December 4, 2009

Colorado Springs, CO, Red Carpet Cruises, Celebrity Equinox Caribbean Cruise 

Equinox pics and videos: http://gallery.me.com/ric.rooney/100085

Day 1, Embarkation

We couldn’t wait to get back on a Celebrity Solstice class ship after our wonderful experience back in February on the Solstice, the first in a series of five new third-generation cruise ships being introduced by Celebrity Cruise Line.  Solstice made her debut in November 2008 and her sister ship, Equinox, joined her in July of 2009. So we’re expecting great things. 

Right now we’re sitting in the waiting area of a beautiful new $75,000,000.00 terminal at Port Everglades that serves as the home for Solstice, Equinox and Royal Caribbean’s behemoth, Oasis of the Seas (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara are all one corporate cruise family).

We should be boarding in about an hour and are looking forward to seeing the ship. Crystal and I were totally spoiled by our Aqua Class veranda stateroom last time so we’ve booked the same accommodations for this cruise.  If the magnificent suites on this ship are a little out of range for the average pocketbook, I assure you the Aqua Class staterooms are not. 

There are only 130 of these upgraded staterooms available and I think they are the best value on the ship.  If you go back and read my review of our February Solstice cruise you’ll find detailed information of these special, spa oriented staterooms that come with extra amenities.

With this economy, who can afford to cruise?

Evidently from the ‘packed house’ photo I took for you to check out, all of these people!  All 2,849 of them, since this cruise is a virtual sell out (a Penthouse suite was the last available stateroom at sailing).  I know the economy has been lousy the last two years but having said that, a ten percent unemployment rate still means nine out of ten of us thankfully are still gainfully employed. Sometimes though, perception is reality and the cruise lines have been responding with deals to keep their ships full that are nothing short of incredible.

This cruise is a prime example.  Six weeks ago I was researching what Crystal and I hope will be our first Mediterranean cruise next summer.  Equinox will be serving the European market, so I was checking on dates.  I didn’t realize until I started looking that the Equinox was in Ft. Lauderdale for a few months waiting to head over to Europe in late March.  And while she was stateside, Celebrity decided to put her to work with some special ‘10-day Ultimate Caribbean’ cruises with five beautiful port stops along the way.

I couldn’t believe the pricing for this December 4^th sailing for an Aqua Class upgraded veranda stateroom; $1,299.00/pp cruise fare for a 10-day cruise! (usually these staterooms sell for $1,500.00 - $1,750.00 for the typical 7-day cruise).  We did a $100.00 ‘Deposit on Board’ on our last Celebrity cruise, so for this cruise we received not only a $100.00 discount off that already low price but as a bonus for depositing on board, Celebrity gave us a $200.00 stateroom credit to use however we wish.  Daily gratuities for Celebrity are $11.00/person/day so for this 10-day cruise it comes out to $220.00.  Which means that Celebrity essentially waived the gratuities charge with the credit they gave us.  How can you beat that?  Everyone should do a Deposit-On-Board when they cruise, its free money.

Day 2, At Sea

Woke up this morning to calm seas, warm weather and a beautiful, blue sky.  The bone chilling cold and snow that we left behind in Colorado is already a distant memory.  I’ve had a chance to tour Equinox and like her sister, Solstice, the ship is stunningly beautiful, and immaculate.  Walking to breakfast this morning you see crewmembers, cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning.  It’s a non-stop routine that will continue throughout our voyage.

Breakfast at Blu

I know everyone is different so I’ll just speak for myself here; I love dining at Blu.  You don’t eat at Blu, you dine.  The menu is a little eclectic but you can eat scrambled eggs and bacon anywhere.  When you’re on vacation you should take advantage of some of the culinary opportunities a ship like Equinox offers.

Blu is one of the four specialty restaurants on the Equinox.  Silk Harvest (Asian fusion), Tuscan Grill (Italian steakhouse) and Murano (5-star restaurant on par if you can believe it, with the Broadmoor’s Penrose Room).

However Blu is unique in that it is reserved as an exclusive breakfast and dinner venue for Aqua Class guests.  Blu is a small, intimate 130-seat restaurant.  Like the other three specialty restaurants, it has its own galley and chefs trained specifically to prepare Blu’s menu.  So you have all the amenities a megaship has to offer but at the same time can dine in an intimate, private dining area like a small luxury cruise ship.

At 122,000 tonnes in size (over three football fields long) and 2,850 guests, Equinox is a megaship.  Roughly speaking, any ship over 2,500 passengers is considered mega class.  There are a total of ten dining venues on this ship.  The main dining venue, Silhouette, seats over 1,100 people. I enjoy all the diversity and amenities that a megaship has to offer.  However, I love the luxury feel of being able to dine in what is essentially a private dining area with only 130 other guests, attended by a wait staff whose service is superb.

This morning for instance Blue opened her doors promptly at 8 AM.  I had a wonderful breakfast, looking out at the sea through the glass wall on Blu’s port side.  And when I left, I counted just 34 people in Blu at that time.

Hello Jose!

As I was having breakfast this morning someone came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder.  When I turned around, I was greeted with “Hello, Mr. Rooney, how are you?”  It was Jose, one of the waiters that served us in Blu when Crystal and I were on the Solstice back in February!  Folks, that was ten months ago.  Jose had been transferred to the Equinox and he remembered me by name.  That is impressive. 

And that is just some of what defines the Celebrity experience.  I’m sure serving just a limited number of guests each voyage also helps in remembering people but still, remembering one guest’s name, ten months later with nearly fifty cruises worth of guests in between?  Jeez, I have trouble remembering my own family’s aunts and uncle’s names!

Wine appreciation class

 We’re back in school again only this time its wine 101.  This has become a ritual for me when we cruise on Celebrity ships.  Celebrity offers a number of enhancement series during their cruises and wine appreciation is one of them.  I can honestly say I owe my new enthusiasm for wine to these classes I have attended on-board.

There are a series of different classes throughout the cruise that run from wine basics, to food and wine pairings, to the always anticipated wine walk-a-round, where six stations are set up with a red and a white selection from one of six different countries.  Sommeliers are at each station ready to pour samples and give explanations for each of the wines being showcased. 

 For just a few dollars per class you get an opportunity to sample some very expensive, very high quality wines from around the world.  It is a lot of fun and I have learned enough from attending these shipboard classes that I can look at a wine list at a restaurant now when Crystal and I go to dinner and actually understand what I’m reading and can order competently.  

First big production show tonight

Our first day at sea and tonight was the first major entertainment production show in the Equinox Theatre.  This theatre holds a little over 1,100 people.  Technically, it’s specially constructed to make possible some of the most, if not THE most elaborate entertainment productions at sea.  Like her sister ship, Equinox has raised the bar for theatre entertainment on cruise ships.

Tonight’s show, simply called ‘Equinox, the Show’ was a Cirque Du Soleil type of show complete with acrobats, jugglers, aerial specialists that performed high above the stage and out over the crowd at times, elaborate costumes and stage sets, and live music performed by a seven piece orchestra. 

This was the first of three major production shows for this ten-day cruise.  It was a spectacular show although I have to be honest, watching the aerialists perform thirty feet above the stage with no nets or safety harness always makes me a bit nervous.  But these are professional, highly trained athletes and they performed flawlessly.

Late night comedy

Elaborate production shows are just one element for the main theater.  There are singers, comedians, impressionists, musicians that make of the rest of the entertainment schedule.  We had a chance to see a really excellent comedian tonight.  He did a special midnight ‘adult’ show that had me and many in audience in tears from laughing so hard. 

If you’re in the audience, don’t EVER try to go mano-y-mano with the guy on stage!  They are trained comedy killers and will skewer you every time.  That’s what we had going on tonight with an older couple in the audience who wound up in his sights.  But they were great sports about the comedic beating they took and the comedian gave them a hand at the end of his show.

Day 3, At Sea

Slept in a little late this morning and got up just in time to catch the amazing brunch today at Silhouette, the beautiful main dining venue for the Equinox.  I took a few pics a video to give you an idea of the incredible variety of foods and deserts they put out for this feast. 

There are some beautiful ice sculptures made just for this event that are part of this tradition on cruise ships.  Celebrity has a well-deserved reputation for its very high dining standards in the cruise industry.  It’s something they take great pride in and it certainly shows in all ten of their dining venues.  And at 480 varieties, their wine collection is unmatched by any other cruise line.

As cruise agents, part of what we do is take the pulse of other guests and ask them to give us honest opinions of their experiences.  And this cruise seems to echo what we’ve experienced so far in what we’ve read, heard and personally experienced in our first exposure to Celebrity’s new Solstice class ships back in February; people love this ship and Celebrity’s style of cruising.

The psychographics for Celebrity is 45-65, middle to upper income.  There are certainly younger and older cruisers on board but 45–65 seems to be the sweet spot.  If you appreciate a beautiful and technically sophisticated ship, excellent food, an extensive wine list, beautifully appointed staterooms, attention-to-detail personal service, and a quieter and more upscale entertainment venue without a ‘party 'til you puke’ mentality, you are a Celebrity Cruise candidate.

The only negative so far, and justified, was a very un-Celebrity like delayed embarkation process for this cruise.  We were delayed a couple of hours because of a technical issue with the photographic equipment used for passenger identification.

After the brunch blowout it was poolside to catch some rays as we’re heading for our first port stop in St. Maarten.  The weather has been just beautiful, warm and all the Caribbean sun you want.  The pools are full and the sunbathing competition is officially under way.  The Europeans are in the lead as usual.  How the hell do they get so dark, so fast?  And is anyone ever going to tell the old guys wearing the skimpiest Speedo’s that well, let’s just say nature has not been kind to them?

Wine walk around

Today it’s the wine walk around.  Crystal and I did this on Celebrity’s Infinity back in April on our Panama Canal cruise.  The walk around is a sampling of a red and white wine from six different countries.  Wine stations are set up with Sommeliers at each station that will tell you a little about each of the wines you are sampling.  It’s a great way to sample a variety of high quality wines for just a few dollars

Café Al Bacio, afternoon latte and gelato

 It’s around 3:30, which means it’s one of my favorite times of day; lattes and the gelato at the Café Al Bacio on Deck 5.  If you read my Solstice review back in February you know I was introduced to genuine, hand-made gelato on that cruise and now I’m addicted to the stuff.

Basil, the gelato-rista, recommends the Rum Raisin/Hazelnut combo today and it was an excellent choice.  Crystal and I sat down to enjoy our latte and gelato while listening Jess, a musician singing and playing guitar for us in the café.  This is one of the things I mean when I say the entertainment venue is a little different then high decibel, rock ‘til you drop party music all the time.  It’s a slower, more relaxed pace.  And when Jess sang a medley of John Denver songs, I felt right at home.

Step away from the plate!

 Before returning to our room tonight we stopped off again at the Café al Bacio for a Vanilla latte nightcap and piece of chocolate desert, both were delicious.  There were no waiters, only the two servers behind the counter.  When we were done, I got up and out of habit grabbed our plates and cups to bring back to the counter.  I thought one of the servers was going to high jump over the counter he came around so fast.  “No, no, no” he said, “you’re on vacation, you don’t pick anything up, we do that.  You go enjoy.”

Day 4, St. Maarten

What a great day!  I think this probably has been one of my best Caribbean days to date.  We visited St. Maarten back in February when we sailed on the Solstice. We spent the day touring the island and seeing the sights. 

This time, however, we decided to sample the true calling card of the Caribbean, its beaches.  We met a wonderful couple onboard, Marv and Arlene from New York and we decided to take a taxi together to one of St. Maarten’s beautiful beaches for the day.  We talked to one of the locals and he recommended Dawn Cove at Oyster Bay.  Fifteen minutes and a $12.00 taxi ride later, we were in heaven. 

Dawn Cove is a postcard perfect beach.  It’s fine white sand and the water is a warm, clear, Turquoise color.  It’s a relatively small cove with a surrounding hillside that protects the beach from excessive wind.  We were initially going to Orient Beach, a much bigger and well-known beach area here in St. Maarten.  But the local was right on the money with his suggestion, as we met another couple later in the day at our beach who had left Orient Beach earlier because it was very windy and the wind was really whipping up the waves.

My wife, the turtle whisperer

So there I was enjoying the beach and swimming in these beautiful waters when Crystal wades over to me and holds out her hand.  In her palm was an adorable little sea turtle that couldn’t have been more then a few days old.  Crystal said she was holding out her hand and the little guy swam right into it!  I guess he needed a little breather.

Marv had brought snorkeling gear with him and let us try it out.  I haven’t gone snorkeling in ages.  I forgot how much fun it is and the brightly colored fish parade you see swimming underneath when you get over the right spot near the shoals.

Dinner at Murano

We met another great couple that we became instant friends with, Terry and Mia from Chicago.  They had dinner reservations at Murano, the 5-star specialty restaurant on Equinox.  They managed to talk the Maitre D into giving us a table for four so we could join them.  We enjoyed our night together so much that we all decided to book tomorrow night together at Silk Harvest, the Asian fusion restaurant.

This aspect of cruising, the wonderful people you meet, is really something Crystal and I have come to enjoy more and more each time we cruise.  There hasn’t been a cruise we’ve been on this year where we haven’t made friends.  Cruising seems to bring out the best in people.  Everyone’s in a great mood, ready to laugh and enjoy themselves and seemingly eager to meet other cruisers and make new friends.

On Celebrity its not so much making friends so you can party all night, this is an older, more relaxed crowd.  It’s more about establishing new relationships to learn about other people, and enjoying the time and conversation with those new people. 

Today was a perfect example.  After dinner at Murano’s tonight, Crystal went back to the room because her post surgery foot was killing her after a couple of hours in heels.  But I met Terry and Mia topside up on deck 15 where Celebrity’s famous Lawn Club is located (yes, ½ acre of real grass to walk around on) and where Terry enjoys a nightly cigar.  We talked until after midnight about everything from our kids, to world politics, to my love of fitness, to his career owning a cookie company.  It was just a thoroughly enjoyable evening and I have no doubt that we’ll be getting together with some of these new friends to cruise again in the future.

Day 5, Castries, St. Lucia

Another beautiful island but immediately I was immediately turned off by the terrible conditions we walked into right outside the terminal and the overly aggressive people hawking everything from beads to taxi rides.  Castries is a third world environment and after just 15 minutes we turned around and went back to the ship where we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. 

We probably didn’t give this place a fair shake as our friends Marv and Arlene told us they grabbed a cab and found a beautiful beach about 15 minutes out of town that they spent the day at.  Next time we’ll do a little more advance homework and know where we want to go (like Dawn Cove yesterday) instead of just trying to wander around the streets, which to the locals is the same as putting a big ‘tourist’ target on your back.

Kendall-Jackson special wine tasting

Tonight it was another wine tasting event.  I know what you’re thinking, “how many wine events does it take to make a wino?  But we just couldn’t say no for only $10.00 when we met the Kendall-Jackson representative on-board at the wine walk around yesterday and found out he was doing a special Kendall-Jackson presentation and wine sampling.

After that it was straight to Silk Harvest with our friends Terry and Mia for all the sushi you eat (really) for just $20.00 a person.  I don’t know how they can make any money for that price.  And the food was just as wonderful as I remembered when we first tried Silk Harvest on the Solstice back in February.

Day 6, Georgetown, Barbados

This turned out to be the surprise of the cruise.  I had never been to Barbados before, as it’s generally a Southern Caribbean port call, too far south for the typical 7-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise.  But with ten days to cruise I got my first look at this beautiful and booming island.  This is one of the destinations that Crystal and I have marked for an extended return visit.

Barbados is a more advanced industrial and economically developed island then any we’ve visited so far.  We took a two-hour tour around the island and for the most part almost everything we saw was neat and clean, a far cry from St. Lucia the day before.  There are numerous large scale development projects under construction; resorts, condominiums, multi-million dollar estates.  Barbados is where the development money seems to be pouring into at the moment.

But the thing that totally took my breadth away was the beaches; the most perfect, beautiful beaches I’ve seen up to now.  I took some pics and videos of one of the beaches to try and give you an idea of how pristine these beaches are.  The place to head for if you’re down this way is a place called The Boatyards.  It’s just a few minutes from the pier where the ships dock and you can spend a leisurely day enjoying the beach and some good food.

We love America

On the way back to the ship I came up to a man who was holding us a sign for tours of the island.  We told him we have just returned from one and he smiled and said, “OK”.  Then he looked at the Alaska cap I was wearing and asked if I was an American and I answered, yes.  “Thank you for coming to visit my country” he said, “thank you for the business you bring to my country, we love America.”  Then in his broken English he went to very proudly tell me, “I know Texas! and I know Con-net-a-cut!”  His mannerisms touched me, he wasn’t trying to sell he anything, he just wanted to say thank you.  How nice to have someone say something nice about Americans instead of what we usually seem to hear these days.

Day 7, Basseterre, St. Kitts

Another day, another port call, another beautiful island with white sandy beaches to explore.  I know what you’re thinking, that it’s a tough pace to have to keep up but hey, somebody’s got to get out here and do the grunt work, right?

So today we’re back with our beach loving friends Marv and Arlene and we’ve picked a beautiful Marriott resort that has a beautiful public beach right behind it.  We were told this resort was one of the largest on this island and it was typical Marriott world-class resort.

This beach was different from Dawn Cove in St. Maarten.  This beach opened directly into open ocean.  The undercurrents were strong and we were actually getting two to three foot waves breaking.  So it wasn’t the quite the calm, gentle beach setting of a couple of days ago.  What it was however was the perfect environment for my first body surfing lesson from Crystal, who grew up in San Diego with similar beach conditions.

It took some practice to get the hang of catching the waves at just the right moment but once I got the hang of it I had a ball!  Now we’re only talking about all of a twenty foot ride to shore but hey to a Colorado guy this was my surfing debut and I rocked, except for that one time I got a sand face plant when one of the bigger waves actually deposited face first into the beach!

Day 8, St. Thomas

Today was the last port stop on our 10-day cruise and they saved the best for last.  St. Thomas is one of the three US island territories (St. John and St. Croix being the other two).  It’s the most modern of all the islands we’ve visited, with shopping venues to keep even the most discriminating shopper happy.  I mean what better reason is there to buy that Luis Vitton handbag you’ve been fantasizing about when you save all those tax dollars buying it in the duty free haven of St. Thomas?

But what I will always remember about this island is Magen’s Bay.  I’m told its one of the best beaches in the world and to see it is to understand why.  I wasn’t planning on going there initially, as we took an island tour just like we did in Barbados to get a lay of the land. 

This was an open air tour van that seated about a dozen people. There was one couple in our group though that was headed to Megan’s Bay, which is about fifteen minute drive from our ship.  You have to go to the Caribbean side of the island to get there, so it’s a quick drive up to the top of the island and as you come over the crest you see down below one of the most beautiful beach settings in the world.  I took a couple of pics for you from this elevated vantage point. 

 We pulled into Magen’s Bay to let our couple off.  This is a public beach if you can believe it and admission is only $4.00. I jumped out of the van to take a couple of quick pics.  It was so beautiful that I told Crystal (who had gotten a little too much sun the day before in St. Kitt’s) that I just had to come back for a while.  So while Crystal consoled herself with a little shopping when we got back after our tour, I changed into my bathing suite and took a cab back.

I can’t imagine ever finding a more perfect beach setting, even with the gorgeous beaches in Barbados.  The setting of Magen’s Bay is unique in that as you can hopefully see in the pics, how far inland the beach setting is from open sea.  The result is crystal clear blue water, warn and almost perfectly calm.

I think my favorite video clip for this cruise was the one at Magen bay where I was actually waist deep in the water looking back to the shore line.  If you ever visit St. Thomas, you must plan a few hours here to enjoy one of the Caribbean’s ultimate beach gems.

Day 9 and 10, At Sea, heading home to Ft. Lauderdale.

Well all good things must come to an end and we’re heading back to Ft. Lauderdale but we still have two days at sea to enjoy ourselves.  We got an invitation from Guest Relations last night for a coveted Bridge tour (thanks to Bryan Coates, our great Celebrity BDM).  We got 20 minutes on the bridge with the senior officers who explained what goes on in the bridge and the amazing array of technology that controls a ship 122,000 tonnes and 3 ½ football fields in length so precisely that she can inch her way into the tightest of port moorings.  They asked us not to take direct pictures of the instrumentation but I think I got a few good shots for you.

From there it was a nice lunch and then off to the pool area for some sun, live music and enjoying the day with cruise friends.  At this point in the cruise so many friendships have been made and you’re saying hi to people poolside like you’ve known them forever.

There’s something about cruising that seems to accelerate the friendship/bonding, time continuum thing (too much Star Trek speak?).  But we see email addresses and phone numbers being exchanged and people who never laid eyes on each other nine days ago,  talking about future cruises and destinations they’d like to see and making plans to hopefully meet up again with they’re new cruise friends. 

If it’s for you, as it is for Crystal and I, cruising gets in your blood.  We’ve talked to people that have well over 100 cruises under their belts and they can’t wait for the next cruise adventure.  We are cruise agents but we truly love to cruise and plan on seeing as much of the world as we can this way. 

Until our next cruise report,

Ric/Red Carpet Cruises

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