Celebrity Equinox - January 2017 - "Free" 7 night Cruise from Foxwoods!

[CTslotters]

Hi all!
I'll be doing this in a few posts since we have a ton of pictures!
We didn't waste any time booking our "free" cruise that Foxwoods was kind enough to offer us a couple months ago. We booked the Jan 2nd sailing of the Celebrity Equinox sailing out of Fort Lauderdale! We flew into Florida very early on the 1st and decided to rent a car for the day and explore. We booked the flight using Southwest points and the direct flight was an 8 AM, yikes!
All the hotels around the port area the night of the first were crazy expensive and since this trip wasn't costing us anything yet, we booked the Marriott in Boca Raton for under $100. It's only a half hour drive and we enjoyed checking out A1A (beachfront avenue!).
We went to awesome dinner at Lemongrass Hot Pot. (pics to come later). You order a broth and cook the food yourself with the proteins you collect from the station while veggies, dumplings and noodles in bowls to grab go by on a conveyor belt. So fun! And so tasty!
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The next morning we dropped off our car and took Uber to the cruise port. It was a hot humid day and we loved it! We were on the ship and enjoying lunch by 12:30pm and in our room shortly thereafter. Our offer was for an oceanview room but the upgrade to a balcony was minimal. We loved our room and spent a ton of time on our balcony enjoying the sun and views!
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Day one we set sail from Ft. Lauderdale. We are trying to drink less alcohol in the new year so we did not opt for the unlimited drink package, but did take a cue from Georgiagambler and invest in some Rum Runner flasks to enjoy some cocktails on our balcony! :) Thanks GG for the recommendation and Laurie and foamy for the Yeti cups that kept our drinks cold (those have gotten tons of use, now in multiple states and countries, HHH!!!)
More to come...
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[TwoArmedBandito]

I can't wait to see more pics of your vacation.

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[Laurie]

Glad you are using them! Good start and great pics look forward to the rest!!


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[CTslotters]

Night One: We explored the ship, unpacked a bit, and got ready for the evening's show and dinner.
The show was a comedian that was TERRIBLE!!! He was from New Jersey and Adam actually thinks we may have also walked out of his show at the Borgata, LOL! We decided to venture to the casino where I picked up my card with a sticker that allowed me free drinks in the casino (yay, thanks again Foxwoods! I guess I can get free drinks on the ship without the drink package.) I tipped with cash and the bartenders were great and always gave me very heavy pours of Cabernet (since Adam and I were sharing one glass since he didn't have a stickered card).
The casino was small (or smaller than I'm used to given the size of the CT and AC casinos we frequent and never having been on a ship with a casino). The game selection was not to our liking, tons of boring old games and the bright 5 reel games, some reels, old IGTs, and a few newer Bally Games. We went to the casino maybe 4 of the 7 nights and spent maybe an hour or so there each time.
Adam won off the first $20 he put in and played off those winnings (going up to $100, losing most of it, hitting a bonus to get it back, etc) the entire trip except for the last night where he finally lost his entire tito and put more money in the machines. I on the other hand, lost on every machine I put money into. It was pitiful and since we didn't like the game selection, and knew we wouldn't earn anything with play, we didn't feel obligated to play and preferred to save our bankroll for future trips.
Our tablemates at dinner were great! We've lucked out on every cruise having great company at the seated dinners. It made the dinners so much more enjoyable!
Day Two was a Sea day and we spent most of it soaking up sun by the pool, sitting on our balcony getting sun, and watching people play silly pool games. It was great!!
Here is the sunset from our balcony!
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I think we skipped this night's show and overall, the shows were fairly bad. There was one that we really enjoyed, it was also a comedian that juggled axes and was hysterical. (He participated in some of the nightly game shows and such as well).
Day 3: Labadee, Hispaniola (Haiti)
This place was AWESOME!! The beach was amazing and we spent the entire day enjoying the sun and ocean!
View of Labadee from our balcony and my view from my beach chair, just beautiful!
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To be continued...

[Elf70]

Great report so far! Looking forward to more.

[CTslotters]

Day 4: Jamaica
We've stopped at Jamaica on prior cruises and didn't care for the port so we stayed on the ship most of the day. It was great to have an empty ship.
This was our view from the hot tub.
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And our view from the lounge chair.
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And our drinks from when we got off the boat.
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Bye, Jamaica!
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Next up: Grand Cayman! Yay for excursions!!

[CTslotters]

We decided to book a catamaran and snorkeling excursion in Grand Cayman, on all other cruises, we have had this excursion cancelled b/c we had to change our port days in GC since it requires tender service to get to port and our days in port were switched. Not this time, the weather forecast was sunny and 80s! Yay!!
We sailed to two separate snorkel spots.
The first is the site of a sunken WW2 ship (they sunk it on purpose a few years ago), and the second is a coral reef. There were tons of fish and the water was so clear, highly recommend water activities in Grand Cayman!
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Sea Urchin, they were huge! Sushi restaurants should dive there to get their goods, LOL!
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[MNvegasgal]

This trip looks perfect. Weather is beautiful (an way better than what you left back home). Did you try and exotic food on the cruise?

[sassycat]

What beautiful scenery! Thanks for sharing your cruise with us
Look forward to the rest of your trip


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[Evoni]

Great photos, I love going on cruises!

[CTslotters]

Our adventures in Grand Cayman continued after our excursion. We decided to walk around town and grab a couple of local beers. We noticed a huge school of tarpon along the shore and Adam decided to get up close to them with our underwater camera. Apparently, you don't even need to pay for an excursion to see fish up close in GC.
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What I did while Adam chased fish.
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We have neat underwater video of the tarpon but have to post elsewhere and link to it. Will try to add later. At one point, a 3 and a half foot fish comes right at the camera!
No video of this epic moment, LOL!
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Until next time, Grand Cayman! Next stop, Cozumel! With more excursions!!

[clemi]

Love your cruise TR and photos, what a fun time!

[CTslotters]

Cozumel, Mexico
We have done snorkeling and dune buggy excursions in Cozumel before so we wanted to try something different - a cooking class and beach day at Playa Mia.
We highly recommend this excursion, it was so much fun, the food was SO tasty, the booze were unlimited and flowing freely, and the staff was great!
They actually teach you how to make a full three course meal. (All while serving you anything you want to drink, beers, sodas, margaritas, daiquiris, etc). Not sure how safe it is to serve everyone unlimited booze around open flames but everyone stayed safe.
The food was awesome! First course was a shrimp sopes appetizer, main was grouper with a veggie tamarind sauce (this was incredible, the fish was SO fresh!), and sautéed plantains with chocolate tequila sauce for dessert. We each made our own plates, and then ate our own food, so if we hated it, we just had ourselves to blame, LOL!
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An iguana for TwoArmedBandito!
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The beach was beautiful and the water had a ton of fun toys to use (given our drunken state, we did not partake in the water toys, HHH).
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Our drinking continued once we were back at the port!
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There was a frog statue with a boner!
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He must have gone shopping here! HHH!
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Up next...final thoughts.

[Georgiagambler]

Looks like you had a great trip and a wonderful time. I have to figure out where I'm going to use my Princess cruise voucher. I'm glad you were able to use the rum runner flasks they definitely saved us some money


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[CPT]

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When in Mexico you can get your Estrogen, snacks, and soft drinks in one location!

[CTslotters]

Adios, Mexico!
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About a half hour after we got back to the ship from Cozumel, the skies opened up!
It began to downpour and the wind kicked up. Until this point, we had amazing weather and calm seas, that was changing that night. The air turned cold and the water turned rough.

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The seas were rockin' and rollin' that night and Adam did not like it. He skipped the late night "game show" that I went to with our dinner mates. We actually hung out with them at a few shows and one couple participated in a hysterical game. They had just gotten married in Vegas before the new year and this was their continuing honeymoon.
Our final day was an at sea day but with the terrible weather and rockiness of the boat, coupled with our sheer exhaustion at this point, we just hung out in our room and on our balcony for most of the day and packed up our luggage. We went for a final try at the casino our last night and proceeded to make the most of my drink sticker with lots of wine and Heineken. One bartender even asked where we've been the last few days and why we hadn't been around, LOL! If the casino paid us or had games we liked, we would have spent more time there.

Overall, the trip was fantastic, the weather was phenomenal up until the end, the room and balcony were great, and the ship was beautiful!
The food in the evening dining room was pretty good but unimaginative. Admittedly, we tend to be hard to please when dining out. The buffet food was actually very good with lots of choices and a great Indian food station. They also had afternoon tea with little sandwiches, scones, etc. It was so cute! Our dinner mates definitely made our nightly dining more enjoyable!
The staff at the bars are very nice, the martini bar bartenders even put on shows with their drink making.

For our first Celebrity cruise, it was fantastic! If anyone has any questions, let us know and thanks for reading! :)

[CTslotters]

I can't wait to see more pics of your vacation.

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We took so many! Having an underwater camera sure comes in handy!


Glad you are using them! Good start and great pics look forward to the rest!!


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They are awesome! :) We love them!


Great report so far! Looking forward to more.

Thanks Elf! Glad you're enjoying it!


This trip looks perfect. Weather is beautiful (an way better than what you left back home). Did you try and exotic food on the cruise?
It was so nice to leave 20 degree weather and land in 80 degrees! We didn't try anything exotic (we tend to eat pretty exotic at home, LOL!) but they did have escargot, some carpaccio and ceviche dishes, some beef cheeks (yum!) that I think might be considered uncommon. It was all pretty good, but fairly basic preparations. Believe it or not, we think the food on Disney Cruise ships is much better and more upscale and adventurous!


What beautiful scenery! Thanks for sharing your cruise with us
Look forward to the rest of your trip


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Thanks sassycat! Always happy to have something to share since everyone else has shared so many great trip reports on here!


Great photos, I love going on cruises!

Thanks Diana! We had a wonderful time! :)


Love your cruise TR and photos, what a fun time!
Thanks clemi! It was great to getaway from the cold for a little while!


Looks like you had a great trip and a wonderful time. I have to figure out where I'm going to use my Princess cruise voucher. I'm glad you were able to use the rum runner flasks they definitely saved us some money


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They saved us a ton of money, and actually kept us from drinking a ton which we would have if we had the drink package b/c we would have been chasing more drinks to get the most use out of it. With the two bottles of champagne we carried onto the ship, the flasks and the casino drink card, we had plenty of booze!
Have fun planning your next Princess Cruise! If you hit up any of the same ports we did, we recommend the excursions we went on, they were so fun! :)


When in Mexico you can get your Estrogen, snacks, and soft drinks in one location!
It's Mexico's CVS! I don't think they have coupons CPT!

[Laurie]

Love all the pictures! Balcony rooms are the best! The cooking class sounds like fun! Glad you had a great cruise :)


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[Nhcris]

What a fabulous report! I am so glad you had a great time. Your pictures are exceptional and really show off the ports. I really love that one of Adam at the shipwreck, and the one of you after snorkeling with your hair braided drinking a beer. You guys are just the cutest!

Like you, I loved Labadee, and Grand Cayman and Cozumel are fantastic. Jamaica (was it Falmouth?) not so much. Your Cozumel cooking excursion is now on my must do list for next time I am there. Cooking, drinking and the beach - that's Heaven right?

Thanks for taking the time to share!

[TwoArmedBandito]

I gwanna see more lizard pics! Hhh!

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[Slot Frenzy]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us--great pics!

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[Darlene]

It looks like you had a wonderful time. Great pictures.

[1745box]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing!

[Suze1000]

Thanks for your post CTslotters. We have a trip to the Cayman Islands booked for June. Your pictures were just what I needed to snap me out of these winter blues.

[DK528]

What a wonderful trip you had, Kathy and Adam! Makes me want to take a cruise even though I probably can't because I'm a weakling when it comes to seasickness. Glad you made the most out of the free cruise!


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[Mimi]

Looked like an amazing cruise. The cooking lesson sounds like a blast! Have always wanted to cruise on Celebrity. Really surprised the dinners weren't all that good. Do they have other restaurants you can eat at? Being a foodie also, not one who likes buffets all that much.

[sondor]

Glad you had a good time...been a long time since we took a Cruise

[Penguin]

Looks like a fun trip.

[FL Mary]

Thanks for the report and pictures! I'm glad you had a good time. I want to do your itinerary one day. I love cruising and my next cruise is coming up in two weeks, from San Fran to Hawaii!

[RiverSong]

WOW...what great photos, thank you!

[Curlyd]

Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures. The water in Grand Cayman is so crystal clear. I loved our cruises to the Caribbean and Southern Caribbean. We cruised RCL and Celebrity (our favorite of the two). I love the water and love to snorkel. But I must admit I can go under the water with my snorkel mouth piece, I tend to swallow water! I did do the Snuba in Aruba which was fun using a regulator attached to the tanks sitting in the boat on top of the water. You only go down about 30 feet but it worked for me. How I wish we could do this again but as we can't thank you so much for sharing.

[emmas]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. The two of you look like you were having a blast.

[CTslotters]

Love all the pictures! Balcony rooms are the best! The cooking class sounds like fun! Glad you had a great cruise :)


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Thanks Laurie! We were SO happy we upgraded to the balcony! Spent so much time out there!


What a fabulous report! I am so glad you had a great time. Your pictures are exceptional and really show off the ports. I really love that one of Adam at the shipwreck, and the one of you after snorkeling with your hair braided drinking a beer. You guys are just the cutest!

Like you, I loved Labadee, and Grand Cayman and Cozumel are fantastic. Jamaica (was it Falmouth?) not so much. Your Cozumel cooking excursion is now on my must do list for next time I am there. Cooking, drinking and the beach - that's Heaven right?

Thanks for taking the time to share!

Thanks Chris! We definitely have similar taste! The cooking class/beach was outstanding, you'll love it on your next cruise that stops at Cozumel! I can't wait to hear about your Hawaii trip so we can dream about going back there ourselves!


I gwanna see more lizard pics! Hhh!

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You crack me up TAB!


Thanks for sharing your cruise with us--great pics!

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Thanks, glad you liked it!


It looks like you had a wonderful time. Great pictures.
It was wonderful, thanks Darlene!


Great pics. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Happy to share!


Thanks for your post CTslotters. We have a trip to the Cayman Islands booked for June. Your pictures were just what I needed to snap me out of these winter blues.
Glad we could break up the winter blues, Suze! Hope you have a great time in June, it's such a beautiful place!


What a wonderful trip you had, Kathy and Adam! Makes me want to take a cruise even though I probably can't because I'm a weakling when it comes to seasickness. Glad you made the most out of the free cruise!


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Thanks Dina! I think you can do it if you take a pill daily! Believe it or not, Adam isn't great with waves (ironic since we boat and fish!), but he just takes meclizine daily on the rougher days and is ok.

[CTslotters]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. The two of you look like you were having a blast.
Thanks Emmas! We did!


Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures. The water in Grand Cayman is so crystal clear. I loved our cruises to the Caribbean and Southern Caribbean. We cruised RCL and Celebrity (our favorite of the two). I love the water and love to snorkel. But I must admit I can go under the water with my snorkel mouth piece, I tend to swallow water! I did do the Snuba in Aruba which was fun using a regulator attached to the tanks sitting in the boat on top of the water. You only go down about 30 feet but it worked for me. How I wish we could do this again but as we can't thank you so much for sharing.
Glad it brought back fun memories of your past cruises! We've never done snuba but will consider it for a future trip, we love trying new things! And you sure still have adventures with driving trips across the country! :)


Looked like an amazing cruise. The cooking lesson sounds like a blast! Have always wanted to cruise on Celebrity. Really surprised the dinners weren't all that good. Do they have other restaurants you can eat at? Being a foodie also, not one who likes buffets all that much.
Lol, everyone we talked to actually said it was the best food of any cruise line (no one else had done Disney though!). I just don't think it was themed well or creative (typically a protein, veggie, and mashed potato...boring!). Would have loved a risotto, or interesting veggie preparation. They had 3 specialty restaurants, the sushi place was NOT recommended by our table mates, and the other two didn't have menus that excited us (rustic Italian which I cook at home) and I don't remember the other one. So we weren't inclined to leave fun conversation with our table mates in favor of potentially having better food. :)


Glad you had a good time...been a long time since we took a Cruise
Venture out and do it! Aruba was a fun change, maybe a cruise next year for you two!?


Looks like a fun trip.
Thanks mr penguin! It was!


Thanks for the report and pictures! I'm glad you had a good time. I want to do your itinerary one day. I love cruising and my next cruise is coming up in two weeks, from San Fran to Hawaii!
I recommend it! A stop at Labadee, Haiti had us worried but it was fabulous! Enjoy San Fran to Hawaii, we love both those places and hope to make it back there at some point!


WOW...what great photos, thank you!
You're very welcome, Cass! :)

[Curlyd]

Glad it brought back fun memories of your past cruises! We've never done snuba but will consider it for a future trip, we love trying new things! And you sure still have adventures with driving trips across the country! :)




Truthfully the Snuba in Aruba while fun wasn't that interesting. The area where they take you is at DePalm Island and very bare. I had more fun snorkeling off of other islands. We snorkeled with giant turtles in Barbados, with sting ray's in Grand Cayman, in a beautiful cove in BVI. I would have done more but Bill wasn't the best in the water, so Soggy Bottom Dollar Bar was good for him. But who knows maybe someday I will get back out there. I'm only sorry we couldn't do it while we were younger. No money! Oh well I live vicariously through our son and dil who are scuba certified and did the Great Barrier Reef on a 3 night trip. And through your beautiful pictures. Thanks again for sharing.

[dvandentop]

Thanks so much for sharing looks like an awesome time we decided while in Bahamas definitely need to take advantage of a free offered cruise sometime this year.

Looks like a great time and can't hurt the non pressure to play.

[SME]

Looks like you had a great trip and so happy the weather cooperated for most of it! Thx for sharing the pics

[Kimsa70]

Looks like you guys had an awesome time. Thanks for sharing your adventures. I've never been on a cruise, but your trip makes me want to go on one!

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[CTslotters]

Thanks so much for sharing looks like an awesome time we decided while in Bahamas definitely need to take advantage of a free offered cruise sometime this year.

Looks like a great time and can't hurt the non pressure to play.

You two should definitely take advantage of it, and upgrade to a balcony if the offer doesn't include it! It was a great time!


Looks like you had a great trip and so happy the weather cooperated for most of it! Thx for sharing the pics
Hi Stef!! We did luck out with weather when it mattered most, lol! Hope you are feeling well! How's the little joker in the oven, HHH?


Looks like you guys had an awesome time. Thanks for sharing your adventures. I've never been on a cruise, but your trip makes me want to go on one!

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Kim, it was great! I definitely think you should take up Foxwoods on the offer if they do the free cruises again. :)

[SME]

Hi Stef!! We did luck out with weather when it mattered most, lol! Hope you are feeling well! How's the little joker in the oven, HHH?



She is doing great, loving life and kicking the heck out of me! I am finally feeling good too hhh :) Jer and I are trying to plan a weekend jaunt to fox's in February, thinking about the 10th. I'll let you know if we do go on the off chance you guys are around :) Say hi to Adam!

[clemi]

She is doing great, loving life and kicking the heck out of me! I am finally feeling good too hhh :) Jer and I are trying to plan a weekend jaunt to fox's in February, thinking about the 10th. I'll let you know if we do go on the off chance you guys are around :) Say hi to Adam!

Congratulations on your mini Joker SME! When are you due?

[Luckylinda123]

Great report just got time to read it. Thanks for writing it and all the pictures were amazing. You had some fun adventures

[SME]

Congratulations on your mini Joker SME! When are you due?

Thanks clemi! She is due in June. ☺️️

[CTslotters]

Great report just got time to read it. Thanks for writing it and all the pictures were amazing. You had some fun adventures
Thanks Linda! :) Looking at the snow out my window I wish we were back there, lol!
SME, so happy to hear she's doing great! Yay! Do let us know if you go, we are on the waitlist for a junket to Beau Rivage that weekend so I'm sure if we don't get on that, we might make a trip down there! Would be great to see you both! :)

[zeus]

I am so happy you two got to enjoy the warmth of the sun during the wintertime! It seemed like a great trip with some great ports. And all with great winter tans. Thanks for sharing everything with us!

[tee2green]

Congrats on your pregnancy SME! Loved hearing about your trip Kathy and Adam, you guys always have a great time no matter what you do!

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[foamy]

She is doing great, loving life and kicking the heck out of me! I am finally feeling good too hhh :) Jer and I are trying to plan a weekend jaunt to fox's in February, thinking about the 10th. I'll let you know if we do go on the off chance you guys are around :) Say hi to Adam!

That's wonderful you will be a great Mother.

[Joangca]

Great report and pictures, thanks for reminding me there are other vacations than casino trips.

[BorgataLady]

Wow! what an awesome cruise that was. The photos were fantastic! I enjoy the report so much so it felt like I was there.