Cruising89143

Agree. We’re doing a PCC on the Solstice in the spring. Seven nights with an overnight in San Fran, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Ensenada. There is a way around if changes need to be made.

Rest of original post clipped…… Nice review. We tried NCL’s Haven just prior to the pandemic and were also on the Bliss and in an aft corner Penthouse but down on deck nine. Huge balcony. The room layout was good but if we were to ever book the Haven again, I would want to be in the actual Haven area. As much as we loved the huge balcony it was not convenient to the Haven area. We loved the lounge and forward observation area but the pool area was always filled with kids running around. Our butler was lazy. She just seemed to be going through the motions. We only dined in the Haven restaurant once and the other six nights in specialty dining. Food was good but did not blow me away. You actually got a very good price. We paid about three grand more. For that price we would opt for the retreat on Celebrity but wanted to try the Haven. The Bliss is a beautiful ship but once outside of the Haven, it was a zoo. At least that was our expertise. Too many people. Thank for sharing.

The biggest issue with RCI’s casino is the smoke. It’s the only area inside the ship where RCI allows smokers and many non casino smokers use this area as a smoking space. It’s not uncommon to see a person sitting at a slot machine puffing away and not playing the machine. The crew simply ignores it. Last year the face masks actually came in handy. 🙂

About the cost of our cruise.

We’re on an upcoming cruise with an overnight in SF and the taxes, fees, etc. are not over $600.00. I would expect the taxes to be more due to having to use shoreside power.

Keep in mind that Urcomped has rules in place if you currently have a cruise booked or have cruised on a specific line within the last year. They ask this question when you go to claim an offer.

Agree. X has so much potential to increase revenue and guest play if they would just put in some effort. Night and day different experience from sister line RCI. I can’t believe that X doesn’t have a website dedicated for guests like RCI. Seems like they’re not even trying and they are tying up a good amount of real estate on the ship with their casinos. I found the casino very slow on our last cruise.

Add me to that list.

We had a conversation with the host on the Solstice in December. He stated that he was new and had turned down an offer from Carnival to take the Celebrity job. I found that statement odd and him useless. We did receive an offer for a future cruise but we had to call. We signed up three times for communication from BCC and have yet to receive anything. On the other hand, we receive offers at least weekly from RCI who is the sister line of X. The casino hosts on RCI have a desk on the casino floor with posted hours listed on the desk. RCI does an overall better job but you have to deal with smoking in the casino.

Back before the auto gratuities and we handed the gratuities to each crew member personally, it was very common on the last evening in the MDR for it to be much more empty than any other night. Some did not have the courage to face their waiter, asst. waiter or Maitre d’ as they had no intention of extending gratuities.

When in Rome…………..This Rome ( Celebrity cruise line) has a gratuities system in place.

The Navigator finally had the screen replaced a few months ago after being in bad shape since the first of last year and it did not require the ship to be dry docked. It could not be repaired. It was replaced while guests were aboard. Took a few days.

Agree with Jim. We were also on board the Solstice in December and after reading some rather negative comments about the ships condition prior, I was expecting to see a dump. It was far from it. The ship looks great. Very clean with a hard working crew. We’re back on in less than two months.

We leave the pre paid gratuities in place. We also give extra. For example, on our last cruise we tipped our server each day in Luminae or our specialty dining server in case we did not have them again. Same with bar tenders and bar waiters. At the end of the cruise we extended additional grats to our butler, sommelier, room steward, Luminae managers, etc. It’s a personal choice. Do what makes you happy.

I read that. I’m hoping that X communicates with us prior to the cruise on the best way to handle luggage, parking and check-in. From what I have gathered it will be best to drop luggage at pier #46 or 50 depending on where the tent is set up and then drive over and park near terminal 93 which we all used for our December Solstice cruise, catch the shuttle back to pier 50 and when we return back to L.A we can easily walk off with our luggage as our car will be there. It will be that or just leave our car parked at the hotel and use a taxi or Lyft to and from. We have a few months to figure it out. I know that this is out of Celebrity’s control but I am hoping for them to be proactive with this situation.

We cruised from there a total of eight times last year with zero issues but we were in one of the two existing terminals. It seems that when more than two ships are in port then it changes. I did see where there is now a plan in place to add two more additional terminals which is needed.

Thanks to all. Sounds like a cluster…….

In a chance that either you or another member sees this post, can you drop luggage at terminal 46 and then drive and park at terminal 93? Would there be a shuttle back to B46 for checking in? Seems that it would make the debarkation process easier on our return as we will docking at B93 on our return. It may be easier to leave our car at the hotel during the cruise and grab a taxi to and from the port.

I noticed for our cruise in April that the Solstice will use B-50 in San Pedro as there will be two Princess ships in port that day as well. Princess gets the two dedicated terminals. I know that this is an outer pier with no dedicated terminal and only used for an overflow situation. Anyone have any experience using this terminal with Celebrity? How do they handle embarkation? Thanks…

Some people should just cruise HAL………

Based on our last cruise in December, we dined in the buffet twice which was lunch. Never stepped foot there at dinner. While Cruise Critic is a small sampling of cruisers, it looks as though most either skip the buffet all together or only a few times per sailing.

Very nice review. Glad to see that Ocean Cay was not turned into an amusement park. Looks like a very relaxing island.

For those that scarf down all of the previously frozen imported shrimp in shrimp cocktails, I suggest that you skip reading about where and how the shrimp are farmed.

We skip it as well….. https://www.foodbeast.com/news/oh-lobster-you-so-fancy/

Following along and looking forward to your reports.