LIVE Norwaylady escape the winter on Equinox B2B 23.03-11.04.24

[Norwaylady]

1 minute ago, hcat said:

https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=ms-android-att-us-rvc3&source=android-browser&q=uss+delaware+submarine  

 

 

a fast attack submarine,???

yes, that’s our neighbour😅

[dreamer321]

3 minutes ago, Norwaylady said:

yes, that’s our neighbour😅

somebody is getting good liberty😀

[Norwaylady]

 

Breakfast in MDR was very busy. We arrived 07.53 and it was a full house. 

 

We ordered the “usual” 😂

Yoghurt and berries to my pellets. 

Fruit 

Omelette for Mr. 

OJ & coffee ☕️ 

[Norwaylady]

We left the ship around 08.30 🙂

All ready for a walk. 
bye 🗝️ old keys

Quick and easy off the ship and thru customs 🛃 

 

We walked from pier 19 up to Ft Lauderdale “downtown” The ritz Carlton hotel. 

 

On the way up, we walked on the sidewalk. When we decided it was time to turn, we walked down to the beach and walked all the way on the beach to the entrance of the port.

 

 

 

 

It was a fuel tanker and a supply ship coming into port when we reached the “waving point” for cruise sail away. 

 

We then passed the port entrance and onward to the ship. 

We were back onboard around 12.50. 

 

Straight to muster station for the ping🚨

Mr was cleaver… I went to wash my hands. He rushed off for a little cold drink in Al Bacio. Needed a club soda to get a little refuelling on water😅😎 

Did the Mr get anything for me? No😝 

You see? He’s not a gentleman when he’s hungry or thirsty🤣🤣🤣

 

You could tell the average age is increasing on this sailing🤣no big family gatherings or children’s parties arriving onboard. More of the usual demographic of guests we know😇 some children still, but definitely not the same as last cruise. 

 

Our new sea pass card was waiting in the terminal for us😊

 

It was lunch time, so it was time to test the concierge lunch😇 (yep, just accepted me as I am in my shorts and T-shirt after a walk 😅) 

 

Today’s lunch menu: 

 

Starter, salad 

Main: salmon and Moroccan short rib

 

 

Both the fish & short rib was excellent 👌🏻 

Really good taste and good plating too give a smashing first impression🤩 

That Moroccan short rib should be a main for dinner😋😋😋 

 

After our lunch it was time to go upstairs to clean up after the walk. 

[expattraveler]

Norwaylady,

 

just finished reading the first part of your b2b after being away for the past week. As always thank you for the detailed live review of your and Mr’s travels!

 

looking forward to othe next installment on part 2 of your b2b.

 

wishing you great weather and calm seas!
 

enjoy…

[Norwaylady]

I was dying for some coffee ☕️ 

So I sent Mr up the stairs and took a detour via Al Bacio to get myself a coffee to go. 

I was lining up as usual and waiting to be served. When the lovely crew in Al Bacio asks what I wanted a Mr who was standing by the cookie jar, loudly waving his arms and making it very clearly…. It’s my turn, I was here before she!!! 

I saw them when I arrived in line and was a bit 🤔🤔🤔🫣🧐 They will make a statement😂😂😅 

For my English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇬🇧UK followers, think little Britain 🇬🇧🤭 (those not familiar, it’s a comedy series from BBC, it’s hilarious 🤣 we all know those characters in the series) 

I was correct in my reading the situation🤪

So I politely said to the crew, please help this gentleman first! I can wait for you to help him out🙃

He wanted 5 of each cookie in the cookie jars. He needed something to snack on in the bar later today😝 (he said it by himself) 😂😂😂

Cheers for new cruisers👍🏻👍🏻

[hcat]

BON VOYAGE for Part Two!

Edited April 1 by hcat

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, Norwaylady said:

Cheers for new cruisers👍🏻👍🏻

 

 There is always that 10%. 

 

  Glad you made the Concierge lunch this time and that you both enjoyed it.  

 

 

[depplep]

Ready for round two. Enjoy.

[Norwaylady]

Finally! 

Sail-way⚓️😎 We are running late according to our schedule😜

Captain George was finalising the safety test and everything at 15.00. So he was 45.minutes early according to the daily compass🤭 

 

So at 17.00 we started to move😎⚓️🥂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

our special guest🙃

 

 

 

Liberty was first to leave port, then Captain Kate & Beyond then us, Equinox⚓️

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Tonight’s show is Ed Regine

Bring on the dark humour😂😂

 

Well, the audience is older😅 much more gray hair😆

Ed Regine tried to wake up the crowd, but a little coma😝

He was fun, we laughed and had a good time. 

[Norwaylady]

Dinner

Yes, what can go wrong🙃

Well, a good afternoon ladies & gentlemen 

 

What did not supervisor Johnathan tell us? 

 

They have rotated some of the crew🫡🫤🙄 

Well at big thanks for that😜 

 

We arrived to dinner to discover this:

 

 

I will not judge and doom our new sommelier and main waiter. 

But it was a surprise🤪🥸😳

 

We asked for same location and crew🫠

Diamond and Elysse stopped by to say hello💙 

 

So back to dinner! 

Today’s menu: 

 

Mr had the coconut soup and red beets for starter and pasta bolognaise 

 

 

I went for red beets and onion soup. 

 

 

Food was good, nothing bad or extravagant. 

 

Dessert menu 

 

I has the cheesecake with strawberry sauce and mr went for ice cream 🍨 

 

The cheesecake itself was delicious and perfectly balanced. 

But the sauce… WE NEED TO Talk About that… 

Red kool-aid as it best🫣😝😜 Who serves this as strawberry sauce? 

It tasted like water containing food colouring🤭

It should have been served by real strawberries in a blender. 

 

After dinner we walked to 🛌 

 

Our new neighbour’s are French Canadian 🇨🇦 They don’t want 2. Seating, so they are trying to get select dining or 1.seating… 

So we will see if they show up onward. 

[Norwaylady]

Cruise Compass Day 2 Sea Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Norwaylady]

I went for my walk around 08.30. 

No big chair hogs areas. Lots of loungers available around the pool and lots of chairs on deck 14 in the partly shaded area. Very good! 

 

I walked for a good hour. 

It’s lots of new crew onboard. It was a busy turnaround for the crew yesterday. 

They had a group of new cleaners doing a grand tour today and training has started for them. 

 

Breakfast was the great 🦴 to Mr😝

I picked up my things and went to terrace to get a table😎

 

Mr said it was a training session when he ordered his omelette🙃 

You can tell it’s lots of new crew. It’s changes all over in bars, restaurants etc. 

 The coffee machine in OV had a temporary breakdown when I went to get my coffee🤪🤪 So som extra stairs for me😂😂😂💪🏻

On the other side, our sunshine in the terrace bar is the same and OJ was available🍹🍊🍊🍊😁

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

I went for red beets and onion soup. 

 

 My wife is starting to get excited for her French Onion Soup.  30 days until embarkation. 

 

[chemmo]

I hate to say this but years ago we had a big ‘new’ crew on Equinox and to describe service as chaotic for the full cruise was an understatement…In all my Celebrity cruises it is the only one where we asked to speak to the hotel manager as so many things were wrong…His cheerful reassurance that “By next week service will be getting nearly back to normal” was not what we wanted/needed to hear!

 

A butler who did nothing but tell us how sore his feet were (and in detail).

 

A room attendant first day who, when I politely asked him to re vacuum the room as there were finger nails by the sofa in the lounge  said I should have cut them over a bin. I had to point out to him they were violent red and clearly belonging to the last occupant!

 

None existent service at the Elite cocktail hour…Really none existent.

 

Even the Michael’s Club host was new and tried to tell me we would need to pay for our son’s specialty dining (we were in a RS) and didn’t believe me until she had spoken to the M’D of Murano. 
 

Luminae breakfast service was soooooo slooooow and evening service was a bit of a joke with so many errors. When the wrong entrees were brought out to us the  waiter turned around moving from table to table asking generally “Has anyone ordered the lamb and salmon?”. When he finally found an owner he then needed reminding about ten minutes later that we were still waiting! 
 

We can laugh now looking back but at the time it really was a disaster and disappointment of a cruise. Never experienced anything that bad or remotely near that bad before or since. Quite simply they had swapped over so many staff the new ones weren’t getting the training they needed.

Edited April 2 by chemmo

[Norwaylady]

@chemmo it’s definitely several new all “green” ones arriving onboard yesterday. It was impossible to hide😅

I went to the ladies room and an entourage of “cleaning” ladies arrived together by a supervisor to have a view and show them around…. 
 

Today in the buffet during breakfast the supervisors was running around and showing them how to do things on the floor. 
We have “survived” crew exchanges before😝 but I know it might be a wheel or two in need of some oil during this cruise😅🤪🥸

I hope it’s not too visible and too much fuzz for our new guests. 
 

on the positive side, our new waiter and sommelier was onboard last sailing. 
 

[Stem to Stern]

50 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

My wife is starting to get excited for her French Onion Soup.

Me too.  I just want to dig in as soon as it arrives at the table.  But I always have to remind myself of how piping hot it is.  The roof of my mouth is very sensitive and burns easily.

[Jim_Iain]

On 3/31/2024 at 10:59 AM, Lena11033 said:

 

One of the things I missed moving from UK to Canada is the holidays, we only had Friday off.

 

I'm currently slow cooking lamb today, my husband never used to eat lamb for Easter until he met me. Even now he keeps trying to cook turkey, I'm like nope lamb.

 

I have to agree.  Iain turned me into a Lamb fan.   He also shifted me from eating well done cremated meat to Medium Rare.   

 

When we lived in Ireland.   Lamb was our least expensive protein and Turkey was the most expensive.   We usually had lamb burgers rather than Beef Burgers.    I sure miss that Luminae use to have a Lamb Burger but they canned it.

[Jim_Iain]

This has to be my favorite Food Decoration.... Incredible artistic Chef

 

[Norwaylady]

Mr had some work to finish. It needed to be solved asap. 

So I parked him on the balcony together by the computer and headset🤓

 

I wanted to have a little fun in the ☀️ 

So I went to deck 14 to search for a sun lounger in the partly shaded area. 

Even if I don’t attend all events on pool deck. It’s nice to follow from above😎 it’s my way of socialising😂 specially since Mr was occupied😜

 

The Cruise Survey from first week arrived last night. 

So I filled it out😇 our points are given😝

I know it’s important to the crew. 

 

It was pool volleyball today. Officers vs guests. 

Officers did 🥇 

 

Around 14.25 Mr texted me…. I’m hungry, lunch? 

Buffet was closing 14.30 so I said salad, pizza is always served… 

 

I meet Mr 14.30 in the buffet and it was still as a full setup. It was American 🇺🇸 themed today. 

Mr was 😋😋😋 He had brisket and pineapple salad. 

 

I checked today’s Indian 🇮🇳 (I always check them… my weakness is Indian curries) they had a chicken option and beet rice… 🙌🏻 YES 

It was delicious! I could have eaten a big plate😋🥰 the chicken was so tender and filled up with flavour🥰😋 the raita was good and everything was just🫶🏻

So a happy camper on the terrace❤️

[maggieq]

10 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

Cruise Compass Day 2 Sea Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Norwaylady I hope you enjoyed the show. We saw Karen on our first celebrity cruise on the solstice and skipped dinner to go to her second show same evening.  

Edited April 2 by maggieq

[Norwaylady]

41 minutes ago, maggieq said:

@Norwaylady I hope you enjoyed the show. We saw Karen on our first celebrity cruise on the solstice and skipped dinner to go to her second show same evening.  

we enjoyed the show and pop-up last week😎

tonight we have a new show to watch❤️

[mac_tlc]

9 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 My wife is starting to get excited for her French Onion Soup.  30 days until embarkation. 

 

Glad me and my DW are not her only ones! We both have it almost every night.  
 

mac_tlc

[Norwaylady]

Since Mr was working the entire day, I returned to the stateroom a little after 5. 

Today’s canapés had arrived: 

 

I got ready for the evening and we walked downstairs to passport on deck 3. 

Mr wanted a little live music and a cocktail 🍹 

 

When it was close to showtime we walked to the theatre🎭 

Our seats were taken🫣🤭🫢 (don’t underestimate habits) A small emergency ‼️ 

We found seats and hoped for the best! 

 

Tonight’s show is Karen Grainger (again) 

Fingers crossed she does another set of the show😇 She was fun last week🥰😅

 

Before Karen kicked off the show it was “showtime” for the captain & executive committee. 

 

 

Mrs Grainger did not fail this evening. She did a fantastic show and it was not similar to the last, new songs and different characters. 

Great performance and lots of fun. 

 

 

 

After the show we decided it was time to test something new😅😝😜 Like brand new, virgin new! 

It was $5 casino credits to everyone tonight from 20.00 on the cruise card. 

 

We have never ever tried out this😂😅You see? Big drinkers and gamblers😝

World has turned crazy🤣🤣🤣

 

By a little help from the casino crew, we got the gripe on how to get it to work😅 

We decided on a panda 🐼 game machine. 

Mr played first, no prizes and no money😝

I on the other hand had a bit more luck 🍀 I won 0.20$🥳🥳🥳

You see that BIG payoff🤩💰💰💰

 

After our crazy escapades we went to dinner. 

 

Today’s menu: 

 

We had cobb salad and shrimp cocktail for starters. 

The branzino and rigatoni. 

 

 

Dessert menu 

 

Mr went for Tiramisu and I had ice cream😋

 

Mr wanted to try the frozen yogurt pina colada. 

He said it was strange… not a good idea according to him😅

 

Then we went to bed 🛌