tigervixxxen

There hasn’t been much entertainment yet, I am hoping for a few evening shows of this nature as the production shows aren’t really our thing.

Oh please do feel free to share your thoughts and experiences, this thread is for everyone. Our room did have a safe, that’s funny though. Wonder if you could ask for one. One thing I found funny is there’s a mix of magnetic and door hang do not disturb, we prefer the magnetic to cover up the light from the peep hole. Maybe we’ll see if they’ll switch it. Another thing that I noticed was different is out balcony table seem to be full size, I think we always had a low cocktail/end table type thing but this one you could definitely eat a meal on, which might be nice to try. Also it seems formal/chic nights are on nights 3, 11 and 17. They are just skipping day 12 for the international date line so we will have 18 nights on this 17 night cruise.

The Solstice has just departed from Honolulu a touch early and we are on the way to Tahiti, in which we will arrive after 5 sea days. Day 1 was a success. The embarkation process was as simple as ever and we had completed out muster checkin, unpacked our carryon and were eating lunch at the OVC by noon. As reported by many here the Indian dishes were a standout. After unpacking the big bags we enjoyed a martini flight in the afternoon. Bartenders were great as always including one we recognized from our Equinox sailing over New Year’s. We were also given two regular size martinis for free after we finished the flight (we have the classic package so would have had to pay for them otherwise). For dinner in MDR it was prime rib night and was accurate in the app. There’s no menu yet for nights 9 and 10 plus some repeats the last week of the cruise so I’m not sure I believe those yet but up until day 8 I think the app is correct. Overall the meal was good, tiny mash and matchstick carrots were with the prime rib. I ordered the masala potatoes on the side to supplement and worked out well. DH enjoyed the spaghetti bolognese. We’ll see how my opinion of the MDR evolves as we go. First day on the ship I’d describe as quiet. Not sure if the prolonged embarkation and midnight departure contributed to this. We are still getting used to the time change so it was an early night and haven’t checked out much of the entertainment yet. Ship is what I’d expect from an S class but can tell it’s one of the older ones. Nothing glaringly obvious though. Only real annoyance is somehow we can hear pretty intermittently some sort of vacuum noise presumably from the toilet system. We are on deck 9 in one of the veranda rooms on the hump if that makes any difference. All in all a good start to the cruise! I also found a duck in the library so that was exciting. I brought my own duck to hide near the end of the cruise. Thanks all for following along!

We made it to Honolulu! Up early today, haven’t gotten used to the time change from the US yet but that’s ok, we’ll enjoy some breakfasts before we get used to it. Going to head to the ship in a couple hours, we have a 11:30 embarkation slot. We stayed at the Ala Moana hotel overnight and I’d recommend it. I wanted an option that’s not Waikiki and it’s closer to cruise pier and attached to the giant Ala Moana mall, cost $250 US including all taxes and fees. It’s a nice hotel, big Starbucks with shops and restaurants too. Flight was uneventful thankfully. Will check in later from the ship.

It’s more like Aqua and Retreat passengers saying everything is fine.

We too are flying back premium economy. Air Canada let’s you bid on business class so we put in an offer, fingers crossed.

I did two price drop adjustments for my cruise without any need to cancel associated bookings. I did not go through a TA however. Sunset Verandah guarantee sounds like a very specific category though which I do believe leads to more difficult price adjustments. I don’t even see a SV or guarantee offered in a mock booking.

We are going to do the excursion that visits the Kelly Tarlton’s and Sky Tower, anything I should know about either? Also, any restaurant recommendations by the pier? We might just go back on the ship but with a late departure maybe we’ll get off again later on. Ive seen some heat wave temps in Sydney, we can definitely leave the 90 degrees behind lol.

Yes we are going to spend a few days in Sydney after the cruise but unfortunately can’t do much more, we aren’t retired!

Yes, we have sailed the Equinox and Silhouette. Probably won’t pay for a class but might watch someone else do the glass blowing. As mentioned yes we had to obtain Australia and New Zealand ETA, not as bad as a full blown visa process. Only having to do the flight one way was a big draw for doing this itinerary. We are taking Air Canada back through Vancouver to Denver, we’ll see if the strategy of avoiding LAX works out for us lol. Thanks all for the comments, I hope to keep updated regularly.

Hello and welcome to my first go at starting a live thread for this upcoming cruise. I will try my best to keep it updated and my fellow shipmates are welcome to post their photos and experiences as well especially as I will likely not post too many photos. If there’s any questions I have 11 sea days worth of time to go check something out and report back. We will be primarily dining in the MDR so follow along and see if we make it through all 17 nights before burning out! A couple nights for Tuscan Grill and Murano are planned as well. This is our 20th Anniversary cruise and have been looking forward to it for a long time. We cruise about once a year and have been on three Celebrity cruises prior to this one, having never been on Solstice but familiar with S class ships. Our longest cruise was a 14 night round trip from LA to Hawaii and back so I know a little of what to expect but much of this will be a new adventure. We fly into Hawaii on Saturday and will be ready to board the ship bright and early on Sunday!

Someone else here said that the maintenance crew will just stick thick paper or cardboard in the joints where it’s rattling, you could probably just do the same.

We have Murano booked for our 20th anniversary, how do we go about telling them?

Find a current sailing to the same ports, look it up on the app and see if they have more excursions to give you an idea of if more are going to be offered or not.

Thanks for the info, I’ll just keep an eye out.

I’ve heard several mention a dining package that includes lunch. Where do I find this? Is it only offered on E class? That’s hopefully my next sailing and ideally if there’s a package for 2 dinners plus 1 lunch that would be perfect.

That means the old menu was deleted and the new menu hasn’t been added to your sailing yet. In the app swipe all the way to the right and click on “select a different cruise” then go to “browse ships” select infinity and the current sailing to give you an idea. My problem with the new menus is the lack of variety. I always am suspect of quality of food mass produced in a galley. We’ll see here shortly about the overall quality of the current menu. I frankly don’t care about the E class menu until I’m sailing on one, it’s not relevant. Also, the Silhouette still has more additional options for some reason. Maybe their head chef likes food, who knows. But don’t count on their increased offerings elsewhere. Best strategy is to look up the current sailing of your ship to get the best idea.

Or driving an ATV on excursion, something like that

Also perhaps contact the executive office at celebrity, don’t just go by the regular customer service number which I’ve found the phone reps really don’t know much.

The embassy shouldn’t be able to speak on what celebrity will or will not accept for emergency travel documents. Why hasn’t celebrity answered this question? When is the cruise departing? They shouldn’t give up until they are turned away at the pier.

I like the food on Carnival, more flavor options. Quality is generally good on Celebrity. Carnival does a lot better with more comedy. I don’t care for production shows either way. Celebrity has a more laid back and relaxation vibe.

Is Quasar even used? On Equinox it was basically closed. You could go sit in there but there was nothing going on.

We were on Equinox about 9 months ago. Premium wifi was excellent, I found zero limitations. Anything from the MDR can be ordered from Blu. The Blu lobster was served on a formal night, I preferred their offering because of the sauce it came with but others asked for the MDR lobster instead.

I have made a lunch reservation onboard but it wasn’t busy at all, I don’t think it’s too critical but I think you can do it once on the ship.

Pork Schnitzel which is mostly missing now. Hopefully it continues appearing on longer sailings. I do plan on making a list of the standout dishes on my upcoming sailing.