LIVE: Dec 23 2019, Solstice, 12 Night Holiday New Zealand Cruise

[mahdnc]

Despite what the stateroom television says, it’s actually a tad too cool to enjoy the balcony today. 

[mahdnc]

 

I had to go down to Guest Relations because they couldn't confirm that our daughter has an electronic visa for New Zealand. 

 

I showed them her passport and the NZ visa confirmation email and everything was just fine. 

Edited December 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

My son is at the library studying for the GMAT.  I don't know if I should tell him that the Elite Cocktail Hour starts in 10 minutes....

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[Estalyn]

On 12/22/2019 at 5:30 PM, Reel Love said:

Just found your review and loving it!!!  Hoping to do a Celebrity cruise out of Sydney in the near future so very interested in your reports and will certainly be following along. 

Have to give kudos to how you handle pre-cruise crisis!  Pretty sure I would not handle those situations so well, lol.  😊   

Really appreciate your great pics.  Interesting to see the difference of the pictures of the Opera House depending on the day.  My colleague is heading out on a cruise from Sydney in mid-January and is really concerned about the air quality.  

We are doing this cruise December 10, 2020 on the Eclipse!  Look forward to your posts!  Have the best time! 

[peter1956]

Loving your posts 🙂

We are on this ship leaving Melbourne Feb 29th.

Is the onboard currency US dollars or Australian do New Zealand dollars?

[villauk]

4 hours ago, mahdnc said:

I showed them her passport and the NZ visa confirmation email and everything was just fine. 

 

 

On a side note, if I recall correctly, NZ immigration came onboard for our sailing and we all had individual one-to-one meetings with them in the Sky Lounge. We were given a time, queued and then asked several questions regarding our visit.

[mahdnc]

3 hours ago, peter1956 said:

Loving your posts 🙂

We are on this ship leaving Melbourne Feb 29th.

Is the onboard currency US dollars or Australian do New Zealand dollars?

 

Pricing is expressed on board in USD. Payments are cashless as everything is charged to an on board account. 

[mahdnc]

The night before Christmas! We have our tree with presents ready. 

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[hawkesbaynz]

Looking great😄. Very jealous. You will love New Zealand. The Sounds are awesome! We used to live near Napier. You can walk into town from the docks and enjoy the Art Deco town and book a tour. The museum is good. Personally I would do a tour of the vineyards and enjoy lunch in Te Awa Farm where I have enjoyed the best steak of my life. However I imagine you will have a vineyard lunch in Marlborough as you are renting in Picton. 

[Beba-Beba]

Your homey fireplace and tree are WONDERFUL!!! 

 

Merry Christmas to you and your family

[Jim_Iain]

8 hours ago, peter1956 said:

Loving your posts 🙂

We are on this ship leaving Melbourne Feb 29th.

Is the onboard currency US dollars or Australian do New Zealand dollars?

 

On board currency is always USD regardless of location.  

[mahdnc]

 

My family of 4 is sailing in one of 4 spacious FV cabins aboard Solstice. They are located at the front of the ship with two on Deck 7 and two on Deck 8.  It's the 6th time for us on S class, all 6 in a Deck 8 FV. 

 

The cabin has 2 bedrooms, a large common living/dining area and a standard sized bathroom. It is designed to sleep up to 5 people although I am sure that most of the time they do not sail with that many people. 

 

 

On Deck 8, I have measured the FVs to have 618 square feet of space which is larger than 3 standard cabins. The balcony has 112 square feet of space.  Although I don't have the dimensions, Deck 7 FVs are smaller both in terms of cabin and balcony compared to the ones that sit directly above them on Deck 8. 
 

Curiously, the FV cabin is furnished differently within the 5 S class ships. On one end of the spectrum, FVs on this ship (Solstice, the oldest) have the least amount of furniture and would be considered lacking while FVs on Reflection and Silhouette (the two newest) are, what I would call, completely and well furnished. Equinox and Eclipse are somewhere in between. 
 

Because the FVs sit at the corner of the ship, they are blessed with two huge windows that look out over the ship's bow along with a sliding glass balcony door that faces out over the side. Consequently this large cabin is very well lit during the day. 

 

 

For me, these cabins are an excellent non-suite quad option. In fact for our roll call on this sailing, there are two other families of 4 that are in FVs which means our roll  call alone has 3 out of the 4 FVs on this ship!!

 

 

Somebody at Celebrity has figured out that these 4 cabins on each of the S class ships underperform on a revenue per square foot basis. And so after Solstice's Revolution dry dock makeover in late 2021, these cabins will be converted into Sunset Suites. 

 

This conversion was posted earlier by another CC-er (who's screen name escapes me) in a "Live" thread a few months ago.  It was confirmed for me by a Future Cruise Consultant on this cruise when I was shopping for a family cruise for Dec 2021 on Solstice. While she could not give me details of the suite itself, there was pricing in her reservation system which meant that these suites are available for booking. 

 

So I priced one out. I looked at the Dec 19 2021, 14 night, Hong Kong to Singapore Holiday sailing. $25,000 for 4 people. Based on my past bookings (including this holiday cruise), I would have expected $10,000 to $12,000 if it were a plain old FV. So I will have to figure out something else.

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

On behalf of our roll call, Merry Christmas from the Solstice!! The sun came out to greet us on this Christmas Day!

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[mchell810]

Thanks for the detailed diagram and information on the FV rooms. 

                                  Enjoying your review.  Merry Christmas to you and your family.

 

[mahdnc]

[mahdnc]

We having our Christmas lunch at Murano. There is live string music here.  Hopefully my short video clip in the prior post loaded properly.

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Scallops, Risotto, Lobster, and Soufflé

[peter1956]

Thank you Jim-Iian and Mahdnc for the replies about my currency question 🙂

 

[peter1956]

Enjoy that lunch

4 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Scallops, Risotto, Lobster, and Soufflé

Looks and sounds awesome . Have a great Christmas 

[mahdnc]

Our table had the lobster,

 

the lamb chops,

 

and the filet mignon

Edited December 25, 2019 by mahdnc

[hcat]

So far everything looks and sounds lovely!  Merry Christmas....enjoy!

[whitshel]

20 hours ago, mahdnc said:

My son is at the library studying for the GMAT.  I don't know if I should tell him that the Elite Cocktail Hour starts in 10 minutes....

 

Boy does he have you fooled, he's playing Angry Birds!!  Haha...:)

[mahdnc]

Happy Hour time on board Solstice!

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by mahdnc

[chemmo]

Thoroughly enjoying your family post.

 

As our son reached adulthood we thought he would no longer want to cruise with us but he did...Then he had a steady GF and we thought that would be the end of our family cruises but no...she is just coming with us on our next cruise. Something just so special about cruising with your adult children...Quality time together in such a busy world. Sincere best wishes to you and your children for a wonderful cruise and all the best for the New Year...

 

Well, we aren’t going to Murano’s for lunch so I had better get the turkey in the oven....

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, chemmo said:

Thoroughly enjoying your family post.

 

As our son reached adulthood we thought he would no longer want to cruise with us but he did...Then he had a steady GF and we thought that would be the end of our family cruises but no...she is just coming with us on our next cruise. Something just so special about cruising with your adult children...Quality time together in such a busy world. Sincere best wishes to you and your children for a wonderful cruise and all the best for the New Year...

 

Well, we aren’t going to Murano’s for lunch so I had better get the turkey in the oven....

 

Last night, my wife and I had retired to bed for the evening.  Our 27 year old daughter sat at the foot of our bed and was talking to us. After a while, our 24 year old son--who is often glued to the cabin couch, plowing through the free on demand movies--came in to join the conversation.
 

Lo and behold, I realized right then and there that on this Christmas Eve night, my entire family of 4 were all on our bed having a nice conversation--in this case about how important social responsibility was to them when choosing an employer. The topic and their answers were not important.  It's just that I think the last time that Marcia and I had this rare, classic, meaningful, iconic, family moment was some 15 years ago. I had received my Christmas present that night and will cherish it for the rest of my life.
 

And I believe that I have to thank cruising for this precious Kodak moment--being at sea together in relatively small quarters.  Our house back home is simply too large with too many TVs, cars,  and other distractions for such a thing to occur.....
 

BTW, I also found out that an employer's social responsibility is very important to our daughter while our son is in it purely for the money.
 

My family wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas. Good night from the Solstice. We arrive at New Zealand (Picton) tomorrow. 

Edited December 25, 2019 by mahdnc