Equinox 9/17 LIVE BLOG; Aqua Class - 1st Time Celebrity! Let’s Cruise!

[TravelBluebird]

We arrived in Aruba at 8am this morning! A very busy day; Russ and I each did 2 shore excursions. Mine were a bit repetitive, but I can give you good information to help you decide which type of excursion on Aruba might be right for you!

 

At the moment, I’m back in the room after another long day. Around 15,500 steps (I wear an Apple Watch that keeps track). My steps on this cruise have been approximately 15,000, 15,000, 13,000 and then 15,500! Tomorrow we are planning a beach//explore Oranjestad day with a Schooner Sunset Sail being our only excursion.

 

The Equinox in port today; we were in port with the Norwegian Joy (which has been in port here since April of 2020) and the Freewinds, which is the Scientology ship. Tomorrow the Carnival Horizon joins us in port

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Ok,..Excursions!

 

Russ went diving on the Equinox excursion for divers that provided equipment.  He went to 2 locations; a shipwreck and  an easy, shallow water dive for first timers. On the shipwreck dive (which was for more experienced divers), it was just him, the dive master, and 2 other guests.  The second dive was joined by a group of beginning divers.  

 

Russ really enjoyed the dives (especially the shipwreck one) and he saw a large variety of sea species.

 

This is all I can get out of him at the moment because he is rolling over to go to bed; let me know if you have any questions on this excursion!

[hcat]

If you look at the photos I posted of Aruba  on Jim's thread., you will see a sunset saiboat that  took from the ship.  Friends who took it had a great sail and got even better photos!

Enjoy!

[TravelBluebird]

After his dive, he joined me for the Half-Day Off Road Adventure. BUT, I think it is most useful to talk about this excursion with the Best of Aruba excursion which I took in the morning.

 

Bottom line: If you are worried about COVID exposure, DO NOT take the Best of Aruba. 40 people in an enclosed tour bus which I think would hold 52 tops. This, plus certain people on the bus would not wear their masks at all, OR wore them mouth only.  This was approximately a 4 hour tour, with large periods of driving time to destinations spent on the bus.

 

The Half-Day Off Road Adventure was another long excursion (we left at 2pm and returned about 6;15). Because these are completely open-air jeeps, and many fewer people per vehicle (we had 4 vehicles with numbers from 6 to 12 in each) I had much less worry about COVID exposure.

 

On both tours you will see extensive parts of the island, including the Natural Bridge (well, what is left of it) the Gold Mine ruins, the lighthouse, etc. If you are not worried about COVID (or for when COVID is over) here is how you can choose between these 2 excursions if you want an overall island tour:

 

Best of Aruba: Air conditioned buses. Best for people wanting a traditional tourism experience; includes lots of good knowledge about the island. Also includes a tour of the aloe factory (shop included, of course).

 

Half Day Off Road Adventure: Great fun, really windy, bumpy ride in open-air vehicles. Think the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Awesome tour guide Ivo is lots of fun. Need to be able to climb into the vehicle (very steep 2 steps), tolerate wind, and not have any back or other physical issues that will be aggravated by a bumpy, fast off-road ride. Additional stop was made at Arashi Beach for about 45 minutes to swim/relax). Don’ t wear flip flops on this excursion!

 

May seem odd for me to have taken both of these excursions, but its often helpful to get the “lay of the land” before taking photos;  also, there were certain photos I could take from the bus I could not take from the jolting Jeeps!

 

[TravelBluebird]

I have many more photos from the excursions which I will share as the week goes on.

 

In between our excursions we grabbed a very quick bite in the OceanView Cafe (I had fish and salads; Russ had rice and beans and the meat that was carved (I think pork, but now he is asleep...).  We very quickly changed clothing and left. This was horrible because we left clothes all over the room; something we never do, and when we returned our wonderful cabin steward Svetlana had carefully folded and arranged everything. 

 

After the last excursion, we quickly showered and changed for dinner.  Left in our room were today’s canapés (curried potato salad, smoked salmon with capers, little corn muffins and olives with feta cheese), plus a gift from carnival, a nice grey logo bag with a pouch to pack it; the bag has a zippered side pocket perfect for your documents when at the beach!

 

Tonight we saw the Elysium production show (we enjoyed it, but not as much as Topper) and then had a great dinner at Blu and stopped at the Martini Bar. Tonight is the first night the entire ship seemed empty. Really empty.  Nearly no one at the production show, bars empty, casino closed due to being in port etc. I am assuming lots of peoples stayed in town for dinner!

 

 I will have to catch you all up with production photos, meal details, menus and photos.  I must get some sleep.

 

Tonight, we have nearly a full moon; our room is on the port side, and the view of Oranjestad in the moonlight with the lights reflecting on the water and the clouds slightly visible is beautiful!  

[TravelBluebird]

43 minutes ago, hcat said:

If you look at the photos I posted of Aruba  on Jim's thread., you will see a sunset saiboat that  took from the ship.  Friends who took it had a great sail and got even better photos!

Enjoy!

 

Thank you! I will go check those out now!

[happycruiserco]

Are you able to explore the ports on your own or is a curated tour required?  We had a mixed bag (some ports we could/some we couldn't) on the Edge for 2 sailings in July.  Curated tours are not our thing in the Caribbean.  THANKS.

[yoshi]

I just love how much fun you can pack in a day! Your cruise sounds wonderful.

I can't wait to be back on a cruise one of these days.

[TravelBluebird]

35 minutes ago, happycruiserco said:

Are you able to explore the ports on your own or is a curated tour required?  We had a mixed bag (some ports we could/some we couldn't) on the Edge for 2 sailings in July.  Curated tours are not our thing in the Caribbean.  THANKS.

 

You can explore the ports on your own; tomorrow we’ll go to a beach and town on our own. I understand it is the same in Curacao and Bonaire.

[ROYALBOY]

Sounds like the ship is empty… no covid cases?🤞🏼
we just got out e-docs for October 20, and they still have Nassau as the first port of call.

Edited September 21, 2021 by ROYALBOY

[TravelBluebird]

Sunrise over the port of Aruba this morning:

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Well, the energizer bunnies ran out of batteries this morning! Woke up early, looked at each other, and we promptly decided to sleep in!

 

Had breakfast at OceanView since we slept through Blu breakfast (ends at 9). I tried the made-to-order Eggs Benedict with salmon and some hash browns and fruit. Love the Eggs Benedict on this ship!

 

Our original plan was to walk ovet to Reflexions for some beach time (some of our Cruise Critic friends were going to be there) but it was windy. I mean REALLY windy. And my legs and feet were finally tired from all the walking, so we didn’t get any further than the shops at the port area. Which was fine! Did some photography.

 

 

[NBliving]

I really am enjoying your Live blog! We’ve sailed on the equinox once in 2019 I believe, and are sailing an A C itinerary on her in April in Aquaclass for the first time! I sure wish they would add the B back into our itinerary darn it. I’m anxious to see what today brings for you in Aruba. We are beach people, so love reading reports of the various beaches in the Caribbean. Enjoy your day!

[TravelBluebird]

Of course, had to take the obligatory I ❤️ Aruba photos! Here is one. And a hot tip...if 2 or 3 young women in pretty sundresses are ahead of you in that line for photos,  be prepared to wait awhile! 😂

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Finally, my husband is a N’Espresso addict, and was overjoyed to find a N’Espresso booth in the port area of Oranjestad for some iced coffees. We first had N’Espresso on the Pride of America, in our suite in Hawaii. He immediately bought a machine for home use, which is what we use for our morning coffee. 

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Finally, we went into the immigration building to get our passports stamped. We love looking back at where we’ve been, so we always try to do that in port, time permitting.

 

Husband Persian Garden-ed back at the boat, and now we are at the solarium/pool area. Decided to sit out by the pool; nice breeze and so empty!

[TravelBluebird]

I’ll be back a little later to talk about the dinners in Blu last 2 nights and some other things I want to check up on! Right now, I’m heading into the empty pool!

 

Later tonight we have the Sunset Schooner excursion.

Edited September 21, 2021 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

4 hours ago, ROYALBOY said:

Sounds like the ship is empty… no covid cases?🤞🏼
we just got out e-docs for October 20, and they still have Nassau as the first port of call.

 

No COVID so far (knock on wood et etc).  Very empty; Jim from other thread said he heard 1,000. Last night and today you can really feel the emptyness!  I really have liked the two days in Aruba; would you prefer that or the Nassau stop?

[hcat]

38 minutes ago, TravelBluebird said:

Sunrise over the port of Aruba this morning:

 

 

W O W !

love all the colors and contrasts!

[TravelBluebird]

22 minutes ago, hcat said:

W O W !

love all the colors and contrasts!

 

Thank you! I was half asleep, so I just grabbed my iPhone; with some minor editing in Snapseed app!

[TravelBluebird]

Pool area is wonderful right now; live music, not too hot; not crowded. I just spent some time in the 5foot pool and I was the only person there for awhile, then 1 person came in.  I rarely go in the pools on cruises because they are always so crowded and look like germ factories; this is a nice chance for the pool!

 

I reported this on Jim’s thread, but in case you aren’t also following along there; water in Solarium pool is very warm, water in the 3foot pool is warm, and water in the 5ft pool was cool, refreshing and just right!

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by TravelBluebird

[jmklade]

13 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

You can explore the ports on your own; tomorrow we’ll go to a beach and town on our own. I understand it is the same in Curacao and Bonaire.

One hint I do have is if you take a tour and go away from the bus...make sure you bring everything with you.  Some of the areas in Curacao were a little rough and they told us to leave everything in the bus because it would be watched when we swam with the turtles.  When we came back the side window of the bus

 had been smashed and everything valuable was stolen.  Our whole tour group spent the rest of the tour at the Curacao policy department.  Is is a beautiful island, just make sure to take everything with you.

[TravelBluebird]

23 minutes ago, jmklade said:

One hint I do have is if you take a tour and go away from the bus...make sure you bring everything with you.  Some of the areas in Curacao were a little rough and they told us to leave everything in the bus because it would be watched when we swam with the turtles.  When we came back the side window of the bus

 had been smashed and everything valuable was stolen.  Our whole tour group spent the rest of the tour at the Curacao policy department.  Is is a beautiful island, just make sure to take everything with you.

Oh no how awful!  And thank you for the tip! I will keep my camera bag on me tomorrow, just in case.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, NBliving said:

I really am enjoying your Live blog! We’ve sailed on the equinox once in 2019 I believe, and are sailing an A C itinerary on her in April in Aquaclass for the first time! I sure wish they would add the B back into our itinerary darn it. I’m anxious to see what today brings for you in Aruba. We are beach people, so love reading reports of the various beaches in the Caribbean. Enjoy your day!

 

I hope they add the B back to your trip!

 

Today we didn’t make it to the beach; it was too windy and we were too tired. We will be stopping at Mambo Beach in Curacao tomorrow; also did go to Arashi Beach yesterday; laid-back vibe, where locals go. Not a very “developed” beach which we like. I understand there is good snorkeling from the beach, but we didn’t snorkel there.

[TravelBluebird]

15 hours ago, yoshi said:

I just love how much fun you can pack in a day! Your cruise sounds wonderful.

I can't wait to be back on a cruise one of these days.

 

Yes, indeed a wonderful cruise so far! We feel like we have 18 months of fun to catch up on thanks to the pandemic//quarantine!  I’ll bet you feel the same once you get back on a cruise.