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LIVE from Equinox (June 24, 2023), sailing on a budget

AbbyCruiser45

By AbbyCruiser45,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Hi everyone! I will attempt my first live thread for my 8-night sailing on the Equinox. This is an ABC (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) sailing. I am excited because each of these ports is new to me. I started this thread a little early because our travel for the trip has already started! First, I’ll give you some background on me, who I’m traveling with, and why I have titled the thread “sailing on a budget.” This will probably be a long first post, and then they’ll get shorter and have more pictures. 

My boyfriend (Kaleb) and I will be setting off on this trip. We are both in our late 20s to early 30s, so a different demographic for Celebrity. This will be my third Celebrity sailing, the fourth for Kaleb. The second and third sailing on the Equinox, respectively. Previously, we’ve also sailed NCL together. That was not my favorite cruise experience! Each trip has been with family or friends, so this will be our first vacation just us in the five years we’ve been together. I’ll go ahead and say (after getting this question many times from friends and family), no, do not expect a proposal on this trip! 

 

So why are we traveling on a budget, and what does that mean for this trip? We just graduated with our PhDs and are in a weird limbo stage. We’re paid on our measly graduate student stipends through the summer (though I am thankful for any stipend). However, I don’t start my “big girl job” until August, and Kaleb is still interviewing and applying for jobs. We knew we wanted a trip to decompress after grad school, so we moved forward with planning with the promise that this was our Christmas and Birthday gifts to each other for this year. 

 

For total transparency, we paid only $1,513 total to book this cruise. We had a couple of avenues of help. First, we booked through the Blue Chip Club. Thanks to Kaleb’s poker habit (he is by no means a high roller, poker games just take a long time), we scored a little over a 30% discount on the all-inclusive fare. We also sailed on the Edge in July 2021 on their second sailing after the return to sailing. The partition door to the IV came off the track, so Celebrity gave us each a $200 future cruise credit. This was a little over the top since they were returning to sailing and wanted us to be happy. Even though the issue was fixed within the hour, and we didn’t complain, we only notified the attendant. So that allowed us to take off $400 of the original fare on top of the BCC discount. 

 

We booked an inside room originally but bid $115 per person ($15 over minimum) for a verandah. We had a successful bid and moved to a balcony room on deck 7. We’ve opted for a few upgrades out of the standard all-inclusive far. First, Kaleb pre-bought the internet upgrade when it was on sale for $8/per day, so he will have the premium. I am going to attempt to stick to the classic package. We also reserved Tuscan for the first night at a discounted price. I’m eager to try Tuscan again because we had a terrible experience the last time we were there. Besides those two things, we are keeping the cost down. I like nice wine, so I might pay the difference per drink for premium wines, but I’ll try to keep that only to one to two glasses with dinner. I will be drinking plenty of the classic package during the day! 

 

Now to the trip and why we started traveling so early. Yesterday, we actually moved from Knoxville, TN, to Atlanta, GA! The most stressful part was keeping track of our passports while packing and moving. We always had flights for this trip out of Atlanta because we have family nearby, and it is way cheaper to fly here than in Knoxville. Then, I got a job in Atlanta, so I knew we would need to move here. We planned on moving after the trip, but I didn’t want that hanging over my head on a relaxing vacation. So we opted for a same-day move (with the help of movers, thankfully). We just threw everything into our new unit today, and now we’re staying with family for two nights. I wanted these two nights as a fail-safe buffer in case something came up with the move. On the 21st, we’ll drive to the Atlanta airport to stay at the Embassy Suites because our flight is early the next day, and my family is a bit of a drive from the airport. It’ll be a nice treat since it’s a brand-new hotel. We’ll then be in Fort Lauderdale for two nights. Kaleb’s dad and stepmom recently moved to a condo down there, so we’ll see it for the first time and visit with them. Finally, it’ll be time for our cruise! I will update this thread as much as possible and am happy to answer any questions. I hope you all have a fun time following along! 
 

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Georgia_Peaches "Live from...." Rare

Georgia_Peaches

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Congratulations on all the recent life changes!  It sounds like a relaxing cruise is just what you need!

 

Will be following with genuine interest. We are on Equinox for 6 nights beginning July 2nd also on a Blue Chip budget. 
 

Thank you for taking us along!

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A very busy and exciting time for you both. Hope you have a great cruise  🛳️ and best of luck 🍀 with everything going forward.

The ABC islands are a personal favorite of ours, the equinox is a great ship with a fantastic crew.

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AbbyCruiser45 "Live from...." Rare

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Thank you, everyone for the congratulations! We are very thrilled to be done and taking this break. After running some errands, I'll share more about this trip and what we're planning on doing in the ports later today. 

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Mark_T

Mark_T

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2 hours ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

I like nice wine, so I might pay the difference per drink for premium wines, but I’ll try to keep that only to one to two glasses with dinner. I will be drinking plenty of the classic package during the day! 

I suspect many others are considering doing the same after recent price increases.

 

If you feel inclined to track and share how the up-charges build up during the cruise it would I'm sure be of interest to many... ... if on the other-hand you prefer not to know we will all understand 🙂

  

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AbbyCruiser45 "Live from...." Rare

AbbyCruiser45

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3 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

I suspect many others are considering doing the same after recent price increases.

 

If you feel inclined to track and share how the up-charges build up during the cruise it would I'm sure be of interest to many... ... if on the other-hand you prefer not to know we will all understand 🙂

  

I’ll track it somewhat! The researcher in me would love to do a whole excel table, but I’ll just make little notes here and there.

 

My parents are actually on board the Silhouette right now and they’re a little frustrated with the premium wine selection. A lot of their favorites (like Decoy) are out of stock and they’re ending up with a lot of classic package wines. They are not big drinkers, usually two glasses of wine with dinner. Then on the package, speciality coffees and a lot of sparkling water during the day. Their MDR server actually recommended the Zero Proof package for them. Unless they spend $59/person/day on wine, it’ll be a huge savings. 

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Dar & Bob

Dar & Bob

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1 hour ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

I’ll track it somewhat! The researcher in me would love to do a whole excel table, but I’ll just make little notes here and there.

 

My parents are actually on board the Silhouette right now and they’re a little frustrated with the premium wine selection. A lot of their favorites (like Decoy) are out of stock and they’re ending up with a lot of classic package wines. They are not big drinkers, usually two glasses of wine with dinner. Then on the package, speciality coffees and a lot of sparkling water during the day. Their MDR server actually recommended the Zero Proof package for them. Unless they spend $59/person/day on wine, it’ll be a huge savings. 

If you are concerned about the wine, why not carry on 2 bottles each.  No corkage since you have the package and you don't have to worry about what they actually have in stock.  Just a suggestion. 

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AbbyCruiser45

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We’ve had a pretty quiet day here in Georgia. I did some laundry, and we went out for Italian ice. Largely, we’ve just been recovering from that marathon of a move. 

 

Okay, now on to what we plan to do for this trip! This is an ABC sailing. We’ll be in Aruba from 9 AM to 9 PM, Curacao from 8 AM to 8 PM, and Bonaire from 7 AM to 4 PM. My parents gave us a lovely graduation gift of a massage package at Renaissance Island in Aruba. We have the Sea Escapes package booked. This allows us access to the private island with flamingos, a 50-minute Swedish massage, use of beach towels, lunch, and a frozen drink. This came out to $335 total for two people. All things considered, if you want access to Renaissance Island, this is not a bad deal. Otherwise, it is $130/person for a day pass that you can only book one week out, and spots are limited. Essentially, it's $37 for a massage, lunch, and the ability to reserve in advance. Although the $130 day pass does include a $25 food and beverage credit. 

 

We don’t have much planned for Curacao. We’re not big beach people because I have a mild sun sensitivity that sunscreen does not help (you’ll find me in the shade or long sleeves if there’s no shade!) We plan to have a relaxed morning and then walk around the port. Depending on the timing, we’ll walk across the famous bridge and probably head into the Old Market for lunch or a snack. We may also go to the Mangrove Park across from the cruise terminal. It’s only $10/person. 

Finally, in Bonaire, we’ll go to Sorobon Beach. My parents have been there before, and they said it is the prettiest water and it’s fun to watch the windsurfers. We probably won’t spend too long there and opt to have lunch back on the ship. I’m hoping we can get a good taxi driver and include a tour of the southern part of the island, but we’ll see. 

 

As for what we plan to do on board, we are pretty boring. I have a lot of good books loaded up on my Kindle, so I’ll definitely be reading a good bit. Otherwise, we like listening to live music and going to trivia, and we’ll try out a few game shows at night. We also said we’d like to go the the gym once a day……we’ll see about that!  I love the MDR, but Kaleb is more neutral, so we’ll probably go to the buffet for dinner a night or two. Although with the recent menu changes (I’ll report on how they are in person) we may opt for the buffet more often.

 

Finally, I just want to say that one of the things that we are not on a budget for is tips! It’s always important to us to recognize our stateroom attendant and our favorite servers and bartenders. But we did do this in a “budget” way. Since we were moving, we cleaned up the house and sold some things via Facebook Marketplace. All of these transactions were done in cash, and we kept that cash for our tips! 

 

I’ll update how the hotel is tomorrow after we check in! Meanwhile, if you have any recommendations of easy/cheap places to see in our ports, I’d love to hear them.  

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calicakes

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35 minutes ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

My parents gave us a lovely graduation gift of a massage package at Renaissance Island in Aruba. We have the Sea Escapes package booked. This allows us access to the private island with flamingos, a 50-minute Swedish massage, use of beach towels, lunch, and a frozen drink. This came out to $335 total for two people. All things considered, if you want access to Renaissance Island, this is not a bad deal. Otherwise, it is $130/person for a day pass that you can only book one week out, and spots are limited. Essentially, it's $37 for a massage, lunch, and the ability to reserve in advance. Although the $130 day pass does include a $25 food and beverage credit. 

We did the ABC cruise in September 2019.  We loved Aruba a lot, so when we were looking for a place to go this past April, we chose Aruba and booked a weeks stay at the Renaissance because of the private island.   We went there 4 times to enjoy the flamingos, etc.  I found the food in the restaurant mediocre at best.  The best thing was the grilled fish.  Looking forward to your review.

 

One of our best excursions on Celebrity was in Bonaire.  Snorkeling.  The operators were so passionate about Bonaire and they picked us up in their boat right at the port.  It was so easy and a fun day.  

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3 hours ago, Dar & Bob said:

If you are concerned about the wine, why not carry on 2 bottles each.  No corkage since you have the package and you don't have to worry about what they actually have in stock.  Just a suggestion. 

thought 2 per staeroom??

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