cruisinsusin

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Here is the prime rib last night in CO that we won't see on  Celebriity ship anymore. It was excellent too and cooked a perfect Medium Rare. 

Not trying to hijack but we had excellent prime rib in the MDR twice on each of our recent B2B Solstice cruises 

The August Eclipse sailings to and from Iceland have been sold out or nearly so for several months. I see only retreat available for the August 16 sailing

We were on this cruise as well as the preceding Hawaii to Sydney leg. We found the food in the MDR to be much better with more options on the Sydney to Singapore leg and also enjoyed the chef’s specials (Beef Wellington one night ).  The service was excellent on MDR ( and really everywhere) both legs .

Just now, Jim_Iain said:

 

That's good to hear.   I've been on some ships and the line was 50+ deep.     Especially after the restaurants close for breakfast and every one going for pastries and muffins.

They had a few basic croissants there as well

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Recently on some ships they have fired up a Express Service for just Coffee, Cappuccino and Latee at the Galato Bar

That has been the case on Solstice at least since the transpacific 

Just now, cruisinsusin said:

 

Part of above cut off- generally quiet after around midnight to 2 am

recurred later in cruise.

On 1/21/2009 at 10:26 AM, Mysticks1 said:

 

 

 

SHIP NAME	Solstice
CABIN #	9278
DECK # (3-14)	9
CATEGORY: 7-12, 1A-1C, 2A-2D, A1-A2, C1-C3, CS, FV, PS, RF, RS, S1-S2, SG, SV	V1 prime veranda
LOCATION ON SHIP:  Port (left), Starboard (right), Bow (front), Stern (back) or Inside and Forward, Midship (between the forward and aft elevators), or Aft (For example: Port-Midship, Bow-Forward or Inside-Aft)	Starboard  Midship
BED NEAR (Bath, Balcony, Window, N/A)	Bath
QUIET? (Yes/No/Usually)	See below
BALCONY VIEW (Good, Great, Obstructed?)	Excellent
BALCONY SIZE  (Standard, Oversized, Other)	Standard
WIND A PROBLEM? (Yes/No/Sometimes)	No
SOOT A PROBLEM? (Yes/No/Sometimes)	No
PROBLEMS/COMMENTS (Explain all Noise (including crew door issues), Wind and Soot Problems here, plus all comments and information regarding things like connecting or accessible cabins)	Intermittent but annoying vacuum like sound - “whooshing “ interfered with going to sleep but generally quieted after between MN and 2 am and then not back again until about 6am. Could be heard in the hall as well as the  cabin. Reported but continued and then resolved after 6 days. Recurred later
PICTURES (Attach pictures in your review)
DATE OF CRUISE AND "REVOLUTION" COMMENTS	Oct 2023

 

Hi- it was before 8 am but not sure of the exact time

12 minutes ago, triplem67 said:

@cruisinsusin  Thanks so much for that information.  I was looking at yesterday's activities for your cruise on the App but I couldn't find any details listed on the Shuttle.  

Your help is appreciated.  Have a great day.  

You’re welcome!

Yes there was a shuttle. The Celebrity Today reported an approximate travel time of 45 min.,last shuttle leaving city center at 430. It cost  $20 US per person 

Just now, tigervixxxen said:

Yeah I know that. Just you’d think those letting you in to the country would have some concern. I just find it funny. It’s not exactly a strict check to have the folks holding iPads in the dimly lit terminal hall as the only border touch point. Im not saying I want more hassle or anything but that coupled with the fact passports are just left sitting out in public in a bin is a security weakness. With how much people worry about those ETAs and the hoops they jump through to complete shoddy online forms and nobody really seems to care is just something that struck me as an observation. And I know they are just a money grab. 

Agreed that there is a financial incentive to the ETAs 😉

20 hours ago, tigervixxxen said:

. It’s also funny we needed a ETA for New Zealand but nobody checked anything, didn’t require a passport for disembark in NZ, nothing.

We had to show both the Australian and New Zealand ETAs at embarkation 

1 hour ago, dreamer321 said:

I've been closely following the MDR menus for Reflection in preparation for my upcoming cruise.  I recorded the entire weeks menus on Day 1 for the current cruise.( I've been doing this for several weeks now)  I've then been re-checking the menus daily and the Executive Chef has been making modifications to the menus as recently as of the day of service, adding additional entrées or appetizers or substituting out items. You can never fully trust the menu until you sit down at the table.

We are seeing day of changes on the current Solstice sailing

Also on this cruise- 1st night MDR had prime rib-this was quite good.

1 hour ago, Lighthousepointdream15 said:

Did you need a visa for the New Zealand stop and the Australia stop?

Not the OP but also on this cruise- yes you do

53 minutes ago, Wineaux007 said:

I recall when I had a VPN, I had to disable it in order to connect to the ship's internet.  Is this still the case?

With Nord, you need to turn it off and then connect to ship internet and then turn it back on 

44 minutes ago, Tharkhold said:

 

Thanks. I'm assuming this was while the ship was in Spanish waters/territory?

No, fairly sure it was that way most of the trip around the boot of Italy- I’m told it depends to which satellite the ship connects 

When we were in Italy this summer the Starlink IP was listed as Spain 

We stopped at Portofino on our cruise in July and did one of the Celebrity Cinque Terre tours. We often do private tours as well but for this we were glad to have done the Celebrity tour. This is a tender port so we were first off. The guide was excellent and we were able to visit not only Portofino but Santa Margarita, Vernazza and Monterosso. There were significant transportation logistics so we were happy to have that arranged.

There were a couple of port talks but not what I typically think of as Beyond the Podium 

There were not any on the Italy,Croatia cruise in July

17 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

Have you looked at any upcoming sailings on Solstice to see what is on the menu?  From what I can see the new menu has eliminated all of these.  That is why so many have issues.  Most of the beef selections are lower grade and the appetizers are basically soups or salads, no real appetizers.

I have looked, and booked some specialties with OBC with the last sale, but still hoping that there will be updates to the menus as we get closer.

However, for the first time in many years, we have multiple cruises booked with other cruise lines over the next 14 months.

3 minutes ago, tigervixxxen said:

My grand hope is that the pork schnitzel is at least offered and it seems like it still makes an appearance on the 10+ night sailing menus. 
 

At this point which of the beef dishes are the best to order in MDR? I will always get the prime rib but otherwise which one is the best? Flank steak? The steak Dianne doesn’t seem to be too favorable at the moment. 

Steak Dianne was the only really bad dish we had on Constellation although we had it on Eclipse in February and it was fine. Prime rib was good on Constellation. 

50 minutes ago, Wineaux007 said:

Hadn't been on Celebrity for over a year when I just got off Summit 11-night sailing last week.  It seems they replaced Rack of Lamb, Beef Tournedos, Beef Wellington, and Filet with 3-4 slices of medium to well cooked flank steak.  I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about our 34-day B2B on Solstice next month.   

we were served the beef tournados on the Constellation in July (cooked to order and excellent)  so hoping they show up on the same B2B Solstice.

2 hours ago, qster said:

I just booked a cruise in December that will stop by Bimini, we just want to spend the day relaxing on the beach, and maybe explore the island a bit. It would be helpful to clarify some info from those who visited this island recently.

- First we were considering the (Virgin Voyage's) Beach Club mainly because it has beach chairs/umbrella, food & washrooms.  However there were many reviews indicated that is not worth it because the beach is packed like sardines and beach chairs/umbrella likely unavailable due to overcrowded guests coming in from the cruise.  Has anyone been there lately that can confirm?

 

we were there in June- the beach was pretty but extremely crowded- by 10am when we arrived umbrellas were very hard to come by- the first attendant told us none available but the 2nd after a tip was able to go into storage and bring out a few more.