We are a group of four middle-aged Canadian couples who like to take a winter break. My DH and I are elite members and we have cruised mostly with Celebrity and once with RC. The two of us drove to Fort Lauderdale and stayed at the Fort Lauderdale La Quinta Inn ( Hollywood area)thanks to CC advise. It was a wonderful place ! For a $65 room, we got free parking for two weeks and a drive to the ship in the morning, the hotel was nice and located by a lake as a bonus. We got to the ship early but we had to wait 4 hours to embark because the previous cruise had norovirus on board so it had to be de-sanitized, the good news was that no case were detected on our cruise. We proceeded to the visit of the Equinox, it is a beautiful sparkling ship, the pool area has enough chairs, the buffet area with stations is interestingly different, the theater is beautiful and our inside stateroom was the nicest one we had ever seen: the bathroom is fairly large and the design of the stateroom makes it look larger and beautiful. Yes, there is not a lot of closet space but it is perfect for 2 people. Our stateroom attendant, Baka, was the nicest we had ever sen, always smiling and eager to grant all our wishes. It was the same in the dining room, Gusti and Albert seemed to love their jobs and they were always doing more than required. The service on Celebrity is just as good as always. The food is very good but to much on the verge of Nouvelle Cuisine, it looks beautiful but not always as tasty as it looks. In the MDR. which looks too modern for my taste, the food was very good but not excellent as it once was. The lobster dinner was a total failure, it did not have any taste at all. However we went to Silk Harvest one evening and it was exceptional, the only complaint is they offer you evian water or pellegrino ( regular water does not seem an option) to only add it to the bill, as we are already paying $25 each, Iwe all thought it was a cheap way of making a few bucks ! The buffet upstairs is okay, it does the job but not much more. We had a Brunch at sea in the MDR which was very nice and well attended. The activities on board were nice, spanish lessons, cultural talks, dancing lessons etc. The dancing music was exceptionaly good ( Treasures of the Caribbean) and the whole ship seemed to be dancing! The Celebrity orchestra and the singers and dancers were excellent, we were tired of always seeing the same old shows, these were really different and exciting. On the other hand the headliners were nothing to write home about except for one or two, no variety! They are usually much better ! We did enjoy Mario D'Andrea, he was the exception. Being elite members was a nice perk, free happy hour, a rose in the room, priority tender ( which was extended to our friends, that is class!), the only bad part were the free internet minutes, we got them but it was not worth the trouble we had with the attitude of the officer in charge.

This cruise had a nice mix of ports, beach days and cultural days and we really would recommend this itinerary : at the beginning I was not sure sonce I enjoy the Southern Caribbeans so much but we had no regrets, it was just as good and different !