Review 10/29/2021 Equinox ABC Sailing

[lnuzzo]

I would like to state that this was vacation was a big deal for Hubby and I.  We had originally booked this vacation pre-pandemic, rescheduled for October 2020, thinking all would be well by then, and as we all know, had to re-book for 2021.

 

2021 was a difficult year for both of us.  Both my husband and I became ill during the holidays 20/21, with my husband hospitalized in ICU for 2 weeks in January.  We spent most of the past year recovering, and generally isolated.  So I cannot tell you how happy and joyful we were to have enjoy this vacation!

 

We had gone to our local CVS for our COVID test on Wednesday 10/27, and sadly we were still waiting for our results when we left the next morning, unsure if we would be able to board the ship!  luckily we received our results when we were on the road, late on Thursday, letting us know that we would not need to turn around, and go back home!

 

We left home on Thursday, 10/28 for a 10 hour drive from NC to Ft Laurderdale.  Sadly,  our drive ended up being 14+ hours. There was an accident which closed all 3 lanes of on I95 which we ended up detouring around, and then throughout SC, GA, and FL we experienced extreme weather, tornado watches, heavy rain which had our visibility barely at the car ahead of us, and extreme winds.  By the time we arrived at the Renaissance on 17th in FTL, we were spent.  We ended up in the hotel lobby bar, ordered sandwiches and each an adult beverage, and called it a day!

 

The morning of the 29th, we exited our hotel by 11AM, and headed to Park and Go, which we had used before.  we had an easy trip to the terminal, and despite the attempts of local rail to delays our arrival to the port, we were able to arrive earlier than our scheduled 12:30 time.

 

There were multiple lines, indicating arrival times. we chose ours, and got in line, only one couple ahead of us.  we were asked for our vaccination cars, and our negative tests, and as there were no earlier arrival guests ahead of us, we were swiftly ushered into the terminal. we then provided our express pass, our passports, and as we had updated all our other info online, we were told to go directly to the ship!!!  seriously, this was our best check in experience ever.

 

We found our cabin, on deck 9, and on the hump.  we had a fabulous balcony - twice as deep as normal.  I will look for this cabin on future sailings.  the balcony was incredible!

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo
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[lnuzzo]

We enjoyed our first day on the ship,  had lunch in the MDR for the Concierge Lunch.   After fulfilling our Safety requirements, we found our way to the Martini Bar!  we indulged in far to many dirty martinis before heading up to the Sunset Bar for sail away!  We met 2 fabulous guests, Luc and Earl (are either of you on CC?) who we would bump into repeatedly during our vacation.  after a lovely scenic sail away we headed back to our cabin to change for our first of 6 specialty dining experiences - The Tuscan Grill.  I don't know who our server was that night, but I know after our afternoon celebrating, were ended up being A LOT.  but we had a wonderful dinner, with a beautiful wake view ❤️

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Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo
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[lnuzzo]

Our First  Day was a quite slow, given our celebratory First Day! 😂

 

We were in Port in Nassau, but we treated it as a Sea Day, since we had been to Nassua too many times, and weather was not cooperating.

 

We ended up at the Sunset bar late morning after breakfast in the Ocean View Buffet.  We ended up at the pool, sunglass mode activated! and generally chilled and read, interspersed with trips to the hot tub and pool.  Quiet, and relaxed! 

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo
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[lnuzzo]

dinner on Day 2 was at Petit Chef, a new option for us.  The show was adorable, and while I do think that this is worth trying, for us the food did not match the visual experience, it was lacking seasoning and flavor.  Am I sad we tried it? No, would I do it again - No.  for me it was a one and done.

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[lnuzzo]

Day 3 and 4 were again slow -  sleep in, head to breakfast, find a lounger at the pool, find lunch, have some adult beverages, rinse, repeat.

 

At home I never get to sleep in (we have 2 four footers who wake me up at the crack of dawn) so while in the past I would wake up early, and watch sunrise from the top deck, instead, I slept in, and let the day dictate what it would.

 

Our next dining night was a favorite - Murano.  I had the Risotto (try it - it is incredible!) as a starter, Hubby had the Anjou Pear and Roquefort, we shared the Chateaubriand for 2, and hubby added the Flambéd Lobster.  Dessert was Grand Mariner Soufflé.  No pics, sorry, but I did take phots on our second dining at Murano 😉

 

Dinner night 3 we ended up in the MDR, which was not as bad as I remembered from our last cruise on the Reflection.  we had planned on just hitting the buffet for our non specialty dining nights, bu instead we ended up having dinner in the MDR for the balance of our cruise evenings (minus the 6 night dining package) and had incredible service every time.

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo
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[lola2013]

Sounds like a great cruise so far.

I also had the ABC cruise cancelled in September, 2020 (first of four cancelled cruises), but have since rescheduled for February, 2023.  That's a long stretch in between cruises...so I managed to fill in the gaps with a few others!

Look forward to the rest of your review.

Susan

[lnuzzo]

Day 5 - Aruba

 

We have never sailed this itinerary, so in the past year I put a lot of time into researching options for each port.  However, due to the ongoing changing requirements for all Caribbean ports, we agreed to try to schedule cruise excursions where ever available to limit the potential for having to stay on the ship should the island requirements change at the last minute.

 

For Aruba, I had looked at several option, but we ended up choosing an basic excursion that offered an island tour that dropped off at a beach, and then returning to the ship via catamaran.  Sadly, the excursion was not what we expected.  The bus was a bit crowed, there was no way to distance, the beach sadly was only a walk across to a pier to take a boat back to the ship.  The boat was not a catamaran, and we decided to head up top so that there was more room to space out, only to have to move back down to the first level for the last 30 min due to 'regulations' and sitting shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the guests. 🤨

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo
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[lnuzzo]

16 minutes ago, lnuzzo said:

Day 3 and 4 were again slow

I forgot to mention - Day 3 was Halloween.  we had never sailed on a cruise that included a holiday, and the staff did an incredible job decorating the ship! we even had an appearance from the crew of the SS Minnow 🙃

[lnuzzo]

[Saturngrl]

Great review!   I'm glad you were able to enjoy the Concierge luncheon in the MDR on Embarkation Day.  Hopefully, they will do the same for us on Reflection this Saturday! 

[lnuzzo]

Day 6 Curacao

 

Today was an excursion we did on our own.  We had picked 2 beach day options, sadly both were removed from the available cruise excursions, and we did not like any of the other available options.

 

So I contacted the 2 beach resort we were interested in - Blue Bay Beach and Cabana Beach via email.  after 2 weeks with no response, I called each directly.  Blue bay was very helpful and suggested the 'Spoil' Package for 85pp - the package included loungers, towels, a palumpa, snacks, water, lunch, and cocktails.  Cabana Beach told me I had emailed the wrong address, provided a new email to contact, but never replied to my second query.  So we booked through Blue Bay.

 

We exited the ship, and found a taxi.  just so you know, taxi fare was $30 US each way 😳.  But we had committed, so I ran to the ATM for the additional $$$.  upon dropping us off, we arranged for our taxi to pick us up at 2:30PM.

 

When we arrived at Blue Bay, we were escorted to a lovely shaded set of loungers, with a separate table and chairs, bowls of fruit salad and water on ice.  we enjoyed the water as much as possible - it was intermittently sprinkling, and running back to the cover of the palumpa until lunch at 12:30.  we were able to order anything off the menu, and were given a bottle of wine to share, along with bottled water.  since we were leaving early (2:30) our afternoon snacks were offered to us as starters for lunch.  

 

I had a lovely Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, and my husband had an incredible Tempura Shrimp Sushi Bowl, and we shared a bottle of Chardonnay.  By the time we were done with lunch, it was close to our pickup time, so we sat and had our included cocktails, before heading to the cab.

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo

[lnuzzo]

After returning to the ship, we headed to our cabin to cool off (it was very hot) and change so that we could walk around the port area.  

 

We walked through the RIF Fort, and headed towards the pontoon bridge, and walked across to the Punda side of Willemstaad.  Unfortunately for us, it was almost 5PM by the time we got across the bridge, so most of the shops and restaurants were empty, and were starting to close.  we walked around a bit, found a pharmacy I was looking for (Tylenol for a neck ache that was plaguing me) and then headed back to the ship.

[lnuzzo]

Day 7 - Bonaire

 

We had booked the Ocean Oasis Chill excursion through Celebrity, which gave us a tour along the southern side of the island, dropping bus off at a beach bar/restaurant to relax.

 

We exited the ship, and were immediately told by the Bonaire authorities to don masks (even though we were outdoors).  Vaxx cards were shown upon exiting the ship (the same for Aruba and Curacao) as well as to the Bonaire authorities outside of the ship.

 

We walked to our bus, and again - we were on a bus, loaded shoulder to shoulder with other passengers.  this was the closest I had been (except for the bus in Aruba) for our entire trip.  honestly, I do not know what Celebrity is thinking, yes we were masked, but we were packed into their excursion busses like sardines!

 

Janet our tour Guide was lovely.  She is from the US (Pennsylvania) and has been living in Bonaire for I think she said over 15 years, since she met and fell in love with a resident of the island.  We toured the island along the southern side,  looked for flamingos (saw quite a few) visited the colonial slave huts, visits the salt flats, before being dropped off at Ocean Oasis (a Beach Resort)

 

The information provided by the cruise line was that water shoes were recommended.  I believe it should have said REQUIRED!.  my husband had on Teva 's which could go in the water, but I had only my Birkenstocks, which could not.  The area around the resort was a ledge of coral rock, slippery, and uneven.  There was no going into the water if you did not have water shoes, and so for me, as many of the others on the excursion,  it was a very hot day, unable to cool off.  Even my husband in his sandals, entered the water and had issues with the unevenness and slipperiness, losing his footing multiple times.  It was not easy to walk along the  water.  in the end, he gave up, since if he fell, there would be a good chance to face injury from the sharp coral rock in the water.

 

We did have a lovely lunch and adult beverages (not included with the tour) and then headed back to the ship.  

 

Today's all aboard was early - 3:30PM.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo

[morpheusofthesea]

Absolutely a thoroughly enjoyable read. Your pictures are stunningly vivid. Thank you for taking time to post. (Think I'll go back over everything, it was that enjoyable)

Edited November 18, 2021 by morpheusofthesea

[lnuzzo]

Dinner tonight was at Sushi on Five.  I have read multiple comments that this restaurant is not a good choice if you have the dining package, but we love it anyway, and it was a must do!

 

We each had dumplings as appetizers - hubby had the lobster, I had the chicken.  and then we each had a roll.  My husband had the Shrimp tempura with spicy tuna on top, I had the Green Roof Tuna - Spicy Tuna topped with I think avocado and cucumber.  then we shared a vegetable roll.  Oh and Sake and Wine🙃

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by lnuzzo

[cheriberi]

We are taking the same cruise next November & have booked a cabin on the hump on deck 9 with an extended balcony as well. Could you please let me know your cabin number? I’m hoping we are booked in the same cabin because the balcony looks awesome!

[terrydtx]

We did this cruise in August in an aft facing Sky Suite. We loved the ship and crew and it is probably one of the best of all our cruises. Your review is brining back some great memories. 

 

While onboard we bought a future cruise credit  and used if for our 2023 Apex Europe cruise, our deposit is the $200 total we paid for the FCC and we are getting a $350 additional OBC.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, cheriberi said:

We are taking the same cruise next November & have booked a cabin on the hump on deck 9 with an extended balcony as well. Could you please let me know your cabin number? I’m hoping we are booked in the same cabin because the balcony looks awesome!

Check your cabin number against the deck plan. If you are booked in the first or third cabin off the straight part of the hump, you will have the largest balcony. The other balconies are larger than normal, just not quite as deep as the first and third. 

[RedneckBob]

4 hours ago, lnuzzo said:

Great review. I was on this cruise doing a live as you go posts. On Halloween I saw the crew of the SS Minnow and walked up to The Captain and asked him if he could recommend a good three hour tour in Aruba 😳

[RedneckBob]

16 hours ago, RedneckBob said:

Great review. I was on this cruise doing a live as you go posts. On Halloween I saw the crew of the SS Minnow and walked up to The Captain and asked him if he could recommend a good three hour tour in Aruba 😳

The costumes on Halloween were fantastic!  I almost had a most horrible incident. I was on Deck 5 looking over the railing while I was walking to Bacio when all of a sudden I ran into this tall man. I lost my balance and almost fell on the floor. When I looked at who I ran into it was a man dressed up as Dracula. I was so lucky that, wait for it, “I did not go down for the Count”. 😀

[lnuzzo]

20 hours ago, cheriberi said:

We are taking the same cruise next November & have booked a cabin on the hump on deck 9 with an extended balcony as well. Could you please let me know your cabin number? I’m hoping we are booked in the same cabin because the balcony looks awesome!

our cabin was 9292.  I think if you choose the last cabin on either end or side of the hump, you should have the same balcony experience.

[lnuzzo]

Days 8 and 9 were Sea days, thankfully.  basically a repeat of days 3 and 4.

 

Breakfast was in the Ocean View Cafe.  during this trip I had omelets, Fried eggs, and a few Benedicts (very few, I was trying to be good!!!)

 

Day 8 we found a lounger and spent the day by the pool.  Lunch was our first trip to the mast grill which was an easy choice if you are poolside.  as long as you are OK with hamburgers and hotdogs and fries.  for me, I would rather go to the Ocean View, but Hubby wanted something easy and accessible.

 

Dinner tonight was another visit to Murano!  The Amuse Bouche was - wait for it - The Salmon Mousse!!!! (apologies if you are not a Monty Python fan)  As starters, I had the Mushroom Cappuccino, Hubby had the Scallops Wellington, we shared the Chateaubriand, John added the Flambéd Lobster, and then we shared dessert (I don't remember - ugh). I did however take photos tonight!!!!

[lnuzzo]

Day 9

 

we decided to spend the day by the pool, but the weather did not cooperate.

 

After Breakfast in the Ocean View, we headed to the pool, but the rain came, and we left.  

 

The rest of the day was spent wandering the ship, shopping,  and several sittings in Il Baccio.  just for the record, we were regular guests in Il Baccio.  Pretty much every afternoon we ended up in the coffee shop, with either Lattes or little pots of tea.  this was one of our favorite spots in the afternoon to perk ourselves up after a few too many adult beverages. 😂

[lnuzzo]

Dinner tonight was in Tuscan Grill.  Sadly we were not by the window tonight 😟.  I know, there are only so many seats by the window.  but I wanted for our cruise to end with an great view to sustain us until our next cruise!

 

our first visit to Tuscan Grill we had Italian, so tonight we had Steak!!  I had a filet, Hubby I believe had a Ribeye, and we each had sides - Spinach and Garlic Mashed for him, Asparagus and Cacio e Pepe for me.

 

Dessert was Tiramisu for Hubby and Pistachio Creme Brûlée (it had a lovely layer of chocolate ganache underneath 🥰)

Edited November 19, 2021 by lnuzzo

[Turtles06]

49 minutes ago, lnuzzo said:

our cabin was 9292.  I think if you choose the last cabin on either end or side of the hump, you should have the same balcony experience.

In fact, there are 8 cabins to choose from on Deck 9.  As I pointed out above to @cheriberi, the cabins that are the first and third off the straight part of the hump have the largest balconies. So on Deck 9, those are 9270, 9266, 9215, 9209, 9292, 9296, 9237, and 9241.

 

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us!