SunNFunCruzer

We agree its losing its luster. When we first started cruising, we cruised for itinerary. Then, as we continued to mature, we cruised to relax and see new places, but the brand, vibe and entertainment mattered. Then we started cruising HAL more often, and the entertainment and service took on even greater importance. After our last, and most recent, experiences on HAL and Celebrity, if the itinerary isn't spectacular, we've decided to book resort and land based vacations. The Solstice must be a training ship, because while HAL post-Covid wasn't a true HAL pre-Covid experience, the Celebrity Solstice at times was a true disappointment. We have been called debbie downers with an agenda, but we have no agenda. See for yourself, if you want to be enlightened, look for Solstice reviews from average state room folks, not just Suite Life folks. Everyone knows Suite, and on Solstice, Aqua passengers are treated differently, and I'd guess are assigned the best staff. Of course, if you pay twice or three or four times as much for 6 star service and dedicated rooms, bars and staff, you may have a better experience than the average cruiser. Thank you for posting this question, Gordylad.

It docks in San Pedro. I don't know where you're flying from, but, in case of a flight cancellation, LAX will give you more flight options if you need to re-book.

Yes, me too! Fingers crossed. There were aspects of the cruise I enjoyed, and others I did not. My point was that our lists of pros and cons were similar. To make an analogy: imagine two diners eat a 4 course meal at a Michelin starred restaurant and find a hair in their food. One might pull out the hair, continue on, and enjoy the meal and experience. The other might immediately stop eating, say they were disappointed with the experience and head home early. The experience is the same, both diners had a meal served with a hair, but their reactions and responses differed. It's as if Solstice served us both a meal with a hair. You said "ship happens" and moved on, while I expected more from Celebrity when paying thousands of dollars for a week-long cruise. I hope the rest in your party remain Covid free.

Thank you for this. You have validated many of the pros and cons we mentioned in our post, below: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2883547-i-miss-hals-rotterdam-solstice-is-a-huge-disappointment/ I wonder if you meant the 9/16 and 9/24 cruises, as we were on the Solstice 9/24 to the Mexican Riviera and agree to heat was hard to manage. I was not surprised to read about fluctuating water temperature, but was surprised to hear you ever had cold water. Our cabin almost never had cold or cool water in the shower or sink. Did you catch the electric cellist? Interesting show, and being born in Ukraine, her music video was quite moving. Totally agree about the buffet and food quality. I thought a 6/7 out of 10 was generous. Sorry to hear you are Covid positive and hope you recover soon. There were so many more coughers at the end of the 9/24 cruise. I am not surprised to read that cruisers are testing positive. So far, we've remained Covid negative.

Heard from friends who boarded Solstice yesterday. The 6 foot pool was empty upon boarding. Crew told them the pools were extra warm because the ship had come down from Alaska. Apparently there were a lot of complaints about pool and cabin heat during the last cruise (1st to the MexRiv), so the pool was drained and the water temperature was lowered. Happy to see Celebrity being responsive. Still no confirmation if berries are available. No blueberries or raspberries available to guests on our 9/24 sailing other than single fruits in random drinks or as cake toppers.

Lol! Yes! We were typing at the same time. This is a great solution, and helpful to both parties.

Sorry to hear about your health challenges, I hope technology catches up to your ailment and helps. My understanding is the FCC are transferable. You may want to join a FB group or roll call group and look for someone local to you, then you can transfer your FCC to them and they can trade you something in return. Technically, I don't think you can sell a FCC for cash, but face to face, you can be more creative. I suggest someone local so you can be in the same room when you call Celebrity to apply to FCC to their cruise. There are a lot of scammers online and they are very slick and creative, so I'd make sure you know or have friends or a locality in common with the person on the other side of the transaction. You may even get help from a local brick and mortar travel agency in your hometown. If you have $780 left, I'd expect a trade in the $650-$680 range. Good luck! Hope this helps!

The Solstice has felt very light on the 9/24 sailing, and we were told the 10/1 will have even fewer passengers. Coughing all over the ship has increased dramatically, though. We took a Covid self-test today, and so far remain symptom free and negative. I have some concerns for the staff starting tomorrow when masks become optional. I really hope people start covering their mouths when coughing and sneezing. I wish I could post a video of the thoughtless and careless behavior from guests we've witnessed. The crew seem very new, inexperienced and a bit overwhelmed. I hope you'll post your observations. I'll be following your trip with interest. Enjoy your time on the sea! 🙂

Yes, Exactly as I posted in #54. Are you in a suite? No way to add a privacy curtain in our veranda stateroom, yet you posted a photo of privacy curtains in your stateroom and a suite passenger also confirmed a privacy curtain.

Upon further inspection, there is only 1 track with clips in our veranda state room on the Solstice, so no way to hang a privacy curtain. Our state room shall remain privacy-curtain-less. Seems suite passengers are treated differently, in more ways than one.

Rumor on the Solstice is that crew masks will come off at the start of the next cruise, October 1st. Bartender at outside deck Ocean view Cafe is already maskless. All other Solstice crew, as we've seen, remain masked, for now.

And crew get to keep individual tips on most lines, so guest facing crew make much more money working than in quarantine. And, yes, we tip individuals extra, as do many other cruisers, although I don't want to start a tipping war thread.

In 2019 when Royal was cash flow positive, the corporation had much less debt and interest rates were at historical lows. Now, they are carrying much more debt, debt is much more expensive, and refinancing that debt -- kicking the can down the road -- will be even more expensive, digging the debt hole deeper and deeper. Our current trip on Solstice is our first trip on Celebrity post covid. This is not the typical Celebrity product and we won't be rebooking Celebrity for at least a year or two if not more. The more people who have experiences and attitudes like us post covid, the less likely the line and stock will recover.

I've had the same experience. All staff masked up. In fact, when I approached to ask a question, A mask that was loosely on a face, was corrected and tightened. No sign of this new policy on Solstice yet thankfully.

"Huh" is right. This seems to be the tale of 2 cruises aboard Solstice. We do have a track and little plastic clips, but we didn't even think to ask for a curtain. See my earlier post about being low maintenance. Hopefully whoever gets our cabin next reads CC and knows to ask for a curtain. A little more good news: As we head to Ensenada, where the air temps are a reported 78 degrees, the ocean air temperature has dropped making both the balcony and cabin cooler. I wonder if, as mentioned earlier, the ship just couldn't keep up with the sweltering outside air temperatures. Looking forward to some cool relief for the next few days!