LoveCruisingCC

We got off yesterday as well. I also think it was a really good cruise. There are definitely queues, people just need to be realistic. I have been to 3 cruises during the summer school holidays, this one is no worse in terms of crowds in Windjammer and swimming pools. Seaplex activities did require some lining up.

Like Mic said, getting off the ship on port days was the main issue. The first port (Dunedin) was the worst; second port (Wellington) had an unfortunate medical emergency; no problems with 3rd port (Napier). Can't talk about 4th (Picton) as I was on a shore excursion.

Couch with trundle has a handle sticking out. From memory, the 2 person room with couch only had no handles.

I asked my cabin attendant to setup the trundle as my official booking of that room is for 3 person only. I had 4 rooms in total, our sleeping arrangement differ to the official bookings. Bookings were for 3,2,3,2, but we ended up being 4,2,2,2. The 3,2,3 (4,2,2) were cabins in a row with the same attendants, so they were fine with us changing things around, plus a tip at the beginning helped.

These photos should give you some ideas. Photos taken

1) from inside cabin looking out with outer doors closed

2) from outside with outer doors opened but inside doors closed

3) from outside with outer doors closed

Just got off the Solstice. We have a total of 4 rooms. Rooms with square and triangle have pullman, couch with trundle. We had 2 of those. The other 2 rooms just have a couch with no trundle nor pullman. My family of 4 slept in 1 room, my 2 kids are 4 and 7, they took turns with the couch and the trundle. We did not use the pullman at all.

We had one interconnecting room, but 3 connected via the balcony. We actually found it easier to walk through the balcony to get to the other rooms.

I would be very surprised if you got rain all day every day. I hope that it works out better than that, but may I ask, where did you see the forecast for rain every day? Was it rain with a high percentage, or was it showers, with some low percentage chances of rain? Weather forecasters like to hedge their bets and it seems to me like they often forecast a chance of some rain just in case.

 

I checked out this site, and it seemed like very specific forecasting per hour. I would take that with a grain of salt. The humidity though, I would believe that will be very high at this time of year.

 

http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/New-Caledonia-Island/Noumea/14-Day-Forecast.aspx

I just google extended weather forecast and looked at a few sites. Saw the rain picture next to the days we will be there. Didn't look at percentage, rain vs shower, etc. Replies from everyone thus far are encouraging though, hopefully it is just a tropical shower or two and no cyclone.

thanks everyone.

I will be on a South Pacific cruise next week, going to Noumea, Lifou, Mystery Island and Isle of Pines. Looking at the forecast, it looks like it is going to rain everyday. My questions are:-

1) I have read that cruise ships avoid bad weather these days by changing itinerary, do cruise ship change itinerary in extremely bad weather only?

2) what are the chances that they will go to other ports or re-arrange itinerary just to avoid rain and thunderstorms?

3) what other ports are likely? I want to research ahead on what to do.

4) does anyone know of any websites to see if it is just rain being predicted or cyclone?

I know it is the cyclone season now, and some people will say that this weather is expected. However, January is the best time to travel for me, I know the risks when I booked, just want to be better prepared.

I will be on one of the Solstice Australian sailing in a couple of months time.

When I first read your subject, I thought no big deal if there is no Australian wine being offered. However, if I understand your post correctly, what you're saying is that all wines on offer on Solstice AU sailing is ABOVE the Classic Beverage Package price limit, so you cannot have any wine at all.

I hope Celebrity clarifies & rectifies this quickly for all those on AU sailings, as it really is ridiculous.

Thank you for all your helpful replies.

My previous cruises on Princess & RCI had both had prepaid gratuities as well as Select / Anytime Dining, I did not have to handle the actual tipping part at all apart from when we gave extras cash to our stewards as well as waiters.

For this cruise, the travel agent has provided the first 2 person complimentary gratuities, but not 3rd person, I am trying to understand how the process will work.

Will the complimentary gratuities appear on my onboard account (I can't see it on Celebrity website)? Are tips meant to be in cash? Or just a note / envelope saying how much to draw from my onboard account for each person / service area? What about the 3rd person gratuities that I still have to add? Do I add it to the onboard account?

Appreciate your help and suggestions?

Thanks for all the great ideas and comments.

As one of the pp said, all families are different and have different needs. My original plan of the cruise is with my side of family only, the three staterooms would have been perfect. However, DH wants his mom to come along, and that's where the problem starts. In my case, I have a MIL who will not have her own stateroom. If I get another stateroom for her, she would need my DH to stay with her, which makes no sense to me when my brother's room will have a spare bed.

After reading all the comments, I am mentally prepared for DH to sleep in my brother's room if we find the room too crowded.

Is the upper berth better than the sofa bed? I thought it would be quite a climb for my MIL, hence I thought she would get sofa bed and I get the upper if we have 5 in the cabin.

Re connecting cabin doors in the hallway, do I need to tell Celebrity beforehand to set it up as connecting? Or can this be done after we embark, presumably just telling the cabin steward?

I would much rather stay home than have to cruise with 5 people crammed into one regular-sized cabin that way.

Even prisoners in jail cells are not that tightly confined.

 

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I totally agree with the above. Two is a crowd in one of those cabins.

 

I guess I will get onboard and be prepared to switch myself to my brother's room if it is that crowded.

May be because my kids were only 2 & 4 at the time. I had 4 in a cabin (P&O AU). We were in a oceanview only, whilst not the largest cabin, but we got by OK.

Could you at least bribe the brother to let the kids sleep in his cabin?

 

Or put the 2 mothers in one cabin and the father with the brother in the other?

 

My brother will be fine with the kids, it is me who doesn't want to. They are only 4 & 6. Plus I don't want my brother to feel that he is there to babysit, he would want to go out and enjoy the night, rather than stuck in the cabin.

Thought about the 2 mothers option, but my mom's health means that it is better for her to be with my dad. Hence the reason for the connecting cabin too, so that I am in the "same room" as her.

one more question. In terms of tipping the cabin steward extra for this, how much should I tip? At the beginning of the cruise or at the end?

Thanks for all your responses. It is good to know that the cabin steward is likely to help us out.

The ship is the Solstice. We will be in 1B on the hump. The 2 connecting cabins are true connecting ones via the hallway doors. I think myself and my kids will roam between my room and my parents' all the time, using their bathrooms if needed, etc.

I don't think my MIL and my brother can share a room. If anything, it will end up either myself or DH sharing with my brother, which I don't want to do.

The intended sleeping arrangement for 5 is DH + 2 kids in double, me on upper berth, MIL in sofa bed. DH + kids have shared a queen in our recent vacations early in the year with no problems. I am assuming Solstice's double is like a queen as it is put together by joining two singles.

Actually, with a 2 berth room, can the sofa be converted as a "bed"? I can stay in my parents' cabin. I have read somewhere that people said the sofa bed is not really a sofa bed anyway.

In terms of storage space, I already planned to put my suitcases in my brother's room once I unload my stuff out.

Btw, I did enquire about the Family Veranda, there are only 4 on Solstice and there are all sold out.

I am new to Celebrity, have cruised with Princess and RCI before. I have booked 3 cabins : 2 connecting + 1 right next to it. We have 8 in the party - my family of 4 with 2 young kids, my parents, my brother and my MIL. In order to benefit most on the 123GO offer, the booking is done as such :-

Cabin 1 (connecting) Me, DH + 1 kid

Cabin 2 My parents + 1 kid

Cabin 3 (connecting) my brother and my MIL

In reality, my intention for sleeping arrangement is

Cabin 1 (connecting) Me, DH, 2 kids + my MIL

Cabin 2 (connecting) My parents

Cabin 3 my brother on his own

My room has an upper berth and a sofa bed. My 2 kids are small, so we can fit 5 people in 4 beds. Will the cabin steward allow this? Will he/she set both upper berth and sofa bed up when we only have 3 in that cabin officially? Our cabins are all next to each other, so we should have the same cabin steward. I may not be right, but to me, the amount of work for him/her is the same.

What will be the best way to approach this?

Thank you in advance.

Really appreciate you taking the effort to write this review for the benefits of future cruisers. I have further questions regarding entertainment. Can you tell me what the headliner show is? Is it suitable for young kids? Which shows would you recommend for young kids? My kids will not attend Adventure Ocean (younger one is only almost 3, so will be taking them along to shows at night if it is suitable. I am hoping there will be a musical production, magician on top of the ice skating show.

Thanks for your review so far. So glad to hear the food is still good (or at least comparable to your June 2012 sailing). I have booked 6:15pm My Time Dining for first night. Do you think I will have enough time for the show at 8pm? Bearing in mind that I do have 2 young kids (almost 3 and almost 6).

With regards to your late 11pm sail out, I think it's more to do with the fact that it is their first cruise out of Sydney (discounting the 1 nighter) rather than the harbour restrictions. My Jan 5th sailing is sailing out at 5pm with an overnight in Sydney the night before.

Good to see you are back online. Can't wait to hear more about the food, entertainment and the extra cleaning (noro), the other threads and posts thus far of other Aust sailings have been quite negative. I will be on Voyager in less than 2 weeks, your review will be the most recent and accurate info of the Voyager for me.