SetU2

I am currently on the solstice and the Internet is absolutely terrible. Speeds are pre 1990s and it frequently disconnects devices. Can't even connect to my outlook server properly.

 

 

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Hmm, I was on the May 13 sailing and never disconnected once. Speeds were worse the further North but most often I was getting around 3mbps.

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Sorry for your losses.....

 

You have to get an item listing from X to make a claim against your travel insurance?

 

I would think that you make the list as to what was left and have X confirm that there were items left in the cabin and was thrown out as per regulation/policy.

 

As for calling you directly about it, I Am sure many, many, many people leave items on board after a sailing and to make calls on each one is a daunting task.

 

Had you realized it sooner, while in Seward, there may have been a possibility that something could have been done.

 

bon voyage

I've intentionally left things behind. I agree it would be tough to call and I wouldn't expect it, especially on the day they are disembarking/embarking some 5,000 guests.

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Fleet upgrade was to be completed by May 31st. I am just off Solstice and it was $140. Maybe Equinox was not yet upgraded.

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The website is showing the wrong price for Xcelerate, the new upgrade. For 9 day and under unlimited is $140 before any Captains Club discounts and 10+ day is $199 before discounts. There is indeed daily and hourly rates but I do not recall how much. I "think" they were $.99 a minute or $39 a day. This was not a promotional price, if you put into online shopping cart it will show correct price. See below.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=6927

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Why doesn't someone invent a dry, UV sanitizing chamber for cruise ships where you just thrust your hands into the machine and they're decontaminated against norovirus?

 

As this Johns Hopkins Medicine study found.

These are for decontamination of rooms and equipment. They would take way too long and are likely to burn human skin if used the time needed to kill germs and viruses.

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I know, it is difficult to understand, but I am addicted to table side muesli! Now coffee, I don't understand how people get so worked up about what brand it is or espresso, latte, mocha. Coffee is coffee (this should get some interesting responses).

 

 

 

The table side "show" and "freshness" make table side muesli a superior

product! Besides that, it is an exclusive Blu perk!

 

please folks, this is all tongue in cheek!

Lol, coffee troll.

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Classic will suffice

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Amen to that. SEA's lines have been running 2 hours in the AM and 2 hours in the PM. Midday, they aren't too bad. Nowhere near as bad as some of the things we have been seeing around the country. But I think coming home from Alaska I wouldn't think about booking a flight before 11:00 am. Noon would be even better.

By the way, we were at the airport well before out flight. We were both pre-check and scooted through TSA in about 3 minutes.

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Just had a question abut table side muesli. I did ask and was told I could get muesli but they no longer bring the cart and prepare it table side.

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I believe you can get it, but not table side.

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Blu rotates 14 menus so no sure-fire way to know what you will get. The 1st night and the Chic nights are usually consistent. Here is a link to my review which includes the menus from Blu from our May 13th cruise to Alaska. It is 7 nights and you would likely see sever or more of these. Live from Solstice - May 13th 2016. FYI; 2nd and 6th nights were Evening Chic.

Live from Solstice - May 13th 2016

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2355687&referrerid=0

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My experience was same as that of killsport. No real discount but lower deposit, $100 each, and $150 OBC. Transfer to TA for us an additional $260 OBC.

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On recent Solstice cruise they were 2 and 6. I was in Blu and the main proteins were Filet Mignon and Lobster.

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Just curious, everyone always blames web stuff on IT. In my experience website stuff is most often handled by PR/Marketing. I think that has been true in most corporations for a decade. Makes sense since, other than sites might be created or hosted on computers, they often are used for marketing or selling. Just like computers are used for accounting practices but if our bill gets screwed up we blame Accounting and not IT. Is it different with Celebrity?

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Just did this last week. You will go to the ship. We were also tendered and immediately got tender tickets our number was 35 and they had just called 5 and 6. Went to buffet for lunch and that just about took care of the wait.

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Ok, just got done mowing the lawn, cruise is definitely over. Only 272 days to go until next one. I'm really glad we went on this cruise and that we chose Aqua. Having booked this back in 2014 under the 123 Go promotion not long after this cruise was available, we ended up with what we feel was a good value. An Alaska cruise was always on our bucket list and it did not disappoint. This was our first Celebrity cruise and we are likely to continue with them for now. I'm not sure we'll ever get to Elite, although we might, but it doesn't matter. I liked Celebrity and will cruise them for that reason alone. Any future or current benefits are gravy.

Having now done Alaska, I don't see us going again. Other than the glaciers, I can see mostly the same sights simply going north for a long weekend. Being from Minnesota, winter cruises in warm climates are a welcome break. That is why we picked the Ultimate Caribbean on the Summit in February. I do realize this ship is smaller and think I might prefer it. Although, you don't really realize there are almost 3,000 passengers on the Solstice class ships.

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They do both dine-in and take out. There is also a "branch" in the Ocean View Cafe, as you enter, on the right side. You can grab a coffee on the way in or a server can take your sea pass and get it for you.

If you call what what they have I the Oceanview Cafe coffee.

I paid $8 something ...I'm thinking $8.75 for an Aspen Coffee two weeks ago on Connie

Hmm, on Solstice that whole page with Aspen Coffee, Cafe Diablo etc was $7.50. Or at least I'm almost certain it was. But I did drink a lot of them and maybe the buzz hasn't wound down yet.

I had Classic, not Classic Non Alcohol. Off course alcohol coffee drinks would not be included in a NA package. But the Classic Package , which was what OP asked about, includes everything on the menu. At least as of about 7:45 this morning.

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At the airport having just left the Solstice. Everything at Cafe Al Bacio is covered by Classic drink package. There was a premium coffee section, but those were covered too. Drink price on most expensive items was just 7.50.

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The train gives you both views as you also take the bus one on the highway. The views from the train side were better. One advantage to the car is you can stop along the way for views and pictures. Not many place to do that but at least it is your option.

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Here is our final daily. Once we get home I'll add some pics from the camera.

We saved our Champagne for tonight and we toast a very enjoyable cruise. For those of you following along, thanks. If you are sailing this ship during this season, I hope you have as much fun as we did. Bon voyage!

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Evidently there were a lot of sick people yesterday. We did have 25-30 mph winds and I knew we were swaying a bit but my wife and I were both fine. Today has been quieter and the sun was out. We just pulled into Victoria and my wife is ashore. I'll join later, I'm just getting our airline seats etc. Today was really the first day that it seemed like there were almost 3000 passengers on board. The rest of the cruise you could believe, especially with Blu as your dining room, that was just a small fraction of that. Here is tonight's Blu menu.

We won't be eating there and will instead have fish and chips in town. Then that crappy packing, knowing that our wonderful adventure is coming to an abrupt end. Especially with flying the same day. You go from a very pampered environment to the joys of airline travel with like what, 8" seats and personable and friendly TSA. As always, the worst part of a cruise.

We will breakfast in Blu then we meet in Quasar for our tour. At least we avoid most of the disembarkation lines and hassles that way. I'll post the final daily in a little bit.

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We had rain most of yesterday and also about half of our time in Skagway. The rain in Skagway was more of a mist. Actually, we felt pretty fortunate with the weather. There are not very many kids aboard at all.

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So the ship has been updated to Xcelerate. The unlimited cost for the Seattle RT cruises in Alaska will be $140. The WiFi connection itself on the ship was really quite good. I know somebody will tell you it was terrible but let's not forget, it is a wireless signal ad there could be pockets that are bad and, it could just be that persons computer too. I replaced the DNS provided by the Celebrity routers with others I prefer to use. One is a private server I use ad the other a for fee server I use for my clients. The speeds I observed for the Internet itself, and I tested several dozen times, showed some patterns that I think I can explain. The ping times generally stayed in the 600-900 millisecond range. No surprise there for satellite connections. The speed ranged .36mbps to 11.15mbps for downloads and from .34mbps to 15.93mbps upload speed. The better speeds were on the first couple of days and just no improving as we get nearer to Victoria again. I can't pinpoint the latitude at which the Internet seemed to have gotten worse/better but I'd estimate it to be around 50-52 degrees north.

North of that you could still get some good connections but they would often be more like in the 4mbps range and were, as always, dependent on other traffic. The good part about this was when north of that you are visiting ports and Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway all have good cellular service. Once we went into the glacial arms, Internet access was dead so expect that.

Peak times were tough to pinpoint but seemed much worse on the 2nd full sea day. Early this morning, I was able to get 3.11mbps but most of the day it has been around 35-55mbs. Usable but agonizingly slow to get work done. Ok for email without attachments. I suspect the sea days are worse because of the streaming of videos. The first is better because you are further south. I suppose they could just have sold more internet packages too, but I'd bet money on much of the performance being from the way it's used.

Overall, I was able to get some work done, more than enough to cover the cost of the Internet. If you are willing to use it in off hours it really isn't terrible. I would however classify it as Not Yet Ready for Primetime!