Great Being on the Equinox Again
Celebrity Equinox Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
11 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 23, 2019
Ship: Celebrity Equinox
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
Celebrity Equinox September 23, 2019 Ft. Lauderdale, St. Thomas, St. Croix. Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Maarten Number of Cruises – 27 Cruises on Celebrity – 6 Cruises on Equinox – 3 O.K. we love Celebrity and the Equinox. We figured we would have a rocky sea day heading south to St. Thomas due to passing tropical storm Karen, but it never grew to hurricane strength and stayed well east and north of us. Smooth sailing and sunny skies for 11 days. I doubt if I can add any original insights about the ports we visited, so I’ll relate some of the unique events occurring on our cruise. Docking at the Crown Bay pier, we were the only cruise ship in St. Thomas. The locals told us that we were the first ship to stop there in ten days due to weather concerns. I can’t ever remember being the only cruise ship in that port. The next day in St. Croix, my wife Joanne was relating this to a local shopkeeper and they told her they only see about twenty ships per year. In St. Lucia, the Navy’s hospital ship USNS Comfort was anchored a mile off our port of Castries. The US Navy took a 900=foot-long oil tanker and converted it to a hospital ship with 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms and loads of medical staff. The ship is on a five-month deployment to the Caribbean and all-day long, Navy Blackhawk helicopters ferried patients to and from the airport in Castries. All of the medical care provided to the locals is completely free to them and when the ship departs it leaves several tons of medical supplies with the local medical services. Yes, it’s all paid for with our tax dollars, but it gives me a warm feel-good vibe that our tax dollars are doing some good in this world. One of the Equinox’s bus tours on St. Lucia had a head on crash when another driver drove on the wrong side of the road. Apparently, the bus driver and the guide had to be taken to a local hospital and Celebrity brought 20 bruised and battered passengers to the Equinox’s medical facility on deck 2. For the ship’s medical staff, it was an all hands-on deck response and fortunately there were no serious injuries. One couple were so impressed with the ship’s response that they immediately booked another Celebrity cruise while aboard. So, I’m sitting in Café al Bacio on deck 5 at around noon overlooking the three-story atrium and suddenly a Christmas show breaks out. The ship’s dancers popped an 8-track into the player on deck 3 and rehearsed a 30-minute Christmas song and dance routine. There were no costumes and this was not on the daily ship’s planner but it was a wonderful surprise to have Christmas in September. Hint for future cruisers: the grand finale number is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas.” Perhaps this is just me, but I totally love seeing an electrical storm at night at sea. Sailing north to St. Maarten there was a storm that had to be 20 or 30 miles off our starboard side. We were in clear skies under a sliver of a new moon and every 20 seconds or so, the entire thunder storm looked like a giant flash bulb went off within it. There was no thunder due to the distance but you could see the storm soaring miles high. Good job Celebrity and mother nature. We had an unscheduled port stop in San Juan. Someone aboard had a medical emergency the night we left St. Maarten to head home. The Equinox was north of the Virgin Islands when It made a hard left to head for San Juan. We docked for five minutes at 5:15 a.m. to transfer a passenger to an ambulance on the pier and were off again. And no, passengers were not charged extra port fees for the stop. That day, the ship’s speed increased to 22.5 knots from 17 knots to make up lost time. Dining, crew, entertainment on the Equinox are all superb. We had two extra spectacular dining experiences at the Murano restaurant. Don’t miss it. We’ll be back, see you there. Austin Kearney Dunwoody, GA pepperdog@mindspring.comEmbarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Book a dinner in the Murano restaurant. It's fantastic.
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S.V.I.
Disembarkation
Traveler Photos
