Upgrade Fairy Exist - Solstice Review Jan 2017

Yes Virginia, The Upgrade Fairy Does Exist! To paraphrase the 1897 editorial from The Sun!

And yes, it does have wings and a magic wand! To paraphrase the Cruise Critic Article.

http://www.cruisecritic.com.au/articles.cfm?ID=1428

We had booked two concierge class connecting cabins, near the hump on the Celebrity Solstice in January 2017 for an 8 night South Pacific cruise. Children in one and adults in the other. Original booking was done over the phone, (I was cancelling the family suite on the following 12 day cruise and needing help finding connecting rooms) otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to book a room without someone being over 18. I was trying to move the deposit from the 12 day cruise to the 8 day cruise but that didn’t work, they just did a cancel, refund and repay. But that has nothing to do with this story.

First time sailing on Celebrity and only one cruise on RCI, so just a gold there. No status on Celebrity.

A couple of weeks before the sailing, I get a phone call while mowing the lawn, asking if I would like an upgrade. Reading all the horror stories on CC about people getting moved to less desirable locations I quizzed the guy, I didn’t want to go from everyone having their own bed to my two kids sleeping in a sofa bed.

He never said what room we would get upgraded to. I said no, we don’t want the kids sleeping in the same bed / sofa bed. He kept hinting but never saying we would get a lot more room. I then said to him well we can always split the main bed and my wife and I could sleep on the Sofa bed. I kept on saying kids must have separate bed, so not really interested. Then he said, the main bed can’t be split!

Well that really rang alarm bells! I could think of no normal room that would have the main bed that couldn’t split, so I asked if we could get a roll-a-way into the room, and he went away and checked and came back and said yes. So I said okay, I will take the upgrade. But I just about hung up on him and never took it.

He was then going to transfer everyone over to one booking, I should be able to see it on-line. We would have all the suite benefits, but it was too late for him to do any restaurant bookings for us, so do them once on board. The one specialty dining booking we had made he would transfer over and get the cost of that refunded onto our on-board account.

He hung up and still didn’t tell me what room we had been moved into. I finished mowing the lawn, went inside and in our booking, we had now been moved to:

1611 – Presidential Suite

It wasn’t just the upgrade fairy that was flying at that point! :D

In a couple of days I was contacted by the shore-side concierge team, with details of the benefits (I have the e-mails if anyone is interested) and asking if they could do anything to help. I queried about the shore excursion we had booked, which was now on the cancelled room, as well I responded to the e-mail with the other details that they wanted, like what was the two bottles of booze we wanted in our room, along with what soft drinks etc.

The next day I received a phone call (from Miami to Australia) with the answers to my queries, plus other updates. I then sent another e-mail with all the restaurant reservations we wanted (as they are now all free) and the shore-side concierge made them for us. Including reservations in the salon.

The next couple of weeks were spent reviewing you-tube videos of the penthouse suite and all the other details we could. We went from, we are going on another cruise too WE ARE GOING ON A CRUISE! :hearteyes:

I want to get all the negative bits out the way first. Please don’t take this like I am complaining, we got an upgrade after all, but I just want to let you know that it wasn’t all 100% easy.

We went from US$600OBC down to US$300OBC when going from two rooms down to one. My wife said leave it, as with all the other benefits we were getting, let’s just treat this as part of the cost of the new room. So I never chased up the difference. It may have been a mistake – we will never know!

When the second room was cancelled, so was the tour we were doing (for 2 of the 4 people). The cost of the speciality dining was refunded quickly onto our credit card (for 2 of the 4 people), but the tour wasn’t. We needed to pay for it again (under the new room), and I had to ring after the required number of credit card cycles (a couple of months) to ask if it was going to get refunded. It was, but I needed to double pay and it took a long time for the refund to come through. We never got the refund for the other two people in the dining reservation either, so again we treated this as part of the upgrade cost and didn’t chase it down.

I had already on-line checked-in before the rooms were moved which meant that I couldn’t check-in again, so I couldn’t get a set sail pass with all four names on it. I checked with the shore-side concierge who said from their system everything looked okay, but it did cause a bit of hassle at departure as I needed to fill out some additional paperwork to get the kids onto the same credit card.

To complete the negatives, with stuff that annoyed us on the ship – the room key. We each went through at least 4 cards. One person had 5 in an eight day sailing. They constantly lost their magnetic info so couldn’t open the room. Some times we got the butler to replace them, sometimes we went to customer service ourselves. Why are they that sensitive? It wasn’t just electronics wiping them as the kids needed to get new ones all the time and they didn’t have anything electronic on them.

The butler wasn’t that good. I know, I know you are in the penthouse and you have to complain that they butler wasn’t very good. What life must be like. :rolleyes:

Most afternoons, we had a pre-pre-pre dinner drink on our expansive balcony from the supplied in-room bottles of booze. At roughly the same time each day. But each day we had to ring for ice to be put in the room. Every day! There was no anticipation that every day we needed ice, coke and tonic. We had to ask for it. Every time we asked for something, he did it and generally really fast, but my understanding of the butler is they learn what your schedule is like and anticipate. Not here. When ever we saw him he would ask, is there anything I can get you, or do you need anything and he would do it, but overall he would only do anything when we asked. He came into the room while we were packing and unpacking and never offered to help. This is explicitly listed as a task that you get from the butler in the Penthouse, but it never happened.

In the great scheme of things – all very minor stuff which was vastly out numbered by the fantastic experience that was the week in the penthouse.

So going from Concierge Class to the Penthouse suite – what extra benefits did we get?

• 2 x one litre bottles of spirits in the bar area
  
• Softdrinks and waters in the fridge replenished daily (when asked)
  
• Unlimited dining
  
• Upgrade from Classic beverage package to Premium Package
  
• Tour invite on sail away on the helideck
  
• Tour invite to the bridge
  
• Access to Michaels club
  
• Priority Tender Tickets
  
• Suite Disembarkation luggage tags
  
• Access to Luminae as your main dining room
  
• Room – so much room. A bathroom bigger than an inside cabin (I think)
  
• Deck space with three different lounge chairs
  
• A dining table that we used for board games and room service
  
• Laundry
  

I am not going to give you a blow by blow what we did for each day / second, but just give some of the highlights for the week.

Check-in, we flew down to Sydney on the day we left, so got to the cruise terminal around 1:30pm. There was no line, anywhere, so dropped our bags and then went up stairs to check-in. No line again and after getting our photos taken they went away and found our room keys / cards which were pre-printed. We were then escorted on-board, but it took longer to find our escort than it took to walk as there were no lines for Australian Emigration or security. We left our escort as I wanted to get some GST back (sales tax) and they have a small booth there. We then walked straight on-board and were given a welcome drink of sparkling wine. After finishing our drinks, straight up to our rooms as it was closer to 2pm so assumed the rooms would be ready.

The Penthouse – WOW, just WOW. So much room. The grand piano has a CD player so it’s playing as you arrive to give you background music. The expanded deck. The Walk-in closet. The master bedroom. I have a few photos which I will share later, but if anyone has any questions about the room, please ask.

We walked out on the deck and had a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House.

TRIVIA – for those that want to know if you should book port or starboard for the Solstice in Sydney. While doing the bridge tour someone asked if they go in bow or stern first into Sydney and we got told it is up to the Captain for each port. But they have found after trying it both ways that going in Bow first gets the ship loaded faster and easier in Sydney so it is likely to always be Bow first. So if you have a balcony and want a view of the Sydney Opera House – book Port side.

View from our room:

We also found an invite in our room for a sail away party on the Helideck to meet officers and have great views of Sydney on the way out. It appeared that this was from the Concierge and everyone from all the suites were invited. One glass of Champagne per person. Blankets were given out when we started to pick up speed. Officers didn’t interact much with passengers, as they waited for someone to come and talk to them. But as they huddled in groups it wasn’t very inviting. Plus they spent a lot of the time on the phone talking to the people on the bridge.

Red carpet up to the Helideck

These were some photos we took from the hotel after we got back to Sydney. This is the next cruise, and people on the helideck, so it must be a common occurrence for suite guests.

We went back to the room, after it started raining to watch the coast as we cruised through the Sydney Heads. We watched the pilot boat come up alongside. The pilot jumped on board straight below us. Anyone with a cabin on the hump, it is a good place to watch the sail away, with the extra entertainment of the pilot leap.

Other people watching the sail away from their rooms.

The pilot boat – straight down

Our last view of Australia – the Sydney Heads

Speciality Restaurants.

We had planned to eat in the main dining room each night except for one booking in Silk Harvest. Once we got our cabin moved, we cancelled all our main dining room reservations, and got the shore-side concierge to make bookings for us in Murano and Tuscan Grill. One of our party needs Gluten Free, so that is always taken into account when deciding where to eat, meaning we book in advance to make sure there are options available.

Luminae – The Maître D was the absolute best. When we walked in the first night, we showed our room keys, gave names, which was the last time they were needed. She recognised us and was pulling out the menus as we walked through the front door. She already knew that one of us was Gluten Free. We sat in roughly the same seat / area for every meal in Luminae.

For breakfast on the third day she said where were you last night (we ate at Murano) she missed us. In the end whenever we had a meal somewhere else we always felt like we were cheating on our girlfriend.

The food was always great. One day my 14 year old son didn’t see anything that he liked, so he asked to see the main dining room menu. Which they happily got us. He in the end ordered from the Luminae menu.

To help them, we always asked for the next day’s menu (either at the end of dinner, or going in at some stage during the day) So the celiac could pre-order her dinner. If you wait for the evening it’s a limited choice, but if you ask the day before you could have pretty much anything on it.

The Sommelier also added to the enjoyment of the meal. On the premium beverage package, you could have wine by the glass, but only a discount on a bottle. Most of the wine was brands I didn’t know in Australia, so in the end we told her what we were eating and let her recommend. We just said whatever but keep within the package limits. We had some really nice wines. She would open the bottle, pour our glasses, then leave the bottle on the table. Come back later and top up our glasses, etc. until the bottle was empty. So we had a bottle of wine but by the glass at no cost.

Later in the week, we asked if she could give us a tour of the wine wall in the main dining room, which she was happy to do. We had a private tour on the last sea day after lunch. She went through the details of the wine wall, they stock it daily from the cartons, the different wine fridges they have. Each fridge has a different variety. We also went back of house to see the different locations for each restaurant ending up at Tuscan Grill where their wine is stored in the entrance.

TRIVIA – she explained that all wine used on Celebrity ships goes to Florida first and then is moved out to the ships from the central warehouse. So an Australian wine would go from Australia to Miami then back to Australia to be put on the Solstice. As they have to order so many months in advance to get it from the warehouse to the loading point they track usage very closely. They order more for Australian Cruises!

We loved the food, the wine, the staff, the experience. It was carefree. You were hungry, it was open, just rock up. No its 6 O’clock hurry up to get to the reservation. Just take your time and go when ready, early late - whatever. We have decided that we wouldn’t book a room on a Celebrity ship if we can’t get into Luminae.

Murano’s. Three months before this cruise, we were in Venice and purchased some nice glass on the island of Murano, but this was French food, not Italian, so again no point at all to this background, we just loved the name because we had recent history with it.

We ate here on the first formal night, as if you are going to dress up, you might as well go somewhere nice. The food was beautiful as was the setting. The one thing I missed was not having any windows to look outside. They just had frosted glass so you see light and dark, just not the rolling ocean.

The food was fine dining French. Rich sauces, minimalist and stunning. Some foods were prepared table side. There were two soufflés to choose from, a Chocolate or Grand Marnier. The soufflés were Gluten Free so the kids had the Chocolate and I had the Grand Marnier. They won. It was nice, but we wouldn’t pay to rush back there, mainly because it isn’t a place where you can relax. A beautiful setting if you had a special occasion.

Silk Harvest – The worst dining experience on the ship. Food that wasn’t very nice. Staff that weren’t trained on how to handle special diet requests. A Sommelier that didn’t know about wine (we asked for a dessert wine, don’t have one, can we see the menu, what about that one listed under dessert). If we had paid for this, we would have asked for our money back.

Tuscan Grill – Tooo Muucccch Fooood. As any family style Italian restaurant should be, there was way too much food that was beautiful to eat and had great flavour. The waiter was the best on the ship and kept on suggesting extra things. When we finished ordering he said I will also bring out X, and X and X. For a pre-dinner drink, my wife said, surprise me. Which he did, so I punched him.

Just kidding – he got made a special cocktail which my wife asked for at each meal after that. We also had nice wine that complimented the Italian food well.

After eating at all the speciality restaurants, we asked everyone what was their favourite and which one would they like to eat at again. Everyone chose Tuscan Grill, as we were in Michael’s Club for pre-dinner drinks with Officers we asked the Concierge to make reservations for us the next night and he said originally that he thought they were full, but came back later and said yes all booked. We went there the next night and they had no record of our booking, but after lots of typing, the Maître D said come this way and showed us to a table. (He never said he didn’t have room for us, we just guessed this as there was a lot more typing than the people in line in front of us – however, the waiter confirmed it later. He said – we have to look after our guests staying in the Penthouse Suite.)

Sushi-on-Five – We sailed on the Solstice just after the dry dock where they turned Bistro-on-Five into Sushi-on-Five. Even though it just came out of dry dock, all the signs in the lifts and other places still had references to Bistro-on-Five. It could get very confusing. They don’t do take-away Sushi, you have to eat there. Had three lunches, all included in the cabin, so no cost. Often went there for a late lunch as open after the Buffet closes. Nice food, could handle gluten free easily. Changed some items to make them gluten free (ie sauce on top was not put on.) For non-seafood eaters, there is plenty to choose from. Was never busy, but towards the end of the cruise patronage picked up. Maybe because people had spent all week looking for Bistro-on-Five following the signs. The Maître D was friendly and after first visit didn’t ask for our room number, just showed us to the table.

Mast Grill – pre-prepared burgers and fries. Limited menu that you could ask for items to be added or removed but really just a production line. Burgers were small, but felt guilty asking for extra fries or a second burger due to line moving slow. Also very small number of hours that were open. Nothing wrong with the food, but if looking for a mid-afternoon snack often found they were closed.

Gelataria – included in the room, so no extra charge for the Penthouse. There wasn’t any person dedicated to this, they just came over from Café al Bacio if someone was waiting. Annoying for people at the Café as they now had less people to serve them. Annoying if you wanted ice cream as you had to wait until someone noticed you waiting and then came over.

Oceanview Café – Buffet. Really nice area, lots of island stations offering different selections. Could get sandwiches made for you and toasted or make your own. Some islands contained food that was special of the day and changed on a daily basis. You can find a manager to get you some GF food (ie fresh and not cross contaminated) but generally GF food was not placed anywhere near Gluten containing food. Signs above each item showed ingredients and there were special GF dessert sections. Speaking to the ship F&B manager later he said that every person dealing with food will soon have to go through annual training on how to handle special diets.

Room Service – Ordered through the TV screen, and within seconds of placing the order, we were contacted by phone to confirm the order and any diet requirements. IE cheese plates with gluten free crackers (they never had any, so cheese plates with no crackers as we had our own). All food was delivered by our butler, so they rang him when it was ready. Items listed on the room service menu for extra cost, didn’t cost anything.

Blu – Never ate here as with Luminae there was no need.

Main Dining Room – Never ate here. Beautiful room that we walked through a few times.

Ports Visited

Noumea – Must be the Nassau of the South Pacific. Pretty much every cruise stops here. We had visited only a year previously (plus I had been there for work) and with two other beach stops planned, we stayed on the ship and didn’t get off.

There are two docks where ships stop. Larger ships get the industrial container port (Legend of the Seas and Solstice are considered large ships), smaller ships dock down town. One side of the ship look at containers, the other side get a lovely view of the Nickel loading facility. A free ship supplied bus takes passengers to the visitors centre. From there you can hire taxis or cars to take you to the main beaches. On the other side of the road (from visitors centre) is a supermarket where you can buy drinks or other snacks to take back on board the ship.

When it was time to leave we had a really nice cruise past downtown, including where the other ships dock.

Lifou – As this is a tender port, people started lining up early to get tickets to head to the beach. But being in a suite, you just head to Michaels Club when you are ready and the Concierge takes you down to the loading bay to catch the next boat over. We went over in the morning and had a nice swim. Water was a bit cool, not much of a beach, but it’s easy to get to. The Concierge gave us instructions on how to get to a nicer beach, however this suited our needs. We went back to the ship for lunch. Then tried to catch a tender back to shore for our excursion.

We wanted to find out a bit more about Vanilla, so did the Vanilla House tour booked through Celebrity. The bus was packed and drove for about an hour to the location. They give a brief history of Vanilla and how it grows, then you spend another hour driving back. Didn’t do that much, but at least you get to see a bit of the countryside, and I know a lot more about Vanilla now. Tour cost was A$79.47 per person. Would recommend it, but it is definitely only worth doing once.

Very nice scenery as the ship cruises past the tropical island as we leave. Lovely sitting on the balcony sitting back, having a pre-pre-pre dinner drink or two and watching the world slip by. Warm breeze drifting lazily over the railing, keeping you cool without giving you a chill.

Isle of Pines – Best beaches on the South Pacific where cruise ship go. Okay, there are lots of really nice beaches in the South Pacific. But out of all the bays where Cruise Ships tender, (the 5 that I have been to anyway) this has to be the best. There were multiple beaches to choose from, which meant that it never felt crowded, busy but not crowded. One beach windy – go to the other one. Locals selling seafood cooked to order. Nice sand, clear water. You could snorkel, but consider that on most days during summer a few thousand people walk into the water, there isn’t much coral left near the beach.

Going over to the beach, same deal as at Lifou, just head down to Michaels Club when ready and they take you to the next boat. No need for tickets. Getting back, you can either walk to the front of the queue if the concierge is there, but on an Australian cruise that won’t go down well. <Death Stares> :mad: Or stand somewhere noticeable and the concierge will come and grab you and walk you to the front of the line.

Sail away time came and with a slight shudder we were off cruising past palm tree lined hills. There were birds skimming the ocean waves rising and falling just centimetres above the water. The locals came and wished us farewell, yahooing next to the ship speeding alongside and waving, then doing circles to make another pass. Time for another drink put the feet up on the ottoman and inhale with my eyes that which is cruising.

Other Tours

We booked one other tour through the cruise line. This was a full ship wide tour. While looking at the cruise planner one day, I noticed the tour. By the time I asked the family who wants to go on it, and got back to the cruise planner, it had disappeared. I looked everywhere for it, but couldn’t find it. I e-mailed Celebrity shore excursions and they said it was only bookable on the ship.

A few days after getting the e-mail saying the tour wasn’t bookable, it appeared back in the cruise planner, so I booked it as quickly as I could. A$118.37 per person.

This was a great tour, we started in the Bridge, then did tours of the crew bar and dining room, laundry, waste area (more exciting than it sounds), engine control room, food and drink storage areas, kitchen and a few other places.

Lots of interesting facts about the ship, including what I said earlier about going Bow first into Sydney. For the waste area, they separate all the glass and cans from general waste. This is important as it helps reduce overall waste. It also helps the crew as they sell the crushed glass and cans and the money raised goes back into the crew social fund which gives them prize money for crew games and events.

They also talked about what makes an Australian cruise different from when the ship is based in the US. For a start - we drink a lot more. A LOT MORE! They said that the previous cruise had to restock in Fiji as they started to run low and would have run out before making it back to Australia. They overstocked for our cruise!!!!! In the photos below the crushed glass is only after one night. (We took the tour the first sea day.)

In the Galley I asked about special diets and they showed us the area behind a red line where all the special meals are prepared. Only certain people are allowed to cross the red line. The F&B manager told us about one cruise he had a passenger contact them before hand that had a child that was allergic to just about everything, so they asked if they could bring their own food onboard. The F&B said okay, on the first day, he met up with the family and they were given all the food, which was put into a separate fridge, locked and the key was given to one chief who was the only person who prepared that child’s meals. An extreme example, but shows Celebrity would be able to help most people if planned out. The only problem we had with the special meal was the wait staff at Silk Harvest.

On the wall they had all the meals for the rotation. From memory I think they had a 14 day rotation, but it could be 21. In the laundry they showed us where they wash the towels, sheets, do the dry cleaning and ironing.

It was a great tour and if you have only done a few cruises I would recommend it, as it gives you a great appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes.

Controls used when in port

View from bridge when docking – helps them line up

Crew cafeteria

Crew bar

Crushed Glass after 15 hours on board

Engines

Some of the stores

Some more of the stores

In Galley to help the crew

Dining Rotation

While going through the dining room, we saw that they were doing the Riedel tasting. I was interested in doing this and asked the concierge if because we were on the premium beverage package and all alcohol was included, would we get a discount on this – he said no!

The behind the scenes tour was listed as lasting for 4 hours, but only lasted 3. We saw a lot and the timing was about right. I wouldn’t have wanted it to last much longer than that. There was a lot of walking and due to the size of the group, some people used lifts while others used the stairs. The only part of the ship we didn’t see was behind the scenes at the theatre.

Later in the cruise we got an invite from the concierge to visit the bridge which we went to, and got almost the exact same spiel from the same guy. This time for free. It was still interesting hearing it for a second time, as we could ask the questions which after we left the bridge last time went (slap head ! why didn’t we ask him that). They went through why the ships are registered in Malta, and it has to do with the history and that the crew can keep their service listed with a European registry which helps them with their retirement.

Entertainment

Talking to an Officer one day about the different cruise lines, he made the comment that when talking to friends on RCI ships, they joke that RCI is better for shows and Celebrity is better at food. I can’t really comment much about that, only having done one cruise on each line, but I would say that the shows on the Solstice were very good and held their own. Not would, gladly pay extra, great, but still very good.

On the two formal nights, the centre section of the balcony level was reserved for Suites guests and was roped off. If you came in the right side entrance and tried to sit in the middle you got moved along. If you came in the left side moved the rope, and just sat down, nothing happened to the dozens of people that did that.

One thing I appreciated is that they said at the start of any show to take as many photos as you want and post on social media. Don’t use a flash, but take as many photos to share. Much friendlier than a lot of other shows now days. We didn’t take any, but it was nice to know we could. But we did take photos on all the back stage tours that we did.

We didn’t go to the shows every night. On some nights we just stayed in our room playing board games that we had brought with us, went shopping or just wondered around the ship. We were never bored.

I have been on three cruises and still haven’t been in a pool on a ship. I just wonder how much is actually water in those pools. We also didn’t have time to attend any of the pool deck competitions – sexiest man alive, belly flop etc.

We had fun at the afternoon indoor competitions. My wife and daughter love bingo, so they went on the first day and had the win a cruise tickets for the draw on the last day. You didn’t have to play bingo on the last day, just had to be there. But we were hoping the upgrade fairy had one last shake of pixie dust so went along. And you can’t just go along, you have to play.

And guess what – The upgrade fairy was in the room! :halo:

But more of that after the break

Great review. Love the detail.

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Is it after the break yet? Did you win the cruise? Enjoyed your review and good fortune!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Great review. Love the detail.

 

 

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Thank you. While doing research for other cruises, I have tried to answer questions that I looked for in other reviews.

My wife loves all the results of the planning, but does complain when I provide her with too many details.

Is it after the break yet? Did you win the cruise? Enjoyed your review and good fortune!

 

 

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Sorry about that - I should get everything else posted shortly. Life got in the way for the last couple of days as it was my 20th wedding anniversary yesterday.

We enjoyed Trivia, it was often hard to find somewhere to sit, as everyone else enjoyed trivia as well. They were fun events. It was good to have a mix of ages to help with the answers. When they played the theme song trivia, my youngest piped up – that’s the show that Grandma watches every afternoon! – So we got Murder She Wrote correct. Sadly the upgrade fairy wasn’t waving her wings so no keyrings or pens for us.

But – where was I – that’s right the upgrade fairy at Bingo.

They did the draw for the free cruise and with our fingers and toes crossed, we …

Didn’t win. Onto the first game of bingo – we won that! Shazam! We won at Bingo, We Won at Bingo! But so did a whole lot of other people so the prize was less than what we had paid for the tickets, but it was still good fun.

They come and ask for your receipt for when you purchased the game boards and tell you to go to the casino afterwards to get the payout. I had just shoved the receipt into my pocket, so I was grateful that I still had it and hadn’t thrown it away. I just had to separate it from all the other bits and pieces of paper in my pocket to find the right receipt.

During the second game we said, wouldn't it be funny if we won that as well. Sadly we didn't. But we also won the third game as well!!!!!! :D Yes the upgrade fairy sprinkled her fairy dust, gave us the upgrade to the Presidential suite and we won the first and third games at Bingo. And the third game – we were the solo winners, with the big jackpot! :D :D

Strangely enough – that evening both the Butler and the room attendant knew we had won at Bingo! :confused:

Bars

My bar of choice in the evening was the Martini Bar. Just before the cruise, I started making Martini’s at home and wanted to try out different options. I never came across one that wasn’t covered by the premium package.

A couple of times when there weren’t many passengers wanting drinks, the barmen would muck around with one going to the other side of the bar pretending to be a customer. He started to make complaints and demand free this and free that etc. saying that he was heading straight away to guest services to complain. While I never saw the complaints being made by actual customers, I could just imagine them actually being yelled at the barmen. Said in jest – it was very funny – and eye opening. :eek:

For one of the barman it was his first contract. I felt sorry for him that the first time on a ship had to be in Australian waters. Plus going back and forth over the Tasman sea, which all the crew talked about the last few trips being really rough – ie water over the bow. One of the other barman said Nah – the 3/4 day cruises that only stop at Key West are the worst – they are really booze cruises as everyone has been to Key West before so no one gets off and all the entire ship does for 3 days is drinks!

If a barman would drop an ice cube he would just say, I am saving that for later to make a dirty martini. The showmanship was very good and much appreciated by the audience. Pouring multiple drinks at once, spinning cups and glasses etc. I always got a seat or stood at the bar, so service was good. But I did hear complaints from people saying that if you sat in the many comfy seats around the bar they never saw any wait staff to order drinks from. Busiest time is just when a show gets out. A lot of people walk past the bar and stop for a nightcap.

If you went to a show on the balcony level and couldn’t get the attention of one of the few bar staff wandering around, the closest bar for any sort of frozen cocktail / mocktail is the Ensemble lounge. That’s a long walk, and the staff at the Ensemble lounge weren’t the friendliest, so only did that once.

The Molecular bar no longer exists on the Solstice (even though the web site still includes it) and the World Class Bar that replaces it was almost always empty. We also didn’t go into vintages. On a cruise mid-afternoon, a frozen cocktail playing trivia is more fun than just sipping wine.

The rest of the bars had good service levels and were helpful.

You generally got chucked out of the Sky Observation Lounge after the afternoon trivia as it was reserved exclusively for a Captains Club event.

Room

Cruise Critic has a number of nice photos of the Penthouse, so view the link below to get a better idea of what the room was like.

http://www.cruisecritic.com.au/photos/ships/celebrity-solstice-381/penthouse-suite-171103/

The photos speak for themselves. These are just a couple of points that I had noticed that other people had asked about the penthouse suite.

The main bedroom is behind the hump, so it is underneath cabins, no noise from the flow above came through. Overall the room is very quiet. The windows are double glazed so no outside noise come in. You wouldn’t hear a New Year’s deck party in this room.

The double shower is massive. The water doesn’t drain that fast, so you can often have waves from the motion of the ocean on your shower floor – it was very fun to watch.

The outdoor spa / hot tub is a single bath. But it is behind the hump, so while cruising even if it is very windy / rainy, you are well protected from the wind. The deck chairs in this section are also very protected. However, the bath is very slippery and longer than a normal bath. While sitting in it, it was very hard to have a drink and read without sliding down. You needed to use one hand to brace yourself. Very hard to relax in.

The spa bath in the bathroom was much more relaxing and had a proper head rest.

The second toilet/shower room had almost no storage space. Soap bags had to be stored in the cupboard opposite the bathroom rather than in it.

Of the three types of chairs on the deck, these were the most comfortable and where we spent most afternoons, having pre-pre-pre dinner drinks.

The Cruise Critic photos have generic products in the bathroom. They now have Bvlgari products, as per our photo. These were refreshed on a daily basis when used.

Getting off the ship

We received the suite bag tags two days before departure. Everyone went Boo. They were red rather than the standard Green and didn’t have any number on them. We were told we could get off whenever we wanted to and our bags would be waiting. As we were in no hurry, on the morning of departure we went and had a late breakfast just before Luminae closed and then went back to our room to wait awhile. The stateroom attendant came and asked if she could start getting the room ready for the next guests, so she started in to the main bedroom and we decided to leave. We got told go up to go down. Pick a lift and press the up button to get on then ride to top and then ride to the departure level. But being on level 11, the lifts weren’t full, so we got on the next one going down.

Our bags were waiting for us and we quickly got out of the terminal onto the street. Where we walked to the hotel we were staying in for the next few nights.

Bits and pieces

Not sure where this information fits in, so this is just odds and sods.

I purchased 4 x 1l bottles of Bacardi for US$40 the second to last night. I had been hoping that they would have a sale at some point, but the price never dropped. I was expecting them to keep the bottles and get them delivered on the last night to our room, but I was given them straight away to take with me. I don’t know if this was because we had a beverage package, were in a suite or there was only two nights left, but I was surprised.

For those interested, we got the cruise points for the room we had paid for, not the upgraded Penthouse suite.

The captain was the funniest captain I have ever had. Captain Tasos has the driest humour you could imagine. He gave a talk about when the Solstice was built and he was the company man during the build (ie the representative on site). It was a great talk but the humour he added had the audience in stiches. Hunt him down and get on the cruises he is leading. I would hate to attend his staff meetings as you would never know what he would say next. Two pieces of advice, once you have found out he is on your cruise. 1) Go to every talk or event he is at. 2) Do not under any circumstances miss The Liar’s Club. I was walking around and went into the main theatre while this was on. Most of the officers were at the back of the theatre watching. I am not sure if they were there to listen and laugh (but considering they would hear this every week) more likely to be grateful it wasn’t them on the stage sitting next to the captain and to commiserate with the officers that were.

Don’t just take my word for it:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/showthread.php?t=2423390