Don told Cathi about the trip at Christmas time, complete with a song to the tune of "The 12 days of Christmas" and props for all 12 days. Patience was a very effective Vanna White! The cruise left Ft. Lauderdale on April 5th, so we had lots of time to plan and look forward to the cruise.
We met Cathi and Don on April 3rd and spent the 4th doing a bit of touring around Ft. Lauderdale and some pre-cruise shopping!
Then, on the 5th, we boarded the Equinox for a 10 night cruise! We'd sailed with Celebrity before, on the Millennium, but the Equinox is a "Solstice" class ship and much bigger.
We had our "bon voyage" cocktails in the Sky Lounge at the "pointy" end of the ship, then discovered that the Aqua Spa Cafe prepared wonderful grilled salmon and ahi tuna, so that was lunch!
We settled into our staterooms and then began relaxing to enjoy our next two days at sea before reaching St. Thomas. It was raining when we left Ft. Lauderdale and it was overcast for the first day at sea but as we entered the warm Caribbean waters the skies cleared and the temperatures climbed!
The two sea days were great, and then on the 3rd morning we awoke to find ourselves moored in St. Thomas! Right next to us was a huge Carnival ship - two floating cities!
We hadn't booked any shore excursions in St. Thomas, but walked into town, visited the Coast Guard station there, and then took a tour with a local guide who, for $25, took us all around the island! There were probably 8 or 10 of us in the van, and we got a great tour!
We also walked up to Black Beard's castle, which unfortunately was closed on Monday! But we climbed the 99 steps and enjoyed the grounds anyway.
We left St. Thomas for St. Kitts and woke up there on Tuesday morning. We went zip-lining in St. Kitts!! That had been on my bucket list for a long time and it was a blast! We spent the rest of the day exploring the area around the port, and that evening sailed for Barbados!
We booked a beach shore excursion in Barbados. We were taken to a lovely white sand beach with chaise lounges, umbrellas and rum drinks! The weather had continued to get warmer the further into the Caribbean we got so we were thankful for a cloud covering in Barbados.
Next, Dominica! It's a great little island with lots of exports and they don't rely on tourism the way that some of the other islands do. Our excursion in Dominica was to go kayaking. That was on Cathi's bucket list! We began the kayak trip on a river, going down-stream (good!) but then out into the sea and along the shore for awhile. We reversed the trip back down the beach to the beginning of the river. It was lots of fun, none of us fell out, and I was thankful for my life jacket! At the end of the paddle we had some local food and drinks before being taken back to the ship.
Our last port of call was St. Maarten - probably my favorite island! The highlight there was Maho Beach - the famous beach at the end of the runway of the airport! Cathi and I were not interested in getting "sand blasted", so we went shopping while Don and Lee made their way to Maho Beach. They had a great time and got some great shots of airplanes coming in and people clinging to the chain link fence to keep from getting blown away.
The next two days were very relaxing sea days. A perfect way to wind down a cruise and start planning the next one!
After we docked in Ft. Lauderdale we spent one night at the Embassy Suites there, then we all headed back home. But, the vacation remains! We're still all relaxed and enjoying remembering and reliving the cruise!
Don took this picture at Maho Beach, but it seemed the perfect way to start this post
Our embarkation photo!
The Celebrity Solstice
Bon Voyage! Cathi and Don with tropical drinks
Bon Voyage! Pat with a tropical drink and Lee with red wine
On deck 14 - the Carnival ship is coming up behind us
Cathi and Don, underway!
Our stateroom. We had an inside room, which was quite large, with plenty of room for everything
There's an acre of lawn on this ship!
Wine tasting on the lawn
Cathi and Don in St. Thomas at the Coast Guard station.
Pat and Lee with the CG boat
St. Thomas Post Office
Cathi and Don on the 99 steps to Black Beard's castle
and we're right behind them
Anyone recognize this pirate? He's Jack from the Pirates of the Caribbean
One of the city streets from the van on our local tour
One of the stops on our tour was at a shop that gave you a free taste of a banana smoothie. If you then bought a smoothie, you could add as much 151 rum as you wanted at no charge! We'd never seen that before! We shared a smoothie, with just a wee bit of rum in it.
The beach in St. Thomas
Zip-lining in St. Kitts! All geared up and ready to go!
Cathi and I on the practice run
And Don is ready to fly
Barbados with the ship in the background
This is the beach we went to in Barbados
It was a beautiful day - perfect day for a Caribbean beach
Cathi and Don - life is good!
Pat and Lee - life is good! Lee has his daily crossword puzzle! They printed out a crossword puzzle every morning on the ship
Beautiful Barbados
Barbados beach walk
Dominica! This is where we kayaked, but we had no camera, so no pictures...
Rum by the gallon anyone?
Don and Lee in Dominica. The guys went in search of Internet service in nearly every port. They were successful in every port, too!
Leaving Dominica
We wondered why there were people gathered on the helipad - then we realized that there was a marriage proposal going on. What a wonderful place to get engaged!
Rainbow over Dominica
St. Maarten!
Old town St. Maarten
At Maho beach - the surf board lists all the airplane arrivals and departures!
Maho Beach
And there's the runway! Complete with danger signs
US Airways landing
Air France A340
Some of the ships in St. Maarten. The one on the right is a Russian yacht that belongs to some billionaire.
The Equinox parked next to the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas
One of the formal nights
Ice sculpture at the brunch buffet
The brunch buffet with the wine storage area in the background
Inside the wine storage area with our wine somilier
Cathi and Don on the last formal night
Pat and Lee on the last formal night
One of the many lounges on the ship - hanging chairs!
Love this with Cathi in the background!
These guys took great care of us at dinner each night - our head waiter, Julio, from Honduras, our wine steward and Ilyas, our assistant waiter, from Turkey
What a great cruise! We hated to see it come to an end but there are more cruises in our future! We KNOW there are more cruises in Cathi and Don's futures - they already have two more booked!!
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