Honeymoon on the Equinox! 12day Ultimate Caribbean. Power of the Poncho:A Trip Report

[Embrace]

Just updating the thread to keep alive.

Norma

 

:D Like you, I am left wondering "what happened next???" Did she sleep the rest of the cruise away??

 

Looking forward to reading the rest of the story...:).

 

I'm sure she will be back soon with the next chapter.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Embrace

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Hi everyone! I am still here :D Just a little busy right now with finals and end of semester deadlines. Lots to get done at school and work before winter break (I am a high school teacher and still in graduate school).

 

 

 

If you ever go back to Grand Cayman, I would definitely recommend a tour to Stingray City, and particularly a small private tour. We went on a Fatfish jet ski tour to see the rays, and there were only 6 of us on the tour. We got to spend quite a lot of time with the Rays before all the big cruise ship tours with 100s of people showed up! We have found that small tour providers know when the big ship tours go where and avoid those times. This provides a much better and less crowded experience. I can't wait for the rest of your review!

 

I am soaking up all these Equinox reviews, as we are just 60 days away from our Equinox cruise! I always intend to journal, and I never make it very far into the cruise before I give up. The last cruise I made it two days in before I gave up! LOL!

 

 

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Thank you for the tips! I think I learned my lesson on GC, haha! Just means we need to go back and try it again.

 

You are going to have a great trip, wish I could sneak into your bag LOL! I really enjoy to journal and I was just thinking the other day I should journal on a regular basis for my own personal reasons. I love looking back and reflecting on life. I will admit it was easier on this trip to journal because we had a lot of down time. On our med cruise I had to fill in some of the gaps by using pictures to remind me.

 

And thanks for the amazing review

Your wedding pics are beautiful - you are a stunning bride and handsome groom!

We are going on Equniox next year so enjoying your pics and thoughts

Many thanks!

 

 

Thank you so much for the sweet words! You all know how to make a girl blush :o You are going to have a great trip!!

 

Hi, Ashley

Another follower from your amazing Med review. So, really happy to find this one. I'm on the armchair now!

 

Aww thank you for finding this and following. Hopefully we will have another med cruise to journal. However we might have to cancel our May 2015 Eastern. Med. cruise because of a potential new job for my husband that would put him in training for 6 months :eek:

 

I am loving your review. We just got off the same itinerary last Friday (Nov 21). It is so fun hearing your perspective. This was the longest cruise we had ever taken. My DH and DD were ready to leave the ship at the end of the cruise, I on the other hand was begging for more!!

 

We also had a lot of rain as well. It was a wonderful ship and a fantastic cruise!

 

That's wonderful!!! Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. Interesting to hear your perspective. May I ask, why were they ready to leave? just too long on a cruise or was it because of the rain? Just wondering :-)

 

Thank you for you review. I am really enjoying it. I have wanted to go to Cartegena. Your pictures made me want to go even more.

 

Thank you! We actually really enjoyed Cartegena! Before we left I had visions of it being "Scary" and we did not find that to be the case. We felt very safe, everywhere we went was nice, clean, friendly people! I think the shop owners here were the least pushy of all the stops. You should go!

 

Enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time to write and post it and your wonderful photo's.

 

Thank you so much for the nice comments! Have a great weekend!

 

Hi Ashley, enjoying your review as always We are going on our first Med cruise on the Reflection on 29th May. I hope that our ships pass each other along the way and we can wave to each other! I must read your Med cruise review again to refresh my memory for our cruise. I still have the info you emailed to me, it has lots of helpful information in it too. May will be here before we know it and I just hope that I am organized enough before the trip!

 

Tracey.

 

Oh my goodness, Tracey, you are so right! AHH, January is just around the corner which means the cruise will be here before we know it!! I still have a lot to do. I tend to plan like crazy when we first book, then I slow down, and then pick it up again.

 

Not sure if you saw me write this before. There is a chance we are going to have to cancel our cruise; about 6 weeks after we booked my husband started moving along in a job that has a very long application process. Things are looking good for him and the job, we are expecting a phone call sometime this month to let him know if he got it (fingers crossed he did). If so, he has to go to training for 6 months!!!!! :eek: If that is the case, no Med. cruise in May, booooo. This is his dream job so we are going for it!

 

Just updating the thread to keep alive.

Norma

 

 

Thank you, Norma! Life got busy, I will finish the report, I promise :D Have a great day!

 

Like you, I am left wondering "what happened next???" Did she sleep the rest of the cruise away??

 

Looking forward to reading the rest of the story....

 

I'm sure she will be back soon with the next chapter.

 

HAHAHA! I wish I could go back and sleep on the Equinox right now ;) Don't worry, I will finish it :-) Have a nice day!!

[One_plus_one]

 

 

 

Oh my goodness, Tracey, you are so right! AHH, January is just around the corner which means the cruise will be here before we know it!! I still have a lot to do. I tend to plan like crazy when we first book, then I slow down, and then pick it up again.

 

Not sure if you saw me write this before. There is a chance we are going to have to cancel our cruise; about 6 weeks after we booked my husband started moving along in a job that has a very long application process. Things are looking good for him and the job, we are expecting a phone call sometime this month to let him know if he got it (fingers crossed he did). If so, he has to go to training for 6 months!!!!! :eek: If that is the case, no Med. cruise in May, booooo. This is his dream job so we are going for it!

 

:eek: I do remember you telling me this in your email a while ago. Well, it is his future career and dream job so that is important. :) If it happens, then it is meant to be and you have to go with the flow of life! You will be able to go on many holidays and cruises in your future together, the wait will be worth it. Let's hope that you find out before final payment is due!!

[h20cruzer]

Looking forward to the rest of your honeymoon review

Norma

[CruisingGatorGirl]

12/17/2013, Belize City, Belize

 

After a great sea day we slept like babies.

 

 

 

All right Belize, are you ready for us? WE are ready for you! I think we were most looking forward to Belize. Again, I had no idea of what to expect from Belize. All I know is Tyler was in charge of this port and he booked an off roading Land Rover tour. In my mind I am picturing either sand dunes or muddy/clay filled back roads. Obviously I don’t know much about Belize…. As I would soon find out.

 

 

 

We had the alarm set for 8 but Tyler woke up at 7 (for once Tyler was the first one up)…

 

 

And, OH NO

 

 

There is a flashing light on our phone and we can see it is cloudy outside, this is not a good sign.

 

 

 

 

Yes, we had a message from shore excursions desk, our tour was canceled. NOOOOOO. The one tour Tyler planned is now canceled. I felt so bad because Tyler was really looking forward to this.

 

 

 

We originally had booked the Celebrity excursion: Jungle, River, Land Rover & Cave Expedition, BED3. Which was now canceled. I sat up in bed looked at Tyler and said “I understand we are in the RAIN forest and it RAINS in the RAIN forest but I was not expecting non-stop rain for 4-5 days in a row.” I could see Tyler was disappointed his tour was canceled.

So we turned our frowns upside down and marched on down to the shore excursion desk to see what we could do.

Well, I guess the rest of the ship also got the same message we did because it was crazy-town at the shore excursion desk. Turns out nearly all the excursions were canceled. Not only because it was raining but also because the days of rain caused many streets to flood and trees to topple over. Popular excursions, such as zip-lining, were canceled.

There were only 4 excursions left for us to pick from. We went up to the buffet to have breakfast and discuss which of the 4 we would go on.

As many of you know, I really like history and ruins so we had to reschedule for the Mayan Palaces of Cahal Pech, BE99A (I think that was the code).

We went back down to shore excursions to make the change and now the line was even longer. We thought there was no way we would even make the excursion on time because of the line. While we were standing in line I noticed one of the house phones on the wall. I walked up to, called shore excursions desk (that I could see from where I was standing) and was able to make the reservation, pretty easy! Others saw what I was doing so a line for the phone formed.

Today called for more rain so we grabbed all of our rain gear and headed down to the theater to wait for our tour.

Just a note for those thinking of this tour, due to the heavy rain and flooding they had to change the bus route to get to Cahal Pech, the bus ride was 1 hour and 45 minutes long each way.

Also due to the cancellations and flooding everything today was running behind. I wrote down ours had a start time of 10:15 but we didn’t actually get called out until 11:15.

We had a nearly 2 hour bus ride to get us to the archeological site, which was 8 miles from Guatemala.

I am studying Career and Technical Education so I was excited to see this:

[CruisingGatorGirl]

There is a large Amish population in Belize

We had a senior guide (who turns out is a local celebrity with historical ties to Cahal Pech) named Pedro Arnoldo. His daughter who was in training would be our assistant. They were wonderful and mad ea great father-daughter team. Pedro was full of life and heavily invested into the area. His love for Belize and Cahal Pech was evident.

Pedro was amazing, almost on the level of “Gino” if you read my Med. cruise review in Pompeii. He was able to share several stories from his childhood exploring the area before it became a tourist destination. If you are lucky to have Pedro you will be in for a real treat! He made the 2 hour drive interesting and filled us with all sorts of knowledge.

Along the drive we stopped at a little place for a snack, shopping, and restrooms.

We got to drive through Pedro’s hometown (Cyro, if that is how you spell it). He also is a talented artist and pointed our several murals he painted around town.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

We finally arrived at the ruins. Wow, I was impressed! The ruins are very fascinating and set in the lush rainforest. We stuck close to Pedro’s side so we could hear all of the stories as we explored the ins and outs of the ruins.

I was not sure to expect in Cahal Pech, especially since this was a last minute tour change and we were VERY happy with this selection!

[CruisingGatorGirl]

I enjoyed being able to interact with the site and Pedro brought it to life.

Just as we were finishing the tour it began to pour again. Caution, the ruins are VERY slippery in the rain! We all piled back on the bus to make our way back to Celebrity in Belize City. The bus ride was very bumpy, I found the sea sick patch I wear behind the ear also helped with me not getting car sick.

Again, due to the rain, we had to take an alternate route as many bridges were closed. This caused us to arrive late to Belize City, past the cruise departure time and we missed the last tender. Thank goodness we booked a Celebrity tour, the ship waited for us.

The brought a tender back to pick us up, I think we held the ship up by about 90 minutes.

We rushed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We really wanted to make the show before dinner. We have not been to many of the shows on this cruise so we were determined to make it.

The show tonight was an impressionist who performed “Motown” hits. We recognized some of the songs but I don’t really know what Motown is. We assumed it was a music era before us.

Once again we had excellent and quick service in the MDR. Because our waiter only had us and one other table we were in and out of the MDR quickly; quicker than our previous cruise.

We went to the late night Hot Glass Show, which is AWESOME! Seeing the glass show at night is well worth it! They turn all the lights off so you can see the glass glow.

We also noticed tonight the “Lawn Club Store” is gone. I think a photo studio is replacing it? It was now just an empty area.

We were pretty exhausted from touring today so we went to bed early.

Up next: Cozumel and SUNSHINE!!!!

[chamima]

I enjoyed being able to interact with the site and Pedro brought it to life.

Th

The show tonight was an impressionist who performed “Motown” hits. We recognized some of the songs but I don’t really know what Motown is. We assumed it was a music era before us.

Once again we had excellent and quick service in the MDR. Because our waiter only had us and one other table we were in and out of the MDR quickly; quicker than our previous cruise.

We went to the late night Hot Glass Show, which is AWESOME! Seeing the glass show at night is well worth it! They turn all the lights off so you can see the glass glow.

We also noticed tonight the “Lawn Club Store” is gone. I think a photo studio is replacing it? It was now just an empty area.

We were pretty exhausted from touring today so we went to bed early.

Up next: Cozumel and SUNSHINE!!!!

 

 

Loving your review!

We're on the Equinox in February so reading with much interest.

"Motown" is Detroit (the "motor" city). Think Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin,

Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & the Supremes, and the Temptations!

I know we're older than you but hope you've heard of some of them. :o:

 

 

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

[Coolcruise02]

Great review. I have enjoyed all of yours! :)

[LzyCruiser_NWA]

Hello Mrs. CruisingGatorGirl,

 

Found your reviews from researching the med ports. Loved and took me 2 days to finally to get to this.

I saw in your signature that you're returning to the med in 2015, I can only imagine what an epic write up that would be.

 

Keep on the great writing and the great trip reports.

[MarKay525]

Happy belated First Anniversary Ashley and Tyler.

 

Ashley - I've enjoyed reading your review as we will be on the same cruise this April. Your photos are fantastic and I've learned so much from your posts.

 

Hope you had a few days of sun before the cruise ended. DH and I spent a week in Bermuda on our honeymoon and it rained every single day.

[FunCruiser56]

We cruised this area a few years ago and had wonderful weather except in Costa Rica it just poured. Try GA again some time and do the stingray tour lots of wonderful private guides. We are also huge fan of the hot glass show! I think any cruise in Dec will be very Christmas oriented and lots of holiday music ;) on rainy sea days we like to spend a lot of time on the outside area back of the windjammer and sit and read gets us out of our cabin and close to snacks and drinks hope to read your other review. Congrats on your marriage, we just celebrated 40 years!

[Iamthesea]

I hope that everything is OK with you? ;)

 

The end of you trip report never came, and I have gone and come back from mine. :D Great cruise, and we had near perfect weather. Never a need for a poncho.

[LouisV]

Loving your review as much as your engagement one! My mom and I are cruising on the Equinox to the Caribbean on almost the same itinerary in November 2016!

 

Mo

[Philomath]

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[winncruiser]

Ashley....so enjoyed this review. You are an excellent storyteller. Thank you for taking the time to share your honeymoon with us!

[Ebbwboy]

I loved the report so far but I guess we'll never know about Cozumel

[LouisV]

Ashley, where are you? Hope everything is ok??!!

[lovestx]

Ashley, where are you? Hope everything is ok??!!

 

I'm friends with Ashley on Facebook and can tell you that she appears happy and fine. Hope she will come back and post.

[LouisV]

I'm friends with Ashley on Facebook and can tell you that she appears happy and fine. Hope she will come back and post.

 

Thank goodness! I hope she comes back!

[relic2]

Me too. [emoji22]

 

 

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[Iamthesea]

Ashley's has been on CC lately, so she must be fine. ;) Doesn't sound like she will finish this review, though.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Iamthesea

[pacificoclan]

Bummer! I just read it and it's not finished[emoji51]

 

 

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[LauraAnneC]

I'm hoping for an update too - I enjoyed reading this!