Brief Review - Equinox sailing June 22

[1025cruise]

I just wanted to give a brief review of my cruise. This was an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.

 

We flew late Friday into Fort Lauderdale from a small regional airport on a direct flight on JetBlue. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed about an hour. First time flying out of this airport. It's a small one. Three gates, and about that many flights 🙂 Only one security lane so no PreCheck. As a PreCheck person, I didn't have to take my shoes off and got to go through the metal detector, but had to take everything out of my bags. By everything, I mean a CPAP, a nebulizer, a camera, laptop, and two laptops. Fortunately, FLL does have PreCheck. Also, only one option for food that has limited selection. I know they are trying to attract more traffic to this airport, but these items need attention if they want to boost traffic. The good news, parking for the week was only $49.

 

Anyways, we stayed at the Embassy Suites when we got in. Took an Uber from the airport. By the time we got in, it was late, so we just grabbed something to eat at the restaurant there. I had points, so that covered the stay. Hotel was good. Only complaint was breakfast was busy. Long lines for food. But the hotel was full, since a lot of people use it for a precruise stay. We took an Uber to the port around 11:30. Was quick and easy. I had our Xpress passes and passports out. Pretty much walked through security. With the Xpress pass, straight to a person who did check in, took our pass photos, and on to the ship. Was probably our quickest embarkation. Ran into Captain Kate on the gangway (she was heading down). We went towards Cafe Al Baccio to sit for a few minutes while waiting for Concierge lunch. At that point, we were advised that we could go to our cabin to drop off our carryons and get our seapass cards. Which we did :). Not wanting to fight the Lido, we went to the Concierge lunch in the dining room, though we weren't terribly hungry. It made a very enjoyable start to the cruise. By the time we were done, cabins were open, so we headed there for a bit. Having been on the Equinox previously, we didn't feel a need to run around. As we were heading to muster we saw our suitcases waiting for us. So we hauled them in and headed to muster. After muster, we headed back to the cabin to unpack. A quick note about our cabin. We were in a Concierge cabin on the hump on deck 10 Aft. Our balcony had two of the new chairs and the little table, plus a lounger. The bathroom had the supplies in plastic pump bottles. I wish that they would have been mounted in the shower, since they took up the basket not really leaving us space for our stuff. Our steward did an excellent job. I couldn't tell you if anything else was changed in the cabin, but we were happy.

 

We dined each night in the MDR. We had late seating. So we would go to the 7:00 show, then sit in the Passport bar before going to dinner. We enjoyed listening to the live music for a bit. We enjoyed our dinner each night. Our only upset was that we were sat at a table for 8, and no one else showed up. Apparently there was no way to move us so we would get some tablemates. Our waitstaff was great, but also a bit underworked as there were many seats empty in the section. In fact, one night the asst waiter got taken for another area since there were only four guests in our section. One table only showed up on formal nights.

 

Moving on....

For the most part, we had breakfast in the MDR, though one morning we went to Lido since we didn't need to be up early. Food was good, selection plentiful. 

 

Lunch was either in Lido (trying to avoid "rush") or from the grill. Our go to was the pasta bar. Again, no complaints about food. 

 

Shows were all good. We had seen them previously, but it was good to see them again. The fly on acts were also good. I attended trivia a couple of times. I am so glad that they didn't get to ruin the Sky Lounge. It was one of my favorite places. We got to see our arrival into Nassau.

 

For ports, we went to San Juan, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Nassau. For Nassau, we stayed on the ship as we did not desire to go to Atlantis. Good choice, since it was raining. It also was the swearing in day for some government official, so traffic would have been bad with closed streets, etc. For the other ports, we did island tours. For St. Thomas, we took a tour of St. John. Standard island tours. For Tortola, we stopped at a beach for an hour, which IMHO was 30 minutes too long. 

 

Another note, in San Juan, there were containers waiting for us with supplies that never made it to Spain for the dry dock. We saw them unloading mattresses onto the ship.

 

Debarkation was the worst part of the cruise (as it always is). We were originally given an early tag, but since we had a later flight, traded in for later tags. After breakfast in the MDR, we went to the Concierge lounge to wait. At about 9:15 we made our way off. We did the facial recognition thing, grabbed a porter, got our luggage, and was in a taxi to the airport pretty quickly. (I chose a taxi because when I checked Uber, due to peak it would have been double). 

 

If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer.

[tompeter]

Thanks for the report!

[micheleata]

Thanks for the review.   Love the Equinox and feel the same way about the Sky Lounge!  So glad they didn't ruin it!!!

[1025cruise]

I should also mention that Captain Kate was very visible. Her introduction speech during muster was wonderful (having to figure out which purse the ship's keys were in, who would give the abandon ship order if all three people were "incapable", etc). 

On the first formal night, I was on deck 4 watching the photographs with her. She was down on her knees helping a passenger back into her wheelchair after a photo. 

One day, I was looking for an open bar to get a bottle of water. I saw her leaving the shops (I think she kicked off the captain's sale or something). A minute or two later, I was up at Cafe Al Baccio and she was behind the counter handing out pastries (I guess the line was long when she went up there) letting the baristas just deal with coffee orders. I had never seen that before. Plus, we ran into her taking selfies with people as they were disembarking.

 

At times, I wonder if she just didn't have enough to do since she was also at the shows. I've never seen a Captain so visible, that I was really wondering "who was driving the ship".

[brettgirl]

I bet you were on the same flight out of newburgh.......that is so funny, and we stayed at the Embassy Suites when we came back for a few days..........I have never seen a captain as much as I did on this ship. It was nice to see how she really wanted everyone to have a good time and she took the time to get pictures if people wanted. For parents with 18 year olds, my son said it was one of the best vacations he has had (he has been on many cruises). The ship is really not meant for little ones, and I did not see many. Hubby and I did the glass blowing and it was fun, book early by going up there when you are not docked. Concierge class was nice, room and service spectacular (although the room could use more drawers for clothes). Food is subjective, but as a very picky eater.....I did not starve or go without! Loved the shows and comedians, we also enjoyed the game shows (gender, married couples, etc.). 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Thanks for the review!

 

And THANK YOU for the heads up about FLL!! I was going to look at JetBlue for my Feb cruise, but that sounds like a nightmare!! I’ll stick with American into MIA and just budget for a Lyft to the port the next morning!

[PTC DAWG]

10 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Thanks for the review!

 

And THANK YOU for the heads up about FLL!! I was going to look at JetBlue for my Feb cruise, but that sounds like a nightmare!! I’ll stick with American into MIA and just budget for a Lyft to the port the next morning!

It didn’t sound like the issue was at FLL, it was his departing SMALL airport..

 

I have flown into FLL numerous times with no issues. 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

10 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

It didn’t sound like the issue was at FLL, it was his departing SMALL airport..

 

I have flown into FLL numerous times with no issues. 

 

Oh, ok. Thanks! I must have misread.

 

So FLL has PreCheck lanes? 

 

(Part of me is leaning towards MIA anyway because I love the area around where I have a hotel reserved - and there are stores within walking distance to grab some wine. But we shall see...)

[1025cruise]

No, the issue wasn't at FLL, but small airport in the northeast (not Newburgh). However, there is major construction going on at FLL that is causing delays since they are down to one runway.

[hcat]

10 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

No, the issue wasn't at FLL, but small airport in the northeast (not Newburgh). However, there is major construction going on at FLL that is causing delays since they are down to one runway.

Have to look into that..we are flying into FLL for our Nov cruise...maybe it will be completed.

 

They do offer TSA pre-check lines, but not always open early am

 

Flew in and out Miami once for a cruise.....too big, lots of walking  just to get a taxi and not that close to the port. Local traffic mid week is nuts!

[UFMOM]

Wondering if you have any problems with musty smelling pillows or bedding that some are reporting?

 

 

 

Mary Ann

[aml3679]

We are doing the same cruise next February - it sounds like you enjoyed yourself.  We are parking at Port Everglades since we only live 4 hours away.  Therefore, we are just walking off the ship with our luggage.

[ghstudio]

On 7/8/2019 at 11:39 PM, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Thanks for the review!

 

And THANK YOU for the heads up about FLL!! I was going to look at JetBlue for my Feb cruise, but that sounds like a nightmare!! I’ll stick with American into MIA and just budget for a Lyft to the port the next morning!

 

I am a lifetime gold American Aadvantage flier and I would go out of my way to fly jet blue rather than today,s American, given the choice.  I wouldn’t judge an airline on one flight or experience.  My advice, obviously, is to book jet blue.

Edited July 10, 2019 by ghstudio

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

48 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

 

I am a lifetime gold American Aadvantage flier and I would go out of my way to fly jet blue rather than today,s American, given the choice.  I wouldn’t judge an airline on one flight or experience.  My advice, obviously, is to book jet blue.

 

My comment was due to my misreading of the airport situation. I misunderstood and thought FLL was the tiny 3-gate and no PreCheck lane airport. NOT about an airline.

 

I will go with whichever is cheaper with the better schedule when I book. I love JetBlue, but they are not always the cheaper option. Or the option with better schedules.

 

(Southwest is 100% NOT an option having been screwed over by them more than once. THAT I will judge on.)

Edited July 10, 2019 by WrittenOnYourHeart