Honeymoon/Aqua Class Report on the Equinox Oct 31 Eastern Med. Cruise - with pictures

[kat228]

That night was formal night #2.

 

We both started with the baked goat cheese.

 

 

That night they had an intermezzo, lemon sorbet

 

 

I had the salad entrée, the veal scallopini. It was really good!

 

 

Geoff had the pasta entrée, beef stuffed shells.

 

 

Geoff had the dessert cigar

 

 

I just had ice cream. Our assistant waitress, Paulina was wonderful, and she gave me a hard time of just ordering ice cream. Another night she gave Geoff a hard time about having a ton of crumbs around. We loved her.

[kat228]

Day 7: Naples

We woke up to a thunderstorm. It was quite a nasty day. We had planned to go on the Taste of Sorrento and Pompeii tour. Apparently it was raining so hard that the morning Pompeii tours were canceled because they had closed Pompeii!

We spent an hour or so driving out to Sorrento. We stopped at a farm where they showed us how they made cheese.

 

The farm:

 

Making cheese:

 

The plate we had to taste:

 

We were also able to try lemoncello…and then buy some!

 

We didn’t get any lemoncello, but we did buy some lemon infused olive oil.

 

Overlooking the area:

 

We then went into the town of Sorrento for a wood inlay demonstration. After that we had an hour of free time. It was raining when we left to walk into town, but obviously it started downpouring on our walk. We ducked into the first pizza place we saw to grab lunch.

 

(After the rain)

[kat228]

Center of town:

 

 

 

It finally cleared up, which was great timing as we were on our way to Pompeii.

 

At Pompeii, where the water originally came up and the sailors entered the town:

 

 

Some of the roads were still closed because of the rain.

 

 

 

[kat228]

It really cleared up, so we finally got a clear shot of Vesuvius. We were lucky that we chose a tour that went to Pompeii in the afternoon and not the morning!

 

That night was our last night on board, so we packed up and then headed to Blu for dinner.

 

I started with some great prosciutto.

 

Geoff had a mozzarella and pepper empanada.

 

I went with the shrimp cocktail next (another option that’s always available.)

 

And Geoff had the cold mint soup. He didn’t care for it (cold soup and all) so they brought him the other soup on the menu that night, a tortilla soup. He loved that one.

[kat228]

Surprise of all surprises, Geoff went with the duck:

 

I had the pumpkin gnocchi with artichokes, arugula, goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes.

 

For dessert I had the strawberry shortcake, which was more like a mousse than a shortcake.

 

Geoff had the rum cake

[kat228]

Day 8: Disembarkation/Rome

Disembarkation was really smooth. We got off early and 5 minutes later our driver (from RomeCabs again) was waiting for us.

 

We were staying at the Marriott in Rome, here was our room:

 

We grabbed lunch by the Spanish Steps:

 

Then we started exploring the city.

 

Of course it started raining again, but it didn’t stop us from throwing our coins into the Trevi Fountain!

 

Our next stop was the Pantheon.

 

We downloaded some podcasts from Rick Steves. It was a great thing to do, it saved us some money and still gave us background of the sights.

[kat228]

It cleared up, so we headed down to the Piazza Navona.

 

 

 

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel until dinner.

 

Day 9: Rome/Vatican

 

This was the view from our room that morning:

 

It was starting off to be a promising day! We had a tour booked at the Vatican. We decided to make our way over there using the Hop On/Hop Off bus. There were a few around, but we went with the TramBus 110 Open: http://trambusopen.com/en/home.cfm This worked out really great for us.

 

On our bus tour around the city, we saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, which was originally a “useless” monument before they turned it into what it is today.

 

We also passed by the Colosseum, which we’d be returning to the next day.

 

We got to Saint Peter’s Square, where we dodged a ton of people selling tours. It was a little annoying.

[kat228]

Our tour wasn’t until 1, so we had some time to kill. We grabbed an early lunch at one of the snack bars that had sandwiches. It was alright, held us over until after the tour anyway!

 

Our tour took us through the Vatican Museums and into the Sistine Chapel & Basilica. The lines weren’t terribly long that day.

 

Inside the Vatican Museums:

 

Sculpture that Michelangelo used as inspiration:

 

No pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but we were able to take pictures in the Basilica.

 

This was a sculpture by Michelangelo when he was 22.

 

Alter:

 

Dead Pope (creepy):

[kat228]

We decided to try and wait out the rain, but eventually we decided to just go ahead and brave it.

 

And a Swiss Guard in his rain cloak.

 

An empty square.

 

Even with the bus, we were soaked by the time we got back to the hotel. It didn’t really help that Geoff was coming down with a cold. I tried to go out to the nearest pharmacy, but wound up with cough medicine rather than a decongestant. Oops. We found a larger one after dinner, where they spoke more English. So if you’re in that area, go to the Pharmacy at Piazza Barbarini.

 

Day 10: Rome/Colosseum & Forum

 

That day was gorgeous. We took the Hop On/Hop Off Bus to the Colosseum stop and went into the Forum first. At both of these places we used the Rick Steves Podcast.

 

Colosseum from Palentine Hill:

 

Arch of Titus:

 

Forum:

[kat228]

After we finished with the Forum, we headed over to the Colosseum.

 

Inside the Colosseum:

 

 

 

When we were done, we were getting hungry for lunch. We headed back over to the Piazza Navona as there was a store there that I saw something I wanted to get my Mom for dog-sitting.

 

It wasn’t the best lunch, probably because it was pretty touristy, but it was enough.

 

And I grabbed a gelato before leaving!

 

Geoff has played the game Assassin’s Creed, so he recognized the area around the Vatican the day before and wanted to go back for a picture of the Castillo d’San Angelo.

 

 

 

We caught the bus again at St. Peter’s Square.

[kat228]

We wanted to do a little bit of shopping before we left. We even found a Disney store! (I’m a fanatic.)

 

 

Day 11: Going Home

 

Every morning we went up to the roof top of the hotel for breakfast. It had a stunning view and a pretty decent spread.

 

 

We could see the Vatican from the roof:

 

 

Again our driver was early, so we got to the airport in plenty of time.

 

Final Thoughts

 

We loved this cruise. At the beginning I mentioned that we had taken a Carnival one before. Celebrity (which I’m sure is no surprise to anyone) blows Carnival away. Our next cruise will definitely be with Celebrity, it was just wonderful.

 

We also really loved our Santorini Wine Tour. RomeCabs was fantastic, so I would recommend them. We had a great room steward (Jose) that made our stay on the ship just wonderful. The food blew me away. This was for our honeymoon, which is why we spent the extra money to upgrade to Aqua Class over a regular balcony, but if the price was reasonable, we would definitely book Aqua Class again just for Blu. It was that good. I’ll be happy to answer any questions for anyone. I do have all of our Celebrity Todays saved.

 

Oh, and I will be writing up a more concise review on the review page.

[sazzinfredericton]

Thank you Kat! Will be doing an 11 day Eastern Med Cruise in May 2012. I was very excited prior to reading your experience and now I am almost jumping out of my skin :) with anticipation.

 

Congrats and best wishes!

 

Nancy

[diesel1973]

It's amazing to see all those sites uncrowded! We were there in Oct. and it was crowded but not as bad as in the summer. This was our third time on that cruise and we still enjoyed every minute of it! The Equinox is an awesome ship.Glad you enjoyed the cruise in spite of the rain and good luck with your new hubby.:D

[kysupt]

We have taken a similar trip and found your information to be comprehensive and helpful. Your review is out standing and will be of great help to others.

[gelo7]

Wonderful review.

[Keith1010]

Kat wonderful review and wonderful photos.

 

Keith

[jodi58]

great review! wow! we are going on the Silhouette next year ( first Celebrity cruise) and booked an Aqua cabin, looking forward to it even more now.

[bananavan]

What a wonderful review and a lovely reminder of your honeymoon. May you have many anniversary cruises.

Thanks for getting me all excited about my upcoming cruise.

[Azulann]

Thank you for your unique picture review of your cruise.Your pictures will help many folks who always want to know about he food.

 

I too love the Equinox and the food was outstanding.

[sunshine nana]

Thank you for a great review. We are going on the Equinox in April to some of the same ports. So sorry about the Delta situation. We have had many problems with them too, but last week I booked our air with them out of Buffalo to Jfk to Rome. Now I am worried because we are on Alitalia to Rome. We paid extra for the larger seats too. I will call again on Monday and tell them I expect to have seats!Would you mind sharing the cost of ROMECABS to and from the port? Thanks!

[mjceditor]

Great trip report and excellent pictures! Thank you for taking the time to post.

 

March can't get here soon enough for us...

[LOP]

Thank you for sharing and congratulations on your marriage.

[kat228]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I'm glad you all are liking the review!

 

Thank you for a great review. We are going on the Equinox in April to some of the same ports. So sorry about the Delta situation. We have had many problems with them too, but last week I booked our air with them out of Buffalo to Jfk to Rome. Now I am worried because we are on Alitalia to Rome. We paid extra for the larger seats too. I will call again on Monday and tell them I expect to have seats!Would you mind sharing the cost of ROMECABS to and from the port? Thanks!

 

Good luck on the Delta/Alitalia!

 

The price one way to the port from the airport (or hotel) and reversed was 130 Euros (plus a small tip.) It was just for the 2 of us.

[Cruiser Susie]

Congratulations to you and your new husband! Wishing you years of happiness together.

 

Thank you for your pictorial review of your cruise... we will be back on the Equinox in March and in Aqua Class for the first time... now I am really looking forward to trying some of the dishes there. Your cabin looked wonderful, too... we'll be on the other side in a cabin with a similarly sized deck. Can't wait!

 

Thanks again for sharing. You'll have amazing memories of your honeymoon, and more cruises to look forward to.

[tright]

Thank you for the great review and the fantisic pictures. We will sail her next year!