EQUINOX DEUX - 11 Night Ultimate Caribbean - PV Trip Report 3/13/17

[upwarduk]

You know there has been a bit of discussions on here lately on how great a CD Richard Spacey is but, in my opinion I would much prefer our CD John Grantham on Equinox. John I felt did not need to be the center of attention unlike Richard Spacey who we experienced for the first time on Silhouette in 2015. But, my cruise never depends on how or what particular staff members are aboard. Just my two cents.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

We first met John on Eclipse’s inaugural season, in 2010. He was chosen as the most experienced CD to ‘launch’ Eclipse.

We then saw him on our Hawaii cruise on Century in 2012.

Since then we have sailed on Eclipse x2 and had Sue Denning as our CD. She called Eclipse ‘her ship’ but I believe she now is being moved around as well.

We jump to Silhouette in June.

Edited March 1, 2018 by upwarduk

[FRMPEI]

Hey Kevin,

Of course I check out your amazing videos and love them.

We own a place in Puerto Vallarta and are very close to the port and every time a ship comes in I’m always there taking picture from my balcony or from the beach.

Not to brag but one of my picture was in a cruise book that was made from passenger ship parade site.

The picture taken from or balcony attached.

 

[ATTACH]415420[/ATTACH]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hi Eric,

I am jealous of your picture taking spot. Very nice photo. I also have two photos published in two schools text books one being a French text book. But they are of rides at Canada's Wonderland.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[nimiq]

Hi Eric,

 

 

 

I am jealous of your picture taking spot. Very nice photo. I also have two photos published in two schools text books one being a French text book. But they are of rides at Canada's Wonderland.

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Kevin Reid

 

 

 

Kevin,

If you ever do a cruise and stop in PV let me know and if I’m there will show you our view for picture taking from the balcony and the beach.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[FRMPEI]

We first met John on Eclipse’s inaugural season, in 2010. He was chosen as the most experienced CD to ‘launch’ Eclipse.

We then saw him on our Hawaii cruise on Century in 2012.

Since then we have sailed on Eclipse x2 and had Sue Denning as our CD. She called Eclipse ‘her ship’ but I believe she now is being moved around as well.

We jump to Silhouette in June.

 

I have some notes jotted down from our cruise on how much I enjoyed John's style from Richard Spacey. I loved how he repeated himself each evening in the theatre.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Kevin,

If you ever do a cruise and stop in PV let me know and if I’m there will show you our view for picture taking from the balcony and the beach.

 

[ATTACH]415424[/ATTACH][ATTACH]415425[/ATTACH]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Spectacular Photos! Thanks for sharing.

 

I use this one as my wallpaper @ Meetings & Conventions PEI. (Summit in my home port of Charlottetown)

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

DAY 2 - SEA DAY #1 - CEDOMIR

I generally don't talk to much about the Celebrity staff but, our Dining room waiter, Cedomir, was the best EVER! He had a very quick wit and unbelievable service. My favourite saying of his was ... when picking up after our entrées and the plates looked like they were licked clean he would say to you, "Didn't like it?". That got a chuckle from me every time. Cedomir would make a point to say hello to you at breakfast even if you were not near his tables. I am almost deaf in my right ear so Cedomir would come right next to my left ear and repeat. Words can't describe what a pleasure it was to have Cedomir as our waiter.

 

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Jon StroudUK]

I have some notes jotted down from our cruise on how much I enjoyed John's style from Richard Spacey. I loved how he repeated himself each evening in the theatre.

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Kevin Reid

 

 

 

We had John as CD on our Eclipse Transatlantic last year. He was hilarious!

As you say the closing theatre speech made us laugh every night. He always had time for a quick chat and seemed to really love his job.

If the CD on our next cruise is half as good I’ll be happy.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[nimiq]

Spectacular Photos! Thanks for sharing.

 

I use this one as my wallpaper @ Meetings & Conventions PEI. (Summit in my home port of Charlottetown)

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Great Pic :-)

[cardiffman]

The best I could capture... BUST!

 

 

I think this sunrise is beautiful. Here in Sunny California we only have sunsets over the water.

[FRMPEI]

I think this sunrise is beautiful. Here in Sunny California we only have sunsets over the water.

 

On my Island we can catch a sunrise or sunset over water. Thanks for comments.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

DAY 2 - SEA DAY #1 - The Evening

While being seated at dinner the women would have no problem striking up a conversation with who ever was sitting besides us. This evening it would be a lovely couple from California. Our great waiter, Cedomir, convinced Donna that she should try her beef entree medium well. Donna has always been a well done person but, slowly coming off that mark even at home now.

 

The location of the "traditional choices" section of the menu has changed not the choice but, rather the location. At one time they use to be located on the left hand side on the menu now they are squeezed on the right side of the menu.

 

Left hand side of Main Dining room menu

 

Right hand side of Main Dining room menu

 

During the evenings for picture taking I decided to mostly leave my Sony a6000 mirrorless back in the room and use by compact Sony point and shoot. Made it a little easier to carry a camera around in the evening and easily slips in my pocket.

 

Practicing our camera pose for the ship photogarphers.

 

 

This being "evening chic" the ship photographers were out in full force. They don't bother me any and we usually end up buying some photos for some reason even though I took over 5000 photos myself this cruise.

 

My lovely Bride.

 

 

Just me again

 

How about a couple photos of main dishes?

 

"Celebrity's Signature" Beef Tournedo

 

 

Stay tuned for a few more main dining room photos.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

DAY 2 - SEA DAY #1 - EVENING cont'd

 

Ken's Shrimp Scampi

 

I rarely skip dessert on a cruise and tonight was no exception. In the main dining room I tend to always order the Chocolate Cake while in specialty dining anything with Gelato gets my eye.

 

Dessert menu left side

 

Dessert menu right side

 

We got to the dining room around 6 PM and finished up around 8 PM with lots of time to catch the 9 PM show in the Equinox Theatre. This gave us a little time to check out the locations of the ship photographers. So glad to see them using the grand staircase in the main lobby for photos. Also picked up copies of all the available EDGE propaganda.

 

I am not necessarily the best person to give you an opinion on the show(s). The show was called "LIFE" it was good just not great. The place was packed for a 9 PM show. What a difference social media has made on these shows. At one time a couple of years a go the pre-show announce would be "... this is a copyrighted performance of 'xx' company please refrain from video recording etc...". How things have changed for the pre-show announcement " We encourage you to share this production on your social media."

 

 

My sweetness and I in the Theatre

 

After "LIFE" we wandered down to the Martini Bar and checked out the Silent Disco. Neat idea.. red, green, and blue lights emitting from the headphones. Tonight the clock was going back another hour that makes a total of two hours.

 

Back in the room for the rest of the evening we studied the next day's daily (Donna being very careful not to wrinkle). Sunrise would be at 6:26 AM set alarm for 6:00 AM. Adjusted all the clock setting on my cameras to the new time setting. Spent the rest of the time catching up on my cruise notes before falling off to sleep.

 

I think Donna's foot is a wee bit too close to "MY" daily. I described in detail in previous trip reports my rules for the handling of the Celebrity Today.

 

 

Thanks to everyone for coming back to my trip report. Still lots more to share. Please stay tuned and add your comments and questions.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Kevin, there is a solution to your Daily fixation. Simply ask your cabin steward to deliver two copies. Donna can actually use one and you can keep yours in pristine condition.

Cheers!

[FRMPEI]

Kevin, there is a solution to your Daily fixation. Simply ask your cabin steward to deliver two copies. Donna can actually use one and you can keep yours in pristine condition.

Cheers!

 

Linda,

 

That would be the logical solution but, not near as much fun as demanding Donna not wrinkle my dailies.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[Bimmer09]

Guess who is back? Yep! Me! It sure has been a while since my last post. Life happened and other priorities took over. But, I do want to finish this Trip report before we sail on Reflection March 23, 2018. It will most likely be heavy on the photos and light on the videos to get it finished. My memory does not have to be good because I took lots of notes. So brace your yourself I am back.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

 

Kevin I took some time off from my own Crown Princess review to look for you on the Celebrity Board and found you had returned from your long hiatus. I was concerned that you suddenly stopped writing so am very happy to see you writing again and cruising again in less than 3 weeks! Looking forward to the rest of this Equinox Report and an upcoming Reflection report too!

Best wishes,

Norris

[Ozzmund]

Kevin,

 

I really enjoy your writing style. I am glad things are going well and that there will be more cruise reviews down the road.

We had a chance to stop on PEI on a HAL cruise last fall. I did my very best to stimulate the local economy by consuming an impressive amount of your worls famous mussels.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

 

Scott

[FRMPEI]

Kevin I took some time off from my own Crown Princess review to look for you on the Celebrity Board and found you had returned from your long hiatus. I was concerned that you suddenly stopped writing so am very happy to see you writing again and cruising again in less than 3 weeks! Looking forward to the rest of this Equinox Report and an upcoming Reflection report too!

Best wishes,

Norris

 

Hi Norris,

Great to hear from you. I had good intentions to get back to the trip report but, the PEI summer got in the way. Then I got busy doing a few things around the house like repainting two bedrooms and turning one into an office for me. I required a new desk for my new office so I built one from two 100 year old doors we removed from our house renovations over 10 years ago. Then I built a few washer toss box sets for Christmas Presents. OhYeah! Almost forgot lost my job in August and started a new one 1st of October. Glad to be back writing.

 

Project #1 - Bedroom repaint from Philly Flyer Orange to this...

 

Project #2 - Bedroom 2 repaint and my new office.

 

Paint Stripping 100 year old doors

 

The final product.. My new Computer Desk. Made from two complete doors. The two pedestals are one complete door.

 

Five sets of Washer Toss Boxes. Trust me when I say, "it is much cheaper to buy a set than trying to build them your self".

 

So that pretty much sums up what I have been up to since my my last post.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

Kevin,

 

I really enjoy your writing style. I am glad things are going well and that there will be more cruise reviews down the road.

We had a chance to stop on PEI on a HAL cruise last fall. I did my very best to stimulate the local economy by consuming an impressive amount of your worls famous mussels.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

 

Scott

 

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your kind comments. Thanks for stimulating our economy. Hopefully you were here on one of our fantastic fall weather days? We had a great fall and very little winter (keeping fingers crossed for rest of March). Sailing into our home port of Charlottetown is on our bucket list. What HAL ship were you on?

 

Photo of HAL Veendam arriving into the City of Charlottetown.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #2 - CELEBRITY TODAY & INSERTS

 

Celebrity Today front page #1 - Wednesday March 15, 2017.

Celebrity Today page #2

Celebrity Today page #3

Celebrity Today page #4

Celebrity Today insert #1

Celebrity Today insert #2

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #2 - BREAKFAST

 

Didn't sleep to well and woke up for the final time around 6:00 AM with Donna also getting up with me. Looked outside and it is already bright outside with the sun about half way up in the sky. The daily did say sunrise at 6:26 AM so that makes me 0 for 2 on capturing sunrises. Donna and I spent a bout 40 minutes walking around the "jogging track"... very good turn out today of walkers with a few joggers. There was one gentleman fully dressed in a suit tailing behind his wife walking the track. Donna went to the stretch class at 7:30 AM while I stayed away from that and instead found a unoccupied tread mill. Listened to my "Yacht Rock Radio" playlist and walked endlessly for the next half hour until Donna was finished. We had a quick shower before heading down to main dining room for breakfast.

 

Elevator Lobby... on our way to breakfast

 

There was a sizable crowd waiting to be seated in the main dining room. "My Lady" was lecturing a group on something. Breakfast good as usual. The Cruise Critic Roll Call Slot pull was slated for 10:30 AM and we had few minutes to kill before that,

 

 

Wine tower main dining room

 

Photo taken from stair - Breakfast winding down in the Silhouette Dining Room

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[pretty princess]

Enjoying your beautiful pictures. Just got home yesterday from another glorious week on the Equinox. Thanks again

[FRMPEI]

Enjoying your beautiful pictures. Just got home yesterday from another glorious week on the Equinox. Thanks again

 

Thanks! What was the status of the Hot Glass Show on your cruise? Was it Gone? We were never big fans of the Hot Glass Show.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[mpace58]

Thanks! What was the status of the Hot Glass Show on your cruise? Was it Gone? We were never big fans of the Hot Glass Show.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Blasphemy!!! :D

[FRMPEI]

Blasphemy!!! :D

 

I figured that would get a response from you. I was Thinking of you and Beth when typing that.

Mark do you and Beth have anything booked yet for 2019? We have Silhouette March 3 booked.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

[FRMPEI]

DAY 3 - SEA DAY #2 - Pre Slot Pull Wandering

Just a few photos to share while waiting for the cruise critic roll call slot pull.

 

Guest Relations Desk - Always a friendly face to help.

 

Main Atrium Grand Staircase

 

Passport Bar and Lounge area

 

Central/Main Elevator Column from Deck 4

 

The hard stuff stock for Martini Bar

 

One of the most favourite locations on the ship

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid