Solstice LIVE (3/18) Suite Review w/ Kid: Mexican Riviera w/ Mini Me

[KKB]

@GenerationX So glad to see your current TR--I forgot that you are now cruising as often as I! 😂

A Mommy/daughter trip is a gift at EVERY age, one you will never regret. Gen Z is adorable!

We took our teenage children on the Constellation (also Spring Break) & they had as good a time as they always do on a cruise.

See you in 3 weeks! 

(PS just read a review about YC on MSC Meraviglia...uh, it does seem that YC on larger ships is NOT like Divina...)

 

[zitsky]

I’m curious about the security camera comment. Are you anticipating a problem or have you felt threatened on other sailings?  I understand wanting to be safe but I got the impression that Celebrity was good with keeping you safe.

[abbydancer2003]

2 hours ago, GenerationX said:

 

 

 

After a stop by the club open house to fill out registration paperwork we headed to our first lunch at Luminae.  Gen Z tried the Luminae burger for the first time and now she’s nagging me to make our burgers from ground filet mignon at home (guess it’s time to educate her on beef prices and how grocery budgets work).  I had the always yummy pea soup and Cobb salad.  I was a little sad that the salad came with regular bacon and not the big thick lardons I’ve gotten in the past, but it was still very good.

 

I had the Cobb for lunch today on the Infinity, and it was still the big thick lardons.  Once I took out the egg, and removed the onions, it was really good.

[Jim_Iain]

43 minutes ago, abbydancer said:

I had the Cobb for lunch today on the Infinity, and it was still the big thick lardons.  Once I took out the egg, and removed the onions, it was really good.

 

I was going to say.   I love the Cobb Salad but always ask to substitute regular bacon for the Lardon Pork Belly.

 

Make sure you try the Gyros -  they are one of my favorite items for lunch.

 

[abbydancer2003]

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I was going to say.   I love the Cobb Salad but always ask to substitute regular bacon for the Lardon Pork Belly.

 

Make sure you try the Gyros -  they are one of my favorite items for lunch.

 

The turkey?  I think I have, a little messy but good.  Thanks.  Maybe next Cobb I'll have regular bacon and see which I like better.

 

 

[the_dylaness]

11 hours ago, GenerationX said:

I never heard an official announcement but the rumor onboard is that there was some mechanical issue that required a diver to be brought in to do an inspection under the ship and confirm was resolved.
 

If that’s true, that diver has some serious huevos rancheros.  You couldn’t pay me enough to convince me to dive around/under the hull of this massive ship.  It sounds like a submechanaphobia fever dream.

 

 

I had never heard the word "submechanophobia" until yesterday when it was featured in a short story I was reading... and now here it is twice! The world is a funny place.

[DaKahuna]

9 hours ago, GenerationX said:

 

Me: Um, did someone just say “warm almond croissants???”

 

SOMEBODY PLEASE COME SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!!!! 

 

 

 

On our last cruise I stopped by Cafe al Bacio on the way to Luminae and picked up two almond croissants and brought them with us to breakfast.  Our assistant waiter saw that we had them on our plates and asked us if we liked them.  We informed him that we loved them.  He said that he would have them for us each morning.  Found out that one of his jobs was helping to stock them in Cafe Al Bacio each morning as well as stocking the pastries in Luminae.  

 

 

[GenerationX]

19 hours ago, zitsky said:

I’m curious about the security camera comment. Are you anticipating a problem or have you felt threatened on other sailings?  I understand wanting to be safe but I got the impression that Celebrity was good with keeping you safe.

No, I’ve never felt threatened on a Celebrity ship and I do think their security teams take guest safety very seriously.  I think that’s a big part of the reason cruising is my preferred method of solo travel and travel with Gen Z sans Jeremy.

 

That said, I think I’m also just very cautious by nature and am always mindful that no place is immune from bad people or bad things happening (perhaps also a result of my profession, people often end up hiring me when the thing they didn’t expect to go wrong goes wrong) so I still try to pack my “street smarts” when I go on vacation.

Oh that reminds me, for anyone else following who is interested and wasn’t aware, the cruise lines with ships sailing to/from the US are required to report to the FBI on serious criminal incidents that are reported onboard and the US Department of Transportation has a website where they publish a report quarterly on the number of reported incidents of different types on each cruise line.  Celebrity pretty consistently reports ZERO criminal incidents in all categories and has some of the lowest numbers of reported incidents overall historically.

Even for the cruise lines with higher numbers (e.g. 3-4 reported assaults in the quarter) it’s important to note that that’s a handful of incidents over the course of tens of thousands of passengers or more who sailed in that quarter, so cruising generally is statistically fairly safe.

[GenerationX]

16 hours ago, the_dylaness said:

 

 

I had never heard the word "submechanophobia" until yesterday when it was featured in a short story I was reading... and now here it is twice! The world is a funny place.

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, there is an entire submechanophobia Reddit sub where people post photos from their dives and explorations.  Change the post sorting settings to top rated of all time and prepare for nightmares. 😆

[GenerationX]

Ok everyone, I am having a complete 1899 moment (great Netflix show BTW).  I could SWEAR that yesterday afternoon I posted my write up on first night Murano dinner. I even specifically remember uploading the photos and pressing “Submit Reply” and seeing it appear in the chain.  For some reason this morning it isn’t showing in my post feed though.  Reposting below just in case and I sincerely apologize if everyone else has seen it and this is a duplicate post…

 

About last night:

 

After our belated sail away, Gen Z and I dressed and headed to dinner at Murano. 

 

For starters, Gen Z had the pork belly and I had the lobster bisque and mushroom risotto.  I’ve had mixed results with the pork belly at Murano, but last night’s left me in envy of my child (who grudgingly gave me a bite for review purposes).  The skin was perfect crisp and the meat beneath tender and juicy.  The lobster bisque was also a redemption from the overly sherry heavy one on Silhouette.  Sadly the risotto was a little under cooked, but that was the only fail of the night.

 

For dinner we split a mommy-daughter surf and turf of the chateaubrian for two and the Murano lobster and both were excellent as always.  

 

For dessert Gen Z had some vanilla gelato and I had gran marnier soufflé.  Because of the alcohol I didn’t want to let Gen Z order it so I just let her try one small bite of mine. It set off a several minute rant from her on the injustices of something so tasty being only for grown ups.

 

After dinner, Gen Z headed to the kids club for a dance party with a new cruise friend and I decided to treat myself to a little mama time at the martini bar with my favorite, the French 75 martini.  Another nice camp at sea perk:  due to Cami’s special needs and allergies, when I drop her off the camp gives me a “bat phone” that works anywhere on the ship so that I can be called in case of emergency. It’s great for extra peace of mind.

 

I think I’ve finally dried and thawed out from our day in Catalina (long story, I’ll explain later) and am relaxing in the living room while Gen Z takes a bubble bath.  In a little while we’ll dress and then are meeting one of her little Retreat girlfriends and her parents to go to the production show then have dinner in Luminae together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Loved the pictures of Murano.   That will be one thing I miss on Apex.  

 

 

[GenerationX]

Good morning from our first sea day!

 

Gen Z is still sleeping off her evening so I’m writing to you from curled up under a blanket in our living room on this cool grey morning.

 

A tip for those sailing this itinerary in the coming weeks, be sure to check weather forecasts for each of your ports and pack accordingly.  We have had wild swings from cold, grey and rainy (Catalina yesterday and at sea this morning) to sunny and warm (LA and our predicted weather for Cabo).  I felt like I was packing for an Alaska cruise and a Caribbean cruise at the same time.

 

The reason my child is still a tuft of curly hair peeping from between the covers is our evening exploits.  We started the night with an early dinner in Luminae with a family we met on the first day when their 10 year old daughter came up to Gen Z  in Michael’s Club and complemented her stuffed frog.  The girls have been almost inseparable ever since, including going on the same excursion in Catalina (I know, I’m behind on reporting that, I’ll catch up I promise).

 

Gen Z had the shrimp cocktail to start (one of the MDR classic appetizers that are always available in Luminae) and then had a burger and fries from the kids menu (pic below).  I started with the turkey escarole soup and then had one of my favorite Luminae dishes, the veal cannelloni.  Gen Z and I also split the cod basques.  

 

I didn’t have to push Gen Z at all to finish her food.  For me, the turkey soup was a great warm up after the chilly wet day, but I slightly regretted not getting the short rib instead.  That cannelloni was excellent again. Our server told us that the culinary team made the cannelloni pasta for it fresh that morning.  The sauce that came with the cod was delicious, but my cod filet was not well prepped. I ran into several small bones as I was eating.  Fortunately Gen Z’s piece was fine.

 

We had the same serving team we’ve had for our other Luminae meals of Budi as our waiter and Merivic as our assistant waiter and they’ve given such great service and are wonderful with kids.

 

After dinner we let the girls go to kids club for an hour to burn off some energy playing hula hoop games while the parents all went to have a martini (Yogi made mine special).  

 

Then we went back to pick up the kids and all went to the Broken Strings production show together.  Sorry I didn’t get the best pics of the show as we wanted to sit in the balcony near the back since I hadn’t seen this show before and wanted to be able to make a quick retreat if the sound/lights were too much for Gen Z.  We ended up being fine though.  

 

In what I’ve come to understand is typical Celebrity production show fashion, the plot was somewhere between ambiguous and nonexistent (other than I think it was somehow about celebrating some guy name Ethan who might be cheating on his girlfriend’s birthday, IDK).  Anyway, the choreography and music were good.  There were lots of songs Gen Z and her friend recognized and were dancing along in their seats to.  At the end of the show some of the performers were at the exits to the theater and Gen Z got a kick out of being able to tell them personally how much she liked the show and get a photo with them.

 

After the show, we headed out to the silent disco party in the packed grand foyer until the 11pm kids curfew.  Gen Z and her friend never left the dance floor.  Well, actually they did for about 10 minutes to go get a scoop of gelato to cool off. 
 

On our way to bed, we noticed one of the few signs that poor Solstice is more than ready for her refurb. With the rainy weather, it looks like part of the sky light is leaking into the library.

 

When we got back to the room, we put out a hang tag for room service breakfast (which once again has the much more limited options than were on the menu for previous cruises), which our butler Ronald has actually just arrived and set up for us.  I’m going to slam a cup of this coffee then wake mini me for her breakfast.  More to come from Solstice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zitsky]

I am enjoying your trip report.  When I was your daughter’s age I knew about pirate ships and geography and stories about the Titanic.  But I never thought I’d be on a cruise ship.  Your daughter seems to be enjoying it.  Hopefully there are no pirates!

[GenerationX]

 

I’m soon going to have a bone to pick with these Camp at Sea folks.  I booked this cruise so I could spend some quality time with my kid. Apparently my kid is only interested in spending quality time at Camp at Sea! 

 

During breakfast our phone rang and once again it wasn’t for me.  Apparently this morning they’re learning about whales and sea lions at Camp at Sea then having a ping pong tournament. How could I compete?

 

So here I sit again just me and my green tea (and also an almond croissant…don’t judge me. Jeffry my server from yesterday saw me sit down and had one in front of me before I could say “good morning”).

 

Another somewhat creepy moment from Solstice:

 

As I was getting dressed this morning, Gen Z shouted from the living room “Mama! I think Santa came and gave us new furniture while we were sleeping!!!!”

 

I figured she’d had too much hot chocolate at breakfast but when I looked where she was pointing outside sure enough…at some point between sunset yesterday and this morning, someone came and changed out all the furniture on our veranda.

 

I mean I guess the table was starting to look pretty beat up, but the ninja-style swap  out with no notice was a little weird.

 

Sharing pics of the before and after below. Also sharing some other pics of our Celebrity Suite.  

 

Overall we’re happy with the room and how much space we have.  It has the pros and cons of pre-Revolution S class.  I really missed these Bvlgari toiletries, they’re so much nicer than the Bigelow stuff to me.  On the flip side, there’s no outlets in the bedroom and it seems to be a wifi dead zone.  Fortunately I packed my power bank so still have a means to charge my phone bedside.

 

Well, I guess I’ll finish my tea now and figure out how to amuse myself till lunch.  Maybe I’ll find myself a mimosa and go in search of a loose slot machine.  There’s a vintage Louis Vuitton in the shops that costs about 3 nights in a very nice hotel in Rome (and thus I can only afford via a generous blessing from the Blue Chip gods).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veranda Furniture Sunday Afternoon

 

 

 

 

Veranda Furniture Monday Morning

 

 

[LaCal]

Loving your review Charla ❤️

 

We’re onboard the Solstice 4/1 and it’ll be our very first Celebrity cruise 

 

Was lucky to get a casino comped balcony and we upgraded to a Sky Suite for a excellent price 

 

We’re already booked for Murano and plan on getting almost exactly what you both ordered….There’s 3 of us and we’re going to Split 2 lobsters and 1 Chateaubriand 😜….

 

So looking forward to this cruise 🍹🍹🍹😜

[GenerationX]

3 hours ago, zitsky said:

I am enjoying your trip report.  When I was your daughter’s age I knew about pirate ships and geography and stories about the Titanic.  But I never thought I’d be on a cruise ship.  Your daughter seems to be enjoying it.  Hopefully there are no pirates!

So glad you’re enjoying the report.  I don't know, I think the prices they’re charging in some of the shops come pretty darn close to piracy! 😆

[Captain-John]

Charla, first time commenter but long time reader of your reviews. Very jealous of your cruising schedule but glad you are having a fantastic time. Just wanted to say thank you as ever for taking the time out of your holiday to allow us to follow your trip and share all the detail you do.

[GREG781]

Believe I was in the same Celebrity Suite in February - the plant is still doing great! Enjoy your cruise!

[DisneyJen]

7 hours ago, GenerationX said:

"After our belated sail away, Gen Z and I dressed and headed to dinner at Murano. 

 

For starters, Gen Z had the pork belly and I had the lobster bisque and mushroom risotto.  I’ve had mixed results with the pork belly at Murano, but last night’s left me in envy of my child (who grudgingly gave me a bite for review purposes).  The skin was perfect crisp and the meat beneath tender and juicy.  The lobster bisque was also a redemption from the overly sherry heavy one on Silhouette.  Sadly the risotto was a little under cooked, but that was the only fail of the night.

 

For dinner we split a mommy-daughter surf and turf of the chateaubrian for two and the Murano lobster and both were excellent as always.  

 

For dessert Gen Z had some vanilla gelato and I had gran marnier soufflé."

 

[DisneyJen]

@GenerationX ... your meal at Murano the first night is our plan for @DJ's DH and my upcoming birthday cruise in May on the Equinox.

 

 

[fitz55]

Charla, enjoying your reports. We travel with our son who is sensitive to loud sharp noises. We find that using good noise cancelling headphones helps our son through situations where the sounds can be loud. No need for music just turn on the noise cancelling. It has worked for him and has allowed us all to better enjoy our cruises. 

[GenerationX]

Quick Update from Solstice:

 

Thus far the casino on Solstice has not been my friend, but hey, if gambling were a solid way to get rich quick, every casino would be full 24/7.

 

After an unsuccessful hunt for a generous slot machine I picked up Gen Z from kids club and we went to lunch at Luminae.  The parsnip soup and veggie pancit were both very good. Gen Z ordered the grilled salmon with fries on the side and cleaned her plate.  

 

I felt like I needed some protein along with my pancit so I asked for a small piece of the grilled salmon on top.  I guess “small” is a relative term for the kitchen.  Gen Z was kind enough to finish the rest when I got full.

 

After lunch we went back to the room for a little down time and reading then one of Gen Z’s new friends came over for a Lego play date while her parents are getting a couple’s massage at the spa. Somehow the girls were actually hungry again, so our butler Ronald brought a fruit bowl and kid friendly snacks. He also brought a glass of wine, shrimp and charcuterie for this supervising mama (blessings be upon Ronald, his tip envelope groweth).

Also sharing some info that was in our room on Captain’s Club events (Gen Z’s classic status is reflected on her sea pass card and we received info for both her status and my Elite) and hours and events in the Retreat lounge.

 

Soon we’ll start getting dressed for our first evening chic night, senior officer’s party in the retreat lounge, dinner in Luminae and the Whitney Houston tribute show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

8 hours ago, GenerationX said:

For dessert Gen Z had some vanilla gelato and I had gran marnier soufflé.  Because of the alcohol I didn’t want to let Gen Z order it so I just let her try one small bite of mine. It set off a several minute rant from her on the injustices of something so tasty being only for grown ups.

 

Doesn't the alcohol cook off in the baking?

 

That said, even if it doesn't, one dessert with alcohol as a child does not an alcoholic make. When my family went on a cruise when I was 11 (SS Emerald Seas), I had a "Creme de Menthe Sundae" for dessert one night with my parents' blessing. I ordered it and our server checked with my parents. NONE of us realized (and he didn't explain) that it had nothing to do with Andes mints - which is what I thought it was as that was the only thing I'd ever seen Creme de Menthe on. It was a scoop of vanilla ice cream swimming in Creme de Menthe. Which had clearly not baked off since it was cold. Other than not feeling the motion of the ship on what was the roughest night, I had no ill effects and have never drunk to excess in my life.

 

edit: Apparently no, it does not totally cook off, but it is likely less than a tablespoon spread across several souffles.

Edited March 20, 2023 by WrittenOnYourHeart

[MarEll1]

Ronald was great 3 weeks ago. He brought us cheese, fruit, shrimp and wine every afternoon. Do you have Edy as your cabin attendant? He was the best and so sweet.

[CruiseNYC]

Charla - as always, loving your review/diary. I had a good chuckle about the kids club and its charms. It brought back memories of our wonderful cruises on Princess when every free moment, our daughter would ditch us and spend as much time as possible with her new cruise friends.  Enjoy every moment with GenZ. She is beautiful and a wonderful reflection of your loving parenting. 
Our amazing daughter, who so enjoyed all those kids club cruises, is getting married end May - and DH and I are celebrating on the Equinox in June!