Saturday, January 21st, was an early start. We’d spent the previous week in Long Island at the “almost in-laws” place. They were in Africa whilst we stayed there but came home the same day we were leaving. This provided the perfect handover between them and us for ‘custody of the Coops’, aka looking after Cooper, our dog, whilst we were away.

The alarm went off at 3:45am. We’d packed the night before, so we just needed to put our final toiletries in the bags, let Cooper out for a very early morning commune with nature, and then get in the car. We drove to Flushing, Queens, where we left the car at the family’s parking lot and took an Uber for the final leg to JFK. As we dropped off our bags at Delta, we prayed that we wouldn’t have the same sort of pre-cruise experience that we’d had last time.

Thankfully, this time we were both feeling good – albeit a little tired from the early start – compared to 2022, when we both felt like death warmed up. After the obligatory overpriced breakfast in JFK we walked to our gate and had an incident-free flight to Fort Lauderdale.

After our previous trip’s disasters, we booked our flights and transport through Celebrity – if there were any issues, we’d be on their books and have some recourse to help us get to the ship, whatever issues befell us. The flight itself was straightforward, and we quickly deplaned and made our way through the absolutely packed airport to the transfer buses. This was our first experience of just how much cruise traffic passes through Florida – the concourse was just as busy as every other area we’d passed through, and it took a while to figure out where we needed to go.

After finding the Celebrity and Royal Caribbean transfer station, we began our wait. It seems that the company responsible for the logistics of this part was not very well organized, as after about an hour of waiting, we were still no closer to getting on the boat, and the crowd was growing. From what we could tell, they weren’t sending large enough buses to take the number of people that were waiting, and those smaller buses also weren’t arriving frequently enough.

Eventually, they figured it all out, and we found ourselves queuing for some time in the Floridian morning sun before finally boarding our bus to the cruise terminals.

The Celebrity Equinox was also in port, which gave us some happy nostalgia. We first sailed on the Equinox in 2017, two days after I’d moved to America. It kickstarted my interest in cruising, and began our ‘real’ relationship after a year of long distance. Here we were five and a half years later on another cruise, having just celebrated our engagement, and the Equinox was here to see us off. She looked resplendent in her new ‘revolutionized’ paint job, and we talked about how we should try sailing on her again to see what had changed in the refurb.

It had become ‘tradition’ on previous cruises for us to get a selfie on the gangway leading to the ship, but the one leading to Apex was fully enclosed and didn’t give us a good shot, so we waited until we’d gone aboard – and we were blown away. The entrance on Deck 6 was like a glass-fronted entrance to a high-end hotel and set the tone for what was to come.

After getting our selfie overlooking the Grand Foyer, we found our way to our stateroom and were once again blown away. You can read more about it in my previous post discussing the ship.

I was keen to get out of my jeans and into my shorts to ‘activate vacation mode’, but first, we went to find our friends Deb & Tom, the couple from our previous cruise. They’d gotten a table on the Magic Carpet (again, read more about it in the previous post), and after a heartfelt and happy hello, we settled down to enjoy the sun, the drinks, and the company.

After an hour or so on the Magic Carpet, the sun was getting a bit oppressive, so we found ourselves a cabana nearby, got ourselves a few more drinks, and whiled away the time until we finally cast off and started sailing off on our adventure. That signaled time to go and check our luggage, unpack, and make ourselves ready for dinner.

After learning more about the various packages from Deb & Tom on the previous cruise, we’d purchased a 4-night Premium Dining package ahead of time. This meant that we could book and eat in the premium restaurants for four nights and dine to our hearts’ content without incurring additional costs. Deb & Tom had done the same, and as they were on the boat several hours ahead of us, they had gone ahead and booked a night in each restaurant for the four of us. This is the best way to do it – you can always cancel a reservation at any time without incurring a penalty, but if you don’t get a booking placed early, you may find that all the good time slots have been used up. With shows in the evenings, none of us wanted to eat too late – though we did miss some things due to dinner throughout the trip.

The first night was for the Steakhouse, overlooking the Grand Foyer. I was mildly annoyed to be told that shorts weren’t allowed in the premium restaurants; then, after changing, I saw someone else seated next to us wearing shorts unchallenged, but it wasn’t a big deal. The food, as expected, was delicious.

After a delightful dinner, we turned in for an early night. By this point, we’d been up for too long and wanted to get a rest for the rest of the trip. It was a wonderful start to the cruise!