Somewhat live from the Equinox 10/8

[abbydancer2003]

So, I'm back on on a ship in a week.  I last came to you from the Summit in St. Maarten.  

 

I know this is only 10/1 (10/2 for most of you), but our adventure starts tomorrow, so I'll start this now.

 

In July, my sister and I decided that we didn't have to miss our annual summer cruise, so we did the St. Maarten cruise, and convinced our friends, Mike and Kathy to join us.  I called that the A not B C plus Barbados itinerary.

 

I already had this ABC cruise booked, but this time with DH Glen.  This will be his first cruise since January 2019, unless you count It's a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean last month.  (We did decide the bar service was lacking on IASW).  And joining us again are Mike and Kathy, along with a couple of other friends (R & M) who also booked this cruise.  I know them from a charity event and this will be my third cruise that we happened to be on together.  

 

Tomorrow, we'll fly to New York to spend Kathy's birthday with my sister.  We'll do some fun things, and then on Thursday, we'll head to Florida.  I'll be light on posting during New York, unless you all want details, but I will mention the covid test issue.

 

Fortunately, perhaps because NY was the epicenter of the first wave of Covid back in early 2020, testing there is pretty easy.  My sister had great information from having to test for the summer cruise, and she recommended a local urgent care in her neighborhood.  M&K are staying at a hotel nearby and we're staying at my mom's pied-a-terre in the neighborhood.  (My mom is here in California).  Today, the 6th opened up so we have appointments at 9:30, 9:31, 9:32 and 9:33.  There's also a lab that brings a van into the neighborhood, she calls it the Criminal Minds van because it's just a van parked on the street.  She says it would make a good criminal minds episode, of a van luring people in from the street.

 

So our bags are packed,  our tests are scheduled, we're checked into our cruise and our flight (I think our plane has already arrived at SFO).  We have our passports and the even more valuable vaccine card.

 

I guess all that's left for today is go to bed and get ready to travel.

Edited October 2, 2021 by abbydancer

[vickykay]

Looking forward to another one of your live reviews.

[brockmom]

Awesome ! Looking forward to hearing all about your cruise . We are boarding in Nov so of course I love reading everything that is on happening on her now. 
It’s a good way to see how they are managing covid, and hearing about pax numbers. 
wishing you a wonderful time on board !

brockmom

[Stem to Stern]

Have a great time in NYC.  Looking forward to your report.

[abbydancer2003]

thanks.  Bags are at the door, and we'll be leaving in about 45 minutes.

 

Today Cruise Critic decided not to notify me of replies, so I have to scroll through my notifications to see replies.  They do that once in a while.

[TeaBag]

Have a great time.  I used to love doing New York while DH worked.  Haven't been there in a long time.  Your cruise leaves Friday?

[Jim_Iain]

Have a great cruise Abbey -   was nice having coffee with you earlier this week.

 

[abbydancer2003]

Thanks all.  We made it to New York safely.  I finally, on the plane saw Guardians of the Galaxy (a hoot and now i understand the attraction at Disneyland better) and In the Heights (the play was better).

 

And I found my missing notifications.  They went into spam.  Hopefully marking 40 of them not spam with stop it from happening.

 

Not sure what's on deck for the rest of the days, but we did go to my sisters for tea after we arrived.  Now to bed.

 

 

[mj_ewing]

Enjoy your cruise!  I'm excited to read your reports.

[abbydancer2003]

Good evening or night, wherever you are.

 

It's D-2 and the end of our last full day in New York.  We've had a very nice time.

 

This morning, we had our tests.  We opted for the rapid Antigen test, since PCR can take over 48 hours..  M&K arrived at our location (1/2 block from the testing site) a little before 9 am.  At about 9:20 we got a text from my sister (who was also testing because she's heading to CA to stay with my mom, and wanted to make sure she's not bringing Covid. So we headed over, waited our turn and got our test.  When we finished, around 9:50, Kathy went back to our location to work (apparently her boss decided this should be a working vacation) and we headed to a nearby bakery/coffee shop (Pain au quotidien) for breakfast.

 

During breakfast, I got a call from Kathy, saying she was negative.  Soon after the rest of us got our results.  All negative, so we're going.  Yay!  We sent a copy of the PDFs to Beth (sister) so she could print them, and when she came back for lunch, she'd been able to successfully do it.  

 

So we're all set.  We finished our day with a delivered barbeque dinner.  Very good. 

 

Now to sleep.  In the morning - repack and head to the airport.  We'll spend the night in Ft. Lauderdale and head to the ship around 11 tomorrow AM.

[chemmo]

Hope you have a fantastic cruise!

[Jim_Iain]

Glad you tests went so well.    

[Lastdance]

You will have a wonderful vacation, enjoying it like a young kid in a candy store, or a Mega Bucks winner!

Cannot wait to hear your review...thanks for sharing!

[abbydancer2003]

My pleasure.

 

So today started with a New York bagel breakfast with my sister and niece.  At 12:45, right on time, our car service arrived to take us to the airport.   It took just under an hour to get there, so we had plenty of time, or so we thought.  We did curbside checkin, and got boarding passes.  Walking to security, we realized that, of the 4 of us, only mine had TSA precheck.  We're not sure why, as I know I put Glen's KT number in.  The guys manning the line (Clear reps trying mostly to sell a 14 day free trial so you could skip the line) told them to go back to the counter and get their passes reprinted, since they all had their global entry cards.  I went into the long TSA line, and hoped it would be OK.  

 

It actually moved better than I thought, and when I turned back, they were about 5 people behind me.  When I went through they flagged my backpack for inspection.  It took about 5-10 minutes for them to get to it.  They told me that the problem was I had multiple electronic devices in it (huh?).  They said this was a new thing - that even in precheck you had to take them out if you had more than one. 

 

Glen waited for me and we headed to the gate.  We got there about 1 hour before the flight left so we hung out and boarded.  I watched Fruitvale Station (very sad ending) and about half of Luca.  I hope to finish watching that.

 

The flight was on time, and uneventful (always good when flying).  We took a cab to our hotel, the Renaissance at the Cruise Port.  From our 11th story window we had a lovely view of a Holland America ship, that apparently hasn't started sailing yet, as it's still there.  Exciting to see, but not quite as much as driving down a hill from the airport and seeing 3 ships in St. Maarten.  Neither was the first ships we'd seen as driving home from Napa in 2020 we saw some NCL ships in Oakland.

 

For those familiar with the area, we decided to go to the BoatYard next to our hotel, but it had a loud band lots of people, and a 45 minute wait for outside.  So we walked a few blocks to Outback and had a quiet dinner.  I liked it because during the pandemic, the 3 nearest Outbacks to me closed, so it had been a while.

 

Then, back to the hotel where we listened to a 6:30 pm town hall meeting from my Congress person.  

 

I worked on a lab for a class I'm taking and attached our luggage tags.  I also got my paperwork for tomorrow read.  Apparently we're taking an uber at around 11 am.

 

So excited!

 

 

[Cruise a holic]

Have a great cruise!  Love the equinox.

[DaKahuna]

How was your stay at the Renaissance? 

 

That is where we always stay when sailing out of FLL and have a reservation for the night before our upcoming cruise on the Reflection.  Our only negative experiences there have always been when trying to get early access to our rooms.  The most convenient flights for us normally put us at the hotel around 1130 -1200 and that has left us with around a four hour wait before being allowed to get the keys to our room.  Since cruises sail on weekends, this usually ends up being on a Friday or Saturday when thee concierge lounge is closed so we usually end up leaving our bags with the bell service and taking a leisurely lunch outside the hotel and or just walking around the area. 

 

 

[vickie_bernie]

Following along we board soon too 

[abbydancer2003]

44 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

How was your stay at the Renaissance? 

 

That is where we always stay when sailing out of FLL and have a reservation for the night before our upcoming cruise on the Reflection.  Our only negative experiences there have always been when trying to get early access to our rooms.  The most convenient flights for us normally put us at the hotel around 1130 -1200 and that has left us with around a four hour wait before being allowed to get the keys to our room.  Since cruises sail on weekends, this usually ends up being on a Friday or Saturday when thee concierge lounge is closed so we usually end up leaving our bags with the bell service and taking a leisurely lunch outside the hotel and or just walking around the area. 

 

 

Right now, the lounge is closed.  I think one of the times I was here we got into the room early, but on my last cruise out of here, we had to wait coming from the cruise.  We do the same as you when we can't get to the room.

 

[NBliving]

Have a wonderful cruise!! I've enjoyed your pre-cruise trip and can't wait for the cruising portion to begin.  Today is the day!

[SpareBrew]

Also following along since we board in 12 days with the same itinerary!

[abbydancer2003]

I have a few minutes, so here's my day so far.

 

We woke up to 3 ships in the view from the room.  I don't think any are the Equinox, though.  Glen says because 25 is 2 miles away, the angle of the room is wrong.  We went down to the restaurant and had breakfast, and we're now in the room about to pack up and head to the terminal.

 

I'm starting get excited.  

 

Next post, from the ship.

[CruisinCorey2525]

29 minutes ago, abbydancer said:

I have a few minutes, so here's my day so far.

 

We woke up to 3 ships in the view from the room.  I don't think any are the Equinox, though.  Glen says because 25 is 2 miles away, the angle of the room is wrong.  We went down to the restaurant and had breakfast, and we're now in the room about to pack up and head to the terminal.

 

I'm starting get excited.  

 

Next post, from the ship.

During today, could you find time to report back on how "stocked" the buffet is? Curious if it's been cut down a lot in variety due to lower numbers. Thank you!!

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, abbydancer said:

Right now, the lounge is closed.  I think one of the times I was here we got into the room early, but on my last cruise out of here, we had to wait coming from the cruise.  We do the same as you when we can't get to the room.

 

Sorry to hear the lounge is closed.  I do not think we have ever been in it because we are normally there on Friday or Saturday.   I miss the evening snacks in the lounge but do prefer the regular breakfast over the powered eggs they normally serve in the  lounge. 

 

It is a nice hotel and conveniently located which is one of the main reasons we like to stay there.  

[abbydancer2003]

Greetings from our lovely room.  It was a generally good day.

Our Uber came around 11:35 and we piled in.  We drove in by heading west on 17th then south then back to the port.  To enter the port, we had to show the security guy our passports.  We arrived at the terminal and there was a line of people at one end, but I think they were crew members joining the ship.  I think they are ramping up the number of crew to prepare for ramping up the number of passengers.  We were dropped at the far end of the terminal.  The porters came quickly to get our bags,  and we headed to the retreat line.

 

At the entrance, we were asked to show our vaccine card and test results.  We then headed into the building for the official check.  There was one couple ahead of us and they seemed to be taking a long time.  It turned out that their system went down.  That included the app, so maybe anyone at home checking their reservations couldn't get in either.  Our friends in Aqua where in the process of checking in.  He was checked in but she was in process as the system went down.

 

We got to talking to the people ahead of us, and, even though they live in Chicago and Israel, we know some people in common.  It took about 30 minutes to come back up, and we were quickly ushered upstairs to a lounge with refreshments.  We then got officially checked in, and headed onto the ship.  Sadly for Glen, they'd stopped doing the cheering line, but there were a lot of welcomes, and "we're glad you're here".

 

I'd invited Ryan and Melissa to join us in Luminae, and they accepted.  It was about 12:50 by this time, so I suggested we meet in front of Luminae at 1:20.  We hadn't heard if Mike and Kathy were on yet, so we headed to the Retreat Lounge to make our reservation for tomorrow at Le Petit "I really don't like going here" Chef.  On the way in we ran into them, as they're in the same muster station we are.  We brought them in with us as we asked Jonathan to make the reservation for the 6 of us for tomorrow.   After making the reservation, we headed to Luminae.  The mananger, Arele (mispelling her name) remembered me from when my sister and I were in a suite in 2018.  That was nice.  In the meantime,  I was in communication with Mke and he and Kathy were dealing with her spa appointments.  It took longer than he thought, so the four of us had lunch.  I asked for the butterflied Luminae burger, and instead of cutting it in half horizontally, they did it vertically instead, making it half a burger as thick as the full one, which wasn't what I wanted.  They remade it perfectly.  We have a lot of OBC,  so we were happy to invite them.  

 

I've known Melissa for a few years from a charity event in San Diego, and it worked out that this is the third cruise we've been on together.  The first two were quite by accident, and this was only sort of on purpose (I was advising them on what cruise they could do in 2021  that might actually happen).

 

After lunch we stopped at the Ilounge, as I was thinking of a new Ipad.  I spoke to the manager (mentioned I bought ear buds from her exboyfriend), and realized that my current Ipad is a newer model with more storage so that's not happening.  We then went back to our room and met Orlando, our butler, and Eko, our room steward.  We also stopped by Mike and Kathy's room, and saw that she had afternoon spa appointments until 8:00 pm.  We agreed to meet at 8:15 for dinner.

 

It's getting late, and I'm going to stop now..  Tomorrow, I'll have a couple of food pictures from today.  Good night.

[abbydancer2003]

And I'm back.

 

After talking with our friends, I went to the early cruise critic meet in Craft Social.  There were a few of us there, and it was nice to put names to faces.   I think the bar was open, so there were lots of others there.

 

Following that I went back to the room and unpacked.  A sky suite does have a lot of storage, although most are large drawers, so not the most practical, but enough that there were no issues.

 

Up next was the ubiquitous Sunset Bar sailaway.  There were lots of us there, and we stayed through sailaway, passing the anchored Princess ship.  We discussed which ship it could be.  One member thought maybe the Enchanted Princess, but she's not due until November.  After meet and and greet we wandered up to the retreat sundeck and met the staff.  Sadly, the bad part of the shortened revolutionizing, there's no hot tub (the good part fyi is that they didn't gut the library or the sky lounge).  Apparently, it's open for a light lunch on port days, so we'll try it on one of them.  

 

Following that, we went back to the room.  Glen used his marine app to confirm it was the Enchanted and we dressed for dinner.    

 

Sometime during our running around, I went to guest services, and got my card punched to put on my sparkly Michael's lanyard.  That apparently, broke the connect, so i needed a new card.  I mentioned that to Orlando, and he told me to go to the Retreat Concierge.  He also told me that punching often breaks them, so after dressing for dinner, we went to the shop.  Glen's bathing suit was old and too big, so he wanted to get a new one (and with the discovery of the iPad models we have lots of OBC), and I decided to get a lanyard with a card holder and move the holder to my sparkly one.  I'm now the proud owner of an Equinox one with nowhere to put the card.

 

After that we went to the lounge to hang out until dinner. 

 

We'd arranged to meet for dinner at about 8:15, but Kathy's spa visit was taking longer than expected.  So at about 8:20 Glen and I decided to head to the restaurant.  We sat at a table for 7 and by 8:30 Mike didn't know when she'd be done, so we waited a few minutes and ordered.  Glen chose the entire Danial Boulud menu.  I originally was going to order from the main dining but instead decided to have the kale salad (everything but the kale looked good - personally I wish kale had remained a garnish) and herbed chicken breast.  Originally I was thinking of Prime rib from the main menu, but dinner the night before at Outback changed my mind.    

 

About the the appetizers came, Mike sent a text that they were winding their way across deck 3.  They arrived at 8:59 and were seated.  As Jesus, our waiter, explained the veal canneloni to them I said it sounded good, and changed my entree to that.  It was good.

 

After all four of us had finished our mains,  Jesus brought a palette cleanser.  We'd had them on our Reflection cruise, but not on our previous Equinox.  On the Eclipse, they brought them after we'd asked.  On a previous Equinox cruise, a fellow cruise critic blogger asked about them and said they were available if you'd asked.   So we asked.

 

Jesus brought a delicious scoop of pomegranate sorbet.  For dessert both Glen and I had the Daniel Bourlud vachrian.  (I just asked Glen what it is, and he said "what we had last night".    Here's a picture:

 

 

 

After dinner, we wandered back to the room.  I completed a section for a class I'm taking, watched some news and went to bed.  Tomorrow is Nassau and we learned we can go out on our own.

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by abbydancer