Solstice April 5th Cruise

[neilrr]

Sorry for the duplicate posting.

 

Hello Everyone:

 

My name is Neil and my partner is Jerry. To our surprise -- we were very happy to see all of the activity on the Solstice for this first week in April. We have gone on numerous cruises and very rarely met people through this gay section of this website but mostly onboard ship.

 

We have also attended many of the cc parties with 30-50 people and it was wonderful. We just became "Elite" Captian's Club Members and had a most memorable Northern Europe cruise on Celebrity this past summer. The food and service were excellent. The Senior Officers were great.

 

We have not booked our reservations, as of yet, primarily due to the fact we only live about 35-40 minutes from Port Everglades, we usually make the reservations on the later side.

 

You all sound like a lot of fun and we hope to be joining you. Hope everyone keeps warm - the cruise is only 4 1/2 months away.

Neil & Jerry:)

[Dean Wendland]

Tony - it would have been on the Infinity in 2002 I believe. The Tony we meet was a real estate agent. Not sure I remember anything else, I am horrible with names. His sticks in my mind because he advertises in the Advocate and I see his ad all the time.

[Dean Wendland]

Tony - it would have been on the Infinity in 2002 I believe. The Tony we meet was a real estate agent. Not sure I remember anything else, I am horrible with names. His sticks in my mind because he advertises in the Advocate and I see his ad all the time.

[cruiser53]

Hi Dean,

 

No it was not me I am not a realtor. You never know though. I know what you mean about meeting so many poeple, unless you get close and continue contacts its hard to rememeber. Well 5 months to go till the Solstice, it willl go fast.

We are off in a few weeks on the QM2 for their Christmas New Years cruise, along with 6 other friends, we are looking forward to that, need to start shedding some pounds so everything fits by then.........LOL

 

Speak soon.

 

Tony

[flclsax]

Hey John and Steve,

 

I am coming to SD to visit my boys for the holidays so we should plan to meet. I will be out from Xmas Eve to New Years Day.

 

Scott

[SDGuy]

Hey Scott, it would be great to meet you while you are here for the holidays.

What is the best way for us to get in contact?

 

I've been searching like CRAZY for photos of the Solstice so if anyone finds some hot sites with good pics I would love to know. Hmm, I guess you could call it my cruise ship porn :) but I love seeing a nice big ship all brand spanking new!!!! :) :) :)

 

Cheers!

[flclsax]

HI

 

This site has some good Solstice pics as well as the Celebrity site itself.

 

You can email me at flclsax@netzero.com and we can exchange contact information.

 

Take care,

Scott

[flclsax]

My boys in San Diego let me know that there is a big spread on the Solstice in the New York Times today.....

[Dean Wendland]

I don't know about everyone else, but I am getting VERY excited about this trip. Everything I have seen on the solstice shows it to be a beautiful gorgeous ship! John and Steve - Scott will be coming in from Cleveland for a week on Christmas Eve and we would love to meet for drinks or something - hit me up at dwendland@me.com and we can set something up!

 

Everyone - Check out the Celebrity boards on here and you will see a thread with some gorgeous photos! (from a gay couple!) I will try to find the link and post it for everyone!

[SDGuy]

Wow - those photos are FANTASTIC and what a beauty of a ship.

The decor is stunning!

I think we're going to need at least A MONTH to check out all those fabulous dining spots alone!

The stateroom that those guys had on the ship was to die for! But I'll still be happy with our Aqua Class stateroom ::D

I'm curious were is everyone staying pre-cruise in Fort Lauderdale?

We are only able to spend 1 night pre-cruise so I chose the Hilton Fort Luaderdale Grande because it's so close to the port, the price was right, and it's just recently been beautifully renovated.

However, is someone else has any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Cheers!

[flclsax]

Wow, 76 more days from today. I am sitting here watching the snow continue with upwards of 2 and a half feet sitting on my patio table. I am ready to board the ship now!!!!:D

[SDGuy]

Hi Scott, it was great meeting you over the holidays!

Kevin and Dean told us about about the Queen Mary - what a great surprise!

We are so looking forward to this cruise and just know that we are going to have a BLAST!!!!

john

[cruiser53]

Hi Guys,

 

Yes we also are looking forward to the Solstice, we were on the QM2 for thier Christmas New Years cruise, had a great time.... It already seems like it was years ago. Freeinds of ours have cruised on the Solstice in Dec, and raved about it, so it may us more excited that we already were. Looking forward to meeting you all, I presume they will schedule a FOD meeting on the Ship or we could pre-arrange to hook up for a drink somewhere.

 

Ciao

 

Tony & Frank

[SDGuy]

Hi Tony and Frank, YES we DEFINITELY need to set up a pre-arranged party for sailaway.

 

A bunch of us seem to all have Aqua Class staterooms so that will be just fabulous since that means we're dining in Blu.

 

But we will for sure setup a sailaway gathering for all of us as the time draws closer. In fact, if everyone on here wants to share their information (names of passengers and cabin #) I'll put together a list of all of us. My email is jmhinsd@hotmail.com.

 

We already have the pleasure of having met Scott, Dean, and Kevin and look forward to meeting everyone else!

 

Cheers!

John

[flclsax]

HI John,

 

I too enjoyed meeting at the Top of the Park. Great place to hang on a Friday night.

Yes, the QM was a great surprise and I am lucky to have such great friends like them that do such nice things for me.

 

I just got all the arrangements finalized yesterday with the travel agent so we are all good to go. Kevin took care of getting us a hotel on the 4th so we will be sitting in a lounge by 8pm on the 4th having some martini's..... can't wait.

 

Scott

[flclsax]

HI Tony and Frank,

 

I am sure there will be an FOD mtg. scheduled, if not, we will ask the cruise director to do it or just make one ourselves. Usually we meet before dinner for drinks (we are second seating) so the first night, that may be the way to go assuming "Blu" has a lounge area. Actually, I just looked it up... there is the Ensemble Lounge and Michael's Club right outside the specialty restaurants so that is where we will be.

 

Scott

[Dean Wendland]

Hey everyone...Have seen some incredible photos of this ship and have to say it is probably the most beautiful ships afloat. I vote for cocktails before or during sailaway! Lets set something up!

[cruiser53]

Hi Guys,

 

I have emailed all the cabin numbers from our group to you John so hopefully we can get a list together.

 

Only 10 weeks to go, Im sure it will fly by.

 

Im am wondering what kind of set up the Blu will have as far as how many seats they can accomodate at each table, from the looks of it it seems like they just push tables together, buts its hard to tell, Im sure we will at least be able to seat 8 at our table, since thats how many are in our group, when looking at the pictures of the restaurant it seems like they are mostly made up of individual tables for 2 that probably get pushed together to make up whatever quantity you need.

 

Ciao

Tony

[flclsax]

Hey Dean,

 

I agree on the sailaway gathering for sure!

 

I hope you have a great time next week on the Independence of the Seas. I am jealous and will be thinking of you as yet another snowstorm is set to hit Cleveland this weekend. I have not seen my lawn since November!!!

 

John, my cabin number is 1531 (right next to Kevin and Dean) with my friend Jeff.

[cruiser53]

Hi Guys,

 

Scott since you seem to know most of the cc'ers going on our cruise, when you have a chance can you post a roster of names and where everyone is from, I did it early on on this thread, but I think it is outdated.

 

Our gang is as follows:

 

Tony & Frank - Boca Raton Florida

Scott & Ben - New Jersey

Edward & Neville - Adelaide, Australia

Paul - London

Gary - Oregon

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Tony & Frank

[cruiser53]

Hi Guys,

 

I am posting a list of everyone on our cruise, if anyone is missing, please let us know:

 

John and Steven - San Diego

Dean and Kevin - San Diego

Jeff and Scott - Cleveland, Ohio

Tony & Frank - Boca Raton, Florida

Scott & Ben - New Jersey

Edward & Neville - Adelaide, Australia

Paul - London

Gary - Oregon

 

A little over 8 weeks to go, see you all soon. Its 33 degrees here in Sunny Florida this morning, so Im sure some of you especially Jeff & Scott can beat that.....

 

Tony

[SDGuy]

Hi Guys, my partner and I have been debating whether or not we are going to bring true "formal wear" for the 2 formal nights on this cruise or just pack a dark suit for these nights.

 

I'm thinking that we may just do the dark suit thing since we are dealing with airlines baggage restrictions, it's only a 7 night cruise, and it is a warm weather cruise.

 

However, as we are totally influenced by what OTHERS do, I would like to know what your plans our on this matter.

 

Besides, I figured it was time to bump this post up a bit!

 

Cheers!

John

[cruiser53]

Hi John,

 

We are with the group of 8 and as far as I know from previous discussions non of us will be wearing formal wear just a dark suit.

 

See you soon

 

Tony

[flclsax]

HI all,

 

I am sure I am speaking for Dean and Kevin when I say, we will most likely be bringing our tuxes for this night. It is one of our favorite excuses for dressing up...

 

Also, check on your cruise price as Celebrity just dropped the price of the cruise again today. You may be due some money back!!!

[luv_cruzin_]

Hello all,

I am Kevin, the other half of Kevin and Dean from San Diego. I have been lurking on this site for a while (Dean's been doing most of the chatting) but I thought it was time to chime in.

 

Usually we wear tuxes and we were originally going to buy tuxes for this trip (last time we rented and it was a disaster) but decided against that a few weeks ago. Sorry Scott, we didn’t let you know yet (oops) but we thought it would be a lot of work to bring them for just two nights. We will be wearing dark/black outfits but for us it may not even be suits. Most likely it will be a dark jacket and pants with a collared shirt and tie (even though I hate wearing ties). I love dressing up, but I hate wearing ties.

 

There are two formal nights and five smart casual nights for our trip. Celebrity merged their previous categories of casual and informal to create their new class of smart casual.

 

This is what celebrity has defined for formal: Tuxedo, suit or dinner jacket with slacks.

 

This is what they have for smart casual: Pants (no holes, rips or tears) with sports shirt or sweater. Shirts must have sleeves.

 

The last time we sailed on Celebrity there were about 15% tuxes, 40% dark suits, 30% other suits and 10% other and 5% “what were they thinking” on formal nights.

 

 

By the way, we just got back from a cruise on Sunday, and the Solstice was in port. She looks like a beauty.

 

Looking forward to meeting you all.

 

Kevin