AbbyCruiser45

Which class have you been on before? I’ve been on the Edge class also. I can’t say I actually have a preference! They’re unique classes of ships with their own perks. On the S class, I love the sunset bar area and also the front of ship access.

Yes! I wanted to do this but it’s been booked up for months. We’re still going to swing by in person in case there are cancellations or no shows.

Thank you @bandp407 and @joyefullcruiser! It’s not a pre-cruise visit to Fort Lauderdale without a stop into 15th St Fisheries! Usually, we’ll go for dinner but this time we mixed it up and went for lunch. I had the fried shirts tacos and they were excellent. Not pictured, the conch fritters. They’re one of my favorite menu items! Other than that, we enjoyed a nice day on the water taxi. Both times I’ve been to Fort Lauderdale, it’s been blazing hot in late July. This is my first time here in June and it is much more enjoyable, but still Florida hot! In typical Florida fashion, the sky turned super dark and we mentally prepared to get soaked on the water taxi. But it never actually started raining! Made it back to the condo in time for some last minute laundry and downtime before the exciting day tomorrow! This will likely be my last update until we board, “see” you all on the Equinox (all though maybe I will actually see some of you!)

Good morning from Fort Lauderdale! I got up early to catch the sunrise. It wasn’t the most spectacular sunrise, but it was still beautiful to see come up. We’ll be touring around on the water taxi for most of the day. I rode it last year and really enjoyed it! I think we might hit 15th St Fisheries for lunch, but otherwise, no big plans on the horizon. Just enjoying a hot, Florida day! A little bit about me, I am an anxious person and now is the part of the trip where I’m constantly thinking “what if we’re actually supposed to board today?” But according to our booking documents, the title of my post, and the group page title on the other social media, we do in fact leave tomorrow 😂 Time to get excited!

Is it the new MDR cheeseburger? Nope! Just the Legendary Burger from the Hard Rock Cafe. We got into Fort Lauderdale only about 30 minutes late. The real delay was it took 50 minutes for our luggage to make it to the belt. There was some rain, so maybe a weather delay? Oh well, bags arrived so I cannot complain. Kaleb’s family surprised us with a trip to the Hard Rock Guitar Hotel! If you have your own car, it might be worth a trip if you like gambling and music. There were a lot of famous musicians’ guitars and clothing on display, one of Lady Gaga’s dresses below. There was a neat waterfall that was synchronized to music. Now we’re heading to the condo for some downtime before going out to dinner! Overall, a pretty smooth travel day.

That’s a great tip! We’ll definitely check it out.

I’m not sure about me…but that does seem up my boyfriend’s alley! I will keep y’all posted on this important menu change 🤣🤣

We’ve had an exciting travel morning so far! Originally, we were supposed to leave at 8:50, then we got delayed to 9:15. We weren’t upset because that gave us time for hot breakfast at the lounge! And then we got notified that we’d be delayed until 12:30. Five minutes later, we get a text that it is actually leaving at 9:15! I’ve never had that happen before. Who knows when we’ll leave! Happy to be on the way though.

We’ve had a nice evening so far at the Embassy Suites by the Atlanta airport! This hotel is pretty new and it is a great option since they have a park and fly rate. We usually stay at the Hilton Garden Inn if we have a morning flight, but our last stay there was terrible. The A/C was not really working and we got no sleep. This is a nice change of pace! Plus the “free” evening reception with wine and snacks. Our flight will be before breakfast opens, but they are supposed to back a little to go bag for us. Some people might complain about the snacks, but as someone that never buys “snacky” food, I was excited. And both wines were mine 🤣 Now we’ll just be settling in for some takeout pizza and Netflix. We’ll be on our way to Fort Lauderdale in the morning! I’m not sure what we have planned. I know we’ll be doing the water taxi one day. I’ll update here when I have something interesting to share! (Hopefully the pictures load fine, this is my first mobile post!)

Hopefully those days fly fast!! And yes, I’m in the group on the other social media page. I was happy to see it was so active! I think this is going to be a fun sailing.

They are both in psychology! Neither of us are trained as clinicians though. My area of research is infant development and his is in adult cognition (memory and attention). My college roommates went on to do MDs, both degree paths are challenging in their own ways! I never could do the exams needed in med school, but ask me to write a 30 page paper in a week and I’d be fine 😂

This is great to hear! Thank you for the update.

We’ve had a pretty quiet day here in Georgia. I did some laundry, and we went out for Italian ice. Largely, we’ve just been recovering from that marathon of a move. Okay, now on to what we plan to do for this trip! This is an ABC sailing. We’ll be in Aruba from 9 AM to 9 PM, Curacao from 8 AM to 8 PM, and Bonaire from 7 AM to 4 PM. My parents gave us a lovely graduation gift of a massage package at Renaissance Island in Aruba. We have the Sea Escapes package booked. This allows us access to the private island with flamingos, a 50-minute Swedish massage, use of beach towels, lunch, and a frozen drink. This came out to $335 total for two people. All things considered, if you want access to Renaissance Island, this is not a bad deal. Otherwise, it is $130/person for a day pass that you can only book one week out, and spots are limited. Essentially, it's $37 for a massage, lunch, and the ability to reserve in advance. Although the $130 day pass does include a $25 food and beverage credit. We don’t have much planned for Curacao. We’re not big beach people because I have a mild sun sensitivity that sunscreen does not help (you’ll find me in the shade or long sleeves if there’s no shade!) We plan to have a relaxed morning and then walk around the port. Depending on the timing, we’ll walk across the famous bridge and probably head into the Old Market for lunch or a snack. We may also go to the Mangrove Park across from the cruise terminal. It’s only $10/person. Finally, in Bonaire, we’ll go to Sorobon Beach. My parents have been there before, and they said it is the prettiest water and it’s fun to watch the windsurfers. We probably won’t spend too long there and opt to have lunch back on the ship. I’m hoping we can get a good taxi driver and include a tour of the southern part of the island, but we’ll see. As for what we plan to do on board, we are pretty boring. I have a lot of good books loaded up on my Kindle, so I’ll definitely be reading a good bit. Otherwise, we like listening to live music and going to trivia, and we’ll try out a few game shows at night. We also said we’d like to go the the gym once a day……we’ll see about that! I love the MDR, but Kaleb is more neutral, so we’ll probably go to the buffet for dinner a night or two. Although with the recent menu changes (I’ll report on how they are in person) we may opt for the buffet more often. Finally, I just want to say that one of the things that we are not on a budget for is tips! It’s always important to us to recognize our stateroom attendant and our favorite servers and bartenders. But we did do this in a “budget” way. Since we were moving, we cleaned up the house and sold some things via Facebook Marketplace. All of these transactions were done in cash, and we kept that cash for our tips! I’ll update how the hotel is tomorrow after we check in! Meanwhile, if you have any recommendations of easy/cheap places to see in our ports, I’d love to hear them.

See you on board! Enjoy your time in Fort Lauderdale!

I’ll track it somewhat! The researcher in me would love to do a whole excel table, but I’ll just make little notes here and there. My parents are actually on board the Silhouette right now and they’re a little frustrated with the premium wine selection. A lot of their favorites (like Decoy) are out of stock and they’re ending up with a lot of classic package wines. They are not big drinkers, usually two glasses of wine with dinner. Then on the package, speciality coffees and a lot of sparkling water during the day. Their MDR server actually recommended the Zero Proof package for them. Unless they spend $59/person/day on wine, it’ll be a huge savings.

I don’t mind the upcharge options. Princess has done this a while with the header on the menu stating “Make the Evening Extra Special”. Fine, whatever , get your money large corporation. For me, the issue is the cutbacks to the menu. Looking at Princess menus, there are many appetizer and entree options, plus the “Princess Favorites” offered each night. I’ll be sailing the Equinox this week (started a live blog this morning) and then Princess for a Glacier Bay cruise so it’ll be an interesting comparison.

Thank you, everyone for the congratulations! We are very thrilled to be done and taking this break. After running some errands, I'll share more about this trip and what we're planning on doing in the ports later today.

Hi everyone! I will attempt my first live thread for my 8-night sailing on the Equinox. This is an ABC (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) sailing. I am excited because each of these ports is new to me. I started this thread a little early because our travel for the trip has already started! First, I’ll give you some background on me, who I’m traveling with, and why I have titled the thread “sailing on a budget.” This will probably be a long first post, and then they’ll get shorter and have more pictures. My boyfriend (Kaleb) and I will be setting off on this trip. We are both in our late 20s to early 30s, so a different demographic for Celebrity. This will be my third Celebrity sailing, the fourth for Kaleb. The second and third sailing on the Equinox, respectively. Previously, we’ve also sailed NCL together. That was not my favorite cruise experience! Each trip has been with family or friends, so this will be our first vacation just us in the five years we’ve been together. I’ll go ahead and say (after getting this question many times from friends and family), no, do not expect a proposal on this trip! So why are we traveling on a budget, and what does that mean for this trip? We just graduated with our PhDs and are in a weird limbo stage. We’re paid on our measly graduate student stipends through the summer (though I am thankful for any stipend). However, I don’t start my “big girl job” until August, and Kaleb is still interviewing and applying for jobs. We knew we wanted a trip to decompress after grad school, so we moved forward with planning with the promise that this was our Christmas and Birthday gifts to each other for this year. For total transparency, we paid only $1,513 total to book this cruise. We had a couple of avenues of help. First, we booked through the Blue Chip Club. Thanks to Kaleb’s poker habit (he is by no means a high roller, poker games just take a long time), we scored a little over a 30% discount on the all-inclusive fare. We also sailed on the Edge in July 2021 on their second sailing after the return to sailing. The partition door to the IV came off the track, so Celebrity gave us each a $200 future cruise credit. This was a little over the top since they were returning to sailing and wanted us to be happy. Even though the issue was fixed within the hour, and we didn’t complain, we only notified the attendant. So that allowed us to take off $400 of the original fare on top of the BCC discount. We booked an inside room originally but bid $115 per person ($15 over minimum) for a verandah. We had a successful bid and moved to a balcony room on deck 7. We’ve opted for a few upgrades out of the standard all-inclusive far. First, Kaleb pre-bought the internet upgrade when it was on sale for $8/per day, so he will have the premium. I am going to attempt to stick to the classic package. We also reserved Tuscan for the first night at a discounted price. I’m eager to try Tuscan again because we had a terrible experience the last time we were there. Besides those two things, we are keeping the cost down. I like nice wine, so I might pay the difference per drink for premium wines, but I’ll try to keep that only to one to two glasses with dinner. I will be drinking plenty of the classic package during the day! Now to the trip and why we started traveling so early. Yesterday, we actually moved from Knoxville, TN, to Atlanta, GA! The most stressful part was keeping track of our passports while packing and moving. We always had flights for this trip out of Atlanta because we have family nearby, and it is way cheaper to fly here than in Knoxville. Then, I got a job in Atlanta, so I knew we would need to move here. We planned on moving after the trip, but I didn’t want that hanging over my head on a relaxing vacation. So we opted for a same-day move (with the help of movers, thankfully). We just threw everything into our new unit today, and now we’re staying with family for two nights. I wanted these two nights as a fail-safe buffer in case something came up with the move. On the 21st, we’ll drive to the Atlanta airport to stay at the Embassy Suites because our flight is early the next day, and my family is a bit of a drive from the airport. It’ll be a nice treat since it’s a brand-new hotel. We’ll then be in Fort Lauderdale for two nights. Kaleb’s dad and stepmom recently moved to a condo down there, so we’ll see it for the first time and visit with them. Finally, it’ll be time for our cruise! I will update this thread as much as possible and am happy to answer any questions. I hope you all have a fun time following along!

Thank you for all this information! How was the viewing space on deck for glacier bay? Where did you spend the day?

In the future, inform guest relations of this and specifically ask to move cabins. On the Equinox last summer, a member of my party complained because their inside room was next to the food service corridor. The carts were literally shaking the wall from 5 AM onwards. They informed guest relations and asked if there was another inside room that they could move to. Guest relations moved them to a concierge cabin with no complaints. Guest relations wants you to be happy!

You can always go to the Captain's Club desk once you get on board to see if they have any availability to join the helipad sail in/away.

I haven't hit my 30s yet (though I am getting close), and I still love Celebrity. Funny enough, I've sailed NCL and didn't like it at all.

Ship: Equinox Length of Cruise: 8 nights Cruise Sail Date: June 24, 2023 Date email offer received:April 10, 2023 Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Select Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Blue Chip Club Current Cabin: Inside Bid? Yes/No: Yes If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category: place winning category, if accepted (all category offers, can be mentioned in comments) Bid Offer: Balcony, $120/person Notification Date: 5/9/2023 Accepted / Rejected: Accepted General Comments (offer details, etc.): The ship looked to be mostly sold out (no balconies for 2 people when placing the bid). We went $20/person over the minimum bid.

As a current college instructor.....I would not recommend this method 😂

Not always the case. I’m sailing this June and got my MoveUp email about 2 months before our sail date. Just keep an eye on your inbox.