GenerationX

Good morning from our first sea day! Gen Z is still sleeping off her evening so I’m writing to you from curled up under a blanket in our living room on this cool grey morning. A tip for those sailing this itinerary in the coming weeks, be sure to check weather forecasts for each of your ports and pack accordingly. We have had wild swings from cold, grey and rainy (Catalina yesterday and at sea this morning) to sunny and warm (LA and our predicted weather for Cabo). I felt like I was packing for an Alaska cruise and a Caribbean cruise at the same time. The reason my child is still a tuft of curly hair peeping from between the covers is our evening exploits. We started the night with an early dinner in Luminae with a family we met on the first day when their 10 year old daughter came up to Gen Z in Michael’s Club and complemented her stuffed frog. The girls have been almost inseparable ever since, including going on the same excursion in Catalina (I know, I’m behind on reporting that, I’ll catch up I promise). Gen Z had the shrimp cocktail to start (one of the MDR classic appetizers that are always available in Luminae) and then had a burger and fries from the kids menu (pic below). I started with the turkey escarole soup and then had one of my favorite Luminae dishes, the veal cannelloni. Gen Z and I also split the cod basques. I didn’t have to push Gen Z at all to finish her food. For me, the turkey soup was a great warm up after the chilly wet day, but I slightly regretted not getting the short rib instead. That cannelloni was excellent again. Our server told us that the culinary team made the cannelloni pasta for it fresh that morning. The sauce that came with the cod was delicious, but my cod filet was not well prepped. I ran into several small bones as I was eating. Fortunately Gen Z’s piece was fine. We had the same serving team we’ve had for our other Luminae meals of Budi as our waiter and Merivic as our assistant waiter and they’ve given such great service and are wonderful with kids. After dinner we let the girls go to kids club for an hour to burn off some energy playing hula hoop games while the parents all went to have a martini (Yogi made mine special). Then we went back to pick up the kids and all went to the Broken Strings production show together. Sorry I didn’t get the best pics of the show as we wanted to sit in the balcony near the back since I hadn’t seen this show before and wanted to be able to make a quick retreat if the sound/lights were too much for Gen Z. We ended up being fine though. In what I’ve come to understand is typical Celebrity production show fashion, the plot was somewhere between ambiguous and nonexistent (other than I think it was somehow about celebrating some guy name Ethan who might be cheating on his girlfriend’s birthday, IDK). Anyway, the choreography and music were good. There were lots of songs Gen Z and her friend recognized and were dancing along in their seats to. At the end of the show some of the performers were at the exits to the theater and Gen Z got a kick out of being able to tell them personally how much she liked the show and get a photo with them. After the show, we headed out to the silent disco party in the packed grand foyer until the 11pm kids curfew. Gen Z and her friend never left the dance floor. Well, actually they did for about 10 minutes to go get a scoop of gelato to cool off. On our way to bed, we noticed one of the few signs that poor Solstice is more than ready for her refurb. With the rainy weather, it looks like part of the sky light is leaking into the library. When we got back to the room, we put out a hang tag for room service breakfast (which once again has the much more limited options than were on the menu for previous cruises), which our butler Ronald has actually just arrived and set up for us. I’m going to slam a cup of this coffee then wake mini me for her breakfast. More to come from Solstice!

Ok everyone, I am having a complete 1899 moment (great Netflix show BTW). I could SWEAR that yesterday afternoon I posted my write up on first night Murano dinner. I even specifically remember uploading the photos and pressing “Submit Reply” and seeing it appear in the chain. For some reason this morning it isn’t showing in my post feed though. Reposting below just in case and I sincerely apologize if everyone else has seen it and this is a duplicate post… About last night: After our belated sail away, Gen Z and I dressed and headed to dinner at Murano. For starters, Gen Z had the pork belly and I had the lobster bisque and mushroom risotto. I’ve had mixed results with the pork belly at Murano, but last night’s left me in envy of my child (who grudgingly gave me a bite for review purposes). The skin was perfect crisp and the meat beneath tender and juicy. The lobster bisque was also a redemption from the overly sherry heavy one on Silhouette. Sadly the risotto was a little under cooked, but that was the only fail of the night. For dinner we split a mommy-daughter surf and turf of the chateaubrian for two and the Murano lobster and both were excellent as always. For dessert Gen Z had some vanilla gelato and I had gran marnier soufflé. Because of the alcohol I didn’t want to let Gen Z order it so I just let her try one small bite of mine. It set off a several minute rant from her on the injustices of something so tasty being only for grown ups. After dinner, Gen Z headed to the kids club for a dance party with a new cruise friend and I decided to treat myself to a little mama time at the martini bar with my favorite, the French 75 martini. Another nice camp at sea perk: due to Cami’s special needs and allergies, when I drop her off the camp gives me a “bat phone” that works anywhere on the ship so that I can be called in case of emergency. It’s great for extra peace of mind. I think I’ve finally dried and thawed out from our day in Catalina (long story, I’ll explain later) and am relaxing in the living room while Gen Z takes a bubble bath. In a little while we’ll dress and then are meeting one of her little Retreat girlfriends and her parents to go to the production show then have dinner in Luminae together.

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, there is an entire submechanophobia Reddit sub where people post photos from their dives and explorations. Change the post sorting settings to top rated of all time and prepare for nightmares. 😆

No, I’ve never felt threatened on a Celebrity ship and I do think their security teams take guest safety very seriously. I think that’s a big part of the reason cruising is my preferred method of solo travel and travel with Gen Z sans Jeremy. That said, I think I’m also just very cautious by nature and am always mindful that no place is immune from bad people or bad things happening (perhaps also a result of my profession, people often end up hiring me when the thing they didn’t expect to go wrong goes wrong) so I still try to pack my “street smarts” when I go on vacation. Oh that reminds me, for anyone else following who is interested and wasn’t aware, the cruise lines with ships sailing to/from the US are required to report to the FBI on serious criminal incidents that are reported onboard and the US Department of Transportation has a website where they publish a report quarterly on the number of reported incidents of different types on each cruise line. Celebrity pretty consistently reports ZERO criminal incidents in all categories and has some of the lowest numbers of reported incidents overall historically. Even for the cruise lines with higher numbers (e.g. 3-4 reported assaults in the quarter) it’s important to note that that’s a handful of incidents over the course of tens of thousands of passengers or more who sailed in that quarter, so cruising generally is statistically fairly safe.

Current Situation on Solstice… Al Bacio Server: Ma’am Charla are you sure you wouldn’t like any pastry? Me: No, thank you so much. I just had breakfast not too long ago. Server: Ok, ma’am. [Moves on to table across from me]. Good morning madam, would you like any pastry or coffee? Lady at Table: Yes I’d like an americano and do you have any almond croissants this morning? Server: Yes ma’am the almond croissants just came out. They are still warm. Me: Um, did someone just say “warm almond croissants???” SOMEBODY PLEASE COME SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!!!!

Good morning from Catalina Island! Gen Z and I spent breakfast this morning watching some sea lions play in the wake of the tenders going back and forth from the ship. Only our server Budi placing a mountain of French toast with whipped cream in front of her could pull her nose out of the window. Our excursion today isn’t till the afternoon so I was hoping we could start working our vacation puzzle after breakfast, but Gen Z only had eyes for the kids club. So alas here I sit in Al Bacio having some green tea and trying to finish my Agatha Christie novel that is now on its third cruise. Pretty soon they’re going to give this copy of Death on the Nile a captain’s club number. Before I get too deep into Egypt though, a report on the rest of our day yesterday. When we got onboard we headed to our stateroom to drop off our carry on bags and grab our seapass cards then went to check in at our muster station. Tip for the parents following: make sure that they have muster station wristbands for your little ones either in your stateroom or at the muster station when you check in. I had to go proactively ask for one for Gen Z. These wristbands are worn at all times and tell the crew where to take your child in the event your child isn’t with you when (heaven forbid) the abandon ship signal sounds or the captain orders passengers to muster stations. A little scary that it was missed given how many children and inexperienced cruisers we have onboard. The guest count I’ve heard for our cruise is 2200-2300, a drastic jump according to the crew from sailings just a few weeks ago. Spring break’s doing I presume. The kids club staff said they think we have about 150 children onboard. Speaking of kids club, sharing some info below on hours and after hours childcare rates. If you’re sailing with kids under 3, they can’t be dropped off, but the club does have an area with lots of toys for them where you can bring them to play during certain hours. For my fellow special needs and allergy parents following, I spoke with the youth program manager and she assured me that in addition to thorough background checks and a requirement of prior nanny/childcare experience, all kids club staff receive extensive training in working with children on the autism spectrum and/or with sensory conditions. They also have training from the medical staff on how to administer Epipens. One of the things I’ve become hyper aware of due to my solo travels is security cameras. When on a new class of ship or resort, I make a point of walking around to see where cameras are located so that I can plot my path around accordingly. One thing I like about Celebrity is that there are security cameras pretty much EVERYWHERE except the public bathrooms and inside the cabins. The kids club entrances and exits as well as the club interior are also well covered. After a stop by the club open house to fill out registration paperwork we headed to our first lunch at Luminae. Gen Z tried the Luminae burger for the first time and now she’s nagging me to make our burgers from ground filet mignon at home (guess it’s time to educate her on beef prices and how grocery budgets work). I had the always yummy pea soup and Cobb salad. I was a little sad that the salad came with regular bacon and not the big thick lardons I’ve gotten in the past, but it was still very good. We had an earlier dinner planned at Murano so we decided to skip dessert. Speaking of Murano, I’m going to knock out a chapter with Monsieur Poirot then a report on dinner and our first evening onboard.

I never heard an official announcement but the rumor onboard is that there was some mechanical issue that required a diver to be brought in to do an inspection under the ship and confirm was resolved. If that’s true, that diver has some serious huevos rancheros. You couldn’t pay me enough to convince me to dive around/under the hull of this massive ship. It sounds like a submechanaphobia fever dream.

Happy to help! Also I am very jealous that you’re doing that itinerary with your family. It’s on my travel bucket list. I think you’ll all have a wonderful time and see some stunning sights. Bon voyage!

It seems that the first responding poster may not have fully read your post (which was clearly explaining why ships that have those amenities are not a fit for your family) and just saw “kids and water slides” and immediately jumped to the “Celebrity doesn’t have those things!” comment (that was also completely unresponsive to your question). Or perhaps English isn’t their native language. To try and offer some assistance, my experience is a little dated but my 9 year old and I sailed on Millennium last March on a sailing that only had 7 total kids on it and kids club was still open (and my daughter loved it so much that she was sad when I’d come to pick her up). There was only one child that I saw in the youngest group (the 3-5 year olds that your kids would be in) but it looked like they had staff and toys for her available at all the times that camp was open.

Good afternoon from Solstice! I’m sipping a glass of bubbly on the veranda while Mini Me unpacks her carry on bag, a report on embarkation. Our ride from the hotel to the port took about 20 minutes. We left the hotel at 10:30 and were having our bags unloaded at pier 93 a little before 11. By 11:15 we were well on our way exploring the ship! A few notes for suite cruisers. There ARE Retreat priority entrances, security lines and a Retreat embarkation lounge, you just have to be a little vocal about it. Every single port employee we encountered was in automode and when I started veering Gen Z and I towards the Retreat signage would try to direct us to general boarding areas until I was very vocal that we were Retreat class. Don’t be afraid to be politely assertive. When people would say to us “Oh no, ma’am, this way please!” I’d respond with “Is that where we go for Retreat suites?” and then would get the “Oh, no, go right ahead that way.” When we were getting our xpress passes scanned at the Retreat area there was a couple next to us who were in a royal suite (who thus should have had the full VIP greeting and escort up from the front door) and the woman checking them in was so apologetic and confused saying “someone should have met you downstairs and you should be with the Retreat host already”. My guess is the people at the entrance directed them away from the Retreat entrance (where we met someone who was checking names from a list of upper suites for just that purpose) to the general boarding line and they didn’t push back. When we got through security there was a Retreat lounge area (which again someone tried to direct us away from). We only stopped in briefly as general boarding had already begun and when we walked in we were greeted almost immediately by the Retreat manager Anastasiia who remembered us from Gen Z’s first cruise on Millennium and escorted us past the line and directly onto the ship. I’d completely forgotten what non-revolutionized S-class ships look like. Compared to her E-class and rev’ed up sisters, Solstice is starting to look slightly dated (the OG Michael’s Club feels a little like being on vacay at my ex-inlaws’ country club). But she’s squeaky clean and impeccably well kept. Gen Z was blown away by how much bigger she is than Millennium. I forgot to have her put bike shorts under her dress and had to rush to stop her from doing cartwheels and round offs on the lawn club. I also completely forgot how much nicer the old cabanas were than the revolutionized egg jails. Maybe I should’ve booked on for us for a sea day after all. Thanks to spring break there are many more kids on this cruise than Gen Z’s last one (where I think there were 4 total), including in the Retreat. In fact, the reason Gen Z has taken so long to unpack a carryon sized bag is that in the time it’s taken me to write this post I’ve had to get up and answer the stateroom phone twice. Both times it was 9-10 year old girls that Gen Z met in the Retreat lounge (and held court near the grand piano with over virgin strawberry daiquiris) calling to speak to her about her plans for sail away and kids club later and also their favorite Pokémon and LOL Surprise dolls. I told her from now on SHE can answer the phone when it rings. Now I know how my mom felt during my teen years. 🤦🏾‍♀️ I’ll likely go MIA to have some fun with mini me till later this evening after our first night dinner in Murano (when according to what I overheard from the veranda, the fruit of my womb plans to ditch me for a girls’ foosball meet up at Camp @ Sea). When I’m back, a report on our Celebrity Suite and first few hours onboard. Cheers from the very happy Gens on Solstice!

Good morning and happy embarkation day! My dear CC friends, this morning was a very special moment for me as a mom and cruise/travel addict. This morning I gave Gen Z the surprise I ordered and had hidden in my closet ever since the day when, a couple of days after we got back from her first cruise, she looked at me and said “mama it just hurts my heart that we aren’t on the X ship anymore.” Today I began preparations for the inevitable day when I shall pass the torch to the next generation of cruise loving women world explorers, by presenting Gen Z with her official embarkation day uniform! In less thrilling news, last night we had plans to head out for a nice dinner, but when we got back to the room from the pool and Gen Z finally sat down on the couch in our room, her extremely long day and the 2 hour time difference caught up with her. Hard. She curled herself into a little ball under a blanket and begged not to have to move for “at least several hours”. I knew better than to try and drag an exhausted child through a formal dinner (parenting pro tip: NO ONE will end up enjoying themselves if you do this, not the kid, not you and not your fellow diners and waitstaff) and it was important to me that she be well rested for our big first day onboard today, so I canceled our reservation and just ordered some doordash Chinese food. Poor thing was snoring and down for the night within minutes of finishing her fortune cookie. Normally I don’t have a full breakfast on embarkation day, to save room for Luminae lunch but Gen Z is in a growth spurt and requires full sustenance every 2-3 hours right now (may Poseidon be with the culinary staff on Solstice as they take this burden from my shoulders this week). I was determined to get us at least a little glimpse of the area food scene so we we’ve just finished a very cool Mexican weekend brunch at Solita, a taco bar I found on Yelp that’s about 3 blocks from the hotel. First of all, any restaurant that serves me fresh made tortilla chips and salsa at 9am is gonna win me over from the jump off. They also have a “rainbow mimosa bar” where you can combine your champagne with any of several fresh made juices (including some more exotic options like guava). I went with mango and if I wasn’t going to be spending the rest of the day surrounded by people offering me drinks, I would’ve had 3. Gen Z had the berry bread pudding and I took our Mexico-native server’s recommendation to have the Machaca and eggs. Both of us were sad that we didn’t have the stomach capacity to clean our plates. Now I have to go on the hunt for a Mexican brunch in STL. We’re off to the hotel to check out and meet our driver. Next report from onboard Solstice! m

What’s up from Long Beach! Oooh I feel like Dr. Dre saying that. It’s not even 70 degrees but that’s not stopping Gen Z from spending our afternoon post-aquarium in the hotel’s heated pool. About our day so far: When we landed at LAX our bags were some of the first off the plane. For transfers, I decided to book car service from the airport and to the cruise port tomorrow with Crown Limousine. I remembered from a business trip to LA that Uber pick ups at LAX are a bit of a process. You have either a decent walk from baggage claim or take a shuttle with your bags to a separate part of the airport to get your ride. I’m all for that when it’s just me and my carryon and briefcase but not something I wanted to deal with with a child and 5 suitcases in tow. Considering tip was included in the limo rate I probably paid about $60 total more than I would’ve by using Uber Black (which can pick up curbside at LAX), but the extra little bit of luxury is worth it to me for this special trip. I’ve also heard stories of truly horrific surge pricing in LA and going to/from the cruise port during prime times and I figured this way at least I know exactly what I’m paying and that I’ll get value for the spend. Our driver met us right outside of baggage claim in a spotless SUV and loaded all of our luggage and had cold waters waiting for us in the back seat. When we got to the hotel after a 30 minute ride, he also had us wait in the air conditioned car while he lugged all of our bags all the way inside and up to the check in desk for us. Our pre-cruise hotel is Hyatt Centric The Pike on Long Beach. I used a reward night to book so I’m not sure what rates are typically like but so far it seems like a great hotel. Check in and bell staff have been friendly and helpful. The hotel and room decor pays homage in a very cool way to the maritime history of the area. The pool area looks like it has a bar area that’s closed right now (probably too early in the season). I bet it’s a great place to lounge during summer. It was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel to the aquarium and several restaurant options (albeit mostly chains). Gen Z loved the aquarium. It was at least 3 times the size of our aquarium in St. Louis (which is admittedly small). I bought us tickets for a 2:15 entry in case baggage claim or traffic took a while, but we were ready to go by 1:30 and had no problem at all getting in early. I’m going to pull Gen Z out of the pool now so we can at least get an hour of rest before our 6pm (8pm our bodies’ time) dinner reservation.

Checking in from somewhere over New Mexico. It’s really saying something about just how bad the flight issues have been for me with AA that right now I’m surprised and elated at two consecutive flights actually getting in the air as scheduled. Our flight into DFW actually got in about 20 minutes early so we killed some time in the kids room in the Terminal A Admirals Club at DFW. The toys and books they used to have in the kids spaces in some clubs never came back after COVID but I still like the AC kids rooms as a nice space to let little ones run around/decompress from the stress of air travel. We knew we’d be served breakfast on our next flight so weren’t going to visit the buffet but one of the lounge servers popped her head in the kids room and offered to bring a mimosa for me and a cheese streusel muffin for Gen Z and neither of us were going to refuse that offer. The southwest enchilada for breakfast on our DFW to LAX leg surprisingly tastes a lot better than it looked. The sauce on it definitely has a little kick to it though. When flying first class on AA I put a reminder on my calendar for 30 days out from my return flight to go online and pre-reserve my meal selection for my flight so that I know they won’t run out of the option I want before they get to me. You can also pre-order meals to accommodate special dietary needs (kosher, vegetarian, gluten free, diabetic, etc.). We’ve got one of those rare first class flight attendants who I would really love to see hired as a butler or Retreat manager for Celebrity. We are in a 16 passenger first class cabin and she knew all our names and greeted us personally when we took our seats and offered pre-flight beverages (I was still sticking to water at that point). When breakfast was served and I ordered a vodka cranberry, she became a cocktail genie where each time my glass has gotten down to a quarter full or started to look watered down, she just appears with a fresh one and a smile without me asking for anything. We’re due to land in LA in about an hour. Given our early start I had planned for us to just head to our hotel in Long Beach and rest/nap for the afternoon, but Gen Z was playing with her iPad on the drive to the airport in STL and figured out that our hotel is just minutes away from the Aquarium of the Pacific (these kids today have better Google skills at 10 than I do at 40) and has been begging since sunrise (literally) to go. The 2 breakfast cocktails washed away whatever was left of my resolve so I got online just a few minutes ago and bought us tickets for an entry slot this afternoon. Guess I’ll be hitting the Red Bull and rallying! I’m getting too old for this.

I loved cruising Alaska too! I was actually hoping to take Gen Z on an Alaska cruise this summer. She is obsessed with whales, wildlife and all things nature and environment related and I know she’d enjoy it even more than Jeremy and I did. Unfortunately airfare and cruise fares for this coming summer put it way out of budget. It was going to cost almost double to cruise aqua class on Solstice to Alaska out of Seattle compared to what it cost to do a week in the Caribbean in the yacht club on MSC Seascape. Im looking at booking an Edge Alaska sailing for next summer though depending on how crazy we go with the spend for Mediterranean cruise this October…St. Louis to Rome is a lot of flight time and much to my husband’s angst I’ve got a wild hare to fly Flagship First. 😂

Good morning and happy St. Patrick’s Day from STL! I was completely shocked at how easy it was to get Gen Z out of bed at 2am. Far easier than getting her up 4 hours later for morning chores and school. 🤔 The STL airport was already packed at 3:45am with way more family travelers than I’m used to seeing at such an ungodly hour. Gen Z actually had several playmates in the indoor playground in the gate area. The spring break travel season has officially begun! I really prefer to fly nonstop but when I booked our the only nonstop flight to LA today didn’t leave STL until 6pm and that was cutting it way too close for me to get halfway across the country if anything went awry with that flight. Instead we’re taking a redeye with a connection in DFW that should put us in LA a little before 11am local time if all goes according to plan. Thus far it’s looking like an on time departure so fingers crossed the luck of the Irish is with us all the way through to LA. Almost time for wheels up!

I’m not 100% sure. On our last couple of cruises Jeremy‘s express pass had his lower cc status and when we got in the room there was schedules and info in my name for elite and his name for select. But we started cruising together before we were married and I’ve never gotten around to calling and officially designating him as my spouse. If I remember correctly though, on our last cruise together, Gen Z was invited to all of the elite captains club events with me even though she had never cruised celebrity before. I’m not sure if her being a minor changed anything about how they handle it though.

That’s what the captains club desk told me on her first cruise last year as well. I was kind of surprised to see her number and status but thought maybe I was misremembering what I was told. I wonder if there’s been a recent policy change.

I’m another ribeye fan, with a couple of the lamb chops on the side. And yes, I’d skip the salad bar and flatbread to save room for that cookie dessert!

Welcome aboard! I will definitely hold onto her seapass cards. She was quite excited that for this cruise, when I pulled up our booking and xpress pass, she’s been assigned a captains club number and her xpress pass shows her as classic status. She says she now has a “personal goal” to become the youngest zenith in Celebrity Cruises history. I told her if that’s what she’s striving for, she’d better find herself a job, immediately.

I am so sorry for the loss of your husband. You are so right about the value of family time and memories. Cruising is so much about the life experiences and time with family for me as well. I sometimes look at what I spend on my travels (both solo and with Jeremy and Gen Z) and think about how many designer bags, what a nice luxury car or what a gorgeous kitchen remodel I could have instead. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to think that at the end of the day, things are just things and wonderful memories of the places and people we love are really the most valuable things we can ever own. Gen Z is growing like a weed and I know it won’t be long now before she’s a teenager and may not want to spend as much of her time with me (and definitely won’t be begging to wear matching outfits anymore). Between my professional commitments and Gen Z’s school and extracurriculars it’s so hard for us to find quality time together on a daily basis. I feel like our mother daughter trips are a priceless investment in making the kind of memories that I hope Gen Z will have forever and be telling her grandkids about someday.

Thank you so much for sharing and for your supportive words! Your family sounds absolutely beautiful. I’m loving that your mom gets a kick out of virtually sailing along and is already in vacation mode 😀 I hope that you all catch the cruising bug next April and I get to sail with you sometime!

She does have some challenges with sound volume. We have noise reduction headphones that I bring along for her to shows and concerts and we try to get seats on the aisle and further back in the audience in case we need to slip out without disturbing people too much. We’ll likely do that for the shows on this cruise. On our last cruise they didn’t have a production show (it was while things were still coming back up to full steam post-COVID), just a magician act so I didn’t really get a chance to test how she’ll do with the sound level in the theater.

Gen Z loves the theater! Her favorite shows are The Secret Garden, Hairspray, Les Mis and Hamilton. We sometimes do weekend road trips up to Chicago when the St. Louis theater scene is lacking in options. Nope, no worries on her wearing diapers in a hot tub at all. I do my best not to judge others’ parenting choices, but I really do struggle to find a legit reason why a child young enough to be in diapers would even want to be in water that warm, or why parents would want to put their kids in it. Even at 10, I only let Gen Z in our private hot tub at home. I’ve seen enough suspect practice by adults in the hotel and cruise ship hot tubs to not want to risk exposing a junior immune system to it.

Greetings and salutations fellow cruisers! Well, that was quick. It feels like just yesterday that my husband Jeremy and I were stepping off the Apex and now it’s almost time to head out to the west coast to board the Solstice! If it wasn’t for the very different weather forecast between the Pacific coast and the Caribbean, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered fully unpacking. I’m looking forward to seeing Solstice again for the first time since Jeremy and I sailed on her to Alaska for our honeymoon in 2018. I’m also looking forward to trying a new itinerary that will take me to a part of Mexico that I’ve never experienced before. I think what I’m most looking forward to though, is getting to spend a week of uninterrupted mommy and me fun time with my cabinmate, who we shall call Mini Me or Gen Z, who will be sailing on her first S-class ship! A quick about us for those who haven’t followed before: I’m Charla, 40 (and fabulous, thank you) and an attorney from the St. Louis, MO area. Gen Z is 10, is neurodiverse, and has a love of the arts, food and travel that is surpassed only by her love of all things ocean and animal-related. This will be my 20th Celebrity Cruise and Gen Z’s second. We tested the Celebrity cruising waters for Gen Z on a short 4 night sail in the Retreat on Millennium last year (just in case she found cruising or Celebrity to be boring or not a good fit). At the end, she sulked off of the ship bitter that I didn’t book us a full week cruise. In a few days, her wish will be granted, sailing again in the Retreat in a Celebrity Suite, and this time on an even bigger ship with more to explore! Before we get too far into the review, I’ll address the elephant in the room (and I don’t mean the one doing crow pose on a half naked guy’s back at the end of the pool on Beyond)…. I respectfully request that the review not be hijacked for debate/commentary about the appropriateness of kids sailing on Celebrity. To reiterate from the start of my review of Gen Z’s first Celebrity cruise, every kid is different and what makes a “good cruise line” for one family may be a terrible fit for another. Celebrity may not offer all the kid “bells and whistles” that some other lines do, but it’s also not Viking or Virgin Voyages (the latter of whom went so far as to do a whole marketing campaign around the many charms of its guaranteed kid-free cruise experience…And I promise I’m not being sarcastic, as a busy mom I do find MANY charms in guaranteed kid free vacations, and I usually book an adults-only resort trip each year in addition to our cruises for just that reason). Celebrity is definitely NOT a kid FOCUSED cruise line. However, based upon my experiences over my many cruises, one with my own child in tow, Celebrity can be kid FRIENDLY. Perhaps even more so since they started targeting a young professional (and thus more likely to have small children) demographic. There is a kids club, the restaurants have kids menus and kids pricing (for specialties), there are family hours at the indoor pool especially during inclement and cooler weather sailings (apparently another hot button issue that I’d also prefer we not revisit debate on here) and there are family activities on the daily schedule. I’ll be sure to report on the quality of all of the above on Solstice as we experience them. That said, parents following and considering Celebrity, ye be warned. On Celebrity there are no water slides, go carts, carousels, roller coasters, laser tag arenas, etc. The vibe all around is relaxed and upscale. If your child needs lots of high stimulation and to burn lots of energy daily, Celebrity is probably not the best fit. However, if your kids are used to more upscale restaurants and resorts, enjoy them and can handle the behavior expectations that come along with those environments, Celebrity may be a good fit for you. Especially with Gen Z’s sensory condition, many of the things the other “kid friendly” lines offer (e.g., nonstop loud music/announcements everywhere, character parades/meals with people in huge masks, hundreds of other running, screaming children) would be too much for her. If I’m honest, it probably would be too much for me as well. It’d be like a race to which one of us has an anxiety attack first. An anxiety attack I would have spent twice as much as sailing on Celebrity to trigger, at that. (Seriously, check out what Disney charges for their suites and what it costs to sail Star Class for a week on those Royal ships that hold more people than my entire Big 10 college did. Makes the Retreat and what’s included in the fare look like a real bargain!) Anyway that’s enough on that issue and now let’s move on to talking all things fun at sea! Soon to come: a report on our plans for our week in the Mexican Riviera! Looking forward to taking everyone along on another cruise!

Yes, in fact I’m working on my intro post as we speak!