Celebrity Equinox Jazz Fest cruise 4/24-5/5 Photo Review

[RRFPresident]

Ahoy, I see a pirate ship over yonder:

 

Equinox changed a couple things around on board like Sushi on Five and the location of the future cruise desk but didn't bother to change any of the signs:

 

 

 

After a quick sandwich from the buffet for lunch, Dadand I decided to head to the pool. More like I decided to head to thepool, Dad headed for a lounger with his book. Normally I wait forthese staying on board port days to try and use the pool but withoutmany kids on board this voyage, both the outdoor and the solariumpool had plenty of room to enjoy. I joined a couple other people whowere sitting in the ankle deep wading area of the outdoor pool andletting their legs dangle in the pool. Eventually we all slid upfurther and further until we had eased ourselves all the way into thepool. The water temperature was pleasant, no having to acclimatelittle by little. Floated around the pool for a bit until the sunmade my face feel too warm. Headed inside to check out the solariumpool and found it was like walking into a freezer. I'm sure thatalready being wet contributed to that but it felt like someone hadcranked up the a/c!

 

I tried out the then empty hot tubs in both the outdoorand solarium pools. The outdoor one didn't really have the jetsworking and the solarium one had jets that were so turned up, Icouldn't keep my bathing suit dress/skirt from ballooning up likethat old grade school parachute game in gym class. The solarium poolwas definitely shallower and I enjoyed chatting with some fellowtrivia players. Decided to head back to the outdoor pool and I movedover to the other side of the step ladder to get in the same way I'ddone the first time. Always a little wary of those step ladders alongthe sides of pools as they are not fluffy friendly. Was nice to seethat the solarium pool has steps to walk in. I sat in the ankle deepwading part but this time as I inched myself more and more forward, Ilost my footing and ended up going all in to the point of goingunderwater as if I'd fully dove in. One of those moments where youdon't realize what happened until you realize you're under water andyour body reacts to get back above the surface. In the process, myright leg must have kicked out from under me and against the side ofthe pool because I ended up with bruised toes, a bruise around myankle bone, and a bruise on my calf. And to top it all off, I tooksome of the pool's paint job while I was at it as my knee, elbow, andhands looked like I'd rolled in deep blue paint. Apparently I'm sotalented, I can bang up the same foot and ankle as I did on the sideof the sofa bed and set a new record for how many bruises I come homewith from a trip!

 

Desiring to get the blue paint off of me, Dad and Iheaded back to the cabin so I could shower. I hadn't bothered to putmy coverup back on before we headed back down in the elevator andcorridors so when I opened the cabin door, the crew member currentlysuspended outside our balcony washing windows got an unexpected freeshow. He quickly moved his cart over toward the next cabin andpretended not to notice me when I stepped out onto the balcony in mybathing suit to grab his picture for the hilarity of the situation!

 

 

 

I did make sure that the bedroom curtains were fullyclosed before I got in the shower though. When I got out of theshower, Dad said the crew member came back past our cabin and tookhis dear sweet time refilling his bucket with cleanser.

 

 

 

 

Stopped by Slush to try a Golden Coconut and a MintCookie frozen drink. Golden Coconut was okay but I definitelyrecommend the Mint Cookie as it tastes like a milkshake. It may havejust been the nature of the drink but if I hadn't seen him putalcohol in them, I wouldn't have been able to tell there was any inthese drinks.

 

 

The Golden Coconut

 

 

 

Headed up to afternoon trivia where we tied for the highscore with a few other teams. Rather than have to do a tie breaker,we were just all given tickets. Dad went to participate in thisafternoon's bocce tournament and DJ Sasha gave him tickets eventhough his team lost.

[RRFPresident]

Just something about seeing a ship sail off into the setting sun:

 

 

 

While we had considered changing tonight's dinner plansof a repeat visit to the Tuscan Grille, we decided it was better thanwhatever was on Luminae's menu that evening. I had been wanting totry a blended drink I saw in another cruiser's report which had acitrus fruit juice on the bottom and pina colada on top so it tastedlike a creamsicle. They thought it was called a Mango Tango sotonight I ordered a Mango Tango and promptly confused our poorwaiter! He rushed off presumably to request the drink and I watchedhim stop the maitre'd to ask what a Mango Tango was. As it turns out,what he brought me was the most common version with strawberry but agoogle search has found a different version made with coconut creaminterestingly labeled as RCL's recipe for a Mango Tango. A goal forthe next cruise! It looks like it's also known as a Mango Coconutdaiquiri if you use coconut rum instead of dark rum.

 

 

Forthe food tonight I went with a Caesar salad

 

Pizzetta Bianco White Pizza, Fontina, Pecorino, Roasted Garlic

[RRFPresident]

Chicken Parmesan Tomato, Melted Mozzarella, Pecorino Pasta - the chicken really is as big as the plate!

 

Dad went with the Strozzapreti Carbonara Pancetta, Peas, Parmesan as a smaller appetizer portion and then had the same steak he'd enjoyed earlier in the cruise.

 

We had a totally different waiter today named Oscar butthe service was once again slow and our table was often skipped overwhen he came by nearby tables to check on them. Never saw thesommelier until he walked past and offered to get Dad a refill on hisrum and coke. The maitre'd finally came over and took our orderhimself to make up for Oscar's poor performance. The restaurant waspretty busy tonight as I even noticed they'd pulled a waitressdressed in her uniform from Sushi on Five to come help. She noticedme noticing and came over to try and entice us to visit Sushi onFive. I wish I could have tried it but with Dad not liking seafood,there wasn't any real opportunity to get something just for myself. Ihad read in another review that they were able to get Sushi on Fivebrought to their cabin without costing them extra as room service butit turns out only Penthouse suites (which they were in) get to havespecialty restaurant or even Luminae food delivered to the cabin.From what I understood of the rules for drinks is that if it comesvia room service, it isn't covered under your package so I thoughtthe same would apply to the Sushi to Go offer on the cabin TVs.

 

 

 

 

Back down to our new hangout spot of the EntertainmentCourt for Friendly Feud. We participated on a team with 2-3 othersand we must have been super loud when discussing answers inpreparation to steal because the other team would routinely havewhatever we'd decided on as their next answer. At one point, we werehaving trouble thinking of further answers to “Name something youchickened out of doing at the last minute” so Ashley sidled up toour team and whispered to go with tattoo as our answer. The otherteam did win the whole game but Ashley gave everyone decks of cardsanyway. Once the game was over, we were planning to return to theperfume shop to go ahead and purchase the perfume for Mom but oncethere we realized that there was a camera set up in the shop. As westarted wandering the shop, in walks Justin and Richard to film amorning show segment. We made a quick exit to get out of their wayvowing to return later to finish our purchase. If anyone gets thechance to view the blooper reel from Richard's morning show filmingon your cabin TV, it is hilarious! They pieced together all the clipsof passengers walking through their shots and even a few crew did aswell. At one point, Richard even started following after these peopleand they never even noticed. A personal favorite was the onepassenger who put on a clown nose and stood behind Justin and Richardduring filming and they never noticed until Justin turned aroundseveral minutes later.

 

Now that it was the night before my planned all day tourof the ruins, we went off in search of a pre-packaged snack I couldpack to have should I start feeling low or if the provided bag lunchwasn't enough to last as the day wore on. The heat and not eating aretwo prime triggers for migraines for me so I wanted to be prepared.We went first to the main gift shop thinking there would be somethingin the snack section like granola bars. Turns out all they had waschocolate candy bars, not conducive to being in my backpack all dayin the heat. We asked the staff of the shop and they couldn't thinkof anywhere to get anything besides candy on board. They suggested wehead down to guest services and ask if they have any other options. Idon't know if it was a language barrier or what but when we askedabout granola bars at guest services, the female crew member seemedto channel Gumby mixed with the stereotypical valley girl persona asshe literally flailed her arms and her upper body bent over thecomputer monitor in front of her like that friend who's had too muchto drink. She started to repeat the word granola like she was in acontest for how long it took to say a simple word, drawing out eachsyllable. Her reaction to “Where can we find something like granolabars so we can take snacks on an excursion tomorrow?” might as wellhave been asking her to explain quantum physics.

 

 

 

 

I came up with the idea of heading to the buffet for theprepackaged crackers they usually have sitting with the tureens ofhot soup but no such thing was out by this time of the evening. Weran into Ashley up at the buffet getting her dinner so we asked herfor ideas. She suggested whole fruit and I asked about that beingtechnically against the rules. She replied “just stick it in yourbag and no one will question it.” We left Ashley to enjoy herdinner in peace and discovered a cheese tray decorated with manyclumps of grapes. I grabbed a plate to hold one of the clumps and akind crew member went in the back to retrieve a couple bananas at ourrequest.

 

 

 

 

The young lady at the gelateria had been asking Dad“where's the lady?” so I decided we should go down and pay her avisit for our dessert tonight. She greeted me with a big smile andteased me about not coming to see her because I liked Slush better.

[alliebrandy]

Chicken Parmesan Tomato, Melted Mozzarella, Pecorino Pasta -

 

I came up with the idea of heading to the buffet for theprepackaged crackers they usually have sitting with the tureens ofhot soup but no such thing was out by this time of the evening. Weran into Ashley up at the buffet getting her dinner so we asked herfor ideas. She suggested whole fruit and I asked about that beingtechnically against the rules. She replied “just stick it in yourbag and no one will question it.” We left Ashley to enjoy herdinner in peace and discovered a cheese tray decorated with manyclumps of grapes. I grabbed a plate to hold one of the clumps and akind crew member went in the back to retrieve a couple bananas at ourrequest.

 

 

Love your review. I am sorry though that you experienced some issues throughout your cruise that you may not have had when sailing on other lines. Things happen and as I'm sure you did, you go with the flow and not let it ruin your travel. Just hope that you will give Celebrity another try if the itinerary is right for you. On a side comment in hind sight for future sailings - when in the buffet area late at night, you can always ask one of the servers behind a counter as you did for the bananas - to also grab either crackers or the boxed cereals as well. We also pick up things to keep with us when we venture off ship or on excursions, as Rene is a diabetic and needs to maintain his sugar level. So in the mornings, like from the spa or gym area, if we see packaged bars we pick up a few and keep them in our cabin for when we go ashore.

[RRFPresident]

Love your review. I am sorry though that you experienced some issues throughout your cruise that you may not have had when sailing on other lines. Things happen and as I'm sure you did, you go with the flow and not let it ruin your travel. Just hope that you will give Celebrity another try if the itinerary is right for you. On a side comment in hind sight for future sailings - when in the buffet area late at night, you can always ask one of the servers behind a counter as you did for the bananas - to also grab either crackers or the boxed cereals as well. We also pick up things to keep with us when we venture off ship or on excursions, as Rene is a diabetic and needs to maintain his sugar level. So in the mornings, like from the spa or gym area, if we see packaged bars we pick up a few and keep them in our cabin for when we go ashore.

 

The spa or gym area! Can't believe I didn't think of that. Thank you, I'll remember that tip for next time. We've had things happen on other lines too but like you said, there's no use ruining all the good times by dwelling on those random bad moments. I know on some of the boards for the other lines, there are posters who jump down your throat if you say a bad word about your experiences on "their" cruise line. I appreciate everyone who has been reading along here to my honest reporting and sharing their comments in a pleasant manner.

[Summerlin]

Thanks for the very detailed review so far. My question for you is about Luminae. We will be in a Celebrity Suite on Equinox next month, and one of the reasons we picked a suite this time was for access to Luminae--on our previous cruises we typically ate dinner in specialty restaurants 5 or more nights of the cruise, rather than the MDR.

But, we figured that the Suite only restaurant would "save us" from spending on the specialty restaurants (of course, that wasn't the only reason why we chose a suite). With your Royal Suite and the all-inclusive specialty package, what is your opinion regarding the dinner meals at Luminae? If you didn't have the all-inclusive specialty restaurant deal, would you have chosen to eat at Luminae most nights, or would you still have spent the extra $$ for the specialty restaurants? We have been on many X cruises, so Tuscan Grille, Silk Harvest, and Murano are not new for us. But Luminae will be new.

[RRFPresident]

Thanks for the very detailed review so far. My question for you is about Luminae. We will be in a Celebrity Suite on Equinox next month, and one of the reasons we picked a suite this time was for access to Luminae--on our previous cruises we typically ate dinner in specialty restaurants 5 or more nights of the cruise, rather than the MDR.

But, we figured that the Suite only restaurant would "save us" from spending on the specialty restaurants (of course, that wasn't the only reason why we chose a suite). With your Royal Suite and the all-inclusive specialty package, what is your opinion regarding the dinner meals at Luminae? If you didn't have the all-inclusive specialty restaurant deal, would you have chosen to eat at Luminae most nights, or would you still have spent the extra $$ for the specialty restaurants? We have been on many X cruises, so Tuscan Grille, Silk Harvest, and Murano are not new for us. But Luminae will be new.

 

Easy answer, if we didn't have the specialty restaurant deal, I don't think we'd have eaten at them so often. Certainly enough to try each again once as we'd only been on one other Celebrity cruise. Since we can order from both Luminae and the main dining room's menus while enjoying the quieter environment with more focused service, we would have chosen Luminae for most nights.

[RRFPresident]

Wednesday, May 3rd

 

 

 

 

Today is the day for my long excursion in Costa Maya,our last port stop, called the Kohunlich & Dzibanche Mayan Combo.

 

 

 

 

Up super early as we had to be at our tour meeting pointin the theater by 7:45AM. Even though I'd packed up my backpack andlaid everything out the night before, I was still running behind. Idowned one of the bananas we'd gotten last night for a quickbreakfast and stuffed the grapes and other banana in the plasticshopping bag we had left over from when Dad bought his New Orleansshirt. In my rush, I had remembered to slather on the sun screen butit wasn't until later that I realized I'd neglected to also put onthe bug spray we'd brought. Left my cabin at 7:40AM and power walkedlike a speed demon down 6 flights of stairs and all the way forwardto the theater managing to get there right at 7:45AM since there wasessentially no one wandering the decks at this hour. Got my customarytour group numbered sticker and was instructed to find a seat.

 

 

 

 

Lots of announcements made reprimanding the people whoalways insist on standing by the exits so they can be the firstpeople out. I heard several passengers complaining as they walkedaround trying to find seats that everyone else had chosen aisle seatsleaving no spot for them. There's this neat new concept called askingthem to let you past and sitting in the other seats in the row orsimply asking them to move to the far end while your party fills inthe rest. Princess usually has someone stationed on the stairsinsisting that you fill in each seat in the row before going toanother row when it's a big tour like this. I had chosen one of theshort 4 seat rows and tried to offer to move in when anotherpassenger walked by complaining but they just kept walking andgrumbling.

 

 

 

 

We were supposed to be leaving on the tour by 8AM butjust after 8AM they announced that due to high winds outside, theship was having trouble docking and was taking some extra time.Finally we were able to dock and tour numbers were called to proceedto the gangway. There must be something to ports with Costa in thename and having super long piers. Costa Rica last year and Costa Mayatoday. I felt like we'd already had a walking tour by the time wereached the end of the pier and were directed to several linesalready standing in front of several chalkboard style signs. The linenext to ours that was just for going to Kohunlich looked like itwould require at least 3 buses for everyone. Ours only ended upneeding the one bus, and thankfully it wasn't so full that I requiredsharing my two seat space with a stranger.

 

 

As we each boarded the bus, we were handed paper sacksfor our lunch and a full size cold water bottle. The sacks containeda small water bottle, a banana, a pack of some sort of hard texturedcoated nuts, a tiny fast food style packet of mayo, and a Mexicanchocolate bar. It was soon explained by our guide Lisbeth that themain part of our lunches, the ham and cheese sandwich, was in coolersand would be handed out as we re-boarded the bus to head to thesecond ruins location. Many people decided to dig into their lunchesright then but I elected to stretch my share of food out so Iwouldn't be starving mid afternoon. We first drove to Dzibanche as itwas the furthest away of the two and would take two hours to getthere. Lisbeth introduced herself and greeted everyone in Spanishfirst. When she asked if anyone spoke Spanish, most everyone said no.She asked if we knew the words taco, burrito, and cerveza andeveryone got so excited you'd think she was taking food orders.Instead, she pointed out that if we knew those words, then we spokeSpanish and everyone laughed. She added that if they did have tacos,it would be real Mexican tacos, not Taco Bell! Lisbeth asked everyoneto give her their attention for the first hour of the drive and thenshe promised to “shut up so everyone can take a siesta in thesecond hour and get their energy for the ruins.” During that firsthour, she gave lots of good information and passed around manypictures and small handmade objects. As promised, she turned off hermicrophone and encouraged everyone to nap now. I downed one of thebananas and let myself nod off.

 

 

When we arrived at Dzibanche, we stopped at therestrooms first. As each person returned to the bus, we were handedanother cold water bottle. Once we'd all returned, the driver drovethe bus up to the ruins and we all filed out. Lisbeth told us thatthis was one of the few remaining ruins that still let you climb onthem and we were to be the only group here today. She had a pitchpipe style whistle and let us know as we started that whenever sheblew on this whistle, it would be time to gather back up and move on.There was no issue bringing water bottles with us as we walked amongthe ruins and I definitely recommend either bringing a washcloth fromthe ship that you can wet or one of those moisture holding wraps tokeep your face and neck cool. I was also glad I had thought to bringmy hiking boots from L.L. Bean that I'd purchased specifically forour Alaska cruise. They look and fit like sneakers but are moresturdy and built for walking on uneven terrain. Not only is thereuneven ground with random roots and branches to walk over but attimes we were even climbing up steep embankments and down wide setapart stone steps just to get in and out of the main grounds of theruins.

[RRFPresident]

 

 

 

We had many adventurous souls in our group who chose toclimb the ruins structures including one lovely older lady who madeit with the watchful eye of the young adult relatives spotting herfrom each side.

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I think if you climbed to the top this day, you could have worked off all the extra calories you'd consumed on the cruise thus far:

 

Several different methods were employed for getting back down:

[RRFPresident]

The crawl backwards, the side step, and the bum scoot were the most popular choices:

 

 

 

One of the few people I saw on this cruise who seemedyounger than me was a lady who had a mission of climbing each ruinand posing at the top so her Mom on the ground could take a selfie ofher. I also soon found out she was also named Danielle because she'dget so caught up talking to other people at the top that her momwould start yelling her name over and over to get her attention forthe picture.

 

As those of us enjoying stable ground wandered aroundtrying to find shade and take pictures, a woman noticed me reach downto scratch my leg. She asked if I was getting bitten and I said Ithink so. She asked “Well didn't you put bug spray on?” “No, Iforgot to do that this morning.” She got this look of horror andoffense on her face and backed away like I was the new town leper.Guess she missed the day where they taught that the normal responsewould have been “Want to borrow some of my bug spray?”

 

 

Lisbeth took great delight in waiting for a large groupof our tour members to be high up on the current ruin before blowingher little whistle signifying that she was leaving for the nextplace. Everyone on the ground laughed and Lisbeth turned back to uswith a huge grin on her face as we watched those people scramble toget back down in a hurry.

 

Oh but there's always time for one more selfie!

[RRFPresident]

Lisbeth pointed out an interesting tree that she saidthey referred to as “the tourist” because it was always red andpeeling!

 

An example of the wide tall steps we had to conquer to move between the ruins areas:

 

Wonder which was here first, the ruins or the trees growing out of this one?

 

 

 

She also pointed out another tree with slashes in thebark explaining that this was how they get the gum that ends up beingChiclets.

[RRFPresident]

As we boarded the bus to drive the 15-20 minutes toKohunlich, we were handed the ham and cheese sandwiches along with afresh bottle of water. I had also brought along a bottle or two fromthe cabin so at this point I could have had my own kiddie pool!Everyone used the little trays that came down from the seat in frontof us and the mesh storage pouch underneath to arrange our lunch onthe go. Ham and cheese wouldn't have been my first choice but whenyou're in a situation like this highly physical tour in the heat, youeat what you get and you don't get upset! I don't eat nuts so I savedthem in my bag for Dad. He tried one after I returned and found themtoo hard in texture to eat. The Mexican chocolate bar was like a KitKat so it was yummy!

 

 

We didn't have a lot of time left in our excursion bythe time we got to Kohunlich after having spent a couple hours atDzibanche so Lisbeth warned that she'd be moving fast to get througheverything here in 45 minutes.

 

Our bus for the day:

 

Sign says no climbing and no drinks - well we abided by one of those rules:

[RRFPresident]

 

 

 

We saw many clumps of what looked like pillow filler andshe explained that this was from the trees shedding.

 

 

 

We visited the Building of the Figureheads which haslarge heads and faces carved into the sides of the ruin. Thisparticular ruin we were allowed to climb but only on the stairs inthe center.

[RRFPresident]

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We moved to where the famous ball court was to finishour guided tour.

[RRFPresident]

 

 

Throughout the day, Lisbeth had been making jokes abouthaving to pick somebody to sacrifice and appease the Mayan gods andat this point, she asked if there were any final volunteers. Everyoneof course said no and conveniently a strong gust of wind came throughthe trees behind us making us all jump.

 

 

 

 

We were given a few minutes to check out the remnants ofa home since we had to pass it anyway on our way back to the bus.

 

I and a handful of others decided to just head back tothe bus and soon most everyone followed. Lisbeth had offered thechance to buy a souvenir earlier in the trip that featured your namein Mayan letters on a pendant and her colleague used the trip back topass out the finished product. I think it was around $29 but I didn'tbuy it. I did enjoy some of my grapes on the drive back and then usedthe plastic bag to corral all of my lunch trash and accumulated waterbottles before leaving it on the bus. I knew it would be a lot moretrouble trying to get back on with leftover fruit in my backpack thanit was to get off this morning!

 

The nice thing about being on a ship excursion for these farther away outings is that we did indeed end up being laterthan planned returning to the ship. Lisbeth announced that they'dbeen in touch with the ship and they would be waiting for us. Dadtold me later that they even made an announcement on board to explainthat they were waiting on one last tour to get back. Once we returnedto the pier, they had the trolley there to give people a lift down tothe ship. They literally pulled anchor the second our last tourmember had come on board.

 

Dad spent his day alone on board going to the buffet forbreakfast, playing trivia, and then went to Celebrity Central to seethe showing of the Hidden Figures movie. He said there was a handfulof people who showed up to watch the movie and no one had bothered toshow up and run the movie! A small group of the passengers went offin search of someone to call for help getting the movie started andthey had to come back in to a dark theater feeling their way alongthe seat rows. A little surprised with these movie showings thatCelebrity didn't provide any sort of movie snack like popcorn.Princess has Movies Under the Stars (MUTS) so it's easier with alarge central location for passengers to go to see the movie and theyoffer bags of popcorn from the carnival style popcorn machine. I'veheard rumors of chocolate cookies and milk being passed out as wellon Princess but that magic crew member has always eluded me on mypast cruises. The only time I've seen evidence of this mythical beingis in a vlog where they found him wandering the central atrium by thecoffee shop. Guess not liking coffee has foiled me again!

 

Dad wanted me to grab a picture of what he said looks like spilled gas or oil as a refueling was finished in port today:

[RRFPresident]

A close up of the biggest section:

 

 

 

All onboard was 4:30PM and I think I was finally back onboard and in my cabin by 5:45PM. Before the cruise we had expectedthat tonight, while our last formal night, I would not be in the moodto go dress up and sit down at some big dinner after being out in thesun hiking all day. We browsed the room service menu and if only we'dbeen allowed to have Luminae delivered to our cabin, it would havebeen an instant decision to stay in making an order featuring dishesfrom the room service, main dining, and Luminae menus. However, myenjoyment of lobster won out and I forced myself into proper clothesbefore heading down to Luminae.

 

 

 

 

We hit the big rush and the restaurant was busyresulting in slower service. The somelier stopped by our table andremembered the Raspberry Fizz I'd ordered the first day but couldn'tremember the rum and coke Dad routinely gets.

 

 

Horrible picture but here's what went into that glass of cough syrup known as Spiced Berry Smash:

 

Tonight's dinner menu for Luminae:

 

Our little sampler to start - Dad gave me his shrimp and then put the plate back in front of him so it would look like he ate his. Is that like a little kid slipping his Brussel sprouts to the dog?

 

 

I went with the onion soup from the dining room menu

 

and Dad started with the iceberg wedge from Luminae'smenu.

[RRFPresident]

I also ordered an arugula with pancetta salad but didn'texpect it to be a strip of cold pancetta on top of a bowl of greens.

 

 

I wanted to try both the main dining room's lobsterentree and the one Luminae listed on their menu basically differingonly in side dish options and sauce. What I was brought was thedining room entree in its entirety and added to the plate was onelobster tail in the butter sauce Luminae listed on their menu. WhileI would have chosen the rice in this dish over the butternut squashLuminae's menu offered, I would have preferred they simply bring meboth plates to try. IV did offer to take my lobster tails out oftheir shells but I still found a piece of shell as I was eating.

 

 

Dad enjoyed his beef wellington.

 

Since it was formal night, we got a plate of slightlylarger versions of the same treats Murano gave out after dinner.

 

Our view most times dining in Luminae - and yes when in port it often meant a view of the parking lot.

 

 

For dessert we both went with the Baked Alaska. When Ithink of Baked Alaska, I picture a slab of cold Neapolitan ice creamcovered in whipped topping and coated with a torch on top like crèmebrulee. This had a layer of cake around the ice cream and the top wasmore like marshmallow fluff. I only could stand a few bites as ittasted too much like the crusty sugary sweet coating on Peepscandies.

[RRFPresident]

I had decided to try the white chocolate mocha coffeewith dessert and when it came, the waitress was shocked to hear thatI didn't want to add sugar. Even though I probably could havesweetened ten coffees with the remnants of my dessert, I assumedwhite chocolate would already be sweet. Turns out of course I shouldhave listened to the waitress as this coffee had no real flavor toit. I noticed that a handful of things on the Luminae menu likecoffees had a charge but we were never asked to show or scan ourcard. My white chocolate mocha wannabe coffee would have cost $5 ifwe didn't already have the beverage package.

 

 

We headed down to the Entertainment Court after dinnerto attend the Friendly Feud game, this time against the officers.Word had gotten out how fun these activities were and I found myfirst chair hogs of the trip. Was really tempted to speak up when Iwatched one such chair hog mock a passenger because he was deaf andcouldn't understand that they were telling him the seats were saved.The game started moments later and Ashley wanted only port sidepeople to play against the officers since the port side had beenlosing in points during the previous Celebrity Life games. Ashley hadthe passenger team line up facing the officer's team and the samechair hog from earlier started yelling at her because the way theywere standing meant she couldn't see the board from her preciouschair. I admire the restraint the crew has dealing with some of therudest passengers day in and day out. As the game progressed, it wasobvious that the officers' team had seen these same answers but triedto pretend like they had just thought of the answer off the top oftheir heads. The game was finally “fudged” just enough to let thepassengers win and the officers made a show of being the ones to handthem their prizes.

 

 

 

 

Since we were nearby, we headed up to the “Jasmine”shop and finally purchased Mom two bottles of her favorite perfumeand a bottle of “Live, Love, Carnaval” OPI nail polish for myselfto count as the beauty item. Leave it to this cruise addict to be ona Celebrity ship and pick out a nail polish whose name sounds likeCarnival! Our grand total was $68.98. Checked our account on thecabin TV to see how we stood with using up OBC and discovered thatwe'd been charged $25 each for submitting our form for the luggagevalet program. This fee is waived for anyone staying in a RS orabove. It was too late to talk to Manuela tonight so we made a noteof asking her about it tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Went up for a snack at the buffet and found that they'dalready closed down 90% of it early. We settled again for pizza andthen returned to the cabin as I was beat. Went to grab some ice for acold drink only to discover that our ice tongs had disappeared.Either Jose is a big fan of Where's Waldo or there's a little elfincreature hiding in our cabin swiping things.

 

 

 

 

I headed to bed early at 10PM tonight despite being ableto still hear the band playing in the foyer all the way up in ourcabin. It wasn't as loud as if I'd been actually in the foyer but Imust say that's something I didn't like on any of the ships with suchan open floor plan leading up into passenger's cabin decks. Thenewsletter states that tonight's foyer entertainment was the DiscoNever Dies Party that started with a DJ Jason warm up at 9:45PM andRich taking over hosting at 10:30PM. We had to turn our clocksforward one hour before bed.

[RRFPresident]

Thursday, May 4th

 

 

 

 

Today is our last sea day and our last full day of thecruise. After drowning out the disco music from last night bywatching the blooper reel from Rich's morning show, I was so tiredthat I finally slept through the night. After a refreshing shower, weheaded down to Luminae for our final breakfast. Today I decided totry and get out from under fruit compote purgatory and ask for myfrench toast plain as in no choices from the fruit flavorings. Thewaiter looked at me like I'd just sprouted horns and said “You wantit plain?” “Yes, I don't want the fruit topping, just plain.”He walked away still looking confused. We get offered coffee or teaper usual and our cups are turned over today rather than beingwhisked away when we politely decline. Out of nowhere comes IV with amug of hot chocolate for me and he whisks away the turned over cups.

 

 

 

 

We sat waiting for at least 30 minutes for our order.When it arrived, I had everything I requested but alas, my frenchtoast, though layered beautifully, was completely slathered with thefruit compote to the point that I couldn't even eat around it. Thewaiter never came back to offer syrup so I can only guess that's whathe thought I meant by plain! We did take the opportunity to passalong a tip to the host for his team while at this last breakfast.

 

Headed off to morning trivia, this time hosted by Justinin the Ensemble Lounge. Our team tied for first place with one otherteam so Justin insisted on a tie breaker. We had to send up oneperson from each team to answer a run off question and I wasvolunteered by my team. Justin had each of us pick an animal sound touse as our buzzer and then asked us to name the second activity inaddition to skiing that is in a biathlon. By the time I wrapped mybrain around having to make the animal sound first, the other guybarked for his buzzer and gave the correct answer of shooting. Justingave him a whole string of tickets and two to me as a “consolationprize.” Dad had been joking all trip about how silly the littleprinted tickets they gave out were because there was nothing stoppinghim from taking one of them that we'd won and going to Kinkos whilein port to make a bunch of copies. This became even funnier whentoday, our tickets were actual raffle style tickets because as Justinexplained, “We ran out of the other kind.”

 

Dad wanted to relax in the cabin so I headed down to thecasino to finish off the last $10 of non refundable OBC I'dtransferred for casino play. I also threw in $100 of our leftoverbudgeted cash for kicks. Found a slot machine that had bonus gamesthat decided to bless me and quit while I was up around $135. Cashedout my account officially for the rest of the trip on my way out ofthe casino.

 

I decided to head up to Slush and get myself anothermint cookie drink but the line was 6 people deep. Even when it wasonly a couple people, this single guy manning the stand seemed to beoperating on island time so I knew it wasn't going to be a quickwait. Instead, I headed for the nearby pool bar with the idea ofgetting two Dirty Banana drinks, a drink Dad fell in love with on ourlast cruise. The bar was super busy but with 3 bartenders they werefilling orders fast. I ordered the two drinks and after making them,the bartender insisted on seeing two cards which I of course didn'thave on me since Dad was with his in the cabin. I instead amended myorder to just the one drink and handed over my card. Took my oneDirty Banana back over to where Slush only had one other person inline and used my card to get the Mint Cookie drink. Less than aminute to walk between the two bars but there was no issue withhaving ordered two alcoholic drinks so close together. I would havegladly handed over Dad's card if I'd had it on me as he had thepackage as well so this wasn't really “sharing the drink package”or trying to cheat the system. I also mention this to show that inthis case, there was no wait period tied to my card. I'm curious toknow if that would still be true if I'd gone from one regular bar toanother and not to such a specialty place like Slush. Took bothdrinks back to the cabin but Dad didn't like this version of a DirtyBanana and only took a couple sips. He left it sitting on the tableand when we came back later, all of the alcohol had descended to thebottom 1/3rd of the cup looking like some sort of weirdscience experiment. I think he likes this drink more for the factthat every other time he's gotten it, it came looking like achocolate milkshake.

 

Headed back to Luminae to enjoy our last sea day lunchwhere we both got the famous Luminae burger and fries. Dad enjoyedhis first taste of the burger and as usual, I had to cut mine up tobe able to eat it. It took so long to eat this way though that ourwaiter actually assumed I was done and tried to take it away.

[RRFPresident]

Stopped at Michael's Club to ask Manuela about themistaken charge for luggage valet services as it still showed on ouraccount. She explained that they can't enter a $0 when they put therequest in the system so they put it in as a normal $25 charge andthen someone comes by later and manually reverses all of the RS suiteand above passengers' charges. She cautioned that it could take untilthis evening.

 

 

Oh look, our supposedly daily canapés have finally made a reappearance:

 

 

 

Dad wanted to attend the golf putting tournament. Irecall a large section of golf holes on the Solstice as it wasfrequented by little kids and I watched them play until they gotbored before I tried the miniature golf clubs myself. Here on theEquinox it was just a strip of the lawn off of where the hot glassshow is that they've cut out three large circles each with a hole inthe center. DJ Jason showed up to run this event and we had such agood group show up to play that he made a joke about “having to gofind some balls.” He could only find about 5 balls so we split thegroup gathered into three rounds with the victor of each roundplaying against each other in a final bout. The winner was the playerwho had the lowest number of accumulated strokes that it took to gettheir golf ball into all three holes. A couple people in our groupperformed like they play golf every waking hour. Dad and I were bothin the first round and after watching the next round for a bitdecided it wasn't worth sticking around since we'd both lost ourround.

 

 

 

 

We headed to the Sky Lounge early for afternoon triviaand whatever had been in the lounge before us left a bunch of glitterbehind on the couch. Dad slid across the couch to give me room to sitdown before realizing it and for the rest of trivia, our teammateswould randomly ask why he looked so sparkly today. Since Sue and Ronfrom our usual trivia group had told us that morning that theyplanned to attend the Elite tea, we gladly accepted when new peopleasked to be on our team. Just as we reached our maximum of six, Sue,Ron, and Barbara walk in and didn't look happy at seeing us havingteamed with other people. We tried to explain about not expectingthem but they just walked away. Today's afternoon trivia was run byAshley and everyone couldn't help but notice her brightly coloredknee high socks. Ashley insisted that her sock collection was betterthan Rich's and that she'd tried to give him her socks so shewouldn't have to wear them. Our team scored 25 with the help of bonusquestions, our best of the whole trip, but of course the neighboringteam announced a score of 26. Earlier, we gave away the bottle ofchampagne we'd won to Barbara. Today after the trivia, we offered the2 bottles of liquor provided in our suite to two new trivia friendsas they were planning to drive home. Even if they were Steelers fansfrom Pennsylvania.

 

 

A new edition since we last sailed on Celebrity was this machine in the Entertainment Court where you could snap a selfie and send it to your friends:

 

 

The Entertainment Court - that curved wall right by the photo machine housed a screen for projecting their computer screen's display for games and video footage. The Equinox theater is the entrance just to each side of the staircase and Celebrity Central is accessed by turning right down that small hallway next to where it says "Theater."

 

 

The multitude of seating for activities. There are similar chairs lined up along the walls so in total there was about 8-10 chairs. Note the super small space between those main chairs and the DJ booth at Quasar and you'll have an idea of what it was like to stand there with people milling out of the theater.

[RRFPresident]

To bid farewell to the kind girl at the gelato counter,we headed down for one last scoop and cone before it was time to headdown to the Entertainment Court to turn in our tickets for prizes.Dad had asked Ashley days earlier if there would be hats in the prizeofferings and she said she'd try to find some. When we showed up withour tickets to check out the merchandise, there was no hat to be seenunfortunately. Ashley was helping man the table and told us that shecouldn't find any. Cruise passengers really have the whole lining upthing down as they were lining up before they'd even moved the tableinto position. The offerings to cash in your tickets included carddecks, lanyards, mugs, tshirts, scrapbooking kits, rubber bracelets,and little flash drives.

 

DJ Jason is behind the table and DJ Sasha is in front trying to direct people into lines:

 

The breakdown of what each item cost - never did see the sunglass case:

 

 

 

Dad and I pooled our tickets and had ended up with 32 bythis point. Since we'd already won card decks and Tshirts and I had alanyard from my first cruise, we cashed in 30 of the tickets towardtwo flash drives. I had questioned what the bracelet was as it was abunch of them balled up in a bag together and I hear Dad say “ohthey're lanyards.” I walk back up to Ashley and ask to cash in theremaining tickets for a lanyard and she hands me the actual lanyardlike I already had. I ask her what the other bag is then and sheshows me how they are bracelets and just gives me one for “free.”Final tally of prize loot: 1 bottle of champagne, 1 tote bag, 5 decksof cards, 1 blue rubber bracelet that says “Celebrity LifeActivities” & 1 that was green and said starboard, 2 beachtowels, 3 tshirts, 1 lanyard, 2 Celebrity logo themed memory cardflash drives, and 1 medal.

 

Ashley was kind enough to pose for a picture with me:

 

 

Since the prize pile didn't net me a Celebrity hat, ournext stop was the gift shop where I picked out the generic blueCelebrity Cruises hat and an Equinox tshirt since they were offeringany two items from the hats, tshirts, or towels inventory as 2 for$30 or $20 for a single item.

 

Returned to the cabin and filled one of our twosuitcases with the laundry we'd let pile up on the closet floor afterdeciding that it wasn't worth trying to get in another laundry bagworth in these last few days. Headed down to our final dinner atMurano and it was a packed madhouse! Nearly every table was full andwe sat backed up against the kitchen wall watching this symphony ofrolling tableside prep carts and wait staff squeezing past eachother. I had already planned on having a return performance of thewonderful lobster and Dad chose the venison again. When it came toappetizers, I had a hard time deciding between two so the waiter saidto go ahead and get both as they are small. I tried both the Diver Scallop Wellington Style Baked in Puff Pastry; Black Truffle Emulsion, Spinach Fondue and the Heirloom Tomato & Buffalo Mozzarella Salad Granny Smith Apple, Cantaloupe Micro Basil & White Balsamic Emulsion. The scallop was certainly small but good. The latter I didn't care for as much. I didn't bother to bring my camera to meals today because I expected to order the same things as before. Ahh, the best laid plans of mice and men, sorry food porn lovers!

 

By the end of the meal, the air was thick with the smellfrom the propane they use to cook on those carts. My chair waspositioned with my back to the open kitchen doorway and I had to waitfor the right break in traffic just to slide my chair out withouttaking down any major player in this dance ensemble. Finally a waitersaw me and stopped traffic to pull out my chair for me.

 

 

Without much of interest on the schedule this evening,we headed back to the cabin and filled our last suitcase witheverything else leaving out a change of clothes for the morning, ourmedications, electronics, and toothbrushes which we then stuffed intothe light drawstring backpack we'd been using on excursions. Withluggage valet, your bags do need to be out slightly earlier than theywould if you were just picking them up in the port terminal. Werealized that we hadn't received a customs form and fearing that itwas the result of our lackluster steward, Dad headed back down toguest services to retrieve one. It turns out that the rule changedafter the new year and one is no longer needed, at least for arrivalinto Miami's port. As Dad was in the corridor outside our cabin, Josecame by to collect our bags and all but held his hand out for a tip.We did give a little extra to Arsim earlier today mostly out offeeling like we ought to since by having a butler, we did get aboveand beyond what any other cabin category would have gotten. We did ofcourse leave the regular gratuities on for both of them, even thoughtechnically the pre-paid gratuities was part of our booking offer.Given Jose's track record this sailing, Dad and I privately jokedthat we may never see our bags again since he was the one responsiblefor taking them.

[RRFPresident]

Friday, May 5th

 

 

 

 

Wonder if when making up words describing the first andlast days of a cruise vacation, they realized the connection betweenembarkation day feelings of excitement and elation and debarkationday feelings of depression.

 

 

 

 

As suite guests we did have the option of havingbreakfast in Luminae this last morning but decided we didn't want abig meal just before traveling. Another perk of suite guests ondebarkation day is getting to wait in Michael's Club until your groupnumber is called. After some pictures of being back in Miami from ourbalcony and doing one last double check to make sure we hadeverything out of the cabin, we headed down to the club.

[RRFPresident]

You didn't think I'd miss the opportunity to get a picture of RCL headquarters again did you?

 

I decided to pay homage to Jose this last morning by taking my own liberties with where all those pillows should go:

 

Since our onboard account still showed the luggage valetcharge of $25 each, we stopped to discuss it with Manuela.

 

 

She looked it up and confirmed that it had just beentaken off and gave us a printout confirming it. We took theopportunity to also give her an extra tip envelope. Manuela was soexcited to be heading home 20 days after our sailing so we wish herwell! One of the things I missed from other cruise lines is that wealso never received a final printout of our statement that last daydelivered to our cabin.