GypsyCouple

Hi Everyone,

we are currently enjoying a fabulous trip onboard the Solstice. It has been a dream vacation. As it comes to a close, I’m becoming concerned about tipping the amazing staff members that have contributed to our trip. We have 3 rooms for our family of 5 and my husband and I are in a suite. I paid for prepaid gratuities. This is our first cruise and I assumed that by prepaying the gratuities, I wouldn’t even have to think about it onboard. However, now that the cruise is ending, I’m feeling weird about it. I want to make sure that our butler, concierge and room steward are tipped appropriately for their fantastic service. Are they aware that we’ve prepaid the gratuities? Is it generally expected that we will tip cash in addition to the prepaid gratuities? If so, how much additional is customary?

I will need to hit up an ATM at our last port if this is necessary. I guess I just want to make sure the concierge, butler and room steward know that we appreciated their outstanding service and I don’t want them to be disappointed if we don’t tip them additional simply because we thought the prepaid gratuity would cover everything. Hoping you more experienced cruisers have some insight.

Thank you!

Heather 

I downloaded the Celebrity app and although my reservation shows up, I can’t do anything with it. At the top of the page it says, “Your reservations on ships not yet available in this app.” 

Is there another app for Celebrity that I don’t k ow about? I keep reading about people checking in through the app, but this doesn’t seem like an option on the Solstice. 

Thanks,

heather 

We are cruising to Alaska at the end of July. I have the basic itinerary that tells me what ports we are going to, but I’m wondering when the full itinerary is released? First time on a cruise and I’ve heard about all the different activities that happen. I was hoping to see the full itinerary so I can plan out my days. I’m the type that enjoys the planning phase as much as the actual trip. 

Thanks!

Is it possible to get an extra room key? My neighbor just returned from a cruise on RC. She asked for an extra room key to give to her adult son who was traveling with his wife and baby. She knew she would be doing some babysitting and wanted them to have access to her room. She was told that her sea card was her room card and they didn’t give out extra room keys. 

Antone know now if that’s accurate? I’d like an extra room key to my kids rooms on our upcoming cruise on celebrity and was planning on asking the concierge or guest services for one.

thanks!

8 hours ago, cynbar said:

GypsyCouple, I hope you haven't been offended by some of these comments, I think they mean well. I want to make sure you are clear on the dining arrangements.

 

The people in the suite are assigned to Luminae as their dining room --- it's open for dinner and breakfast everyday, lunch on sea days. Those in the other cabins are assigned to the main dining room, sounds like in early seating traditional where spaces will be saved at a certain table. You can link the reservations for the 3 not in the suite, but you can't link the suite with the others, they are totally separate dining rooms. If you want to bring the kids into Luminae with you, you'll have to ask the maitre d' and then pay $30 each guest for dinner. It's not guaranteed, but they do try to accommodate.  If you want to join them in the MDR, ask the concierge in the Retreat or the maitre d' in Luminae how to best arrange this. Hope all of this works out for all of you without too many headaches.

Thank you! This cruising stuff is complicated! We’re going to have family dinner in Luminae twice, which I’ll set up directly with them and understand I’ll be paying. The other nights, our teenagers can choose where to eat. We might do specialty dining a night as well.

i actually wasn’t offended. Anyone with teenagers knows that most of them don’t want to hang out with their parents. 🙂 

UPDATE:

I contacted Celebrity to try and move the kids rooms. They would not and still won’t, allow me to put all 3 in the same room. This is because they say the ship is technically full, meaning that they are only booking 2 per room in any open rooms. So we need 2 connecting rooms for our 3 children...2 kids in one room and the last in another. That’s what we have now and there is no better option. Even if my husband and I weren’t in a suite, we would still need a 3rd room as there are 5 of us in total. Once we board Ill try to get our names switched so that I’m listed in the suite with my husband, but if not...that’s ok too. We’ll just get an extra room key and make it work. Thank you EVERYONE for your input. I appreciate it!

On 6/17/2019 at 5:49 AM, waterbug123 said:

 

Different cabin categories come with their own unique perks. Depending on when a person books and the demand level for different categories, AQ might not always be pricier than concierge, but even if it is, it comes with its own unique perks. Obviously, if you prefer the concierge perks, book that category.  If you are otherwise happy with your cabin selections and eating lunch together on embarkation day is of utmost importance, your kids can always forego that perk and you can all eat together elsewhere.  The kids probably won't care one way or the other where they eat.

 

 

And some people are fine with it.  Maybe they eat as a family every other night of the year and want to let their kids do their own thing while on vacation.  When my kids were younger they liked the "grown up" experience of dining with us in the MDR or specialty restaurants, but now that they're teens and older, they have little interest in a long, drawn out multi-course sit down dinner every night.  They don't want to do OUR thing and eat in that manner any more than I want to do THEIR thing and grab pizza every night.

 

 

I'm sure that that technically they CAN, but the OP prefers her daughter to have some privacy and apparently they can afford it so have opted to book the kids in multiple cabins.

You are 100% correct! The kids would much rather run around the ship eating pizza and buffet than sitting through a long dinner with us! Thank you!

When I booked our rooms, Celebrity said that since the cruise was technically sold out, they could not book more than 2 people per cabin. Our cruise is in July. This forced me to get 3 cabins. 

I think I’m going to contact celebrity and see about getting the other 2 rooms moved to inside staterooms across from the suite. Thank you!

2 hours ago, warmwinds said:

I can't imagine going on a cruise with my family and not eating meals with them.  Sometimes it's the only time to reconnect after the day - when they were little, they would be off in the kid's club all day, older they'd be off hanging with their new friends, but we ALWAYS had dinner together.

I know what you mean, but honestly, my oldest is enlisting, my 17 year old is a senior and my 16 year old is incredibly independent. All 3 drive, have jobs and are all around extremely responsible kids. We are VERY lucky. On every prior vacation we have eaten every meal together, but there just at the age where they don’t want to spend all day with mom and dad. I plan on breakfast and lunch together every day. And then at least 2 dinners together. I’m happy to give them some independence mixed in with our vacation. 🙂  Plus, were lucky that they are so close in age and will spend time together, even if they aren’t with mom and dad. Besides, they will be “forced” to do excursions and go to the shows with us. Ha! 

Thank you EVERYONE for your responses. You put my mind at ease! I feel confident that we will be able to check in and board together. Once we are in the ship, I will head to the concierge at Michaels and get the rooms/names corrected. 

Celebrity would not allow us to book more than 2 people per room because we are sailing in 6 weeks and the ship is at capacity. But either way, our kids need/want their own space. We would not do well in the same room and since we have 2 boys and 1 girl, our daughter will get her own room without having to deal with her 2 older brothers. The rooms are connected though, so I think they will enjoy having their own “compound” of rooms. They also won’t want to sit and eat with us each night. I like the idea of having us all dine together a few nights and then they can do their own thing the other nights. They will most likely be hitting the buffet and pizza! Honestly, since they are all just one year apart, they’re sort of like a little “gang” (I say that jokingly) and will hang out together and probably know more about the ship and experience more than my husband and I. 

Thank you again for taking the time to help a cruise newbie out! I really appreciate it!

Heather 

Hi Everyone,

We are a family of 5, which includes our 3 teenagers (ages 16, 17 and 18). We are booked on an upcoming cruise, but are in different class cabins. My intention was for my husband and I to be in a suite and then book our kids in ocean view cabins. Honestly, this is our very first cruise and my husband required some convincing. I want this to be a fantastic experience so that it leads to many more cruises in our future, especially because we will be empty nesters in just a few short years. At the same time, I dont see the need to pay 4 times the price to have our teenagers in a suite. They dont want to hang out with us anyway 🙂 I ended up booking 1 suite and 2 ocean view cabins. I booked directly through Celebrity and was required to have an adult listed on each room. This means my husband is on the suite, I'm on one of the ocean view rooms and my 18 year old is on the third room. In order to take advantage of the air credit, my 17 year old is listed on the suite with my husband. I'm confused about several things. The celebrity booking person i spoke with said that once we got on the ship Guest Services would be able to change the names on the rooms so that Im listed on the suite with my husband. Anyone done this? Im assuming its important because the suite includes access to Luminae, Michaels and a beverage package. I want to make sure i can access that stuff along with my husband. Will my sea pass be correct? If i book specialty dining for my husband and I, which is included in our suite, will it be all screwed up because it would be reserved for my husband and 17 year old and then later switched to me? Since right now Im not technically reserved in the suite. 

I also have concerns about how this will effect our boarding process, luggage, etc. The suite includes some type of priority boarding. Celebrity said they would allow our entire family of 5 to board together, but im not feeling confident in that.

Also, newbie question, but our reservation says dining at 6pm. Does this mean dining in the Main Dining Room? How do I make sure they have all 3 of our rooms dining at the same table? Is there a way to link all 3 reservations? 

Lastly, I received email confirmations for all 3 reservations. But, yesterday I received travel documents for 1 of the reservations, but not the other two. Is that normal?

Clearly, I'm confused! Cruise experts....please help! 

Thank you in advance!

Heather