Just off Solstice!

[ginag]

Just sitting in thr airport, just off Solstice: Aug 1st sailing. I had a great time, some thoughts:

 

Aqua class was well worth it just to eat in Blu

Over 3100 passengers, ship felt very crowded especially around the pool

Could not even get near the outdoor pools on a sea day

Dress code, what dress code: tee shirts and jeans on most nights, some made an attempt to dress on formal nights. Next time I'm not bringing half the clothes

Lots of kids: over 500

Great food

Great service for a ship this size

Loved my cabin

Outdoor pool area too small for 3000 people

Amazingly beautiful ship

Tuscan Grill was great

Murano very good

 

Overall a great time, looking forward to Eclipse!

 

Thank you for posting your thoughts! I will be on this ship in 2 weeks and am hoping for a quieter cruise than what you experienced. I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed! :)

[Mrs_Tiki]

cruiseacecat,

 

We were on Aug 1 sailing with Avalon1025. The Hotel Directon on Solstice is Sue Richardson. Since she has just returned from vacation, I am sure that she will be on your sailing on the 22nd. We had gotten to know her on the Summit a few years ago and find her to be a lovely, interesting person.

 

Hope you have a great cruise ~ we sure did!

[Lois R]

I believe the OP stated the no shirt/no shoes was a 20 something...not a kid.

 

We are the opposite...we choose cruise dates that are high in kids - our little people can make friends/makes cruise more enjoyable for them!!!

 

Say what you will about kids and the pitter/patter of their feet....I will take that over a loud drunk, chair hogger, balcony smoker, alcohol smuggling and poor dressing adult.

 

Hi Amy, I guess I ran my sentence together. I was meaning it does

not matter whether it is a kid or adult~having no shirt or no shoes

is tackey when you are in a bar or lounge.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Hi Amy, I guess I ran my sentence together. I was meaning it does

not matter whether it is a kid or adult~having no shirt or no shoes

is tackey when you are in a bar or lounge.

 

Having no shirt and no shoes is tacky even at McDonalds! If they will refuse to serve a customer in such a situation what does it say when cruise line staff are so afeared of their jobs that they will not enforce even this most basic of hospitality rules! :eek:

[Fighterone]

It's vacation-crunch-time-before-school-starts. So glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for posting. ;)

 

Thank you for posting your thoughts! I will be on this ship in 2 weeks and am hoping for a quieter cruise than what you experienced. I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed! :)

 

avalon1025, sorry there were so many kids. Changes the entire ambiance of the ship. And I am not someone who dislikes kids normally. Just in great numbers. Can you tell me who the hotel director was? Will be on Solstice on the 22nd. And really hoping for fewer kids. :) Anne

 

Ditto to all 3 of you!

 

When does school start in most states?

In Houston, the children will be back in school on August 23.

 

Lois I hope you are right. We cruised during Thanksgiving once and :eek: never again!

Hi,:)I agree with Anne and think you quite on target. There probably

won't be 1/2 that many kids on your sailing. I am betting less than

100...and it may not even be that many.

[Lois R]

Ditto to all 3 of you!

 

When does school start in most states?

In Houston, the children will be back in school on August 23.

 

Lois I hope you are right. We cruised during Thanksgiving once and :eek: never again!

 

Where I live, school starts back the same week as you. I believe

in the NE schools used to start back after Labor Day. Not sure

if that still holds true. I sail Sept 5th to the Caribbean and

I doubt there will be 500 kids on that one.

 

As for a cruise to Europe in the middle of October that is 2 weeks?

I truely don't think there will be many young children onboard at all.

[ginag]

Ditto to all 3 of you!

 

When does school start in most states?

In Houston, the children will be back in school on August 23.

 

Lois I hope you are right. We cruised during Thanksgiving once and :eek: never again!

 

Fighterone: I guess we will hope for the best! See ya soon! :)

[teajak]

Last night i was having a drink sitting at crush around 11PM, some twenty something ordered a drink with no shirt, shorts and barefoot. Then walked through the lobby. The waiters are so worried about a bad comment card they just put up with it. Very sad

I would have been to guest relations in a hurry with that and if nothing was done the persons name would have been sent to corporate. I fyou don't complain about things like this nothing will get done.:mad:

[cruiseacecat]

cruiseacecat,

 

We were on Aug 1 sailing with Avalon1025. The Hotel Directon on Solstice is Sue Richardson. Since she has just returned from vacation, I am sure that she will be on your sailing on the 22nd. We had gotten to know her on the Summit a few years ago and find her to be a lovely, interesting person.

 

Hope you have a great cruise ~ we sure did!

Hi,

 

Thanks for the info. I met Sue a while back and it will be nice to see her again. Glad you had a great cruise.

 

Anne

[Grumpy100]

We are sailing on the Solstice on 11/7/10. This will be our first Celebrity cruise. There shouldn't be too many kids on board at that time that is why we booked in November. Happy sailing

[cougar 17]

We were on the Aug 1 sailing also. We had the time of our lives. The ship never really felt crowded at all. The food was fantastic. The best we ever had on a cruise ship. I thought most people were dressed very nicely. There were kids on the cruise but it is summer vacation. It is nice to see so many families enjoying themselves.

 

Everyone's perspective is different. I have been on many, many cruises and I would highly recommend this one to anyone.

[DanManBob]

Amyinvail, I do not believe anyone in this thread is anti-kid. You apparently travel with your small children (or grandchildren), so of course you would look for cruises that will include a large number of kids.

 

As for your comments about drunks and smokers, I certainly second that emotion....lol.

 

The other couple that will be with us on our October cruise takes many trips, including cruises, with their young (under 12) grandchildren. They do so on cruises where there will be many children, for the reasons you mentioned.

 

For a more "adult" experience, such as the cruise with us, we opted for a time of year and itinerary where there would not be many young kids....and hopefully not many drunks either! As the saying goes, there is a time and place for everything....and on this trip they and we wanted an adult-oriented experience.

[Straughn]

We learned about the school schedule the hard way on Galaxy several years ago when she was sailing out of Baltimore. We booked a 9-night cruise that ended on Labor Day. We (incorrectly) assumed that with schools either already in session or starting the day after Labor Day, that there wouldn't be too many kids. WRONG!!! What we didn't know was that New York schools went back a couple of days after Labor Day. 600 teens and young kids. The teens and pre-teens were clearly bored by the end of the first full day. They congregated in the stair wells and had major attitude when you tried to get by, they ran up and down the halls at 2AM ringing the doorbells on the suites, I never got in an elevator when all the buttons weren't pushed, and I won't even go in to the antics that went on around and in the pool. I have never seen so much security inside and at the door to the disco.The bartenders were carding anyone that looked like they were under 30. DH had a discussion with the Hotel Manager and head of security who both said it was a nightmare. They did not have enough security to be everywhere at once. They were very apologetic.

 

I am so hoping that Lois is correct about our 7-night cruise over Labor Day. On of the reasons we picked this week was that we figured that all the schools would be going back that week and therefore we would only have pre-school age kids on the ship.

[ginag]

We were on the Aug 1 sailing also. We had the time of our lives. The ship never really felt crowded at all. The food was fantastic. The best we ever had on a cruise ship. I thought most people were dressed very nicely. There were kids on the cruise but it is summer vacation. It is nice to see so many families enjoying themselves.

 

Everyone's perspective is different. I have been on many, many cruises and I would highly recommend this one to anyone.

 

Awesome...I am glad you had a great cruise!

 

We learned about the school schedule the hard way on Galaxy several years ago when she was sailing out of Baltimore. We booked a 9-night cruise that ended on Labor Day. We (incorrectly) assumed that with schools either already in session or starting the day after Labor Day, that there wouldn't be too many kids. WRONG!!! What we didn't know was that New York schools went back a couple of days after Labor Day. 600 teens and young kids. The teens and pre-teens were clearly bored by the end of the first full day. They congregated in the stair wells and had major attitude when you tried to get by, they ran up and down the halls at 2AM ringing the doorbells on the suites, I never got in an elevator when all the buttons weren't pushed, and I won't even go in to the antics that went on around and in the pool. I have never seen so much security inside and at the door to the disco.The bartenders were carding anyone that looked like they were under 30. DH had a discussion with the Hotel Manager and head of security who both said it was a nightmare. They did not have enough security to be everywhere at once. They were very apologetic.

 

I am so hoping that Lois is correct about our 7-night cruise over Labor Day. On of the reasons we picked this week was that we figured that all the schools would be going back that week and therefore we would only have pre-school age kids on the ship.

 

Sounds like we could have been on the same cruise with all the happenings. We also had about 10 kids playing "leap-frog" down our hallway. They about took me down!! :eek:

[ladyinr3d]

It's interesting what a difference a week makes-- I was on the 7/25 Solstice sailing and hardly noticed kids at all! The ones we did see were very well-behaved. Or maybe we were just too mesmerized by our first-time cruise experience to let anything spoil it for us! Don't get me wrong, we love kids (we are recent empty-nesters), but were looking for a peaceful, adult getaway-- and found our cruise to be exactly that.

[Mrs_Tiki]

ladyinr3d, you are right about a week making such a difference. We were on the Aug 1 sailing with 500+ kids. During the Q&A part of the "Chef Challenge" show, the Executive Chef Misha mentioned that the W. Caribbean sailings attract many more children than the E. Caribbean. As a result he has to provision significantly more hamburgers and hot dogs!

 

BTW, that was a fun show (on last sea day on our cruise.) Very similar to "Iron Chef" on Food Network. The best part was Misha's Q&A while the contestants were cooking. It was fascinating to learn more about the food service operations.

[avalon1025]

Yes, same Avalon as the Seabourn boards. For the price, the service and food were very good on the Solstice. I have no complaints.

 

I'm booked on Eclipse next as I liked Solstice so much. Booked early Feb hoping not too many passengers with kids and perhaps less of a crazy party atmosphere by the pool

[AmyinVail]

All good reasons to opt for Celebrity over a line where fellow passengers are likelier to be loud, drunken, chair-hogging balcony smokers...

 

I had certainly hoped that was the situation - but this board is full of stories/questions/reports of loud, drunken, chair hogging, balcony smokers.....

 

Certainly hope it's less than other lines.....

[elena7seas]

I had certainly hoped that was the situation - but this board is full of stories/questions/reports of loud, drunken, chair hogging, balcony smokers.....

 

Certainly hope it's less than other lines.....

 

It's funny how perceptions differ. I would not have said that this board was "full of stories...[and]...reports of "loud, drunken, .....balcony smokers". Chair hogs, yes :p.

 

Although we don't sail during school vacations, we have never experienced loud or drunken behaviour on any of our Celebrity cruises, and since the implementation of the new smoking regulations, have never experienced any balcony smoke either.

 

While we haven't been on any cruises with tons of children, we have been on cruises with 40 or more young children under the age of 12, and I have to say that I've found the children on Celebrity to be very well-behaved, and the parents to be exceptionally responsible with their children. It has actually been fun to see and talk with the little ones, and they are absolutely doted on by the Celebrity staff.

[MiamiSpartan]

It's the timing of the cruise, which is why we don't normally travel in the summer...

My boss just got off of an NCL ship, and he said the same thing about all the kids on board...

[Hatteras51]

I will be sailing on the Soltice in November. Are women's capri pants acceptable attire for smart casual dinners?

[nancyg96]

We never were offered any other menu in Blu but the Blu menu. For me I would never sail outside of AQ for the freedom of eating when I wanted as well as being away from the crowds.

 

This was my 10th Celebrity cruise, and best as far as food and service. Worse as far as my fellow passengers. Not that they were bad, but very few kept to the dress code. Shorts on formal nights etc and celebrity says nothing. Yelling across public rooms, many very classless people.

 

Had a grew time but never again during the summer (I didn't have a choice this time)

 

I counted 12 kids in one hot tub, gross....

Hi-my husband and I were on this sailing. I have to say, I did not see anyone in jeans in the main dinining room. On the smart casual nights, I felt a little underdressed in my capris and blouse when I saw other women in dresses. We had a marvelous time--were not bothered by the kids at all. We spent all of our pool time in the Solarium, which was wonderful.

[nancyg96]

I will be sailing on the Soltice in November. Are women's capri pants acceptable attire for smart casual dinners?

Capri pants are acceptable, but as I wrote previously I felt a little underdressed when I saw so many women wearing dresses. My hubby said I was fine--he's my fashion consultant! :D

[nancyg96]

cruiseacecat,

 

We were on Aug 1 sailing with Avalon1025. The Hotel Directon on Solstice is Sue Richardson. Since she has just returned from vacation, I am sure that she will be on your sailing on the 22nd. We had gotten to know her on the Summit a few years ago and find her to be a lovely, interesting person.

 

Hope you have a great cruise ~ we sure did!

I second that! We had a great cruise due to spending time with the Tikis!

[nancyg96]

We were on the Aug 1 sailing also. We had the time of our lives. The ship never really felt crowded at all. The food was fantastic. The best we ever had on a cruise ship. I thought most people were dressed very nicely. There were kids on the cruise but it is summer vacation. It is nice to see so many families enjoying themselves.

 

Everyone's perspective is different. I have been on many, many cruises and I would highly recommend this one to anyone.

Couldn't have said it better myself! Best trip ever!