Bon Voyage!
The week before Thanksgiving, the Mr. P and I went on our first cruise. I've heard cruises can be a lot of fun but I wasn't down for a floating disney daycare or hanging out with the senior crowd (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Enter the Celebrity cruises which I randomly found on a website, i think, and their new line of ships starting with the Solstice. We happened to be on the Equinox's maiden carribbean voyage. A short 4 night cruise in the Aquaclass section to test the waters for Mr. P and I. and wow...Totally different look, totally hipper vibe, totally down.
Photos above by Thomas Mascardo. All other photos by me!
To sum it up: we were instant fans. I couldn't get over the much talked about 24-7 access to food. It was a difficult concept to wrap our heads around - you mean, I can eat this, this, AND this? and it's included? 24-7 room service? really??? Oh man, it didn't take long to get used to it!! If I didn't eat every 3 hours I was lost lol. The service was amazing literally from our room attendants to the pool service people to the waitstaff. Top notch!
My favorite story was as we were returning from our day-long excursion of scoping out possible wedding venues in riviera maya, the sun had set and the mosquitos descended upon the human population in massive numbers. Mr. P and I were practically running back to board our ship. Across from us was the Enchantment and a line of about 50 people waiting to board, smacking their necks, arms, and legs to dodge mosquitoes. They looked miserable. Us, on the other hand, no line (we had 2 check-ins to choose from) with a staff waiting on the dock with a tray of cold towels and juice cups. Way to live up to that celebrity name! If those looks from across the dock could kill lol....
Were we bored? NOPE! Besides the absolutely gorgeous gorgeous weather we were blessed with, we had tons of things to choose from: swimming, sitting in hot tub, classes, tastings, eating, scrapbooking classes, language classes, eating, wandering, ping pong, wii, shows, eating, boccee, chilling out, working out, salsa classes, watching movies, and oh yeah, eating...see? not bored!
It was a good good time so we're down to try a longer cruises. We spoke to a lot of "cruisers" and everybody was raving about the Equinox, and how it's the best one out yet. We sailed the same day as the titanic-like Oasis of the Seas, which also has that same look going but at a much larger scale (6000 passengers!) The Norweigien Epic is coming out in the summer of 2010 so we're gonna see if we can get on that. Excited for the next one! woo woo!
Photos above by Thomas Mascardo. All other photos by me!To sum it up: we were instant fans. I couldn't get over the much talked about 24-7 access to food. It was a difficult concept to wrap our heads around - you mean, I can eat this, this, AND this? and it's included? 24-7 room service? really??? Oh man, it didn't take long to get used to it!! If I didn't eat every 3 hours I was lost lol. The service was amazing literally from our room attendants to the pool service people to the waitstaff. Top notch!
My favorite story was as we were returning from our day-long excursion of scoping out possible wedding venues in riviera maya, the sun had set and the mosquitos descended upon the human population in massive numbers. Mr. P and I were practically running back to board our ship. Across from us was the Enchantment and a line of about 50 people waiting to board, smacking their necks, arms, and legs to dodge mosquitoes. They looked miserable. Us, on the other hand, no line (we had 2 check-ins to choose from) with a staff waiting on the dock with a tray of cold towels and juice cups. Way to live up to that celebrity name! If those looks from across the dock could kill lol....
Were we bored? NOPE! Besides the absolutely gorgeous gorgeous weather we were blessed with, we had tons of things to choose from: swimming, sitting in hot tub, classes, tastings, eating, scrapbooking classes, language classes, eating, wandering, ping pong, wii, shows, eating, boccee, chilling out, working out, salsa classes, watching movies, and oh yeah, eating...see? not bored!It was a good good time so we're down to try a longer cruises. We spoke to a lot of "cruisers" and everybody was raving about the Equinox, and how it's the best one out yet. We sailed the same day as the titanic-like Oasis of the Seas, which also has that same look going but at a much larger scale (6000 passengers!) The Norweigien Epic is coming out in the summer of 2010 so we're gonna see if we can get on that. Excited for the next one! woo woo!