Just Back from the Solstice!

[katiebeth]

Greetings to All,

 

We just returned from the Solstice 7 night Eastern Caribbean sailing (Nov. 21 -28). We are Elite members with Celebrity and have sailed the Constellation twice, (Northern Europe and Norwegian Fjords and Baltics) Millennium (Med.), Eclipse,(Canary Islands) and Azamara Quest.(Med.) Most of our sailings have been 12 to 14 night European sailings and one 10 Alaskan sailing on the Infinity. We have also sailed RCI, Carnival, and Disney.

 

We love Celebrity and Azamara and have always received outstanding service. The ships are spotlessly clean and the food is very good. In addition we have always experienced great ship sponsored shore excursions.

 

Our recent sailing was very enjoyed, too! The food was very good to excellent and the ship and staterooms were very well maintained. The food in the Ocean View Cafe was exceptionally good, well presented, and fresh! The food in the MDR was very good and the food in the Speciality restaurants was exceptional! We also really enjoyed the Martini Bar :)! The weather was very good on our cruise, with the exception of the first 2 nights that were very rough, in terms of the seas! Fortunately, none of our family members were affected by the rough seas, but many others on board did suffer from seasickness. The weather in San Juan, St. Marteen, and St. Thomas and the last 2 sea days was excellent.

 

Our stateroom attendant was excellent and very kind, and kept our stateroom in excellent condition.

 

While we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, there were a few negatives. The most glaring had to do with the staff and their attitudes. We have always had EXCELLENT service on Celebrity and felt the staff went above and beyond. However, on the Solstice we encountered many staff who were very unhappy and seemed to resent having to serve the passengers. This was particularly true in the Ocean View Cafe Bar and Sunset Aft Bar. The staff were downright surly and the bars were very understaffed. This was true throughout the ship in terms of staff at the bars. We always had to wait for an extended time to get a glass of wine or cocktail. We had never experienced this on any other ship. Our service in the MDR was good, but our waiter seemed rather frazzled and overwhelmed and not very friendly. Overall, staff morale seemed very low.

 

The other disappointment was the Shore Excursions and Shore Excursion staff. We had an awful shore excursion in St. Marteen (Best of St. Marteen with beach afternoon at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort). The Westin staff were downright awful and were totally understaffed. Lunch was to be included in the rather pricy "Exclusive" excursion. Our family of 4 ordered lunch at noon and finally received something to eat around 2:45 p.m. The hotel ran out of hamburgers, buns, cole slaw, chips, etc. We paid $114.00 per person and finally the four of spilt one chicken sandwich and one fish sandwich on bread at 2:45 p.m. My husband and I are very low maintenance and not at all demanding. However, this excursion was really bad. We have probably been on 50 0r 60 ship sponsored excursions and this was definitely the worst. I did report the situation to the shore excursion desk and they did not seem at all interested and said they had NEVER had a compliant before concerning this particular excursion.

 

The Captain on the Solstice was excellent and very very funny! We also enjoyed the entertainment and sea days!

 

In closing we did enjoy the cruise very much, but there was a glaring difference in the level of the service on the Solstice vs. the other Celebrity ships we have sailed. We would sail Solstice again, and had we not sailed Celebrity so many times prior with outstanding service, we may not have noticed the service issues as much.

 

Happy Sailings,

 

Nancy

[noriboating]

Interestingly, we were on the Solstice 11/14 sailing and the service was incredible- and all with a smile. The ship is beautiful and spotless. Our server in the MDR was the best we have experienced to date. Entertainment was much better than last year's. The impressionist/comedian is not to be missed.

Next-Eclipse

[AmyinVail]

Greetings to All,

 

We just returned from the Solstice 7 night Eastern Caribbean sailing (Nov. 21 -28). We are Elite members with Celebrity and have sailed the Constellation twice, (Northern Europe and Norwegian Fjords and Baltics) Millennium (Med.), Eclipse,(Canary Islands) and Azamara Quest.(Med.) Most of our sailings have been 12 to 14 night European sailings and one 10 Alaskan sailing on the Infinity. We have also sailed RCI, Carnival, and Disney.

 

We love Celebrity and Azamara and have always received outstanding service. The ships are spotlessly clean and the food is very good. In addition we have always experienced great ship sponsored shore excursions.

 

Our recent sailing was very enjoyed, too! The food was very good to excellent and the ship and staterooms were very well maintained. The food in the Ocean View Cafe was exceptionally good, well presented, and fresh! The food in the MDR was very good and the food in the Speciality restaurants was exceptional! We also really enjoyed the Martini Bar :)! The weather was very good on our cruise, with the exception of the first 2 nights that were very rough, in terms of the seas! Fortunately, none of our family members were affected by the rough seas, but many others on board did suffer from seasickness. The weather in San Juan, St. Marteen, and St. Thomas and the last 2 sea days was excellent.

 

Our stateroom attendant was excellent and very kind, and kept our stateroom in excellent condition.

 

While we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, there were a few negatives. The most glaring had to do with the staff and their attitudes. We have always had EXCELLENT service on Celebrity and felt the staff went above and beyond. However, on the Solstice we encountered many staff who were very unhappy and seemed to resent having to serve the passengers. This was particularly true in the Ocean View Cafe Bar and Sunset Aft Bar. The staff were downright surly and the bars were very understaffed. This was true throughout the ship in terms of staff at the bars. We always had to wait for an extended time to get a glass of wine or cocktail. We had never experienced this on any other ship. Our service in the MDR was good, but our waiter seemed rather frazzled and overwhelmed and not very friendly. Overall, staff morale seemed very low.

 

The other disappointment was the Shore Excursions and Shore Excursion staff. We had an awful shore excursion in St. Marteen (Best of St. Marteen with beach afternoon at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort). The Westin staff were downright awful and were totally understaffed. Lunch was to be included in the rather pricy "Exclusive" excursion. Our family of 4 ordered lunch at noon and finally received something to eat around 2:45 p.m. The hotel ran out of hamburgers, buns, cole slaw, chips, etc. We paid $114.00 per person and finally the four of spilt one chicken sandwich and one fish sandwich on bread at 2:45 p.m. My husband and I are very low maintenance and not at all demanding. However, this excursion was really bad. We have probably been on 50 0r 60 ship sponsored excursions and this was definitely the worst. I did report the situation to the shore excursion desk and they did not seem at all interested and said they had NEVER had a compliant before concerning this particular excursion.

 

The Captain on the Solstice was excellent and very very funny! We also enjoyed the entertainment and sea days!

 

In closing we did enjoy the cruise very much, but there was a glaring difference in the level of the service on the Solstice vs. the other Celebrity ships we have sailed. We would sail Solstice again, and had we not sailed Celebrity so many times prior with outstanding service, we may not have noticed the service issues as much.

 

Happy Sailings,

 

Nancy

 

interesting you say this...we are off the same cruise and this was our first Celebrity cruise, have cruised other lines.......we were not impressed with the Solstice staff at all. it was our least enjoyable cruise to date...only saving grace was Blu and even then some of the passengers were horribly loud and rude. Your post makes me think perhaps I shouldn't completely write off Celebrity......

[katiebeth]

AmyinVail,

 

Please do not write off Celebrity. As I said, this cruise was definitely the exception. We were on the Eclipse in June and while she had only 2 or 3 sailings prior to our embarkation, we were blow away by the service! The staff were incredible. All were very happy and eager to please. This has always been our experience on Celebrity. I think that is why the service on the Solstice was such a surprise.

 

BTW we LOVE Colorado and have been skiing in Beaver Creek for the past 10 years. We will be there again over Christmas.

 

Give Celebrity another chance ...we particularly LOVED Azamara Quest. The service was impeccable!

 

Happy Sailings!

 

Nancy

[GrannyMouse]

We were on the Nov. 21-28 cruise as well. This was our first Celebrity cruise and we found the service to be exceptional. Definitely the best we've ever experienced. I thought the crew went out of their way to offer exceptional and friendsly service. I can't imagine what they could have done to make it a more enjoyable cruise. Maybe we are just easier to please!!

[AmyinVail]

We are probably the easiest people to please - period. The Blu staff were so kind saying how much they loved our family and we were so positive, etc. Unless you visited many bars or had beverage service around the pool - you might not have felt it. The pool butlers (men) were downright sour....horrible. The servers would actually roll their eyes to get a drink (we had premium packages all around). We ended up just going up to get our own drinks; Mast Bar was the worse, second was the gal who works Sky Lounge bar...just horrible! Ensemble lounge gentleman actually asked if I was sure I wanted a mixed drink, wouldn't I just care for a simple glass of wine...not kidding. Folks around the ship would say hello back - so, that wasn't an issue. Room service could not "find" me a glass of champagne to deliver....at $16.00 a glass, really?? The "welcome" drink was on trays with crew standing around talking.....back when NCL offered a welcome drink - crew carried the trays all around the entrance and offered a drink - not a "help yourself"....we thought maybe the drinks on the tray were used? half drinken glasss.....seriously.

 

The crowd on this ship was not as subdued as we've experienced on NCL. We had to move to a different table in Blu twice due to very loud people....and we had two kids!!!! There were adults bouncing and jumping all around the pool, which appeared to be their attempt at dancing.....obnoxious. We overheard rude adults chastising staff near elevators, at bars, etc.

 

I suppose I had too high of expectations. From reading these boards, you would believe that it's a classy, high-end cruise experience. I would disagree - at least on this sailing. Our HAL cruise far surpassed this Celebrity cruise.....hard to compare NCL on a broad base as we only cruise in suites on that line....Disney and Carnival were more similar to Celebrity......

[curiouscat]

Amy

 

I was wondering what u would think of your cruise after all your pre cruise postings.... I can absolutely tell you that "holiday" sailings are the staff's worst nightmare.... they try to book their time off during these times and those stuck working are not happy.... there are more kids/family than usual on board as well as novice cruisers.... I never ever will go on a holiday sailing after one time on Princess...

 

I also can tell from all your pre postings you had some "high" pre conceived expectations of what X was about.... it is higer end than most mass market lines but No Seabourn etc....

 

I'll be on Solstice the week after next......

 

CC

[sarplum]

Tks for the heads up. We are on the same cruise on the 12th. We were considering that St. Maarten excursion and now won't.

[AmyinVail]

Well.....I did have high expectations, not going to lie. They said there were 400 kids onboard and 70 in my 8 year olds group....although neither of my kids used the kids club - my teenager didn't hit it off with most other teens as she doesn't have the lenient social habits of most teenagers.

 

We've sailed over Thanksgiving and Christmas before and I completely agree that the staff isn't their happiest....but this was severe. I also wanted to mention that there was a thread regarding whether your card was swiped and/or were you treated differently if you had an alcohol package. I can tell you that on our cruise, our cards were swiped for each and every drink (including Blu) and we were treated differently by the roaming pool servers. I don't know about other bartenders, they appeared bothered by everyone, package or not.

 

Also, there were many smokers on their balconies. We smelled smoke almost every night, even straining our neck from both of our balconies could not identify the culprit. Another night, we (and other folks on their balcony) watched a guy smoke a cigarette right on his balcony in plain view...then toss the butt in the ocean. :mad: Not kidding.

 

We were thinking it would be more "dapper" like HAL, with an older/more polished crowd and it wasn't. Lots of loud, obnoxious folks.

 

I think our next sailing will be another suite/courtyard NCL cruise or HAL. No biggie - not going to bad mouth Celebrity because we all go in with preconceived notions.....just isn't the line for our family!!! ;)

 

For any other folks who purchased two cabins, with children and go to Blu.....the first night was certainly a spectacle....everyone staring and whispering "why is there a child in Blu when it's double occupancy", etc....but by the 3rd night, guests were stopping our little one to compliment her on her dress and her manners. The staff at Blu certainly went out of their way to make our girls feel comfortable....so, while you do have to tolerate stares for the first two nights, if your children are well behaved - they will be the star of the dining room by night 3......

 

On a positive note - I do think the actual ship is beautiful. I do like the understated decor much better than any ship we've sailed.....the horrid primary colors on the exterior of NCL ships is an eyesore. The inside of this ship was glorious; very muted and had a "restoration hardware" feel....although I did miss the nautical feel of polished hardwood in the cabin. The ship itself is a treat.

[AmyinVail]

Tks for the heads up. We are on the same cruise on the 12th. We were considering that St. Maarten excursion and now won't.

 

I would also like to suggest that you avoid Island Marketings excursion called "power catamaran" snorkeling trip - unless you want a drunk, swearing captain who moons other boats/people on the beach.......

 

We did Sail Sunyata in St Thomas (pvt Cat w/ max of 6 passengers) and it was amazing.

[CaroleLee]

Greetings to All,

 

We just returned from the Solstice 7 night Eastern Caribbean sailing (Nov. 21 -28). We are Elite members with Celebrity and have sailed the Constellation twice, (Northern Europe and Norwegian Fjords and Baltics) Millennium (Med.), Eclipse,(Canary Islands) and Azamara Quest.(Med.) Most of our sailings have been 12 to 14 night European sailings and one 10 Alaskan sailing on the Infinity. We have also sailed RCI, Carnival, and Disney.

 

We love Celebrity and Azamara and have always received outstanding service. The ships are spotlessly clean and the food is very good. In addition we have always experienced great ship sponsored shore excursions.

 

Our recent sailing was very enjoyed, too! The food was very good to excellent and the ship and staterooms were very well maintained. The food in the Ocean View Cafe was exceptionally good, well presented, and fresh! The food in the MDR was very good and the food in the Speciality restaurants was exceptional! We also really enjoyed the Martini Bar :)! The weather was very good on our cruise, with the exception of the first 2 nights that were very rough, in terms of the seas! Fortunately, none of our family members were affected by the rough seas, but many others on board did suffer from seasickness. The weather in San Juan, St. Marteen, and St. Thomas and the last 2 sea days was excellent.

 

Our stateroom attendant was excellent and very kind, and kept our stateroom in excellent condition.

 

While we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, there were a few negatives. The most glaring had to do with the staff and their attitudes. We have always had EXCELLENT service on Celebrity and felt the staff went above and beyond. However, on the Solstice we encountered many staff who were very unhappy and seemed to resent having to serve the passengers. This was particularly true in the Ocean View Cafe Bar and Sunset Aft Bar. The staff were downright surly and the bars were very understaffed. This was true throughout the ship in terms of staff at the bars. We always had to wait for an extended time to get a glass of wine or cocktail. We had never experienced this on any other ship. Our service in the MDR was good, but our waiter seemed rather frazzled and overwhelmed and not very friendly. Overall, staff morale seemed very low.

 

The other disappointment was the Shore Excursions and Shore Excursion staff. We had an awful shore excursion in St. Marteen (Best of St. Marteen with beach afternoon at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort). The Westin staff were downright awful and were totally understaffed. Lunch was to be included in the rather pricy "Exclusive" excursion. Our family of 4 ordered lunch at noon and finally received something to eat around 2:45 p.m. The hotel ran out of hamburgers, buns, cole slaw, chips, etc. We paid $114.00 per person and finally the four of spilt one chicken sandwich and one fish sandwich on bread at 2:45 p.m. My husband and I are very low maintenance and not at all demanding. However, this excursion was really bad. We have probably been on 50 0r 60 ship sponsored excursions and this was definitely the worst. I did report the situation to the shore excursion desk and they did not seem at all interested and said they had NEVER had a compliant before concerning this particular excursion.

 

The Captain on the Solstice was excellent and very very funny! We also enjoyed the entertainment and sea days!

 

In closing we did enjoy the cruise very much, but there was a glaring difference in the level of the service on the Solstice vs. the other Celebrity ships we have sailed. We would sail Solstice again, and had we not sailed Celebrity so many times prior with outstanding service, we may not have noticed the service issues as much.

 

Happy Sailings,

 

Nancy

 

Interesting- we were on Solstice last yr- E. Med and have booked her again for next year W. Med. Do you think/feel the attitudes were due to a holiday(crowded) sailing? or drink packages? HAving done prior cruises with X did you really notice (as opposed to feel) that bars were understaffed? or was it too many pax in too little time?

As for excursions- we usually do pvt excursions so I can well understand why you were highly disappointed- rightfully so.Follow-up with a letter to the home office-if there is a problem they should be aware (no flames for the Century fiasco) The islands run on island time and this can be very frustrating to people with just a day to enjoy a beach etc.

Carole

[dcbiker97]

I guess this just goes to show you that people on the exact same cruise can have opposite experiences. We were on this cruise (our third in a row on Solstice). I can't say enough good things about the staff and the ship. I too had a drink package and never once received anything other than a smile and my drink (I used the package at nearly every bar on the ship). We may have had to wait a minute or two for a drink at peak times, but you'll find that anywhere. Even though food is very subjective, we did find the food to be improved from our last sailing in April. Also, we spent a lot of time on our balcony and never once smelled smoke. But all it takes is for one person near you to light up...luckily it wasn't near us.

[wilko987]

Hi

 

We too were on this trip.

 

Reading your posts has been a bit of a relief for me as there were things that we were disappointed with aswell.

 

Dont get me wrong, i am not an experienced 'cruiser' by any means, only having now sailed twice, our first on the Ruby. But maybe we were spoilt on our first cruise.

 

We sailed AQ class which was nice, but there were little things missing from our grade e.g. slippers, tote bag, hors duerves, had to ask about pillow menu,fruit, turn down service only happened once, linen never changed. Now i am writing this, im realising how much we missed. However these things didnt change the scenery,weather and the holiday feel good factor, there was no attention to detail. And its the little things that count. Both of our cruises have been on Thanks Giving week, due to our time at work only allows us to take this time for vacation. Again this is not a problem as our friends on the other side of the pond know how to party:cool:.

We also noticed the attitude of some staff, and i think this stemed from the top (not officer).

 

The food however was excellent, we ate at Blu and the MDR, would have to agree with the comment about the fillet mignon - superb!

 

All in all, as we have only sailed twice, this has hampered our decision to cruise with X again, and felt that Princess just paid that little bit more attention, but we will see.

 

I would also like to say that if anyone is reading this that has not cruised before, IGNORE EVERYTHING ON THESE FORUMS!.

Sometimes you read these threads, a bit like Trip Advisor and think OMG what have i booked !!

You will have a wonderful, amazing time. And forget all you have read on this site:D

 

 

Ciao for now:cool:

[elementary cruiser]

We were on this same sailing as well, also in Aqua class. Our restaurant service was very good, especially in Blu, but I did not always care for the menu there and we ended up in the main dining room by the end of the cruise. The staff was very "up" at the beginning of the week, but by Saturday morning they seemed really exhausted. Staff seemed to linger a lot near the end, waiting for an extra tip I suppose, which I thought was pretty forward.

 

I will have to disagree with the previous post about the entertainment; I am not a huge partier, but the entertainment was poor, almost to the point of not choosing 'X' again! There were nights after dinner that we just went back to the room, since there was nothing to do. Their shows were at 7 and 9 most nights, and if you lingered at the pool, took time dressing, then went to a late dinner, the show was over by the time we were finished. The only saving grace was the captain, who was more entertaining than any of the others.

[Keensurfer]

We did Sail Sunyata in St Thomas (pvt Cat w/ max of 6 passengers) and it was amazing.

 

We are sailing the Solstice on 12/5 and another CC couple booked the Sunyata and we decided to join them for the full day Sunyata sail (on our 20th anniversary) in St. Thomas. We love snorkeling and are very excited about the upcoming excursion on Sunyata (Solstice also!). Can you please elaborate on your day abooard Sunyata? It would be greatly appreciated. I'm not that experienced with CC so if this is not the appropriate place for you to respond, could you please respond anyhow? Thanks a million!

 

-Frank

[katiebeth]

Hi CaroleLee,

 

I have given the staffing situation on the Solstice some thought and have come to the conclusion that it could be the itinerary that puts an extra burden on the staff compared to longer European itineraries. On our 7 day cruise there were 3 sea days which obviously puts additional stress on all of the staff ..dining, bar, housekeeping, etc. On our longer European sailings, most of the itineraries had 3 or less sea days even on 14 day sailings. Therefore, passengers were off the ship and exploring the various ports of call most days for the entire day. The ship was relatively quiet on all of those days and not nearly as much demand on the staff. In addition, embarkation/disembarkation occurred every 12 to 14 days and not every 7. I would guess that these days are very hard on the staff as well, in terms of turning the ship around and getting it ready for a new set of passengers.

 

As I stated earlier, the biggest problem I saw with staff attitudes was with the bar staff and pool butlers (as AmyinVail stated). IMHO, this could be due to the number of sea days per cruise and the possible tendency of passengers to drink more on warm, sunny, Caribbean itineraries. It is highly possible that more passengers purchase the bar package on these shorter itineraries with several seas days and a warm, sunny destination, hence the bigger demand and workload on the bar staff. I would guess passengers may also drink more fruity/tropical drinks that require more time to mix.

 

Given all of that, if there is in fact greater demand, you would think that Celebrity would staff accordingly, so as not to burn out the staff. We were not on the drink package and the service was still very slow, so I don't think they discriminated between those on the package and those who were not. However, at almost all of the bars, I never saw more than 2 bartenders and they were not able to keep up with the demand in a timely manner; particularly the pool bar on sea days and the Ocean View Cafe bar.

 

Sarplum ...As far as the Best of St. Marteen tour, our van driver told us that normally only 60 people sign-up for the tour, but they had over 100 that day. The Allure of the Seas was in port that day as well and there were passengers from that ship on the same excursion. All of that being said, the Westin was totally understaffed, there was no swim-up bar as advertised, the bar was not even set-up on arrival, and the food situation was the worst I have ever experienced. The Westin should have known and prepared for the number of people signed-up for the excursion. They really just seemed to not care at all. This is not a new excursion and they have been doing it on a weekly basis if not more for some time. I would maybe suggest taking a cab to Orient Beach, although it can be crowded, the water is supposedly much calmer than Dawn Beach. The water was so rough with lots of strong currents.

 

Celebrity is still a great product with beautiful ships and mostly excellent service. I think our experience on the Solstice was the exception and not the rule. In addition, to all of the above it was a Holiday cruise with 100 percent occupancy and lots of families so there may have been even more people onboard than a regular cruise.

 

Happy Sailings,

 

Nancy

[srpilo]

To all the Solstice poster's, thanks for all your honest insights

 

 

 

Srpilo

[GrannyMouse]

Hi

 

We too were on this trip.

 

 

We sailed AQ class which was nice, but there were little things missing from our grade e.g. slippers, tote bag, hors duerves, had to ask about pillow menu,fruit, turn down service only happened once, linen never changed. We also noticed the attitude of some staff, and i think this stemed from the top (not officer).

 

 

Ciao for now:cool:

 

We were in a Concierge Class cabin on this sailing. We didn't have slippers but did have a robe, tote bag, flowers, fruit, turn down service, umbrella, binoculars and a wonderful cabin attendant. My grandson was quite impressed with the size of the towels - huge bath sheet type towels. We were given a form to request hors duerves. Our cabin attendant said that they stopped automatically delivering them as most of the time they were wasted. We were also first on the ship and first off.

 

My one and only complaint about Celebrity was the $2 roulette chips in the casino at night.

[librarylady19]

Interesting thread...just goes to show how passengers experiences can differ on the same ship, same sailing.

To OP, I hope you address your concerns with Celebrity in writing if you feel the service was lacking. As many have noted on CC, they do read surveys and other customer feedback. Also, did you report the smoking on the balcony? If people don't do so, then smoking violations will only increase as the smokers will quickly learn that there is no consequence to breaking the rules.

[AmyinVail]

We are sailing the Solstice on 12/5 and another CC couple booked the Sunyata and we decided to join them for the full day Sunyata sail (on our 20th anniversary) in St. Thomas. We love snorkeling and are very excited about the upcoming excursion on Sunyata (Solstice also!). Can you please elaborate on your day abooard Sunyata? It would be greatly appreciated. I'm not that experienced with CC so if this is not the appropriate place for you to respond, could you please respond anyhow? Thanks a million!

 

-Frank

 

you are in for a real treat. we only were able to do a half sail (morning) as it was Thanksgiving day and knew he had plans in afternoon. the cat is pretty new, clean and gorgeous. Andy is a laid back captain and angela was his first mate on our sailing. drinks, apps - you'll probably get lunch....he picks you up right at the concrete docking area in his dingy - you will actually see the cat when you dock in charlotte amalie - see picture. we went to buck island and saw 5 turtles and 2 stingrays. his snorkeling equipment is very nice. there were 4 other excursions there at buck island- but those boats had 25+ people on them!!! :eek: with just the 4 of us on the cat, we were definitely the lucky ones....other excursions are barking orders at their snorklers, they had to wear flourescent life vests....meanwhile, you can come and go from your Sunyata leisurely. it really was the highlight of our trip.....feel free to ask any questions you might have.

 

[/img]

[Rebelicious]

I too am just off the Thanksgiving Solstice. My BF and I had mixed reactions to our cruise.

 

Our (AQ) cabin was lovely, our attendant was good, turn down service every night, the canapaes we switched to cheese/crackers (and never had to ask again). Downers? we had no slippers in the rooms (bags, robes etc were there) and on excursion days when we'd come back and shower, we had to ask repeatedly (not excessively, but more than once) for 2 full fresh towel sets.

 

Dining in BLU was very nice.. For the most part I did like the choices, BF not so much. I suggested we go to the MDR or asked if he wanted to go to the other specialty restaurants, but we stuck with BLU. Our waiter and assistant waiter were very attentive, and every night (as I had said the first night to make sure there was chocolate for my dessert) not only did they bring the dessert I ordered, the assistant waiter came by maybe 2 minutes later with a bowl of ice cream.. :) yeah I was feelin kinda spoiled by then, since I know he went to the MDR more than once to get what I wanted. Downside? the male sommelier pretty much ignored us the first night, not telling us that we could buy a bottle and they'd recork it. THe second night we had the lady informed us that would be a less expensive option and from that point we were fine. Breakfast in BLU was another experience... we got different waiters then and it was for the most part a good experience.

 

We did go to the MDR for the brunch, and ate many lunches at the Mast bar, and who doesn't go to the buffet late at night at least once, right? :)

 

BF splurged on me and bought me a wonderful spa massage... the massage itself was wicked awesome.. the heavy handed sales pitch afterwards not so much.

 

Excursions? We did quite a few through the ship's team. Being our first trip to these ports we didn't want to go it alone. My only issue was that these excursions are pricey, and some are just truly not worth the $$. My prime example is the canopy zip line in San Juan. Most expensive one we took, it was rushed and you couldn't really appreciate the fact youwere IN the rain forest, it was hurry go go go go. I know that the excursion staff sends staff members out on the trips, but that one really needs to be re-evaluated. Now the Americas Cup race and the Turtle cove snorkeling? oh yeah those were a blast!!!

 

All and all, I had a very good experience. I even met a few of y'all at the meet/greet. Now to convince BF that next year we need to cruise a different set of ports . . .

[GrannyMouse]

I too am just off the Thanksgiving Solstice. My BF and I had mixed reactions to our cruise.

 

Excursions? We did quite a few through the ship's team. Being our first trip to these ports we didn't want to go it alone. My only issue was that these excursions are pricey, and some are just truly not worth the $$. My prime example is the canopy zip line in San Juan. Most expensive one we took, it was rushed and you couldn't really appreciate the fact youwere IN the rain forest, it was hurry go go go go. I know that the excursion staff sends staff members out on the trips, but that one really needs to be re-evaluated. Now the Americas Cup race and the Turtle cove snorkeling? oh yeah those were a blast!!!

 

. . .

 

My grandson did the canopy tour in San Juan too. My husband was a little upset that the operator put them out at the bottom of the incline instead of the top like the other cruise lines did. Since my grandson was under 18 my husband went with him just as an observer. My husband had a great deal of trouble with his back after the climb up the steep incline.

[Rebelicious]

My grandson did the canopy tour in San Juan too. My husband was a little upset that the operator put them out at the bottom of the incline instead of the top like the other cruise lines did. Since my grandson was under 18 my husband went with him just as an observer. My husband had a great deal of trouble with his back after the climb up the steep incline.

 

your grandson is tall, dark headed... and a delight! We chatted with him for most of the zip trip!

[GrannyMouse]

your grandson is tall, dark headed... and a delight! We chatted with him for most of the zip trip!

 

 

Yes, that's my grandson. He's about 6'3" and we do find him delightful as well - but guess we are a little prejudiced!!

[AmyinVail]

Yes, that's my grandson. He's about 6'3" and we do find him delightful as well - but guess we are a little prejudiced!!

 

no comment. Speaking of which, did you get my email?