greatestvalue

I just started looking at booking an MSC cruise. Ive been told by a TA that MSC doesnt partner with American Express therefore, doesnt receive Amex Cruise Benefits. Has this been others' experience as well?

The Joy doesnt have an Adults Only pool or H20 space?

Just out of curiosity, how did this forum become about Mr Bruno & the Luminae. Who hacked my thread about the shape of the Solstice instead of starting thier own thread and debate on Mr Bruno? Where did the etiquette of not hacking another person's thread disappear too...lol just saying ...🤔

My hope is they get everything in ship shape by the sailing before, as that is the one Im on and looking at the price difference between the 2, didnt find the Presidents Cruise appealing enticing enough to make the change.

We too are on the West Coast. Trying our first FL cruise this year, then Panama Canal in January out of Miami.

@Northern Aurora- I cant thank you enough for taking the time and energy to not only post but to look at the question from an objective perspective. Your comments and care for being accurate are extremely helpful. Truly appreciate you responding and helping DH & me feel awesome that we are steering others that will be cruising with us in the right direction and about booking our 1st (wont be the last) Alaska cruise. - Thank you!

If I hadn't had my own experience with another ship in the same shape as described for the Solstice in the reviews, I wouldnt have asked the question. As I agree with you. Without some of your own experience you could very easily listen to negative. Not the case here. Since we did have our own personal experience I'd rather ask the question before I spend our money on something that doesn't fit our preferences.

If you dont mind, how is the entertainment compared to other lines if you have any to compare to?

I do agree with this and thank you for pointing this out. What didnt work for us on our last cruise which was on a ship sounding like the shape of this one, coupled with the lack of entertainment. (this wasnt on Celebrity, it was on RCL Voyager) We are blessed to be transitioning into retirement, so trying to find our sweet spot for ship type, entertainment, food and learning how we best like to travel.

Thank you so much for posting this and for sharing in my question about the shape of the Solstice. I went looking to do my research after you mentioned this and Im very confused. I found this https://www.celebritycruises.com/specialty-cruises/presidents-cruise and it talks on the front page about being in Alaska but when you watch the webinar toward the bottom, they are saying in the webinar it is in the Greek Islands & Malta. Any idea whats going on or can you post the email, I didnt see it in my emails probably because I have not sailed with Celebrity yet.

Ive booked a cruise on Solstice to Alaska, end of May 2023 and I am now hesitant after reading the shape of the ship. I dont believe it is scheduled to go in for any kind of major rehabilitation before our trip. We just got of the Voyager and determined we didnt like the ship for some of the same reasons listed below - Specially review #1 Can anyone on the Solstice now or within the last month, confirm if this honestly is the true state of the Solstice Ship? - Review #1 - The Solstice is showing its age, as the furniture in the public areas is worn, several pieces of equipment in the gym were broken, numerous window seals were broken, and the windows were streaked and full of condensation. Review #2 - Carpets were frayed and dated, furniture in lobbies were stained very dated and worn, menus for the main dinning room very severely frayed and worn, some menus had food stains.

Thank you for sharing this piece. I will be sure to look them up and to make sure to read the T & S, ensuring this is in there. If so, they have my business.

If you wouldnt mind sharing, did you find excellent value for the price you were charged? How much should I expect it to cost?

Did you end up doing this? We are looking at Tour By Locals as well. I will be an 83 year old friend, so alot of the walking is out of the question. Thanks

Is this Feb 24 2023 or February 2024? Im seeing the Bliss leave Feb 25 2023 for a 15 day. Is that the one you mention?

The Copenhagen Card worked like a charm for transportation and admission to both of these attractions. And both are not to be missed, IMHO.

This is pretty much how it worked on Voyager Aug 28.

We have a 17 day TA booked, next year, on the Jewel. We just got off the Voyager and found the entertainment didn't cut it for us. So we are concerned with the Jewel even smaller, we will be bored with the entertainment. Our comparison is somewhat unfair bcuz we are comparing it to the excellently executed Broadway type shows on NCL Bliss. The other thing is we found, the Voyager to be in need of help. It was rusting, peeling paint, filthy windows in the solarium. The lack of places or 1 wow place to hang out, also didn't work so well for us. Other areas were clean, neat and we'll taken care of. Perfectly clean windows in Chops. Food was good in all places. Had good views. The itinerary includes Iceland, Greenland & Canada which will all be great. And I can't imagine we will get another TA at this price. This is one of the ones that we were allowed to switch too, bcuz Royal swapped out the ship from, the Voyager. If it was still on the Voyager, we probably would cancel. But wonder if we should cancel the TA with it being so long, and most likely lacking the type of entertainment we prefer?

If you have great ports than the destination will be the ports, not the ship. We just got off the Voyager. Your concerns are valid. The ship needs help it's looking old & for us the entertainment just didn't cut it. So the ship was not the destination for us. The food was very good. The ports were great as well. So go and enjoy. Set your expectations and you will be good, as it will be a good value. On RCLs larger ships what do you like about the entertainment? I want to book on a bigger ship to compare.

Forgot all about the regular buses. We didn't see any buses with #'s in the area. There were some that had locations of where they were going. None we had seen while here for the week. Is the bus stop a walk from the pier or should we have seen some type of pick up right there?

Yes it did!

That was it. But we didn't realize that.

This was our error, but shareable so others don't make the same mistake 1) I thought the last time I cashed out our non-refundable OBC in the casino I did it the night before we got off the ship. 2) I didn't read the compass for day 7. Read every other compass, but didn't read the only one I really needed to read ..lol Went to cash in $179 on board credit non-refundable and the casino was empty. Refundable OBC I wasn't worried about. I knew that would be returned to the credit card. Went into the casino, couldn't figure out why there was nobody there. Then walked by the retail stores and they were closed. This was 9 pm on the night before our cruise ends. Went to customer service to ask, only to find out if I had read the compass I would have known both the casino & stores were closed all day on our 7th day. So there was no where to cash out the funds. No where to spend it. No gift cards to buy. Spa wasn't open. There was no way I was going to give up that amount of money. I even asked if I could give it to our housekeeper.-- No can do. So, was told, the only place to buy anything and spend it was the photo shop. Well we didn't have any photos taken on the entire trip...lol It was either lose the money or find something in the photo store to buy. Well goodness knows we didn't need picture frames or gadgets. Looked at binoculars but they weren't the kind we wanted. So my awesome husband ended up with a GoPro. Which is fine bcuz he bikes 35 miles, hikes 2x a week and I will feel good knowing he has on a "body cam" of sorts in case something happens. But lesson learned, don't wait until the last minute to do things. Bcuz losing OBC could potentially end your vacation on a bad note. Hope this helps...

Got off Voyager of the Seas, in Copenhagen, this morning. Regarding the Free Yellow Shuttle Bus... Getting to the ship was no problem. It was crowded with a line however everyone was going over to the ship on their own time. Coming off the ship....a different story. The queue for the free shuttle at 8 am was at least, 300 people and wait time to get on was 1.5 hours. The spot is marked on the ground free shuttle bus. However some of the buses pulled up there, some did not. So it was pretty chaotic. Then once you got to the Metro station, there was another very long queue to buy the train tickets. Without people knowing how to use the ticket machines or how many zones they needed this was at least another hour. It took us 2.5 hours to get from the ship to Kobenhavn H using the free shuttle and train, standing in the queue for both of the above mentioned. If going to airport, add additional time to switch trains and continue on. Therefore, I would recommend if you have an early to mid-day flight, you skip this mode of transportation and either walk to the train station (which is a long walk) and have your train ticket already purchase thru the DOT app. Or take a taxi (pre+scheduled) to the airport. If in no hurry, no flight than no issue with the free shuttle and/or train. I would still recommend purchasing your train ticket prior, while your on the ship or just getting off. People were able to catch a taxi without an appointment. However most taxi's at the port we're scheduled by people ahead of time.

There was a couple of stations like this. Then others that were self-serve on Voyager.