Equinox 10/6/17 to 10/16/17 10- night Aruba, Curaçao, Grand Cayman, Bonaire, Jamaica

Thanks for the review...what car/service did you take from Miami to the Airport? What was the price? Thank you!

We used Larry’s Limos. You will have to contact them for pricing, as it varies by car, amount Of people. We had four people, so the cost pp was a bit more than what a Celebrity bus transfer to the airport would have cost.

For a town car with party of 3 including gratuity it was $88 FLL to Miami.

Larry’s Limos dot com.

You can also hire a shuttle service for much cheaper for around $15-20 pp, but we just paid the extra for a private car service for the convenience. So worth it!

FWIW, there were tons of taxis lined up after we disembarked, but i would think it would cost a pretty penny from Miami to Ft Lauderdale in bumper to bumper traffic on Monday morning. Our driver used the express lane.

I read your review and enjoyed it very much. I want to thank you for mentioning the lack of overhang on the Aqua Class cabins up front; we had #1516 booked for same cruise 2018. I promptly got on the phone and got back to the middle again. I guess I had never paid attention to this before. Whew!!!! You saved us [emoji3]

I read your review and enjoyed it very much. I want to thank you for mentioning the lack of overhang on the Aqua Class cabins up front; we had #1516 booked for same cruise 2018. I promptly got on the phone and got back to the middle again. I guess I had never paid attention to this before. Whew!!!! You saved us [emoji3]

Glad to be of help. 1516 might also be under the gym area as well.

Many people prefer those most forward cabins for the sun. We just prefer to be fully shaded.

I read your review and enjoyed it very much. I want to thank you for mentioning the lack of overhang on the Aqua Class cabins up front; we had #1516 booked for same cruise 2018. I promptly got on the phone and got back to the middle again. I guess I had never paid attention to this before. Whew!!!! You saved us [emoji3]

Glad to be of help. 1516 might also be under the gym area as well.

Many people prefer those most forward cabins for the sun. We just prefer to be fully shaded.

There is an overhang, it's just not as deep as for the cabins that are more midship. I'm pretty sure it covers the entire balcony but if the sun is lower in the sky, it will shine onto your balcony.

Thank you for the very helpful review.

Is there anything we should not miss on the ship?

Did you go to the Gastropub? Any friendly bartenders?

Thanks Norma we board 10/27

That sounds good - I was getting tired of the veggies and hummus.

My DH always says that!:D

To the OP, thanks for your review. It was great and very detailed. We are doing the A, B, C, islands in April 2018 and it sounds liked it was very warm on each island.

What are the must things to see or to do on each island and to avoid on each insland in your humble opinion?

Also, what did you do on the Grand Cayman Island?

To the OP, thanks for your review. It was great and very detailed. We are doing the A, B, C, islands in April 2018 and it sounds liked it was very warm on each island.

 

What are the must things to see or to do on each island and to avoid on each insland in your humble opinion?

 

Also, what did you do on the Grand Cayman Island?

Hi,

In April the climate will be much better! October is extremely muggy. When we were there in April, although it was hit, it wasn’t oppressively hot.

In Grand Cayman we walked to the bus station a couple short blocks away. We rode the bus, which is really a van, approx 8 miles to Cemetery Beach which is at the very end of 7 Mile Beach.

There are no restrooms there, but since it borders a cemetery, it is very peaceful. [emoji6] There are plenty of shade trees and one picnic table. It is not isolated or scary as it is right next to a bunch of homes. Our friends like to go there for snorkeling, but the conditions were not good due to many recent storms. It is a little rustic for me, as I prefer to lay on a lounge chair and drink fruity drinks with umbrellas.

When you disembark the tender, there will be several people trying to give you a “taxi” ride hither and thither. It will cost double what the bus costs. We paid $2.50 pp one way US $ to go a far distance. Taxis run about $4-5 to go just a couple miles in many cases. Taxis are the way to go if you don’t like walking too far, however.

We were THE only ship in port, which made it a whole different experience than when we were one of five ships in port.

If there are may ships in port it will be miserably crowded and you will need to leave extra time between departing the beach or wherever and getting back to the port.

Our ride back from the bus stop across from Cemetery Beach took about 20 minutes, and there was very little traffic on the road.

I can’t even begin to imagine how long that ride would have taken had there been many ships in port.

On the way back from the beach, we simply walked back across the street and waited at the bus stop for approx 8 mins for a ride.

The drivers all honk to alert you to their presence and you simply flag down a ride. Funny thing, we waved down the bus/van and it didn’t say BUS on the upper windshield, but we got in and realized shortly thereafter that we had unwittingly joined a tour in progress. LOL

We were at the tail end, and they delivered us directly next to the tender port, whereas the city bus would have delivered us to the depot two blocks away.

We paid the bus driver of the tour bus the same as we would have the city bus.

Aruba: We walked across the street from the ship to the bus depot and took a bus to Palm Beach, walked through a hotel lobby somewhere and rented chairs on the beach from a kiosk near a pier. $10 pp for a lounger and it included two umbrellas for four of us. We were right in front of Carlitos Bar on the beach and drinks were $5 apiece since it was happy hour. Beers were around 3-4$

On the way back we flagged down a bus van while waiting at the bus stop and it took us back to the depot. It was a commuter van as oppose$ to the big bus that we’d arrived in. Commuter van $2 pp. tourist bus $2.50pp.

In the future, I would go to Eagle Beach as it was way fewer people I could tell as we drove past.

Curaçao we just walked around, but many on our CC roll call took an Irie Tour which went to the factory where the blue Curaçao is made, as well as 2.5 hours at the beach and a tour of other sites.

It was open air. I can tell you, it was SO hot there, all I wanted to do was run back to the air conditioning of the ship, but April won’t be nearly that bad.

We didn’t do anything in Jamaica.

Bonaire is THE place for snorkeling, but I don’t snorkel. Instead, we hopped off the ship around 10:00 and there were plenty of vendors, all NOT pushy, with their various tours and times listed.

Prices were very good, much better than ship’s tour pricing.

In the future we will partake if that option. We walked around instead, and it was so pleasant there, just cute, and we bought a water color of a flamingo at Jan Gallery for a reasonable price.

We had a gelato along the water there later on in the day. It was the best gelato I’ve ever had, Key Lemon, not Key Lime, and it had crunchy cookie in it. Perfect with a scoop of coconut to compliment the lemon. One of the highlights of my trip.

Is there anything we should not miss on the ship?

Did you go to the Gastropub? Any friendly bartenders?

Thanks Norma we board 10/27

Funny you should ask, I didn’t go but my husband and our friend went every day. For the most part everything was good, but one day they went down a little after 3:00 and the bartenders told our hubbies that they were opening in “a couple minutes.”

Then another couple came along and they were told opening time would be at 3:30, so my husband said he and Bob left and decided they would come back a little later. Within a few moments of them leaving, they noticed a couple walk up to the bar, and at that bartender asked them what they were having.

No consistency. LOL

Husband said bartenders were not overly friendly, nor were they rude.

Indifferent would be the word I would use for most of the bar staff. I noticed snappy behavior a couple times from martini bar staff

By night nine and ten, they were actually smiling again and downright friendly by night ten, the emptiest night at the bar for the entire cruise.

Naturally they were inundated by everyone at the beginning cruise. I truly believe that they need more help. The martini bartenders appear to be some of the hardest workers on the ship.

Thank you for posting such a thorough review - we are boarding the Equinox in a few days :hearteyes:

To 4cats4me: Thanks You for your information! We can not wait until April.

Thanks for your review of the Equinox!

Thank you for a thorough review. What drinks did you enjoy the most on the ship? Any that you would not recommend?

:)

Thank you for a thorough review. What drinks did you enjoy the most on the ship? Any that you would not recommend?

 

:)

We all enjoyed the alcoholic slushees by the pool. Opens at noon.

The Sweetart slushee was good and had limoncello and vodka and other citrus. Another had berries and fresh thyme.

None of us likes gin so most drinks were martinis with vodka.

The Blue Martini was good, made with Hypnotic.

I liked Cherry Lane a lot. Botanical Bliss was the biggest surprise, but you can only get that in Blu if you are Aqua Class.

Peartini, Appletini, Cosmo all good.

Margaritas and mojitos not that great

a curiosity for aquaclass. were the bottles of water just two for the whole cruise? I was expecting two bottles a day.thanks

a curiosity for aquaclass. were the bottles of water just two for the whole cruise? I was expecting two bottles a day.thanks

We were only expecting two bottles total but last night, Day 3 of the 10/27 cruise on Equinox, our steward told us we’d now be getting two bottles every day.

a curiosity for aquaclass. were the bottles of water just two for the whole cruise? I was expecting two bottles a day.thanks

We only received two for the whole cruise even though we were supposed to get two every day. Our friends got two every day because they pushed the issue. We didn’t, as we had a drink package already.

We were on this same cruise, the first leg of a b2b. Interestingly our embarkation experience was in complete contrast to yours. We arrived at the port at 10:30, had our bags whisked away, lined up in the regular line and were through, processed and on the ship by just after 11am. We were notified of the late embarkation but decided to head there at our regular time instead and there was no delay in boarding.

We were in a 1A for this cruise and an A1 for the following cruise. We enjoyed Blu for the smaller dining room and the attentive service but didn't think the food was any better than the main dining room. There were some very nice choices but nothing spectacular except for the Short rib Manicotti. OMG!! It was to die for! Vinod and Sari in Blu were magnificent wait staff.

We found all the staff including the bar staff to be very friendly and engaging. The entertainment was mixed. We really enjoyed December 63 and the two comediennes were very funny. The production shows were just average. After seeing Elysium on the Reflection last year we did not need a repeat performance. They need to ditch that show, and fast!

We loved both our cruises and of course ate and drank far to much but gee it was fun!