Equinox Live - 7/11 Barcelona to Rome

[KasioSails]

Welcome

 

My family and I are 1 week out from starting our European adventure and I am starting my live updates. I did this last year on a Mexican Riviera cruise and it was very fun so I thought I would again. 

 

For context I have been reading cruise critic off and on for over 20 years (typically in the mths leading up to a trip) and it has always been a great area to learn about the latest trends, changes and new things in the cruise world. I have also always enjoyed people’s reviews and live updates hence the desire to publish my own. I also enjoyed last year how it made me stop and reflect each day so I treasure that. 

 

This trip will be a 9 night trip (our longest ever) sailing from Barcelona to Rome on the Equinox in a RS to celebrate our 20th anniversary and this will be our boys (elem & HS) first trip to Europe. We are flying in a few days early to see Barcelona and hopefully make things go smoother. At one week out we are in the sort of panic stage of packing and making sure we don’t forget anything. This is not only our longest ever trip, but high in travel logistics so it feels more stressful in this phase. I know things will be ok and I’ll love every moment but that’s in a weeks time. 

 

Thank you for reading along, if you have any questions please let me know and I will try to find out. Updates will be few this week until we fly out next weekend then I’ll try like 1-2 a day. 

 

Happy Sailing 🚢

[cbfb]

Looking forward to this as we are doing the reverse, Rome to Barcelona, next year for our 30th anniversary. We have been to Italy and cruised many times out of FL, but have not done a Europe cruise. 

[cruzfiend]

Following along. Thanks

 

[desibee]

We will be doing this exact cruise on the Equinox in August!  Can’t wait to hear all about your trip.  Are you planning on doing any of Celebrity’s offered excursions?

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for taking the time to post live.    Really enjoying all the current live posts and yours will dovetail with the others that will be ending soon. 

 

 

[hmcrn]

Excited to read along!  We will be doing a similar cruise in September.  What is your itinerary please? Thanks!

[Oceangoer2]

Looking forward to your posts....will be sailing this ship and itinerary Sept. 2025.  Wonder if much will change?

[KasioSails]

Hello everyone 

 

Excited to see others headed out for the same or similar itinerary. I know I always love reading similar trips in the time leading up to our trips so I’m glad if people enjoy ours. 
Our itinerary in order is:

Barcelona 

Florence/Pisa overnight

Santa Margherita 

Nice

Marseille

Amalfi Coast

Rome

 

We do have ship sponsored excursions booked in every port as we had a ton of on board credit (booked before the stopped that for suites - what a bummer) so we only paid a tiny bit for the last one. They are mostly smaller 4-5 hour trips centered around food or city tours with 2 longer all day trips as well. We are also passing through Iceland each way as well. 

[peanut head]

Thank you for taking us along.  Have a wonderful time and enjoy the memory building.

[DrivnMike]

We did this trip in reverse last year. It was fantastic! Very much looking forward to your review. The Equinox is our favorite.

[mlink87]

So excited to follow along! Our honeymoon is this same exact cruise and ship this October in Aquaclass!
 

 

[Tabw]

We will be doing this cruise in October. I'm excited to follow your posts.

[cruisegal1970]

Just a heads up........ your cruise itinerary is all EU ports of call hence you will be charged VAT (20-22%) on everything you spend onboard.  You can avoid this additional charge by buying pre-cruise anything like specialty dining, drinks packages etc. 

[KasioSails]

Hello again

 

Just checking in - we are nearly completely packed just a few more last minute items. Thank you for the advice to prebook everything you can to avoid the VAT charges. I think for us the only purchases will be some souvenirs for the boys possibly but good advice for all. 

 

Some additional information about us - this will be our second celebrity cruise after years of Royal Caribbean. We previously sailed the Solstice out of LA and really enjoyed the experience. My boys both found the pacing, crowds and for my older son food, on celebrity just right and can’t wait to return. 
 

 

[cruisnuts]

Following.  We are on this exact cruise in October!  Looking forward to your review!

 

[Eeee244]

Following. Please include info on teen club! Enjoy!

[KasioSails]

Woohoo 🎉

 

Today is the day we leave 😀

We will be heading to the airport in just a few hours. It’s hard to believe that it’s here finally, even my OSon commented on that last night. We booked this trip in Feb of 2023 so quite some time ago. We have two longish flights through Iceland ahead of us on our way to Barcelona. 
 

 

To the question of the teen club - I will add details for sure. We have been looking at the program but as of like Thursday there wasn’t much kids programming listed. Last trip our boys went a little bit to the clubs and liked it a lot. 

[cruzfiend]

Safe travels.

 

[cruisegal1970]

See your Port Loads......overnight in La Spezia is ideal for CinqueTerre and see the iconic historic villages. Make sure you visit on first day as P&O mammoth ship arrives on the second day.

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/portloadscelebrityequinox-11jul2024-20jul2024.html

 

Look after the ship as we join Equinox on 20th at Civitavecchia

Edited Sunday at 03:34 PM by cruisegal1970

[horseymike]

Have a safe trip and a wonderful cruise 🚢.

I will be following along.

[KasioSails]

We made it to Barcelona😀 

It has been a very long travel day, but we have made it to our hotel. We left today from Seattle on Icelandair through Keflavík to Barcelona. If an airport Icelandair flys to is close to you this is a very easy way to fly to Europe for cities not direct. Once in Barcelona it was very easy to grab a cab and head to our hotel. The place we are staying is just a little bit of a walk to La Boqueria Market - a lovely place with all kinds of small bites, drinks and items. It made an easy dinner for our weary bones. 

Tomorrow we are going to a few museums. 

Have a great week everyone

[cruzfiend]

How long of a flight was it for you?

 

[KasioSails]

2 hours ago, cruzfiend said:

How long of a flight was it for you?

 

About 7.5 hours to Iceland and then I think 4.5 to Barcelona. We had about a 2 hr layover between - which credit to Iceland’s setup was plenty of time to go through passport check and get something to eat. 

[George C]

Sounds like a great cruise, love RS and all the perks free specialty restaurants, Luminae, concierge, two liters of liquor of your choice, bottle of champagne. Barcelona is a beautiful city and perfect place to start a cruise. By the way if you want you can just take the liquor home with you . 

[kjctc]

Cannot wait to follow, doing this same itinerary in August.