mauimary

We already had this cruise booked as part of a side by side. Saved us 900$ on a sunset veranda.

We did RT Hawaii years ago on RCCL out if LA. Turned out to be one of our fav cruises. Many folks like ourselves do it for all the sea days. Seas we’re quite smooth. Granted you do not spend much time in the Islands. You really need a land trip there. We definitely would do it again. Bring it on Celebrity!!

We were on the Beyond in July. Several nights we had no dining room reservations so we just showed up early by apx 6p and walked right in and we’re seated at a lovely table by the window. Since the Beyond has four dining rooms you can move among them. Each one has their own menu. Some selections are common to all four. We found ourselves going back and forth between Tuscan Restaurant and Normandie Restaurant.

I thought the title of this thread was How to save on drinks W/O a drink pkg? This thread has gotten way off topic. We have had drink pkgs in the past but on this next cruise next week we have decided to go at it with no perks. So no drinks other than Elite Happy Hour. We did however purchase the non alcohol pkg for coffees teas and water. We will cover off our tips. We are Elite so will settle with those benefits and purchase what we would like. We are trying this out to see if it can work for us. We are planning to maybe take one bottle of wine but in the past we have dragged that back home. So May not do that. Nice to hear how others are making this work for them w/o an alcohol pkg. 🍻 cheers

I hear you saying that there is only one Secrurity Scanner and that is used for the entire airport both for flights within Europe and for those flights that are headed to destinations beyond Europe. We were under the impression everyone in our super long que was headed for destinations with Europe.

Robin thank you for reporting back. Sounds much better than our fiasco in July. Hoping like you say back to the US is less complicated than flying within Europe. We did not have to check luggage and we couldn’t enter the que for security prior to four hrs! The whole ordeal was exhausting. We are repeating this process in mid Dec and have no status other than comfort plus on Delta tickets. We did learn flying back to the US from Barcelona that we needed the other check in machine as well. Hoping we have the same experience you did.

We just hang on to them and take a few with us when we travel. Will take several with us on a Mexico cruise in a few weeks. We have to be extra careful as we have foreign travel coming up a few weeks after.

So very refreshing to read positive comments. We were on the Solstice in June to Alaska and felt the same. We are returning in less than three weeks to cruise to Mexico this time. Very excited. We are in a regular Sunset Veranda which we have done before and loved it.

We experienced this mess in July when flying from AMS to Barcelona. We spent 3.5 hrs in the line for security. So glad we made the decision to travel from the USA with only carryon luggage as well as a backpack each. Not exactly fun but with very careful planning and yes it can be done we managed a two week land trip and a nine day cruise. Now what we are wondering is this still as big of a mess when flying internationally back to the USA vs flying within Europe? We have tickets to return to the US from AMS a week before Christmas!! Intra Europe was a disaster and we are still trying to recover the costs of a canceled flight.

Our last cruise on Solstice was in June 2022 Alaska rt out if Seattle. It was newly back up and running after sitting off the coast of San Diego for two years. Still we’re working out the kinks when we were on her. We loved it even though the weather was a bit on the rainy side. We will be joining Solstice again in a few weeks and are very much looking forward to this cruise to Mexico.

We feel it is very important to do one’s homework before booking any cruise. The lines all have their own personalities and demographics. Just like the ships within a line have their own characteristics and bells and whistles. Would you believe that over twenty years ago we actually purchased a book called “Cruising for dummies” even though the title was an absolute insult to our intelligence! It did however give us much info on cruiseline personalities and more importantly demographics so that we did not find ourselves with the twenty-something all night party crowd or the ship that was a ghostown by 10pm. We found ourselves with RCCL & Celebrity and have been very happy. It was a great match as we had appropriate expectations. Not everyone knows about Cruise Critic so those of us that follow and post are no doubt in the minority number of actual cruisers. Some people think CC is a place to criticize and not necessarily a place to share useful info. Lucky for us we discovered CC very early in our cruising vacation experience. So much useful info on about anything you would want to know about a line and ships in particular. A little surfing around and one can actually gather a lot of very useful info so that we can find ourselves on a ship that suits our expectations. Currently I believe we all need to have an extra dose of patience as staff is working very hard and sometimes with reduced numbers during these times when everyone is traveling more and in such huge numbers and the dining rooms and buffets are busy. I really hope this cruise improves for the OP as my fear is they have found themselves on the wrong ship.

We have Elite status so we are going to try using the Sail Only on a cruise to Mexico in later Oct. We decided to buy the coffee pkg only because we like to sit and enjoy our time in El Bacio. We can easily get our $$ worth there even though we can get complimentary cappuccino in Tuscan. We will use the Elite 5-7 happy hour and our free combined internet. We wanted to give it a try to see how well it works for us. We are light drinkers so do not really need a drink pkg.

We too we’re on the Solstice in June and in a Sky Suite with our son and grandson. We were very happy. We did see some wear around the ship but nothing that would prevent us from cruising on her again. Matter of fact we are in mid Oct this time to Mexico. Staff was wonderful as were all the dining and bar staff that we encountered. We like cruising on a traditional ship. If one expects glitz you need to cruise on the E Class which are much newer. We love the Solstice. We cruised in 2019 to New Zealand and Australia from Vancouver and couldn’t have been happier!! We love having her on the West Coast as it is so very convenient for us whereas Florida takes some work!

In our case we booked it the end of August with final payment the next the next day for a cruise in Oct. then we couldn’t have had a best price guarantee to begin with! (Rep told us that was what we booked). What we booked was a Cruise Only this time. Decided to go with our Capt Club Elite benefits.

Question??? Will Celebrity still reprice a cruise after final payment giving it back to you in Non refundable onboard credit? The rep that I spoke with told us NO saying we already booked it with best price guarantee. But the price is now lower. She told me that policy changed March 31. Does anyone currently have experience with this?

We were on the Beyond in July and several crew members were on their first contract that we spoke with. Hence one cannot say they picked the most experienced staff for the new Glitzy Beyond. Capt Kate also said that she did not hand pick her staff.

We booked all our dining room reservations on the Celebrity website for our Late October cruise on the Solstices. You cannot do it on the app. They are showing up on the planner. The menus are there as well. The way we look at it is if we do not see anything that interests us we will just eat in the Buffet. We find the app works pretty good. It’s nice to see the ship map as well. One can get an idea of what there is to do in a port and either book it or find something private on your own or if all else fails walk around!!

Love seeing your photos of Old Quebec. They are beautiful. It is so beautiful there. We loved to just walk and walk. We were there in October when they had the most incredible Halloween decorations and displays.

Celebrity Solstice has not begun their Mexican Riviera Cruises yet. The ship is still cruising Alaska so stay tuned.

I love reading all your updates each day. Ollie’s Trolley was a fun tour when we did it. It was nice to be in the open air and Acadia is beautiful. Hope you have a wonderful time.

We have been to Alaska five times. Our last four have been mid to late June. This is the only time this year that we have had clouds and drizzle although it cleared for Ketchikan and Skagway. That however did not keep our grandson out of the outdoor pool after walking around town! Our seas were good. What we also like are the long days when it’s light for viewing. For us we missed too much in later August because it got dark so much earlier. Our weather was not as good as well.

We have now been to the Amalfi Coast three times and love it. We have done all three tours with Rome In Limo. I agree with the recommendations to visit Ravello Amalfi and Positano. In each case we have had a wonderful Italian lunch in one of these towns. Our driver made the arrangements for us and it was wonderful.

We have done this exact itinerary three times now and we love it. We love the sea days and the chance to enjoy the nature lectures by the naturalist Brent Nixon. We have taken our grandchildren twice now. This last time in June (we booked it very early) we offloaded onto a smaller boat and got much closer to Dawes Glacier.

Doesn’t sound like it has improved any.

Curious as to what Schipol us like now for travel back to the US on Delta is currently like for someone that is traveling that does not have status with an airline that only has Comfort Plus.