Detailed Photo Review of 3/14/16 Celebrity Equinox 11 Night Cruise

[deladane]

I noticed you are going on Paul Gauguin. You could have waited to swim with the sting rays/sharks then. Only 10 or 12 folks compared to hundreds. :D

 

 

Yes! When we booked the equinox cruise and the captain Marvin your, we weren't engaged yet and definitely didn't plan a honeymoon yet. Once I knew we were taking the PG cruise, I knew we would have a sting ray experience there as well :) they also have excursions where you swim with sharks!! I can't wait!!!

[deladane]

 

 

Celebrity Silhouette

 

Carnival Magic

 

Our first stop on tonight's pre-dinner drinks tour brought us to the Ensemble Lounge. We didn't spend much time here during the cruise, but I did like that they usually had some live music playing whenever we walked by. I ordered the Kir Royale (Domaine Chandon Brut sparkling wine and Chambord Black Raspberry liquor) and J had a beer.

 

 

Our next stop was the World Class Bar. Aside from the time we spent here during the mixology class, we had yet to spend any time at this bar. For some reason, I thought all of the drinks here were above the $13 limit of the Premium Beverage Package... maybe that was something I had read here on Cruise Critic prior to the cruise? We were pleasantly surprised to learn that EVERY drink on the menu at the World Class Bar cost $12, just like at the martini bar, so we could have any drink we wanted! We spent the next 2 days trying every drink on the menu (to be fair, there's only 10 drinks and we each only ordered 5 and then tasted each others drinks). We started with 2 of the most exotic drinks on the menu...

 

[deladane]

Bulleit Infusion (I thought they would give us the entire pitcher, but they only pour out a little into a glass and put the rest of the pitcher back behind the counter)...

 

Double fisting the shakers

 

Mystic Ketel One

 

 

Infusing the rum in the Zacapa Above the Clouds with applewood smoke

 

[deladane]

The Ciroc Tropically Yours tasted like a gourmet pina colada!

 

 

Dinner was delicious as usual, although I didn't have a huge appetite tonight (likely due to all those yummy drinks at the World Class Bar, plus the fact that we ate lunch fairly late).

 

 

Whole Wheat Orecchiette

 

Crispy Salt Cod Bacalao Croquettes

 

Fusilli Pasta

 

We decided to skip dessert tonight, so I apologize for not having photos of that menu.

[deladane]

Tonight's show was the Tenors of Rock and we thought it was one of the best shows over the whole cruise! They were a group of 4 singers who did a variety of rock songs from the 60's, 70's, and 80's, and some of them were in unique arrangements to put their own spin on the song. Their voices were far better than the voices of the singers in the production shows, so that really added to our enjoyment of this show.

 

 

After the show, we walked around the ship for a bit. At around 10:50pm, J decided he wanted to use his Captain's Club coupon for the free scoop of gelato (this was the only perk we cared about so we wanted to make sure to use it before the end of the cruise!), so we figured we would be fine to get it before the gelato bar closed at 11pm. I was told earlier in the week by someone at guest services that we did not need the paper coupon when we redeemed our free scoop because the info was on our seapass card and the person at the counter would know we hadn't redeemed it yet when they swiped our card. When we got there, the lady said that she did need to have the paper coupon to give us the free scoop. Of course we didn't have it on us because we didn't think we would need it! So with 10 minutes to go until they closed, we ran back to the cabin, grabbed the paper coupon, and ran back downstairs to the gelato bar, arriving at 10:57pm. By now, there was a second woman behind the counter who was helping to clean up, and she was very strict. She would not let him make an ice cream sandwich (which I had read on Cruise Critic that people were able to do that on their cruises), and she said he could only pick 1 flavor and no toppings. J opted for rum raisin, and I opted to hold off on my scoop until tomorrow since I really wasn't very hungry. That was one of many times during the cruise that we got false or inaccurate information from the people at guest services (J got at least 4 different answers when he asked 4 different people how many laps around the track equal one mile HAHA And he also got false information about the pricing for the mixology class).

 

On our way leaving the gelato bar, we ran into some people from our tour in Panama at Cafe al Bacio, so we sat and chatted with them until midnight, then went back to the cabin to go to bed.

 

Up Next: our last sea day :(

[deladane]

Thursday, March 24 ~ Sea Day

 

Today was our last sea day and we had to move our clocks ahead one hour again last night. I woke up at 8am and spent an hour packing while J slept a little longer. Once he was awake, we went upstairs to the Oceanview Cafe for breakfast at the buffet. I really liked that they had waiters walking around to take drink orders. It is hard enough to juggle a plate of food and silverware without a tray, so the drink waiters made it so we had one less thing to carry around the buffet. With no real plans for today other than relaxing and soaking up every last minute of our time on the Equinox, we opted for some real drinks at breakfast!

 

Paris Screwdriver and Celebrity Bloody Mary

 

Outside of the buffet, they had a map showing the course we traveled during the cruise. On other cruises, I have seen live maps which showed where the ship was in addition to where we had been, but this map stayed static all week.

 

This morning, there were a few activities in the big theater that we were interested in checking out. The first was a presentation about ship navigation given by Staff Captain Matthew. He explained the process of making a cruise itinerary and knowing how long it takes to get from port to port and how to look at the sea maps. He spoke for about 20 minutes and we thought it was very informative about things that we never really knew much about.

 

 

After that, there was a Q&A session with Hotel Director Jamie and Captain Costas for about 45 minutes. The Captain was very funny and approachable, and we learned a lot of interesting facts about life on the ship and how things work behind the scenes.

 

 

After the talk, we went back up to the buffet for lunch. While we were in the elevator, I looked up and saw the Captain was in the elevator with us. I realized there was a question I didn't get to ask him at the Q&A so I figured I had his company for a few seconds in the elevator, so why not ask now? He was so friendly and didn't mind chatting with me at all. He was even nice enough to pose for a picture with us when we got off the elevator!

 

 

Apparently I was slacking on this last day of the cruise as I didn't take any photos of my breakfast or my lunch! I think J had another burger from the mast grill and I had some things from the buffet. After we finished lunch, we went down to the Slush bar to try the last 2 drinks we hadn't tried yet. So for those of you keeping track, this was the first bar where we accomplished tasting all of the drinks over the course of the cruise!

 

Walking through the pool area, we noticed that the chair hogs were out in full force today! We actually noticed this a lot over the whole cruise. Whenever we walked through the pool area or the solarium, we often saw more lounge chairs being occupied with books, hats, and water bottles than with people! We found 2 empty chairs surrounded by loungers and chairs being hogged by people who were no where to be seen. We sat and listened to an acoustic guitar player near the pool, and none of these people returned to their chairs while we were there. I have no idea how long they were gone or if/when they came back to their chairs, but I wished Celebrity did a better job at patrolling this.

 

[deladane]

We spent some time relaxing on our balcony this afternoon, and a little more time packing. At around 3pm, I wanted to get my free scoop of gelato so we went downstairs. I loved how there was a tree hanging in the middle of the space between the glass elevators. It was such a unique feature on a cruise ship and looked so elegant floating there in the middle of the lobby.

 

 

When I went to get my free scoop of gelato, there was a different lady working from last night, and she let me get sprinkles on my scoop of mint chip ice cream! Score! While we were there, we noticed they were doing the auction from the hot glass show. As part of their contract with the Corning Museum of Glass, the gaffers get to auction off 7 pieces that were made at their shows during our cruise. I had no intentions of bidding, but it was fun to watch the process. Some of those pieces sold for over $2000, and all of the money goes to charity, so it was all very exciting.

 

 

 

 

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the evening. Before dinner, we stopped by the martini bar so we could try the last 2 martinis on our list (another bar that we fully completed!)

 

A Cosmo and a Peartini

 

When we got to the hostess stand for our 7pm dinner reservations, Gorica said there was a wait tonight and she had to give us a beeper if we wanted to sit with our normal waiters. I guess more people show up to dinner on the last night of the cruise? I was sad to have a beeper and a wait time, but there was no chance we would skip sitting with our favorite waiters and miss the chance to say goodbye to them!!

 

[deladane]

The wait wasn't very long, and once we were seated, the service was excellent as always.

 

 

My last chance for some escargots (...until my next cruise!)

 

For some reason, the French Onion Soup had more black pepper in it tonight so I didn't enjoy it as much as I did earlier in the week...

 

Aged Prime Rib of Beef

 

Dessert menu

 

Biscuit Croustillant

[deladane]

Thank you to Fredys and Arsapha for wonderful dining room service!

 

After dinner, we went back to the cabin to throw a few extra things in our big checked suitcase so we could put it out in the hallway on time for the stewards to collect it. I think the bags had to be out in the hall by 10pm.

 

The final show of the cruise was a medley of Broadway songs by 6 of the singers from the production shows. This had the potential to be a great show, but they picked songs from obscure shows that I have never seen (and I have seen over 70 shows on Broadway!)... Miss Saigon, Bridges of Madison County, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Company to name a few. They sang a song from Dream Girls, but I only knew that song because I've seen the movie, not the Broadway show. They ended the show with songs from Wicked and Les Mis so at least we knew both of those songs too. The singers had fabulous voices, likely because they picked songs that suited their range (as opposed to the songs assigned to them in the production shows which weren't always so great), but the show would have been more fun if they sang songs from more popular shows.

 

 

After the show, we tried the last two drinks from the World Class Bar menu, so that was the third bar list we completed!

 

 

There was an 80's dance party at Quasar so we spent the rest of the night dancing until midnight! After that, we went up to the buffet for some pizza, and noticed that the pool looked so beautiful all lit up at night.

 

 

We did not have any drinks on Friday before debarking, so our quest to try every drink on the ship ended tonight. Although we did not accomplish our mission, I think we did a pretty good job over the last 11 days. We drank about 3/4 of the drinks on the menus on the ship, and a lot of the ones we didn't try was because either we couldn't find a bar to make that drink or because the ship didn't have the drink on board (most of the wines!) It was fun to be on this quest, and our dining room waiters and sommelier as well as the bartenders we went to most often all knew about our mission and were eager to help us achieve our goals. Throughout the week, they asked us about our progress and helped to find new drinks for us to check off the list. You will also notice the little D or J next to each drink and a + or - sign... we marked off who had each drink (or used no initial if we both tried it) and a + if we loved it or a - if we didn't like it (no + or - meant it was neutral haha). At least now we'll know the best drinks to go for on our Eclipse cruise!! Here is a photo of the list at the end of the cruise...

 

 

Up Next: Debarkation Day :(

[Jiminy1955]

I'm sad this review is essentially at the end. I've thoroughly enjoyed it!!:):):):)

[LynnMW3]

I'm sad this review is essentially at the end. I've thoroughly enjoyed it!!:):):):)

 

I looked forward to every new post! Dana, you did a marvelous job! We're taking the same cruise in April, and I've learned so much from reading your review...thank you so much! I can't imagine how much time and energy it took to put this together...both during and after your cruise!

 

THANK YOU!:D

[NemoCrownie]

I'm sad this review is essentially at the end. I've thoroughly enjoyed it!!:):):):)

Me, too! This has been a fantastic review.

 

I'm so impressed with how you rolled with the punches with your less than stellar excursions, especially given the amount of research and effort put into them.

 

You have really helped me for our first Celebrity cruise next January. Thank you!!!

Edited May 14, 2016 by NemoCrownie

[Diane Rose]

Have to agree Dana. Great job! Absolutely loved reading your review. And now I am really excited about my cruise.

 

Diane

[deladane]

I'm sad this review is essentially at the end. I've thoroughly enjoyed it!!:):):):)

 

Don't worry, there's still a little more to come because we spent Friday and Saturday in Ft. Lauderdale and didn't fly home until Sunday :)

[deladane]

I looked forward to every new post! Dana, you did a marvelous job! We're taking the same cruise in April, and I've learned so much from reading your review...thank you so much! I can't imagine how much time and energy it took to put this together...both during and after your cruise!

 

THANK YOU!:D

Thank you so much! It does take a lot of time and effort to write up the review and organize all my photos, but I enjoy doing it. I didn't find very many detailed reviews for this itinerary prior to my cruise, so I am glad I was able to help out people on the same itinerary going forward :) Hope you have a great cruise and please come back to tell us how it went!!

 

 

Me, too! This has been a fantastic review.

 

I'm so impressed with how you rolled with the punches with your less than stellar excursions, especially given the amount of research and effort put into them.

 

You have really helped me for our first Celebrity cruise next January. Thank you!!!

Thank you! :) No matter how much planning you do, nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. Despite a few negative experience, we still had a fabulous vacation and an overall excellent experience. Celebrity is a fantastic cruise line so you are sure to enjoy your first cruise with them! Please let me know if you have any questions and hopefully I can answer them for you :)

[deladane]

Have to agree Dana. Great job! Absolutely loved reading your review. And now I am really excited about my cruise.

 

Diane

 

Thank you :) I hope you have a great cruise!

[ImpulsivePuppy]

I agree, I'm also sad the review is almost over. I think we should all pool our money together and send you on another cruise Dana! :p

[Shadow1966]

I agree, I'm also sad the review is almost over. I think we should all pool our money together and send you on another cruise Dana! :p

 

 

I would have to agree, I think it's only fair that X sends you on each ship and every room..... Can you please do Alaska, Royal Suite on Infinity next! [emoji57]

Seriously, thank you so much for your time and shared experience it's been an absolute pleasure following your review [emoji4]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[SevenSeas1492]

I, too, have really enjoyed your review. It is one of the best reviews I have ever read! Having just taken this cruise (April 4 sailing), I feel as though I have relived the cruise! We would like to do this cruise again some day and do some of the things you did. (I'm not sure about the mud volcano though)!!!😚. Thanks again, and I look forward to future reviews. JC

[black forest]

Dear Dana,

 

thank so much. Enjoyed your review and pictures so much. Helps me planing our Equinox cruise in next January. It takes so much planning, time and energy to write such a extend review.

 

All the best for your honeymoon cruise!!! Has been a pleasure meeting you!

[deladane]

I agree, I'm also sad the review is almost over. I think we should all pool our money together and send you on another cruise Dana! :p

 

I would have to agree, I think it's only fair that X sends you on each ship and every room..... Can you please do Alaska, Royal Suite on Infinity next! [emoji57]

Seriously, thank you so much for your time and shared experience it's been an absolute pleasure following your review [emoji4]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

haha thank you both! I fully support that idea to have Celebrity fund my future cruises, and I would happily write more reviews!! :D Now I'll just need to find a way to accrue more vacation days off from work ;)

[deladane]

I, too, have really enjoyed your review. It is one of the best reviews I have ever read! Having just taken this cruise (April 4 sailing), I feel as though I have relived the cruise! We would like to do this cruise again some day and do some of the things you did. (I'm not sure about the mud volcano though)!!!😚. Thanks again, and I look forward to future reviews. JC

Agreed that the mud volcano is not for everyone! ;) One of the great things about cruises is that two people can sail on the same itinerary but do completely different activities every day. I find it so interesting to read other peoples experiences in the same ports I have visited just to see what other options are out there! Thanks for reading along :)

 

Dear Dana,

 

thank so much. Enjoyed your review and pictures so much. Helps me planing our Equinox cruise in next January. It takes so much planning, time and energy to write such a extend review.

 

All the best for your honeymoon cruise!!! Has been a pleasure meeting you!

Thank you! As soon as I finish up this review, I can start planning for our honeymoon cruise!!! I hope you have a wonderful time on the Equinox :) Please come back to tell us how it went!

[deladane]

Friday, March 25 ~ Debarkation Day

 

And just like that, we woke up to see the Equinox was docked back in Ft. Lauderdale. No matter how many cruises I go on, the sadness of debarkation day never gets any easier!

 

 

 

We finished packing all of our belongings, and left the cabin for one last time. Everyone had to be out of their cabins by 8am, so we left at 7:45 to hopefully beat the rush to the elevators haha We decided to forgo the disaster in the buffet and instead have a nice relaxing breakfast in the MDR. This was the one morning when I was okay having a slow breakfast with delayed service considering we weren't due to leave the ship until 9:30am. When we got to the dining room, they told us to leave our suitcases along the wall in the entrance way, but we could bring our backpacks with us to our table. We spent an hour enjoying one last meal on board, and when I looked around the room at 9am and realized we were the only people still eating in there, we finished up our meal ASAP haha

 

Everyone is assigned an indoor public space to sit and wait for their debarkation zone to be called. We were assigned to deck 4 of the dining room (we ate breakfast on deck 3), so we brought our suitcases upstairs and found a seat at one of the empty tables. We were in zone #72 and we were scheduled to leave at 9:30am, but they only called #32 at 9:25am so we thought there was a long delay. I took out my cell phone and started catching up on missed emails. Five minutes later, we heard them call zones 71 and 72! Apparently they jumped ahead 40 zones and it was our turn, right on time! I'm not sure how that happened, but whatever! We made our way up to deck 5 to exit the ship.

 

All the big suitcases were lined up and clearly labeled by zone number, so we easily found our bag and walked over to the line for customs. The whole process was very simple and half an hour after hearing our zone called, we were standing outside on the curb and waiting for our Uber driver to pick us up! It was so sad to see the taxis dropping people off for the first day of their cruise while we were waiting to be picked up at the end of ours.

 

Since the cruise ended on a Friday, we decided to stay in Ft. Lauderdale for the rest of the weekend and wait until Sunday to fly home. I wanted to stay at a hotel on the beach since this cruise had such limited beach-time, and a little research on the Florida departures forum sent me to investigate the Snooze Hotel. This boutique hotel is fairly low budget, but it is located on A1A a few blocks north of Las Olas Blvd, directly across the street from the beach. They don't have all the bells and whistles like the larger hotels, but they offer competitive rates, a coffee maker, minifridge, and microwave in every room, free wifi, a rooftop deck, and free use of beach chairs and umbrellas to bring across the street to the beach! It sounded like the perfect hotel for us, and I reserved our room for 2 nights on their website back in June.

 

It took the Uber driver about 15 minutes to drive us to the Snooze Hotel, and as soon as we pulled up, I knew I made the right choice! It was just about 10:30am when we arrived, and the manager told us our room wouldn't be ready for about 2 more hours. He agreed to hold our suitcases in his office, and we took the elevator up to the 5th floor so we could relax on the rooftop deck while we waited for our room to be ready.

 

There were incredible views from the roof!

 

 

 

[deladane]

Right on time, the hotel manager called me at 12:30pm to say our room was ready. The room was clean and modern, but I couldn't help but notice that it was fully decorated in IKEA furniture! haha I liked the choice of white furniture with bright blue accents as it felt nice and beachy, but I did think it was funny that everything came from IKEA.

 

 

 

 

My parents have a vacation house in Florida, so they drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the day with us. We went to lunch next door to the hotel at a restaurant called Casablanca Cafe. The service was very slow (the meal took an hour and a half!), but the food was good, with lots of salads and sandwiches. They had lots of outdoor seating, but we opted to sit inside to enjoy the air conditioning.

 

After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the beach, and checking out all the shops and restaurants along A1A. We had such a late lunch that we weren't very hungry for dinner, but we decided to try out an Italian restaurant that my dad found on Yelp called Antonios. One side of the restaurant was a take out pizza place, but the other side had a nice sit-down table service section. All of the tables were full with locals at 7:30 on a Friday night, so we thought we found a good restaurant! The food was delicious and the portions were HUGE! I must have been sick of taking food photos because I didn't take any this whole day, but I had the baked ziti (they used big rigatoni pasta but I didn't call them out on it! haha). All the meals came with gigantic garlic knots that were AMAZING!! There are lots of pictures of the food on Yelp from other people's reviews in case you wanted to check it out. It was a great restaurant for a low key, fairly inexpensive meal, but you should share the dishes if you aren't that hungry!

 

As we drove back to the hotel, we noted that the bars and restaurants along the beach were hopping, but we were glad that we couldn't hear the noise in our hotel room.

[deladane]

Saturday, March 26 ~ Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

 

Finally, there was no need to set an alarm! Sadly, we still woke up by 9am. We walked down the block in search of a place to eat breakfast. We looked at the menus at a few restaurants and settled on the H2O Cafe. They had a really nice outdoor seating area for great people watching and views of the beach as we ate. The food was very overpriced considering how tiny the portions were, but it tasted fine and we knew we were paying for the beachfront location.