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.

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Another question if I may, I know you were on a b2b so maybe you don't know but was wondering if Solstice docked in Long Beach or San Pedro and will this docking location be the norm?  We are trying to determine if it's better to fly into Long Beach or LAX.

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.

1 hour ago, SusieV said:

Yes, my mistake I meant 9/24. I hope you continue to test negative!

 

I'm not sure I would agree that Solstice was a big disappointment. I enjoyed the trip, despite the issues we encountered.

 

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise and hope you have a better experience next time.

 

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.

2 hours ago, SusieV said:

First, a little about us. These were my 14th & 15th Celebrity cruises- this is my favourite cruiseline! My husband and I are in our late 30s, and we were sailing with our 12 year old son, my parents, and my husband's mother.  Our last Celebrity cruise was in 2017 since our 2020 was canceled because of covid-19, so it's been a few years, and we were interested to see what is new and what had changed.

 

Precruise:

We flew to Vancouver a day early and stayed at the Days Inn by Wyndham Vancouver Airport. They have a free shuttle pickup from the airport, and included continental breakfast. Also a plus, it's only a short walk from Costco (love those $1.50 hot dogs!). The hotel was adequate, nothing special. It's also quite far from the pier, but was very reasonably priced on Priceline. They offered a shuttle for $26pp but since we had a large party it wasn't economical for us. We took a taxi van to the pier and it cost about $60 plus $2/suitcase.

 

Embarkation:

This went pretty smoothly, although they definitely don't check what times you get for boarding. I guess they just hope people will stagger themselves as a result? There was a lot of walking between the different stations which wasn't too difficult for our party but I imagine that some people had trouble with it.

 

Stateroom:

We did have to change rooms between sailings. On the first leg we had cabin 6153, a standard 2B balcony, and on the second leg we had cabin 1200, a C1 aft balcony. The first week we had the layout of bed by the balcony, and the second leg we had the sitting area by the balcony. I never really thought it mattered, but going from one to the other- the room definitely looks more spacious with the bed by the balcony. I remember when I opened the door to cabin 1200 being surprised by how small it looked. That being said, the S class cabins are great for storage and we had no issues storing all our things even with being B2B cruisers and overpacking!

 

Our stateroom attendant on the first leg, Wayan, was excellent. Everything we asked for was taken care of in a timely fashion. We ask for egg crate mattress pads on the bed, and this time an extra blanket since it was cold in Vancouver! We also asked for the minibar to emptied for our own use, and we sent laundry and dry cleaning out a few days with the Elite perks. The balcony furniture in 6153 was most definitely the worse for wear- the varnish was all rubbed off the wood and they looked pretty run down. That being said, they were perfectly fine to use and we spent quite a few mornings out there with room service breakfast.

 

We hardly saw our stateroom attendant, Sinclair, on the second leg. Wayan had always seemed to be around when we came by, and he always had a smile for us. Sinclair introduced himself on the first day and after that he seemed invisible. However, our cabin was always clean and we had no issues with his service. We enjoyed the footstools on the CC balcony, but it was so hot and humid this week in Mexico that it was really unpleasant to sit outside even into the evening, so we didn't use our balcony as often as we would have liked to.

 

Also my own fault- I thought that all the aft balconies were larger, so I was surprised to see that 1200 was only a standard size. We did enjoy the view of the wake nonetheless though. I will note that we did get black ash on our veranda on several days though, so I'd suggest having a look at the chairs before sitting down.

 

We had some minor plumbing issues in both staterooms, but they weren't enough of a problem to mention to Guest Relations. In 6153, the water temperature didn't stay consistent; it would shift back and forth between cool and warm. When you set the temperature, you were picking the "warm" temp but that didn't stop it from occasionally flicking back to cool, and if you tried increasing it you'd get roasted when it went back to warm. We just made do. In 1200, the shower always started icy cold and then became hot. No adjustments really changed anything which was a disappointment for my husband who likes cool showers.

 

Dining Room:

I am happy to say that both the food and the service in the main dining room was excellent; much better than I remember it being on many of my previous cruises. We chose main dining at a table for six, since 4/6 of our travel party have severe allergies. We were given table 145 by the window which was great, and we requested to keep both the table and the waitstaff for both cruises.

 

Our assistant maitre d', Gorica, was amazing. She visited us every night with the following night's menus so that the guests with allergies could pre order safely and have menu items modified to remove allergens if possible. She also made some special requests appear, and spent time entertaining our 12 year old. We would also see her working lunch in the Oceanview Cafe and if there were any questions about the food there, she was able to assist. Despite the varied allergies, we had no issues at all in the dining room with allergies.

 

Our waitress, Dewi, made sure that we were happy with our meals. She didn't bat an eye when my bottomless pit son ordered 8 shrimp cocktails or 6 beef carpaccios, and on the nights where he didn't feel like coming to the dining room, she always offered to send him a meal. Most nights she sent more than I ordered him, which he was happy with! Our meals were generally served at appropriate temperatures (only a couple were cold, which is a great batting average), and generally were of good quality. While in the past we often did a lot of specialty dining, with the recent price increases, and the fact that we were really enjoying our MDR meals, we ate most nights in the dining room.

 

Our assistant waiter, Jebbel, always had a smile for us and made sure our water glasses stayed full and that we had everything else we needed. 

 

Our sommelier, Madelyn, was wonderful. After the first night when we explained how we like to pair wine with our courses, we never saw the bottom of a wineglass unless we said we were finished. We had the premium package, and she always found us a good selection to pair with what we were eating. She also gave us recommendations to pick when we did go to specialty dining, since at that point she knew our tastes.

 

Our bar waiter was Hero, who was in fact a hero when our sommelier was absent from the dining room the last two nights. He not only served drinks from the bar but tried to keep our section with wine, too. Obviously we couldn't get the sterling service Madelyn had been providing since he had much more work to do, but he definitely did his best and we appreciated it. After the first day he always had a Sprite waiting for my son and he made sure to check if he needed a second one partway through the meal.

 

Specialty Dining:

Over the two cruises, my husband and son ate at Sushi on Five twice for lunch, we did Tuscan Grille as a family, and Murano once for date night and once with our son.

 

At Sushi on Five, the food was great, but the service was very slow. My husband had asked if they could order more food as they received it, kind of like an all you can eat place, and they didn't seem to understand that as they didn't check back for half an hour. The food was wonderful, much better than at local sushi places, but they would have appreciated being able to eat in a more timely fashion.

 

The food and service at Tuscan Grille was excellent. I didn't realize that you now have to order the charcuterie, they don't just bring it for the table, but it's still available! Our family enjoyed everything there. The waiter made a point of telling us all to order as much as we liked, it was all included in the service charge. And of course, the steal of a deal is that Celebrity charges children 12 and under only $10 to dine in the specialty restaurants, so my son really got value for his money!

 

The food at Murano was likewise as excellent as usual. My son had been anticipating his visit for several years since our 2020 cruise had been canceled, and he considers himself to be a foodie. He said it was the best meal he had ever eaten. They no longer bring out the cheese cart due to covid, but they do still serve a cheese course; you just tell them what kind of cheeses you would like. We had a service hiccup involving a celebratory bottle of champagne on our date night at Murano, but they did resolve the issue to our satisfaction.

 

On both cruises, the specialty restaurants were completely booked up. The only night it was possible to get a discount was the first night 30% off. After that, it was difficult to get a reservation at all, let alone a discounted one. I would advise if you are looking to dine in the restaurants to either book in advance of the sailing or else see the specialty restaurant maitre d' on embarkation day to ensure you get the dates and times you are hoping for.

 

Oceanview Café/Poolside Grill:

The Oceanview Cafe has definitely gone downhill since our last cruise, which was disappointing. First off, the offerings available have been reduced, and since we like to snack at odd hours, we found this noticeable. In the past, the buffet was open until 1am and would have an assortment of snacks including various breads, meats, cheeses, fillings like egg and chicken salad etc. Now, after 9:15pm the only things available were pizza, basic salad bar, and the pasta station. If you're looking for a snack and don't want pizza, you're pretty much out of luck. Similarly after 3:30pm and before dinner opened at 6pm, there was very little. No more afternoon tea type offerings like sandwiches and scones and whatnot- just the late night items. Also, there didn't seem to be any dinner specials in the buffet. On previous cruises there had been a special station every night with a themed cuisine like Asian, Mediterranean, etc, but there was nothing like that this time.

 

My son did enjoy that there was a nacho section on the buffet every day and he loved the cheese sauce and fresh toppings.

 

For people who prefer to eat vegetarian/vegan, we did notice a much larger selection than on previous sailings. An entire part of a hot area was devoted to vegan food.

 

Breakfast was pretty much the same every day, but there was a lot to choose from and we generally preferred to have breakfast at the buffet or from room service rather than from the dining room. There was a station that changed daily, and my son loved that on both disembarkation days, there were frosted donuts.

 

At lunchtime we noticed that the cold meat/cheese station was reduced from previous sailings as well. There were the same sliced cheeses every day (provolone, Edam, Swiss, Monterey Jack) and generally only 1-2 deli meats to go with them. Nothing fancy like Brie anymore. Also, there is no more make your own sandwich area; instead they have premade sandwiches, 3 types per day, that they offer to grill for you but can't be customized. I know we don't go hungry on cruises, but I have to admit when I take a ham and cheese croissant, that I feel it to be a bit lacking when I open it and there is only one small slice of deli ham inside. I don't see why they'd get rid of the make-your-own stand to change to this when there must be more food wastage this way but I guess they have their reasons. I miss it though.

 

The Poolside Grill was great as usual- they had turkey burgers and veggie burgers as well as their standard beef burgers and hot dogs.  

 

Room Service:

The room service menu seems to get smaller every time we sail! That being said, we still enjoy it. We switched to room service for our evening snack since the buffet didn't have much. As long as you order before 11pm it is free; after 11pm there is a $4.95 service charge.

 

They still seem to be honouring write-ins on the breakfast menu, which is nice. The breakfast menu in a standard cabin only has a few items on it. The Concierge breakfast menu the following week has many more options on it.

 

Room service generally came hot and fresh, which was great.

 

Bars:

We love the World Class Bar on the S class, and this trip was no exception. Paul and Nikola are amazing bartenders, and we really enjoyed spending most evenings at the bar with them. They got to know our likes and dislikes, and made us wonderful drinks. Definitely a highlight of the cruise.

 

Entertainment:

My husband and I didn't go to the evening shows, although our parents did generally go. They said they enjoyed most of them.

 

We played Deal or No Deal on the sea days since my son loves the show. All I can say is Celebrity must be making a fortune off this compared to Bingo, since there are only two contestants per game (plus one person who spins for a free 7 night Caribbean cruise) and most of the time the contestants didn't win much. Additionally, I hate that they pay out the smaller audience prizes (you get $5 for matching two cases, $10 for 3, $50 for 4 etc) in not only casino credit, but specifically casino SLOT credit. I'm not a slots player and I asked for promo chips but they said they only give those as a payout for $50 or more. Forcing you to play your "winnings" through a slot machine really nullified those winnings and I think that change really is unfair for players. That being said, I like the idea of the game and it was a fun change from bingo- I just don't like the payout rules. If you spend $40 on cards and win a whopping $5, it would be nice to at least choose how to withdraw that $5. 

 

My husband really enjoyed the Hot Glass Classes, and made two different things there; a turtle and a pen holder. I would definitely recommend this experience as being well worth the money if you're interested at all. You can also sit in the gallery and watch people making their things if you don't want to pay for a class yourself. 

 

The enrichment lectures were about whales, which was fitting since we had gone whale watching in Victoria (I highly recommend Prince of Whales for an excursion, by the way!). It was really neat to learn more about the whales we had just seen.

 

My mother in law did the behind the scenes tour since it was her first cruise. She enjoyed the look at what goes on in the kitchens and backstage.

 

There was lots of live music in various places every day. It felt like there was more than on previous cruises, and we enjoyed this very much.

 

Fun Factory/Club X:

There were very few kids on either cruise, so they combined the teen club and kids club together. My son enjoyed the Fun Factory on the first cruise, when kids his age were there. He liked winning the kids club money during activities so he could buy prizes at the end of the week. The second week, no kids around his age showed up so he didn't go to any of the activities.

 

He generally liked the activities available and thought the staff were very nice and friendly.

 

Photography:

There have been a lot of changes here as well! I remember when they used to have the walls of photos posted but now everything is on a little kiosk. I will say- do NOT buy the unlimited digital photo package in advance if you are an Elite member. I bought it at $89 and on board it was $99 minus the 40% Elite discount. It took some doing to get that straightened out onboard and get the value of the discount refunded. Also they were throwing other little things in like some prints or folios if you signed up onboard.

 

There were fewer photo opportunities as well. There used to be a photographer at every port to take pictures, and then a variety of different styles of photography in the evenings. I remember the casual pics where they unrolled white paper all over the floor so you could sit or lie down and use silly props, but there was nothing like that. There was generally only a basic white or back background to stand against, or the green screen where they'd put your picture against a number of stock photos from the ship. The green screen pics were pretty cool though.

 

We did get some very nice photos, but I miss the variety and some of the creativity I've seen in the past.

 

That being said, photos are much cheaper now than they have been in the past. I remember paying $29.95 for formal night photos and now you can pay $100 for ten 8x10 prints or get unlimited digitals. This was a great deal and since we don't cruise more often than once every couple of years, I could see myself buying the package every time. Do make sure to check using Photo Finder on the kiosk for pictures that didn't automatically get credited to your stateroom, even if you told the photographer your room. I would say it was about 50/50 if pictures showed up in our file or if they had to be looked for and individually added.

 

Disembarkation:

On the first leg, the back to back guests went to the Sky Lounge to get their new Seapasses and wait for the ship to get a zero count and be cleared. It actually took a surprisingly long time, so we didn't have the empty ship for long before new guests were boarding for the second sailing! However they did prioritize cleaning the B2B guests' rooms, so once they cleared us around 10:30am from the Sky Lounge, we went straight to our new room to unpack.

 

Quick and easy on the second leg. We had our bags put out by 10pm, and we left our cabin by 7:30am to go to the Oceanview for breakfast before they called our number. Our bags were waiting, and we walked through the passport check and got a taxi to LAX (~$65) for our flight home.

 

COVID-19:

I know my comments will be unpopular, but I wanted to say that we saw a pronounced difference between our first cruise which departed from Vancouver and required a proctored test, and the second cruise which departed from LA and did not. Other than the crew being masked, the first cruise felt like a normal cruise. No hallways blocked off, no one seemed ill, everything was normal. 
On the second cruise, we noticed precautions being stepped up by day 4. We were flying the yellow flag going into ports. Extra people everywhere with sanitizer, more so than the first week. Extra cleaners. And staff members started to be off sick. The emergency crew drill was canceled at the last moment, which we speculated was covid related. We heard people coughing all over the place. We came home and tested positive, unfortunately, despite being vaxxed and double boosted.

 

We were told that as of the next sailing, masking would no longer be required for crew members. Combine that with dropping the required test coming onboard, and I think it's going to be a rough winter for cruising. I would be much more comfortable if they dropped the vaccination requirement but kept up the 48 hour testing requirement.

 

Seems to me from this very short sample that the honour system with regard to testing isn't working very well. The timing was clear because of the sea days after embarkation that covid was brought on by the embarking passengers and it spread very rapidly.

 

 

General Comments:

Overall, we had a great cruise. My husband was frustrated that one of his favourite shirts got lost in the laundry on the first week and it never did turn up. I would recommend not only keeping your copy of the laundry slip until the clothes come back but also snapping a quick picture of what you're sending out.

 

While Solstice is showing her age in a few places, they didn't affect our cruise much at all, and I would definitely cruise her again without second thoughts. 

 

We found the Celebrity app to be very useful. It was nice to be able to check out the restaurant menus in advance and see which nights we'd prefer to do specialty dining, and having the daily planner loaded made it easy to see what was going on at any given time. It was also a convenient way to check your shipboard account. This was definitely a positive change.

 

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them.

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.

5 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

I am quite sure that you can transfer/'sell' this. If you can confirm this ; I may be able to help you out as I owe some on an upcoming cruise since I am your neighbour

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!

13 hours ago, pickle11 said:

Cruising Solstice tomorrow.  On one travel website I counted over 180 balconies still available.  Didn't bother to look at oceanview or inside.  I only look to upgrade.  Who cares how many people are on the ship.  Never was a concern before COVID.  Not a concern now.  More concerned about the weather.  Hope OP gets in info they need to enjoy their cruise.  

 

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! 🙂

5 minutes ago, snowowl said:

We are on the solstice. Tonight is the last night. A crew told us mask is not required starting next sailing. 

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.

21 minutes ago, lexmiller said:

Because since the restart, they've had to test every week, and all debate aside, masking does help keep infection rates down generally speaking.  So productivity wise, I do wonder that perhaps weekly crew testing has ended??  Because if Celebrity says, hey, you guys don't have to wear masks - BUT BEWARE, because we are still testing you every week so you might be in sick bay for quite a while.  And they're already very short on staff as we all know, so they wouldn't want to cause further shortages.  

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.

6 minutes ago, canderson said:

 

I see a very definite positive trend with regard to cash flow now.  Even with weaker bookings through June 30, the 2nd quarter came back to just about break-even.  Granted, -$50,000,000 isn't on the right side of the ledger, but beats the heck out of over nearly a billion in losses for many previous quarters.

 

• Royal Caribbean Cruises cash flow from operating activities for the quarter ending June 30, 2022 was $-0.050B
• Royal Caribbean Cruises cash flow from operating activities for the twelve months ending June 30, 2022 was $-4.130B

 

• Royal Caribbean Cruises annual cash flow from operating activities for 2021 was $-1.878B
• Royal Caribbean Cruises annual cash flow from operating activities for 2020 was $-3.732B
• Royal Caribbean Cruises annual cash flow from operating activities for 2019 was $3.716B

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.

1 hour ago, Northern Aurora said:

I am posting from the Solstice.  All crew and staff who I am observed are wearing masks.  Will be interesting to read reports from other passengers.

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.

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Huh...good to know...but even more mysterious.  Wonder why some cabins have them and other don't?

"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!

1 hour ago, TrueCruiseaholic said:

Crew still have the option to wear facemasks, but they are no longer required. This has been implemented on all ships.

Does this mean that the mandatory quarantine of infected and positive cruisers is also over? How can you have one, without the other? Where did you learn this?

4 hours ago, jpurcell said:

I totally agree. We sailed on the last trip in Alaska before she moved to LA, the ship is in very good shape. The only issue I found was the blackout curtains in our cabin had some holes in it and some of the chairs in the theater are showing some age. We thought the carpet actually looked very new in most places.  Furniture was in very good shape in every venue we went to. The windows in all areas appeared very clean. I guarantee if I went to these complainers homes, I could nit pick every square inch until they cried uncle. 

The post above brings up another negative about Solstice. On prior cruises, my balcony stateroom has had a thin white privacy curtain ~as well as~ a thick blackout curtain. On Solstice the privacy curtain is missing, so its full open direct sun (and zero privacy) in the already hot cabin, or it's a dark and closed off experience. 

I'd love to see a list of items that ~ I ~ posted about, about the Solstice, that would be considered "nitpicking".

There are numerous small yachts carrying 16 passengers, which, I believe, is the limit that a single naturalist can bring in to the Galapagos on a single naturalist license. There are yachts that pick up on Baltra and others San Cristobal. You can book spots through brokers or direct through yacht operators. Many yachts reserve spots on flights from Quito and elsewhere in Ecuador and help passengers book because they also resupply their vessels via flight cargo on these flights. Celebrity carries higher passenger counts, higher costs, and to my understanding less personalized service.

You can certainly fly out of Baltra or San Cristobal back to Ecuador and on to Peru. If you are active and skilled enough to get yourself to a ship that sails in the Galapagos, you should be able to coordinate a more tailored Yacht experience + a trip to Machu Picchu. Good luck and hope this helps!

25 minutes ago, retird said:

One suggestion for any future cruise critiques you may choose to do.   Always post on the cruise line forum you have something positive to say about and not on the forum you are being negative toward.    And BTW, I’ve cruised on both Celebrity and HAL and while both have their plusses and minuses, I’ve never encountered what you say you experienced on Celebrity.    I wish you happy cruising in the future

Lol. That would help no one but the cruise line and the travel agents and others who benefit from bookings. I'd been on Celebrity pre-Covid and the Celebrity Solstice, at least, is Not the same Celebrity product.  There seem currently to be 2 posters on the Solstice -- I've been on the ship once, the other has been on the ship 8 times. We have differences of opinion and experience.

It seems that on Saturday, a few more posters will board. I'll be curious to learn if they have the same experience we're having, or if they are less high maintenance. Although I'm fairly confident that if you put a dozen couples in a line at the end of a typical cruise and ask the crew to put us in order of most to least "demanding", we'd be on the lower end of that spectrum -- from the crew's perspective.  When I give a corporation thousands of dollars, and my time, for an advertised product or service, I expect that product or service.  Other than the hiccups at Lincoln Center Live, HAL delivered. Celebrity has not.

2 hours ago, pickle11 said:

I must have missed the thread stating the OP was not enjoying their cruise.  All I have read from the OP was observations.  And the cruises out of Florida should they all expect hurricanes?  Silly people, they should have known.

Thank you for this. We are enjoying the cruise, but there are disappointing aspects. We've asked fellow cruisers questions that only people onboard can answer, so this is our way to pay that back. I'm sorry if my observations are so disturbing to some; maybe they will provide incentive for Celebrity to make changes to improve the deficiencies. For example, there is no reason for all the pools to have ~85-90 degree water in an area where the real feel temps are over 100 degrees and there is an internal solarium pool and a second shallow outdoor pool. That's the perfect opportunity to keep one or two pools cool, and one heated, or two heated and one cool. And the air conditioning is struggling And the cold water shower tap in our cabin often runs warm to lukewarm not cold, cool or refreshing, so how would y'all recommend someone on the Solstice get some relief from the heat?! That's not a high maintenance request.

Oh.... And both internet and TV signal seem back to normal now.

1 hour ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

PS: We have the premium internet and are having no issues.

Count yourself lucky. Although I doubt you had uninterrupted service.... Why would Celebrity warn that service would be spotty? and why on earth would we lie? We started the cruise complimenting the internet's speed and stability.

In any case, we have photos of both our internet and tv without signal for hours. And Celebrity knows the volume of data via upload and download at any given day and time and Celebrity can clearly investigate and determine when their system(s) was (were) offline and for how long.

I forgot to add in post 106, every in room TV news channel is either frozen or saying "no signal" as we're docked in Cabo, so cellular data is the only reliable way to communicate.

An update about the internet on Solstice in the MexRiv.... It is unreliable and often fails to work. Today we're in Cabo with family in Ian's path and in addition to premium internet being slow and unreliable, every news channel is either frozen or showing "no signal". I have to use my cellular data plan to communicate with work and family. And, as I said, we have the premium package. Internet in PV was almost nonexistent -- hours long periods with no connectivity or constant drops. There was a note 2 days ago in Celebrity Today to expect internet outages and a statement that prices were adjusted, but we received no credit and internet was expensive.

Solstice update: the internet has been terrible. Even Premium. Impossible to work yesterday in Puerto Vallarta, had to use mobile data. Even now, early morning, it took over an hour of attempts to get stable enough just to post this and load CNN.

Also, at the ramp threshold last evening at the back of deck 14 (Ocean view cafe) we heard a commotion and saw a man in his 70's almost face plant as he tripped coming outside. Then we saw a younger woman stumble at the same place. I stand by my assessment that this ship probably has a higher accident rate.

Oh, and as the sea's swells increase, the ship's creaks are LOUD.

Positives: the bartenders @ the Martini Bar are putting on quite a show. Very talented.

There are large wooden deck chairs on the outdoor deck below the lifeboats, I believe deck 5. It does not fully wrap around the ship, but newer ships are just adding a few stationary benches, so having movable deck chairs lower down and outdoors is nice (although its HOT).

Negative: 

It has been very HOT and difficult to enjoy the outdoors. They really need to fix the hot pool water problem, at times even the cold water in the shower is warm. It's been hard to catch a break from the heat.

Our thoughts are with those in Ian's path.