LIVE Norwaylady escape the winter on Equinox B2B 23.03-11.04.24

[Norwaylady]

What a great weather! 

The vikings feel so at home🤣🤣🤣

 

You know us…. Not first to the port🤭🚢

Well, what to do… go for a walk. 

 

When we left the hotel around 10.00 it was not raining and it had not rained for the last couple of hours.

Well well… we managed to cross the bridge to the beach and it started to drizzle 🌧️ 

But that’s not stopping us😉

So we walked towards “downtown” Ft Lauderdale beach. We turned at Doubletree by Hilton Bahia Mare 

So a decent walk in the ☔️ 

 

We had scheduled a Lyft for 13.00. 

Lyft picked up on time and we arrived at the pier 13.28…🙃

But what are all those people???

 

Normally it’s empty when we arrive and this time it was a full house🫣🤭

Is everyone lazy or is it the weather? 

 

Security moved and we did ping in at our muster station around 14.00. 

 

What I can say is that it’s Easter 🐣 and it shows on our fellow passengers. Younger passengers and families. 

Not a typical X age group😂😁 

Fingers crossed for a great sailing⚓️

 

We picked up a coffee and climbed the stairs to our home away from home😄

 

Paperwork on arrival: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[az4ship]

So glad you are cruising again. I wake up and love to read your reports. Enjoy

[hcat]

B O N    V O Y A G E  !!!

[Norwaylady]

Sail away is a bit delayed⚓️🤭

So we have still not sailed away from port⚓️

 

We went upstairs to the buffet 14.45 and it was a full house deluxe. 

Mr found something to eat and I got a tuna sandwich. 

We found a table outside on the terrace. Lovely to have lunch outside😎

 

At 16.00 we went downstairs to see if our bags had arrived. 

Mr suitcase was waiting by the door and our housekeeper Angelo was walking the hallway to say hello 👋🏻 

 

I started to unpack Mr’s bag. He was to busy to sit on the balcony with his binoculars to spy on the neighbours on SY and HAL😂😂😂

The captain announced that we would be leaving later then our schedule 16.00. Estimate 45-60.minutes late. 

 

As I finished up the luggage, the next suitcase arrived😊

So then it was just to continue to unpack😌

 

I can tell we have an overwhelming number of family’s onboard AND bed nr 3+4 in use🫣🤪🤭lots of them in OceanView….

We have several screaming children and kids already tired making their yelling sound loud and clear to all of us on the balcony 🫢🫥 

Fingers crossed it’s just first day blues😜

 

 

Now it’s 17.15 and we have officially let go from port🥳⚓️🚢🍹 

 

Happy Cruise 🐣🐣

[mchell810]

 Bon Voyage !

You had a long journey getting there, so glad you're finally sailing 😃

[Lena11033]

2 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

What a great weather! 

The vikings feel so at home🤣🤣🤣

 

lol as my family on Northern Scotland says, no bad weather only bad clothing (at least no snow)

[Altamar]

Enjoy 😁

[Louhut1]

Love following along with Norwsylady.  Have a great cruise and enjoy the Caribbean.  

[WNCtourist]

Wishing you sunny skies and fair seas!

[mauimary]

Have a wonderful time. I imagine since it’s spring break time there are many families. The pool 🏊‍♀️ could get quite loud. . I just looked at our Caribbean cruise April of 2025 and realized we are cruising over Easter!  What were we thinking!!    Excited to see all your tropical 🌴 photos coming up. 

Edited March 23 by mauimary

[Norwaylady]

Tonight’s show is Electric Soul. 

We are seated in our “preferred” seats😌 ( don’t underestimate the need of habits) 

 

Mr has received a whisky 🥃 and has no reason to complain. 

 

Cruise director is Angela from U.K. 

 

Show was Motown, a dash of potpourri of newer and older songs. 

Demography of X on ordinary sailors😂🤭😜

Aka, perfect for me😁👍🏻

 

 

[hcat]

2 hours ago, mauimary said:

Have a wonderful time. I imagine since it’s spring break time there are many families. The pool 🏊‍♀️ could get quite loud. . I just looked at our Caribbean cruise April of 2025 and realized we are cruising over Easter!  What were we thinking!!    Excited to see all your tropical 🌴 photos coming up. 

We did that once..not realizing it was Easter..Never again!  Too crowded.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, Norwaylady said:

Tonight’s show is Electric Soul. 

We are seated in our “preferred” seats😌 ( don’t underestimate the need of habits) 

 

Mr has received a whisky 🥃 and has no reason to complain. 

 

Cruise director is Angela from U.K. 

 

Show was Motown, a dash of potpourri of newer and older songs. 

Demography of X on ordinary sailors😂🤭😜

Aka, perfect for me😁👍🏻

 

 

great pics..looks like a good show!

[mauimary]

13 minutes ago, hcat said:

We did that once..not realizing it was Easter..Never again!  Too crowded.

Easter is really late next year so hoping all the Spring break kids are back in school. 

[DaKahuna]

Looks like you just missed the Concierge lunch in the MDR.  What a shame.  Bet it was no where near as hectic as the buffet. 

 

I never noticed this before but it looks like the Concierge class dedicated departure lounge and the departure lounge for Elite + guest are one and the same, Tuscan Restaurant.   Is that the norm? 

 

Hope the children quieten down and you enjoy many lovely visits to your balcony.  

 

[Norwaylady]

Dinner

We have set time 20.30 on this sailing. 

We are assigned table 133. 

It’s a 2 table by the window🥰 

The location is in the back corner and it is a quiet place😁👍🏻🥰

 

We had no neighbours tonight. 

 

Tonight’s menu:

 

We had beetroot, Thai coconut soup, Caesar salad, jerk chicken and seared salmon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dessert ice cream and apple pie.

 

 

Mr asked for a mocca & a sambuca🤭😂

Well well…. Look what arrived:

I could tell from my side of the table…. Your not driving home tonight Mr🤣🤣

And for safety reasons, all sorts of flammable is strictly forbidden🤭🔥

 

Our service team for the next 9 days is: 

 

I think this will be a good time❤️😊

 

[Norwaylady]

7 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Looks like you just missed the Concierge lunch in the MDR.  What a shame.  Bet it was no where near as hectic as the buffet. 

 

I never noticed this before but it looks like the Concierge class dedicated departure lounge and the departure lounge for Elite + guest are one and the same, Tuscan Restaurant.   Is that the norm? 

 

Hope the children quieten down and you enjoy many lovely visits to your balcony.  

 

We have sailed some cruises on X….. we have still never made it to concierge lunch🤭

We are always arriving at the later side for boarding😅

So we have something to try out! 
 

I think the reason is that we are not magically “sold” on the menu for the lunch. And when we do more “exciting” sailings, we do have a program in the morning to get the most out of the day🤓

 

yesterday it was a zoo and they decided to not close the buffet at the time set. It should have closed when we arrived. 
It was full of people and they were hungry! 
 

MIA airport was closed in the morning due to thunderstorms, until 10.30am and there was a VIP person visiting in Ft Lauderdale and port area. 
So everything was completely closed off/police watched for a little over a hour. 
Everyone was stuck in their Lyft/Uber, shuttle cars to/from hotels and parking lots. 
Several people on FB reported this and they were supposed to board the ship around 11.30-12.00 and they arrived like 10 minutes  Before me & Mr🤯😳😖

It had just lifted when we arrived. 
So that’s probably why it was jam packed when we arrived. 
 

We saw several shuttle buses arriving, having guests carrying stickers saying departure time 11/11.30😳 

They were not super happy in the security line🙄🫡

But on the bright side, it moved quickly! 

[Norwaylady]

Today’s cruise compass Day 2

Sea Day — Time change -1h back 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Rise & Shine

I was awake early. 

So went for a sunrise walk from 06.30-07.30😎

Chair hogs out and about already when I arrived outside🫡

Front row seats by the pool all taken… 

 

Mr was awake when I returned😁

So we decided to go to the captain’s club breakfast in Tuscan. 

 

Only a few tables had arrived and we had a good table by the window. 

Mini bagels and salmon, coffee, OJ, smoothie and fruit❤️

I had my “cat pellets” in my smoothie bowl😂🤭

 

After breakfast we walked upstairs to change into swimsuits and hit the sun lounger😎 at 09.15 it was not jam packed on deck 14. 

I found to nice seats up on deck 14 by the railing, perfectly positioned for a little time in the sun ☀️ (remember 2 pale Vikings can’t stay in the sun all day after a long winter 🥶) 

We will not turn into a 🦞

[hcat]

Hope you had a great day!

[Lastdance]

Many thanks for the information about Easter, 2025.  I booked my TA so long ago that I forgot it was so late; our cruise doesn’t leave until 5/1, so we are fine with spending a couple nights in Miami before our cruise...whew😃!  Thant’s what I like about reading Cruise Critic, as you never know when someone writes something you need to know or remember! 

 

***I hope the weather improves immensely as your cruise continues!🦩🐙🏝️

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Sea day! 

What do you want to do? 

I can hear a sun lounger calling me from the outside😎😎😎

 

I was holding stand in the sun until 11.30. (Pale Vikings should know the fine line of lobster 🦞 and finished for the day…) 

Then I moved to a lounge in the shade. No point risking lobster 🦞 roll of me😝

 

Mr was walking a bit up and down to our stateroom…. (Tell me he’s not clever all the time… he downloaded something he needed on his computer to move onto the cloud for the iPhone… he didn’t move the last upload and poff… he needed to do it onboard) Well…. This was a serious big upload.. so it took a little while for him to get it up😝 (and I had to sacrifice my WiFi login to him)

 

At 1 o’clock it was time for a little lunch… 

Spa Cafe was the thing today😌

 

And a little ice cream for dessert 🍨🤭

 

After the lunch break, I was ready to move to our balcony. 

We arrived as the canapés was rolling in our door: 

 

No big changes there🤭😝😂🤣😜

 

We have taken it slow and just relaxed. 

Tonight is evening chic🥳

AND it’s one of three nights as the old captain’s club elite & above cocktail club🥳🥳🥳

 

I’m so happy to have it back! 

This was really a great way for us to meet & mingle before covid took it away😔

You know, it’s nice to talk to someone else then me, myself and Mr😜

 

So Mr&Mrs Norwaylady are now ready for departure to the event! 

[Altamar]

You guys look great! Enjoy.

[DaKahuna]

13 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

We have sailed some cruises on X….. we have still never made it to concierge lunch🤭

We are always arriving at the later side for boarding😅

So we have something to try out! 

 

 Good news is that you have another opportunity to try it on your turn around day on your B2B. 

 

[Arzeena]

@Norwaylady

You both look lovely! what a cute couple!🥰