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Equinox 1/20/14 NEVER AGAIN....

youwash

By youwash,
in Celebrity Cruises

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youwash

youwash

Posted
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will I be satisfied with only a 7 night cruise. or maybe I will, I find out in 20 days when I sail on the Reflection!!

 

We had a "wonnerful, wonnerful" time (for those old enough, that is Lawrence Welk)

 

It was great to have 11 nights, even longer would be great. The weather was perfect and the only problem was that we had to come home. The whole cruise couldn't have been better. I can't even think of anything to complain about. Oh, wait--I did think of something---card players taking up tables in Café al Brico and Aqua Spa Café (café did ask them to leave when tables were needed at lunch)

 

I hope to write a lot but in small posts as my husband thinks I am addicted to cruise critic and try not to spend to long on it at a time. Plus I still have my vacation fake nails on and they are really long and make it hard to type. All that I will want to share with you are our observations and opinions and could be different for others.

 

We are 2 sisters traveling with our husbands and are in our late 50's. We were in Aqua Class 1623 and 1625. We had the 123 Go beverage package that we had upgraded ahead of time to premium.

 

We flew in a day ahead and stayed at the Sheraton Airport (FLL) There is a free shuttle airport to hotel. They have a fantastic Ruben sandwich in the bar where we watched Seattle beat San Fran (anybody but San Fran). They have a shuttle that you pay $10 PP to get to the ship and we went on the 10 AM. There were others on it going to Princess so we got to the ship a little after 10:30 walked right up to the Aqua check in line and right to the counter to check in. We went upstairs to the seating area and at 11:00 they announced we could board and were among the first 25 people on board.

 

We did not get a welcome aboard sparkling wine-I think they were not set up yet as we saw others with glasses later. By the time it got busy in the buffet we had already had our first drink-at 11:15, I might add--and were done with lunch just as they announced rooms were ready at 1:00.

 

For the first night they were offering a 50% discount for the specialty resturants so we booked Murano.

 

I think all our luggage was there by about 3:00. I don't remember as I was in a state of " I am on a cruise ship and I don't care" I packed too much clothes as usual, as I said to my husband "but Honey, it's 11 nights" Using the cabinets above the bed there was enough room to empty our 4 suitcases. Hey, it was Southwest and they are free!!

 

More tomorrow---

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youwash

youwash

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Forgot to mention the biggest news/change to us.... In Cozumel, Mexico YOU CAN NO LONGER BUY ANTIBIOTICS WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION. Every time we have been there in the last 15 years we have always brought amoxicillin home with us, but sadly no more.

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Chitown12562

Chitown12562

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Youwash,

 

Thanks for posting. I look forward to reading your review. For some reason it seemed like there were no reviews here on the 11 night Equinox sailings, but not there may be 2, including yours. Tell hubby to relax and that Rob is waiting for that review. He'll get you back soon! ;)

 

No meds without a prescription!? My GF will not like hearing that, as there was something she wanted to pick up while in Cozumel.

 

Ho, one more thing. In your title you said "Never Again". What did you mean by that?

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Lois R "Live from...." Rare

Lois R

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Youwash,

 

Thanks for posting. I look forward to reading your review. For some reason it seemed like there were no reviews here on the 11 night Equinox sailings, but not there may be 2, including yours. Tell hubby to relax and that Rob is waiting for that review. He'll get you back soon! ;)

 

No meds without a prescription!? My GF will not like hearing that, as there was something she wanted to pick up while in Cozumel.

 

Ho, one more thing. In your title you said "Never Again". What did you mean by that?

 

I think it was supposed to get your attention;)...which it did.

If you read the first sentence in the review....they followed the

"NEVER AGAIN" by saying......"will I be satisfied with a 7 night

cruise";)........

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Chitown12562

Chitown12562

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I think it was supposed to get your attention;)...which it did.

If you read the first sentence in the review....they followed the

"NEVER AGAIN" by saying......"will I be satisfied with a 7 night

cruise";)........

 

Duh, now I get it. Takes me a while sometimes.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.:D

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Iamthesea

Iamthesea

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HA...I got it right away. I was interested in this review because we will be taking the same cruise in 2015. Looking forward to reading the rest of the review and all about what you did in each port. :)

 

BTW- There is no addiction to Cruise Critic. I tell my husband that CC is a teacher. I am learning all sorts of the "ends and outs" of cruising and also saving us money along the way.:D

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Andy

Andy

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hi Youwash,

 

Thank you for sharing your insights. I'm glad you had a great time on Equinox. Before I clicked on your thread, I figured you were going to say that you enjoyed the longer sailing. I know what ya mean. We started out sailing on 3-7 night cruises, and always try for at least 10-14 nights now.

 

Looking forward to your next installment. Welcome Home !

Edited by Host Andy
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Wine-O

Wine-O

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Trying to continue review. Just spent 2 hours composing and typing all excursions and went to post and my internet connection failed and I lost the whole thing. will try tomorrow again

 

Try putting it into a word document then cut/paste onto cruise critic.

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youwash

youwash

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Equinox will be our FIRST longer than 7 :D sailing in Nov! It has always been a bucket list item, and like you, a fear that going back to just a week will be hard to do ;)

 

The 11 nights was wonderful. At the time it even felt like it was longer.

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wallie5446

wallie5446

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The 11 nights was wonderful. At the time it even felt like it was longer.

 

That is what we are hoping to feel too!

And with us just off the Reflection all we can say is, "Your gonna love Her too"! Suttle differences, the Lawn Club Grill has great steaks.

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youwash

youwash

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On other threads about Equinox there was discussion about the age demographics. I actually thought I saw as many baby strollers as I did adult scooters. I can’t think of any time that scooters, wheelchairs or people with canes negatively impacted our cruise. I think there were more scooters on Silhouette last year.

 

When we stopped in Grand Cayman the seas were a little rough. The other ships in port went to the other side of the island to tender but our Captain decided to tender in the usual spot. This meant that the gangway was moving pretty good. 1 to 2 feet side to side and up and down. At this time my opinion would be that IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE A WALKER OR WHEELCHAIR TO AND FROM THE GANGWAY –PLEASE STAY ON THE SHIP! It was hard enough for us youngsters. It took an hour from getting on the tender to getting off of it. Thought I was going to get sea sick. Just going back and forth was 2 hours so we cancelled our plan for the beach and just picked up the required Jimmy Buffets t-shirt and Rum Cake and went back.

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TNhome

TNhome

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Trying to continue review. Just spent 2 hours composing and typing all excursions and went to post and my internet connection failed and I lost the whole thing. will try tomorrow again

 

Could you please let me know how room 1625 was. We have that one booked for an upcoming back to back cruise. Thank you for your posts! Please be careful we went from 7 day cruises to 10 or 11 day cruises, our last two have been 21 days. It is very addicting!

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youwash

youwash

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I am going to share our experiences on our excursions, as before we went I was looking and could find little info on them.

We took only Celebrity excursions because that is what we are comfortable with and I could have them all arranged and paid for ahead of time. The first day at sea the line at the shore excursion desk was 30 people long.

Cartagena, Columbia CA01 Cartagena City, La Popa Hill, Folkloric Show

All of our tours met in the theater where you go up on stage and they give you a sticker corresponding to your tour and designates you to the correct group and bus. Only one person has to go up if you are on the same tour. Then you are seated until they call your sticker color and number and you go to the gangway. Then on to the designated bus which was very nice with a very informative guide.

The first stop is at the Fort just for pictures. All of the vendors, people selling stuff, are VERY AGGRESSIVE! You have to be firm in your NO and keep walking. The only thing I could mention about the Fort is that if you are on a tour in it there must be an awful lot of strenuous walking-it is huge—and hot. The drive up the hill to La Popa took us past a very poor part of the city (slums). We walked through the chapel and had a bathroom break.

Next stop was a shopping area the “dungeons” Just all small rooms with people selling things. My sister and I did buy very nice tablecloths . Then it was the Folkloric show which was only about 20 min of singing and dancing. A beverage was included water-soda and I think beer. The stairs and walkway to this were long and very steep. Then we did a walking tour of some of the streets in the Walled City. There was another bathroom stop in a emerald jewelry store. Then back to the ship. Friends of ours did the horse carriage ride and were happy with it. We enjoyed the tour and felt it gave a good cross section visit to Cartagena. On some of the side streets we did see some donkeys with the little 2 wheel cart (like Juan Valdez from the old coffee commercials) these were working as I saw one hauling windows.

I really enjoy writing this as it takes me back there.

 

We had kind of whirlwind end to vacation. Got home in Wisc. at 10PM Friday unpacked, did 2 loads of laundry, repacked and left at 10 AM Saturday ,driving to Roanoke, VA to be here for work Monday

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