Solstice Review - Mexico - Nov 5 - 12th

[apierson23]

Hello all!  This review will be brief and without pictures but will provide a the highlights and low lights of the cruise while it's still fresh in my head.  My wife and I (49 and 42) booked the Solstice a few months ago since she had never been to the west coast of Mexico and the price was great for the cruise and airfare from Cleveland, Ohio.  We have been on Carnival, RC and Norwegian and this would be our first trip on Celebrity.   

 

Boarding Day

We flew out of Cleveland at 6:00AM on the 5th and arrived into LA at 8:30 AM with no issues even though I hate flying on Spirit.  We took a cheap Uber to a diner near the port and had a great brunch while waiting for time for us to get on the boat.  We walked about a mile to get to the boat and stopped to grab some wine just outside the port and were able to quickly get onto the boat early at 11:00 AM.  The place was basically empty at that point and we explored the boat and realized just how small it is.  It has to be about half the size of pretty much every other ship we have been on.  The layout was so simple that I was hoping it would be a plus but after a quick tour it was shocking how little there was to do onboard.  It was cold in LA (mid 60s) so we didn't want to hit the pool so we ended up taking a nap in the room and woke up to go to the buffet at 1:00PM.  The buffet is laid out very nicely with no pinch points and the lunch time assortment had enough variety to never get bored of the selection.  I was really impressed with the Indian food area and the meat was fall off the bone tender.  The pizza area cranked out some good pies and the desert section was crammed full of tasty treats.  I was very impressed with the buffet and we ate there for lunch and dinner every sea day.  The boat was still pretty empty by 2:00 PM and I found it was only 40% booked which gave us quite a bit of room to move around.

 

The rest of the day was spent in the Solarium relaxing which enjoying some filtered sun.  It was nice that the pool was heated but very, very small for a cruise ship.  We got dressed up a bit and had dinner in the dining room (6:00 PM seating).  We were seated with two other couples which is perfect for us since we like to meet other people on the cruise.  I'd guess that 50% of the guest were from California so we got some good stories of living on the west coast.  Dinner in the main diner room was fantastic every night and out waiters were great - no complaints on the food or staff at this point.  We were up at 3:30 AM east coast time so we crashed at 8:30 PM after dinner and the ship was really, really rocking.  My wife complained about feeling sea sick even though it was our 6th cruise but we both crashed anyhow.

[apierson23]

Day 2 - Sea Day

 

We woke up crazy early due to the time zone change and it turned out we had a time change over night.  This cruise had so many time changes that the staff seemed to have no idea what time it was by the end.  I know it's not their fault but it got very annoying to have a time change pretty much every night and the app was slow to update which messed up our mornings a couple times.  We ended up calling in a wake up call if we needed to be up since I couldn't be sure when to get up most days lol

 

The boat was so empty that there was no difficulty finding a good chair by the pool but the cool weather made that kind of a moot point.  It was still mid 60s and very windy today which had us adjusting our usual sunning on the 1st day.  Unfortunately the boat was so small that there really wasn't much to do especially in the morning or mid-day.  Breakfast was great in the buffet with fresh made omelets and waffles.  Lunch was better but breakfast was very good.  I think at this point we started feeling kind of confined on the boat since the activities were so tame and even the pool music was so soothing it just kind of put you to sleep even though we had just gotten up.

 

We spent most the day going to trivia and meeting some cool people but my wife's sea sickness just got worse and worse even with the bands and meds.  The boat rocking was so bad that we had a hard time just walking to our room without banging on the walls.  The pool never got hopping except at the bar which people hit hard the 1st couple days.  I went to the casino and lost $50 quickly and even that area was dead most of the day.

 

Dinner was great and we got some nice pictures and then went to the Rock show which I thought was very good but my wife fell asleep in since her motion sickness meds made her sleepy.  Went to bed early and hoped tomorrow would be more exciting.

[apierson23]

Day 3 - Sea Day

 

Another time change which helped us since it was going toward east coast time.  Unfortunately, there really wasn't much to do on the boat since the weather was still barely above 70 degrees and the wind was really whipping.  I started a new book at the start of the cruise and at this point I was about half way through due to so much down time on the boat.

 

I did go to the gym today and the gym was very nice.  There was a nice assortment of machines and there was only a half dozen people in there when I went.  We tried out some of the crafts on the boat but they were not our speed compared to other ships.  The average age of people on the boat seemed to be in the 50 - 60 range but the music and events seemed designed for even older people.  Big band musicians in the main area just isn't our style.  We enjoyed the bocce area and the front bar area since it was comfortable but even those areas were pretty snooze inducing.

 

I believe this was the fancy night so we dressed up and both our diner couple didn't show up so it was just the two of us at a 6 person table.  The dining area seemed to have less and less people so I'm assuming they just did the buffet.  I'd had quite a few drinks over the course of the day so we crashed after the show and my wife was still complaining about an upset stomach due to the rocking.  She was not having much fun. 

[SusieV]

Wow; it's funny that I would say our experience 2 months ago was almost the opposite. We found the ship to be large and have plenty of activities and thought the buffet was no more than adequate at best with less selection than in the past.

 

I guess it's all in your frame of reference if you are used to sailing the mega ships from other lines? And perhaps a comment about their buffets as well!

[apierson23]

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta

 

Another time change and we were able to get off the boat to my wife's enjoyment.  We booked the RV tour through Celebrity which had us meeting out side the gate and then taking a shuttle over to the shopping center.  The RVs were rugged but the 4 of us fill in well and we went through town and stopped at a small village out of town.  We only stopped there was a bit to grab some Mexican cokes and check out the church and then we were off to see the small Tequilla place.  The RVs were all stick so make sure you can drive that type of car before you get excited about driving.  The Tequilla Distillery was nice but pretty small and the tour was only a few minutes until it led to basically a tasting area.  We liked the tequilla but since we aren't big drinkers we bought more of the hot sauses then anything else.  Lunch was a couple tacos that were tasty but very plain for a lunch.

 

Back on the RVs and then drove a bit further up into the hills to a nice resort off the beaten path.  You go through a pretty chopped up area with tons of dust but it's worth it to get to the resort.  Huge pool and the drinks were delicious, but we only had an hour to hang out due to the other stuff.  I'd have loved to have spent twice as long at that place but back to the port we went.  Quick stop into the walmart to grab cokes and then back onto the boat since it was getting late.  

 

We ended up hopping to a two person table at this point next to a couple we met on the tour and dinner was great as usual.  The show was good and we crashed at 9:00 PM after a nice long day in Mexico.  I've been to Puerto Vallarta before so I know there is a ton to do so I'm kind of on the fence about recommending the RV tour but it was good for the price.

[apierson23]

10 minutes ago, SusieV said:

Wow; it's funny that I would say our experience 2 months ago was almost the opposite. We found the ship to be large and have plenty of activities and thought the buffet was no more than adequate at best with less selection than in the past.

 

I guess it's all in your frame of reference if you are used to sailing the mega ships from other lines? And perhaps a comment about their buffets as well!

The people we talked to were all across the board.  Some people loved the stuff to do the boat but in general most the people we talked to that were under 50 thought the boat was pretty dull with almost no fun activities or events.  The staff was very nice and some of the most friendly I've experienced but it was just such a snooze fest that it was tough to overcome from our perspective.  I'd say this is our one and only time with Celebrity and we will concentrate on RC ships since we thought Carnival was too crazy for our taste.  Nice thing is there is a cruise company for everyone - just got to try the all.

[apierson23]

Day 5 - Cabo

 

Another time change (can't make this stuff up).  I wanted to get off as soon as possible since I've never been to Cabo but we were away from port so it took awhile to get the little boats set up and onto shore.  We teamed up with our new friends and walked the gauntlet of sellers off the boat and shopped our way around the C.  About half way we saw a sing for $35 ATV tours and thought that it sounded fun but too good to be true.  The price did get increased to $45 due to some weird fee but even that was good for a 2 hour ATV adventure.  They drove us about 40 minutes away from the city and it was a very pretty drive with the hills and ocean.

 

The ATV place was a little sketchy from the road but once you get in there it's quite nice.  They do a lot of tough selling to get you to upgrade the ATV and get the various insurance, but we went cheap and declined them all and it worked out.  The ATVs were pretty new and were pretty quickly buzzing across the sand dunes and going full throttle along the beach.  Definitely the best part of the cruise was this adventure so I'd recommend it to anyone.  You had to buy drinks and lunch but both were quite tasty!  They had camel riding which wasn't my cup of tea but looked like people were having fun.  They do take a lot of pictures as you are riding and we ended up buying one for $20 since it was so cool and who knows when we will be back.  The weather was really hot and sunny this day so we all got a bit red even with sun screen.

 

Back on the boat after some quick shopping and I pretty much crashed by 9:00 PM due to the booze, heat and sun.  Dinner was a blur since I was so tired.  Wife finally started feeling better after two port days so she went out and had fun with our two friends playing trivia and hanging at the bars.

[apierson23]

Day 6 - Sea Day

 

I woke up raring to go but my wife was back sea sick again so I left her in the room while I had a work out and lost $60 in one of the poker tournaments mid-day.  The weather really took a turn downward as you travelled up Baja and got really windy so people abandoned the pool and hit the hot tubs or the game room.  I brought a couple splat ball with us so I brought one to the pool in the afternoon and you would have thought I was part of the entertainment staff.  We had 8 people throwing it around the pool for a bit and I ended up giving it to them since there really wasn't anything else for them to do.

 

The highlight of the entertainment on the cruise was the captains vs guest pool volleyball game in the afternoon.  I was on the losing guest team but it was very fun to watch the officers barely beat the guest in a back and forth battle.  It was funny that I heard people say back to their books after the games were done since that was pretty much it in terms of entertainment for the day.

 

Wife finally started feeling better in the afternoon so we did a small bocce tournament which was fun with us teaching some people how to play it.  We were a bit tired of the heavy food in the dining room so we did the buffet this evening and it was a bit of a let down.  The options were pretty much the same as lunch with even less options which seemed strange.  The show that night was fantastic with a bunch of aerials and it was their last time doing that show after doing it for 6 months straight.  I swore off drinking at this point since I just couldn't stay up past 10:00 PM no matter how much I tried.     

[apierson23]

Day 7 - Ensenada

 

The weather was really crisp this morning and people were huddled under towels waiting for the ok to leave the boat.  We got off and you take a short bus over to the center of town and they sold us on a $20 round trip tour to a famous blow hole on the other side of the bay.  We left right away and had a nice 40 minute drive with a good tour guide telling us about his life in America and how he is struggling to get his Visa to go back.  I'm mostly kidding since it did get a bit old but he made it fun overall.

 

Once you get to the blow hole area it is some of the most intense selling I've every experienced.  You have to walk through a corridor of shops to get to the blow hole but the guide insisted that we stop at the baby lion restaurant and then this shop along the way.  We ended up getting bored so we just went on ahead and the blow hole was pretty much a big let down.  I've been to cool natural events but this was basically a big wave that would shoot up every few minutes.  I didn't see much appeal to it but I guess it lived up to the billing since it was a big blow hole.  But then you have to walk back toward the bus and the sellers are amped up at this point.  Kids running out selling trinkets and people yelling from both sides of the street with samples.  I understand this is part of Mexico selling areas but even Cancun markets are less stressful compared to this gauntlet.  We ended up getting some great fresh churros and I got a cheap leather wallet but it was pretty crazy.

 

The drive back to the city was even longer since a lady next to us puked all over herself since she had had too many tequila samples and drinks.  We helped get he cleaned up but it soured the drive back.  They drop you off in town and Ensenada is pretty much an extension of the blow hole with nick nack sellers everywhere and being very aggressive.  We grabbed some late lunch and then got back on the boat since we had seen enough.  Puerto Vallarta and Cabo were treats to experience but Ensenada was not a place we would go back to.

 

Last dinner with our dinner partners was great and heard about the winery tour that they liked and then we redeemed some of our prize tickets for a couple trinkets.  The boat really calmed down after 8:00 since everyone went to pack so we did the same.  We tried to find our friends for a parting drink but no luck so we went to bed after skipping the last show which looked tame.

[apierson23]

Day 8 - Getting off the boat

 

We got up early and got breakfast which at this point was getting a bit old but the food was good as always.  The process to get off the boat was smooth and the staff was so friendly and smiling faces everywhere.  Got our bags quickly and that is when it all fell apart.  Our Uber was suppose to be $35 since we were staying in LA for a day and they only needed to take us to the Fox rental instead of LAX.  The first Uber driver declined and then the price just kept going up and up each couple minutes.  It got up to $90 and we accepted one of the bus tour guy walking around the area and he got us a private car for $60.  Just a complete cluster and this was only with 1 half filled boat.  I can't imagine what it would have been like with a big full boat.  

[apierson23]

Summary

 

I think it's obvious that we were not thrilled with the Celebrity experience but I'm glad we gave them a chance since you just don't know what you like until you give it a go.  My wife getting seas sick for the 1st time ever didn't help much but since she has felt great since getting off the boat we can only contribute it to the size of the boat and the bigger then expected rocking of the vessel.  

 

Thanks for reading along and I hope you have a great rest of your week!

[Ferry_Watcher]

Thank you for your frank and non-sugarcoated review.

Good to hear that you enjoyed the food onboard.

[gold1953]

interesting review. We tried RCCl once and swore never again..lol   Back to Celebrity

[apierson23]

42 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

interesting review. We tried RCCl once and swore never again..lol   Back to Celebrity

Too big?  I complained about the size of the Royal big boat experience due to some negatives with them but for us the negatives were minor compared to the limitations of the Celebrity small ship.  Now I just have to lose the 8 pounds I gained while eating all the good food on Celebrity. lol

[Seniorsailors]

Thank you so much for taking the time to report on your experiences. My first cruise on Solstice is in 10 days, and I appreciate both the heartily positive and the brutally honest reviews. 

[Seniorsailors]

However, I don’t believe certain “demographics” determine whether or not you have a great time.😉

[vickykay]

Very balanced review. Thanks for posting. 

[apierson23]

36 minutes ago, Seniorsailors said:

However, I don’t believe certain “demographics” determine whether or not you have a great time.😉

I 100% agree and I didn't want to sound like I was bashing people older them myself.  I'm almost 50 and go to bed at 9:30 every night so I'm no spring chicken.  We met a great bunch of people of all ages on Celebrity but I think it's evident that it is geared towards the older crowd.  I don't particularly enjoy Carnival because there are too many kids and younger party crowd and Celebrity seemed to go the other way a bit too much for my taste.  I think Royal does a good job of hitting the mark between these two sides from my limited experience.

[jcpelly]

Norwegian might be a good middle ground between RCCL and Celebrity.  Big but not goliath ships, great entertainment with a lot going on it seemed and surprisingly good food. Geared towards the middle agers more I would say.

[apierson23]

5 minutes ago, jcpelly said:

Norwegian might be a good middle ground between RCCL and Celebrity.  Big but not goliath ships, great entertainment with a lot going on it seemed and surprisingly good food. Geared towards the middle agers more I would say.

My wife went on NCL with her mom a few years ago and her big gripe was the food was really bad.  She said the entertainment was great and there was a bunch to do but she really, really didn't like the food on the entire ship.  

[kwokpot]

Thank you for your writeup. we'll be doing this cruise in February. Your Celebrity experience is EXACTLY what a Celebrity cruise is, so there was nothing out of the ordinary on your particular sailing.  Celebrity is a 'Make your own Fun' cruise experience.  

As for ship size Royal doesn't currently have any ships in this tonnage, the closest would be the Quantum class which is a bit larger or the Radiance class which is smaller and the same size class as the Millennium Class on Celebrity. Seems like you've been sailing Oasis class and larger and thus the Solstice Class at 122,000 tons seems small to you, but it really isn't. I don't think sailing the new Edge Class is going to be much different for you since it really doesn't have any more of the features that you're seeking in a cruise vacation. 

[apierson23]

42 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Thank you for your writeup. we'll be doing this cruise in February. Your Celebrity experience is EXACTLY what a Celebrity cruise is, so there was nothing out of the ordinary on your particular sailing.  Celebrity is a 'Make your own Fun' cruise experience.  

As for ship size Royal doesn't currently have any ships in this tonnage, the closest would be the Quantum class which is a bit larger or the Radiance class which is smaller and the same size class as the Millennium Class on Celebrity. Seems like you've been sailing Oasis class and larger and thus the Solstice Class at 122,000 tons seems small to you, but it really isn't. I don't think sailing the new Edge Class is going to be much different for you since it really doesn't have any more of the features that you're seeking in a cruise vacation. 

I've got my next cruise book this July on the Allure of the Sea for my 50th birthday and it looks to be about twice the size of the Solstice, so I'll be able to compare the two 7 months apart.  I'm actually looking forward to the belly flop contest and steel drums!

[bigbenboys]

We were on the same cruise. We had a great time. It had been years since Celebrity has done Mexican Riviera. We had booked Millie, but the ship changed. We were able to keep our original cost for our Aqua cabins. Great service in Blu. For myself the Blu menu is fine, if we can order off the MDR menu also. I made 2 pieces of blown glass. Yes the clocks going back and forward was a pain. Oceanview Café was very good. We ate our lunches outside near the Oceanview Café Bar. Also drinks at 5pm at the Oceanview Café Bar before going to Blu. I was told we had 1300 guest on our cruise.

[ChampagneandFanfare]

We were on this cruise too. For what it is worth I will give my take.

 

We didn't find it rocking much - we have cruised many times and did find the first couple days a bit rougher but IMO hardly "hitting the walls" level. We were also on Deck 12 which tends to feel the movement more than lower.  

Crew told us someone made an error with the time setup on the first time change, so the ship clocks didn't update when they were supposed to and most of the crew was late for work that day. Our room clock got the right time around noon I think - so it was confusing but I knew of the daylight saving time change that was also happening (we came from Vancouver, Canada) so I adjusted my phone manually to what we were told was going to be the time and didn't have an issue.

Since boat was 40%, there was lots of room in the specialty restaurants and in Luminea, where we ate many nights. The food there was great and service across the board was really great. Having been on the sister ship in April where it was also about 50% - but suffering from lack of staff, this cruise definitely made up for it. Since we have cruised on Celebrity a lot, we know that the S-sized ships are pretty big - not Oasis of the Sea big, but bigger than a lot of ships and we prefer smaller ships (i.e. 750 - 1200 people, this one was 2400-ish) since we aren't into games, contests or listening to line dancing music while we sit by the pool. (My hubby is the one wearing headphones at the pool, and I like to read but can't take a lot of sun so I am finding cosy places on the ship).  

We did a cooking class in Puerto Vallarta, and learned a secret to making the tortillas, which we do at home! It also included the tequila tasting - pretty much done for every tour in Mexico. We did the camel ride (and tequila tasting) in Cabo, which was really fun and educational too. In Ensenada we did the ATV (booked through Celebrity) and it was fun. It included a wine tasting (my first Mexican wines) and a tequila tasting. Guides on all the Celebrity sponsored tours were great! Overall we had a great cruise, got exactly what we expected, and put down our deposits (usable within a year!) for next time. 

 

[Seniorsailors]

5 hours ago, apierson23 said:

Summary

 

I think it's obvious that we were not thrilled with the Celebrity experience but I'm glad we gave them a chance since you just don't know what you like until you give it a go.  My wife getting seas sick for the 1st time ever didn't help much but since she has felt great since getting off the boat we can only contribute it to the size of the boat and the bigger then expected rocking of the vessel.  

 

Thanks for reading along and I hope you have a great rest of your week!

Thank you again for providing such a thorough and fair review. I value your opinion.