LIVE - Solstice Transatlantic April 15-29

[Wonders10]

Wonders- I do know that, but as I haven't done Celebrity before, I might see an activity (like scrapbooking) I haven't seen on other lines, that I might wanna try and I will know to 'look out' for it... in case it does appear.

 

I see, it seemed you were looking for the specific day activities will happen. As I mentioned, on my past Solstice cruise, they had both scrapbooking and cooking shows. Actually I have seen them on ALL of my cruises, regardless of cruise line or length of cruise so you should be set :D I like the cooking shows myself, plus the galley tour.

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

I see, it seemed you were looking for the specific day activities will happen. As I mentioned, on my past Solstice cruise, they had both scrapbooking and cooking shows. Actually I have seen them on ALL of my cruises, regardless of cruise line or length of cruise so you should be set :D I like the cooking shows myself, plus the galley tour.

 

The brunch and any half priced specialty dinning for first night I was interested in as I've read a few posts concerning Brunch being on Sunday many times and the half priced or something on dinning the first night, those were the only things I was looking to see specific days- but the brunch doesn't really matter- I was just thinking Murano is 40 dollar cover- if it's included in a discount the first night- well maybe that's the best time to try it!

[rafinmd]

Hi Roy,

 

I tried looking at the Celebrity Today's that you had in your link, but it states that there are no items in this folder.

 

Kim

 

Thanks, Kim, that helped at least a bit. It looks like the problem is associating the individual scans with the "group". I've shared a couple of the individual programs. To get to them, thy starting at http://solsticeta2012.blogspot.com.

Click the tab that says "Celebrity today". You'll probably have to paste the link to the individual date to a new browser tab but it should work.

 

Thanks

Roy

[Oriana1]

Hi Roy,

 

Thanks Roy, I was able to access two Celebrity Todays via your instructions above.

 

We are going on our first Celebrity cruise next April so I wanted to see what activities they had. I have been on 26 cruises and 20 of them have been on P and O Australia or Princess ships.

 

As our cruise is going from Sydney to Hawaii, so we have lots of sea days.

 

Have you found on your current cruise is there many (or any) teenagers? We are taking our 15 year old daughter on the cruise to Hawaii, so she is concerned that she may not meet anyone her age, as we have heard Celebrity is not child friendly. She has been on 12 cruises prior so going on a cruise is nothing new, just her main concern is finding someone to hang out with.

 

Kim

[rafinmd]

Kim, not a lot of teen agers, but school's in session and you get fewer youth with longer cruises.

 

Note: I will discontinue posting the activities page and instead post the entire Celebrity Today to my blog via google docs. I've figured out how to share the download and link to it, and will do that prospectively, filling in the older copies as time permits. For all the dates shown except April 15, clicking on the date should now bring up the document. I'm also suspending posting pictures of menus, as the latest entry in the 14-day menu thread seems to have the cycle pretty well covered. Today's menu was the one on page 6 of that PDF.

 

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was a nasty drizzle; today started out a bit chilly but was overall a fantastic day with sun and a high of 26C (about 80). We lost our final hour last night as we are now on Barcelona time, and I overslept again but rose at 5:15 Lisbon time, not really too bad.

 

As we approached Cadiz our target was clear as we could see Costa Atlantica marking our destination. We docked about 8am, and I left on my tour, Legendary Seville Without Lunch, about 9. Seville is an inland port for vessels MUCH smaller than ours (PERHAPS Silversea or Seabourn), and is about a 90-minute bus ride from the port of Cadiz. There is evidence of civilization there 8,000 years ago, but the city is officially about 3,000 years old. It was home to an international exposition in 1929 and many of the buildings from that exposition form a vibrant part of the city's life today. Our first stop was the Spanish Pavilion from that exposition, a massive pavilion which holds government buildings and a huge public garden.

 

We spent most of our time in the ancient city of Seville. The cathedral there was originally built as a Mosque and was converted to a Cathedral in the 13th century, with the ancient minaret extended with a bell tower on top. There is a lovely garden on the grounds and the building itself has a large open space surrounded by several chapels and also a huge pipe organ with about 7,600 pipes.

 

Leaving the Cathedral we explored the (former) Jewish section, a lovely area of small shops and narrow streets. We visited the Alcazar Palace, an eclectic combination of many architectural styles from arabian to gothic with a wall dating from Roman times, many mosaic tiles, and ornate plaster moldings. There is a large garden but we did not see anything like living quarters. This is apparently still officially a palace but seldom actually used by the royals, the last visit was for a tennis tournament a few years ago.

 

We returned to the ship about 4:30. As we were approaching the port we passed some of the walls of Cadiz, an ancient city in it's own right. I took a short walk along the waterfront but reboarded the ship about 4:45, with a wonderful Fillet Mignon in Blu.

 

This evening's headline entertainment was another case of deja vu all over again. Nicola Loud is a violin virtuoso I last heard on the Crystal Symphony about 6 months ago. She plays all forms of music, from traditional classical to jazz to country fiddle and Broadway. As she did on the Symphony, she pressed the horn section of the Orchestra into service as vocalists. Unfortunately she played to a lot of empty seats at least in the first show as the show's end coincided with our all aboard time. She promised us another performance, most likely as part of the farewell show Saturday night.

 

As the show ended Captain Berdos came on the PA with our sailaway update. We expect light winds and moderate seas tonight on our way to Malaga. We should be passing through the Strait of Gibraltar sometime close to 1:30am.

 

As today's parting shot I find the violin a vexing instrument. I love classical music but generally find music for solo violin dull and dreary. I find it amazing that an instrument so dull by itself can produce such beautiful music when several of them work together, or sometimes in the hands of a Nicola Loud.

 

Roy

[kazu]

Kim, not a lot of teen agers, but school's in session and you get fewer youth with longer cruises.

 

Note: I will discontinue posting the activities page and instead post the entire Celebrity Today to my blog via google docs. I've figured out how to share the download and link to it, and will do that prospectively, filling in the older copies as time permits. For all the dates shown except April 15, clicking on the date should now bring up the document. I'm also suspending posting pictures of menus, as the latest entry in the 14-day menu thread seems to have the cycle pretty well covered. Today's menu was the one on page 6 of that PDF.

 

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was a nasty drizzle; today started out a bit chilly but was overall a fantastic day with sun and a high of 26C (about 80). We lost our final hour last night as we are now on Barcelona time, and I overslept again but rose at 5:15 Lisbon time, not really too bad.

 

As we approached Cadiz our target was clear as we could see Costa Atlantica marking our destination. We docked about 8am, and I left on my tour, Legendary Seville Without Lunch, about 9. Seville is an inland port for vessels MUCH smaller than ours (PERHAPS Silversea or Seabourn), and is about a 90-minute bus ride from the port of Cadiz. There is evidence of civilization there 8,000 years ago, but the city is officially about 3,000 years old. It was home to an international exposition in 1929 and many of the buildings from that exposition form a vibrant part of the city's life today. Our first stop was the Spanish Pavilion from that exposition, a massive pavilion which holds government buildings and a huge public garden.

 

We spent most of our time in the ancient city of Seville. The cathedral there was originally built as a Mosque and was converted to a Cathedral in the 13th century, with the ancient minaret extended with a bell tower on top. There is a lovely garden on the grounds and the building itself has a large open space surrounded by several chapels and also a huge pipe organ with about 7,600 pipes.

 

Leaving the Cathedral we explored the (former) Jewish section, a lovely area of small shops and narrow streets. We visited the Alcazar Palace, an eclectic combination of many architectural styles from arabian to gothic with a wall dating from Roman times, many mosaic tiles, and ornate plaster moldings. There is a large garden but we did not see anything like living quarters. This is apparently still officially a palace but seldom actually used by the royals, the last visit was for a tennis tournament a few years ago.

 

We returned to the ship about 4:30. As we were approaching the port we passed some of the walls of Cadiz, an ancient city in it's own right. I took a short walk along the waterfront but reboarded the ship about 4:45, with a wonderful Fillet Mignon in Blu.

 

This evening's headline entertainment was another case of deja vu all over again. Nicola Loud is a violin virtuoso I last heard on the Crystal Symphony about 6 months ago. She plays all forms of music, from traditional classical to jazz to country fiddle and Broadway. As she did on the Symphony, she pressed the horn section of the Orchestra into service as vocalists. Unfortunately she played to a lot of empty seats at least in the first show as the show's end coincided with our all aboard time. She promised us another performance, most likely as part of the farewell show Saturday night.

 

As the show ended Captain Berdos came on the PA with our sailaway update. We expect light winds and moderate seas tonight on our way to Malaga. We should be passing through the Strait of Gibraltar sometime close to 1:30am.

 

As today's parting shot I find the violin a vexing instrument. I love classical music but generally find music for solo violin dull and dreary. I find it amazing that an instrument so dull by itself can produce such beautiful music when several of them work together, or sometimes in the hands of a Nicola Loud.

 

Roy

 

It sounds like you enjoyed Seville Roy - isn't it an enchanting city. If the river has the silt cleaned out each year - yes, Seabourn, silverseas and even the Prinsendam;) can go up the river directly to Seville. alas, if the money is short or they choose not to do it, the ships have to go to Cadiz:eek:

 

Sounds like you had a fabulous performance by Nicola. How wonderful:D

 

enjoy your cruise. Too bad you had only the one day and had to miss Cadiz. It's a special enchantment all unto itself as is the Flamenco there;)

[rafinmd]

Thank you Jacqui. Yes, going all the way up to Seville on the Elegant Explorer would (perhaps will?) be grand.

 

I've uploaded all the Celebrity Todays so far to google docs. Links to them are from that tab on my blog, accessible directly at:

 

http://solsticeta2012.blogspot.com/p/celebrity-today.html

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I woke briefly about 2AM, and we had lights from both sides of the ship seeming very near. We may have been passing by Gibraltar or a narrow portion of the Strait of Gibraltar but we appeared to be within about 3 miles of land on each side.

 

When I rose for the morning and went out on deck again, the lights of Malaga were getting closer in front of us. We pulled into the dock around 7:30AM, snuggling in between the mammoth Voyager of the Seas and the microscopic Sea Dream I, quite a contrast.

 

There were about 40 people registered for my tour "Caves of Nerja". We left the port about 9AM for about a 45-minute drive East along the rugged coast to the town of Nerja, where we had about 45 minutes to explore the oceanside town, before out 10-minute transfer to the caves.

 

The caves of Nerja were discovered in 1959 by several farm boys, and were quickly developed as a tourist attraction. There are 5 large chambers totalling 2 miles in length but only 3 are open to the public. The spaces run from very small to some rooms that were likely 100 feet tall and perhaps 80 feet wide. The first of the rooms are about 20 feet below the surface with other rooms much deeper. The description said "strenuous" with "more than 100 steps", likely something of an understatement. After I started counting I climbed 150 steps and probably a total near 250 (another 250 down), so everybody got a pretty decent workout. There was sufficient (artificial) light to see the many calcium formations but the lights were not really good for photography. At one point some of the columns were at a strange angle due to an ancient earthquake.

 

We left Nerja about 12:30, returning to the ship about 1:30. I walked into town for lunch, then stopped at the cruise terminal to upload video of our entry into Lisbon using the wifi there:

 

 

As I returned to the ship a Cake Decorating Demonstration was in progress in the Grand Foyer.

 

We were the first ship to sail away at 6:00 and I went immediately to Blu for a salad entree. As I ordered we were still backing out into the harbor and starting to pivot when the nimble Sea Dream, which had already turned around, came by us and moved ahead of us on her way to her next port. I was a bit distracted with studying the menu as Captain Berdos gave his sailaway update but I didn't hear anything to indicate anything other than a pleasant night. On the final formal night of the voyage the Captain also posed with passengers for photographs between dinner seatings.

 

The Stars of Solstice also gave their final (and I thought best) headline show of the voyage, Ghostlight, featuring music of Broadway. The show concluded with an inspiring selection of music by Andrew Lloyd Weber.

 

As today's parting shot, sometimes what seems like a trivial event can go far beyond the expected. Five boys notice a small hole in the round and a cave 2 miles long is discovered, something that enriches our lives today.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

My final full day on the Solstice started out cloudy. The sun rose soon after the 7AM completion of my walk but could barely be seen through the cloud cover as a busy sea day opened.

 

There was a crew talent show at 10 with several singing, dancing, and instrumental acts. The 11AM hour was particularly busy with a Cooking Competition in the Solstice Theater at 11 and an 11:30 3-point shooting clinic with Steve Javie on the sports deck. I opted instead for the 11:15 nautical not demonstration in Celebrity Central with Staff Captain Panagiotis. While knots were discussed he also covered line throwing and other seamanship activities. He also passed around a number of items including a section of mooring line which looked quite large next to my leg. This is a program he devised and I hope Panagiotis will be one the rising stars at Celebrity; I think he's really earned it.

 

The Hot Glass auction at 12:15 raised $2,400 for the Corning Glass Museum scholarship fund and $1,000 for breast cancer research.

 

Brooks Aehron performed a classical music concert at 3 which became something of a comedy of errors. A string broke on the piano (one of the keys which uses 2 strings so all was not lost) and he did a piano concerto where the orchestra parts were on CD, and the CD broke down midway through ending the piece. The concert was still enjoyable.

 

After the final diner in Blu there was a closing variety show including the Stars of Solstice, Nicola Loud, and Nik Page, ending with Nicola and Nik combining for "Time to Say Goodbye", and then packing for me.

 

Today's parting shot is Captain Berdos' final life lesson for this voyage: If you think you're too small to have an impact consider being in a dark room with a mosquito.

 

Roy

[kazu]

Roy, thanks so much for taking us along on your cruise with you. smooth disembarkation and safe travels:D

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Thanks Roy,

sounds like you had a fantastic time. Tell us all what time you get off- I am interested in that. My best friend has a 11:30ish flight when we get off.

 

Meg

[rafinmd]

Thanks, Jacqui.

 

Thanks Roy,

sounds like you had a fantastic time. Tell us all what time you get off- I am interested in that. My best friend has a 11:30ish flight when we get off.

 

Meg

 

Meg, I'm not sure if you started reading after post #80 on this thread

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=33429142&postcount=80

 

and/or I've achieved my goals in writing this. Fact is I had a wonderful time on the cruise but felt it could and should have been better. They say some see the glass as half full and some see the glass as half empty; I think it was more like 3/4 full. I see it as a fact that it should have been 7/8 or 90% full and have to account for that both publically and in my future plans but the important story is clearly "3/4 full", and I hope I achieved that focus. My primary response to the deficiencies has been a rather vividly worded comment card; I'm not sure if a review from me would be useful but I'm still pondering that. One of the advantages of having a scanner is that I keep copies of a lot of stuff. The disembarkation questionnaire is specific to Barcelona but not to this voyage and it says to use Celebrity transfers your flight has to be 10AM or later, so I think an 11:30ish flight should be fine. Earlybird self-checkout (no luggage assistance) is also an option, but I don't see any need for your friend to use that.

 

We pulled up to the dock in Barcelona, just in front of the Epic, almost precisely at 6AM. I had booked a half day tour with Barcelona Day tours with an 8:30 meeting time, and requested an 8am departure from the ship. The announcement that the ship had been cleared I think came about 7, and I went to deck 4 Epernay dining room to await departure. The call came about 7:50, pretty close to the expected time. Once in the terminal, those with EU passports went straight to baggage claim while the rest of us had perhaps a 15-minute line to get out passports stamped.

 

Baggage delivery was by airport-style belt system. I think there were 3 belts serving about 4 tag numbers each, so arriving at baggage claim much before or after your number was called would probably entail problems. I was curbside about 8:20.

 

The tour was generally well run but meeting the guide was a bit awkward. They had several groups and when you registered you were assigned a group named for the first person registered in that group, so you could be looking for a sign "John Smith Group" without knowing who John Smith was, the sign did not identify "Barcelona Day Tours" and the guides knew nothing about anything except their own group. It would be much easier if Guide Bob would know "Shiela has the John Smith group and she is over there".

 

Our group of 11 placed our luggage in about a 20-seat bus and headed off to see the city on a tour with 3 stops. Our first visit was Park Guell. This was started in the early 20th century by Gaudi, architect of the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi had intended this to be an exclusive neighborhood but thought it was too exclusive for public transportation, and the project failed after selling only two houses. The park sits on a tall hill and includes a large open theater with great views of the harbor.

 

Our next stop was Sagrada Familia itself. This massive basilica was begun about 1890 and is not expected to be completed until about 2025, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. The Basilica was dedicated November 7, 2010. I had arrived that day on the Wind Surf and of course the area was totally restricted, so this is the first time I actually saw the Sagrada Familia. When completed, some towers will reach a height of 170 meters. We walked around the structure but did not brave the lines of people waiting to get in; they completely circled the block.

 

Our Final stop was on Mont Juic. There are a number of historic and modern structures here, most notably many of the venues used for the 1992 Olympic Games. There are also fantastic views of the harbor there.

 

I was the second person to be dropped off at a hotel (Barcelona Center). I took an afternoon walk around the old city and early evening walked over to Sagrada Familia for some pictures as our stop this morning was too close for good pictures.

 

Well, as a parting shot my latest adventure is almost over. There have been some highs and lows, but we are always richer for having tried.

 

Roy

[Michidoeme]

Dear Roy, thanks for your day-to-day report.

Just curious; if you don't like flying how do you go back to the US ?

Maybe you mentioned it before but I missed this.

[rafinmd]

Dear Roy, thanks for your day-to-day report.

Just curious; if you don't like flying how do you go back to the US ?

Maybe you mentioned it before but I missed this.

 

Yes, I do hate flying but sometimes there's no alternative. I had originally planned on doing this crossing on the Wind Star, which was running a little earlier and would have gotten me to Europe in time to return on QM2, but the new Windstar owners wanted to refurbish the ship while it was headed across the pond, so my plans had to change.

 

I'm not at all afraid to fly, I just find it a dreadful, boring experience under today's conditions.

 

It's been 2 weeks since I slept in a bed that wasn't moving. When I went down to the lobby for coffee I found that yesterday's perfect weather had turned to rain. Most of my junk was still in the big bag but there still was some packing to be done. My taxi left the hotel just before 7 and I was checked in at the airport about 7:30, walked around some, and went through security and passport control just after 8. I was booked on a 10:45 USAirways flight to Philadelphia, and we loaded pretty much on time. Barcelona airport seems quite large and modern, but the wide open spaces are supplemented with little seating, about 40 chairs in the gate area for a flight holding 260. A lot of people were left standing around.

 

Things on the plane started out rather awkwardly. We had quite an elderly lady at the far end of my row who the crew apparently decided was too frail to fly, and a wheel chair came and took her quite unwillingly off the aircraft. The process delayed our departure about 40 minutes, but we had good winds and reached Philadelphia pretty much on time. That's not to say it was uneventful. We had 2 additional medical situations and the doctors and nurses on board were rather busy.

 

I'm not usually a big reader, but I got a new kindle for Christmas with a book now loaded. I left home at chapter 5, was too busy to touch it on the train and on the ship, but resumed reading on the flight and am now on chapter 22, more than half way through. I'll have to make some changes since I usually only read when I'm flying, and hope to be through for the year.

 

Philadelphia turned out to be something of a zoo. I had an hour and 40 minutes for my connection and needed nearly all of it. Between Immigration (actually brief), baggage claim, customs, baggage recheck, security (the worst I've seen in a long time), and transferring to another terminal I was among the last to board my flight to Baltimore. The second flight was a 50-passenger Dash 8 turboprop, quite a change from the huge A330, but the flight was short and on time, arriving at BWI about 4:15 and home 5:15.

 

My parting shot today will be a late Bon Voyage to one of my fellow passengers, Claudia, who spent 1 night in Barcelona and is now on the Voyager of the Seas bound for Dubai, the kind of crazy thing I often do. As I write this it is actually almost 3AM Tuesday in Barcelona, so my Bon Voyage is really quite late but Bon Voyage anyway.

 

Roy

[kazu]

Welcome Home Roy - back to reality - loved your parting shot - always thinking of others. Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us. It's been great following you along one more time and cruising vicariously through you. Rest up - I have a feeling you have another cruise you either need to plan or are looking at planning:)

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Yes, I do hate flying but sometimes there's no alternative. I had originally planned on doing this crossing on the Wind Star, which was running a little earlier and would have gotten me to Europe in time to return on QM2, but the new Windstar owners wanted to refurbish the ship while it was headed across the pond, so my plans had to change.

 

I'm not at all afraid to fly, I just find it a dreadful, boring experience under today's conditions.

 

I

Roy

 

Roy,

my mom HATES flying. She has a heights things and hates it. Dad used to work for Delta and we got her on for England and to go to Seattle for a Alaska cruise and he gets her on about once every 3 years for a big trip (Paris, England again for TA, partial Panamal C annal -none of which I had the time or off days to do- and now Spain for our Med cruise) but she won't do it if it's drivable. ;)

[rafinmd]

From the 14-day menu thread:

 

Roy,

 

I thank you so much for your trip report on your TA from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona. I want to make two comments to you.

 

First of all, congratulations on your great weight loss, and clearly excellent maintenance skills.

 

Secondly, perhaps you would like one of the early a.m. flights out of JFK to London. I believe British Airways has one quite early and American a bit later. This would allow you to arrive at around your usual bedtime, local time, in Great Britain, or an hour or so later. I don't know if you'd every want a TA in the north Atlantic, but it would be doable this way with no overnight flight and then you get the benefit of all those clocks back nights onboard!

 

Since you mentioned you like B2B adventures (where it's a do-it-yourself, not on the same ship), this could even somehow work with a repositioning to the Mediterranean from England, followed by a TA to Florida, if you are very lucky finding the dates.

 

Anyway, again, I thank you so much for posting the menus and letting us see your blog. I even looked at the video clip going under the 25 April Bridge. Some day perhaps you'll post a video sailing under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It's sometimes at sunset, quite lovely if not too windy/chilly.

 

--May

 

Thank you Meg and May.

 

First of all, here's the Jewel of the Seas going under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge January 16. I was at dinner when we did it on the way out which would have been a much better view but I did want to catch it one way:

 

 

I've done the daytime flight a couple of times, generally out of Washington Dulles. It's a great option but I've been pretty lucky often linking up with QM2. Sailing QM2 eastbound I'll often skip most of the shows which helps with the time situation.

 

Roy

[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

From the 14-day menu thread:

 

 

 

Thank you Meg and May.

 

First of all, here's the Jewel of the Seas going under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge January 16. I was at dinner when we did it on the way out which would have been a much better view but I did want to catch it one way:

 

 

I've done the daytime flight a couple of times, generally out of Washington Dulles. It's a great option but I've been pretty lucky often linking up with QM2. Sailing QM2 eastbound I'll often skip most of the shows which helps with the time situation.

 

Roy

 

Roy,

We were just on the Jewel back in Decemeber. She's a beautiful ship.

[ImpulsivePuppy]

What a phenomenal story! I almost want to organize a donation process for you just to get you on another ship so we can once again read your daily take-aways! Thank you for all your posts!!!

[rafinmd]

What a phenomenal story! I almost want to organize a donation process for you just to get you on another ship so we can once again read your daily take-aways! Thank you for all your posts!!!

Thank you

My cruise schedule for 2012 is pretty full and getting busy for 2013. In fact, I'm on Enchantment of the Seas in less than 4 days. I haven't established a CC thread but my pictures will be going on:

 

http://baltoenchantment.wordpress.com/

 

My fall is especially busy and I'll be posting on the Crystal forum.

 

Roy