Celebrity Equinox Review
Loved Our Celebrity Equinox Experience and Will Be Cruising Celebrity Again
Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity Equinox
AmazingAsheville
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s
Rating by category
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Value for Money
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Additional details
Sail Date: Mar 2014
Cabin: Concierge Class 2
THE CRUISE: Celebrity Equinox, 11-night Western Caribbean/Northern South America cruise from Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades) March 24 to April 4, 2014, with stops in Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Cartagena, Colombia; Colón, Panama; Limón, Costa Rica; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico, returning to Ft. Lauderdale. This was my second Celebrity cruise.
PRE-DEPARTURE: Before boarding the Equinox, we spent about a week in the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas attending Grapefruit League baseball spring training games. Go Braves! On the night before embarkation, we drove to Ft. Lauderdale and stayed at the Hampton Inn Ft. Lauderdale Las Olas on its “stay-and-cruise” plan. This downtown Hampton Inn is adequate for that purpose. We paid about $190 for the stay, which included one night’s stay with breakfast, parking in the hotel's adjacent garage for 12 nights plus transport via Ft. Lauderdale Shuttles to Port Everglades, which is about 10 or 15 minutes away depending on traffic and road construction. It did not include transport back to the hotel, but we bought the return transfer from the Ft. Lauderdale Shuttles desk in the hotel lobby for $10. Our experience with Ft. Lauderdale Shuttles was good. They were friendly, efficient and on time, with a kiosk right in the Hampton Inn. This company uses vans that seat 8 to 12, some with a small trailer behind for the luggage.
The room was standard-issue Hampton Inn, clean and comfortable. The location is nothing to rave about, with very little of interest within walking distance. But since we arrived late and left on the noon shuttle to the Celebrity Equinox (along with about a dozen other guests going to this or another ship), the location didn't bother us.
Cabin Review
Concierge Class 2
Cabin C2
Nearly all of the balcony staterooms on the Equinox are the same size and layout, with minor upscaling amenities for the more expensive cabins, such as Concierge and Aqua, but no extra space. Our Concierge stateroom had around 190 sq. ft. of space, plus a little over 50 sq. ft. of veranda. The cabin layout was thoughtfully planned, though there is hardly enough room between the end of the queen bed and the cabinets to walk through. The bathroom was small but adequate for our needs, with a glass-enclosed shower but no tub and only one washbasin. We enjoyed the balcony and usually had our breakfast served there. Furnishings were attractive and showed little wear and tear.
Port Reviews
Grand Cayman (Georgetown)
Georgetown, Grand Cayman, is much less hectic than many Caribbean ports, such at St. Maarten or St. Thomas. The Cayman Islands National Museum, near the waterfront, is in the oldest building in the Caymans. It’s low-key but well worth visiting – no need to pay for a tour.
Colon (Cristobal)
Colón, Panama, is a jumping off point for Panama Canal tours. Since we had previously spent a couple of weeks in Panama and had taken a rail/car tour between Panama City and Colón, we didn’t bother with a Canal tour. We just disembarked and walked around the little shopping area, looking for a brand of Panama-made hot sauce that we particularly like (we found it). Other than that, there’s little to see in and around Colón, and Colón itself can be dangerous.
Puerto Limon
Limón, Costa Rica, is dear to our hearts, as we visited it on the late, lamented “jungle train” from San José on my first visit to Costa Rica in 1982. At that time, the train from the capital to the funky little coastal town cost just US$2 and our hotel in Limon was $10 a night. Beers were 15 cents. Limón hasn’t changed much, though things cost more. There is still a sloth or two in the town park.
Belize City
Belize City, Belize, I know very well, as I’ve been banging around Belize for nearly 25 years and have written more than a dozen books on the country for Fodor’s, Moon/Avalon and other publishers. Unfortunately, Belize City is not a very good introduction to this wonderful little English-speaking piece of paradise on the Caribbean Coast. Tendering in, we just had drinks and lunch at the Radisson Fort George, run by an old acquaintance of mine, and walked around the harbor front and the Fort George colonial area. In its original iteration, the Fort George Hotel, which opened in 1953 after about four years of construction, was the first hotel of any consequence in all of what was then British Honduras.
Cozumel
Cozumel, Mexico, is one of those ports about which the less said the better. It has been taken over by the worst elements of the cruise ship industry. Often there are eight or ten megaships in port at one time. You can imagine what that does to even the best of towns. I didn’t even bother getting off the ship.
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