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I don't have a whole lot of cruising experience but we were very satisfied with this trip.
We flew into Fort Lauderdale a day early to help avoid weather related delays. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport North Cruise Port. This hotel is not located at the marina, but they do have a free shuttle service from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the marina. We had to schedule the shuttle for the next day upon our arrival and then had to wait almost 40 minutes after our scheduled time for the shuttle to actually arrive to take us to the marina. One slight problem but I would stay there again!
The ship is monstrously huge. It is bigger than previous ships I was on but the design is very similar to the Celebrity Summit (sailed in 2011). It is a beautiful ship and everything was very easy to find. One issue is that this ship can carry more passengers than the Summit, but the pool area, etc is the same size as the Summit. Seems strange with carrying 800+ more passengers.
We enjoyed the entertainment on the ship and some acts were better than others but we enjoyed them all. The circus act was hands down the best act on the cruise though and Lemon Squeezy was awesome. It helped me seeing things through my 13 year old daughter's eyes and watching her fascination with the shows!
We didn't really partake in any of the other on ship activities as my daughter was not interested in going to the kid's club alone. There did seem to be a lack of activities for the kids, especially since this was a holiday cruise and there were a lot of families on board. I would suggest any families travelling on this ship to bring their own games, etc. so there is something to do when the ship is at sea. We had very cold weather when we first left Fort Lauderdale and were not able to use to pool so we had to search for things to keep us busy for those two days. The glass blowing exhibit was great but again it was outside and it just wasn't pleasant enough to see it the first two days.
The service was outstanding and we were pleased with all aspects of it. Our cabin steward was great. The only complaint I have about the cabin is the drawers and floor of the closet were filthy. Thankfully I saw it before my daughter started putting her things in the drawers. I wiped them out myself, but this should be spotless when someone comes on board. We had the select dining option (prepaid gratuities)and were very happy with this option. We usually showed up for dinner around 6 and it wasn't so busy then and we were seated by the window and got to witness some great sunsets. Our waiters, Alvarez and Marcos, were awesome and paid special attention to my 13 year old daughter's needs even bringing her Caesar salad after a few nights without the tomatoes because they noticed she picked them out of her salad each night. That, to me, is that extra bit of attention that makes for great service!
Overall we had a great trip and would sail again on the Equinox if I was travelling with other adults. If I travelled with my daughter, then I would probably select a cruise line that had more things for teenagers to do.
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