Valeria Out Loud

Hello my readers,

We are now onto our first full day aboard the Equinox, and it kicks off at sea. For those who have never been on a cruise, the at sea day is usually when they have the dressy dinner night (black tie). On the Equinox, may even be Celebrity wide, it is chic night, so they loosen up the dress code from strict black tie to cocktail attire. This lends to a better interpretation of dressy and it is nice to not lug around a gown or a bulky suit jacket for my husband.

And the best part is…fashion jeans are allowed!

Day at sea. Day two.

We woke up to a beautiful blue ocean out our balcony doors. I got up first, as usual, and took full advantage of the balcony before my crew woke up. The air was so warm and the view was sparkling magnificence.

As I was sitting there absorbing the sun, I noticed a weird blip of white flying out of the waves created by the ship. It looked like a rock skipping across the way. Obviously I thought I was seeing things. Every second or so when I’d turn away I’d see these flicks of white bounce across the water. Sometimes two or three then fifteen or more! So then, of course, I started intently watching the waves till I saw what was happening. THEY WERE FLYING FISH!! Every few seconds a school of them would shoot out off the water then dart across the sky till they landed farther away from the ship. It was amazing! I was entertained for like an hour watching them. (Later on I was explaining this to someone who befriended me on the boat and a passenger nearby who overheard me was happy that I brought it up. He thought he was going crazy on his balcony, too!)

My husband woke up next, went to grab us lattes and pastries to enjoy on the balcony as the kids continued to sleep. We did this almost every morning. I kept thinking of Johnny Cash’s quote to being asked what he thought paradise was like and he inferred his wife, ‘This morning, with her, drinking coffee.’ God how I love his reply.

Once the kids woke up we got ready to eat. Our first breakfast on board was in the main dining room on deck 3 for a sit down meal. It is only open until 9AM so we rushed to get ready as you can see from my basically makeup free face.

The dining room is really pretty; so sparkly and bright. I just liked it so much. We kicked off our breakfast with another round of coffees, which was sooooOooo good on this ship, and beautiful views out the window. The views really are spectacular of the ocean and sky going by. All that blue, in the sunshine, it’s beautiful. We ordered waffles, French toast, omelets and fruit. Which I forgot to snapshot as I was still morning minded.  I did however take a photo of the English bacon they gave my daughter by mistake. Basically, it is undercooked bacon.  BLECH

After breakfast we walked around the ship for more of the daylight views then jumped onto the back of the house kitchen tour last minute.  We were greeted with mimosas at the entry to the main dining room (kids received OJ!).  Then we were seated around the staircase where the chef and his staff would put on a five minute presentation before taking us all around.  The back of the house type of tours always fascinate me.  They filtered the group through the kitchen and spilled us out to the specialty dining area.  There was a floor with most of the specialty dining restaurants together.  This is where they displayed their offerings and talked to people about their packages.  We just took full advantage and walked around the restaurants and looking out their windows. Then we ran out to grab drinks up at the Oceanview outside.  This was the back of the boat.  It was a beautiful large deck around a bar.  We were all itching to go!

We grabbed a drink, sat a minute to take in the view, then realized the time! It was POOL TIME!  So off to race back to the room to get our suits on!  We spent hours at the pool.  We sunbathed, played volleyball, just swam, drank and people watched (which was my favorite sport of this trip). There are some real gems out there, guys!  The ship had seating everywhere, top deck, lower deck, and in every far reaching corner of each deck.  They had some lounge chairs, then patio chairs and couches too.  Super cute aesthetic all over.

We decided before hitting the pool that we would try to make it for chic night by 8:30PM, so I took off with my oldest to get ready while my husband and youngest hung out a little longer.  Remember..she is a fish.  This night though, I was set on getting ready in record timing.  It usually takes me an hour from showering to hair to makeup, and that is being quick!  haha This night however, I got ready in thirty minutes!  Before they got back from the pool!!  I couldn’t believe it myself!

My oldest daughter was not only shocked but she thought I looked like a model.  She kept saying that to me, it was pretty uplifting to hear.  🙂  She is my biggest cheerleader. I really appreciate the gift that she is in my life.

We got to the dining room to find a packed house!  We were seated at a new table with a new waitstaff, lead by Terrence.  I know everyone by name now because they became the faces I saw everywhere and by the end of our trip we became friendly. We ended up having a special dinner with this group but just something was missing.  It was IRFAN from the night before.  I swear, we talked about him with everyone because he just was that sweet of a guy.  As we walked out of the dining room we bumped into him and he shouted to us by name and asked us (with genuine care) about our evening and what we had, etc.  So kind.  So just note, from this night onward no matter when we walked into this dining room or what entrance, they sat us with Irfan at table 502.  I think he put a note in our file or something.

After dinner, which the time was about 10:30PM, my husband and I walked through the casino to see what the action looked like.  Things looked good. We played a few hands of black jack, which is our fav game, and then we planned on going back to catch up with our girls who took off to explore the stores.  Once we got out of there we decided it was time to walk around outside to get more of the tropical air.

We ended the night back at our rooms getting ready for our next day…but not before passing out to HGTV!  This was the trip of falling asleep to that channel. I don’t know if everyone does this stuff when they are away, sharing a room with their kids.  We settle down with a show then set the tv timer to whatever time and just let them zone out till it shuts off. BUT with HGTV on the boat we were binge watching Chip and Joanna or Property Brothers till the wee morning hours!  We may be crazy.

Looking back on this day, I would say it was the perfect mix of laziness and day drinking every one deserves.  🙂

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Next up… our first port stop, Puerto Rico!