Settling into our home (literally) on the ocean

Fourteen days. That was the upside or the downside – depending on just how well our first cruise went. First impression? We steeled ourselves to face a crowd and long lines at check-in, but, within fifteen minutes of arrival dockside, we were whisked through and found ourselves with champagne glasses in our hands in the ship’s lounge. That was unexpectedly good.

The Celebrity Equinox, docked in Barcelona

Champagne at 11am

The rooms were still being readied for the passengers, so we wandered around the ship trying to discover all the places we’d want to spend time (or avoid) during our cruise.

We loved the little seating areas and most days would have our breakfast at one of these tables.

We played our first of many games of bag toss.

We planned to head up to the lawn for a game or two of bocce every afternoon.

The fitness center appealed to us as well as the Solarium, a warm enclosed area with pool and hot tubs. The library was a big disappointment, with very few books and nothing of interest. How did we miss that casinos and specialty stores took up so much space on lower decks? We knew we’d avoid them.

We came up to the Oceanview Café – Deck 14 – at lunchtime. Guests wandered the serving islands and grazed the choices. For the most part the food quality, serving sizes, and healthful choices were better than we expected. For travelers like us who’d been away from home for a long time, the ship offered foods we’d not had for some time. How yummy to have a baked potato with dinner, Mexican food for lunch, and sushi for a late afternoon snack?

When we booked the repositioning cruise, we chose a room in the least expensive category – an inside stateroom with no window. We figured we’d be out of the room a lot so we’d make do. We held our breaths as we unlocked our stateroom for the first time. Our room turned out to be much larger and nicer than we’d expected – a great place to call home for 2 weeks.

First impressions moved the Celebrity Equinox up a notch in our estimations, but we still had 13 more days to cruise. The test had just begun.

 

November 2014