Super Bowl and we were on the back of Harmony of the Seas to watch it all happen, I digress….sorry. Anyway after our first B2B we said no more 7 day cruises. 

 

2019 we flew to Australia for a New Zealand/ South Pacific cruise. Between the two cruises we spent 10 days driving from Sydney to Melbourne flying back up to Sydney to board the South Pacific cruise. 2020 was another B2B on Equinox and then the “C” word showed up! All shut down for 2021 and learned during that winter we have to be somewhere warm!

Sooooo, in the Spring of 2021 we started looking in Florida for a place to rent for the winter of 2022. Friends and neighbors have homes down there so we flew down and searched. No luck, not for what we were looking for. 

 

That brings us to how did we get here. Winter 2022. We love cruising and you can see by my signature we have cruised a bit. We started talking about how we loved cruising and that the ships give us, accommodations, restaurants, bars, entertainment, warm weather, ever changing scenery, pools, someone else cooking and cleaning. What could be so bad?! Bingo, 49 nights 3 ships on Reflection, Apex and Silhouette. Challenge, that “C” word was still going on with a lot, I mean a lot of testing being involved. Jim, you know what I mean. We were tested before we left and then at the end of every week we were tested. If positive, well that was it. I have to say the stress at the end of each week was a bit overwhelming, but we passed every time. Every ship had there own way of notifying you. Some better than others. 

 

Friends of ours that we cruised on the Equinox with in 2020 from England surprised us and joined us for the last 21 days. A 10 day then 11 day on Silhouette. Short story after 10 days he had the “C” word and then 5 days letter she also got the “C” word. Isolation for them and that was sad. How we never got it, we still wonder today and as of today never have had it. Ok, did I just jinks myself? 

 

So with that I set the stage for what I hope to be a fun and informative Live. More details on what I will be sharing, accommodations ( let’s say for 47 nights no suites will be in the picture!) dining and other notes.

 

Cheers! 

 

I will be looking forward to your Live reports.  Have a nice set of cruises.  Make sure you enjoy it and only post when you can.

[bjahil47]

Wow!  Looking forward to hearing about your cruises!  Travel safe!

[mchell810]

What an amazing journey!  Looking forward to following along.

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for taking the time to do a Live post of this incredible journey.   Having done a couple myself I know they can be a commitment but I've found that on longer cruises like yours it is a bit easier, as you settle into Life at Sea as oppose to pack everything into a single week or two.

 

Enjoy writing your Live post like a diary and not a task.  

[asnaleah]

Thanks so much for taking us along! We are in agreement about the 7 days or less cruises. Never again.

[sbt518]

Oh very exciting, I hope to do some cruises like this when I finally retire.  Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

[peanut head]

Bon voyage and thank you for taking us along!

[countess5]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Thanks for taking the time to do a Live post of this incredible journey.   Having done a couple myself I know they can be a commitment but I've found that on longer cruises like yours it is a bit easier, as you settle into Life at Sea as oppose to pack everything into a single week or two.

 

Enjoy writing your Live post like a diary and not a task.  

Jim

You are correct, it is more relaxing and it actually becomes a life style and not a vacation. I think with DW sleeping in I can get to my diary entries over coffee. 

 

Cheers! 

[countess5]

Pre-Cruise

 

Before I go any further I need to explain the “Countess5” so you know who is reporting throughout this Live thread. I say explain because since joining CC I have shared in many roll calls. Back when there were meet and mingles we would show up with our name tags on displaying Countess5 and our actual names. People would come up to DW and say glad to meet you Countess5 ( something about the female thing “Countess”). DW would laugh and point to me and say there’s your Countess! All 6 foot mustache wearing guy, not exactly a Countess!  😂 🤔

 

The ( I think they call it an Avatar) came back in 2012 when we were going on a cruise and I learned about CC. I never thought I would of been this involved and stay this long so I just came up with Countess5. Sooooooo,  For my 40th birthday DW rented a villa in St Barts for a week. We really got into renting throughout the islands over the years Our favorite vila was The Countess on St Thomas in the Peterborg section of the island. It is a peninsula out by Megan’s Bay. The owner was a gentleman who was a companion to an elderly lady who owned 5 houses around the world ( go figure). She passed away and left him the Countess and 4 other homes. So Countess5. Don’t judge now. 

 

One more thing I need to share, this may be where you change the channel, decide to bail on following or be like me very happy. 

DW and I always buy Specialty Dining for all our meals and we have done this for all our upcoming ships. We also have attended many Chef’s Tables in our cruising. We do enjoy our meals and wines. OK wait for it……..There will be no food porn shared during this live report! I believe food is very subjective, what I like you may not like. There are plenty of pictures and reviews of food, all be it a lot of the same, on these threads. Go forth and enjoy. 

 

So what this Live will be about are experiences, observations, thoughts, people, cruising tips ( mostly for the inexperienced cruiser) etc. Trying to share with you the feel of the adventure while you read along. 

 

Cheers! 

[jzad]

Wow!  Following along, this is a dream for me 🙂

[raudacruise]

I’m a foodie but I’ll be following regardless of lack of food porn.  As you stated, there’s plenty of that elsewhere.  Looking forward to your adventure.

[MamaFej]

On 1/20/2023 at 5:15 AM, Bo1953 said:

 

 

YET, Mafia Nation (Buffalo Bills) will win the VL Trophy this year, sorry!!! LOL

 

 

I probably shouldn't post this, because it's kind of embarrassing, but I will, anyway. 

 

My first thought was: Um, Bo, it's Superbowl LVII, LV was two years ago. There is no VL. I immediately realized you meant Vince Lombardi, and did one of these: 🤦🏽‍♀️(maybe two)

 

Imma go sit in my Time Out Corner and think about what I've done. Then I'm gonna think about what the Super Bowl LVI champions most definitely have not done. 

 

Carry on.